Three o'clock. To most people, it was just another. But not to the students at Heartland Middle School. This special hour meant freedom, the end of the school day. All the students rushed out in one big wave out the double doors. The crowd began to split of into groups of kids, talking and making motions at each other. Other students split of into trios or pairs. The groups mainly stayed on the school grounds, but one pair of students was already leaving, both seeming to be in an argument.

Yuma Tsukumo, a first year with violently spiked hair was talking rapidly to the other student. Ryoga, more commonly known as 'Shark', walked alongside Yuma with a bored expression on his face.

"How brain-missing are you?" Shark remarked to Yuma. This stopped the first-year right in his tracks.

Yuma's face turned red with anger. "How am I brain-missing? I just asked a question!" He simply had asked Shark if they wanted to trade duel secrets.

Shark shook his head. "If they're my deepest secrets, why would I tell you?"

"Because we're friends!"

"Oh god, not this again."

"Agggh, come on!" Yuma pondered for a moment. Why couldn't Shark just open up to him? It's not like he was going to blabble his secrets to every guy on the street. Maybe if he went first. Yuma leaned in closer to his friend. "What if I tell you my secret first?"

"Depends on how good it is."

"Oh, it's good alright. But you have to promise not to tell anyone."

"This better be good."

Yuma leaned in closer. "You promise not to tell?"

Shark huffed. "Yes, yes, now hurry up. I don't have all day."

Yuma lowered his voice. "It's secret power. So far, I've only used it twice, but it's very powerful. It has helped me in duels every time."

"Oh god, if it's some corny saying like "heart of the cards", I don't want to hear it."

Yuma giggled and cupped his hands around Shark's ear. He lowered his voice to a whisper. "It's much better than that. Much more real!"

"Well, what is it?" Now, Shark was intriguing. Maybe Yuma wasn't good for nothing.

"It's called ZEXAL." Yuma breathed the last word and quickly pulled away. He waited to see the look on Shark's face.

"Yuma, what in the world was that ze-,zei-. Hell, I don't even know what you said!"

"ZEXAL. Z-E-X-A-L. ZEXAL!"

"Sexual?"

"NO!" Yuma began to blush. How could Shark even... "The X is silent, okay? It's the secret power I told you about." Shark still looked dumbfounded, wondering what was wrong with Yuma. "So... how does it work."

"Well, I've only tried it with Astral, but..." Shark sighed. Not Yuma's invisible friend again. "You see, we overlay our bodies, and then BOOM! We combine together and we have this awesome new deck and outfit and stuff!"

"Sounds like a load of bull to me."

"Well it's not!" Yuma spat into Shark's face. They had now arrived at Yuma's house. Obomi, the Tsukumo's own personally trash-bot, was outside, mopping. She looked up at the two adolescents argument. Yuma angerly crossed his arms over his chest. "It really happened. Twice!"

Shark chuckled at bent over to face Yuma. "How stupid are you? You can't overlay people. Only monsters, dumbass."

"Oh yeah? Well, I bet I can do it right now!"

"Let me guess. With your invisible friend Astral. Am I correct?"

"No, I do it with you!" Yuma poked a finger into Shark's chest. He just chucked again. "You're being unreal, dofus. Like I said before, you can't overlay people."

"Well, you're about to get proved wrong!"He stuck two fingers into his mouth and whistled. "Hey Obomi. Meet me in the living room, will ya?"

Obomi dropped her broom and wheeled inside the house. Yuma stormed in, followed by Shark. When they arrived moments later, Yuma stretched his arms over his head and yawned. Show time. He dropped his backpack on the floor. He walked over to Obomi, who was patiently awaiting he ext command.

"I need you to pretend we're dueling! I need to show Shark something."

"Pretend?" That was not a command she was familiar with. Yuma sighed loudly. "Just, get set up for a duel." He turned to Shark. "Now you stand next to me."

"Yuma, what..."

"Just do it."

Shark shrugged his shoulders and trudges over to the designated spot. Obomi already began her duel sequence and was now holding a duel disk on her arm. Yuma did the same and put his duel disk and gazer on.

"So, we're in a duel, right? Now, if I focus my energy I should be able to do this correctly..." Yuma's speech trailed off as he closed his eyes for a second.

And then, with no warning, Yuma ran at full speed towards Shark and they collided. The force threw them both to the ground. Obomi watched skeptically.

After a few moments, Yuma opened his eyes. Did he succeed? He then felt the warmth of a chest under his own. Nope, Yuma and Shark were still separated.

"Hmm, I wonder why it didn't work?"

"Yuma!" Shark growled up at Yuma. "What the hell was that for?"

"Do you feel anything? More power?"

"I feel awkward alright if that's what your getting at."

He quickly realized that he was lying on top of Shark and shot up. He looked down. "Um, our bodies should have overlay. I don't know what went wrong."

"Yuma, just get off of..."

He snapped his fingers. "Oh, of course! Astral's naked. Your clothes must have interfered with the process." He looked down again. "Can you take your clothes off"

Shark's eyes widened."Yuma, you pervert, I'm not getting naked! Do you have any idea how wrong you sound?"

"C'mon. Don't you want to have awesome powers? Just try harder this time! And take your clothes off." He began to tear at his friends shirt.

"You're sick! Get your hands off of me!'

"Fine, if you won't undress, then I'll be the Astral." He began to unzip his pants. Shark grunted. This was sounding more like a bedroom than a duel every second.

"What if someone walks in Yuma? You better quit or else..."

"No! Just one more..."

"Uh... Yuma?" This voice was too deep to belong to Yuma or Shark. They looked up to find new people had arrived. A couple feet away from the incident stood Tetsuo, Kotori, and Takashi, the class rep. They all had dumbfounded looks on their faces. Kotori even looked a little sick."

Tetsuo cleared his throat and tried to speak again. "Why are you sitting on top of Ryoga?"

Yuma gulped. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Shark turn red again. Oh great. How am I ever going to explain this one?