In the shadow of an alley near the Public Security Maintenance Bureau building, Crow stuck out half his head and watched the officer standing guard at the entrance.
Night had already fallen, and the streetlamps cast pools of dim yellow light.
He waited for a while, seemingly calculating the timing.
"Hey, pig! Looks like you've got a lot of free time!"
Judging that the moment was right, Crow suddenly sprang out from the mouth of the alley, stopping at what was probably a safe enough distance. He shouted at the young security officer standing at the entrance—sturdy, uniformed, and wearing a stiff expression—with all the provocation he could pack into his voice.
The young officer, who had just been about to change shifts, whipped around at once, eyes blazing.
From farther away, hidden in a darker corner, Dio—already dressed in the ill-fitting security uniform and wearing the helmet—glanced over. Even with the distortion of two-dimensional anime becoming three-dimensional reality, wasn't that Ushio?
Back at this point in time, he still looked like a hot-blooded rookie.
"So it's you again, you filthy crow! You just got released and already want to go right back to jail?!"
Ushio clearly recognized Crow, and he roared in fury.
"Hah? Really?" Crow made an exaggerated gesture. "Weren't the injuries I gave you last time not even fully healed yet? You're that slow, and you think you can catch me?"
He mocked him with everything he had, then spun around and ran, not forgetting to turn back and make a face.
"You little trash! Get back here!"
Ushio's anger exploded completely. Without a second thought, he broke into a run after Crow, totally forgetting that he had still been on guard duty.
His figure quickly disappeared around the corner of the street.
Dio stared at the now-empty entrance to the security building, momentarily speechless.
Sure, they had timed this to hit right around the end of a shift, but this was negligent even by generous standards.
Silently roasting the place in his head, Dio quickly tightened his helmet, took out the keycard Crow had given him, and swiped it across the reader by the side entrance.
The green light came on, and the lock gave a faint click.
He pushed the door open and slipped inside.
The inside of the Public Security building was far better than anything in Satellite. It honestly did not look like it belonged to the same world at all.
He had only taken a few steps into the lobby when a man in the same uniform turned out of the nearby hallway, an unlit cigarette hanging from his mouth.
"Oh, Ushio? Off guard duty already?"
The man greeted him casually, then reached into his pocket and tossed something over.
"Today's reward for dealing with that duel gang came in. Here—your share."
Dio caught the small object on instinct. Looking down, he saw it was a card wrapped in a simple transparent sleeve.
Genex Controller.
His heart skipped for a second, but his reaction was fast. He just lowered his voice, gave a vague "Mm," and nodded as if acknowledging it.
The man did not pay it any special attention. He waved a hand, turned, and walked off in another direction, muttering under his breath,
"More useless trash cards..."
Thanks to that little incident, Dio immediately understood:
Crow had timed the shift change exactly so he could slip in during the handoff window. And by sheer luck, he had even ended up with an extra card that helped sell the disguise.
It looked useless to those security officers, but Dio knew better. Normal Monsters, after all, were very easy to Special Summon.
Now all that remained was to find the storeroom and recover the cards.
Honestly, infiltrating a law-enforcement facility like this, Dio had expected at least some difficulty. Some danger.
And yet...
It was easy.
Ridiculously easy.
The building's management was slacker than he could have imagined.
Uniformed personnel occasionally hurried past, but almost no one gave him a second look.
Even when someone's gaze landed on him, it moved away almost immediately.
Following the faded signs on the wall, he found the staircase leading to the second floor with no trouble at all.
The whole way had been completely unobstructed.
In fact, when he finally stood in front of the heavy metal door marked Storage Room Two, keycard in hand, nervously swiping it—
A voice suddenly sounded from behind him.
"Hey, you. What are you doing at the storeroom?"
Dio's heart jumped violently, and cold sweat broke out across his back.
Forcing himself to stay calm, he turned around and saw a drunk security officer staring at him in confusion.
"Getting some cards."
Damn it, why did I just say that out loud?
He had assumed the man would press him further, maybe ask for authorization.
Instead, the officer merely sneered, his face openly contemptuous.
"You've got your eye on those junk cards confiscated from the trash heaps? How pathetic."
After saying that, he just shook his head and walked off, apparently too lazy to bother sticking his nose into it any further.
Dio stood there for a moment, full of complicated feelings.
This police station really is rotten to the core.
He wasted no more time, yanked open the storeroom door, and slipped inside.
There were quite a few cardboard boxes and odds and ends stacked inside.
Using the light from the doorway, he quickly spotted the familiar card box.
...
"Oh, you're back, Dio!"
When Dio returned to the ransacked shack with the card box in hand, Crow happened to be coming back as well. He was wiping sweat off his forehead with his sleeve, and it looked like he had gone through quite a bit to shake Ushio off.
"Well? Did it go smoothly?"
Dio set the box down on the floor and nodded.
"It was easier than a rat coming home after going out to look for food."
Crow blinked, then burst out laughing.
"What a bizarre metaphor. Still, as long as it worked, that's what matters! Looks like our gear and our plan really paid off!"
But before Crow's smile could fully unfold, a smug, blustering voice came in from the doorway:
"Really? Because that might be the last metaphor you ever make in your life!"
Dio and Crow both turned toward the entrance.
The way they turned at the exact same moment, their eyes locking onto the doorway all at once, looked rather unsettling in the dim room. It actually startled the man standing there in front, and he instinctively took half a step back.
Two people stood in the doorway.
One of them was the underling who had gone crying to the Gear Gang boss earlier—Daigorō.
And the one behind him, face flushed red from both running and rage, glaring viciously at Crow and Dio—
Was none other than Ushio Tetsu, the man they had lured away earlier.
"D-don't get cocky!" Daigorō forced himself to steady his footing and raised his voice with fake bravado. "I-I'm not afraid of you two! Because this time I brought an officer with me!"
He stepped aside, and Ushio moved forward.
A brightly painted D-Wheel had been driven right up to the shack's front door, its headlights glaring into the room and illuminating the wreckage inside.
"That's right! Crow, this time you're not getting away!"
Ushio got off the D-Wheel, pointed at Crow, then swept his gaze across the room.
"And this illegal gathering place of yours too—we've caught you red-handed!"
"Well then, if that's how it is, we've got no choice!"
Crow immediately raised his Duel Disk, battle spirit blazing.
"Let's duel! We'll settle it with a duel!"
"I have no interest in small fry!"
With a single sentence, Ushio completely stunned Crow.
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