Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ The Red Avenger ❯ Cases Closed ( Chapter 5 )

After weeping for the only life he ever took, the man in red will continue his journey to discover himself.

"Honda, the guy was a bastard, a low-life, the lowest of the low, even, and I should know. Don't beat yourself up over that moron!"

"I can't, dammit! You don't know what it's like having to live with the fact you just killed someone in cold blood! Even if it is someone as bad as your father, Jou!"

They had been through this several times today. In fact, Jounouchi, as much as Honda meant something to him, which was more than he could say for most humans out there, was getting very annoyed with that brown-haired best friend of his. Fortunately, it was saturday, so he still had tomorrow to work on getting Honda to come out of his room. Unfortunately, Honda didn't want to go out. In fact, Jounouchi heard that Honda would never come out of his room, or at least, that's what he thought Honda said.

"Stop sobbing, you ass, and come out of here already."

"I can't. I can't face the world. Not now."

"Come on, Honda, man, this is not like you!"

"I don't care!"

"Fine!"

And Jounouchi stormed off, not wanting to get into a scuffle with his friend.

On monday, Honda still had not reappeared in front of their friends' eyes, and coverage on the Red Avenger stopped, mainly because there was no more Red Avenger. Talk of who the Red Avenger was had been replaced with talk of where in the nine hells was Honda.

"Maybe he's sick?" said Anzu, just to start the conversation.

"If that was the case, then Jounouchi would know about it, he was with him on saturday." answered Yugi.

In turn, they all turn to Jounouchi, who seemed exasperated to have to answer for his friend.

"No, I don't know why he isn't here. Not like I haven't said this a million times today!"

Which was a blatant lie, of course, but no one except Honda, Jou and maybe Honda's motorcycle, knew that.

"Why don't we go and visit him then?" asked Yugi.

"Sure, I guess. Can't hurt, right?"

They all walked towards Honda's home, hoping to know what's wrong with their friend, and, if possible, fix it. Although no one knew why, over the course of the walk, Jou seemed to smirk a little.

Finally, the hero, the love interest, and the comic relief sidekick finally arrived at the villain's house, hoping to cnofront him about his non-presence at school.

Yugi, atop his short stature, rang the doorbell to have Honda's mother answer the door.

"Uh...hi! We're Honda's friends!" said Yugi, in a friendly manner, yet however, not fully thinking about what to say.

"I know you are, but what are you doing here?"

"Honda didn't show up at school today, we wanted to know if anything was wrong."

"He didn't!? Why, he took his CRX right this morning to go to school! Oh...when he comes back, he'd better have a good explanation!"

"Thank you!"

She closed the door rather aggressively.

"Where could he have gone?" Anzu wondered.

"Well, at least he got out of his room." Jou muttered, albeit too loud, as the others heard.

Anzu and Yugi both turned around to look strangely at their friend called Jounouchi.

"What do you mean by that?" spoke Anzu, with a hint of "Pray tell why you didn't say this earlier, dingus!?" in her voice.

"Nothin'"

"Oh really!? You're hiding something from us, Jou!"

Jounouchi smirked even harder.

"Yeah, that my father died two nights ago."

Anzu, who was angry, fell into sobs quite fast.

"Oh...Jou...I'm so sorry...you have my condoleances..."

Jou began to laugh insanely at Anzu, and gave her a neatly cut, neatly folded newspaper article. Anzu unfolded it carefully, and read it out loud.

"The Red Avenger strikes again - One dead. On the corner of fifth and third, Goro Jounouchi, father of Katsuya Jounouchi, 2nd in the Duelist Kingdom competition and a finalist in the Kaibacorp sponsored Battle City Tournament, was murdered by the one believed to be the Red Avenger. So far, there are no eyewitnesses to the actual crime, but many have called the police to signal the presence of the Red Avenger. Each of the Red Avenger's victims were unknown child beaters, so it is unknown if Goro Jounouchi was one as well..."

She stopped reading and looked over to Jounouchi, tall, strong, no one would have ever guessed. Anzu then wrapped her arms around our blond moron and began to sob, saying she was sorry, oh so sorry, you can't be sorrier than her.

Jou didn't seem to care, so he continued on home, not looking at Anzu until she let go of him.

Of course, the apartment was empty, especially since what Jou had once called the sack of shit, was dead.

Instead of feeling bad about himself in an empty apartment, he went on to take another walk, just to look at various buildings and such. We'll let Jounouchi go on his walk, and turn our gaze to Honda. In order to know what he has been, let us take a voyage in his mind for a bit.

I killed a man today...or was it yesterday, or two days ago.

Time's pretty much a blur right now, all I know is that now, we're night, and that I was supposed to be in school this morning, but I ditched in order to get my sorry ass to a psychologist.

Jou was right, this wasn't like me. I'm not one to get myself down just 'cause something unexpected happen. Hell, half the time, I'm the cause of the unexpected twists in life, Jou's the other half.

Still, I killed someone. I'm over the whole sentimental shit that comes with that, but I'm still surprised by it. I mean, I, Hiroto Honda, beat someone to death. In three different areas of the human body too. Just the realization that I can do that definitely makes my whole fighting urge die down a bit. Before that, I didn't realize that even if the other was someone who deserved it, I was still punching and kicking a human being.

Child beater or no, their guts are still the same when you slash them open. Yeah, that's what I meant.

Anyway, damn that psychologist. I can understand that he's bound to secrecy and can't be counted as a witness in court, but still, it's unnerving that someone else other than Jou and I knows about it. I mean, I've managed to escape the police for so long that it's almost sickening.

As much as it's cool that the police don't seem to hound me like a wild and enraged animal, it's unnerving that they haven't caught me yet.

Bah, I shouldn't bother myself with that...I just don't know how to face Jounouchi though.

Jounouchi was walking around town when he spotted the famed Honda CRX-700, also known as the Red Avenger's motorcycle, and less famously known as Honda's bike. He looked around, trying to spot either a brown trenchcoat wearing Honda, or a Honda wearing a bike helmet and a red leather jacket.

He found nothing of the sort, as the only thing he saw was a brown haired guy wearing a t-shirt and jeans. Then it dawned upon him like a sack of bricks. Honda had ditched all sorts of coats and was just slouching over the bridge, looking on the horizon.

Jou wanted two things, to know if Honda was all right, and to run up to his friend and let him know he was there. Of course, as that second desire was currently closeted behind a flustered mini-Celtic Guardian inside Jou's mind, Jou only stepped up to the plate.

"Honda...are you okay?"

Honda turned his head slightly, and looked at Jounouchi, smirking.

"BUSTAH WOLF!"

Jou knew that his friend was back.

It's hard writing an dark emotion-filled scene with "Night of Fire" from Initial D playing in the background at HIGH VOLUME!

And the Robocop Theme too.

Yes, I'm just wasting space now. But yes, Jou's father's name was made up. I seriously had no idea, so I just took it off Goro Daimon, lovable father and judo master of KoF, or actor in Kill Bill.

As far as that last bit goes, well, just ignore that, really, it's a Garou : Mark of the Wolves reference.