Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh!GX except for Fukugawa Nao. All Naturia Synchro Monsters are changed to Ritual Monsters and Tuner Monsters are converted to regular Effect Monsters. Credits go to Takahashi Kazuki and Director Tsuji Hatsuki.

Chapter 1

Temperance in Death

Fifteen-year-old Fukugawa Nao leisurely kicked her legs in the car seat while burying her nose into the October edition of Monthly Duel as Mimura Koichi drove her to the harbour. As a second-year student of Duel Academia, she was going to be an upperclassman to first-year students, the majority being the same age, if not older.

"Tell me, Koichi, where do my parents have an appointment that is so urgent?" she asked without taking her eyes off the page before turning it.

"At the hospital, young miss," he answered.

"The hospital? Is my father or mother ill?"

"In all honesty, young miss, Master and Madam Fukugawa wouldn't elaborate to anyone about this. Forgive me for my lack of assistance."

"Well, as long as my parents are in good health, then I suppose there is nothing serious to worry about."

Nao turned another page and her violet eyes stopped at a particular duelist's profile. The nobleman of the Pro-Dueling World League, Ed Phoenix, was reported to be attending to Duel Academia as a first-year student. The article processed in her mind clearly, but for some strange reason, she wasn't very astonished. There was something about his sapphire eyes and confident smile that made her try to think, but she couldn't. As a result of a struggle to train her thought, a headache rifted through her temple as she held it in her hand.

"Young miss?" Koichi worriedly asked.

The ache stopped as quickly as it came, "Yes, Koichi?" she tilted her head at him. He cleared his throat and told her that they arrived.

Since Nao had left most of her belongings in the dorm, she only had a knapsack with the Monthly Duel in her possession. "Thank you, Koichi. I shall continue to communicate with you and my parents this year like the previous."

Her driver bowed and she ran off to the ferry to check in. With an unreadable expression on his face, he watched her board the boat and left when it departed. He was ordered to drive back to the hospital after dropping her off, where her parents were going to be. If he was given such a command, then there must be something urgent.

As the boat steered to the island, she continued to read the entire magazine to pass the time. Nao turned another page and spotted Marufuji Ryō's name in a headline that deserved him praise: Recent Graduate Kaiser Marufuji Ryō makes a strong name in the World League. She had full confidence when she and her father agreed on sponsoring him in the Pro Dueling world, since he was a very intellectual duelist, who personally reached his perfection. The two had been seeing each other quite often, however since they were not at school, they maintained their relationship to be professional. As Ryō once stated before, dueling was his everything, and Nao had no intention of being unfair to him or the family. Instead she supported him as the daughter of the Fukugawa Family, and as a close friend when outside of the media.

When she reached the last page where the subscription envelope stuck out, she immediately turned back to the article about Ed Phoenix she bookmarked earlier. At that moment, Naturu Pineapple, her spiritual partner, appeared to accompany her.

"Is it strange when you look at someone's photo for a long time?" she quietly asked her friend, who only blinked. "Ed Phoenix is a genius duelist who reached his thirty-winning streak in the World League, and I know that I have no connection to him, but why do I keep looking?"

Naturu Pineapple gave Nao a sneaky look which she was baffled at. "Of course I do not like him! I never met him before," she stopped her words that came out of her mouth, but somehow, it didn't sit right on her tongue. "Did I?"

The ferry came to a stop and the intercom blared through the transport of the arrival at Duel Academia. Nao hastily stuck the magazine in her knapsack and stood up from her seat on the bench. "Let's go, Naturu Pineapple." Her spirit gave a happy sound in response while following her out of the boat.

She passed by Temporary Principal Chronos and a new Vice Principal Napoleon while hidden in the crowd, although she still did not understand why Principal Samejima left his post for vacation in the beginning of the year. Pushing her thoughts to the back of her mind, she went on her way to the Osiris Dorm, certain that Judai and Shō would be there already.

Sure enough, the two students were present but not in their rooms. She heard Judai exasperatingly chuckle from below and spotted Manjōme, Asuka and Tome with Shō at the edge of the cliff. Solid Vision from duel disks were in play, and it seemed like the Sanctuary in the Sky Field Magic.

"Don't praise me that much!" he said.

"Even though he's a second-year now, he's still an idiot," Manjōme scoffed.

"That's what Judai's good at," Nao made her entrance to the group and they turned their heads to the heiress.

"Nao, you came just now?" Asuka greeted her.

"Yes, there was something I had to do before arriving here. Who is Judai dueling?"

"A freshman came to our room and asked him for a duel," said Shō.

"A freshman? Who is he?"

"Most likely a duelist who likes to mess around with eight packs to create a deck," said Manjōme.

"A deck from eight packs?" her eyes widened in curiosity.

Judai's opponent wore a silver tuxedo with stylish silver hair to compliment it. Nao suspected that he was in control of the Field Magic, which made sense due to Archangel Zerato in his possession. The Osiris had Clayguardman in defense mode, and Winged Kuribō perched on his shoulder. There was a strange feeling sitting in her stomach that something didn't seem right about the freshman.

He appeared too insightful as an underclassman.

"From that look, I'm guessing that you couldn't draw the card you wanted," said Judai.

"It looks like I'd lose in a match where things are left to luck. Still, I believe that dueling isn't all about luck. I was told by someone that luck and destiny are different. A person's destiny has already been determined at the time of their birth. That is why everything in the future can be predicted - which of us will win and which of us will lose; that has already been decided," the freshman shared.

"I don't know who told you all that, but that's a pretty boring way of thinking. The world's fun because we don't know what'll happen next, isn't it?"

"Is that so? What will happen next has already been determined. I activate the Trap, Convening the Light. I discard my hand to choose one Light-Attribute monster in my Cemetery and add it to my hand. And, I activate Archangel Zerato's effect: by discarding Holy Shine Ball, I'm destroying Clayguardman!"

After clearing Judai from his monster, he had Kuribō-Summoning Flute to protect his Life Points on a whim. "My spirit just overturned your stupid prediction."

"Is that your ace in the hole, Senior? As I would expect from the legendary duelist who they say talks to spirits," the freshman complimented.

"Legendary? That's kinda cool!"

"A legend of foolishness?" Asuka wondered.

"Legendarily easy to please?" Shō sighed.

"Legendarily mistaken?" Nao scratched her cheek.

"He's a legendary idiot!" Manjōme scowled.

On Judai's next turn, he managed to summon Tempester using Fusion and attacked Archangel Zerato. The Elemental Hero destroyed the freshman's monster and cancelled the fusion for the three Fusion materials to eliminate the rest of his life points.

Nao didn't realize until the Solid Vision faded away that there was a hint of disappointment creeping in her mind.

"You all right, freshman?" Judai asked him. "You weren't half-bad out there! Gotcha! That sure was a fun duel!"

Nao had to keep herself from laughing at how hard Judai tried and failed to be a good senior.

"That boy isn't too bad, either, if he had a good mach with Judai using a deck like that," said Tome.

When the first-year student arrived at the top of the cliff, for a moment time seemed to dramatically slow down for Nao. She could have sworn that he looked straight at her but the others didn't quite notice. His blue eyes softened just the slightest before heading out of the area. Nao let out the breath she had been holding without knowing as soon as he disappeared from her view.

"That junior was a cute little guy, wasn't he?" Judai snapped her back out of her thoughts. "That was tough, since I'm not really the 'mentor' type."

"That's right. You're like a Big Bro, Big Bro," said Shō.

"When a guy who isn't great pretends to be great, he'll expose his defects," Manjōme shrugged his shoulders.

"Well, you would get hated by the juniors for it," Asuka warned him.

Suddenly, Shō cried out in realization. "I thought I've seen him somewhere!" He dug into his backpack for the Monthly Duel issue. He turned to a page and said, "I knew it! That guy's Ed Phoenix!"

"Yeah, he called himself Ed, though," Judai nodded.

"Wait, really?" Asuka gasped. "The young genius duelist in the middle of renewing his winning streak record in the Pro-Dueling World League?"

"There's no way!" Manjōme studied the photo on the page. "Well, that does look like him."

"Still, for a pro, he could've used some deck-building skills," said Judai.

"What you battled against was a deck built randomly from eight packs that were left on the shelves," Tome stood up.

"So, I had a close match with a duck like that?" he slumped his shoulders in shock. "Man, Ed Phoenix…"

"Get bummed, get bummed," Manjōme scoffed at him.

"No way! I want to battle against his real deck next time! I'm looking forward to it!"

Nao unconsciously tuned out the conversation and focused on her heart that was beating abnormally. The fact that she had seen Ed Phoenix without realizing was a foreign thought to think over. The strangest outcome was that she wasn't surprised.

In fact, she could have sworn for a second that she never knew him at all.

Meanwhile at the hospital back in Nao's hometown, Fukugawa Katsumaru and Fukugawa Chie sat nervously with the neurologist in the office.

"My daughter has been experiencing chronic headaches over the past three months and this had not happened for a long time," said the chairman. "It would not be something terminal like brain cancer, would it?"

"I have confidence that her results contained no symptoms of such," said the doctor. "Has she been doing any sort of activity that would trigger the headaches?"

"They occurred in unpredictable timing, doctor. Some lasted for a few seconds, while others for a few hours at longest," Chie answered.

"I will share one thing. Whatever the accident your daughter had encountered, there is an unexplained reason why this particular symptom shows. This long-term memory loss will only worsen her condition if she will not remember whatever she lost. The worst case is that she would eventually lose all her memories of herself, her family and her friends."

"What can we do?" Katsumaru pleaded. "Anything to help Nao?"

"If there is something or someone particular that she can be relatively close to, then that could be her only hope."

Nao's parents held hands and looked at each other worriedly, thinking of one person who would have a chance.

In a residence unknown, a man garbed in a white cloak in a white room laid out his tarot cards face down in a particular formation. His obscured eyes narrowed when the center card revealed to be "Temperance" and the one right above read "Death".

What he had been looking through was Ed's fated path of the near future. The third and last tarot card would tell him what the obstacle would be for the pro duelist to face.

The Lovers was flipped in reverse.