Author's Note: It's been a little hard for me to focus on this story over the past couple days because of some little stuff in my personal life that's been stressing me out a bit. So progress may slow down a tiny bit, but will not stop completely.

Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL.


Chapter 6: Night at the Magic Show

It was the start of another day as Rio made her way to Heartland Academy. She was in a much better mood than she had been for the past few days, due to the tension that existed between her and her brother. That trip to the beach the day before had been just the thing to help her relax, and it helped that Shark had told her that he wasn't going to be making any more trouble for her and Cleo. Only half way towards the school, Rio encountered Hana walking in the opposite direction. The two of them exchanged greetings and began to walk together.

"So, are things any better between you and Ryoga?" Hana asked.

"I think so." Rio answered. "Though he still has a problem with Cleo. But he's just going to have to learn to get over it."

"You know, you and Cleo make a pretty good couple." Hana told her. "Makes me realize that all my attempts in the past to set Cleo up with guys was a big fat waste of time, just like Hikari said it was. But Cleo seems different than she used to be not that the two of you are together. She seems, I don't know… easier to get along with somehow. If you ask me, I think you're the greatest things to happen to Cleo in a long time."

"Thanks." Rio replied.

Within moments, the two of them had arrived at the front of the school. Right away, Rio saw what had become a fairly familiar sight on the front steps of Heartland Academy, Alit flirting with a small group of girls. The former gladiator had become somewhat popular among the ladies due in large part to his athletic ability and his skills as a duelist. Plus Alit had a knack for laying on the charm. Rio simply shook her head at the sight, just as she did just about every morning. Just as Rio and Hana were about to say their goodbyes though, there was a large explosion of purple smoke in the area that caught everyone's attention. The smoke cleared in moments to reveal Ayumu wearing a white tuxedo with a sparkling red cape and sequined gloves.

"Good morning, ladies and gentlemen!" Ayumu greeted. "Allow me to introduce myself. I am Ayumu, master of the amazing and astounding."

In a flash, the flock of girls that had gathered around Alit quickly gathered around the magician, much to the ex-Barian's astonishment. Rio and Hana walked over to where Ayumu was standing too, mainly out of curiosity.

"My, what a lovely assortment of young ladies I see before me today." Ayumu observed with a charming smile, causing many of the girls around him to squeal. "Let me give you all a little something for coming over to see me."

There were a few more puffs of smoke, and soon every one of the girls found that she was holding a red rose, even Rio and Hana. Alit meanwhile began to grin his teeth.

"Not that I have your attention, I'd like to invite each and every one of you to a special show I'm having at the reopened Heartland Magic Hut later this evening." Ayumu announced. "You're all invited to come, and tell your friends. I hope to see all of you there again soon."

With that, Ayumu vanished in another large puff of smoke. As the smoke cleared, several gold flyers advertising the young magician's show rained down from above. Most of the girls that had flocked around took one and quickly dispersed.

"Wow, a magic show. That could be kind of fun." Hana remarked.

"Yeah. Maybe Cleo and I should go see that." Rio replied.

"Who the hell does that flashy jerk think he is?" Alit protested as he stormed over. "Stealing my thunder like that! If I had five minutes with that jerk, I'd…." He stopped when he glanced and saw Chitose walk into the school holding one of the many flyers that had littered the ground. "Oh great! And now it looks like that magic jerk is going to sweep Chitose off her feet next!"

"You're interested in Chitose?" Rio asked.

"Well yeah! She's pretty cute, not to mention smart." Alit replied. "She's got that whole sexy librarian thing going. But now it looks like that hack magician is going to put the moves on her!"

"If you're that worried about it, why don't you ask Chitose to go with you to that magic show?" Hana suggested. "That way you can, uh… keep Chitose from being seduced by that shady magician."

"Hey! Good idea!" Alit agreed before shaking Hana's hand. "Thanks, Hikari's sister!" With that, he ran off into the school after Chitose.

"Did I do the right thing?" Hana asked.

"I wouldn't worry about it too much." Rio told her. "Chitose will probably shoot him down in about five seconds."


It was the early afternoon as Hikari tapped away at the computer in the lab. As she worked, the door to the lab opened and Shark walked in.

"Hey." Shark spoke, getting her attention. "Did I come at a bad time?"

"Not at all." Hikari smirked. "Computer, lock doors."

Shark heard the sound of all the electric doors in the lab locking automatically. Before the water duelist could figure out what was going on, Hikari went over to him and pinned him against the wall. They became locked in a deep kiss, at which point Hikari jammed her tongue into his mouth. After a few moments they broke apart when their lungs began to cry out for air.

"I have been thinking about you all afternoon." Hikari told him.

"I actually don't have that much time. I'm supposed to meet Yuma" Shark told her with a cocky smirk. "But I guess I could spare a few minutes."

Grinning, the stardust heiress took Shark by the hand and led her over to the chair she normally used. As they met in another kiss, Hikari's hands quickly went to work undoing the buckle of his belt. She then pulled away and undid her own belt before pulling down her jeans and panties and turning around to hold the back of the chair. Shark pulled down his own pants and took hold of Hikari's waist before inserting his hardened rod into her from behind. Hikari moaned and held tightly onto the back of the chair as the water duelist slowly began to pump into her.

Gradually, Shark began to pick up the pace, every now and then slapping Hikari's right hip, much to the bluenette's delight. Before long he could feel that Hikari was coming close, as her inner walls were tightening around him. Then in one sweet moment they both came to a climax. After taking a moment, Shark withdrew himself and the two of them redressed.

"So… did you come over for something other than a booty call?" Hikari asked.

"The booty call was your idea, not that I didn't mind." Shark pointed out.

"Okay, I'll give you that one." Hikari replied. "So why did you come over?"

"There's this magic show that everyone at my school seems to be talking about being held tonight." Shark answered. "I thought maybe we could go see it together."

"Sounds like fun." Hikari agreed. "Then maybe after the show, you can come over tonight and we can continue more of what we were just doing."

"Sounds good." Shark replied before giving her a peck on the lips. "I'll be by to pick you up later."


At a recently refurbished restaurant, Ayumu was sitting on the floor of the stage looking at a simple deck of playing cards. Kaine and the rest of his gang were busy getting the place together.

Mortimer walked up onto the stage and approached the magician. "Ayumu, I…"

Ayumu held up his hand to silence Mortimer while he continued to look at the deck. "Ace of Spades, King of Diamonds, Two of Hearts, Five of Diamonds, Seven of Clubs."

The magician then turned over the first fives cards of the deck. Each of them was one of the cards he had just named.

"Now then Mort, you came to tell me that you used your special talents to get me cooking and wait staff for this evening, right?" Ayumu asked.

"I hate it when you do that." Mortimer told him. "But, yes. Everything has been prepared."

"Good." Ayumu replied as he stood up. "Now then, in a few seconds I believe that our mysterious Ms. Anitak is going to show up to give me a little something."

As if on cue, a galaxy-like portal opened up on the stage. Anitak walked through and the portal closed behind her.

"Well hello, Ms. Anitak. Come to give me something?" Ayumu asked.

The hooded woman's eyes widened slightly. "How did you know?"

"Just my natural little talent." Ayumu smugly replied. "And I can tell you that your little present is going to seal the fate the of boxer boy."

"I see." Anitak replied. "Then I had best give you what I came to give."

With that, Anitak outstretched her copper hand and a card from Ayumu's deck glowed with a crimson light and flew to her. As soon as the card came to her hand, it began to glow brighter and give off red sparks. After a moment the card stopped glowing and Anitak threw it back to Ayumu.

"Awesome! Just as good a card as I foresaw it would be." Ayumu spoke as he put the card back into his deck.

"That modified version of 10X Disruption Zone should be more compatible with your deck." Anitak told him.

"Strange. I did not know it was within your power to modify those cards." Mortimer cut in. "Why have you not done that for the rest of us?"

"I will only when it seems necessary." Anitak told them. "In the meantime, I want the former Barian, Alit to be completely destroyed."

"You don't seem to be too crazy of Ayumu's target." Kaine noted. "Care to share why?"

"Just do your jobs." Anitak coldly ordered before vanishing through a portal.


Evening fell upon the city, and Shark arrived with Hikari at the newly reopened restaurant in Heartland known as the Heartland Magic Hut. Before the place had closed over six years ago due to financial issues, it was known throughout the city as a place where one could enjoy dinner with a magic show. And it seemed that a lot of people had come for the Hut's grand reopening. By the time Shark and Hikari got to the front door, they bumped into Cleo and Rio, causing both couples to freeze.

"…Oh!" a surprised Rio spoke.

"Oh." Shark responded. "I knew you and Cleo were going out tonight, but I didn't know you were coming here."

"The show seemed like it might be interesting." Rio replied.

"Are we going in, or are we just going to stand here?" Cleo asked.

"Yeah, let's go." Hikari agreed. "It's kinda cold out."

With that the two couples entered the building and the hostess at the front seated them at the same table. What was originally going to be a fun and romantic evening had turned into a fairly awkward double date. Despite the awkwardness though, the four of them decided to try and make the most of the evening. Upon looking around, Rio and Shark found that most of the people at the restaurant were fellow students at their school. They even saw Yuma and Kotori sitting at a corner table near the back. Yuma spotted them and began to wave, causing Shark to groan and cover his face.

"Ryoga, look." Rio spoke, pointing towards the front of the restaurant.

Shark peeked through his fingers and saw Alit heading to a table by the stage with Chitose. The boxer duelist had on a grey sport coat and slacks with a red shirt, while Chitose had on a white dress with a pink wool jacket. Shark noticed the look of displeasure that was on the dark-haired girl's face. Alit pulled out a chair for Chitose, allowing her to sit down.

"I can't believe it! Chitose actually went out on a date with Alit." Rio spoke, trying to hold back a laugh.

"She looks kinda pissed about it." Hikari noted.

"Maybe she lost a bet." Shark joked.

"Or she's on some kind of dare." Cleo responded.

Almost as soon as Alit and Chitose were seated, there was a flash of pink smoke and Ayumu appeared up on stage. "Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you all for coming out tonight. As some of you may know, I am Ayumu, master of the amazing and astonishing. I hope you're all ready, because I am about to take you on a journey into the realm of the mystic. Now then, prepare to be dazzled!"

With that, Ayumu began to perform a series of magical illusions for his audience. Some were old standards like the old trick of sawing a woman in half, while others seemed to be tricks of Ayumu's own design, as far as the audience knew. As the evening grew late, most of the audience had finished eating and two of Ayumu's assistance wheeled a golden box resembling an iron maiden onto the stage.

"And now, ladies and gentlemen, for my final trick tonight I will require a volunteer from the audience." Ayumu announced. He then looked down at Alit. "You sir! Please step right up!"

A spotlight then began to shine down on Alit, catching him by surprise. The rest of the audience began to clap, and seeing no other choice he stepped up onto the stage.

"Now then sir, if you would please be so kind as to step into the golden box of the ancients." Ayumu requested.

As he waved to the audience, Alit walked into the golden iron maiden and was locked in by Ayumu's assistants. The assistants then placed a large black sheet over the box.

"And now…" Ayumu began as he took a pose. "Vamoosh!"

With that word, the mass under the sheet collapsed and several white doves flew out from beneath. The audience applauded and Ayumu took a bow.

"Thank you all very much for coming, and goodnight." Ayumu told them, and with that the curtain fell on the stage.

As most of the other audience members began to leave, Shark noticed that something was amiss. "Hey, where the heck's Alit? Shouldn't that magician have brought him back or something?"

"That is usually how these kinds of tricks work." Hikari agreed. "Something's not right."

At that point, Chitose came over to their table. "Do any of your know where Alit is?"

"We were just wondering the same thing." Rio answered.

"Damn! Looks like this show might've been a trap." Shark realized.


Alit awoke in a dark wooden room with the two halves of the golden box he was in on the floor at his sides. Getting to his feet, he saw a wooden door a few feet away from him down some kind of hall. Light was coming in through the crack at the bottom of the door. Seeing no other way out, Alit headed for the door. Finding it unlocked, he opened the door and on the other side found a large room with yellow brick walls decorated with various occult and torture paraphernalia. In the center of the room he saw a large circular indentation in the floor.

As soon as Alit walked into the room, Ayumu appeared in the center of the indentation in a puff of purple smoke. "Welcome, Mr. Alit. Now that you're here, we can begin our own private magic show."

"I get it. This whole magic show of yours was a trap!" Alit realized as he walked into the center of the room. "You're with the guys who attacked Gilag and Merag, aren't you?"

"Right you are." Ayumu confirmed. "I hope you appreciate all the trouble I went to setting up this stage for us to duel on. It's a replica of a stage that's very well known in the dueling underworld. Legend has it that the great Yugi Muto himself once dueled an insane masked magician in a room very much like this one. Of course my recreation doesn't have the saw blades that cut our legs off if your life points reach zero. I don't do that blood and gore stuff in my acts."

"If you wanted to duel me, you should've just called me out instead of doing all this crap." Alit told him.

"Please. I'm a showman." Ayumu told him. "Now let's begin, shall we?"

With that, Alit and Ayumu activated their duel disks and D-Gazers. In seconds, the color of the underground room changed slightly.

"My stage, my move." Ayumu announced as he drew his first card. "For my first trick, I set two cards on the field. Then I summon Charioteer of Prophecy in Attack Mode!"

Appearing on Ayumu's side of the battlefield was a young man riding the back of a white horse. He had blonde hair and wore a green shirt with long white pants and a dark-green cape. In his right hand he carried an ornate silver sword.

"That ends my turn." Ayumu announced.

"Then it's my move!" Alit declared as he prepared to draw a card.

"The card you're about to draw is Battlin' Boxer Glassjaw." Ayumu predicted.

"As if you would know what…" Alit began, but when he saw the card he drew, he froze. He had indeed pulled the card that the young magician said that he would. "How… how did you…?"

"In addition to being able to cause real damage in a duel, some of us psychic duelists have certain special talents." Ayumu explain. "My talent is that I can see about thirty-six hours into the future. That countdown started only six or seven hours ago, and I know every move that's going to be made in this duel and every card that's going to be drawn."

"So… does that mean you know how this duel's going to end?" Alit asked.

"Sure do." Ayumu answered. "You're going to lose."

At that, Alit shook his head. "As if I'd buy that phony prediction! I summon Battlin' Boxer Headgeared in Attack Mode!"

Appearing on Alit's side of the battlefield was a dark-grey humanoid figure with glowing red eyes and almost rock-like skin. His hands were covered in red boxing gloves, and adorning his head was a piece of red boxing headgear.

"Next I play the Spell, Ring Announcer and summon Battlin' Boxer Glassjaw!" Alit announced.

Materializing next to Headgeared was a very muscular humanoid figure with green skin with red glowing eyes wearing strange white and black shorts. He had black boxing gloves on his hands and black headgear covering his head.

"I overlay my level four Glassjaw and Headgeared to Xyz Summon Battlin' Boxer Lead Yoke!" Alit announced.

A swirling red vortex appeared in the middle of the field and pulled in the two boxers as balls of orange energy. Rising out of the center a moment later was a large muscular warrior with dark-grey skin dressed like a Roman gladiator. He had a silver mask and helmet covering his head. His arms and neck were bound by a massive metal restrain with wood and chains. Orbiting around the warrior were two balls made of red light.

"I activate one my set cards, Demise of the Land!" Ayumu announced. "Because you special summoned a monster, from my deck I now activate the Field Spell, Anti-10X Magic Seal!"

A strange magical circle of blue light appeared on the floor of the duel stage. Suddenly the inside of the room became covered in a starry purple mist. Bolt of blue electricity suddenly rose up from the magic circle on the ground and bombarded the Charioteer, causing his eyes to glow red.

"Hey! This isn't the same Field Spell those friends of yours used!" Alit realized.

"Quite right. This is an upgraded version of 10X Disruption Zone designed for my deck." Ayumu revealed. "In addition to the same old effects that cripple that Number monster of yours, Magic Seal boosts the ATK of all Spellcasters on the field by 300. Meaning my Charioteer's ATK is not 2100."

"Yeah? Well I detach one overlay unit from Lead Yoke to special summon Battlin' Boxer Shadow from my hand!" Alit announced.

One of the orbiting balls of light around Lead Yoke broke away and went into the ground. Rising out of the spot where the ball hit was a dark-grey lean yet muscular figure wearing black boxing gloves and headgear. Soon after, Lead Yoke flexed his left arm and broke part of the massive restraint that bound him.

"Each time Lead Yoke loses an overlay unit, his ATK goes up by 800 points." Alit announced. "Which means right now his ATK is 3000."

"Is that supposed to impress me?" Ayumu asked.

"Lead Yoke, take down Charioteer!" Alit commanded.

"I activate my Trap, Trick Box of Doom!" Ayumu announced.

As Lead Yoke charged in, a purple and gold rectangular box appeared around Charioteer. The behemoth gladiator punched the box and knocked the pieces to the ground as four separate cubes. The front of each cube opened up to reveal pieces of Battlin' Boxer Shadow. Suddenly Alit's life points dropped to 2800.

"What the hell just happened?" a stunned Alit asked.

"When one of my Spellcasters is attacked, Trick Box of Doom switches it with a monster you control, making you take the attack and the damage." Ayumu explained. "But that's not even the best part. Look at your own side of the field."

Alit looked and noticed that a second box had appeared in the spot where his other monster had been. The box opened up and Charioteer charged out on the back of his horse. The rider swung his sword and shot Lead Yoke in the back with a beam of red light from his sword. The giant warrior shattered into bits of red light upon being hit.

"In addition to redirecting your attack, Trick Box of Doom destroys the monster you attacked with." Ayumu announced. "The only thing you can do now is set that Phantom Block Trap in your hand and end your turn."

Alit scowled. "I set one card on the field and end my turn!"

"Hey, don't get mad at me. All you and I are doing is following the path that destiny had laid out for us." Ayumu told him. "The only difference is that I know where that path is going. Too bad for you that path leads to a dead end."


Author's Note: Big thanks to K.I.T.T. RIDER for helping me come up with Ayumu's name. Sometimes coming up with character names can be pretty hard for me. Anyway, the duel started in this chapter was kind of hard for me to write because I'm not really experienced with either the Battlin' Boxer or Prophecy archetypes. Though I do have a lot of Battlin' Boxer cards in my own collection. I even have two copies each of Star Cestus and Comet Cestus. Not sure I can build a very good Battlin' Boxer deck though, since I think I'm missing a few key cards for it.

Please review and let me know what you think.