I don't own YGO. I'm just an 18-year old writer. Also, if I get some details wrong about Arc-V, I'm just in the early episodes.
It was a typical day in Heartland City. Well, as about as typical a day could be for Yuma Tsukumo. Ever since the Numbers were all collected and Astral disappeared, the world went back to normal. Astral left Utopia with him, and went back to the Astral World, the world had become more peaceful.
Speaking of Yuma... where is he right now?
"Zzzzz..."
As he slept in his hammock, Emperor's Key around his neck (as per usual), the 14-year old would then dream about an old friend...
(Dream)
"Yuma..." a voice called out. Yuma turned to the source of the voice, only to see Astral floating in an empty space.
"Astral!" Yuma called out. He tried to run after the Astral being, but then he found that he couldn't move. "What the..." At this point, Astral floated away from Yuma, which only drove the teen to run after him even harder.
"Don't worry. I will never leave, Utopia is proof of that, Yuma. Yuma... "
"YUMA!"
(Dream end)
At that moment, Yuma would fall out of his hammock, waking him up from his dream. As he sat up, he would rub the back of his head. "Ouch..." He opened his eyes to see his older sister, Akari. "B-Big sister?! What'd you do that for?"
"Listen Yuma, Mom and Dad might not be here, but you still have to answer to me! Now, breakfast is on the table, and I need to go out today." Akari stated, almost forgetting something. "Oh yeah, Yuma, this letter came for you yesterday." Yuma took the letter from his sister.
"That's weird, I wasn't expecting a letter from anybody... I wonder who it's from." Yuma mentally wondered. He opened the letter, it read the following:
ATTENTION DUELISTS!
Do you want to be recognized as the best of the best? Do you want to show off your impeccable duelist skill? Then, sign up for the Astral Dueling Conference! Meet us at Heartland Square This Sunday at 2:30 P.M. Hope to see you there!
Yuma looked at the letter in surprise. Since Astral had left for the Astral World, he had not dueled seriously in the longest time. "Should I do this..."
Meanwhile, in another part of the country...
Yuya LP: 1500 Hand: 0
Serena LP: 2000 Hand: 4
Yuya's Field: Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon, Performapal Sword Fish, Performapal Trampolynx
Pendulum Zones: Timegazer Magician (Scale 8) & Stargazer Magician (Scale 1)
1 Facedown Card
Serena's Field: Lunalight Cat Dancer, Lunalight Blue Cat
Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon
ATK: 2500
✩ x 7
Performapal Sword Fish
DEF: 600
✩x 2
Performapal Trampolynx
DEF: 300
✩x 2
Lunalight Cat Dancer
ATK: 2400
✩ x 7
Lunalight Blue Cat
ATK: 1600
x 4
"And now," Serena began. "With the Scale 1 Lunalight Wolf and the Scale 5 Lunalight Tiger, I'm setting the Pendulum Scale!" She laid down the cards on her duel disk as the words "PENDULUM" lit up on her duel disk in rainbow-colored letters. Her monsters ascended into the air, inside pillars of light, and the numbers "1" and "5" appeared under them.
Up in the viewing room, Yuto, Yugo, and Yuri were watching the duel, when Yuri chuckled.
"It's amazing, isn't it? Not only is Serena experienced in Fusions, she's also excelling as a Pendulum user as well!" Yuri commented, complementing the Fusion girl. "And here, I thought she'd never be able to master the ability like Yuya did..." Yuri continued, as he put his cheek in his hand, and half-lidded his eyes.
"Well, Yuri," Yuto began. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say that you were falling in love..." The Xyz user then began to snicker.
Yuri shot him a nasty glare, and nearly yelled, "What did you say?!"
Back at the duel, Serena's Pendulum summoning continued. "With this, I can Summon monsters with Levels 2 through 4! Pendulum Summon!" Serena threw her hand up at the last line, and above the two duelists, a portal opened up, with 2 purple beams of light descended onto the field. "Lunalight Purple Butterfly and Lunalight Black Sheep!" Serena declared, as the Lunar monsters formed from light.
Lunalight Black Sheep
DEF: 600
✩x 2
Lunalight Purple Butterfly
ATK: 1000
✩x 3
Yuya breathed as he took in a minute to see the monsters on the Fusion Girl's field. "Amazing..."
"I activate Purple Butterfly's Effect!" Serena exclaimed as her monster began to glow. "When I send this monster to the graveyard, any Lunalight Monsters that I choose gain 1000 Attack Points! And I'm letting those points go to good use by putting them on Cat Dancer!" Purple Butterfly was destroyed, but its remains were absorbed into Serena's Cat Dancer.
Lunalight Cat Dancer
ATK: 3400
"It's got more Attack Points than Odd-Eyes!" Yuya exclaimed.
"And next, I'll tribute Lunalight Black Sheep to activate my monster's effect!" She stated as her Black Sheep dissapated. "Because I tributed a Lunalight monster this turn, I can attack all of your monsters twice!" Serena stated, making Yuya react. "Magic Card, activate! Lunar Eclipse!" The magic card formed on the field. "Because of this card, My monsters cannot be targeted by Spells or Traps!" Yuya was taken aback by this situation. "Battle! Lunalight Cat Dancer, attack Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon!" Serena exclaimed, as the monster rushed toward the heterochromatic eyed creature. "Full Moon... Crest!" An image of the moon appeared behind it, as the monster raised it's scepter, and pointed it at Odd-Eyes, destroying the red dragon.
"EEEEEEEEEGGGGHHHHHH!" Yuya exclaimed, as his monster was destroyed, sending him flying.
Serena LP: 2000 - WIN
Yuya LP: 0
The solid vision faded, as Serena walked over to the green-redhead and outstretched her hand to Yuya. "Need a hand?" Yuya smiled as he was picked up by the Fusion girl. "Thanks. I really didn't think that you could beat me like that!"
Yuya's counterparts walked over, with Yuri clapping. "Amazing! Serena, you are simply amazing!" The Fusion girl would only shoot a mean glare at him, before turning her attention to Yuya again.
"Come on, we need to keep practicing." Serena stated, readying her duel disk once more.
"Why do you keep dueling? This is about the 10th time in a row you've dueled each other! What is this going to accomplish?" Yuto asked.
Yuya would pull a sheet out of paper, showing it to his counterparts. The main print for the letter read:
ATTENTION DUELISTS!
Do you want to be recognized as the best of the best? Do you want to show off your impeccable duelist skill? Then, sign up for the Astral Dueling Conference! Meet us at Heartland Square This Sunday at 2:30 P.M. Hope to see you there!
"That's why we want to get in as much practice as possible!" Yuya explained. "Yuzu's entering, and so is Sora, Reiji and even Shun!" Yuto just looked at him, saying, "Well, this all sounds well and good, but this says that for the qualifying rounds, people will be split up into teams of 4."
"I know that!" Yuya chirped. "That's why I signed up you, Yugo, and Yuri for us to work together in the preliminaries!" As he was saying this, he respectively pointed to each of his counterparts.
"Wait, hold on!" Serena butted in, interrupting Yuya. "You've already signed yourselves for a team, but me and Yuzu haven't! What's gonna happen to us?"
Yuya wondered, and after a bit, he concluded to the fact that, "Maybe they'll put you two in a random group!" Serena just looked at him with a stoic face. "What if these people I'm put in a group with a bunch of weirdos?"
Yuri took the fusion girl's hand while getting down on one knee, saying, "I'd protect you, my moon goddess..." However, while leaning in to kiss her hand, Yuri was met by the bottom of Serena's boot.
"Hmph. As long as I'm not on a team with that, I think I'll be okay." Serena sneered, pointing at the downed Yuri, as everyone else would just laugh at the scene.
That Sunday...
Yuma arrived at the scene where the tournament was being held, and saw a bunch of duelists, and seeing them instantly had him mesmerized by the amount of people there. "Wow..." the young boy mused. "Am I going to have to beat all these people?..."
"Yuma!" a female called out. Yuma tuned his head to see Kotori, Shark, and Kaito all standing in one place, with Kotori waving to him. Yuma ran up to them saying, "You guys are here, too?"
Shark rubbed the back of his head, and explained "Well, after figuring out that you would probably be here, Kotori called used the both of us, and signed us all up to be on the same team."
"Wait, so-" Yuma began, but was cut off by the loud roars of: "HOLD IIIIIIIIIIT!" a teenaged boy, dressed in a orange t-shirt and baggy pants, with hair colored red and green in what could only be described as a tomato, and a pair of goggles resting on his head (one lens had a blue star on it), with ran to the square with 3 other boys, all apparently the same age running beside him.
The one on his right was wearing a red scarf on his arm, layers of black-purple hair, a dull green formal shirt and dark blue tie, as well as a black cape-like garment with ripped sleeves and edges plus dark blue pants and black boot-like shoes.
The boy on his left wore a white jacket with red borders and yellow stripes on the sleeves, along with a white jumpsuit that had red, blue, and yellow stripes that met in the center in a chevron pattern, white gloves, shoulder, elbow and knee pads, and white, red, and gray boots, and blue-yellow dual-colored hair that swept to the right in several bangs.
The final boy, on his far right, had two-toned violet and pink hair, wearing a sort of officers' uniform, consisting of a purple and light blue waistcoat, pink cravat, a two-part cape of red and purple.
"Damn it, Yuya, you should have waken us up earlier!" the dark-haired boy griped.
The redhead, named Yuya, had shot the boy a glare. "Well, sorry that I had to perfect my deck for this moment!" He turned away from him. "What, do you want me to lose that badly?" he said, muttering under his breath. As they approached the gate, Yuya held up his middle and index finger, forming the peace sign, whilst saying, "LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!"
This made almost everyone in the arena turn towards him, most looking confused, many looking shocked. "The greatest team from Miami City has arrived to claim victory! Team Sakaki has... arrived!" Somehow, confetti rained down on the four boys, while everyone just stared in bewilderment.
"A lot of colorful characters here, aren't there?" Kaito said, looking at the four boys.
"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!" a new voice rang out.
"Hey, who the hell's stealing my catchphrases?" Yuya griped, as that voice rung all too familiar to Yuma. "Could it be...?" the red-eyed duelist breathed. Out from the curtain, there was a mohawked blue and white being, covered with green markings, with white and gold heterochromatic eyes, and wearing a crown of sorts. "Welcome, honorable duelists!"
"ASTRAL?!" Yuma, Shark, Kaito, and Kotori all cried out. Yuya however, was taken aback by this. "Huh? Who's that?
"That's Astral." Yuto replied. "In my dimension, he was one of the people who led the charge against the Fusion Dimension, before Shun took over."
"We are all gathered here today for one reason!" Astral made a dramatic pause. "...To develop bonds through dueling!" the crowd cheered at that line, before Astral held his hand up, asking them to be quiet. "The qualification round of the tournament is simple." Astral held up 3 medals, from smallest to largest, all colored copper, silver, and gold respectively. All of the medals had a picture of the Emperor's Key on them. "These medals I hold in my hand are called Astral Medals. For each medal you get, the closer you are to qualifying to the tournament stage!" Astral explained. "Copper Medals are worth 1 medal, Silver are 2 medals, and Gold are 5 medals. The minimum amount of medals you are required to have are 20."
Astral looked out to the crowd. Then he saw a familiar face. "Yuma..." he then continued stating the rules, such as: "When you start the preliminary round, you will start with 5 medals, and if you have 0, you are eliminated." Astral continued. "Each duelist will be paired into teams of 4, as shown here:"
(A/N: I'M ONLY SHOWING THE ONES THAT MATTER, OKAY? Okay.)
Team 1 - Yuma Tsukumo, Ryoga Kamishiro, Kotori Mizuki, Kaito Tenjo
Team 2 - Yuya Sakaki, Yuto Sakaki, Yugo Sakaki, Yuri Sakaki
Team 3 - Vector, Girag, Alit, Mizael
Team 4 - Sora Shiun'in, Haruto Tenjo, Mieru Hochun, Reira Akaba
Team 5 - Noboru Gogenzaka, Futoshi Harada, Ayu Ayukawa, Tatsuya Yamashiro
Team 6 - Shingo Sawatari, Hokuto Shijima, Kotsu Masumi, Yaiba Todo
Team 7 - Rio Kamishiro, Yuzu Hiragi, Anna Kouzuki, Fuya Okudaira
Team 8 - Chris Arclight, Michael Arclight, Thomas Arclight, Serena Hiragi
Team 9 - Tetsuo Takeda, Cathy, Takashi Todoroki, Tokunosuke Omoteura
Team 10 - Gauche, Droite, Reiji Akaba, Shun Kurosaki
All the duelists gasped as they saw who they were paired up with, and Astral smiled. "And just for a little fun..." he brought out the Numeron Code, which contained all the Numbers cards.
"Wait..." Yuma breathed.
"What is he doing?" Yuto asked, urgency clearly in his voice.
"As officiator of this tournament... I release the Numbers!" Astral exclaimed, which made everyone else go, "WHAT?!" Astral let out a small chuckle, before continuing with, "Just kidding." this made some people groan, and most sigh in relief.
"But... I have released a few Numbers cards, just to shake things up in this tournament." Astral smugly though to himself, as he then went over to a calendar, showing that the current week was highlighted. "As you see here, you have one week to qualify for the tournament." Astral once again smiled. "Now, I think I've kept you all waiting long enough!" the Astral being shot his hand up, pointing at the skies. "Duelists, show me your power! Become the champions that you were bred to become!" Astral's pointed finger became a closed fist. "Now, let the duels..." Astral shot his hand down. "BEGIN!"