365 Days of Starshipping (Part 2)

More Info Acquired

7/23/19

"I still can't believe Jun managed to do it before me," Edo grumbled, looking out over the party he'd helped coordinate.

Judai laughed next to him, enjoying being up on the third floor balcony and just glad to be out of the hot, stuffy kitchen. Since the hosts had opted to go with serving a sit-down dinner before the rest of their activities began, everyone in the kitchen only had to last through that and cleaning up before they were allowed to go. Of course, this meant he could finally get some info from Edo face-to-face about his favor.

"You said you were finally able to do it the other day, right?" Judai asked, taking another bite off the meat skewer in his hand - there'd been untouched leftovers, as always, so he figured he might as well eat some now while they were still warm. The rest of them got packed up and stored in a bag to take back with him.

He really wanted to see Yusei's reaction to the stir fry, because that particular dish was hot. Judai still couldn't believe the hosts had wanted a meal with ghost peppers in it somehow - at least he was able to get away with minimizing how much needed to be used so everyone's taste buds didn't get fried.

"Yeah, I was - it was cool to actually explore the city where they live, though I'm pretty sure they avoided taking me to the shadier parts for now," Edo replied, a small smile coming to mind at the memory, "I do remember what you said about illegal activity and it already seemed pretty wild from the three hours I was there."

"You'll get to have your fun soon enough," Judai shrugged, dodging the light punch at his arm with a grin, "What? I know you, you're gonna have a blast with it - running around, catching baddies."

Edo sighed, rolling his eyes before suddenly smirking, "Well, at least it's not Ojama Village. Thunder's sent angry rants in the group chat for the past few days about their everything there."

Judai snorted, a wide smile forming on his face as he responded, "Oh gods, that's been hilarious. And I know exactly what he's talking about every time, too, which makes it even more hilarious. They certainly live interesting lives in that place."

"Either way... based off what it was like, I'd say the only thing that could speed up the process would be finding some sort of way to strengthen the bond between the person and at least one of their duel monsters," Edo stated, already knowing where the conversation was heading, "I started to fade if I wandered too far from my HERO's, so the reason this whole thing works in the first place is most likely due to that connection."

"Well, that's already better than everything Thunder's come up with so far, so thanks," Judai said, tearing off the last chunk of meat from the skewer before skillfully flicking the stick into the trashcan right below them on the first floor, "I should probably get going now though, I told Yusei I'd be back in time for a late dinner."

"He been using those parts he conned out of us well?" Edo asked, standing up from leaning on the railing and stretching his arms out.

"I assume so," Judai replied, shrugging lightly before continuing, "He practically gushed over those parts when they finally arrived, so I take that as a definite 'yes'."

"One of them technically isn't released to the public yet."

"Ah, that explains it perfectly."

"You planning on telling him about the dream trick thing?" Edo questioned, giving Judai an exasperated look, "You really need to come up with a name for it, we can't just keep calling it 'dream something' whenever we talk about it."

"Yeah yeah, I got it. And yes, of course I'm going to tell him - I just wanted to see if I could streamline the process first so it was faster," Judai huffed, getting a chuckle from Edo in return.

"Alright, I won't keep you lovebirds away for any longer then," Edo teased, waving him off, "Have a nice night, thanks for the help as always."

"Night!" Judai waved, turning around to start his trek back home. It wasn't too far away and easily within walking distance, which was fantastic and meant that the food would probably still be slightly warm by the time he got back.

Thirty minutes later, he watched in complete awe as Yusei downed the ghost pepper stir fry like it was nothing, only drinking a bit of milk twice while he was eating.

"How in the world are your taste buds not dead?!"

"Judai, the spice is the taste."

"Okay, then how is your mouth not absolutely burning?!"

"It's a good burn."

Judai gave him an incredulous look, but at least he got to laugh at the other when his glasses started fogging up because his face was so hot from eating the food. He snuck a picture of it, of course, because without context it just looked like he was flustered beyond belief and that was adorable.