10 Words Part IV

by Mahayana

#3 - Innocence: They scrounge up enough money to send Kiryu to Peru. Yusei doesn't think it's a good idea. He suggests Cuba, or Brazil, places as far away from the geoglyphs as possible. But they can't afford to fly him anywhere else. Peru is so cheap and Kiryu wants to go. The day before Jack, Crow, and Yusei move into their new garage, they see Kiryu off at the Neo Domino City airport. They clasp hands like brothers, but Yusei can tell something is off. Kiryu's not acting right. He's gotten paler, and quieter. Kiryu always had something to say, before, when they were Team Satisfaction. And even after that, as a Dark Signer, Yusei could still see traces of their old leader in him. The fire still burned bright in his eyes back then, even if it was the violet inferno of madness. But this Kiryu…

"Take care of yourself," Yusei forces Kiryu's eyes to meet his own, holds his gaze steady until he's sure Kiryu understands.

"What? You doubting my skills to kick ass here?" Kiryu jokes, because he knows Yusei won't let him go without some form of reassurance.

"That's what I'm afraid of," Yusei laughs.

"You have our contact information anyway. Keep in touch, yeah?" Crow clasps him on the shoulder, and Kiryu can't hide his wince. Crow pretends not to notice, and goes for a shoulder-punch for good measure. "Here you are, traveling the world while we're stuck working part-time jobs."

"You will do well in the WRGP," Kiryu assures him. "Go and kick those pampered Neo Domino-native's asses. They won't know what hit them."

"Hmph. Of course." Jack keeps his arms crossed. They already clasped arms, but Kiryu can't get behind the sentiment. He still feels like the broken fourth wheel on what used to be a well-oiled machine. They don't need him anymore, he can see that. He feels relieved to leave.

x x x x

Boarding the plane feels strange. He's never been outside of Neo Domino before. And now he's flying across the ocean, trying to outrun his nightmares. He wonders if he IS crazy, flying to the exact place where all his nightmares started. Maybe he can bury them there. That's what he hopes. But when the stewardess shakes him awake, telling him that his screaming is disturbing the other passengers, he knows. He's only being toyed with again. He's flying toward the Giant God like a moth to a flame thinking it has found daylight. Halfway through the flight he changes his mind. He wants to go back. Shit, he wants to go back to Satellite and bury himself in Satellite until nobody can dig him out again. He's terrified. The plastic of his arm rest creaks from the force of his grip on it. He can feel the memories looming over him. Is this what Yusei felt? When Ccapac Apu's giant, gnarled hand was plummeting towards him? He storms from his seat and locks himself in the passenger bathroom. Oh god, he's going to remember. He hyperventilates. His own face stares back at him from the small bathroom mirror. His fist shoots towards it without thinking, but the mirror doesn't break. It's fuckin' plastic. He gasps out a laugh. This situation is too ridiculous. What the fuck was the thinking going to Peru? A few minutes later he's calm enough to splash cold water on his face. He finger-combs his hair for good measure. Before he twists the door open, he takes one, last, deep breath. Okay. He can do this. He's dealt with worse in prison. He's dealt with worse growing up. Look at him here, being afraid of his own dreams like a five year old. On his way back to his seat he asks the stewardess to bring him a beer. He's gotta have something to keep him occupied.

x x x x

Oddly enough, once he lands in Peru, Kiryu's nightmares stop. He doesn't dream at all, in fact. His sleeping hours are calm and restful. No more memories surface. He spends half his time making friends with the locals, and the other half waiting for the other shoe to drop. This must be too good to be true. Crossing a border should not solve all your problems. But here he is, taking a nap at a roadside pit stop in the shade of a large rock, watching small lizards skitter across the ground. And nothing bad is happening. Kiryu feels great. The feeling makes him edgy, but a vague sense of hope still creeps in.

The old man running the gas station joins him outside with a bottle of beer and one glass, which he shares with Kiryu. They play dice, and make conversation in broken Spanish. Kiryu has to use his dictionary more than once, but he figures out that the man's offering to let him sleep in his shed for the night. The man's wife feeds him dinner, and as a return Kiryu helps the old man fix some piping in his house.

As he's lying on the dusty futon that night, counting the knots in the wood planks by his head, he wonders if he should go see the geoglyphs. He's not afraid of this country. His instincts aren't telling him to run. He looks at his forearm in the darkness of the shed and wonders. Would the geoglyphs make him remember? His memories of his time as a Dark Signer are more solid now. He remembers why he died, he remembers hating Yusei and sitting around in a dark chamber a lot. He only recalls flashes of his battles with Yusei, but the memory of Yusei's bike failing to the asphalt a split second before Ccapac Apu's giant hand crushes him makes Kiryu sick. The residual feeling of elation at the thought of Yusei's death brings bile to his throat. He can't believe that was him. He would never do such a thing to a friend. Not even to one he thought had sold him out. But reality says otherwise. Kiryu covers his eyes with the heels of his hands and tries to sort himself out. Ok. So maybe going to see the geoglyphs is a bad idea. But fuck. He needs closure. He can't leave Peru without confronting what scares him the most. He decides to go.

Author's Notes:

Why did this take so long to write? Because 5D's geography makes no bloody sense. Everyone keeps going to Peru, casually, like it's hey right over there. Let's go on our motorcycles! WHY WRITERS? WHY? I considered natural disasters that mysteriously brought the continents closer together, and underwater, deep-sea tunnels which made cross-continental travel accessible on motorized vehicles. I also considered Neo Domino City NOT being in Japan, which is most likely just not true.

Finally I settled on… "it's cheap to fly to." Ah yes, simplicity. Still doesn't solve where Crash Town is (Mexico or Texas? Texas I think?), how everybody magically speaks Japanese (oh television, you always do this to me), and how Kiryu presumably has a passport when he's legally dead and a criminal. (He sure as heck won't be flying into the US with a marker like that.)

You know what really makes you feel stupid? Spending an hour googling for world maps that show up in 5D's. ^^; I think I'm overthinking this…

I not-so-subtly yoinked these prompts from someone else's prompts list, who claimed they came from the 10iloveyou community on Livejournal, as the "Mystic" set. Oh crap, "10iloveyou"? Was I supposed to write romance? Whoops.