Heartland City was bursting with excitement. Today was the Annual Festival. However, the excitement was soon cut short as a bomb fell onto the ground near a strange-clothed individual, who revealed himself to be an emissary from Barian World.

"Want another?" Thomas Arclight said, holding another bomb in his hand, a slightly crazed look in his eyes "My white goddess has recovered, but I still have an affinity towards fires and bombs. For the sake of my white goddess, I shall destroy you and your world will follow. You will pay for causing me to hurt my white goddess." Thomas said, concluding his speech. Then he began throwing one bomb after another onto the emissary, who dodged them all, confusion visible on his face.

"What does white goddess translate to in Japanese?" one man asked, pulling out his thesaurus.

But before he could look it up, there was a shout.

"Duel!"

Everybody cleared the path to see a young girl of about sixteen years old dueling a boy who clearly seemed to follow the rule of brawls and no brains. The boy had Outstanding Dog Marron and no face-downs on the field, while the girl had two level 4 monsters and two face-downs on the field.

Everyone watched them duel with interest, especially Thomas and the emissary. Thomas closed his eyes briefly and the girl stopped her next move.

"On second thought, I will sacrifice them instead to summon Ice Queen." the girl said "I then activate my face-down spell, Double Copy Art to special summon two monsters from my deck with equal level as my Ice Queen already on the field, like two spare copies of Ice Queen. My three Ice Queens, overlay! I Xyz summon Number 88: Gimmick Puppet- Destiny Leo. I activate Cyclone, destroying my other face-down and then use my monster effect. by detaching one overlay unit, it gains a counter. When it gathers three counters, I automatically win." the girl explained "But that won't be needed, cos now I activate Limiter removal from my hand, doubling my monster's attack points. Destiny Leo, attack Outstanding Dog Marron."

Girl: 1200
Boy: 0

"Hello, Rio. It's been a while." the emissary said, but Thomas pushed him into a swamp, then turned to Rio himself

"How are you, Rio?"

"I am fine, Toma-kun." Rio said softly "Some of the burns remained, but major ones are cured."

"I'm glad to hear that." Thomas said "Would you like to stay at my place? There were spare rooms ever since my father and brother died. Now it's just Chris and I." he said, a hint of sadness in his voice.

"Sure!" Rio said cheerfully, before turning away to greet her brother, who had just arrived.

"Rio Kamishiro...Rio Arclight..." Thomas mused "Yeah, Rio Arclight, my white goddess."