Reverse of Arcadia [Yusei x Oc]

32. Regrettable Truths

"What is this place?" Rai wondered aloud as she brushed some old cords out of her way so she could enter through the crippled doorway.

"This must be the old reactor research area, if I had to guess..." Crow said, using Rai's glowing mark to help light their way as they traversed through the darkness. "Come on, let's look around."

Rai nodded. "I'll check over here if you go check that side."

"Sounds good. I'll let you know if I find something." Crow said.

"Yeah, same here." Rai replied before the two split off.

Once Rai was on her own, she began to navigate through the messy and darkened lab that seemed like it could be on the verge of collapse based on all the leftover damage that had been done to it. She couldn't help but let her gaze wander, brushing past dangling cords and pushing rubble out of the way with her boots. To think that this used to be part of the old Domino City, what, almost twenty years ago? Rai thought to herself. Was this where they did all the tests for the reactor? Well, based on all the broken equipment I'm seeing, I'm probably close... I wonder what other stuff, aside from all this destroyed equipment is down he--

Crack!

"Hm?" Rai cut her thought short when she felt something crinkle underneath her boot. The redhead quickly lifted her foot, only to perk up when she saw what she could only assume was some kind of frame underneath some of all this rubble. "What is that?" She questioned out loud before crouching down and brushing the rubble off the frame. However, when Rai had picked up the frame from the ground and dusted it off, her eyes widened a bit. "What the...!?" She gasped softly before studying the picture more closely.

In the picture frame Rai had found, behind the glass she had accidentally cracked in stepping on it, this photo seemed to be of a very happy family, but one person in this photo stood out to her in particular. There was a woman with dirty blonde hair that seemed to be clipped behind her head holding a small infant no more than maybe a year old with messy black hair. However, stood next to the woman was a tall man in a lab coat, and Rai could immediately tell exactly who that was, as that spiky, unkempt hair and teal blue eyes were unmistakable.

"Is this...Yusei's mother and father?" Rai wondered, frowning. "Well, I can see now where Yusei got his looks from..." She noted, grinning as she brushed some more dust off the glass with her thumb. "His mother... She's very beautiful, but I can tell that Yusei definitely favors his father."

"Hey, Rai!" Crow called off in the distance.

"Hm?" Rai perked up as she got back on her feet, but kept the broken frame in her grasp. "Yeah, what's up?" She called back, heading in his direction.

"I think I found something! Come take a look!" He said.

"Okay! I think I found something too!" Rai replied as she went to go meet back up with Crow. It didn't take long before Rai managed to stumble upon her close friend, who seemed to be surrounded by various mechanical parts, though to these two, they were unmistakable as parts for first generation Duel Runners. "What is all this?" Rai asked as she grabbed one of the broken parts from the ground to further examine it.

"To me, these look like they were parts for old Duel Runners." Crow replied. "I even found a couple of first gen models over there, but obviously, none of them work because of all the damage.

"Seriously?" Rai questioned as she walked over to one of the old-looking Duel Runners. "Who even made all of these?"

"Well, that leads me to something else I was just about to mention to ya." Crow continued. "These runners weren't the only thing that I found." He said. "I stumbled on this as well."