"Here, my dear. A D-wheel, made especially for you," Kaze smiled, causing my face to turn pink.

"Uh... Um... T-thanks," I stuttered as my blush got deeper. Before anything else happened, there was a loud scream, causing everything around me to slowly fade away as my conscious stirred. Alright, Kaze will never act like that, I know, and if he did, I would probably run away on the spot, but a girl can dream sometimes, right? No reason for some random person to scream...

"H-help me," a man cried before screaming once more, causing me to quickly sit up, my heart pounding hard against my chest.

"R-Rua...? Did you hear that," I asked. After getting no response, I remembered that after the party, we had decided that Rua and Kaze would stay in Rei's room and Rei and Sherry would stay in our room. That way, we wouldn't have to deal with the awkwardness that would most likely follow with Kaze and Rei or Sherry in the same room sleeping. "Sherry? Rei," I asked, trying my best to see through the darkness, but I couldn't see any other figure besides the bed and couch, which were empty. I fumbled beside me until I found the old lamp on the table beside me and turned the light on, still seeing no one else in the room. Against my better judgement, I got to my feet and made my way over to the window, pulling open the curtains before looking to the earth below.

My eyes widened when I saw a duel going on, and a man was inching towards the edge of the cliff. I quickly slammed the curtains back together before running out of our room, making sure the door was shut and that I had a key in case things got any worse. It was probably obvious where I was headed at this point. I'd have to go get Kaze. With Sherry and Rei gone to somewhere else, I had no choice but to rely on him once more. When I reached the door with a golden '134' on it, I quickly knocked on the door, trying to keep my knocking at a moderate level, as I didn't want to wake everyone in the surrounding area. A few seconds after I stopped, the door opened and I just sat there blinking for a few seconds at seeing a yawning Rei.

"Hm..? Ruka...? What are you doing here," Rei asked before stretching one arm over her head.

"I could ask you the same thing," I muttered.

"Just come on in. I'm sure things will speak for themselves," Rei said and pulled the door opened wider, allowing me to enter, cautiously looking around to see if I would find Sherry hiding somewhere as well. "You see, I was staying in your room until Kaze came over," Rei said, but didn't say anymore, as I was taking in the image of Kaze laying curled up on the bed, breathing slightly heavier than normal and with a red face. "Apparently he is coming down with a nasty fever or something. It must have been something he ate, I guess," Rei muttered, clearly forgetting that there was a high chance that it was her sandwich.

"Then you'll have to help that man instead," I said, causing Rei to blink a few times.

"What man," Rei asked.

"The scream from a while ago. There's this man and-," I started but Rei ran past me and over to my twin who was snoring away on the couch.

"Hey! Rua," Rei said as she shook Rua's shoulders, getting a tired groan in return. "Listen! You need to look after Kaze alright! I'm counting on you," Rei said, earning another groan, but this time a confused one. Rei didn't even bother to answer Rua and quickly ran off, in which I had to sprint as hard as I could to catch up.


"Pathetic. To think you actually survived in this tournament," a blue haired woman murmured as she placed her cards back in her deck and walked away from the cliff. Both Rei and I were stunned in fear for a while, simply due to the woman's aura she was giving off. Even though she wasn't tall or anything like that, it still felt like we were ants beneath her. She was wearing a dark green visor over her eyes, much like to the ones on a D-wheel helmet, and an extremely large black piece of cloth which covered all over her body below her neck.

"H-hey...! Where was the guy you were dueling," Rei shouted, managing to recover from her fear and put up a brave front. The woman simply nodded towards the cliff, causing our eyes to widen.

"Y-you mean...! You...! You," I trailed off, not able to get the words out of my mouth. What would I say anyway..? Killed him...? Pushed him of a cliff..? I really had no idea what that simple nod meant. Rei clearly took it as she killed the man though, and quickly ran forward towards the woman. "R-Rei! Wait," I shouted, even though it was already too late. The woman easily stepped to the side, letting Rei go past her before reeling her leg back and kicking Rei's stomach, easily sending her flying back.

Unfortunately, it was back towards me.

You can probably already tell how that went. I wasn't anywhere near as strong as Sherry, who probably could have caught Rei with no problem, so when Rei grew closer and closer, all I could do was close my eyes and prepare for the blow. It was only when Rei flew into me that I realized the true power of the woman we were dealing with, as after we collided, we still went at least ten feet back before hitting the ground, both in terrible pain. "R-Rei...? Are you alright," I asked softly, but all I got was a barley audible groan as a response. I forced myself to at least sit up, seeing as the woman was still around, and I apparently had excellent timing. The woman was already a few feet away from us, her arm reeled back. With much difficulty, I managed to get to my feet and yank Rei out of the way. As much as that probably hurt, I'm sure a punch from this woman would hurt a whole lot more.

When I heard the rocks crunch beneath her fist, I couldn't help but cringe. That could have been us...

"Why don't you just stay still! You're ruining the fun!"

"As much 'fun' as this is, you need to stop," I shouted as the woman made her way towards us once more, but before she could prepare a blow, there was a loud roar, causing my heart to race even faster than it already was and for her to pause. That... That was...!

"Brionac, nice job," Kaze muttered as he staggered his way over to his monster, clutching one of his sides. When the woman gave a soft laugh, Rei took the initiative and roughly grabbed my shoulder so she could push herself up.

"Kaze...! Get out of the way," Rei shouted, but quickly gripped where her wound was. Regardless of her warning though, Kaze made no move to get out of the way as the woman rushed forward. Instead, he simply shot Brionac a glance, and the large Sea Serpent monster pulled back it's tail before whipping it forward, sending a large gust of air that sent the attacker flying back. It also stunned both Rei and I.

"B-Brionac is a... real monster," I asked as the woman landed on her feet a couple inches away from the cliff's edge. Before she could go back for another attack, Sherry and Rua ran out of the hotel.

"Hey! Kaze! Where do you think you're-," Sherry started but suddenly froze as her eyes met the covered ones of the woman. The blue haired woman simply smiled before giving a two fingered wave and preforming a back flip off the cliff.

"H-hey! Hold up," Kaze shouted, but quickly fell to one knee before coughing into his wrist.

"Kaze," Rua shouted as he ran over to Kaze, checking if he was alright as Sherry just stared at where the woman had been.

"I'll be fine... Its just a nasty cough now," Kaze muttered and slowly got on his feet and placed Brionac's card back in his deck, making the monster disappear. Rei took one of her arms and wrapped her around my neck so I could serve as her crutch on the way over to the others.

"Sherry...? What's wrong," Rei asked.

"It... its nothing. Just forget about it," Sherry muttered. "Speaking of which. Kaze. Come with me. We have somethings to talk about," Sherry said.

"Hold up..! We have things to talk about! Like where you and Kaze were before this, and how you know that woman, who just happened to send a guy flying off this cliff," Rei said, her agitation pretty noticeable.

"What makes you think I even know her? The sheer coincidence that I was stunned by the woman and her appearance simply means I knew her? I was simply as startled as you at seeing a murderer," Sherry said quickly before walking over to Kaze, who was breaking out into another coughing fit.

"Whatever it is that you need to talk about, why can't it be here, in front of all of us," I asked.

"Yeah! We're all friends, aren't we! So why are we keeping secrets like this from each other," Rei asked, causing Sherry laugh lightly.

"Friends...? Last time I checked, we were rivals here," Sherry said.

"Hey! Stop it! Rivals or whatever, you guys all like Kaze right! Kaze likes you guys too, so why are you fighting? That means you should all be friends if you like the same thing," Rua shouted.

"Rua, that's not how things really work," Kaze muttered, slowly recovering from the coughs.

"Why not," Rua demanded.

"If you and a friend both like a card that's on the ground, then who would get it," Sherry asked.

"Well, we'd duel over it, of course," Rua shouted, but once he realized what he said, he sighed. "Alright, alright... I get it... But you're all Kaze's friends! So that should make you friends then," Rua said.

"Speaking of 'friends'," Sherry muttered and slowly turned towards the hotel as James exited, one hand in his pocket and the other pushing up his glasses.

"What's going on here? I've gotten several reports of some noisy behavior going on," James said.

"Someone busted into this tournament and shoved someone off the cliff," Kaze explained as he managed his way back to his feet. James just remained silent, slowly looking over us, and I couldn't really blame him. We probably looked like a mess, to say the least.

"Well, I guess explanations can wait if its all over. It looks like Kaze and Saotome here need some treatment," James said.

"We'll be fine," Sherry muttered, her eyes drifting back to the cliff where the woman was.

"I insist. We can't have you two being injured with the tournament going back up tomorrow," James said.

"Hey. Not to be mean here, but why does it matter if Kaze is better by tomorrow or not. He isn't in the tournament," Rua said.

"Actually, Father invited him to be a special guest. Anyway, we're now missing a competitor. He can easily be a replacement," James said. "So come on. I'll take you two to my private nurse. You'll be healed in no time," James continued. Rei and Kaze shot each other a glance, as if they were doubting James, but in the end, Rei just smiled.

"Well? What are you waiting for? Aren't you going to help a lady over," Rei asked, clearly expecting Kaze to pick her in in his arms or something. I had to bite my lip to not laugh at the face Rei made when James walked over and bent down.

"Come on. Get on my back or you'll have to walk," James muttered, causing Rei to dejectedly get on James' back before he stood up. "And you three. I expect you to return to your rooms. I can only be so nice to you guys. If you get caught by the guards, I won't be able to help," James continued as he walked over to Kaze, apparently having no difficulty with Rei on his back.

"Ruka! If the guards catch us, we'll be kicked out! C'mon, c'mon," Rua shouted, quickly grabbing my wrist and dragging me off towards the hotel, against my protests, as I wanted to stay behind and try to get a few answers out of Sherry, no matter how impossible it sounded. Even if it wasn't Sherry, I still would have at least liked to question Kaze about how is Brionac became real and managed to blow the woman away. Rua clearly wasn't even curious though, so I just had to let my thoughts go and hope that Rei would find out the answers to my questions and let me know.


Notes:

Iwould like to thank the two that noted that there were a few mistakes in this chapter. Apparently, when I was editing this, I forgot most of the grammar rules... So, now things should be alright.