[UAU: fast-forward]

[masokaiser]

[Today has been...interesting, for the both of them.

Well, maybe less interesting on Juudai's end. He's probably used to ignoring Saruyama's scripts and hiding the new deck by now, which is really something that Kaiser should talk to him about. There's going to be serious danger to both of them if this continues.

Right now, though, he's busy picking mangoes out of a pile and trying to ignore his crippling shame.

(He really hadn't expected that to happen in the ring. He'd barely even noticed it, in the state he was in, blended in with the usual sick excitement of the duel. But he had taken a shock and for the first time he was truly prepared for it, ready for it, and...)

He shakes off the thought and turns back to the cart with his bag of fruit.

...There are considerably more cookies in the basket than the last time he checked.]

...Juudai.

Comments

[sternitfortem]

Hm?

[ Juudai is currently very thoroughly examining two different bags of rice, with a very thoroughly absorbed expression, as if he had been doing this for hours and would keep doing it for more hours. ]

What do you think, medium-grain or short-grain?

[ He turns to Kaiser with an expression so innocent that it could not possibly be he who suck a couple boxes of Meiji Panda Cookies into the cart. ]

[sternitfortem]

[ Juudai scowls after the vanishing cookies. Kaiser, are you going to deprive a growing young man of his snacks? How cruel. He puts the bag of short-grain rice into the cart, sliding a slim box of pocky beneath it from his black jacket sleeve as he does so. It unnerves Juudai a little whenever he forgets he's not wearing his Osiris jacket and then sees no red when he glances at his arms. But he's getting used to it.

These days, he only wears that jacket in the ring. ]

What next, daikon? Cucumber?

[ Grocery shopping is good because they don't have to think about their next match for an hour while they do it. ]

[sternitfortem]

[ Juudai, who had turned to face the opposite direction, examining the cucumbers, stiffens. That script, which he had buried at the bottom of the trash can? Kaiser found it? For another minute, he turns one single cucumber over and over, scrutinizing it for microscopic flaws, until he finally sets it down and picks up another one. ]


It wasn't me. [ Juudai is aware that this is a variant of the same argument he has been using for two weeks now, and one that Kaiser is sick of hearing. ] I mean - it was like. I couldn't have pulled it off. Not convincingly. I don't know who he's got writing them.

[ Juudai taps a rhythm with the short, thin cucumber against his palm like a drumstick, lost in thought. ]

[sternitfortem]

[ The thought makes Juudai want to shudder. He realizes that he's gripping the cucumber so hard he might bruise it, and drops it into the cart behind him. He still hasn't made eye contact with Kaiser. ]

No, he's not. He's just running through random ideas. I told him when it started. He can't turn me into something I'm not.

[ He runs a hand through his hair once and readjusts his jacket, to make sure that the collar obscures the red, spidery scars on his neck from the nodes. ]

Why does he need two heels, anyway? We're doing great as we are.

[sternitfortem]

[ Not if he can help it.

(the script that was at the bottom of the trash can hit uncomfortably close this time.)

( In Saruyama's brusque hand: 2-3 turns, don't lose more than 2k. opponents will be the Insecto Brothers. their specialty is to have the younger brother absorb the elder's damage with effects. he usually collapses within 3-4 turns. HAVE DAMAGE COMBO READY.

JUUDAI: 'how could you use him like that?'
banter. he will not be remorseful.
JUUDAI: 'i see... so it's like that, for you... you've never understood him, because you haven't felt his pain. i think maybe that's what's keeping you from understanding his feelings, isn't it? he suffered for you! you can't understand him without suffering yourself!'

damage combo. continue to target elder. hell kaiser will pick up on your lead and follow.

JUUDAI: 'i see you now. i see what you really are, when you suffer.'

convey emotion: you are beginning to realize that pain conveys truth, in the underground. if successful, we will develop this characterization in further duels. )

That pain was truth. (That pain made you free. Free from masks. Free from shame.) Juudai had gone cold, reading this script, because it was as if Saruyama had been there, had heard what he'd thought that night with Kaiser, or what he sometimes thinks in the ring, tells himself when the collars bite at his neck and arms. ]

Well - [ Juudai's voice is abrupt, difficult to work. ] - well, maybe he needs a new specialty.

[sternitfortem]

[ Juudai turned his head away when Kaiser grabbed his shoulder, but it didn't matter. He was listening. Kaiser had been gently hinting that Juudai should turn for a while now, probably because Saruyama was leaning on him. Juudai knew Kaiser was just trying to protect him. Heels often get less challenging duels, get thrown in against the faces and the new people who aren't used to the collars yet. (And Juudai had an inkling that Kaiser hated the way he screamed when the collars activated. Heels were... encouraged to suppress the instinct.)

It didn't take the sting out of it, though. Juudai could rationalize Kaiser all he wanted, but it hurt a little that Kaiser was taking Saruyama's side over his. (Maybe it hurt more than a little.)

So when Kaiser lets go, Juudai jerks his shoulder forward a little. The ring isn't reality. Keep it that way. ]

[ And suddenly, Juudai's rounding on Kaiser and he can hear himself snap: ]

I don't think you're the person to lecture me about keeping his private life out of the ring.


[ (Well, yeah. He saw it, but.)

Instantly, Juudai regrets it. ]

[sternitfortem]

[ When Kaiser turns the corner, Juudai turns around and thunks his head a few times against the steel shelf, rattling a can of panko crumbs. Awful. Dumb. Stupid. Bad. He shouldn't have said something like that. Kaiser had a weird relationship with the ring; Juudai had come to see that when he went in, he wasn't putting on a mask, like a lot of the other duelists. Kaiser went into the ring and took his mask off.

Kaiser went into the ring to get some kind of dose of a reality too strong to live every day. Then he came out, and was Kaiser again. Not the Hell Kaiser. But he didn't want that for Juudai. It was dangerous for the ring to be real. And Juudai knew that. It was just...

(he couldn't explain what it was just.)

Anyway, Juudai didn't need a reason to defy Saruyama. It was a reason in itself. That guy needed to learn he didn't have everyone in his hands.

While they're separated, Juudai grabs the panko, some crisp daikon radishes, and a small bag of bean sprouts. Balancing them carefully in his arms, he goes to look for Kaiser again. ]

[sternitfortem]

[ Juudai opens his arms and dumps the food into the basket, and then Kaiser tells him that he's putting the both of them in danger. (And Juudai knows that. He knows, or else he'd have gotten himself killed by now by rebelling, trying to run, trying to turn on the audience beyond the cage, even trying to hurt the higher-ups. He hasn't done any of these things because he and Ryou are tied together, because Saruyama is smart enough to exploit their bonds. If one of them runs, the other will be hurt. If one speaks out, the other pays the price. That wouldn't work on most of the thugs in the underground, but on Juudai and Kaiser, well, that's their disadvantage.

(The day it stops being a disadvantage is the day they've forever lost to the underground, anyway.)

Kaiser's posture suddenly changes. Juudai's does too, in response; he anxiously looks around. ]

What is it?