Chapter Text
"Just you wait—I'm convinced they're all bark and no bite. What with them even needing a match against Yusei beforehand. That's desperate. Amateurish."
"Yeah, yeah, you keep saying that. I'll believe it when I see it."
At this point, Aki had heard several such exchanges pass back and forth between Jack and Crow, who were walking at the front of the group.
The big day was finally here. They were, at long last, making their way back inside the familiar Fortune Cup stadium for their very first official match as Team 5Ds: Round one of the preliminaries against Team Unicorn. Except that, instead of Jack, Yusei, and Crow, who had originally formed this team to compete in the Grand Prix, Aki was competing in Crow's place due to his still injured shoulder.
That was, of course, technically old news now—but to Aki, the reality, the true weight of it, only sunk in now. Right in this moment, as the many barren, but recently-cleaned and still modern-looking corridors of the Fortune Cup stadium were finally giving way to their pit lane, where their runners were already waiting in a garage that opened directly onto it.
The sight of Aki's by now beloved Bloody Kiss through the open garage door made her heart feel like it was going to beat out of her chest as she yet again thought, I am doing this. I am genuinely, really doing this.
It wasn't even the tournament aspect that scared her, not really. She had duelled in the Fortune Cup, too, after all. In this very stadium, even. Thus, she knew how to deal with duelling in front of a crowd, even if it wasn't her favourite thing in the world to do. She didn't like the endless noise, the constant ebb and flow of voices as they murmured, hollered, or booed. Likewise, she wasn't much of a fan of the icky, almost gluey sensation of hundreds of eyes upon her. Even so, she had experience with handling herself and her nerves in front of a crowd and knew she would be able to take it.
What perhaps made this situation so different, then, was the context. She wasn't walking onto this track as the outsider, a dark horse duellist who would quickly establish herself to be not only skilled, but also dangerous and volatile. Nor was she the poster girl for an at best dubious organisation of psychics and at worst cult of terrorists anymore. No, she was coming here as a member of a not only accepted, but even anticipated and celebrated team of heroes, expected to dazzle people with her performance; she was one of the good guys who immediately received cheers from any onlookers that had seen them make their way to the stadium. It made Aki's head swim.
"Aki."
Like a camera adjusting its focus, reality slowly seemed to flow back in at the sound of this familiar, cherished voice.
Tearing her gaze away from where it had apparently gotten stuck on her runner, Aki ended up face to face with Yusei, who was giving her a once-over. She had barely even noticed that they had made it to the garage now, nor that Bruno, Crow, Jack, and the twins had already taken their spots in the pit box behind them.
"All right?" It was the only thing he asked; it was the only thing he needed to ask, because she knew each and every one of all the other questions he was implying with it.
She looked at him, grounding herself in the feeling of his eyes on her and selfishly wishing he would put his hand on her cheek. He wasn't usually private to the point of avoiding displays of affection in public—they both weren't, surprisingly enough. In here, in a stadium that would soon be filled with hundreds, thousands of people, however, something like an unspoken rule seemed to have quickly established itself between them. A silent understanding that, despite being in the pit lane, away from the crowd, they would not give nosy onlookers or, worse yet, unscrupulous reporters, anything to dramatise, whisper over or drag into the dirt.
Unfortunately, that meant that within arm's reach was as close as she would get to him out here, even though she currently wanted nothing more than to surge forward and bury her head in his chest.
"Nervous," she finally replied, belated.
If the way he looked at her was anything to go by, Yusei would have preferred to take her in his arms now, too, but they both knew some idiot with a camera would doubtlessly run amok with that. The stands may not have contained anyone other than press and WRGP staff yet, but if there was one thing being good friends with Carly and hearing her stories had taught Aki, then that the reporters who had once stalked Yusei while grocery shopping to get an interview could still be classified as "harmless".
"I get that. It'll be okay," Yusei told her, gently. "We can do this."
In the background, Jack and Crow were breaking off what felt like the fifth argument in the last two hours. The "reasons" for those arguments had gotten increasingly stupider during that time, and the truth of it was that they were probably just arguing for the sake of it at this point. They were trying to fill the void of time left before the actual match, because whether either of them wanted to admit it or not, the whole team was a little bit tense at the moment. Apprehension hung in the air, dampening everyone’s moods a bit—save for the twins’, perhaps, because they could get to enjoy the tournament in all its flashy, spectacular glory without having to worry about actually winning it themselves. Not that Aki blamed them for their enthusiasm; they were a relentless source of cheer and it somehow helped, just a little.
Between Bruno, who was doing his best to ensure they wouldn't be facing any technical hiccups during the match, and the actual duellists of the team, though, it was clear that some nervousness had snuck in after all.
Sure, Jack had plenty of tournament and crowd experience, sure, Crow was a usually pretty unflappable guy who had faced much worse than a grand prix, sure, Aki was top of the class at the academy and knew how to be stoic in front of spectators and sure, Yusei was a genius duellist whom she had yet to see crack under pressure. The fundamental difference between everything they had done before and this, though, was that the WRGP was something big, official, and public that they had to do together. This was not a solo flight—they would need to work together, on and off the track. Perhaps the whole dark-signers affair could also have been classified as a team effort in hindsight, but even then, they didn't have to know each other's decks and learn to work with other people's cards.
This isn't like a normal duel, we can't just focus on our own victory and leave everything else by the wayside.
With a small stab of guilt, Aki realised her eyes had automatically landed on Jack.
We'll need to function as one unit, as a team. Whether we want to or are good at it or not.
She swallowed, bringing her gaze back to Yusei.
"I hope you're right. I want to do well; I want us to do well," she told him.
His eyes had flown over to his foster-brothers in between, too. Aki had a feeling their thoughts were running along similar tracks.
"Me too." He briefly allowed himself as much as putting a hand on her shoulder and squeezing it. Aki fought the urge to lean into the touch, rub her cheek against his as of yet glove-free hand. "We'll make it, I'm sure." With that, Yusei inclined his head towards the rest of the group in the pit box and began walking in that direction.
Aki directed one more look at her runner, anxiety seeming to buzz in her head like radio static. Then, she followed him to the pit box, where everyone was gathered.
Jack and Crow were still arguing.
"I'm just saying you're gonna jinx it."
"Jinx it? Don't tell me you actually believe in superstitious nonsense like that. I said what I said."
"Yeah, and I think you're gonna eat those words. I think these Unicorn guys are crafty," Crow murmured, having seated himself next to Bruno, who was already relentlessly tapping away at the laptop he had set up.
Jack, standing straight and proud, with his arms crossed as usual, scoffed. "Perhaps to you."
Probably recognising the affronted look Crow gave him at this comment as a sign of trouble, Yusei walked up to them, calmly asking, "Who's going to jinx what? Did I miss something?"
Like two lit matches being dunked in water, the angry expressions on both Jack and Crow's faces fizzled out and they both turned to Yusei. He had a way of putting them out like that, like he had done nothing else his entire life.
Jack rolled his eyes, doubtlessly about to make a disparaging comment, but before he could, Ruka, who had previously been peeking over Bruno's shoulder at the laptop, suddenly said, "Jack's been going on and on about how he's going to beat at least two members of Team Unicorn, if not all three. And Crow told him to stop saying that because he'd jinx it."
Rua, who stood just a little to the side of the pit box, seemingly in awe about the stadium, said, "I think Jack's right. He's totally gonna beat those guys! I mean, he wasn't king for nothing."
At that, Jack briefly puffed up like a peacock. Of course he did.
Crow stuck out his tongue at the teen. "And I think he should shut his big mouth ‘cause overpromising stuff like that is never a good thing."
"You're just worried he's going to be right and that you'll have to buy him a packet of Blue-Eyes coffee like you said you would," Ruka interjected, and Aki had to bite back a snort. For a still relatively young girl, she could have surprisingly sharp tongue sometimes.
Yusei, meanwhile, looked between Jack and Crow with something just shy of exasperation. "You guys already made a bet?"
"I was joking," Crow defended himself hastily.
"As if I'd need to make bets over something like this," Jack protested just as quickly.
Looking up from his laptop for the first time since he had set it up, Bruno, with all the bluntness he was known for, said, "Crow promised to buy Jack a whole 2-kilo packet of Blue-Eyes Mountain coffee if he lost and Jack promised not to go to the café for a whole month if he lost."
Of course, both Jack and Crow immediately sputtered at that.
"Snitch!"
"You little—" Jack even made to cuff Bruno around the ears, as usual.
Thankfully, Yusei stepped in, pushing Jack back with a hand against his chest whilst heaving a sigh. "This is a dumb bet and I already dread hearing the boasting of whoever's going to win it."
"Well, I'm going to win it. Obviously. I think those Unicorn duellists were bluffing. They can't be that good," Jack muttered, plucking the hand off his chest.
"Oh, really? We'll see whether you'll still say that after they knocked you outta the duel," Crow shot right back.
Instantly, Yusei was tasked with holding Jack back again.
Deciding she should help him, Aki stepped forward and swatted Crow on the shoulder that wasn't injured. "Quit riling him, you're just going to make it worse."
"Well, if he keeps saying stupid stuff like that!"
"Whatever stupid stuff he says isn't your problem. Especially not so close to the match when he's first wheeler."
That, at least, seemed to shut Crow up, who leaned his good elbow on the table in the pit box and put his cheek into his hand, pouting.
Yusei seemed to have wrangled Jack back into not physically accosting anyone in the meantime, too. Jack’s resulting scowl, ironically, did not look dissimilar to Crow's pout.
"Hey, look, over there! It's the Unicorn guys!"
Rua's call made all their heads snap over to the other pit box at almost the same time.
Sure enough, on the other side of the track, Team Unicorn's duellists—Andre, Breo, and Jean—were taking their spots in their own pit box now, too. Around them, their pit crew, which was considerably bigger than Team 5Ds', began eagerly preparing everything. It seemed like the duellists themselves barely had anything to do other than take their seats with how many people were suddenly busy-bodying around in the other pit lane.
As they sat down, Jean and Breo appeared to be deep in conversation, with Andre trailing behind them and taking his spot a little later. The red-haired duellist was the only one who seemed to notice them staring, as he directed a wave and a smile at them that Aki couldn't help but think had something sharp to it.
Aki, for her part, averted her eyes on reflex, her anxiety coming back in full force as it overwhelmed her yet again that there was a very real chance she might be duelling Andre or one of his teammates herself, today. Though claiming she was scared of Team Unicorn, per se, would have been misleading.
She wasn't afraid of the team or any of its members, not as people, anyway. If anything, she found them a bit annoying with their seemingly superior, somewhat smarmy attitude.
As duellists, they were a whole other story, though. Something about that whole manoeuvre they had pulled with roping Yusei into a duel before the WRGP didn't sit right with her. Not to speak of the fact that she had since heard (mostly from Carly, one of whose co-workers was tasked with doing plenty of research about Team Unicorn) that the three were, apparently, quite accomplished as a duelling team, which made them doubly dangerous. They had more experience with this tournament format, beyond the shadow of a doubt, which Aki was convinced might bite her team in the ass. Even she, as an experienced duellist, worried about whether her skills would withstand a trial like this—the skills she currently wasn't as confident in as usual, to boot, given that she had lost to Sherry a mere two days ago. That wound to her pride was still uncomfortably fresh.
All that was without mentioning that she still had a whole other reason to be worried about this duel, too. Frustratingly enough, it was still the same reason she'd had to be worried about duelling for months now. Despite whatever weird attempt at delving into her mind and making her give up her restraint Sherry had made, Aki's fears of hurting people were still very much there. Worse yet, they were increased exponentially by this very public, incredibly crowded setting, because Aki had unleashed her powers in front of groups of people often enough to know what their reaction looked like when she hurt someone. The last thing she wanted was to experience that under these circumstances, as a member of Team 5Ds, in front of a crowd which she knew would include her parents.
She could vividly imagine the panicked screams that would erupt if she slipped up and injured a member of Team Unicorn; the echo of them in her brain conjured up bone-deep dread that was infinitely worse than any doubt in her skills or possible stage-fright about participating in such an international tournament.
In her sudden ruminating about her own concerns, she nearly missed her teammates' comments about the commotion that had sprung up in the opposing pit lane.
"I don't like their smug faces. They're looking at us like they've already won," Jack murmured.
"Maybe they're overconfident. Could be an advantage for us," Yusei said, looking the members of the other team over as though he could divine the workings of their decks and their strategies from that alone.
"D'you think they're as good as they make themselves out to be?" Crow asked, quietly, as if Team Unicorn could hear them if they spoke too loudly.
Yusei's eyes flicked down to him. "I think we shouldn't underestimate them. Even if they're overconfident."
Jack made a displeased noise. "I think they're bluffing. They're just trying to intimidate us. It's a cheap trick."
Knowing that Jack's gaze was turned the other way, Aki allowed herself to roll her eyes. "And I think Yusei's right. We shouldn't let our guard down before the match already,” she added her two cents.
"Pch. Of course you'd agree with Yusei," Jack murmured.
Aki narrowed her eyes at him, unimpressed. "Really? That's the level of childishness we're stooping to today?"
At that, Crow gave a small snort. Even Bruno had to huff a short laugh.
Yusei, who was the only one who had consistently kept his eyes on Team Unicorn almost the entire time, finally turned back to them. "Okay, enough with the bickering now, guys. Remember, we're supposed to win this as a team."
"Which we will," Jack stated with what sounded like more confidence than all the rest of them combined had.
"I think Jack's right about that one, actually."
The addition of a new voice that hadn't been there before had all of them doing a double take. Aki recognised it instantly, but when she looked around for its owner, she at first couldn't find her.
That was, until Carly stepped out from behind Jack, smiling. "Surprise! Hi, everybody."
Jack, who was apparently just as surprised as everyone else to see her appear, said, "Carly. How did you get in here?"
To that, Carly held up a little plastic badge that read "journalist" which was dangling from a lanyard she wore around her neck. "Just acted really important in front of a bunch of security people until they let me through. I couldn't not come see you guys before the match. Also, I mean, I am technically supposed to get as much coverage on your team as I can and all. I'll leave that for after the match, though. Don't want to throw you off your game or anything."
As he now often did when Carly entered his proximity, Jack almost visibly seemed to soften around the edges. "Let the record show that we're confident we'll win this. Team Unicorn has nothing on us," he said, still with the same confidence as before, but now less aggressive.
Carly gave him a small smile. "I'm sure you'll crush them." Then, she let her gaze sweep over the group. "Everyone else feeling all right?"
Yusei gave her a nod and a smile, while Bruno gave a thumbs-up.
"Great! It's so good to be back in the Fortune Cup stadium! I forgot how huuuuge it is!" Rua told her, excitedly.
"I'm okay. I hope for us that the match will go well," Ruka mumbled, not quite as enthusiastic as her brother.
"Fine. But I wish I could at least duel myself. No offence, Aki," Crow muttered next, looking down at his arm in the sling like it had personally offended him.
Aki let out a short, amused huff. "None taken."
Carly's eyes lingered on her. "You feeling okay, too? Excited? Anxious?"
I'm feeling like this match is the perfect setup for something to go catastrophically wrong, but I can't and don't want to back out now.
Obviously, Aki couldn't say that. Not that she wanted to.
"Just a little nervous. I think it's mostly because it's my first turbo-duelling tournament," she deflected.
For one more second, Carly's—and, unsurprisingly, Yusei's—gaze stuck to her, like they both knew she was lying but didn't want to call her out on it in front of the others. Aki felt her cheeks grow hot and tried looking away.
In that time, Carly had already crossed the distance between them and put her hands on Aki's shoulders, however, prompting her to look into the other's eyes again.
"You'll do great, okay? I'm sure of it. I know you're a really good duellist. You'll handle it just fine," Carly encouraged her, like the eternal sunshine she was, before following her words up with a hug.
Aki almost wanted to melt into it. The comfort was, in that moment, sorely needed and much appreciated. She didn't want to let it linger for an awkwardly long time, though, so when Carly pulled away by herself, Aki let her.
"If she'll even need to handle anything. I still think they're bluffing. I could take them out by myself," Jack murmured in the background. Even saying that, he sounded less grumpy than he had before Carly had showed up.
Said girl came to stand to his right again and patted his arm, smiling. "Who knows, maybe you will! But if a combined 12000 life points turn out to be too much even for Red Dragon Archfiend to snuff out, I'm sure Aki will do fine with whatever you leave her." Carly had that sweet tone that told Aki she was indulging Jack's proud mannerisms; she didn't actually believe that he could take out all three members of Team Unicorn by himself. But then, Aki didn't either, at least not entirely, no matter how much duelling experience Jack had.
Jack gave a huff, like the option that he would do anything other than solo this match wasn't even on the table for him.
Aki wanted to roll her eyes again, but was distracted by a noise coming from the stands up above them.
People suddenly seemed to be piling into the stadium, and where there had previously been mostly empty seats, the stands were now rapidly filling with spectators. Alongside the noise level in the stadium, Aki's heart rate increased at the mere sight of so many onlookers.
If I mess up, all these people and probably dozens of cameras will be right there to see it.
What a cheery thought.
"Oh, looks like they're finally letting the spectators in. My colleague had better save me a seat like he promised he would," Carly said.
Jack gave the quickly filling rows of audience members no more than a cursory glance. "Where will you be sitting?" he asked Carly.
"With any luck, right there above the pit lanes. At least, that's where I told Hoshi to go and find us seats. He's the one doing the coverage on Team Unicorn, and he claims he'll be observing every movement in their pit lane for something he can use for his next piece about the team. He even brought binoculars." Carly laughed as she said it.
"Hey, you wouldn't happen to have any tips on how to beat those guys from your colleague who does coverage on Team Unicorn, would you?" Crow asked her.
Carly immediately shook her head. "For all that he's really well informed about them, Hoshi doesn't know the exact composition of their decks. We're not supposed to know those, lest we tell someone and throw off the odds of the duel."
Crow narrowed his eyes at her. "But you know almost all of our cards."
Grinning, Carly said, "No, I don't."
The confusion on Crow's face only seemed to grow. "Yeah, you do. You know most of our past duels, you've duelled almost all of us except Yusei and Ruka by now..."
Carly was still grinning, but now, she had put a finger against her lips in a shushing gesture, too. "No, I don't. Don't know what you're talking about. I'm just doing coverage for you guys, I don't know your decks outside of the monsters you have that everyone recognises. And I've definitely never duelled you, hm?"
Now, Crow finally seemed to catch what she was driving at. "Oh. Gotcha. Yeah, no, definitely never showed you my cards and never duelled you."
To the left of Carly, it looked like Jack had almost broken into a smile, at least for a fraction of a second.
"Hoshi really doesn't know Team Unicorn's decks, though. From what he told me, they're really hush-hush about them. Aside from the duel they dragged Yusei into, they didn't duel a single member of any other team, either. Not even with backup decks, for fun or something." Carly punctuated the end of her sentence with a shrug.
That raised some eyebrows.
"That's a bit weird, isn't it? Why single our team out?" Aki asked the obvious question.
Carly could only hold up her hands. "No idea. At a guess, based on nothing but gut feeling, though? They think you're an especially big threat."
Aki looked to Yusei. "Do you think that's true?"
He responded with a shrug. "Could be. I don't have a better explanation, at least."
Jack gave one of his trademark "hmph"s. "They should feel threatened by us. They have every reason to."
Looking at him as though she was holding back a fond roll of her eyes, Carly said, "Yeah, well. They and literally everyone else in this tournament. A lot of people have their eyes on you guys, you know?"
Mildly concerned by that implication, Aki couldn't help but ask, "Do they really?"
Carly's eyebrows rose slightly, and she gave her friend an "oh, honey"-sort of look. "Mh-hmm. Turns out the whole 'giant monsters attacking New Domino City and lighting up geoglyphs made of literal purple fire between buildings'-thing is still relatively present in some people's minds. So a lot of spectators are super curious how you're gonna do in the tournament."
Aki swallowed, her riding suit suddenly feeling a bit too tight for comfort.
Great. No pressure, she thought.
"Excuse me, Miss?"
The group's conversation was disrupted yet again when someone in a high-visibility vest approached them from the corridor where their team had entered the pit lane. From the looks of it, he had to be part of the WRGP staff.
Aki and Carly traded a look, trying to figure out which "Miss" he was referring to.
"You, the journalist. Miss...?" the man asked, pointing to Carly and clearing up the confusion.
Carly perked up. "Oh. Miss Nagisa. What is it?"
"I'm sorry, Miss Nagisa, but you're going to have to leave. The match starts 13 minutes from now and journalists are prohibited from entering the pit lanes between 15 minutes before and 15 minutes after the match." Though the man's tone was polite, it was no less resolute for it.
Jack, seemingly affronted, immediately stepped in front of Carly. "She has our express permission—"
Thankfully, Carly, always the less hot-headed one out of the two, manoeuvred herself right before Jack, holding him back by very gently placing her hand on his chest. "It's fine, Jack, he's got a point. I should really get going and let you finish preparing. I'll be back after the match, anyway. No need to get upset."
The man in the high-visibility jacket appeared visibly relieved that he wouldn't have to take up this discussion with Jack Atlas personally.
At Carly's gentle rebuke, Jack seemed to deflate a bit, taking a step back, further into the pit box. Though he didn't look thrilled that Carly intended to follow the stranger's orders, he seemingly settled for crossing his arms and glaring daggers at the man instead of arguing with him.
"I'll just say goodbye and then leave," Carly told the WRGP worker.
Apparently understanding that he would not need to escort her—or rather, would get into hot water with Jack again if he tried—the unknown man gave a curt nod before leaving the way he came.
This prompted Carly to turn back to the group. "All right. I should make good on that promise. Goodbye for now, guys. You'll kill it, I'm sure," she said cheerfully.
Bruno gave her a little wave. "Bye, Carly."
The twins also bade her a simultaneous goodbye, whereas Crow gave a little salute with his good arm. "See ya later, Carly."
Yusei also gave her a smile. "See you, Carly."
With only Aki and Jack left, Carly quickly went in to hug Aki again, first. "Later. And good luck!" she said.
Aki tried to smile as convincingly as she could. "See you soon."
Lastly, Carly went back to Jack, placing a hand on his chest again. "Good luck, champion," she said with a big smile.
Aki had a feeling she might have gone in for a kiss in a different setting, but much like Aki and Yusei, Jack and Carly seemed to know that no good came of being seen being affectionate with one another in such a public setting. That aside, she knew Carly purposefully kept things with Jack a bit on the down low in spaces where other reporters could see and subsequently try disparaging her in front of her boss. Surprisingly, Jack seemed perfectly understanding of that—but perhaps that came from years of prior experience with reporters.
Jack gave Carly a look that probably tried to be stern, but failed because it was Carly he was looking at. "I don't need luck," he insisted.
This time, Carly did roll her eyes. "Have it anyway. Now, go and pummel them with Red Dragon Archfiend."
"I will," Jack said, just as Carly made to leave, waving over her shoulder one more time as she disappeared into the corridors of the stadium. Despite whatever stoic exterior he was trying to uphold, Aki could see that the tips of Jack's ears had gone pink at Carly's last few words.
Dumbass, she couldn't help but think, downright fondly.
"Carly's right, by the way. We should finish up. You have to get ready, Jack, you're up in ten minutes," Yusei said, shortly after Carly had left.
To that, Jack gave a quick nod. "They'll regret looking at us so smugly," he muttered, before stalking off to the garage.
Aki looked after him, still doubtful about whether Jack's confidence was justified.
Maybe I'm just being unnecessarily critical, though. Jack does have years more tournament experience than the rest of us. Maybe he has some kind of intuition we don't and just knows in his gut that these Unicorn guys aren't all that they're drumming themselves up to be. He may yet be right.
Despite some part of her not really believing it, she almost childishly clung to that thought. Perhaps she was futilely hoping she wouldn't have to do anything in this duel after all, as pathetic as that was.
It wasn't even that she didn't want to duel, per se. If anything, her recent confrontation with Sherry seemed to have reawakened some sort of buried instinct, an urge to show off what she could do with her cards, to prove that she was a duellist to be reckoned with. She wanted to duel, she wanted to show everyone her skills—the only problem were her powers, because they were holding her back from it. It made her genuinely, irrationally angry at them, like they were a living thing that was intentionally spiting her, even though she knew it made no sense. They weren't sentient, after all, even though she sometimes almost treated them as though they were.
Her eyes followed Jack's movements while he put on his helmet and got out his runner, almost praying he would be right and crush Team Unicorn like he was claiming he would, if only so she wouldn't have to deal with the inevitable conflict within herself, between whether she wanted to focus on helping her team win or guaranteeing the safety of Team Unicorn's duellists.
Sherry's voice echoed in her head, as it had an unfortunate number of times in the last two days.
You have yet to harm me even once, yet you wield your powers like they’re a grenade someone has pulled the pin out of. And just like that grenade, you seem to want to throw them away, to toss them as far from yourself as possible, where you’ll never have to see them again.
Aki's fists clenched on reflex.
If they were gone, I would at least have a clear head for this match, she thought, almost vengefully.
She hated the way that duel with Sherry seemed to have gotten under her skin, seemed to have wormed its way into her mind; her clipped, lightly accented voice joining the ever-growing discord in Aki's head. It was an endless echo of sentences being repeated back at her, washed to the forefront of her mind like driftwood on ocean waves before she inevitably dragged them back to the depths, as not to be tortured by them endlessly. Divine's voice was still in there, somewhere, too. His was the one she wanted to tear out the most, to uproot like the weed it was. Of course, true to the nature of a weed, his voice also had to be the most persistent one, as though the reminder of his presence still wished to spite her, even when his physical form was already locked tight behind bars.
When Aki managed to tear her eyes away from Jack and his runner preparations again, they wandered to the rest of the team in the pit box instead. Bruno and Yusei seemed to be talking about something organisational, considering how Bruno kept pointing at his laptop's screen, and Crow was watching the track with a frown, like he was pitying himself for not being able to drive on it today again. The only ones who seemed genuinely unburdened and enthusiastic at the moment were the twins, of course. Rua had come to stand next to his sister in the pit box and was excitedly pointing at things around them, which Ruka seemed to endure with the same patience as usual, even though she probably already knew all the trivia he was listing off about the stadium they had both duelled in before themselves.
Letting her gaze sweep over said stadium, Aki couldn't help but be struck by the irony of it all. This was the place where she had first met most of the team; it was where she had first met Yusei. In her mind's eye, she could still see everything so clearly, remember it like it was yesterday. From the duel fields she all but trashed to Yusei, bound by Rose Tentacles' vines, trying to reason with her and reach out to her through all her pain and denial. It simultaneously felt like it had happened an eternity ago, yet concluded only a few minutes prior to this moment.
In the back of her mind, she could still hear the crowd's cruel heckling from back then, could hear them screaming "witch" and "monster". She prayed with all her might that she would not hear either of these things from the stands again, today. It was supposed to be different now—she was supposed to be different. The powers sealed away, the witch dead and buried.
If only that part of her life had stayed dead.
Aki closed her eyes.
Enough. It's no use. There's only the now, and whatever we make of this match.
When she opened them again, she looked at the track.
This is a different kind of duel. I'm a different kind of duellist than I was back then. And I need to give my best for my team.
Despite trying to hype herself up for the whole thing yet again, Aki could feel that her fear inevitably came back with the thought of having to duel Team Unicorn, too. She could feel something coil tight inside her and worried it might be her powers, readying themselves to snap at the worst possible moment. A sensation not unlike a headache seemed to be building behind her eyes, too—something that only seemed to be growing more and more frequent, recently, even though she was trying to stick to her doctor’s advice to the best of her ability. For as long as she could think, she couldn’t remember ever having been prone to migraines, but by now, for some reason, they seemed to come and go every few days, in varying degrees of severity. She could only hope it wouldn’t interfere with her concentration later.
"Aki!"
The voice calling out to her, though familiar, was just about the last thing she had expected now. Chaotically, her eyes flicked this way and that, until they could pinpoint it up in the stands, a little to the right of the pit lanes. From there, her father and mother were waving down at her, smiling.
Aki almost froze. A part of her nearly couldn't believe they had made it to the match on time, having instead expected them to be late or even miss it entirely like they had missed so many events in her childhood. To see that they had cared enough to come on time, that they had really made it, brought an almost childlike joy with it.
Another part of her, however, only grew even more afraid at having to see them here.
If I mess up, they'll be so disappointed. If I lose control, if I hurt someone...
She didn't finish the thought; her throat was already tying itself shut, worrying about the myriad of sad, disappointed, or terrified ways they could react to her messing up. It only made the feeling of nervousness worse, as well as increased the pressure that seemed to be building between her temples.
Even so, she tried forcing a smile, tried waving back at them with a confidence she didn't have before averting her eyes again, eager to look somewhere, anywhere else.
Jack seemed to have gotten into his starting position in the meantime and was making some final adjustments on his riding suit while Bruno took one last walk around his runner to make sure everything was in order.
On the opposite side of the track, Andre was also manoeuvring his runner to the starting line, moving with an ease and confidence so great it almost irked Aki.
Jack spared him no more than a glance when he came to stand next to him.
Aki was about to ask the nearest teammate—Crow, in this case—how much longer it would be until the match's official start, but just as she was about to do so, a loud, booming voice suddenly echoed through the stadium.
"Everybody listeeeeen!"
Almost disoriented, Aki's gaze snapped upward, where she could spot the familiar, flamboyant announcer she had already seen in the Fortune Cup up in his own box, clutching the microphone as usual. That answered her question, then.
Well, at least he's back in business...?
Not bothering to listen to whatever introductions he was making, Aki instead opted to take a seat next to Crow in the pit box.
"So, this is it, then," she murmured.
"Yep. Showtime." Crow's voice sounded as easy as ever, but his posture told her he wasn't as laid-back as he pretended to be.
"Do you think Jack will be able to take at least two of them out, like he said he will?" It felt almost redundant to ask, considering she had heard all of Crow and Jack's earlier arguments, but even so, Aki couldn't help it. Crow tended to keep things he didn’t want to admit before Jack to himself, after all.
"Nope," he said, too fast for her liking, popping the "p" with too much resignation.
"No?"
Crow's lips pulled into a thin line, and he slowly shook his head. "No. And you wanna know the truth?"
Aki had a feeling she would regret it if she said "yes". "The truth being?" she asked, still.
"I have a bad feeling he's not even gonna take a single one of 'em out."
True to her instinct, Aki regretted asking now.
"Why?" she wondered.
Crow narrowed his eyes at the team in the other pit box. "Because these smug fuckers have a plan and Jack's gonna try brute-forcing that plan into failing. But the thing is, Jack brute-forcing things is predictable. So they're gonna have planned for that, too."
Aki hated that it made sense. "Well, they didn't plan for me,” she said, a knee-jerk reaction more than anything else.
Glancing at her, Crow gave a nod. "True. Might be just the advantage we need, too."
I really don't know whether I can be considered an "advantage". Perhaps more of a liability, she thought, but didn't say.
"Duellists, into position!" the announcer called from above.
Aki swallowed as she watched Jack and Andre get ready to accelerate.
Jack has the most turbo duelling experience out of all of us, she told herself again, Even if he's a boastful peacock sometimes, he might still be right, he might still beat them.
"On my mark! Get, set—ACCELERATION!"
The signal horn sounded, the engines roared, and suddenly, both runners were gone, leaving a cloud of dust in their wake.
Aki looked after them, her shoulders tense.
Maybe Jack's got this. Maybe he'll beat them.