Underground Pulse Chapter 4

Underground Pulse Chapter 4 - A Yu-Gi-Oh 5DGX Story</I>

It had been a day since Judai had seen Yusei. Judai was lying on the mattress which laid on the floor of the one floor apartment he shared with a friend. Judai and his friend weren't exactly the richest of people either so they couldn't afford the luxuries of an actual bed frame. "I don't know what to do here... I don't even have enough money to pay him properly for his work. I guess I could just take out what I can afford to give to him... maybe that will get that "Jack" person off of his back a bit about the whole situation." Judai thought. He rolled onto his right side and reached over to the dresser drawer he had beside his mattress. Opening it he reached in and grabbed a pile of cash. He counted and thought about what he needed and what he could give up to Yusei. In the end he had $100 to give to him. Judai sighed; "Well I guess this will have to do for now. If I enter that race and win the grand prize is $500. So if Yusei does get my bike fixed by then then I could give him some money out of that winning too. I just hope I can win... no there is no hoping I have to win. I can't loose this race I'm running out of cash." shaking his head out of his thoughts he walked out of his room and looked through his cell phone to find a friend to call for a ride over to Yusei's. After rifling through enough of his contacts and making numerous calls Shane had agreed to give him a ride to the town over. He drove up to Judai on his motorcycle which was what people would call a "crotch rocket" and screeched to a halt.

"Hey thanks for the ride Shane." Judai said as he got on the back of the bike.

"Not a problem Judai where ya headed to?"

"Next town over. Gotta go see Yusei again to see how he's doing with my bike."

"Ah so your going to see your mechanic friend?"

"Yeah he said he could finish my bike in time for the race coming up this week."

"Wait... the race. Isn't that on Friday?"

"Yeah..."

"That's only 2 days away. Are you sure this guy can fix your bike by then?"

Judai shrugged; "I unno only one way to find out."

"Yeah I'll drive you on over so you can see. Here we go." Judai nodded as Shane revved and took off towards the next town over.

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Yusei sighed as he continued to make adjustments to Judai's D-Wheel. He grabbed a wrench and started tightening some parts. "I think I might have bitten off more than I can chew here..." he thought while lying under the bike. He let out a held in breath of air and slide out from beneath the bike, sitting up he then wiped his sweaty forehead with the back of his hand. He stood up to look over his work that he had completed so far. The bike was looking good he could admit that to himself and to any inexperienced person that didn't know anything about building a D-Wheel they would think that the project was almost done. However Yusei knew that was far from the truth, though the body looked good and that you could just paint it right there and then there was still much more that needed to be done. Safety had to be taken into consideration so multiple check overs would be required, even after you had painted the bike there was still things that needed to be looked over and added. Yes it was going to be a long 2 days. Or rather it was going to be a long night. Yusei knew that Judai would have to be coming over today as he hadn't been over in quite some time and he still had to finish riding lessons with him. Yusei had to admit that Judai was a quick learner though and that his riding skills had improved dramatically. Yusei still had to show Judai how to riding duel as well and give him a test run of that along with re-building a deck. Assuming Judai just used an average dueling deck that would definitely not cut it in a riding duel since magic cards cannot be used but only speed spells. He heard the top door shut and steps were soon heard walking down the stairs he looked up to see Judai walking down. Judai looked over beside Yusei and smiled, probably noticing his bike.

"Woah Yusei! Is that my bike?!" Judai beamed rushing down the stairs as he spoke.

"Yeah. Do you want it the same color as your last bike? Red?" Yusei asked blatantly.

"Yeah that would be awesome!" Judai exclaimed. "Wow this is so exciting! I can't believe this! Looks like your almost done eh?"

"No. There is still much to be done I'm not even close." Judai's face dropped to disappointment and stared at the ground;

"Oh... I'm sorry. I didn't know."

"That's fine. But anyways we should continue on with your riding lessons you have to get one more set in at least before your race. You'll need to know how to handle the speed of your D-Wheel when I'm all done building it."

"Yeah..." Judai was silent for a minute looking at the ground but then suddenly shot up. "Wait wait! D-Wheel? Your making my bike into a D-Wheel?!" he frantically asked excited once more. Yusei nodded;

"Yeah I'll help you re-build your deck and I could teach you some of the ways of riding duel if you'd like?"

"Oh I'd love that teach!" Yusei was silent;

"Stop calling me that."

"Awe come on your no fun!" This struck a cord in Yusei making him flinch. There it was again. He was no fun. Crow had commented on how Yusei need to have more fun and as much as he hated to admit it the comment just kept on eating at him. He turned around to get his gloves off of Judai's work in process D-Wheel back now facing Judai. "Yusei..." Judai started. Yusei turned his head to look behind him to see what Judai wanted;

"Hmm?" he asked cocking an eyebrow. He saw Judai shift a hand into his jean's right hand pocket he then pulled something out of them and walked up to Yusei. He placed a large amount of paper into Yusei's newly gloved hands. Yusei looked down and inspecting further he saw that it was not just ordinary paper but various amounts of dollar bills. His eyes widened and he looked back to Judai with confusion. "What is this?" he asked though already knowing the answer.

"Look... I know it's not much but like you and your friends I'm not the richest person in the world either. After the tournament's over I'll give you more but for now that's all I can afford with rent and a phone bill to pay... luckily my food is covered by the underground ring."

"I thought I told you the job was free."

"You did... but I just had this feeling that you might be getting more hassle out of this than your letting on..."

"I told you this is something that I have to prove to myself. I don't want your money."

"Just take it. I won't take it back. Now cram that cash in your pocket and let's go for that ride okay?" Yusei sighed in defeat and did as he was told. He took his keys to his D-Wheel out of his back pocket and they both walked towards the familiar red and white designed Duel Runner. Judai threw a leg over the Duel Runner and sat down, Yusei was about to sit behind him until a voice was heard from the right upper staircase.

"Yusei I was just wondering do you think you could help-" a voice asked but soon stopped realizing someone other than Yusei was there. A burgundy haired woman stood at the top of the stairs looking down at Judai then to Yusei with questioning eyes.

"Oh man Yusei... I didn't realize you had a lady friend over! You could have just texted me and told me not to come." Judai said with a wink of his eye. The woman looking down upon Judai and Yusei from the staircase heard this and immediately her face turned red where as Yusei just called her down to introduce herself;

"Aki come on down here I'd like you to meet someone." The woman now known as Aki walked down the stairs unsure of the whole situation. She took slow steps uncertain of what to do.

"Hey there. Uh Aki was it? My name's Judai. Judai Yuki! Nice to meet cha! Sorry if I interrupted your day with Yusei. Man this is awkward... really I'm sorry. I didn't know Yusei had his girlfriend over..." Aki quickly turned away cheeks flushing once again currently at a loss for words.

"Judai Aki is just a friend. She visits like anyone else here and I sometimes help her with her physics homework." Yusei explained Aki looked back and formally introduced herself;

"Judai was it? Nice to meet you. My name is Aki Izayoi." Aki said as she extended a hand forward which Judai took and shook.

"Physics huh? Is that what you needed Yusei for? You know I was never a fan of physics myself with the little we had to do in Duel Academy but then again I never did do my homework... I really just wasn't a fan of homework in general."

"Is Judai right Aki? Is it your studies again?" Yusei asked the burgundy haired woman.

"Well..." Aki hesitated. "Yes but I see your busy... and I don't want to interrupt."

"Do you have your books? Judai you won't mind if I take a quick look at this do you?" Judai shook his head showing no problem as he waited for Yusei to be done helping Aki. Aki flipped her notebook over to her notes where she was struggling and handed a mechanical pencil to Yusei. Yusei scribbled a few equations down on the paper and then turned the notebook towards Aki explaining what he had done to find the answer.

"Do you think you've got it now Aki?" Aki nodded in approval;

"Thank you Yusei. And thank you Judai for letting him help me quickly." Aki said with a bow and then turned to the opposite direction of the room walking away.

"Okay now that that's taken care of shall we go for your last ride before your tournament?" Yusei asked. Judai was silent. Yusei walked up over to him waving a hand in front of his face Judai eventually shook his head coming out of his trance.

"Huh what?"

"Are you ready to go?" Yusei asked again.

"Oh yeah... for sure!" Yusei handed Judai the keys and he started the D-Wheel. Yusei walked to the back of the D-Wheel and sat down. Judai looked behind him to see if Yusei was safely on the D-Wheel and then with a quick rev roared out of the garage/storage area.

This ride was not like the others for Judai as Yusei put him through the toughest things possible. He made him do last minute turns, giving him no time to slow down or break in case he had to in the race. He distracted him by telling him to look in other directions when he didn't need to in case he heard something while racing in the tournament which would distract him from focusing on the race. Repeating these tasks over and over until Judai eventually learned to make the sharp corners and tune out Yusei's distractions. Yusei eventually tapped Judai's shoulder, but it took a couple times before Judai realized that Yusei was no longer testing him to look behind him. When he finally did Yusei told him that he could go back to the garage/storage area. Judai nodded and turned back to the front making his way back to the area. Once back at the storage/garage area Judai thanked Yusei for his last riding lesson, called Shane and walked up the stairs to leave Yusei to work on his Duel Runner.

The next day Yusei worked none stop on Judai's Duel Runner, with so much work to be done he knew that he would only be taking as many breaks as necessarily needed. He had barely got any work done last night since most of the day was spent helping Judai with his riding for the tournament. It was 6 o'clock in the morning, Yusei yawned as he rubbed his eyes grabbing his tools to continue working on the bike. A couple hours had passed and some steps were heard coming down the stairs from the upper part of the area where the bedrooms were held. A orange haired man yawned as he walked down the stairs. He looked over to the black haired boy who was now painting the Duel Runner red.

"Still working on that D-Wheel Yuse?" he asked stating the obvious.

"Yes." Yusei replied bluntly as he continued to work.

"Did you want me to make you something to eat?"

"No thank you Crow. I'll just eat some ramen noodles for dinner later on tonight." Yusei replied.

"Are you sure that's a good idea Yuse?" Crow questioned concerned for his black haired friend.

"I have no time to eat I'll be fine."

Crow just shook his head at his friend's remarks knowing that there was no changing his mind. Crow made himself some food and then went upstairs to inform his blonde haired friend Jack not to bother Yusei today.

6 o'clock in the afternoon had rolled around and Yusei's stomach growled signaling that he needed to eat something soon. He sighed getting up setting his tools down and made his way over to the cupboard to grab some instant noodles. He heated up some water and then poured the liquid over top of the noodles, sitting down at the table he then focused on eating while looking over at the unfinished D-Wheel. The mechanic sighed as he blew on a hot noodle. "Can I really do this...? Just when I thought I was almost done I looked over once more only to find major flaws in my design. I can't screw this up there is someone's life on the line... well more than one since he's racing against another person. I'll just have to pull an all nighter I suppose and hope for the best." Yusei thought. He slurped back the noodles and used his hands to lift himself from the table and walked over to the unfinished D-Wheel once again. He lowered the safety glasses which laid on top of his forehead and put them over his eyes to shield them from the welding he was about to commit to. Sweat dripped down the sides of his face and his safety glasses soon began to fog up. He let out a breath of air as he turned the torch off wiping his forehead with the back of his hand and taking off the foggy glasses, waving them in hopes to have them become transparent once more. The sun peaked through the little windows that were in the storage area signaling daybreak Yusei wondered what time it was but knew there was no time to be looking into frivolous things like that. He continued to work until he finally stood up sighing looking over the finished product once more. Footsteps were heard coming down from the steps which led to the outer door signaling someone was arriving.

"Yup it looks good." Yusei stated satisfied. His eyes showed major fatigue as they began to droop. Slow blinks were taken as Yusei tried to stay conscious. One could say he even felt a little woozy as he put a hand to his forehead to try to keep himself steady he was tired and hungry he hadn't eaten since 6 o'clock the night before after all.

"No way! Alright teach! You finished it!!" a voice shouted enthusiastically from behind Yusei. Yusei turned to the source knowing as soon as he heard the unpleasant nickname who was going to be behind him.

"Yup. It was touch and go for a while there but there you have it. I wish you luck in your race today."

"Don't just wish me luck! Your coming with!" Judai said.

"I'm coming with?"

"Heck yes! I want you to see me in action! But we better hurry I only have a half hour to get there!"

"What only a half an hour?"

"Yeah it's 12:30 the race starts at one so I hope you amped this thing for speed!"

Yusei was still trying to comprehend all of what was happening his brain was still out of it from all the thought he had put into working on the Duel Runner. Everything seemed to be moving slower in a blurry haze. Before he even knew what was going on Judai was dragging him over to his new D-Wheel and they were on their way to the tournament in the next town over.

Once arriving Judai and Yusei got off the Duel Runner. Judai walked the D-Wheel into the arena as Yusei followed behind him.

"Sorry Yusei this is where we have to part ways you'll have to go upstairs and cheer from the sidelines okay?" Judai said as he pointed to a staircase to where Yusei would have to go. Yusei nodded and made his way over to the staircase only thinking one thing;

"Man I hope they have food here..." he thought as he climbed up the stairs eyes drooping as he took each step slower and slower. People passed by him and some bumped him, some apologized while others told him to hurry up. He had finally made it to the outer circle of the arena in which Judai would be racing in. A horn was heard and the red light had turned green, a skimpily dressed girl in the center of the arena waved a checkered flag and the race had begun. Yusei leaned against the railing and soon found his head dropping, he struggled to keep it up trying to watch the race. Multiple rounds went by and the mechanic's stomach growled but since the arena was so loud he hadn't even noticed. Trying to stay coherent until the race was over was his number one priority right now. Finally the last round had been declared over and the winner was announced. The announcer went up to the racer and held up his right arm declaring victory while the skimpily dressed girl handed the rider a gold cup filled with cash. Yusei squinted down into the arena to see who the rider was and saw a orange splotch, he looked down to the riders face to see a beaming Judai who's smile lit up the room. Yusei smirked to himself; "Good job kid..." he thought as his head lowered once more, shutting his eyes. A loud horn was heard and startled Yusei waking him up, he looked around to see the arena mostly cleared only a few stragglers remained. He stood up stretching as he made his way down the stairs; "Must have drifted off for a moment there..."

"Yusei!" a voice called. Yusei tilted his head towards the direction of the voice only to see a huge swarm of people. He walked over the crowd to see Judai in the middle of it. "Hey did you see? I won!"

"Yeah congratulations!" Yusei yelled back trying to get his voice to reach Judai through the crowd of people.

"You'll have to come over to my place we're throwing a huge celebratory party!"

"I don't know if I should..."

"Awe come on teach! Without you I wouldn't have won this tournament or been able to enter at all!" Judai tore his way through the crowd over to Yusei and grabbed his arm dragging him into the crowd. "You guys this is my riding instructor and mechanic Yusei Fudo! Three cheers for Yusei everyone come on now!" The crowd roared cheering Yusei's name.

"Alright let's go and get this party started!" someone yelled.

"Yeah does Johan have the booze?" Judai yelled to Shane.

"When does Johan never have the booze?" Shane yelled back.

"True enough, that party nut is why I have to call on you for rides he's always hung over. I swear I need to find a better roommate! Come on Yusei my house is just across the street we can walk on over!" Judai yelled as he grabbed a hold of Yusei's arm dragging him through the crowd.

"Judai really I don't think this is a good-" Yusei started but soon got interrupted by everyone's cheering of "Woo! Party time!" Soon the one floor apartment had become filled with people and more and more people entered into the tiny space leaving barely and room to move. The more people that entered the more alcohol that was brought into the area. Yusei just kept hoping that someone would bring some food, but of course no food would be brought. The closest thing to food he was going to get was some whipped cream flavored vodka.

"Three cheers for Judai!" someone yelled from across the room. People cheered hipping and hooraying and then soon cheering Judai on to "Chug chug chug". Yusei walked over to the other section of the room to see a homemade beer bong as party attendees poured beer down the funnel leading straight into Judai's mouth. Yusei could tell that things were going to head down a bad path fast tonight. Yusei walked into the area pulling Judai aside after they were finished with the funnel;

"Look I'm going to go..." Yusei whispered to Judai.

"What? But why?"

"It's getting late... and I have to get back..." "And I want to leave before you do something you'll regret..." Yusei thought.

"How are you getting back? I took you here on the D-Wheel you built for me." Yusei looked puzzled at Judai, had he? Everything was such a blur back then. "Look your welcome to stay the night here."

"Yeah okay... thanks..." "Like I have any other choice..." Yusei thought.

The night progressed on with people drinking more and more. Judai was pretty much floating with how much he had consumed and he was an absolute giddy mess. Yusei had found a nice spot on a chesterfield and continued to sit there resting his head against the back part of it nodding off, only to find Judai to jump right beside him on the cushions.

"Yuseiiiiiiiiiiii come on let's go play a... a... a... what was I going to say?" Yusei sighed knowing all too well that the kid was going to get plastered tonight;

"I don't know what you were going to say Judai."

"Hey hey hey... you you want some of this?" Judai asked as he waved a bottle of green liquid in his hand.

"No I don't. And I don't think you need anymore either Judai." Yusei stated reaching over to his hand snatching away the substance. Yusei looked at the label reading it; "Sourpuss... nice... this stuff does taste awesome... but that would spell disaster for Judai if he had anymore." Yusei thought.

"Heyyy give it back!" Judai slurred. "Yusei give me back my, my alcohol! Johannnn Yusei took my booze!" Judai complained. The blue haired boy across the room laughed at Judai's antics. Yusei rolled his eyes seeing that the boy was completing ignoring to help him to control Judai. Yusei continued to look at the bottle; "You you want some don't you?" Judai asked. Yusei stayed silent. "Come on it won't hurt just a little bit!" But it really would hurt, what Judai didn't know was that Yusei was on an empty stomach and an empty stomach plus little alcohol equaled a more lightweight Yusei. Like any other normal human being drinking on an empty stomach would just spell disaster. Yusei reached over to the glass coffee table beside him and set the bottle down;

"No I don't need the stuff." Yusei said to Judai. Judai inched closer to Yusei on the couch hovering over top of him; "What... what are you doin-" Yusei asked being cut off by Judai reaching over to the bottle of sourpuss.

"But you wanttt ittt...." Judai said as he twirled the cap off of the bottle with his hand. Yusei panicked thinking Judai was going to consume more of the liquid and quickly opened his mouth to retort;

"Judai I thought I told you that you didn't need any-" he started only to get interrupted by Judai pouring the green substance down his throat. He tried to swallow the substance with great difficulty, choking and coughing as he did so. His stomach burned as the alcohol made it's way down, Yusei grimaced that's what he always hated about alcohol... it felt good at first going down but eventually just burnt. His head got a wild tingly rush and he looked over at Judai to see the bottle was now empty. He had remembered the bottle being at least half full if not a bit more. "Oh great..." Yusei thought. "Judai are you trying to kill me?!" Yusei yelled at the teen.

"No... I was just trying to help youuu you wanted some but but-" Judai stopped in mid sentence as someone yelled out "Who wants to play stacks?!" "I do! Me and Yusei do!" Judai yelled back volunteering Yusei to play and dragged him off the couch.

"Wait. What? Stacks? What is that? Judai! Judai!" Yusei yelled at the boy as he dragged him over to the table where the person had yelled from.

"Now does everyone know how the game works?" The person who had yelled about the game asked everyone. Everyone nodded in agreement except for Yusei but the person hadn't seemed to notice and just began the game only saying one thing; "Now normally you use beer cups and beer but tonight I thought we'd use these tall shot glasses and this whipped cream vodka."

"This does not sound good..." Yusei thought. The game began and the person hosting said game took a tall plastic shot glass and set it on the table, he then grabbed two tiddly winks and passed them over to Judai.

"Champ can have the honors of going first." he said. Judai nodded grabbing a hold of one of the tiddly winks and then pushing down onto the other, it flying right past the shot glass.

"Awe man I missed!" Judai griped. As the man then passed the cup onto Yusei. Yusei had no idea what he was doing he took the tidily wink from Judai's shaky hand and slide the other one in front of him trying to figure out what the point of this game was. He pushed down on the other plastic disc and the circle went flying into the tall plastic shot glass. Everyone at the table cheered and Yusei looked around puzzled at what had happened. Was this a good thing he had just done? This was the point of the game? To get a cheap plastic circle into a plastic shot glass? Well that seemed quite pointless. The host then took the shot glass and tipped it over so the tidily wink fell out of the glass, he then poured some whipped cream vodka into the glass and passed it over to Yusei.

"Now I get it..." Yusei thought as he took the glass and threw back the vodka passing the glass back over to the host. Only to Yusei's surprise the game had a new element added to it: another shot glass. Apparently as the game went on the more and more people who made the shot the taller the stack of glasses got. Soon the stack was at 5 and it didn't matter if the person playing had made the shot anyways you would always have to at least have one shot. If you made the shot you had to drink the full stack which was piled. If you didn't make the shot you just had to drink one shot which is what Yusei was aiming to do. However sometimes the tidily wink just went in out of shear bad luck and he was stuck drinking the full stack. Throughout the night a different kind of smell was added to the air as drugs were now added to the party scene... Yusei now knew why the races were called "Underground." He looked over to the left side of the table to see that Judai had finally passed out, it seemed as though that was the only way to get out of the game. Yusei himself was surprised that he hadn't passed out himself yet, his quick power nap at the arena must have helped him more than he knew.

Eventually he had woken up to see himself on the floor, drool escaping his mouth he looked down to see the a drool stain on the carpet. "Well that's attractive..." he thought as he used his hands to lift himself off of the ground, his head heavy. He looked around holding his head as it pounded, struggling to keep himself from falling back onto the floor. It seemed as though it was a wasteland of bodies sleeping on the ground around him. He then heard a violent retch from another room and discovered that he wasn't the first one awake. He struggled to stand as he tip-toed around the bodies that layed everywhere to the source of the sound to see who was up. He peered into the doorway to see a orange and brown haired Judai retching into a toilet. He walked on as the boy began to dry heave mumbling to himself "Kid must have a weak stomach..." as he walked out of the house for some fresh air. He saw a rock outside which was perfect level to sit on and made his way there sitting and rubbing his temples. All of a sudden his forehead began to sweat profusely and he felt horrible. He quickly turned his head to the side as he then violently retched as liquid left his mouth. He went back to looking down at the ground in front of him and groaned at his headache. "At least I'm not hungry anymore..." the mechanic thought as he set his head against the right palm of his hand.