No more sirens were splitting the calm of the evening air. Whether that meant the police had given up or that they were trying a different approach, Phil did not know. Yet, as Phil and Tilla rounded the corner that would put the Kitamori household in sight, he quickly noticed something was amiss. It wasn’t the police – there were no officers hammering their fists against the door, or even a squad car camped out on the edge of the block. No, it was something else.

  Where before the front door had been mostly clear (other than for the general clutter that tended to appear in houses with plenty of youngsters running about), there were now a large number of wooden crates stacked on the front steps, so many that the door was mostly obscured. It was a curious sight, one made even stranger once Reiko poked her head out of the front door in a ball of flustered energy and frantically waving hands that, for the briefest of moments, made the world feel… normal again. Like how it had felt before Jean passed away.

  And then reality slammed Phil in the face with all the enthusiasm of a professional boxer. Normal. Normal was long, long gone.

  “Phil! Tilla!” Reiko squawked out. Her head was partially hidden by a particularly large crate that was blocking the door in such a way that there was only a few inches of a gap that one could squeeze through to gain passage. A frustrated groan came from the other side of the box, and then Phil watched as Reiko carefully squeezed through the gap, dashed around another stack of crates, and came to a halt in front of him. “All of these came from you! A bunch of suited guys brought them by! Is it true they’re from Maximillion Pegasus himself?!?”

  Phil walked over to the nearest crate. Sure as shit, there was a label on the side showing the shipping information – Duelist Kingdom to the front door of the Kitamori residence.

  “Well I’ll be damned.” He muttered to himself. All these boxes… there was only one thing he could imagine was inside. He glanced around for a way to open the crates, but Tilla was already in motion. Producing a crowbar she’d found buried behind the stacks of crates, she jimmied open the closest crate.

  Even though the night sky was as dark as could be, once the lid of the crate fell open, it felt to Phil like their surroundings had been lit up with a brilliant gleam of gold. His eyes shot wide open, and he let out a long, low wolf-whistle.

  It was gold. And not just gold alone, but much, much more. Inside the crate was a vast quantity of gold, jewels, and other precious materials. It was almost blinding to the sight, and if the noises Reiko was making were of any indication, it was literally blinding to her. Even Tilla, made stoic from grief as she was, seemed quite impressed. His eyes flicked over to the others. If this one was the gold crate… he walked over to the next one, slipping a hand underneath its edge to feel its weight. It shifted under his grasp.

  “Much lighter… paintings? Or deeds…”

  Phil did a quick count in his head. Fifteen crates, was it? By his estimation then, these crates should contain just about every item he and Jean had ‘acquired’ from the castle through ‘legal means’ and ‘definitely’ not through ‘grand larceny’. He couldn’t help but let out a snort of amusement. Pegasus hadn’t just kept his word, he’d over fucking delivered. Somehow that seemed all the truer to that man’s character. One last flamboyant gesture to round off the tournament. The crates had fucking packing slips, for heaven’s sake. He felt like he was back at work again, taking a delivery of parts in from FedEx. Except this was a fictional world where monsters and magic were real and… wait… Phil squinted at the packing slip.

  No, judging from the logo, Pegasus had literally used the Japanese branch of FedEx to make the delivery. He didn’t even know Japan had a branch of FedEx. The mundane sight made the whole situation feel even stranger.

  “Oho…” Phil muttered. Another glance had revealed a letter stapled to the top of the frontmost wooden crate. He tore it off to open, revealing a note inside with only a handful of words written on it. Under the note were two small slips.

  “What does it say?” Tilla asked.

  Phil let out a snort of laughter. “It’s two ferry tickets and an invitation for a rematch.”

  Her eyebrows rose by a fraction. Phil passed the letter to Tilla, who studied for a moment before letting out a small laugh and shaking her head. Neither of them wanted to think about the fact that there were two tickets included in the letter.

  “What a strange man.”

  Phil could only nod in agreement. He looked around at the crates.

  “I guess I have one more errand to run tonight. We can hit up Kame Game tomorrow as soon as it opens.”

  Tilla fixed him with a questioning gaze, which Phil replied to with a wink.

  “One last jest, just how Jean would have liked. Tilla, have you ever visited the city hospital?”

  "Phil, you're the subject of a city-wide manhunt.” Tilla’s impassive voice responded.

  Phil dismissively waved his hand through the air. “Manhunt schmanhunt. I feel like doing a good deed.”

  -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

  There was no two ways about it. He had to face the music. It still didn’t do much to lessen the pit in his stomach. It was a pit that had been there for what felt like days now, even though the tournament had only ended yesterday. For what wasn’t the first time, nor the second or the third time, Joey Wheeler cursed his luck…. In the middle of class.

  “Wheeler! You aren’t on Spring Break anymore, so watch your mouth!” The teacher sternly shouted at him, causing Joey to clap his hand over his mouth.

  "Sorry, teach."

  Any further retort from the teacher was stifled as the bell rang for dismissal. Joey grabbed his bag and dashed for the door, Yugi and Tristan hot on his heels. A series of yells tore out of the classroom, but they slid off of Joey's back like water.

  “You know you’ll get it major trouble for this tomorrow, right?” Yugi made the point with infuriating logic. Joey could only shrug. He was a man on a mission.

  "Who cares? You know what day it is."

  Yugi audibly gulped. “Serenity’s surgery?”

  Joey continued to sprint forward. He nodded grimly, pushing past students left and right in his righteous crusade for the front doors. Serenity’s surgery. His little sister. He’d failed to get the money in Duelist Kingdom, but that didn’t matter anymore. Joey ducked into the nearest alley as soon as the school doors were behind them. Only then did he stop, turning to face a panting Yugi.

  “Yuges…”

  “Yeah?” Yugi said between gasping breaths. Tea appeared behind the small boy, only a few seconds behind the group due to her pausing in the classroom to send a bow of apology to the teacher. She patted him on the back as Yugi fought to regain his breath.

  Joey sucked some air in between his teeth, and then in a flash of movement, he fell to his knees in a bow so deep that his forehead was planted flat on the ground.

  “Yugi! I know I don’t have any right to ask this, but I have to! That money you won in the tournament… can I borrow it to pay for Serenity’s surgery?”

  Joey had put every ounce of his strength into shouting those words, making them reverberate across the brick walls of the alleyway for what seemed like several full minutes. There was no answer. Joey hesitantly looked up to see Yugi staring at him with a strange look.

  “Joey… what are you talking about? That was my plan ever since you told us about her problem before the tournament. What did you think I was going to do with the prize money? Blow it on a tropical vacation? Go to a pachinko parlor to lose it in an afternoon? Here!" He whipped an envelope out of his school bag, Joey watching it all with eyes as big as dinner plates.

  “Here!” Yugi repeated until Joey accepted the envelope. He peeked inside.

  It was cash. Stacks and stacks of yen stuffed inside the envelope so thickly that the sides were bulging.

  “Sheesh!” Tea laughed out. “Was that what you were depressed about the whole ferry ride back?”

  “I thought you were just moping about your luck failing you against Rex.” Tristan said, shaking his head with an incredulous expression on his face.

  Joey couldn’t answer. His eyes were watering, his hands were shaking, and the pit in his stomach… it was gone. Had he really been agonizing over all of this for nothing?

  Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

  "Men and their pride!" Tea said in an exasperated tone. "All of that worry, and you just had to ask! Geez… what, were you weighing asking Yugi versus getting a loan from the freaking yakuza or something?”

  Joey sheepishly grinned. "No… but I was trying to figure in my head how many part-time jobs I could squeeze in along with school…"

  "Joey!" Tea yelped, "I know I'm not one to talk since I'm part-time at Burger World, but you do know school regulations forbid it, right? I can tell you from experience that keeping one job under the radar is hard enough on its own!"

  Tristan leaned in with a solemn look. “Yeah. A blockhead like you couldn’t keep something like that on the down-low for long. You’d be in serious trouble!”

  At that, Joey had no retort.

  “Come on!” Yugi started down the alleyway, stopping and beckoning for Joey when he simply stayed seated on the ground. “Shouldn’t you be there for your sister?”

  “Y-yeah.” Joey muttered. He rose to his feet and dusted off his pants with the back of his hand.

  -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

  The inside of the hospital was as Joey remembered it to be – sterile, quiet, and smelling faintly of antiseptic. The front desk was the same as well. In fact, he was pretty sure the same nurse as before was still behind it, unchanged despite it being more than a few years since Serenity’s initial diagnosis.

  “Uh… good morning!” Joey forced out his cheer, leaning on the counter with arms out to steady himself. The nurse looked right back at him, her eyes looking completely and utterly dead inside, emotionless and unfeeling. A lit cigarette hung loosely from her lips despite the large ‘no smoking’ sign that was hanging from the wall no more than three feet away.

  “Name.” She answered in a monotone smoker’s voice that sounded like it was being dragged over a pit of gravel.

  “I’m Joey Wheeler, here for Serenity Wheeler! I have the money for her surgery!”

  In the corner of his eye, Joey could see Yugi shooting him a thumbs-up of support from where he and the rest of the gang were sitting in the adjoining waiting room, squashed between a nervous-looking woman with no discernible injuries and a man who was holding a bow and had an arrow poking out of his kneecap. Surprisingly, the man was much calmer than the woman.

  “Wheeler… Wheeler… Wheeler…” The nurse’s gravelly voice chewed over the name as she looked through her files. “Ah. Wheeler. Seems… yes, she’s already paid for.”

  Joey’s face went blank. “Wait what?”

  "You heard me the first time, boy. She's due to finish the surgery in an hour. Go to the waiting room. You’re holding up the line.”

  “Wait! Wait!” Joey frantically glanced around. A line truly had formed behind him, but… he had to know! It couldn’t have been his father… the old man shouldn’t even know about Serenity’s situation! He wouldn’t care even if he did! “Who paid?”

  The nurse let out a large puff of smoke sizable enough so that half her head was temporarily obscured by it.

  "Dunno. Refused to give a name. Tall, wearing a surgical mask. He walked up here, slammed a duffel bag of yen on the counter, and told us who it was for. Sure as all get out, the exact sum of money was all there. All fresh bills, too.”

  Another nurse leaned over and spoke with a smile. “No kidding! We thought it was a stick-up at first! A man and a woman, both wearing masks and looking shady as all get out!”

  A third nurse came over. She laughed and lit up a cigarette. “I thought we were dead. That lump under the man’s jacket? It looked like a gun. Right out of the movies.”

  The first nurse waved her hand dismissively. “Pish-posh. Where would he get a gun? There are laws against things like that. I bet it was a bomb vest. Or drugs, if that duffel bag is anything to go off of. No one just has a bag of money lying around. Either way, with a man like that it's best just to smile, wave, let him do his business, and let him leave in peace. The trouble ain’t worth it.”

  "And the lady with him!" The second nurse winked at Joey. "Boy, was she a looker, even with the mask.”

  “She looked sad, but was trying to hide it. The guy though, he had scary eyes. I wouldn’t want to meet him in a back alley at midnight.” The third nurse said in a thoughtful tone, taking a long puff of her cigarette. A cloud of smoke brushed against the no-smoking sign. Her mouth opened to speak again, but before a word could get out, a man behind Joey began to vomit uncontrollably, and the nurse rushed over to assist. Joey shifted over to the side, both to let the man through and to keep his shoes out of the steadily growing pile of puke.

  “Well, there was a name,” The first nurse held out a finger that was stained yellow with cigarette smoke. Joey leaned forward. A name for his benefactor?

  “Ah. Here we go. The donation is courtesy of Jean Dubois… and then… oh my, that’s a lot of curse words.”

  The second nurse leaned closer to the file to read it. Her face took on a look of disgusted wonder.

  “That’s just a full page of foul language. It isn’t even in coherent sentences. Wait… there’s a second page. And a third?”

  The first nurse shrugged. “Four in total. Hey, Yuki was the one who took the notes. Ain’t got nothing to do with me.”

  Joey stumbled away from the counter. A weird masked man and woman duo, the mention of… Jean, knowledge of something Joey knew he hadn’t told him ever before… a warped sense of humor…

  It had to be Phil. No doubt the mask was being used to hide from the police. Joey abandoned the line, sidestepping another pile of puke to join the others in the waiting room. He handed back the envelope to Yugi, who accepted it with a questioning gaze.

  “It’s already paid for.” Joey said in a weak voice. He took a seat on one of the chairs. It wobbled under his weight. This waiting room… it was usually a place of worry for him. Dim overhead lights that struggled to illuminate the room. Cracked tile floor underfoot. Scattered groups of patients with various illnesses and wounds. Nurses with exhausted eyes who still tried their very best to help. The stench of antiseptic in the air. Dilapidated doors, grungy walls, plants in the corners with yellowed leaves. It was still the same in appearance. Yet, now he could feel a flower of hope blossoming in his chest.

  “Who-“

  “Phil, I think. Heck if I know how he got the money. He gave it under the name of… of Jean Dubois.”

  He spoke the name in a hushed voice. Even now, the day after hearing the terrible news from Phil, talking about it felt… wrong. Like the more they discussed it, the more it became ingrained in reality. Yet that's what it was, reality. It was the truth behind why large bags were hanging under not just his own eyes, but the eyes of his friends as well. It was the reason for his limbs feeling leaden from fatigue. All due to a sleepless night spent grappling with the truth.

  Tristan shifted in place in his chair. Somehow his chair looked a thousand times wobblier than Joey’s, which shouldn’t even be possible considering Joey’s chair felt like it was barely staying in one piece itself.

  “Do ya think if we ask him… he’d say how he got it?”

  Yugi let out an explosive sigh, shrugging helplessly. “What’s his answer for most of those things?”

  “It’s what I do, I know things.” Joey, Yugi, Tristan, and Tea all said at once in monotone voices.

  A silence fell between the group, broken only by the occasional shouting nurse or patient groaning in pain. The man with the arrow in his knee was taken away down the hall. A woman with two broken arms was led through a door. Ten minutes passed, which bled into half an hour. Joey tapped his feet against the grimy tile floor. Tristan produced a tennis ball from his pocket, throwing it against the wall and catching it repeatedly out of boredom. Only when a nurse screamed at him for nearly beaning her in the head did he put it away with a rueful expression and a muttered apology. Tea drove the back of her fist against Tristan's head, whisper-shouting furiously about 'what the heck did he even expect would happen by throwing a tennis ball around'.

  A nurse emerged from one of the surgery rooms, causing Joey and the rest to tense up, only for them to fall back with equal disappointment once she walked back in. Yugi pulled a stack of Duel Monsters cards out of a deckbox strapped to his belt and began flipping through them. The 'shf' 'shf' of cards brushing against cards filled the air. It was a calming noise, one that took Joey back to countless late nights hanging out at Yugi's house, building their decks and battling against each other.

  A half hour bled into a full hour. Joey looked at the clock hanging from the wall above the nurse’s station. A gnawing feeling of impatience and worry began to grow in his stomach. An hour. Hadn’t the nurses said it should be done by now? A bead of sweat trickled down his forehead. An hour and ten minutes. Another nurse disappeared into the surgery room. An hour and fifteen.

  Tristan’s chair creaked, causing Joey to start from the unexpected noise. He looked over to see his buddy walking over to the vending machine in the corner, withdrawing a few coins to send clattering into the slot in exchange for some fizzy soda that Joey didn’t recognize the label of. Tristan cracked it open with a brisk ‘snap-pop’ and took a hesitant sip. His face immediately scrunched up.

  “Carrot?!?”

  “Wait what?” Yugi paused in shuffling his deck to stare at Tristan.

  “It’s carrot flavored.”

  Joey’s eyes widened. “The drink?”

  “Yeah. Fizzy and carrot flavored. I… don’t know how to feel about this.”

  Joey marched over to Tristan, who relinquished the soda without a hint of protest. He took a sip, and his face scrunched up to mirror Tristan’s earlier expression.

  “Carrot?!?” Joey exclaimed.

  Tristan rapidly nodded. "Right? I like carrots, but… not in a drink. I mean, come on, man. Who wants fizzy carrots? Carrots should be either cooked or raw. Not fizzy."

  Joey took another sip. His nose crinkled up. He took a third sip, this one faster than the first two.

  “You know… it kinda grows on a guy.”

  Tristan shot him a strange look. He went back up to the vending machine to make another selection.

  "What, like a parasite? Right…."

  The two boys took back their seats, Joey clutching the fizzy carrot drink in one hand and Tristan staring at his new drink with a pondering gaze. The sound of a can ‘snap-popping’ open came again.

  “Tomato.” Tristan frowned.

  “Tomato?” Joey echoed.

  “Tomato.”

  With the new and terrifying information that the vending machine had both a carrot and tomato drink fresh in his mind, Joey turned his attention back to the clock on the wall. An hour and a half. Was something going wrong? He took a sip of his carrot drink, and then another. A thousand different scenarios leaped into his head, each more terrible than the last. Was Serenity’s sight too far gone to fix? Were the doctors wasting their time? Was there a duel happening inside?!? Were terrorists holding up the operating room for ransom?!?!?!?!?

  Joey began to chug the carrot drink. His worries infected Tristan, who began to chug his tomato drink with equal gusto. Tea cast them both a pitying gaze, the look of ‘are these guys morons?’ etched into her face with such clarity that even Joey could understand it.

  The stench of cigarette smoke suddenly surrounded them, causing the antics of the boys to grind to an immediate halt. Joey looked over to see the desk nurse beside him. Her head was almost completely obscured by a thick cloud of smoke.

  “Wheeler?” She croaked out.

  “Yes?” Joey replied in a shaky voice.

  “The surgery’s complete. I’ll need you to sign these papers.”

  Joey fell out of his seat to land on his knees. He didn’t even notice how the accumulated grime of countless years rubbed off onto the knees of his jeans.

  “Was it successful? Please, please! I need to know! Is my sister alright?” He begged. Tears began to run down his face.

  The nurse let out a puff of smoke.

  “Seems to be the case. Follow me back to the counter.”

  Yugi and Tristan let out a ragged cheer, while Tea jumped around in joy before swooping Yugi up in a big hug and kissing him several times on the cheek.

  And Joey, as he shakily climbed to his feet from the beautiful, wonderful waiting room floor, as tears fell down his cheeks in a thick, salty waterfall, to him it felt like a dream come true.

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