IV looked through the glass at the massive empty room in front of him.
'You're not deceiving me, are you?' he asked Kyubey, who was sealed in a glass sphere on his desk.
'What reason would I have to lie?' replied Kyubey, weakly.
'I don't know, revenge?' muttered IV. 'After all, I did stick you in a hamster ball.'
'Emotion is just a mental disorder,' stated Kyubey. 'I feel no need to elicit revenge.'
IV clicked his tongue. 'A pity,' he said. 'I feel that the fear and hatred really add to the experience. Ah well.' IV took four small black spheres from his coat, and laughed, before placing them in a small slot on the ground.
The four objects fell through the slot into the huge empty room, as behind them the slot folded shut.
'Now then,' crowed IV, hands hovering over a series of dials, smirking, 'let's see what I can get my new friends to do.'
'I'll lead!' yelled Homura, drawing her sixth card from her Deck. 'Draw! I Summon the Puella Magi, Sayaka the Sword!'
ATK: 1900, LV: 4
'Puella Magi?!' replied III, startled, as beside Homura a blue-clothed girl appeared, wielding a cutlass.
'Yes, Puella Magi,' answered Homura. 'My monsters are my past, and each of them is another Puella Magi, another warrior I have fought with in my past. With them, I will protect your future.'
'My future?' responded III.
'Yes, your future,' said Homura. 'The one that your idiot brother made such an effort to screw up.'
Made… thought III, and he mentally smirked. They think IV's dead.
'I'm going to continue my turn now, if you don't mind?' stated Homura, taking another card from her hand and throwing it onto her disk. 'Because I control a Puella Magi, I can Special Summon Madoka the Follower in Defence Position!'
DEF: 0, LV: 1
'That's… that's the girl that was with you…' stuttered III, as Madoka appeared beside Homura, dressed in a simple pink dress.
Homura smiled, and her eyes softened. 'Madoka is a very brave girl,' she said. 'She follows her friends into the depths of despair, and beyond, and she never loses her hope. And she will always, no matter what, protect her friends from harm.' Her eyes went hard once more, and she placed another card into her disk. 'I'll set a card to end.'
'Then it's my turn!' declared III, drawing his card. 'I draw, and Summon the OOPArts monster, Mud Golem Shakouki! Then, I'll attack Madoka with Shakouki! If your past is your past, then with my friends I will transcend it! Go, Shakouki! Quipus Laser!'
ATK: 1700, LV: 4
'I activate the trap, Hope Wave!' countered Homura. 'When you attack a monster with no attack power, I can negate that attack and end the Battle Phase!' Shakouki's sword vanished into gold dust, and Homura smirked. 'Then,' she continued, 'you take 300 damage for each card in my hand!'
III: 4000→3100
III was forced backwards as he was hit by a golden blast from Homura's trap. 'I was expecting the trap you used against IV nii-sama,' he said, glancing at the now useless "Heart of Stone" card in his hand. 'I see this is going to be trickier than I expected.'
'I'm not going to fall for using the same trick twice,' stated Homura.
'Evidently,' said III, smiling. 'I think I might enjoy this duel.'
'That makes one of us,' replied Homura. 'I prefer these games when people's lives aren't at stake.'
'You think I'm going to kill Tsukumo?!' cried III, surprised. 'Why would I do that?'
'Because he killed your brother,' answered Homura.
'I won't hold a grudge against him for something that wasn't his fault,' replied III. 'I only want to go and find out what his Chaos Number is why he's hunting Numbers.'
Homura moved her hand towards her disk, but remembered her duel against IV, and then the words of Kaito earlier–
'I hunt the Numbers and peoples souls to cure my brother,' said Kaito. Homura's eyes widened.
'You take people's souls?' she repeated.
'It's unavoidable,' answered Kaito. 'The Numbers bond to their owners' souls, filling their hearts with darkness. I can only resist due to my Photon Change. Yuma is protected by Astral. From what I've seen of them, III and IV are protected by their markings.'
'No, but… you take their souls?' insisted Homura. 'And you don't feel unhappy about that?'
'In order to take a Number, the soul must be removed,' repeated Kaito. 'I chose to do this and discard my humanity in order to save my brother.'
'You really meant it, huh,' mused Homura.
'Yeah,' said Kaito, closing his eyes. 'Of course I did. And tomorrow, I'm gonna go get Haruto.'
'Yeah…' murmured Homura, looking at the now sleeping Kaito in a totally different light.
'You're going to take his soul,' said Homura to III, snapping back to the present.
'I–' started III.
'You're a Number Hunter. You're going to take Yuma's soul,' replied Homura.
III's eyes closed, and when he opened them, they were hard. 'I have to,' he answered. 'In order to save my family, I have to defeat Yuma, and anyone else in my way.'
'Including me,' declared Homura. 'But this duel isn't over yet, and it's still your turn.'
'So it is,' answered III. 'Well, I'll set a card and end.'
'My turn!' said Homura, drawing, and smiling. Hello, Mami, she thought, before looking at another card in her hand, "Hope's Destiny". I think that we might be able to end this duel this turn.
'I Summon Puella Magi – Mami the Gun!' declared Homura.
ATK: 1600, LV: 4
Beside her, a yellow-clothed Puella Magi materialised, and winked at III. Homura went red, and turned to the monster. 'Stop that!' she yelled. 'You do this all the time!'
'I'm sorry for actually having an interest in the people you're fighting,' replied Mami, and III blinked.
'That… she… but…' he stuttered, eyes widening.
'Just as I said,' replied Homura, 'each of my monsters is a Puella Magi, a warrior I've fought in the past.'
'They're… they're actually…' stuttered III, before his eyes went hard once more. It doesn't matter, he told himself. I promised IV nii-sama that I would defeat Yuma Tsukumo, and I intend to keep that promise, even if it means I have to go through her and her friends.
'Well then,' said Homura, glancing sideways at Mami, 'now that the introductions have all been taken care of, I think that it's time I ended this. Sayaka attacks your Mud Golem!'
Sayaka leapt towards III's golem, and he flinched as Shakouki was sliced apart and it collapsed into pieces.
III: 3100→2900
'Additionally,' continued Homura, 'when Sayaka destroys a monster by battle, she will inflict damage equal to that monster's Level times 300! So, because Shakouki was a Level 4 monster, you take 1200 damage, III! Go, Sayaka! Tuned Cutlass!'
III: 2900→1700
Sayaka jumped into the air, and threw a seemingly endless barrage of her swords towards III, slicing through his clothes and into his hand. 'That… hurt…' he muttered.
'I don't want to hurt you,' replied Homura, as Sayaka landed beside her once more.
'I'm not going to surrender,' answered III, standing up and staring coldly back at her.
'Then I'm sorry,' said Homura, before taking a card from her hand and placing it into her disk. 'I activate Hope's Destiny! When a monster I control inflicts Effect Damage, another monster I control gains attack equal to the damage inflicted! I choose for my Mami to gain that attack!'
Beside her, Mami was surrounded by a swirl of blue energy as her attack power rose.
ATK: 1600→2800
'Now then!' continued Homura. 'Mami, attack him directly! Tiro Finale!'
'It's not a finale yet, Homura!' replied III, throwing his hand out. 'I activate the trap, Antikythera Mechanism!' On III's left hand, his seal flashed and he smiled. 'When I am attacked directly whilst my opponent control two Attack Position monsters,' he continued, 'I can activate this trap card and take control of your Attack Position monster that isn't attacking – but that monster changes to Defence Position, and it becomes the new target of the attack!'
DEF: 400
'Sayaka…' whispered Homura, as a series of ancient chains wrapped around Sayaka and dragged her in front of Mami's blast, where she was disintegrated.
'I'm sorry… Sayaka-chan…' mumbled Mami. Homura glared at III.
'There are casualties in every fight,' said III calmly. 'Now then, if you could move?'
'I'm not moving, no matter what you do,' answered Homura, eyes cold. 'I'll set a card and end. And during the End Phase, the effect of Hope's Destiny wears off.'
ATK: 2800→1600
III laughed, and the marking around his left eye flashed bright orange. 'And now it's time for the game to really begin,' he said, smirking.
'Kaito!' yelled Ryoga, jolting the other into wakefulness.
'What is it?!' replied Kaito, irritated. 'I got told I need rest, for whatever ailment I'm apparently suffering from. Especially since I need to be up for tomorrow, I'm going to go and collect my unconscious brother from those psychopaths.'
Ryoga stared very evenly at Kaito, before sighing. 'Aside from the fact that you're planning on breaking into the very centre of the Heartland complex with a broken leg,' started Ryoga, 'you've already got the rest you need. You've only been awake for about an hour so far today.'
'Well, what time is it?' asked Kaito.
'About four in the afternoon,' answered Ryoga. 'And also, I want you to talk to Yuma.'
'I don't want to help Yuma,' protested Kaito. 'He's none of my concern.'
'Oh, so you wouldn't be interested in a rematch with him, then?' asked Ryoga. Kaito narrowed his eyes.
'Yuma wouldn't challenge me to a duel,' said Kaito. 'Especially not in the state he's in right now.'
'Certainly not a standing duel,' agreed Ryoga. 'But, you see, I just found an old Duel Table downstairs, and I thought that maybe you would be interested to duel Yuma. I mean, it's not like there's anything for you to be afraid of, Yuma's just another victim to you, right?'
'Well, I heard you got your hand on a Number of your own,' stated Kaito. 'What wrong with the two of us duelling?'
'You only beat me last time because of your Number,' answered Ryoga. 'I wouldn't make that mistake again.' Ryoga paused, then smirked. 'I'll tell you what. If you can beat Yuma, then we can have a rematch.'
'Fine,' muttered Kaito. 'But just because I know you won't stop annoying me until I agree.'
'Then it's settled,' said Ryoga, turning to walk out. 'I'll go and get Yuma.'
'I'm not doing this for you or Yuma!' yelled Kaito after him. 'I just don't want you annoying me whilst I'm planning for this!'
Whatever you say, Kaito, thought Ryoga, before his mind turned to darker thoughts and his eyes hardened. I never thought I'd need to help Yuma with a fear of winning his duels though. IV… if you're still alive, I'm going to rip you apart.
Ryoga licked his lips, and laughed, whilst his eyes blazed with a violent black flame.
And I'm going to enjoy it.
