Canon update info
Kiryu is currently from right after his first duel with Yuusei Fudou. He headed back to the Dark Signer base and waited for a couple days for his second duel. During that time, Carly Nagisa died and became a Dark Signer (so Kiryu will have canon knowledge of her finally!) and Bommer was brought to the base by Demak and Kiryu probably met him briefly.
Then the Dark Signers did something that captured everyone in Satellite in a fog to later be fed to their Earthbound Gods and they had their final duels for the fate of the world. Demak lost to Rua and Ruka, Bommer lost to Crow, and then it was Kiryu and Yuusei's turn! And through the power of friendship, Yuusei beat Kiryu and got him to stop hating him and then Kiryu poofed into smoke and died for real (Yuusei's last player and I kind of imitated this in game). Then Yuusei beat Rudger, Jack beat Carly, Aki beat Misty but it wasn't soon enough to prevent the final boss from showing up, but Yuusei, Jack, and Crow managed to beat him too. All the Dark Signers but Rudger and his brother came back to life and everything seemed like it would be happy and good again.
However, Kiryu remembered everything about his time as a Dark Signer and how he'd hated his old friends enough to want to kill them and if it were possible to die just from feeling guilt he would have died all over again. Canon is hideously vague about what happened for six months after the Dark Signer's defeat but we'll say Kiryu probably stuck around for a couple months hoping to make up for his actions, and then he decided that he couldn't do enough that way and he wandered off somewhere to find his doom.
He ended up in the mining town Crash Town, which is essentially a piece of the old west with gun shaped duel disks instead of real guns. Every night at sunset, the two gangs in control of Crash Town send out a representative each to duel each other, and the looser gets condemned to work in the mines for the rest of their life. Kiryu thought this was the perfect way to make up for his supposed sins; he'd condemn himself to dueling every night until someone finally beat him and then work himself to death in the mines. Of course, he duels at pro level, so no one could beat him. That seemed to be a punishment for him as much as anything else.
Then Yuusei got a letter about what he was doing, and he headed off to save his friend again. He joined the gang opposite Kiryu's and arranged for them to duel so he could knock some sense into Kiryu. And he won, of course, because Yuusei's never allowed to lose on screen. But it had all been a ruse to get Kiryu to lose finally and they both got taken off to the mines, along with Kiryu gang leader. Kiryu was content with this, much as he hated getting Yuusei involved, but Yuusei wasn't. He forced them to escape, and then there was a whole chase scene where Kiryu had to protect these two kids who kind of adored him, and then they found the kids' dad but he ended up dying to help them get out and Kiryu finally, finally realized that maybe dying wouldn't fix anything after all. And also that it was kind of stupid to to even try, because he has such a strong desire to live that he'll fight until the end. He vowed to protect the kids and show them that there were more important things than death after all.
And then the mines blew up and Kiryu and Yuusei fell a ridiculous distance that they really shouldn't have been able to walk away from. The two kids got kidnapped by Lotton, the leader of the gang in charge of the town. Kiryu and Yuusei went back to town to challenge him and they held their own pretty well considering Lotton's a cheating bastard, but then Lotton's girlfriend decided to play dirty and threatened the kids and the duel got put on hold. Jack and Crow showed up and kicked her butt, but Lotton decided it would be smart to run away. Kiryu took Yuusei's D-Wheel to go after him and he managed to force Lotton to finish the duel, resulting in Lotton losing with a virtual shot to the head.
Kiryu returned to town triumphant and essentially became the mayor. Security showed up and arrested Lotton and his people. And Crash Town was renamed Satisfaction Town. Kiryu stayed behind to take care of his kids and turn the town around, and Yuusei, Jack, and Crow headed back to Neo Domino City without him.
Then the Dark Signers did something that captured everyone in Satellite in a fog to later be fed to their Earthbound Gods and they had their final duels for the fate of the world. Demak lost to Rua and Ruka, Bommer lost to Crow, and then it was Kiryu and Yuusei's turn! And through the power of friendship, Yuusei beat Kiryu and got him to stop hating him and then Kiryu poofed into smoke and died for real (Yuusei's last player and I kind of imitated this in game). Then Yuusei beat Rudger, Jack beat Carly, Aki beat Misty but it wasn't soon enough to prevent the final boss from showing up, but Yuusei, Jack, and Crow managed to beat him too. All the Dark Signers but Rudger and his brother came back to life and everything seemed like it would be happy and good again.
However, Kiryu remembered everything about his time as a Dark Signer and how he'd hated his old friends enough to want to kill them and if it were possible to die just from feeling guilt he would have died all over again. Canon is hideously vague about what happened for six months after the Dark Signer's defeat but we'll say Kiryu probably stuck around for a couple months hoping to make up for his actions, and then he decided that he couldn't do enough that way and he wandered off somewhere to find his doom.
He ended up in the mining town Crash Town, which is essentially a piece of the old west with gun shaped duel disks instead of real guns. Every night at sunset, the two gangs in control of Crash Town send out a representative each to duel each other, and the looser gets condemned to work in the mines for the rest of their life. Kiryu thought this was the perfect way to make up for his supposed sins; he'd condemn himself to dueling every night until someone finally beat him and then work himself to death in the mines. Of course, he duels at pro level, so no one could beat him. That seemed to be a punishment for him as much as anything else.
Then Yuusei got a letter about what he was doing, and he headed off to save his friend again. He joined the gang opposite Kiryu's and arranged for them to duel so he could knock some sense into Kiryu. And he won, of course, because Yuusei's never allowed to lose on screen. But it had all been a ruse to get Kiryu to lose finally and they both got taken off to the mines, along with Kiryu gang leader. Kiryu was content with this, much as he hated getting Yuusei involved, but Yuusei wasn't. He forced them to escape, and then there was a whole chase scene where Kiryu had to protect these two kids who kind of adored him, and then they found the kids' dad but he ended up dying to help them get out and Kiryu finally, finally realized that maybe dying wouldn't fix anything after all. And also that it was kind of stupid to to even try, because he has such a strong desire to live that he'll fight until the end. He vowed to protect the kids and show them that there were more important things than death after all.
And then the mines blew up and Kiryu and Yuusei fell a ridiculous distance that they really shouldn't have been able to walk away from. The two kids got kidnapped by Lotton, the leader of the gang in charge of the town. Kiryu and Yuusei went back to town to challenge him and they held their own pretty well considering Lotton's a cheating bastard, but then Lotton's girlfriend decided to play dirty and threatened the kids and the duel got put on hold. Jack and Crow showed up and kicked her butt, but Lotton decided it would be smart to run away. Kiryu took Yuusei's D-Wheel to go after him and he managed to force Lotton to finish the duel, resulting in Lotton losing with a virtual shot to the head.
Kiryu returned to town triumphant and essentially became the mayor. Security showed up and arrested Lotton and his people. And Crash Town was renamed Satisfaction Town. Kiryu stayed behind to take care of his kids and turn the town around, and Yuusei, Jack, and Crow headed back to Neo Domino City without him.