"Interested in joining us?"
Crow stepped forward a couple of paces, gesturing between himself and Dole as he spoke.
"Oh, right!" Dole hurried over as well. Easygoing as ever, he slung an arm around Dio's shoulders. Dio's body stiffened slightly at the unfamiliar intimacy.
"Boss Crow's right! The Satisfaction Crew needs a strong duelist like you. There are a lot of perks to joining us—at the very least, you won't have to worry too much about food."
Dio: OMO?
Seeing that expression on his face, Crow suddenly came to his senses.
"Ah! I almost forgot—he can't understand what we're saying!"
Crow immediately got a headache. His first instinct was to explain with hand gestures, but he had no idea where to begin. Inviting someone to join your team was a little too complicated to convey with random pantomime alone...
But when Dio saw Crow raise his hands as if to gesture, his eyes lit up at once, shining with anticipation.
There's actually someone here who knows sign language?!
He immediately raised both hands himself, his fingers moving a little stiffly but with obvious care, signing as properly as he could.
Before transmigrating, during a poverty-relief assignment, he had taken time to learn natural sign language so he could communicate with several deaf and mute elderly people in the village.
He was far from fluent, but basic communication should not have been a problem.
What the hell was this?
Crow did not know sign language, but natural sign language was expressive enough that an ordinary person could often guess bits and pieces. He still could not understand complete sentences, but at the very least he realized that Dio was capable of communication.
Crow scratched his forehead in frustration.
So how exactly was he supposed to explain this?
Watching Crow flail through an improvised series of gestures, Dio came to the slightly disappointed conclusion that Crow did not, in fact, know sign language. Even so, he could still more or less grasp what Crow was trying to say.
Oh!
So Crow wanted him to do something, and in exchange, he would teach him how to speak?
A perfect deal!
Dio promptly made an OK sign.
"Great, it worked!" Crow let out a sigh of relief when he saw the universally understood gesture.
The process of communication had been a mess, but at least the result seemed good.
And just as both Dio and Crow silently accepted the deal, a calm, androgynous voice sounded in Dio's mind.
[I am thou, thou art I.]
[Here, thou hast gained the resonance of a new desire.]
[Resonance is, in essence,]
[the budding of rebirth that defies the cycle of destruction.]
[Through the harmony of thy desires,]
[we seek growth toward the future.]
[Coop: "Hierophant" — Crow Hogan]
[Partner Rank: RANK 1]
[Ability Acquired: Card-Scavenging Efficiency UP!]
Dio froze and blinked.
What was that just now?
A cheat ability?
In the world of Yu-Gi-Oh!, he got a Persona-style cheat?
And only now?
More importantly, why was it a Persona-style cheat? Was Yu-Gi-Oh! secretly a dating sim too?
...Then again, Yu-Gi-Oh!'s most famous single-player games were basically dating sims.
As Dio was still puzzling over it, a sudden sharp pain stabbed the back of his hand. He looked down and saw a strange red mark there, shaped like a ring.
A Crimson Dragon mark?
So the Crimson Dragon was the one who gave him this cheat. But why package it like this? Had it looked through his memories or something...?
Still, Dio did not dwell on it too much.
If it was giving him a cheat, what more did he need?
Besides, with this Dragon Mark, he now had the qualifications to fight the Earthbound Immortals.
Which meant he needed to strengthen his cards even more.
"Honestly, you're learning unbelievably fast..."
Crow sat on a low stool, watching Dio read on a crude chair cobbled together from discarded wooden crates and iron plates. He felt genuine admiration.
In the span of a single week, Dio had already become capable of roughly understanding everyday conversation and replying with halting, awkward little sentences despite his limited vocabulary.
That kind of learning speed was astonishing.
"Your doing."
Hearing Crow's comment, Dio replied in a still somewhat stiff tone.
He meant it sincerely.
Crow's teaching was not especially systematic or professional, but the patience and enthusiasm behind it were absolutely real.
Of course, Dio knew perfectly well that his progress should not have been this fast.
The key change had happened the day that "cheat" activated.
Whenever he looked at the writing in this world—road signs, instructions on packaging, even the effect text on Duel Monsters cards—two layers of text would appear in his vision at once.
One was the world's original script, those unique characters he had been utterly unable to understand before.
The other was a clear and unmistakable Simplified Chinese translation, as though it were projected directly onto his retina, perfectly aligned with the original.
It was nothing like before, when he had to duel based only on hazy memories from his old world.
"So, what is it you want me to do?"
Dio closed the book in his hands, set it carefully aside, and turned to Crow.
He still remembered the "deal" between them.
Crow would teach him how to speak, and in exchange, he would do one thing for Crow.
Now it was time to fulfill that promise.
Crow straightened up and leaned forward slightly, his face earnest.
"Yeah. I want you to join the Satisfaction Crew and fight alongside us."
The Satisfaction Crew.
Dio repeated the name silently in his heart.
Of course he remembered it.
In the original Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's, this was the gang Yusei Fudo had originally belonged to back in Satellite, founded by Kiryu Kyosuke, with Crow as one of its core members.
If he remembered correctly, it was basically an organization that established its status through duel challenges and aimed to dominate the Satellite dueling scene.
The benefits of joining a group like that were obvious.
In a world where cards were power, sticking close to the protagonist's circle would undoubtedly let him come into contact with more cards and more duelists.
If he were shameless enough, he could even learn from Jack and start taking everyone's cards.
In the original story, the Satisfaction Crew had been a bit like a street gang, but its core members were all strong duelists.
And besides, interacting with more people and forming more connections might trigger that cheat ability again, unlocking more Coops and more powers.
That said, the Satisfaction Crew's fate in canon had not exactly been a good one.
Kiryu fell into darkness, the group broke apart, and both Yusei and Crow went through all kinds of suffering afterward.
And beyond that, there was the issue of strength.
What exactly was his deck right now?
His Main Deck only had a single Tuner—Scrap Beast—and his Extra Deck only had two Synchro Monsters: Scrap Dragon and Voltic Bicorn.
He had no interest in joining only to drag everyone down.
So Dio said, "If strength not enough, I not join."
Crow was inwardly shocked.
So confident!
Was he actually planning to evaluate their strength first?
Setting everything else aside, he definitely had the mentality of a true duelist.
And given the tactical skill he had displayed when he cleanly crushed Dole the other day, he absolutely had the right to say that.
Crow could practically imagine Kiryu's eyes lighting up with excitement the moment he saw Dio like this.
Kiryu loved strong duelists most of all. That was how Yusei and Jack had first caught his attention and ended up getting pulled onto his ship in the first place.
"Don't worry. We're definitely strong."
Crow grinned.
"We're a team aiming to conquer all of Satellite. You can absolutely expect our members to be powerful."
He really has a lot of confidence in me...
Dio sighed inwardly.
To be honest, he did not even think he was that strong.
No one understood the structural flaws of his deck better than he did. If he ever bricked, this patchwork pile of cards probably would not even beat the kids Crow knew.
But since Crow sounded so certain...
Maybe the Satisfaction Crew in its early days was not as overwhelmingly strong as he remembered. Maybe they were not yet at the level of miracle topdecks every game.
In any case, Crow had already shown plenty of sincerity, expressed an earnest desire to recruit him, and made it clear that he believed in him.
If Dio kept refusing or doubting him, it would start to feel overly fussy.
"I hope... not hold team back..."
In the end, Dio nodded, accepting the invitation. Still, he quietly added that extra line, partly as a modest disclaimer.
"Don't worry, we won't drag you down!"
...Had they gotten something backwards here?