For the first time I feel like I genuinely need to make a note about a chapter of this book, which is my shortest and slowest, despite the fact that it introduces some of my overall story's most important characters and elements. This is another chapter which was added in years later, like the tournament chapters in book one. This chapter and the two following it are here to explore the characters of Rocky Stone and Kimi Hakashi, who originally didn't get much development until after this first series was completely over. Like the tournament chapters in the previous book, these are based on an idea that I planned to include first run, but discarded because I wanted to streamline the story, later to change my mind.
Chapter SixA Group Outing
“Listen, dude,” Tucker said, his hands tucked nervously into the pockets of his black flame-decal jeans, his back hunched, making apparent his profound frustration as we approached the far-too-lavish mall entrance, “Robert, or Rocky, or whatever, he’s a nice enough guy, and that Kimi girl’s kinda cute and all, but you know I’m not good with new people.”
“You’re not getting out of this, Tuck,” I told him. “We’re all a team now, we need to act like one. Besides, you get along fine with Amanda.”
“That’s because your littlest ’cuz is way awesome for a little kid,” Tucker replied as we passed through the outer set of doors.
“Don’t argue, man,” I said as I swung open the inner doors, held them open for an elderly couple on their way out, and then stepped through into the food court with Tucker at my side, “you’ve gotta at least try and get along. Rocky’s a good guy, and Kimi’s already helped me out. They deserve for you to give them a chance.”
Tucker huffed, “Fine, but only because you haven’t been wrong about this whole team thing so far.”
We made our way across the food court to our favorite table, where we’d talked to Rocky the night he was attacked by the Order. The table was more crowded than usual, seating Sarah and Jen as it often did, as well as Rocky, Kimi and Amanda. Jen and Rocky were very seriously discussing Duel Monsters, Jen doing most of the talking, while Kimi and Amanda made general girly small talk, which Sarah was trying hard to follow.
“Hey guys,” I said, Tucker and I sitting down next to each other, between Kimi and Rocky, across from my sister. We were greeted pleasantly, and soon we found ourselves integrated into Jen and Rocky’s conversation. Eventually our conversation degenerated into a discussion about strategy in general, which eventually became a discussion about gaming, which drew the girls in as well. I talked to Kimi more that night than I had the entire time I’d known her. She didn’t have the same grasp of strategy as Jen or Rocky, or even me or Sarah, but she was charming and upbeat, and she was clever. She, and Rocky for that matter, were easily well on their way to solidifying themselves as perfect choices to join the Duel Force, maybe too perfect, as if the Souls knew who would work well together and only picked compatible people.
Despite this, however, Kimi and Rocky didn’t seem to get along with each other. Rocky never argued a point of debate with Kimi, even if he clearly had a better grasp of the subject matter, and he avoided her eye, while still glancing over at her awkwardly whenever she wasn’t looking.
It was weird.
Finally, after a couple hours or so, the conversation changed again, becoming more general. That’s when I started to tune out. I’d much rather talk about gaming than about celebrities and music and pop culture. Still, I was happy to see my friends and allies getting along, more or less. Things were already going better than I’d expected. I felt confident that I could leave them to their discussion and head to Wilson’s cards for an hour or so before heading home to bed.
Rocky
John excused himself at around seven p.m. I’d expected it. He seemed even less interested in the current topic of conversation than I was. After a few more minutes I considered leaving as well until, not for the first time, I glanced involuntarily at Kimi, blushed, and looked quickly down at my hands which danced nervously above the top of the table. Kimi was expressing her optimism regarding the future of some already-doomed celebrity relationship, garnering friendly disagreement from the others. I sat there uncomfortably, adding a bit to the conversation here and there just to make clear that I did know what we were talking about.
I couldn’t believe it. I had a crush on Kimi.
So I stuck around. Then, finally, once it was late enough that everyone began to worry whether they’d make curfew, our little gathering dissolved on its own. As we left I caught up with Kimi. There were two bus stops near the mall, one that ran in the direction of the home neighborhoods of the rest of the Duel Force, and another running in the direction of mine and Kimi’s homes.
“Hey,” I said as Kimi and I approached our stop.
“Hey,” Kimi replied politely, though I got the feeling that she didn’t really like me. Not that I blamed her. I’m not the most social person.
“That went well,” I said. “There are a lot of different types of people on Team Duel Force. I honestly didn’t expect everyone to get along so well. Maybe it’s just me.”
“I knew we’d get along,” said Kimi. “You can get along with anyone as long as you have some common ground with them.”
“Yeah,” I said, not as sure as Kimi but not wanting to argue, “I guess you’re right.”
Kimi seemed to notice how bummed I was, because she continued, “But yeah, things did go really well for a first meeting.”
She smiled at me nicely, and I smiled back awkwardly. Then her smile turned sad, and she stopped walking about halfway across the parking lot, the bus stop visible in the distance, “Listen, I know where this is going, but I don’t really wanna date or anything like that. I’m always busy studying, and when I’m not studying I’m dueling. Besides, my parents are only going to be in the States on business long enough for me to finish high school. After that I go back to Japan for college. I’d rather save something like dating for after my life’s settled down.”
I felt like someone had just hit me in the chest with a hammer and then fed me the hammer, and I guess it showed.
“But we can still hang out,” Kimi added hastily. “We’re already part of a team, we might as well be friends. You seem like you’d make a good friend, Robby.”
“It’s Rocky,” I told her, disappointed.
“But I thought your real name was Robert?” Kimi asked as we started walking again, more slowly now than we’d been before.
“Yeah,” I answered.
“Well then,” Kimi said, “it makes more sense to call you Robby, so that’s what I’m gonna call you.”
She smiled cheekily and picked up pace. I followed suit and the two of us reached the bus stop at virtually the same time, just as the bus pulled up to receive us. We sat across the aisle from each other, riding in awkward silence until we reached Kimi’s stop, which was only two stops before mine. Kimi rose from her seat, smiled and waved, and stepped off the bus, the double doors closing behind her. The bus started moving again, but just as it did my Soul of Earth began to glow faintly, and I was overcome with an odd but unmistakable feeling.
Kimi was in danger.
I jumped up from my seat and ran to the front of the bus, calling out that I’d missed my stop. The driver reluctantly hit the brakes and let me out, and I took off running, back to Kimi’s stop, around a corner, and around another. I’m not sure how I knew exactly which way to go, but I did, and as I turned the corner into Kimi’s neighborhood, an upscale gated community with newly paved roads, beautifully landscaped trees, bushes and decorative flower beds lining grand two and three story houses, I came to a surprising realization that caused me to pick up my pace.
This whole part of town was the kind of place where retired cops and decorated military officers lived alongside wealthy business owners with great home security, where the streets were monitored by a neighborhood watch. It was not the kind of place that you would ever find yourself prey to a mugging, which meant the danger that Kimi faced was something even greater.
As I turned a final corner around a row of tall, expertly trimmed bushes lining one of the properties, there she was, being herded up against an old ’80’s sedan by a pair of assailants. Kimi was desperately gripping her Soul of Light in her right hand as she took one final step back against the sedan, nowhere else to go. That’s when she saw me.
“Robby!” she called. She reached for me with her free hand just as the first of her assailants struck, and with a flash of her Soul she disappeared, only to appear suddenly just in front of me. I had to catch her just to keep her from falling over. Not even pausing a moment to ponder the fact that Kimi had just beam-me-up-Scotty’d herself twenty feet we turned to make a break for it, only to find ourselves face to face with a third assailant who’d likely been playing lookout for the others.
I saw this one’s face clearly, and my suspicions were confirmed. The third thug, a muscular African-American guy who was much taller than me even though he didn’t look much older, was familiar. I recognized him as one of the Order goons who’d attacked me in the alley behind the mall. In fact, I could even see the welt on his head where John had hit him with the pipe.
The thug looked excited to get back at me, and he was already moving to attack. I had to act fast. I knew that his allies wouldn’t be far behind us, and there was no way I could take on all three at once. I ducked under his first strike and moved in close, turning, gripped his arm, and flipped him over my shoulder onto his back. Then, before he could rise, I stuck him in the bridge of the nose with the palm of my hand, making sure to direct the blow so that it would be non-lethal, and knocked his head back into the ground, knocking him out cold.
By then the other two were on us. I pushed Kimi behind me and turned to face them, blocking a punch from the first thug, a blond-haired jockish guy who I also recognized from the other night, diverting his strike to the side, caught the foot of the third thug, a big, black-haired guy, as he made an attempt to high kick me in the head. I gripped his foot as best I could and stepped back, causing him to overextend, only letting go once I heard the muscles in the back of his thigh pop.
Meanwhile the jockish thug moved in close, swinging the Duel Disk on his arm like an ax. I threw my own Duel Disk up just in time to deflect his, rolled into his torso, and elbowed him hard in his celiac plexus, knocking the wind out of his lungs and causing him to double over as he tried to catch his breath. He hobbled back out of my reach quickly, dragging his ally along with him, and the two of them limped to their feet, frustrated, cradling different parts of their anatomy.
The jockish thug smirked. “I see the girl has already allied herself with another Soul Wielder,” he wheezed, “and one that I’ve already met, no less. I guess it’s a good thing we came armed with something more that some borrowed magic and our fists this time.”
He pulled a round amulet with three red gems embedded in it, arranged in a horizontal row, out from behind his t-shirt.
“This is a Shadow Item from our master’s stores,” the jockish thug explained. “Of course we aren’t supposed to have it, but once we return it and hand our master two Duelist’s Souls he’ll definitely forgive us for swiping it.”
“Except that you won’t be getting our Souls,” I insisted.
Both of the thugs laughed at that. The jockish thug held up the amulet, “We’ll see about that.”
The three gems began to glow a deep, evil-looking crimson and waves of force so thick that they rippled the air spread from the amulet and slammed into us, nearly knocking me off my feet. Kimi had to grab onto my arm just to remain standing. Without thinking I gestured at some gravel in a nearby flower bed. My Soul glowed a faint rusty color and the gravel flew at the thug. A lot of it missed, but enough hit to knock the amulet out of his hand and cause him to step back even further, breaking his spell.
I concentrated, levitating a larger rock as much as I could (though he didn’t know that), just to about waist level and told him, “You’re not the only one with magic.”
Jock Thug smiled, “Then we challenge you to a Shadow Game. If we win you give up your Souls, but if you win we leave and promise not to come after you again.”
I looked over at Kimi. Even though she wasn’t looking as chipper as she usually did, she nodded.
“Take your unconscious buddy with you,” I told them, gesturing at the third thug, who was still sprawled on the ground, “and it’s a deal.”
The jewels in Jock Thug’s Shadow Item began to glow again, and the darkness around us seemed to deepen even as it began swirling threateningly around the four of us. I faced off against Jock Thug, and Kimi faced off against the still-limping Big Thug, and the Shadow Game began.
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