XYZ Reception

"Hey nii-san… do you think that otou-san's been… different lately?" Asked Haruto as he glanced at the large mansion that they lived in from the garden.

Or rather, the section of their mansion that their father had more or less sanctioned them off from, mostly because those were where he would do his technological experiments, most of which were all the base for the founding of the Heartland City that they lived on.

And they truly were more or less works of technological miracles. Large machines the size of a bike capable of folding in on themselves, hoverboard technology that helps with mass industrial transport, and that's not mentioning the Solid Vision system that was the base for the world's largest form of entertainment, along with others of course.

And it does make sense why he would do so, some of the prototypes of the machines there are usually… Let's just say that some of them are a bit on the explosive side of the scale of technology. He's been there once before when Haruto was even born and the first thing he touched caught on fire. And then exploded.

He's never been back there ever again. And their father shared his sentiments with how he now has warning signs all over the door to the laboratory, said safety measures were increased when Haruto was born.

Their father was an eccentric man, he was the founder and lead technological researcher of Heartland City after all, but he was a compassionate man that cared for his family more than anything.

But… he did think that Haruto had a point. Lately their father has been a bit more distant than usual. More immersed in whatever it was that his research was about ever since that apparent 'big discovery' that he found about a year ago along with his colleagues.

The question earned the light blue haired boy a raise of an eyebrow from him, and he ventured a guess. "I guess… but I'm sure that it's because of his work." That really was the only thing that he could think was the reason why their father has been a bit disconnected for the past few months. 

"It could just be the stress. He's been preparing for the World Duel Carnival along with Mr. Heartland after all." Though it wasn't really a surprise for their father to work with mayor Heartland, they're essentially colleagues after all, the man has visited them a few times for dinner too.

"I guess…" Haruto nodded with a look on his face that belied his feelings, still unsure even with all of his reassurance that their father was fine. He let out a sigh and closed the book in his hands, crouching down and giving his little brother his full attention.

"What brought this up?" He asked as he stared his little brother in the eye, and Haruto shyly turned to look down and away from him as he twidled with his thumb, an action that made him frown.

"I-I don't know…" His little brother said with a frown of his own. "It's just- ever since yesterday I've had this… strange feeling coming from otou-san. Like, like there's something wrong with him."

The younger Tenjo sent another glance at their mansion. "There-there's just something that's bothering me. A nagging? A nagging feeling that somethings just… wrong with otou-san."

The response made him only want to frown, but he of course stopped himself from showing it from Haruto, especially not now. Never had he seen his usually happy and cheerful brother this down before.

And he has no doubt that if he were to show his own worries for their father that Haruto's own worries would no doubt worsen.

So instead he gave his younger brother a smile and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Well whatever it is, I'm sure that otou-san will get better."

He very much hoped so.

-

Much to her displeasure, she was basically bedridden for two days.

Which was, quite honestly, incredibly annoying. Though one that she quite possibly really does need to have, what with not only with her plethora or 'staples' that she wants to sell slowly but surely thinning out, and the obvious toll that her body has been taking for the past week.

It was… quite nice. Just take a few days to take a break and relax that is. 

Though she did have Anna hovering over her like a mother hen whenever she showed up and paid a visit, along with the other trio of Heartland Students. Where Allen would bother her in an attempt to pry into her past, something that Anna also seemed interested in, while Myu does her best to stop the both of them.

Then they'll all bicker with one another and Sayaka would just make them all stop with a single cold glare.

Well, that and the glasses wearing girl went and gave her a full lecture when she saw the empty small rental fridge that came with the apartment and how she's only been living off of instant foods and buying packed lunches. All of which taste far better than what gruel or sandwich they gave in the Academia mind you.

Now that she thought about it, there wasn't really much that that damned school had to show to prove that they were the best dueling school in the world. Well, other than the part that it basically turned their students into brainwashed child soldiers that only use one deck and one deck only.

Not that she couldn't cook, mind you! She can! And quite well at that! You don't live on your own for more than half your life and not learn a cooking skill or two! It's just that with her situation and all that she had to try her best and save up as much as she could alright!

Well, she certainly hadn't had home cooked food for a while. And Sayaka was a darn good cook for someone her age, she'll give her that. She was pretty sure she shed a tear when she ate her first spoonful.

Which then brought up a whole slew of problems about her living alone and all that. All questions which she expertly dodged by accidentally falling asleep and most certainly were not because of the side effects of the medication that she took earlier.

Nope. That was most definitely part of her plan all along.  

But that didn't mean that she had been idle for two whole days mind you! She's been doing her best to go grinding whenever she rests as she goes to the Duel World to farm DP and hopefully get the Red Hat to drop staples that she could sell and advance the metagame around her bit by bit.

She's gotten some cards for her own deck, some more copies of needed three offs and other support and what not. It still wasn't the complete full power Utopia deck that you would see in modern play back in her world, but it was still good enough, especially in the current state of the meta.

Not that she's intending on advancing the state of the meta that much mind you, as much as it would better the chances of people surviving the eventual strike of the Academia, a drastic change like the… let's say HAT format as it was most probably the best affirmation of the XYZ Dimension's current meta state, into something like TOSS would be too much.

And Hand Artifact Traptrix format was really the best approximation of the current meta game. Either that or Fire Water format, what with the prevalence of trap cards and with some people still even running battle traps of all things.

And she was supplying them with them and more. She's spreading backrow removal like Galaxy Cyclone and Twin Twisters, or basic Mystical Space Typhoons to those who really don't have the DP.

All done in preparation to give as many people outs to the floodgates that would no doubt be used against them by the Academia with how she developed the meta game back in the Fusion Dimension.

She's supplying the backrow themselves. Most would take just Bottomless Trap Hole, and occasionally some buying the copies of Traptrix Trap Hole off of her hands or even Call od the Haunted. But she also had sold cards like Breakthrough Skill and Torrential, both at high prices of course.

Then she's also selling generic but quite old removal cards. Smashing Ground, Fissure, Raigeki Break, and all that. Quite honestly she would have sold more copies of Karma Cut if she had more copies of those cards.

But the cards that she was trying her best to spread were, of course, the handtraps. Especially ones that she has quite a lot of like Effect Veiler and D.D. Crow, both of which were quite playable handtraps in this kind of format. The former more than the latter honestly.

She couldn't exactly spread other handtraps that she has like Infinite Impermanence or Ghost Ogre & Snow Rabbit, mostly because she doesn't exactly have many copies of the card and they would be too expensive if she were to try and sell them at the market at a profitable price.

And she couldn't even really sell Ash blossom & Joyous Spring or even Droll & Lock Bird since they would be extremely utility based. And in a format where people don't really search cards as much as they do in the modern times, their utility would be extremely limited.

She had thought about selling Gamma, Psy-Frame Gamma that is. Along with Driver of course because the handtrap wouldn't work otherwise, but decided against it. Mostly because she doesn't really have a lot of the cards to sell.

No need to mention a card like Nibiru the Primal Being either, even if they do threaten combo decks, they don't happen too often in a format where people normally would just summon a two material XYZ Monster and pass. That and they don't really help in the case if someone does end up facing an Academia student with how they usually use their Ancient Gear deck.

Not everyone has what was basically a barebones modern combo deck like her after all.

"But it still isn't enough…" She muttered as she laid on her futon, looking at the bustling masses through her window as they all prepared for the upcoming World Duel Carnival that would be hosted in this city this year.

Even with relatively good but quite frankly outdated staples, the problem was of course the main deck itself. But she couldn't just release a modern XYZ archetype and sell them to the masses, because there would be several problems with that.

"The first and foremost problem is… DP." She said, counting on one hand. And there's really no other way for her to fix that kind of problem other than hope that Emergency Quests pops up, farm in the Duel World like she does almost everyday, or do the regular Daily Quests that basically just amount to… a small amount of free DP honestly.

Not like they don't matter, but Daily Quests like 'win a duel' or 'summon this many times' easily get repetitive, and are literally things that would be done whenever she just duels while farming for DP anyway, so they're just bonuses honestly.

"The second is distribution." Because as much as she could technically generate an infinite amount of staples in theory, she was only one person. Even if she continues to sell some of the cards at other card stores to broaden the range of which her staples would possibly be sold in, it would probably take the whole day to go through the entirety of Heartland's card shops.

And that's not even counting if she were to argue with the shopkeepers of their card prices first, because those would most definitely cause arguments. Of that she has no doubts.

"And third is… power creep huh." She listed the third problem that she would mostly face in trying to modernise the meta game in Heartland City, that being the main deck monsters and, in her perspective, old cards that they no doubt were playing.

Even if she says that the format was around the power of HAT format, the actual power of the local monsters that the people use here are… incredibly low. At least in terms of the XYZ formats that she remembered from the world that she came from.

After all, the XYZ formats that she remembers are ones along the lines of Inzektor Dino Rabbit, Wind Up hand loop format, the aforementioned HAT format, Dragon Rulers, and even Fire Water format. Formats with decks that are, quite frankly, high powered for the time that they were released.

And the decks played then were far, far more advanced than the decks that people here would play, even some decks that she saw at a competitive level was more or less a jank deck that somehow managed to top in a tournament.

Not to say that playing jank is bad mind you, what with how the term of 'meta deck' not even existing in this world with everyone basically playing different decks and everything, it gives everyone character and all, that and most if not all cards basically being short printed to being 'rare' cards other than the most common of common cards.

And so the 'meta' in this dimension, if you could even call it that, is too diverse in cards and decks that she couldn't even decide what card other than staples that she's already selling could she even sell en mass in an attempt to move the meta into something that could combat the upcoming Academia invasion.

It would honestly be relatively easier for friends who were close to her. like Anna, Myu, Sayaka, and Allen, since she could just sell them their specific archetypal support cards in order of bettering their deck, but others?

She's seen someone unironically play Baby Tiragon for goodness sake. And saw someone unironically play Ghostrick of all decks as a beatdown deck focused on Ghostrick Socuteboss. Socuteboss out of all Ghostrick extra deck cards!

And that by itself showed that there's a lot, and by that she meant a lot of people who aren't just playing decks that use Rank 4s, having decks focusing on Rank 3s, or Rank 2s, even some playing Rank 5 turbo.

"I'll have to at the very least sell them some staples for those strategies." She mumbled as she tossed and turned on her futon, not like she could afford a bed with her financial situation.

With so much diversity in decks that it's basically like the pool of casual duelists, which most of them are now that she thought of it, there's simply no possible way that she could give them all deck specific support cards, or even their archetypal support cards.

So in the end, it all falls to the staples that she could possibly sell them. Generic staples that could be fit into most decks without hampering their consistency, while also possibly be outs to the possible cards that the Academia would no doubt play when they invade.

Which brought her to the problem card that she was quite sure was prevalent in the anime and would no doubt be the big Boss Monster that any duelist of the XYZ Dimension has to out one way or another.

Chaos Ancient Gear Giant.

Mind you, in actual modern Yu-gi-Oh! back in her old world the card was… more or less a joke. Sure it does help Ancient Gear decks OTK, what with having 4500 attack, piercing, and the ability to attack all monsters once each along with a blanket effect that prevents monsters from activating their effects during the battle phase.

But the protection was… arguably quite bad.

Heck, Ancient Gear Howitzer, the Ancient Gear Fusion Monster that requires half of the materials than Chaos Ancient Gear Giant, has far better protection than the darn card! It was a full blown Towers that was unaffected by card effects!

Said protection was balanced by the card's quite low attack and defence points for a Level 8 Fusion Monster, but it made up in its ability to burn for 1000 points of damage and the fact that the card floats into any Ancient Gear monster from deck, summons them ignoring their summoning condition, and said floating activates on battle destruction.

Now there's not much that you can do against a Towers like that other than simply crashing into it in the Battle Phase, and thus triggering its floating effect, but Chaos Ancient Gear Giant on the other hand?

In modern Yu-Gi-Oh!, almost, if not all decks have ways of monster effect removal. And most are accessible through the Extra Deck. 

There's the original one that was almost accessible to any Rank 4 strategy that was Castel, the Skyblaster Musketeer, then there's more generic ones like the Link 2 Knightmare Cerberus or the Link 3 Knightmare Unicorn. 

But she can't sell those kinds of cards, not like she has any of the Knightmares anyway, what with her rarely opening a pure Link based pack, that and the limitation of locking her to only XYZ Monsters also apparently locks what kind of Extra Deck monsters that she could sell.

And it's not like the entirety of the dimension's duel disk would just somehow update and immediately have an Extra Monster Zone to use them anyway. But didn't something like that happen when Yuya eventually invented Pendulums?

She knows there are generic outs in Rank 2s and 3s, a relatively newer card named Onibimaru Soul Sweeper could basically be a better Fara, banishing the monster until the opponent's End Phase, and The Phantom Knight of Break Sword is just a generic spot removal for Rank 3s, though she doesn't quite know how Yuto would react if he saw one of his XYZ Monsters being used generically like that.

There wasn't really a need to point out what removal the Rank 4 pool of cards has, she's already named Castel after all, and that card doesn't even destroy as it spins the card back into the deck. 

And it would take all day to name all the possible Extra Deck outs that the other Ranks have, but the point was that they exist, and if she wants as many people in Heartland to survive the upcoming invasion who knows when, then she'll have to sell those cards to the masses.

"Ugh. But that'll take so loooong." She whined as she stuffed her face into her pillow and started to trash around, making a mess off of her whole room that Sayaka had done her best to tidy up.

"But I guess… there's no helping it." And she grumbled those words out as she stared at the concrete ceiling of her apartment, her right arm stretched out as if to grab an invisible goal that only she could see.

"If it'll help everyone survive… if it'll at least damper that man's plan even by a little bit… Then I guess I'll just have to do it huh." She said so with a small smile gracing her face. And then closing her eyes as she laid out in her mess of a room.

And then the sound of a click rang from the small doorway, and the door slowly creaked open. "'Scuse me, coming throug-Aah! You made a mess again!" Anna shouted out as she pointed angrily at her.

The cherry haired girl then stomped right in, the door automatically closing itself with the wonders of advanced technology and she received the cannon carrying girl's glare. "Honestly! How is it that everytime I visit you always somehow manage to make a mess of the room! How've you been living like this!?"

All that she could offer her friend was a wry smile, in the back of her mind she couldn't help but think that Mei was usually the one that would clean up their room, even when they went to the dorms the purple haired girl still visits daily to do so, so she might have gone a bit complacent without her around.

She really hopes that she gets well soon. If only to stop hearing Anna or Sayaka nagging about her health and all that.

-

"A rare card trader?" The voice echoed out throughout the entire abandoned warehouse, their voice carrying power and fear as they stared down towards the one talking to him from atop the pile of boxes he sat upon. 

"Y-yeah. It's a… wait was it a guy or a girl? They wear a red hat, that's for sure!" The dark haired boy spoke as he looked up to their leader and balled his fists. "And we would've gotten away with it too! If it wasn't for that annoying cherry haired girl!"

"Yeah! If it weren't for that Wild Train girl we would've already gotten the DP for those cards that you wanted!" Another one shouted as paced and kicked one of the many crates around them.

"Wild Train? So Anna was there too?" The one that sat above them said inquisitively, and the others looked between one another before nodding to answer his question. The leader clicked his tongue, "and you didn't tell me this earlier?"

"Well, uh, we-we didn't think it was important boss." One of the three said after they shared a glance between one another.

"That's an important part you idiots!" Their supposed leader roared as they threw a can down towards them, the trio scuttling around with a yelp as they avoided the can from hitting them. The leader kept scowling as he rested his head.

"We-we just thought that it wasn't that important boss… like, there's no way that you would lose against that Wild Train girl after all… right?" One of the leader's lackeys said, as if unsure by his own words.

"Of course I wouldn't lose! Who do you think I am!" Their leader roared aloud as he stood on the crates and swung his arms forwards, making all of his lackeys cower in fear, fearing his wrath.

"There's no way that I'm going to lose." The leader growled menacingly, and scowled. But the scowl itself didn't last long as Shark balled his hand into a fist and grinned. "Now with that card in my deck. And especially after I get more of them too." 

And a purplish mark glowed on the back of his hand shone.

-

Frankly, the day started quite normally. With her finally out of bedrest and Sayaka allowing her to finally go out, she started to do the routine that she's started to establish ever since she came into this dimension.

And that is to, of course, start selling cards.

Or more correctly auctioning them for the highest bidder in front of a card shop. "It's been quite a while since I've done this, so let's start off with a good one! And the card that we're starting with today is…" She started as she opened her binder of 'cards' and 'took out' the card that she would start the auction with.

"The trap card, Lost Wind!" She said with a wide grin as she placed the card on the table in front of her, and the many teens started to crowd near as they tried to read the card's text and find out what exactly the card does.

"Now, now, settle down everyone." She said as she waved down her hands to try and calm down the crowd. "As usual I would of course start by reading the card's effects." Because simply selling a card without telling what they exactly do is just a scam after all, and though she might technically over-priced some cards depending on how hard they were to pull from the packs, they wouldn't be priced outlandishly.

But letting their prices essentially just bubble by selling them in an auction was fair game. After all, she wasn't the one that was overcharging for the card, they're simply over valuing it themselves.

"Now this is quite the trap card I'll say. It allows you to target one special summoned monster on the field, and negate its effects!" She said aloud, reading the trap card's text. "But that's not all, as it also halves the original attack of that monster! Meaning that you would negate it's attack, and halve it's attack points!"

It's a genuinely good card, well, trap card that is. It has seen some play in backrow focused decks. Most specifically Paleo Frogs as just another good choice of backrow, but sadly it's utility was more or less outshone by new generic staples. 

Like Forbidden Droplet, a quick-play spell that essentially does the same thing as Lost Wind. But one that doesn't target and without the limitation to special summoned monsters, albeit one with a discard cost, but the cost itself was essentially mitigated with how the opponent couldn't respond to the quick-play spell's effect with the same type of cards that were discarded as cost.

It was essentially a going first backrow that was essentially power creeped by a going second staple. Though with how good modern going second staples and equalizers are, it was bound to happen.

There was at least one thing that the trap does that the quick-play spell doesn't do at the very least. "But there is more, of course." She said as she raised a finger and continued to read the trap card's text.

"For this trap card has a second effect! If a monster is special summoned from the opponent's Extra Deck while this card is in the graveyard, except during the Damage Step of course, it can set itself back onto the field! Though it banishes itself when it leaves the field." She listed off the card's second line of text.

And soon enough, the crowd that were surrounding her fell into murmurs and discussions as they spoke to one another of the card's usefulness.

"You hear that! It can negate a special summoned mosnter's effect!"

"Yeah, yeah! And it also halves their attack too! That's crazy!"

"It sets itself back onto the field if the opponent special summons from the Extra Deck? That's insane!"

She had to keep herself from grinning at seeing their response. There was no doubt that in the current format that Lost Wind, a normal trap that essentially halves the opponent monster's attack and negates their effects, was incredible, especially with how it could set itself back onto the field if the opponent were to summon a monster from the Extra Deck.

"I will inform you that the effects of Lost Wind are permanent." She said aloud to the crowd and they stopped to listen to her words. "As long as the monster that Lost Wind targets are face-up on the field, they will have their effects negated and their original attack halved, it lingers and all that."

And as they all fell into another discussion with their group of friends, she patted the dueling table that she was using and pulled two more copies of the card. "So! We'll be auctioning for three copies of the trap, Lost Wind! " She said as she tapped the table twice more to start off the bid.

"Why don't we start at 1000DP?"

-

"That's certainly a look that you have on your face." Anna commented as she walked to where she was, trailing behind her was of course the usual trio of Sayaka, Myu, and Allen, with the latter two seemingly already in a discussion of some sort.

Or so she would say, but with how they were glaring at one another as Sayaka tried to mediate, they're probably just having another one of those kinds of discussions that are going to end in them dueling, or something like that at least.

"Hmm?" She let out a noise as she placed a hand on her face, and found out that she was grinning. "Ah well, the sale was a success and all, so I guess I am a bit happy right now. How was your classes?" Hopefully those staples that she sold would help them grow as better duelists, and possibly help them in the fight that the Academia would no doubt bring sooner or later.

Which reminds her that she should keep an eye out and look for those hidden bases that Dennis mentioned, if she could raid them then that could possibly help her in trying to slow down their progress, or possibly even halt the invasion entirely, though she doubts that that would do it.

The cherry haired girl clicked her tongue as she dropped her bag on the ground and took a seat beside her. "Darn, so we missed them huh. It was normal, though the teacher was more interesting than usual. What cards did you sell anyway?" She asked as she propped her head with her hand, and the rest also took the seat around the usual dueling table.

She glanced at the other occupants of the card shop's terrace, looking as they dueled against one another, testing their newly acquired cards in real duels. "Just your regular staples. Some trap cards here, some spell cards there, and a few monsters that I think people would just want generically and all that."

"Oi, that's too vague." Anna interrupted as she snapped a hand in her direction. "Be more specific! I'd at the very least want to know what the cards that you sold would do, especially with the WDC just a little over a week away."

"Ah right, the World Duel Carnival. That's coming up huh." She vaguely remembered something similar to that happening in the original ZEXAL series, of course with plot relevant things happening in the background.

"Yeah, so are you gonna sign up for it? The sign up's probably going to be open for a few more days." The cannon carrying girl said aloud, and she couldn't help but look at her in wonder.

"Wait, the registration is still open? Even with the event just being a week away?" She said, absolutely baffled at the implication that a world wide event was still holding open the registration application. She could only think of how much paperwork that was to hold an event of that size and having a registration time this close to the event still open.

"You didn't know? Seriously? Well I guess they never did specify when they'll end the registration." Anna mused, and then shrugged. "Anyway, back to the cards. What did you sell?" 

"You really do want to know more about that huh… fine." She said with a sigh. "As I said, just a few staples that would help consistently here and there. Sold Reinforcement of the Army to someone playing a Warrior deck, sold more backrow removal like Mystical Space Typhoon and Galaxy Cyclone, and also more backrow like Lost Wind and the Trap Hole trap cards." She listed them off as she counted with her fingers.

"But well, not really a lot of good payoffs." She said with a shrug. "Most of them are just staples. Cards that you can just splash into any deck, generic traps and spells and all that, or maybe consistency boosters like Reinforcement of the Army, even if I only sold the latter one per person."

Because as much as she wanted to give three copies of reinforcement of the army to anyone with a warrior deck, banlist in her previous world be darned, the card was surprisingly scarce.

And by that she meant that she doesn't have many copies of it, counting the ones that she had just sold, she only has a playset left in her own pool of cards. And she only ran one in her own deck simply because she's still a bit sentimental about following the banlist.

That, and the thought of not playing according to the banlist, or at least what she remembered of the banlist back in her old world, would basically also allow her to play any and every broken card under the sun. And that's not the kind of horror that she would want to give to the people in this dimension. 

That and, just like back in her old world, those retro cards are expensive as hell. A singular copy of a Pot of Greed cost over 10 million DP for goodness sake! Just one! Adding the fact that they apparently don't appear on any pack and the lack of any retro pack means that buying singles was the only way to get them too!

And that's not even mentioning other DM staples like Graceful Charity or Snatch Steal, even the one offs that were technically still legal like Monster Reborn cost an arm and a leg! Not to mention a card that would be outright broken in graveyard focused decks like Painful Decision.

But payoffs? She couldn't really sell them, at least not right now. She intended to start selling generic XYZ Monster that's for sure, but whether or not there would be payoffs that one  could build a deck around like Myu's Dolkka? The answer to that would probably be a no.

Sure enough there were times where a staple became the main strategy of a whole deck, a single look at Pankratops Control was enough to see that a whole strategy could revolve around a staple, but quite frankly none of the cards that she would sell was as strong as that card. It was limited to one for a reason after all.

"I'm thinking of selling XYZ Monsters though." She said aloud, and Anna perked at her statement. She gave the girl a mirthful smile, "Nothing that would interest you sadly. Mostly just generic cards that could be used in decks. Most of them are Rank 4 so I doubt that you would be able to use them."

The cherry haired girl looked a bit down as she heard that, but hid it as she clicked her tongue and looked away. "Darn. And here I thought I could get some good cards out of you." The cannon carrying girl added cheekily.

"Honestly you just might." And that comment brought the girl full attention once more. Anna's head snapped as she turned towards her again, a grin on her face and eyes filled with excitement, and she rolled her eyes.

"Seriously!? Where! What card?!" The cannon carrying girl said excitedly, as she shook in excitement. And she waved her hand down as if to calm the girl of her excitement.

"Easy there. It's not like the card would go away you know." She said with a small grin of her own at seeing Anna's excitement, she knows the feeling of hearing about a new card after all. 

But her big gamble of the day won't come with the cherry haired girl sadly. Or perhaps, it's fortunate for Anna that she wasn't the test subject of what she was about to do. She turned to the rest of the group of teens and called out to them.

"You all too. Come here. I've got some cards that you might be interested in." Hearing that the trio stopped their bickering, or rather Allen and Myu stopped theirs and Sayaka let out a breath of relief as they all scooted closer.

Now with their attention in hand she took out her binder of cards, manifested some cards from her inventory onto it without anyone looking, and presented them for the others to see. "Here." She said as she took the cards out of the binder and placed it in front of them.

"As thanks for taking care of me for the past couple of days. Took me a while to get them but, this should be good enough for thanks yeah?" She wouldn't know how they would be priced in the current market, what with the cards she presented being printed far after the Arc-V era, barring one, but they should still be good enough to give away.

"Whoa! What are these cards!" Allen said with clear amazement in his voice as he took the card in front of him and stared at it in awe. The others did basically the same as they also took the card that she presented to them and read it.

She could clearly see the look on the faces of the four Heartland Dueling School students as they read the cards that she gave them and their effects, but she focused on one person in particular.

And then she saw Allen barge right in front of her with a large grin on his face while pointing at the card in his hand. "Hey, hey Yuuna! Can this card literally just add any Earth Machine from my deck to my hand!? Seriously?!" He said, all but shouting right in front of her with a grin.

"What!? Let me see that!" Anna shouted as she turned and reached out for the card in Allen's hand, only for the poncho wearing boy to move his hands, and consequently the card, away from his sister's reach.

"No way! Yuuna gave it to me so this is mine! Get your own Nee-san!" The brown haired boy said as he does his best to keep the card as far away as he can from his older sister, all while keeping a leg on her to fend her off.

"I just want to look at it so give it to me!" Anna shouted as she kept grasping towards the card that was in Allen's hand in an attempt to take it.

She ignored the comedic siblings' antics and focused on the other two still sitting in their seats quietly. She could see how Allen reacts to the card later.

"So? How is it?" She asked the other two girls, and Sayaka responded first as she looked up to her and shook her head.

"There's no way that I can accept this Yuuna-san!" Sayaka shouted loudly as she closed her eyes and shoved the card back to her. Or at least attempted to, as she pushed the card back to the lilac haired girl with a shake of her head.

"Nope. You're keeping it. As I said, it's a gift. And if anyone should get a gift it should probably be you. You were the one that took care after me the most after all, next to Anna of course." She said as she sent a glance at the cherry haired girl, still stuck in a sibling far off at the corner of her eye.

"Anyway, that card would be good for your deck too." She said as she pointed towards the card that she puts in the glasses wearing girl's hand. "In fact, you really need that. It's basically an important cornerstone of that new engine that you put in your deck. Ah right, I guess that wouldn't be enough huh."

And as she said that she pulled out her binder once again, manifesting a few more cards and giving them to the wide eyed Sayaka. "Here. The card would definitely work better if you added these cards into your deck. You'll have to think of the card ratio yourself, but I'm sure you can figure one that would work well with your deck. You're a smart cookie after all."

With her piece said and managing to give even more support cards that would be good for Sayaka's new and improved deck, she turned and walked towards Myu before the lilac haired girl could regain her bearings and start begging her to take the cards back.

"Yuuna-san! This is-!" She heard Myu say as she saw her walk near her, her eyes constantly moving back and forth from her and the card in her hand. She smiled as she placed a hand on the back of her head.

"Yeah,well… I couldn't really find more cards that would help your deck in terms of consistency. Well, there certainly is more Normal Monster support, but I haven't gotten my hands on them, and it's not like they would actually help with your deck's consistently… and I'm getting on a tangent aren't I?"

The silver haired twin tailed girl nodded her head, and she let out a sigh as she shook her head. "Yeah well, I still don't really have a lot of good cards that would be good consistency boosters for your DinoRabbit deck, but I at least found one copy of that card." She said as she pointed at the card in the shorter girl's hand.

"It certainly helps that the card is technically in the same archetype as the cards that you already help, so they definitely will synergize well." She said, nodding to herself. It was, after all, an integral part of the DinoRabbit strategy. 

"Thank you Yuuna! I'll definitely use this card the best I can!" Myu said as she showed her a beaming smile, looking back at the card in her hand as she began mumbling to herself on how to use the card to its best efficiency. 

She smiled at the silver haired girl's antics, and glanced to the other side of the table and saw that Sayaka had reluctantly accepted her own gift, or rather gifts as she had given more cards for her, and was starting to reorganize her deck with the addition of the new cards.

Then she heard grumbling, and she saw the Kozuki siblings sitting down on their seats, their clothes and hair ruffled here and there, but otherwise the siblings were fine. 

Now she focused on the reason why she had given out the cards to the four of them all, and she couldn't help but be a bit nervous. She hid her nervousness and tried to mask it as she coughed on her fist, and then turned to face the one with the most problematic card that she had given out.

"So, Allen, what do you think?" She said as she asked the poncho wearing boy his opinion about the new card that she had given him. Having given him what was most likely one of the most useful center piece of his version of the Earth Machine deck.

"What I think of it? It's really great!" The brown haired boy said as he gave her a huge ear splitting grin. "I can basically add any monster from my deck to my hand! Or send it to the graveyard I guess, it does that too."

"Hmm. It does do that , doesn't it?" She hummed, seeing Allen completely glass over the final line of text off of the Rank 5 XYZ Monster, one that specifically mentions tributing a Machine Link Monster to special summon the card from the graveyard in defence position.

"But.. It is worded a bit weird." The brown haired boy pointed out, and she felt her heart spike for the briefest of moments. "Like, it says that you can only use each effect of the card once per turn, but there's really only one effect so what gives?" And Anna, apparently also having read the card's effect, nodded.

"Yeah it's really weird. You sure that that isn't a misprinted card or something?" The cherry haired girl asks as she takes a look at her own card that she had gotten. "Those kinds of cards do some weird things to the duel disk, you know. It might even be a fake one for all we know."

"Hmm~ I wonder why it's worded like that? And for your question, yes, I'm sure that it's a real card and isn't misprinted. Just try it in a duel." She said with faux interest as she hid her nervousness and tried to calm down inside. 

Though she does feel a hint of relief at seeing the brown haired boy's response at reading the card and its effect. 

This basically showed that any effects regarding the existence of forms of summoning that doesn't exists isn't shown somehow by the System, but only to others. After all, she could omit a card's effects all she wants, people do those apparently in this world after all, it was what she did against those trio of Academia spies when playing with Inspector Boarder.

But giving out a card meant that anyone could read their effects completely, including card text that lists a whole summoning mechanic that supposedly doesn't exist in any of the four dimensions.

But she can't take out cards, or rather specifically Extra Deck monster, whose type doesn't correspond with whatever dimension that she was in. Meaning that outside of her Duel World, she couldn't take out Fusions, Synchro, Links or even Pendulum monsters out as she was currently in the XYZ Dimension.

But she could take their support cards out to the world. It was how she was able to sell Allen the Infinitrack cards, even if they were technically an archetype supporting both XYZ and Link monsters, specifically Earth Machine ones, even if most of the main deck cards don't technically list the latter in their card text.

And so, in an attempt to strengthen everyone's deck, she tried to pull out the Infinitrack XYZ Monsters, monsters that do list the Link monsters in their own effects, from her own inventory of cards.

And lo and behold, she could take them out for the whole world to see.

Which then brought up a whole other problem for her to face.

Because even though she had indeed managed to pull out the XYZ Monster in question from out of her inventory, even if the card does blatantly reveal the existence of Link Monster in its card text, she doesn't know how the other's would respond to it.

After all, it was a whole other mechanic to the game. One that would essentially change how the duel disks would even work considering the addition of the Extra Monster zone, and would essentially kill most Pendulum decks that don't have them.

It was one of the reasons why she had kept herself from giving Allen the Infinitrack XYZ Monsters, even if they were essentially the main pay offs of the Earth Machine deck, especially an XYZ based one like Allen's version of the Earth Machine deck.

So she tried to at least compensate by getting him Digvorzhak, King of Heavy Industry. But with the Academia apparently already digging their claws into the XYZ Dimension, she decided to gamble.

If her System was forcing her from not revealing any kind of summoning mechanic outside that of the one that the dimension she was currently on had, but allowed her to pull out cards that would technically reveal their existence, how would it even work?

And judging by Allen's and Anna's reactions, it apparently works by censoring the card's effect to everyone else but her.

Her gamble had, somehow, managed to pay off. She managed to get Allen support cards that actually support his native deck's native archetype, and also not revealing the existence of a fifth summoning mechanic and have the entire universe fold in on itself or whatever the consequence would've been.

She released a sigh of relief as Anna beckoned her while having the card that she had given her in hand. Telling her how this single card would essentially change how she plays her deck, and how she wants to immediately duel to test it out.

With the possibly stressful part of the day passed, she simply smiled and answered to the cherry haired girl's whims.

-

"Are you sure that we should be doing this man? Isn't this like, really dangerous?"

The figure in front of the one who had just spoken turned towards them and he held a finger in front of his mouth. "Shut up!" He hissed out quietly as he glared at him, glancing back at the third figure who acted as their look out, and saw him look back and gave him a nod.

The figure let out a quiet sigh of relief, and returned to bore a glare at the first one who began talking. "The hell were you thinking! You could've woken him up!" He hissed out as quietly as he could, but still managed to convey his dismay.

"If you wanna chicken out then fine! Go! But me and Mizui," the boy said, gesturing to himself and the third figure that crouched at the corner, "will be doing this no matter what. So you in or what?!"

"It's just… why don't we just buy them you know?" The boy asks as he pleads with the other two to not enact their plan by giving his own suggestion. "I mean, we can just find the guy that sells them and-"

"You idiot! If any of us had the DP to buy them, we would've done it ages ago!" The dark haired boy whispered back angrily. He then took a deep breath and turned away from the boy.

"Mizui, let's do this." The boy whispered, and the dark blue boy turned back towards him and sent a glance at the third person in their group. The dark haired boy clicked his tongue as he sent a final glance at him.

And then turned his head back. "We're leaving him, let's do this." The dark haired boy whispered with finality in his tone, and the third boy in their group widened his eyes in surprise and dread.

"Okay, okay fine! I'll come with you!" He whispered urgently as he followed suit, the other two shared a glance before they went and executed their plan.

"If this were to work… we'll be as strong as Shark as! No, even stronger! We'll be unbeatable!" The dark haired boy whispered under his breath as they inched closer to their target, the deck box that the sleeping Shark had left unattended.

They've planned this ever since they saw Shark gaining those new cards of his. Making him even stronger than before. So they planned to steal them.

Shark always pushed them to buy him drinks, so it wasn't that hard for one of them to slip some sleeping pills into them, and now with Shark incapacitated, they can enact their plan and became even stronger than Shark himself, though they planned to hightail it as far away from the ferocious teen immediately as soon as they get the cards.

And he has the best target to test out their new cards on as soon as they get their hands on them.

-

"Ah darn! Even with the new cards, we still couldn't win against Yuuna!" Allen said with a frustrated look as he threw his arms up, and then crossed them behind his head as they kept walking.

"Well… at least we got better right? It's not like we're used to the cards themselves." Myu reasoned out, sharing her own opinion on how the day ended up, looking at their recent defeat at the hand of the red haired girl in a positive light.

"But it's still frustrating!" The brown haired boy complained with a groan. "The only one that actually managed to win against her once wan nee-san! And that was after losing against her three times in a row!" He grumbled out as he sent a sidelong glance back at the card shop that they were leaving from.

"But still, Anna-san did manage to win against Yuuna-san huh…" Myu mused as she had a faraway look on her face. "So even Yuuna-san can lose a duel huh? But then again, it was really close too."

"I wanted to be the one to beat her darn it!" Allen shouted as he raised a fist to the air. "Why'd it have to be nee-san!" The brown haired boy cried out in frustration while holding his head with both of his hands.

"That can't be helped can it? Anna-san is just strong after all." She said with a small smile, though also having a shiver sent down her spine. "At least we didn't have to duel against her… we can at least thank Yuuna-san for that."

"Tch, yeah. Nee-san would've definitely trashed us. Especially with that new card that she got. Seriously, 6000 attack! And it can basically attack twice too! Where did Yuuna get that!?" Allen said with a groan as he remembered the card that Anna-san got as a gift from the red haired card trader, one that essentially became their upperclassman's newest Boss Monster.

"It is certainly quite the card. She can basically summon it over any Rank 10 monster. And with Revolving Switchyard, the consistency of her getting those monsters onto the field is high." She said, pointing out the essential evolution of Anna-san's deck.

"Man, nee-san gets the best cards!" Allen groaned, and then turned and pointed at her. "And you too! How come you get to have like, three cards for free! I had to pay Yuuna a load of DP for more support!"

"Idiot, drop that topic already!" Myui defended her before she could say anything, elbowing Allen in the stomach with a frown on her face. "It's not like Yuuna-san didn't give you some more cards for free. You basically begged her for them and all." The silver haired girl said with a roll of her eyes.

"Grk!" Allen gulped as he turned away, a bead of sweat rolling down from his head. "A-anyway! Can't believe that nee-san basically left us! And she took Yuuna with her too!" The poncho wearing boy complained.

Seeing him try to forcefully change the topic, she held a small smile as she shook her head mirthfully and followed her childhood friend's whims. "Well it can't be helped, we also still have school stuff to do after all."

"Ugh. Don't remind me…" The brown haired boy said with a groan as he slumped forwards with a firm scowl on his face. "And nee-san just had to go and take Yuuna with her… I bet she could've helped us with those homework. Why'd they have to give them out with the World Duel Carnival so close! We could be training for that instead of doing those!"

"Homework? As usual you teacher's pets are uselessly working hard."

And then all their attention shifted to the figure, or rather figures, that appeared in front of them. All three of them standing in their way, smug grins on their faces as they stared at them with clear malicious intent.

Allen immediately stepped in front of her before she could even react, scowling as he held a hand in front of them. "You, you're Shark's lackeys! The heck are you all doing here?!" He shouted loudly at the trio in front of them.

The dark haired boy who seemed to be their leader, a boy that she recognized to be someone who used to attend their class, grinned. "Heh, not anymore." He said with a smug smile.

"Sayaka, by Shark, did Allen mean, that Shark?" Myu whispered out to her, all while glancing towards the trio of boys whom Allen was constantly glaring at.

She gave the silver haired girl a nod. "Yes. It's that Shark." She answered as she sent a glance at them of her own. "They are… were former classmates who were from the Clover Branch."

Then she looked down with a sad gaze at them. "But they stopped attending." She added on. "They… started missing classes. And eventually stopped attending at all. And we saw them a few times. Following Shark."

"What's this? Whispering with your Diamond Branch pet over there Sasayama?" The dark haired boy called out seeing the two of them whisper with one another. 

Myu snapped her head towards him. "What did you say!?" The twin tailed girl growled out, glaring holes at the dark haired boy, who revelled in the attention and simply smiled smugly ats he managed to rile her.

"Oh! A feisty one too!" He said with a condescending smile, one that turned soon into a vicious grin as he opened both of his arms wide and clapped his hand, laughing at Myu's reaction. 

He then shrugged, "But we're not here for you. Shoo. Go away." The dark haired boy said, flapping his hand at the silver haired girl while not even paying attention to her, motioning for her to go away. "We have no time for small fries like you."

"Why you-!"

"We're here," He continued, ignoring Myu's outburst, and pointed towards none other than herself. "For her." He said with a vicious grin, one that sent a shiver down her spine.

"What the hell do you want with Sayaka you creeps!" Allen roared out as he glared holes at the offending boy, somehow restraining himself from throwing himself against the dark haired boy.

And for the first time in their encounter, the smile was wiped off of the dark haired boy's face, replaced by a frown. "What do I want with her?" He asked as he turned his gaze towards the poncho wearing boy.

He dropped his head in his hands, repeatedly shaking it after taking a deep breath. "Oh Allen… I guess it wouldn't be true if we said that we didn;t have anything that we wanted with you too." He added, correcting his previous statement all while his entire body started shaking.

"You two must be so full of yourself. Being the 'top' of the class. A spot that was supposed to be reserved for me!" He roared as he raised his head, a look of absolute anger now painted on it as he scrunched his eyebrows and sent death glares towards them.

"I was the top of the class! We were the best of the Clovers in our age group! Then the two of you just had to show up and ruin it all!" He shouted as he waved his arms out and stomped his feet in frustration.

"You weren't only smarter, but you're stronger! No matter what we do, no matter how hard we try, we can't beat you! And with Heartland Dueling School being as strict as it is, we couldn't even feasibly cheat!" He cried out.

One of the two boys behind him then placed a hand on the dark haired boy's shoulder, the two sharing a glance before he then took a deep breath, calming himself as he seemingly regained his composure.

"So we needed to get stronger, we chose to follow the strongest person that we could think of to defeat the two of you." The dark haired boy said soon after calming himself down, and she could guess who was the one that he mentioned.

"Shark…" Or at least, that was the teen's more notable nickname. The one who more or less shares the same strength that Anna-san had, a competitor to easily be Heartland Dueling School's strongest duelist, with rumours

"That's right." He said with a nod of his head, and the grin returned once more as he shook his head. "But that's all in the past. We don't need him anymore." And that sent a wave of confusion for them.

"What?" The words left her mouth as she heard the dark haired boy's proclamation, one that apparently was shared by the other two boys behind him as they all grinned.

"That's right!" He shouted loudly as he spread his arms wide, the grin that he had growing wider and wider as he saw their reaction to his words. "We've obtained power that can rival, no, power that made us stronger than him!"

"You guys? Stronger than Shark? Get real!" Allen shouted back, his anger tempered but a glint of worry now hinted as his hands twitched, while he certainly did not believe their brazen declaration, the fact that they even declared it in the first place meant that they at the very least believed it.

Which was enough to get the poncho wearing boy to raise his guard even further, preparing himself for whatever it was that the trio in front of them had in store.

"Oh you'll see." The dark haired boy in front of them declared. "At first we wanted to test it on that Runaway Train girl, our new power that is, but you'll all do as an appetiser for the main course! "

And then the trio pulled out their duel disks, and their intention was clear.

They won't be able to leave unless they were to duel them. Or more specifically, just herself and Allen. 

Thinking so, she turned towards her silver haired friend, who much to her surprise was already pulling her own duel disk and strapping it onto her hand. 

"Myu! You don't have to-"

"Oh shut it Sayaka, it's not like I'm not involved in this." The twin tailed girl shuts her down before she could complete her sentence. "I'm your friend, of course I'm going to help you through whatever the hell those three are planning. And besides, there's three of them, and there's three of us. This way, everyone gets a duel."

Then the smaller girl's grin turned slightly more feral. "That, and they made me angry."

"You said it shorty!" Allen said with a grin of his own, much to the silver haired girl's dismay at being called that, and pulled out his own duel disk. "We'll show these thugs what happens when you mess with us!"

She sent a wary glance at the trio that started walking closer towards them, and closed her eyes before taking a deep breath and opening them once again, this time with a clear resolution shining in them.

"Then. Let's do it." And she took out her own duel disk, placing it on her left hand, and the strap automatically attaching it to her arm. 

They separated, each one of them standing against one of the three boys that confronted them. With herself facing none other than the ringleader of this whole debacle, Chiaki Sakana.

"Oh I'll enjoy this, Sasayama!" The dark haired boy shouted with glee, and they all brought forth their duel disk.

And then the duel began.

""DUEL!!""

Sayaka Sasayama: 4000LP

Chiaki Sakana: 4000LP

"I'll go first!" She declared as she took the first turn, checking on the five cards that she has on her hand to begin her turn. She saw the few cards that Yuuna-san had suggested she add, and decided on her play.

"I'll start by activating the effect of Hecatrice in my hand!" She said aloud as she revealed the Fairy monster in question from her hand. "Hecatrice allows me to discard it to add one Valhalla, Hall of the Fallen from my deck to my hand!"

She discarded the Level 4 Fairy from her hand to the graveyard as cost, and from her duel disk's deck slot she added the Continuous Spell to her hand. "And now, I will activate Valhalla, Hall of the Fallen!"

And then she immediately activated the Continuous Spell that she had just added, the holographic image of the card shining as it appeared in front of her. "And I will use it's effect!" She declared.

"If I control no monsters, once per turn, Valhalla, Hall of the Fallen lets me special summon one Fairy monster from my hand!" She explained the Continuous Spell's effect as she took out another card from her hand.

"I will special summon Starry Knight Orbitael!" And she placed the card onto her side of the field, and summoned the monster from her hand. The white winged angel then appeared on her field, dressed with white robes and golden linings, along with a shining silver shield in one hand summoned in defence position.

Starry Knight Orbitael - Light/Fairy/Level 4/Effect: 400/2100

This was the new card, or rather a whole new archetype that Yuuna-san had sold towards her to strengthen her deck. The forms of the Starry Knights themselves were very different from the fairies that she had used before, but their aesthetics had pulled her in, and they've grown on her over time, so she bought them from the red haired girl.

Though Yuuna-san kept muttering something about another archetype that would go well with her own Fairy based XYZ strategy. Something about 'stick and chair' if she remembered correctly, but the red haired girl said that their aesthetics wouldn't fit her mostly humane looking Fairy deck.

And after looking at one of the cards featuring what seemed to be a sentient sword, she agreed that those Star Seraphs was not for her, even if they seemed quite strong.

"Heh, just a monster with 400 attack. Like that'll do anything against me!" The boy said with a smug grin as he looked down on her newly summoned monster. "And that 2100 isn't much! I'll just break through it on my turn!"

Sayaka frowned at his boastful attitude, but shook her head as she focused back on the duel. "I will activate its effect!" She declared as she waved towards the one and only monster on her field.

"Starry Knight Orbitael lets me target one Light Fairy monster that I control as a Quick Effect, and tribute it. And if I do, I can set one 'Starry Knight' spell or trap directly from my deck!" She explained the monster's effect, and pointed towards the target.

"I'll target Orbitael, and tribute it to set from my deck the Spell, Starry Knight Balefire!" She said as the winged angel disappeared from her field, and she revealed the normal spell from her deck to her opponent, and set it right next to her Continuous Spell.

"And then I will activate it!" And the normal spell was then immediately flipped face-up, the holographic projection of the card shining as its effect was activated. "Starry Knight Balefire allows me to add one 'Starry Knight' monster, or one Level 7 Light Dragon monster from my deck to my hand!"

She forgo explaining the additional text of the card, one that would let her special summon a Level 7 Light Dragon monster from her hand if she meets a specific condition, and instead declared the target that she would add to her hand. 

"I will add Starry Knight Rayel from my deck to my hand!" And once again, she revealed the card that she would add from her deck to her hand to her opponent, before shuffling the card with the rest in her hand. 

"And now I will normal summon Starry Knight Rayel!" and placing the card onto her duel disk's sword projection, a new monster then appeared on her field. And another white winged angel appeared on her field, this one clad in white and gold battle dress, and carrying a shining silver sword with a shining jewel on her right hand.

Starry Knight Rayel - Light/Fairy/Level 4/Effect: 1800/700

"Now Rayel's effect!" She declared, as she activated her monster's on summon effect. "When Rayel is normal summoned, I can add one 'Starry Knight' spell or trap from my deck to my hand!"

"Che!Search this, search that. How many darn cards are you gonna search in one darn turn!" The boy that she was facing clicked his tongue in annoyance. "Well that won't matter as long as I get that card…"

Though she narrowed her eyes at his last comment, wary of what card he could possibly be referring to, she continued with her play nonetheless. "I will add the Field Spell, Starry Knight Sky from my deck to my hand, and activate it!"

And immediately their surroundings changed as the Field Spell took effect. The midday sky that one hung overhead changed into that of the night sky, illuminated by countless glowing stars that stayed out far from their reach.

She unconsciously smiled as she saw the beautiful sight that the solid vision allowed her to see upon the activation of her Field Spell, and continued on with her turn. "While Starry Knight Sky is on the field, during my Main Phase, I can normal summon one 'Starry Knight' monster or one Level 7 Light Dragon monster in addition to my normal summon or set!"

"What!? You get to normal summon twice in one turn!?" The boy said with wide eyes as she explained the Field Spell's effect.

Then she took out a card from her hand, and revealed it as she performed an additional normal summon thanks to her archetypal Field Spell. "And I will use that additional normal summon to summon Starry Knight Astel!"

And placing the monster card on her duel disk, she summoned another monster on her field. Another angel graced her side of the field as they unfurled their white wing, garbed in white and gold armor, and carrying in his hand a green jewelled staff.

Starry Knight Astel - Light/Fairy/Level 4/Effect: 500/2000

"Now I will overlay the Level 4 Starry Knight Rayel, and the Level 4 Starry Knight Astel, and overlay them!" She shouted as she raised her hand high, and the two winged angels on her side of the field turned into golden motes of lights.

A black and golden galactical spiral then appeared right between herself and her opponent, and she began the summoning chant. "I will construct an overlay network with these two monsters!" She declared as the two motes of light then entered the dark vortex, and it promptly exploded.

"XYZ Summon! Appear! Fairy Cheer Girl!" And from the dark vortex of energy came Sayaka's signature XYZ Monster, the golden pom pom wielding Fairy flapped her giant blue butterfly wings as she appeared, her miniaturized from floating slightly above her card, and two golden orbs of light rotated around the small monster.

Fairy Cheer Girl - Light/Fairy/XYZ/Rank 4/Effect: 1900/1500 OV: 2

"Fairy Cheer Girl's effect!" And immediately the glasses wearing girl activated the monster's effects right after she summoned the XYZ Monster. "I can detach one XYZ Material from this card, to draw one card!" 

And with that declaration, one of the two XYZ Materials that orbited around her XYZ Monster disappeared with a wave of the Fairy monster's pompom, one of the monster's overlay unit being detached as the cost to activating the monster's effect.

Fairy Cheer Girl - Light/Fairy/XYZ/Rank 4/Effect: 1900/1500 OV: 1

And she then promptly drew a card, getting back to three cards in her hand thanks to her XYZ Monster's effect. "I will send a card." She said as she placed a face-down card right behind Fairy Cheer Girl. "And I will end my turn."

And with that, she finished her turn. Ending with her Field Spell of choice being set on the field, her signature XYZ Monster summoned on the first turn, along with a single set card and three cards in hand.

"Che, well, I'll show you who's the boss here! My turn! I draw" He declared as he started his turn and drew, and immediately pulled a card from his six card hand to start off his play. "I'll summon Needle Sunfish!"

And as soon as he placed the monster card on his duel disk's blade projection, a monster then appeared onto his field. Shaped like a sunfish but enlarged to monstrous proportions, the monster's whole under section splits open to reveal a plethora of bright orange needles that it carried.

Needle Sunfish - Water/Fish/Level 3/Effect: 1500/100

"Then I'll activate the Spell, XYZ Reception!" He said with a grin as he placed the spell card on his duel disk, and its holographic projection appeared on his field, shining with light as its effect was activated.

"This lets me target a face-up monster I control with a Level, and special summon a monster with the same Level as that monster from my hand!" He explained the Spell's effect, and pointed at the one monster that he controlled.

"I'll target the Level 3 Needle Sunfish, and special summon the same Levelled Friller Rabca from my hand!" And with that, he took out another card from his hand and placed it onto his duel blade. And a yellow skinned bladed shark then appeared onto the field, the monster seemingly swimming in air just like the other monster that he had on his field.

Friller Rabca - Water/Fish/Level 3/Effect: 700/1500

"But since it was summoned with XYZ Reception, its attack and defence becomes zero and its effects are negated, but that won't matter anyway!" He shouted out as a blue glow enveloped his newly summoned monster, it's attack and defence dropping to that of zero as the side effect of the spell that he had used to summon it took effect.

Friller Rabca - Water/Fish/Level 3/Effect: 0/0

"Hehehe, now I'll show you… the power that I've gained!" The boy said with a manic grin as he raised his right hand high above the sky. "I'll overlay the Level 3 Needle Sunfish and the Level 3 Friller Rabca!"

And in front of the dark haired boy, a galactic spiral appeared. The two monsters whose name he had called both turned into glowing blue motes of light, and crisscrossed one another as they entered the vortex.

"With these two monsters, I'll make an overlay network! XYZ Summon!" The Shark goon roared as the vortex exploded into light, and he brought down his right hand. 

And it shone a strange mark as he brought it down.

"Come! Number 17!" The boy said with manic glee as a mark on the back of his right arm shone an ominous purple. "Leviathan Dragon!" And from the galactic vortex came a monster that made her eyes go wide in shock.

For what came was a strange thing, almost reminiscent of that of a beating heart, before the monster revealed its true form. The monster uncoiled itself as it spread all six of its wings menacingly,  its long serpentine body floating in mid air as it sent a roar of terror, the strange marking on its right horn shining just like the mark on the boy's right hand.

Number 17: Leviathan Dragon - Water/XYZ/Dragon/Rank 3/Effect: 2000/0 OV: 2

"N-Number?!" She said with wide eyes as she recognized the name, or at least the start of the name of the monster that her opponent had just summoned onto the field. "Just like Yuuna-san's… No, it's…"

'Different'. That's simply the only way that she could describe this feeling in her gut as she looked at the monster in front of her. There was no doubt that the Number monster that she was facing now, was somehow different from the Number monster that she had seen Yuuna-san summon.

It was as if they were inherently different, though she could not tell why nor how.

Sayaka shook her head as she narrowed her eyes to focus back on the duel. Whatever it was that she felt, she could decipher it later. If possible ask Yuuna-san since she had a similar card, but that can come after she wins this duel.

"And now, I'll be using Leviathan Dragon's effect!" The boy said with a huge grin on his face. "Once per turn, I can detach one material from Leviathan Dragon, to increase its attack by 500 points!"

And sure enough, the gigantic sea dragon roared as it devoured on one of its two overlay units, and a bluish glow surrounded its serpentine body as its attack was raised by 500 points.

Number 17: Leviathan Dragon - Water/XYZ/Dragon/Rank 3/Effect: 2500/0 OV: 1

"500 points…" And with one more overlay material still under the Water Dragon that was in front of her, the monster could easily get to 3000 attack on the next turn but… was that simply it?

'No, I need to be more careful.' Sayaka thought to herself as she still held her guard up and warily eye the monster in front of her. She's seen the monster that Yuuna-san has, that Number 39: Utopia and Number 39: Utopia Double, though she had never seen the red haired girl use the former's effect, the latter could instantly turn itself into an incredibly strong monster.

A Rank 3 monster whose attacks could reach 3000 was not something that she should take lightly, not to mention that there's certainly no way that that was the full extent of the Number monster in front of her. Surely there was some hidden effect that the monster had.

"And then, Needle Sunfish's effect activates!" The dark haired boy said with glee in his tone. "When Needle Sunfish is sent to the graveyard, I get to target one monster that you control and have it lose 500 attack!"

And finished with explaining the monster's effect that also triggers when it's detached from an XYZ Monster as an overlay material, the boy declared the target for its effect. "I'll reduce the attack of your Fairy Cheer Girl by 500 points!"

And she watched with narrowed eyes as the sent monster briefly appeared back onto the field, shooting out its orange needles towards her XYZ Monster who let out a shriek as she defended herself by hiding behind her pompoms. Her attack permanently reduced by 500 thanks to the Fish monster's graveyard effect.

Fairy Cheer Girl - Light/Fairy/XYZ/Rank 4/Effect: 1400/1500 OV: 1

It was a neat line of combo, she would admit. Essentially getting a one thousand point boot of damage if the attack were to connect. But she couldn't help but expected more when facing against a Number monster, especially after seeing what Yuuna's could do.

"Now battle!" The boy said with a grin. "I'll attack your Fairy Cheer Girl with my Leviathan Dragon! Vice Stream!" And the serpentine dragon then lets out a sky shaking roar as it opens its maw, and shoots out a vicious stream of water towards her own monster.

But she was prepared for the attack. It was why she had even summoned the XYZ Monster right on her first turn after all. "Then I will activate the effect of Honest in my hand!" She declared as she revealed the monster in her hand.

"During the Damage Step, when a Light monster I control battles, as a Quick Effect, I can send this card from my hand to the graveyard, and that monster gains attack equal to the attack of the opponent's monster that it is battling until the end of this turn!" She shouted explaining the hand trap's effect, and the silhouette of the white winged angel appeared behind her XYZ Monster.

Fairy Cheer Girl - Light/Fairy/XYZ/Rank 4/Effect: 3800/1500 OV: 1

"Wha-!? Thats?!" The boy shouted with wide eyes, snapping his head towards his Leviathan Dragon whose attack continued. The vicious stream of water met against the pompoms of her Fairy Cheer Girl, and thanks to the boost of Honest behind her, managed to deflect it back towards the serpentine dragon.

"Guaaagh!" He shouted as he was blown back from the recoil of the attack, receiving a good amount of battle damage from the result. A huge cloud of dust flying around from the result of the battle.

Chiaki Sakana: 2600LP

"Chiaki!" The other boy that accompanied him shouted out his name, looking at the boy with wide eyes as he saw that he was blown away from the attack.

"Hey! You think that you can just take your eyes off of me in a duel like that!" Allen called out to his opponent. And said black haired Shark goon clicked his tongue as he sent a worried glance towards his comrade before focusing back on his own duel, a frown set on his face all the while.

She felt quite relieved, no matter how it pains her, seeing the hint of panic that the other Shark follower sent to the other meant that she had him on the ropes. And now that she had managed to destroy her opponent's supposed Boss Monster meant that she should still be in a winning-

And then her eyes widened as she saw the cloud of dust settle, and see the figure of the serpentine dragon still standing strong on her opponent's side of the field, it's one remaining overlay material present as it orbited the Water XYZ Monster.

"Wha-? It wasn't destroyed by battle?" She asked aloud as she eyed the monster warily. That means that the monster has some sort of 'battle protection' as Yuuna-san would call it. Was that why its effect was lackluster?

"Tch, you… to think that you'd use underhanded tactics like that! Coward!" The boy shouted loudly as he growled and started to pick himself up, his clothing somewhat tattered after falling onto the ground.

"The hell is that card. A monster effect that can be activated in the hand? Like a freaking trap? Traps are supposed to be set on the field! That's cheating!" He shouted as he pointed fingers angrily at her.

And all she could do was just… stare at him. "It isn't like this was a new mechanic… and using a card like that isn't cheating." And wasn;t that the truth. She'd done her research on some of the cards that Yuuna-san had sold them all, and while some don't appear in the many databases that she's searched on, showing just how simply rare they were, some did hit matches.

And though the entirety of the Starry Knight archetype doesn't show up in any of her searches, she at least managed to find that the card Honest was released somewhere around 6 years ago, but the card itself was still quite rare and priced high on the market.

And the fact that she had three copies of the card, all bought far, far below that of the market price, spoke of many things about Yuuna-san that they still don't know of.

"But too bad for you my Leviathan Dragon can't be destroyed by your measly Fairies!" The boy shouted loudly with a grin. "Because Number monsters can only be destroyed by other Number monsters! And I bet that you don't have any of them in your deck!"

"Can't be destroyed by battle other than with Number monsters…" She murmured as she filed that bit of information. Did the same apply to the Utopia that Yuuna-san had? 

"Chee! I'll set a card face-down!" The boy said, still grinning as he set a face-down card right behind his monster. "And I'll end my turn! Don't get too cocky just because you dealt some damage! I'll definitely beat you this time Sasayama!" The boy shouted as he ended his turn with two cards remaining left in his hand, a Number XYZ Monster on his side of the field, and an unknown set card.

"At the end of the turn Fairy Cheer Girl's attack returns to normal." She said as she kept a wary glance at the still standing Water Dragon on her opponent's side of the field, and glanced back at her own XYZ Monster whose attack was now lower than said Dragon with the effect of Honest vanishing after the end of the turn, or at least, returning to what it once was as its attack was permanently reduced thanks to the effect of Needle Sunfish.

Fairy Cheer Girl - Light/Fairy/XYZ/Rank 4/Effect: 1400/1500 OV: 1

"Then it's my turn again, I will draw." And she then drew for turn, getting back to a three card hand as she drew for turn. She looked at the card that she had drawn for turn, and a plan already began forming in her mind.

"I will activate the effect of Fairy Cheer Girl once more!" She declared as she waved her right hand towards her XYZ Monster. "I will detach its last remaining XYZ Material, to draw one card!"

And with a wave of her signature XYZ Monster's pompoms, and with the last of her XYZ Monster's overlay units used, she drew an additional card for her Main Phase 1. Getting up to four cards as she began to play her turn.

Had it been her deck before, she would have no feasible card that she could use to defeat the gigantic serpentine dragon ahead of her. After all, for most people, herself included, they would usually need their Battle Phase as a way to destroy an opponent's monster. 

And with Leviathan Dragon essentially being indestructible by battle other than one against a Number monster, a monster that she does indeed not have in her Extra Deck, then she essentially had no way of destroying the monster.

But with the cards that Yuuna had sold and given to her, with her newly upgraded and changed deck and knowledge, she had ways to defeat her opponent and the monster that he had on his field.

"Now I will use the effect of Starry Knight Rayel in my graveyard!" She declared with a wave of her hand. "Starry Knight Rayel lets me banish it from the graveyard to target one 'Starry Knight' monster in my graveyard except another copy of itself, and special summon it!"

"Wha- since when was that card in the graveyard?!" The boy said with wide eyes before narrowing his eyes at her XYZ Monster that had exhausted both of its XYZ Materials. "So it was detached, no, of course it's in the grave. You detached both of its XYZ Materials." He mumbled to himself.

She glanced warily at the boy, an eyebrow raised as he pointed out what was most certainly an obvious fact of her XYZ Materials going to the graveyard after they were detached, but shook her head as she focused on her plays that would achieve her goals. "I will banish Rayel to special summon aback Starry Knight Orbitael!"

And after banishing the Level 4 Monster from her graveyard, she took out her target from her graveyard slot and placed it back on her duel disk's duel blade. And once more, the shield bearing angel appeared on her side of the field.

Starry Knight Orbitael - Light/Fairy/Level 4/Effect: 400/2100

"Now Orbitael's effect!" She declared, activating the effect of her resummoned Starry Knight Orbitael right after she had summoned it back. "I'll tribute itself, and I will set a second copy of Starry Knight Balefire!"

And just like it had done before, the shield bearing angel raised its hand as said shield shone, disappearing into motes of light as it tribute itself for cost and setting to her field another copy of the Spell card.

"Tch, that card again!" Her opponent grumbled as she set the second copy of the Spell card directly from her deck. "So you're searching for another card…" The boy said with narrowed eyes, foreseeing her play.

"And I will activate its effect!" And just as he had predicted, she activated the Spell card's effect intending to search another card from her deck. "You remember what this card does. But this time, instead of adding a 'Starry Knight' monster,  I will add the Level 7 Light Dragon, Starry Night, Starry Dragon, from my deck to my hand!"

"A Dragon?! I thought you were playing a Fairy based deck?!" The boy said with wide eyes, but shook his head. "But no matter! Whatever that Dragon is, there's no way that it'll beat Shark's- MY Leviathan Dragon!"

And just as he said that, his serpentine XYZ Monster roared once more, as if it was daring her to summon the other Boss Monster that her deck had. Almost as if the solid hologram was… alive.

"But… what the hell are those!" And then the dark haired boy turned to growl and pointed at her, surprising her slightly at the immediate change of topic. "What the hell are those cards! How come they all let you just add cards from your deck or set them directly! They're stupid! How did you even get them!?"

"Then I will ask you the same question." She asked calmly as she fixed her glasses with one hand, glaring at her opponent from behind them. "That Number monster of yours, where exactly did you get them? How come you have a card that comes from the same archetype as Yuuna-san?"

"Yuuna-san? Who the hell is that!?" The boy shouted with a confused look on his face, before his eyes widened slightly, and then narrowed as he glared. "Oh I get it. That's that Red Hat trader's name huh. The one that sold you all those fancy cards." 

The dark haired boy then grinned. "So that's the name of that card trader, huh. Well, they're definitely not the same one where Shar-where we got our cards from. But now that we know they're name we can just find them and steal their cards! Just like we'll do to you guys after this is all done!"

And the boy then lets out a hearty laugh, self assured of his own victory even after seeing her start to assemble her cards. "And if this Yuuna person has a Number like you said, then we can steal them right after we win!"

And for the first time, Sayaka felt what she could only describe as rage bloom in her heart. "So… there really is no talking you out of this… And you're even thinking of going after Yuuna-san! How could you stoop so low!"

Logically thinking, there was no possible way for them to even defeat Yuuna-san. As far as she had known the older red haired girl, she had not lost a duel, always standing as an infallible wall that defeated even Anna-san, a treasure trove of knowledge that seems to know about cards that none of them even know.

But she wouldn't know if the red haired girl could stand against the three of her class-former classmates as they were now. Even if she does possess a Number monster that could destroy theirs in battle.

She felt angry at the boy in front of her. The delinquent that had come from the same class as her and turned into Shark's lackey, one with clear malicious intentions not only to herself, but to her friends as well.

She knew that nothing would have changed if she had tried to reach out to the boy. This all, after all, boiled down to some one sided grudge that was born from a one sided complex of inferiority, of her simply being better than the boy in terms of dueling and academic prowess. One that made the dark haired boy devolve into delinquency and grew into this.

"If it seems that words wouldn't quite do it then…" She said with a small sigh and a downcast look, before looking up towards the dark haired boy with eyes burning with determination. "Then, I will stop you!"

Then it was only right for her to at the very least be the one to stop him. Right here. Right now. Before he does something that he would actually regret in the future.

"Just try it! Sasayama!" The dark haired boy roared again, a self assured grin still on his face. "You can't destroy my Leviathan Dragon in battle! And on my next turn, it'll have 3000 points of attack!"

This time, she was the one who shook her head as she focused back on the line of play that she saw, intending to do her best to win this game, not that she wasn't already putting her all in from the start. "Now I will activate my set card! The Continuous Trap, Starry Knight Arrival!"

And she flipped the set card that she had set previously face-up, and the Continuous Trap's holographic projection that depicted the white dragon's descent shone brightly on her side of the field.

"Starry Knight Arrival allows me to once per turn special summon one Level 7 Light Dragon from my hand!" She declared loudly, as she then revealed the one card that she had just added to her hand.

"I will special summon the Level 7 Light Dragon monster that I had just added, Starry Knight, Starry Dragon!" She shouted aloud as the Continuous Trap shone even brighter, and a haze of aurora appeared decorating the starry sky.

And in a smooth motion, she took out the card from her hand and placed the monster card onto her duel blade. "Descend! Starry  Night, Starry Dragon!" She called out with her hand raised, and a white light answered.

Descending from the sky was a pure white dragon, glitters of gold scattering as it descended from the skies above. Its white wings spread wide as its tail swung backwards as it took its place, floating right beside her XYZ Monster.

Starry Knight, Starry Dragon - Light/Dragon/Level 7/Effect: 2500/2300

"What the-!? You can just summon it like that!? Without tributes or anything!? That's cheating!" The Shark lackey that she was dueling exclaimed with wide eyes as he pointed towards the glowing white dragon on her field.

"And I will activate the effect of Starry Knight, Starry Dragon!" She declared as she ignored her opponent's outrage. "If Starry Night, Starry Dragon is normal or special summoned from the hand, I can target one card on the field and destroy it!"

"Wha-!? It can just destroy a card on the field?!" The dark haired boy exclaimed once more with wide eyes. And once more, she ignored him as she pointed towards the one target that she would use the Dragon's effect on.

"I will destroy your monster! Starry Night, Starry Dragon! Destroy Number 17: Leviathan Dragon!" And designating her target, her main deck Boss Monster lets out a roar as it spread out both of its arms wide and flew high. And with the starry sky shining behind it, the Light Dragon opened its maw and shot out a beam of light, aimed towards none other than Number 17: Leviathan Dragon.

The Water Serpentine Dragon lets out a roar of its own, shooting a vicious jet stream from its own maw that met against Starry Night, Starry Dragon's beam. But the effect of the Light Dragon's destruction effect, represented by the light that was shot from the Dragon's maw then hits its target, cutting through Leviathan Dragon's own water jet as it hits the serpentine dragon and causing a grand explosion.

"Leviathan Dragon?!" Her opponent shouted loudly as he held up both of his hands to protect himself from the resulting effect, and opened his eyes wide to a field that only had a single set card. "What?! How-!?"

"Even if Leviathan Dragon is  indestructible by battle other than with another Number monster, it can still be destroyed by card effects!" She said as she glared at the dark haired boy.

"Now I will summon Starry Knight Flamel!" And she took out another card from her hand and placed it on her duel disk's duel blade, and an armoured angel carrying a bow loaded with a burning arrow appeared as it floated next to her, filling her board with another monster.

Starry Knight Flamel - Light/Fairy/Level 4/Effect: 1500/1000

And with another monster summoned onto her side of the field, she felt sure that no matter what that set card that her opponent had might be, she would surely be able to go through them.

"Now, battle!" She declared loudly as she moved on towards the Battle Phase, intending to brave through the boy's one set card, whatever it may be. "I will attack you directly with Starry Night, Starry Dragon!"

The white dragon of the stars then lets out a roar as it spreads its wings, flying high into the starry sky as it prepares to deal the final blow to end the duel. "Kuuuh! I'll activate my trap card!" Her opponent shouted loudly as the white dragon prepared to perform its attack, flipping his face-down trap card up.

"XYZ Reborn!" He shouted the card's name as the Trap card shone brightly on the field. "This card lets me special summon back an XYZ Monster in my graveyard, and attach this card to it as an XYZ Material!"

And with an annoyed look, the dark haired boy then took out the one and only legal target from his graveyard, and revealed it to her before setting it onto his duel blade. "I'll summon Number 17: Leviathan Dragon back to my field in defence position!"

And with a glow, the serpentine dragon then returned onto the field. Spreading its wings and letting out its roar as it once again faced against her.

Number 17: Leviathan Dragon - Water/XYZ/Dragon/Rank 3/Effect: 2000/0 OV: 0

And the trap card that had summoned the XYZ Monster back onto the field then attached itself onto the Water XYZ Monster. Turning into a pale blue mote of light that orbited around the monster.

Number 17: Leviathan Dragon - Water/XYZ/Dragon/Rank 3/Effect: 2000/0 OV: 1

"How'd you like that huh!? Since it's in defence position, I won't be taking any damage! And since it can't be destroyed by battle other than with a Number monster, you can't destroy it!" The boy boasted with a nasty grin on his face.

"Then on the next turn, I can just destroy that crappy dragon of yours and slowly break your field, piece by piece! I win! Sasayama! HAHAHAHA!" Her opponent then began to laugh derangedly as if he had lost his sanity, assured that he would win the duel.

And contrary to whatever he seemed to believe, instead of looking at the monster in fear or falling into despair at what he sees as an unwinnable position, she merely looked at the dark haired boy coldly. 

"Then I will redeclare the attack to your Leviathan Dragon. Go, Starry Night, Starry Dragon!" She said, ignoring whatever it was that seemed to have possessed her opponent at the moment, and redeclared the attack.

With a beat of its wings, the white dragon changed course as it closed its maw and took a dive towards the serpentine dragon, intending to meet against the XYZ Monster head on in battle.

"Ha! It's useless Sasayama! Did you lose your mind or something? Leviathan Dragon can't be destroyed by battle you idiot!" The boy said with a grin as his serpentine dragons lets out a roar, charging a breath of its own to counter the oncoming attack of her Starry Dragon.

"I will activate the second effect of Starry Night, Starry Dragon." She declared, once again ignoring the words that left her former classmate's mouth. "Once per turn, at the start of the Damage Step, if this card attacks an opponent's monster, I can banish that monster until the End Phase!"

And right before the two dragons could meet head on, the white winged dragon stopped its descent with another beat of its wings. And golden spirals and flickers of light surrounded the serpentine XYZ Monster, restructuring it and then along with the dragon, disappearing from the field.

"Wha-!?" 

"And Starry Night, Starry Dragon can then perform a second attack in a row." She said without missing a beat, ignoring the mental breakdown that her opponent was having. "Go! Starry Night, Starry Dragon! Attack directly!"

And now that the dragon was already standing right in front of her opponent, and no other cards on his side of the field. The pure white dragon raised its head and spread its wings as it opened its maw and prepared to send a breath attack to finish the duel.

"Nonononono this can't be happening!? After all I've been through! After all I've done!?" The dark haired boy mumbled out rapidly as he stared with wide eyes at the white dragon right in front of him. His entire body trembling and unconsciously taking a few steps back in fear.

And then the attack came, a breath of white light that enveloped him entirely. "NOOOOO! SASAYAMAAAAAA!" He shouted as he then fell backwards and slumped onto the ground, what remained of his Life Points to zero thanks to the attack.

Chiaki Sakana: 0LP

She took a moment to take a deep breath as the duel was finished. And as the solid holograms around them all started to disappear, starting of course with the field spell that surrounded them, she stared at the prone form of her opponent with a frown.

She slowly inched closer as she put a hand over the dark haired boy's face, and found that he was still breathing, thankfully, but somehow unconscious. She frowned. She's heard of some people reacting to the impact of solid vision, mostly ones that are put into the highest level with mass and all, causing bruises or aches at the very most if they were to fall or lose their balance due to them, but she's never heard of someone actually falling unconscious from losing a duel.

Then she immediately stood up and searched for her friend who was no doubt also dueling against the two Shark followers. She didn't need to search far nor did she need to wait long however, as she found that their duels were nearing their end.

"Che, your Nightmare Shark or whatever its name is might be indestructible by battle or what not. But you'll still take battle damage! Go!  Heavy Armored Train Ironwolf and Infinitrack River Stormer! Attack!"

And going with her childhood friend's command, the wolf headed train and Allen's newly acquired XYZ Monster, what seemed to be a futuristic three cannoned tank, send out their attacks against what seemed to be a bladed winged humanoid nightmarish shark monster, one that sported a number 47 on the left side of its head.

"GUAAAAGH" Allen's opponent shouted as he was thrown back from the resulting attack. Falling onto his back and his Life Points too reached zero from the battle.

"Oh! You're both done!" And then Sayaka turned her head to see Myu running towards her. Allen soon following suit as he huffed and walked towards them, his breath slightly laboured by the looks of it.

"Che, was I seriously the last one to finish? Jeez that guy was annoying." Allen grumbled out as he looked at his fallen opponent with a glare. "Had one of those cards that negated my attack and dealt damage for some reason. And then stole one of my overlay materials so that I can't use Ironworlf's effect to attack directly with a spell card!"

"Allen, that last monster that you fought… was that…" She started to ask, and the poncho wearing boy glanced towards her before nodding with a frown firmly etched on his face.

"Yeah. it was a Number monster just like Yuuna's." He said as he turned towards her and his eyes widened slightly as he snapped his head towards the opponent that she had beaten, and back to her. "Wait, if you're asking that does that mean that he also-"

And she nodded before he could even fully form his question, already guessing what it would be. "Yeah. he had a Number monster on him, just like your opponent did apparently." Then she turned to Myu, but the silver haired girl slowly looked away.

"W-well you see…" The twin tailed girl started as she twiddled her fingers. "I-it's not like it was my fault okay! My duel finished far earlier since I managed to get Dolkka on the field on my first turn to negate all of his monster effects, and then I made Laggia to negate whatever set card he had and finished the duel!"

Allen cackled as he saw the silver haired girl's short outburst. "Ha! So you didn't even let him summon his Boss Monster huh? Wonder if he did have a Number monster just like the other two did?"

"He did. They all had one that they stole from me."

And the trio immediately turned to face the source of the sound, all having their guards up immediately as they all stared at the back of someone who was standing over the prone form of the duelists that they had defeated.

And the figure seemingly takes a card from the unconscious boy's duel disk, pocketing it before slowly standing up and turning towards them. 

Their eyes went wide with recognition as they saw the teen that stood in front of them. With both of his hands placed in his pockets, a scowl placed on his face, purple hair framed his face and his blue-gray coloured bangs acted as a sort of crown for the teen that glared at them.

"I overheard some interesting things while you lot were dueling." The teen said, his blue eyes never leaving them as he started to walk closer, closing the distance between himself and the three of them.  

"Now then." Shark said as he narrowed his eyes. "Why don't you tell me about this Yuuna person?"