Chapter VII

Suspicion

Kalin sighed in frustration as he flipped the light switch on. "Damnit, we were so close!" he grumbled. Jack crossed his arms.

"What was with those three? I mean, seriously. That girl Yuri showed up on her skateboard and said something about an 'Officer Kodai' and they all just ran off," he wondered. Crow shrugged.

"Whatever. Hey, didn't Shadow say she and Yusei would probably be back before us?" he asked. Kalin nodded and started looking around, before he walked into his and Yusei's room.

"What happened?!" he practically yelled. Shadow yelped and jumped, before taking deep breaths to try and calm herself.

"Don't… do that," she hissed. "Especially not right now. I'm wound up as it is."

Crow and Jack joined them. "Why does Yusei look like he's got a fever?" Crow asked. Shadow bit her lip.

"I… Well… You remember how I said that if I'm not careful when I'm dueling, my monsters can come to life and do real damage?" she started. Jack growled under his breath. "Hey, it's not completely my fault… there was a Sector Security officer that decided to drop in right as I ordered Tear to attack Yusei's life points, and… well… if I say her effect is pretty much poisoning the opponent, can you figure out what happened?" she asked.

Kalin's anger faded into worry and fear. "Will he be alright?" he asked. Shadow nodded.

"I was able to have Saturn remove the poison in time, but… it's gonna take him days… maybe even a couple of weeks… to recover from this," she replied. Then, clenching her eyes shut, she ran out past them. "I'm sorry!"

Crow watched her go in shock before looking back at Yusei. He really did look like he had a high fever, and knowing the reason why, the ginger wasn't surprised. Then, after only a moment of thought, he took off after Shadow. She had run out of the building, he knew that much, but where had she gone from there?

He was still running around an hour later when he came to a panicked halt.

"Whoa there! Huh? Hey, calm down, kid. I'm not gonna hurt you," the Security officer said. Crow scowled.

"Yeah, that's what they said the last time I got arrested. Those bruises lasted for weeks," he countered.

The officer sighed, taking his helmet off to reveal short, spiky black hair. Green eyes glittered as he walked over to the startled teen. "Look, unless I randomly dig up some proof that you were involved with the explosion in Sector 8 earlier, I don't have any reason to take you in right now, so you might as well calm down," he told Crow.

The ginger watched the officer cautiously, but for whatever reason, he just couldn't bring himself to be completely distrustful of him. He reminded him of someone, but who…?

"Actually, you might be able to help me," the man continued. Crow looked up at him, confused. "You look like someone who'd know where to look for a kid that doesn't exactly belong."

Crow frowned. "I might. Why do you care?" he asked. The man sighed, and for the first time, Crow spotted the worry lines and sorrow in his eyes.

"My daughter, Sora, disappeared four months ago. Her birthday's coming up soon, I wanted her home by then, but…" he trailed off. Crow nodded.

"I get it. You think she's here in Satellite," he said. The officer nodded.

"You think you could help me?" he asked. Crow nodded again.

"Of course. And I'm sure if I tell the kids at Martha's, they'll be looking for her too. We try not to lose people around here," he replied. The officer chuckled.

"Yeah, I can understand why," he said. Crow sighed.

"Well, on the subject of loosing people, I gotta go find Shadow before it gets too much darker," he said. "But, I'll keep an eye out for your daughter."

The officer smiled. "Thanks, kid," he said as Crow turned to walk away. The ginger had only rounded two corners when he ran into another face he didn't want to see.

"He's pretty nice, isn't he?" the girl asked, brushing black bangs out of crimson eyes. Gold-streaked violet hair fell down her back. Crow crossed his arms.

"Who?" he wondered. Yuri smirked.

"Errol Kodai," she replied simply. Crow looked over his shoulder for a moment, then looked back at Yuri, pointing in the direction he had just been looking.

"That was Officer Kodai?" he asked. Yuri nodded, and he frowned. "Then why did you and your friends run off when you told them he was on his way?"

Yuri sighed. "Because… He'd drag us back to the city if he knew we were here. And I'm not leaving until I find Sora," she replied. Crow looked at her in surprise.

"Why would you pretend to be a duel gang? It's not exactly a playground over here," he wondered. Yuri shrugged.

"The duel gang was Chinaku's idea. Kuro went along with it, which is kinda odd, considering the fact that the two of them don't get along well. Aikibo… well, he has a habit of not caring. And then there was me. I thought it was a dumb idea, but when Chinaku and Kuro start cooperating on something, I tend to be forgotten. Easily," she told him. Then she frowned.

"Something wrong?" Crow asked. Yuri sighed.

"Come on. I still don't want Errol to find me, and I've got a feeling he's headed this way," she said, walking off. Crow frowned and followed her.

"You realize that if you hurt me, my team's gonna come down on your head, right?" he asked. Yuri smiled.

"Relax. I wouldn't hurt you even if I wanted to. I'm under orders, see," she replied. Crow crossed his arms.

"From who?" he asked.

"Sora."

"But I thought…"

Yuri sighed. "Every time she's shown up, it's been an astral projection. We know she's somewhere in Satellite, but until we find her, we can't bring her home," she told him. "She told us not to hurt you guys though."

Crow sighed. "Why would she do that?" he asked. Yuri shrugged.

"Dunno, honestly. But, shouldn't you be heading back?" she prompted. Crow frowned.

"Yeah, I should, but… I kinda have to find Shadow," he told her. "She ran off crying earlier, and I'm worried about her."

Yuri crossed her arms. "You know of any projects she's been working on recently? Because it's been my experience that people tend to work on whatever when they feel they need to wind down a little. Sora had a habit of working on our duel boards whenever she was stressed," she said. Crow smiled.

"Thanks, Yuri. I think I know exactly where she is now," he told her. Yuri smiled.

"Your welcome. I'll see you around, maybe. If we can stay out of Errol's hands for a couple nights while we try to find someplace to relocate to," she said, turning to walk away. Crow reached out and caught her sleeve.

"There's an abandoned theater in Sector 7 that we just cleared out yesterday. It's pretty big, and there are plenty of places to hide if need be," he told her. She smiled again.

"Thanks. I'll definitely look into it," she told him. Crow let go of her sleeve and she ran off, while he headed for the garage where Shadow was keeping the duel runners.

The door, thankfully, was unlocked as Crow stepped in. He smiled, once again thankful for Yuri's help.

"Hey. You doing alright?" he asked softly. Shadow shot a look over her shoulder at him, and it was obvious that she had still be crying recently.

"I could have killed him, Crow," she said, her voice shaky. Crow sighed and walked over to her, putting an arm around her shoulders.

"But you didn't. Yusei knew the risks, heck, we all do. You warned us repeatedly about what you could do if you lost control," he said. He turned Shadow's face so she was looking at him. "I'm not afraid of you, or your powers."

Shadow scoffed and pushed him away. "You say that now, but you'll be singing a very different tune when I've put you in a wheelchair," she growled. At the look on Crow's face, she turned away, putting the tool she had been working with down and hugging her knees.

Crow sighed again and sat next to her, just holding her gently, as if she might break any second. He couldn't find any words, so he didn't say anything.

It couldn't have been more than a few minutes later when Shadow sighed and shifted away from him. He let her go as she wiped her eyes and stood.

"Come on. We'd better get back before Kalin starts wondering about us," she prompted. Crow nodded and followed her as she locked up. It didn't take them long to get back to their base once they had.

Sure enough, Kalin and Jack were sitting at the kitchen table, waiting for them. Shadow sighed and refused to meet their eyes, trudging up the stairs to her room.

Crow was about to follow her, but Kalin's voice calling his name stopped him in his tracks. He sighed and turned to go into the kitchen. Jack's arms were crossed, while Kalin looked plain uncomfortable.

"We received a visitor while you were gone," Jack stated. Kalin sighed.

"It seems Team Mithril is… Well… I'd say disbanding, but the four of them are friends, so they're probably going to stick together anyway," he added. Crow tilted his head to the side.

"Who…?" he trailed off.

"Chinaku. She also asked after Yuri, but since we haven't seen her," Kalin replied. Crow chuckled.

"Interesting, considering I spent a good half an hour just standing around talking to her. You realize all four of them are from the city, right?" he said. Jack looked up in surprise.

"What? Since when?" he asked. Crow shrugged.

"They're here looking for a friend of theirs. And that Security Officer they were avoiding, Kodai? He's their friend's dad," he explained. "Yuri said he'd have them sent right back to the city the moment he found out they were here, and they're really stubborn about finding the girl."

Jack's expression became dark. "What if it's Shadow?" he asked. Kalin's expression mirrored his, while Crow got a sinking feeling in his chest.

"You're right. She just showed up a few months ago with amnesia… If she is from the city, she wouldn't remember it. And a Security's daughter, even? What if she handed us over to her father the moment she remembered?" Kalin asked. Crow sighed.

"You really have no faith in her, do you?" he asked. "Shadow's our friend. Something tells me she wouldn't turn on us so easily."

Jack sighed. "She wouldn't. But if Shadow is the girl these kids and that officer are looking for, we could well be arrested for kidnapping. You know as well as I do how Security is," he said. Crow sighed.

"Yeah, I know," he admitted. Kalin sighed.

"What are we going to do?" he asked. Crow crossed his arms.

"Nothing. We're going to act like nothing's wrong. We'll tip people off, otherwise," he said a moment later. "And we're going to wait for Shadow to get her memories back. We won't know any of this for sure until she does."

Kairi: Okay, so it took me a couple of days to get this up... Oops. Oh well, it's up, and relatively close to on time, so no grumbling. And if the last chapter confused you, good. It was supposed it.