"What are you doing...? You are wasting time. Do I need to give you something even better...? Or are you greedy...?"

I couldn't help but sigh as I stared at the four walls, waiting for Rua to finish taking his shower. Apparently, we managed to scrape by another round, only beating one other person before the cut was made. Rua and I returned to where Rei was after getting our wins, but she wasn't there. That's how we ended up back in our hotel room, with absolutely nothing to do. Nothing to do, that is, until Rua's ringtone went off. Since he was in the shower, I figured I might as well answer it. "Hello," I asked.

"Guys! You'll never guess what happened," Rei's voice shouted.

"What is it," I asked.

"James fainted in our duel, so I brought him to the infirmary here, but you'll never guess who else is here," Rei said. My hand clenched around Rua's phone quickly before I lowered it.

"Rua! I'm going out for a while," I shouted.

"Alright," Rua said over the shower before continuing to hum a song to himself.

"I'll be down in a few minutes, alright," I asked as I raised the phone to my ear once more.

"Alright, but hurry," Rei said before hanging up the phone. I could get my hopes up this time, right...? After all, Rei wouldn't mistake anyone else for Kaze! She was his classmate! But... she hasn't seen him for a few years... And who says it was even Kaze...? It may be Judai or whoever else was an old friend of her's... Well, there's only one way to find out, right...?

"There you are! What took you so long," Rei sighed as I slowly opened the door the room I was told Rei was in. I quickly paused when I saw a brown haired teen lying unconscious on a bed next to James.

"It... It really is him," I muttered, taking in every detail I could see to all that I could remember. The same ear ring, the same necklace, the same everything. Even the same duel disk. "How did he get here," I asked.

"I dunno. Just as I was setting James here down, some of the guards brought him in and left... They didn't come back. He seems pretty out of it, though," Rei said.

"But knowing Kaze, he'll probably wake up any minute now," I said as I glanced towards the clock. When I heard a creak from one of the beds, I turned back. James silently grabbed his glasses of the side table and slid them on before blinking a few times, probably not understanding why he was suddenly back at the hotel, and why both Rei and I were here.

"Uh.. Hi, James," I said. James just gave me a glare before putting his legs over the side of the bed.

"Where do you think you're going, mister," Rei asked.

"My room. Why would I stay here with a bunch of weaklings like you," James said.

"In case you forgot, this 'weakling' beat you in a duel," Rei said, causing my eyes to widen.

"You beat him," I asked.

"Well... Kinda," Rei said.

"I wouldn't say 'Kinda'. Our duel was interrupted because of a malfunction of my dueling momentum calculator, and you just happened to be in the lead," James said as he slowly looked at the device on his wrist, which I noticed had a small section that looked like it was burnt.

"If only Kaze was awake... I'm sure he could fix it for you," I said.

"And what makes you think that sleeping oaf over there could do anything," James asked.

It was at that point that I snapped, and I wasn't alone.

"How about you be quiet about what you don't know! Kaze is a better duelist than you and is smarter than you'll ever be," Rei shouted.

"That's right! In case you haven't heard, he is the Kaze Kokoro! The one who beat Zone and saved Neo Domino, not to mention the whole world! Don't even get us started! He's accomplished more than you'll ever do in your whole life! Seven Stars Assassins, Fujiwara, and even Kagemaru! He beat them all," I shouted.

"So what? Any third rate duelist could have done that. The duels were shams. Your so called hero is a piece of trash," James sighed. My eyes widened as a white gloved hand grabbed James by his jacket and hoisted him into the air as an identical fist rammed against his cheek, surprisingly not sending his glasses off.

"I dare you to say such a thing again," a blond woman said as she shook James roughly, leaving him startled as his cheek turned a dark red.

"Just who are you," Rei asked.

"Sherry LeBlanc," I said as Sherry turned towards me.

"Long time no see, Ruka," Sherry smiled lightly before letting go of James' sweatshirt and letting him fall to the bed beneath him.

"I see what you meant by this Sherry girl is really violent," Rei whispered as Sherry walked over to Kaze's bed side before turning towards me once more.

"I suppose an introduction is in order, correct," Sherry asked.

"Um.. Well, you've met James," I said and nodded towards the still stunned teen who hadn't moved an inch after Sherry's attack.

"And I'm Rei," Rei said.

"Rei Saotome, correct," Sherry asked, in which Rei nodded. "Well, its a pleasure to meet you. I've heard a lot about you," Sherry smiled, holding her hand out to Rei, who gave Sherry a quick handshake before the two turned towards James, probably both having the same idea in mind. "And as for you, James! You should stay quiet about things and people you don't know. If I hear you saying one bad thing about Kaze every again, I won't hold back," Sherry said.

"Forget her not holding back! I'll give you a thing or two as well," Rei said, although her threat wasn't as intimidating as Sherry's, since she had a glare worse than I've ever seen before.

"Well? Go on! Get out of here," Sherry snapped.

"Now... Now hold on you guys," a voice muttered, causing my heart to nearly stop. I had nearly forgotten about Kaze being here, although he was fast asleep...

"How can you say that! He insulted you! He damaged your pride," Sherry said.

"That's no reason to go beating up someone," Kaze muttered as he rubbed his eyes. "Now, James, right...? Go wait outside... I'll be out in a few minutes to talk to you about something, so do you mind waiting," Kaze asked, in which James barley even nodded before getting up and leaving.

"What was that about? He called you a sham and a weakling," Rei said. I quickly forgot about the two women beside me as some tears filled in my eyes. I don't know why, but they did. I found myself making my way over to Kaze's side and suddenly giving him a hug, which, after a few seconds, Kaze returned my hug with a one handed hug of his own.

"I was really worried about you," I muttered.

"And how do you think I felt when I heard that a little prodigy entered this tournament," Kaze asked, causing me to blush.

"P-prodigy," I asked.

"Hey, enough mushy mushy between you two! I haven't seen Kaze in, what, two years," Rei shouted, causing me to hesitantly back away. Apparently just in time, because Rei jumped past me and quickly hugged Kaze before pulling away and pushing his hat down. "Now who do you think you are, making such nice maidens worry about you," Rei asked.

"Well, I believe you two were the only ones who were worried," Sherry said.

"That's because you two have been together! It was like some extended date," Rei argued, causing me to blush once more. I... I hadn't thought about it like that, or at least not for a while! It really was like a date between them! To top it off... They hadn't shown up until now... Who knows what they were doing...!

"If hacking main frames and nearly getting killed counts as a date, I can't wait to see what another one would be like," Sherry said.

"That's right! What happened to you, Sherry! I heard you call out to me or something a few days ago," I said, causing Sherry to bite her lip.

"Kaze, would you mind going after James now? I think you've had him waiting long enough," Sherry said, in which Kaze nodded before slowly getting onto his feet and leaving.

"What was that about," Rei asked.

"I simply don't need Kaze worrying about me anymore than he already is," Sherry sighed.

"Why would he worry about you? I mean, you just hit James so hard I thought he was going to be knocked unconscious," I said.

"You, of all people, should understand, Ruka," Sherry muttered. Was she referring to when she somehow said my name as it was carried over to me, or...

Rei suddenly pulled her phone out of her pocket and flipped it open, leaving Sherry somewhat startled.

"It just means she's got an update," I explained.

"Great...! James is getting duel happy again," Rei muttered.

"Duel happy," Sherry asked.

"I guess we have a lot to go over," I muttered.

"That can wait! James apparently is using those ropes to make Kaze duel him," Rei said.

"How dare he! And after calling him a sham," Sherry shouted before rushing off.

"I can't help but say I wanted to see this duel," I muttered.

"Its only natural! Its like seeing someone battle their past self! Its pretty cool," Rei smiled before both of us left to watch the duel.

I guess our true reunion would have to wait until we finally got James under control... If he kept on getting this obnoxious with his duels, he may make a lot of trouble with us, not to mention the others...

"'Broken'...? 'Busted'...? Such utter nonsense. Technology is flawless. It is you who is broken..."

Reviews:

bryan102694: Rei is a student from the original duel academy. She went to Duel Academy disguised as a boy during Judai's first year. She later came back on her first official year as a girl on Judai's second year.

Notes:

- Since Bryan102694 has brought up the topic, technically, I'll just post a quick over view of Rei's story in the tag force games, even though I said I wouldn't, just for you all to get it. In order to fit with the tag force games (During the first year, Rei doesn't show up) Rei shows up disguised on Judai's second year.

Kaze is the first one to find out that she is actually a girl during her time pretending to be a boy by walking in on her without her hat on. She makes Kaze swear to not to anyone and to help her keep her gender a secret, in which he does by stopping several teachers and other students from seeing her combs/ect. or anything else that would point to her being a girl. If I'm not mistaken, at this point in the game, Rei starts calling 'Hat Guy' a knight or something, but.. After that, Chronos de Medici (In the English dub, he is known as 'Crowler') accuses both Kaze and Rei of hiding something under their hats, and thus makes them duel him, where if he wins, they have to remove their hats in public. The two have no choice and have to duel, but during the duel, Chronos pulls a large fan out of no where in an attempt to blow off their hats with force, seeing how he was going to lose, but Kaze simply places his hands on both of their hats, preventing them from flying off, much to everyone's surprise. Kaze then manages to explain everything to the Chancellor and Rei is allowed to stay, but only as an Osiris, which didn't bother Rei much anyway, seeing as most of the students she knew were Osiris as well. (This is to incorporate the fact that Rei is in Osiris for one year) After finishing the year and the new year starts, Rei takes the test and ends up in Obelisk, expecting Kaze too as well, but he decides to stay in Osiris, like and Rei then went around taking yearbook pictures, which are the pictures in Rei's photo album in this story as well, and before they knew it, it was the end of the year. Since it is a partner graduation duel, Kaze asks Rei to be his partner since they've been together for so long, in which she accepts. After the two win, Rei takes Kaze out to the Girls' Dorm in order to talk to him privately about some things. They'll probably come up later as plot bits, so I won't talk about them now, but afterwards, Kaze leaves without a words, followed in suit by Judai. Rei then finishes her last year as the top of duel academy before going off to be a cheerleader for Jack, and eventually joining this tournament.