# Chapter 102: Orphans of the Satellite
"Who?" Kaito looked warily in the direction of the sound. A small dark shadow was startled and fled deeper into the alley.
But shortly after, the sound of something collapsing was heard, followed by a tender wail.
The three quickly rushed over and saw in that alley, beneath a pile of collapsed garbage, a disheveled little boy with his right leg pinned, sobbing softly.
Seeing the three of them, the little boy panicked and quickly explained, "I wasn't intentionally peeking at you…"
After Yūga Hōzumi and Kaito moved the garbage pinning the boy, Serena knelt down and carefully examined his injury.
Seeing that the boy was not seriously hurt, having only a minor scratch, Serena helped him up and asked, "It's dangerous to wander around alone so late. Where are your parents?"
"Are… are you the people from TV just now? D-Wheelers like Crow?" After confirming Yūga Hōzumi and the others had no ill intent, the little boy became very excited and asked curiously.
"That's right." Yūga Hōzumi nodded. "Where's your home? We'll take you back. It's very dangerous to wander around alone so late."
"Crow and Yuya were taken away by Security," the little boy said. "The food he left is almost gone. If I don't go out to find something to eat, my younger siblings will go hungry tomorrow."
"Has this city fallen to such a state?" Kaito frowned upon hearing this. Before the war began, Heartland City had never had children who needed to scavenge through garbage to fill their stomachs. Even an orphan whose parents had both died, Heartland City had a sound social welfare system to ensure that child could grow up healthily.
Serena took out two rice balls prepared by Aunt Yuko from her pocket and handed them to the little boy. The little boy thanked her repeatedly after taking them, but after only a few small bites, he carefully tried to put the rice balls away.
"Is that all you're going to eat?" Yūga Hōzumi asked with a frown.
"It's enough," the little boy said seriously. "My younger siblings haven't eaten yet. I'm the oldest. Crow isn't here, so I have to take care of them."
"Don't try to be strong when you're still a kid yourself," Yūga Hōzumi said. "Eat both of these, and take us to where you live. We still have more food." After all, with the hamburgers and rice balls he had gotten from the prize draw recently, feeding a group of kids for a while would be no problem at all.
After the little boy thought it over carefully, he nodded. In his simple mind, people who were willing to help him and give him food surely weren't bad people.
Yūga Hōzumi lifted the little boy onto the back seat of the D-Wheel, and with his directions, the three soon arrived at a dilapidated yet eerily quiet courtyard. After the little boy jumped off the vehicle, he made a few strange dog-like sounds.
Then, several small heads poked out from various parts of the courtyard and slowly gathered.
"Frank," a little girl said timidly, "who are they? Didn't Crow tell us not to interact with strangers?"
"They seem to be the ones who beat up those bad guys from Security today," another slightly older child said.
"That's right!" Frank said. "Yūga Hōzumi, Kaito, and Serena are powerful Duelists, just like Crow!"
"And those very, very bad Security Officers couldn't do anything to them, either," another little boy said.
The children's thoughts were simple: the people from Security who usually swaggered around and had forcibly taken their caretaker Crow away were bad guys, so anyone who could make Security suffer a setback must be good people.
Yūga Hōzumi took out a few rice balls from the small storage compartment on the side of the D-Wheel and gave them to the children. After eating, the group of children and Yūga Hōzumi's trio grew closer.
The courtyard was somewhat cold at night. Yūga Hōzumi saw traces of a fire in the center of the courtyard and a large pile of firewood stacked in the corner, so he lit a bonfire.
Before long, the temperature in the courtyard rose. The children also brought out their quilts and thoughtfully prepared bedding for Yūga Hōzumi's trio.
Afterward, the children began playing with a pile of old cards.
"Serena," a moment later, a child holding a card tugged at Serena's sleeve, "how do you read this character?"
After Serena answered the child's question, she frowned and looked at Yūga Hōzumi, whispering, "They should be old enough for school by now, right?"
"I'm afraid the commoners of this city learn their most basic literacy and arithmetic by looking at Duel Monsters cards," Yūga Hōzumi said. "From our perspective, the most basic necessities like food and education are luxuries for the commoners of this dimension. It might be a bit better if their parents were still alive, but for orphans like them, simply surviving is already a struggle."
"Frank." Yūga Hōzumi called over the child from earlier, and after patting his head, asked, "Do you have any dreams?"
"I want to become the most powerful D-Wheeler in the world!" Frank said without a moment's thought.
"Why is that?" Yūga Hōzumi asked patiently.
"That way," Frank said, "I can be as powerful as Jack Atlas, become the King, and my younger siblings can live good lives, too."
"Jack Atlas?" Yūga Hōzumi chuckled lightly. "Do you think he's very powerful?"
"Of course! He's the King who came from us commoners; even The Top Echelons admire him," Frank said, his face filled with pride as he mentioned Jack, as if honored by his achievements.
"But what if I told you he's just a clown sucking on a pacifier?" Yūga Hōzumi said.
Frank was stunned. Then his small face turned crimson with anger. He wanted to argue, but Yūga Hōzumi covered his mouth.
"Don't be so quick to refute," Yūga Hōzumi gestured for him to calm down, then slowly said, "Imagine there's a person who has a lot of candy, while you don't have a single piece. And there are many other people just like you, without any candy. Then one day, the person with a lot of candy takes out one of his countless pieces, places it in front of all of you, and says that the one who obeys him the most will get this piece of candy. Would you envy the person who gets it?"
Although Frank was bewildered by the analogy, he still shook his head. "No. Crow taught us not to sell our dignity for something small."
"Then why do you think Jack is so powerful?" Yūga Hōzumi said. "He's just the one who got that piece of candy."
(end of chapter)