David Tanaka

Name: David Tanaka

Age: 19

Nationality: Japanese-American

Special Skills: Business management, math

Likes: Making money! Managing Duke's store, his family, Duke Devlin

Best Friend: Duke Devlin

Background: David lived next-door to Duke growing up and was Duke's main link to normalcy and sanity after his mother ran off and he was left with his mad, revenge-driven father. Duke was being raised to be hard and cold and to not believe in friendship, while David reached out to him with love and kindness and acceptance, and the assurance that friendship was real. Torn in opposite directions, Duke usually went with his father despite longing to believe David.

David was always Duke's strongest supporter. He was thrilled when Duke decided to open his own game store, a risky venture for one so young. But Duke figured that if Seto Kaiba could run a worldwide corporation at his age, Duke could certainly run one little store. He hired David as his manager, saying it was because he didn't know anyone else as good with numbers and bringing in the customers.

When Duke's father determined to make his move and take his revenge on Solomon Muto by going through his grandson Yugi, David desperately tried to get Duke not to go through with it. Duke felt he had to out of loyalty to his father, but soon found he couldn't hate Yugi and couldn't keep hurting him. David was present when the building aged into a collapse and helped Yugi and Duke safely escape.

David also helped Duke when drug smugglers tried to take over the game store. That resulted in his eventual death, something Duke could not deal with. As Duke struggled to recover and simply could not, David tried to get through to him and could not. Duke finally found a way to bring David back, by supposedly reversing time and also agreeing to give up his friendship with David, as he believed it was their friendship that had led to his death. David was restored and no one but Duke and Serenity remembered the truth, at least at first. David soon began regaining memories of being dead, something he didn't understand that terrified him. By that point, Duke no longer remembered either, as Serenity had taken on the burden of remembering the truth so Duke wouldn't remember his guilt. Eventually everyone's memories were restored but David remained alive. Duke and Serenity explained what happened to a select few people, but most still don't understand and are confused immensely over remembering David being dead yet seeing him alive.

David still deals with his feelings over remembering the full truth. He is of course immeasurably grateful that Duke was so insistent on getting him back, but he wishes Duke hadn't run himself so ragged. Having been dead badly shakes him up and he tries not to think about it as much as possible.

Personality: David loves money-making plans. He also enjoys innocently teasing Duke and can come across as obnoxious. He is afraid of injury and tries to stay out of life-and-death situations, but if Duke is in danger, he will brave his fears and jump in. He thinks of Duke as a younger brother and wishes his family would be more accepting of his best friend, instead of shunning him because of his father. He also sees how Duke sometimes feels left out of Yugi's group and is protectively angry and frustrated at the oversight. While normally he stays quiet and says nothing, as per Duke's wishes, he can be pushed too far and explode with anger. Typically only Duke being harmed will provoke this reaction.

Differences between the timelines: David fascinated me from the moment I first saw part 1 of Dungeon Dice Monsters! He remains one of the only things I like about Duke's anime intro and I have always wondered what his connection is with Duke. In both Japanese and English versions of their scenes, there is a definite familiarity between them. But for some reason, probably because I used to have trouble thinking of ideas for Duke stories, I didn't do anything with David in the old timeline beyond a cameo mention in the fic In Memory.

Of course, since he has no canon name, I picked his name myself. For the life of me, I can't remember if I had any reason for choosing "David". It just sounded right. "Tanaka," I remember, was because of the butler on Sonic X. David is one of the few characters who actually looks Japanese! Duke likewise.

Lead Me Through the Fire and Close Your Eyes, Clear Your Heart were originally not intended to be part of my main timeline. If anything, they were a bridge, part of my in-between timeline that included Life After the Tears. That story is no longer canon to my timeline, but the two Duke and David epic adventures are. It's an odd position to be in, as on the one hand they are very dark stories and it seems depressing to think of them as having happened in my current, less depressing timeline. But on the other hand, those stories contain the majority of Duke and David's characterization and development. So for that reason I want them included.