Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! GX or Strawberry Panic.


Chapter 8: Blossomed Hikari

The light called to her. It pulled her like a magnet as she saw its beam sweep across the ocean. Only the sound of the waves could be heard as she walked along the shore under a night sky lit by a moon that had been cracked in half. All around her the beach was littered with skeletons wearing Spica, Miator and Lilum uniforms, and the sight of them caused a small smile to form on her face. She smiled because something told her that those skeletons were merely remnants of the old world, and that soon a new and glorious world would begin.

Eventually she reached the source of that beckoning light, the abandoned lighthouse on the island that once held such fond memories for her. The walls of the lighthouse were now covered in thorny black vines with multicolored flowers growing on them that were strange yet at the same time very beautiful. Standing in front of the door to the lighthouse was a ghostly humanoid entity that appeared to be a woman. Her body was pitch black except for what appeared to be stars, and most of her features were outline by glowing white lines. She had no face except for a pair of bright glowing white lights that seemed to serve as eyes.

As she came near, the ghost woman held out her hand to her. "Come child. It is time for the age of the Light to begin."

She reached for the ghost girl's hand, but hesitated. There was a part of her that realized that everything around her was wrong; a part of her that wanted to run away and find some part of the world that was still sane and alive, but that part of her couldn't overcome the desire to see this new world that the ghost girl was talking about. After all, it was a world that she herself would be creating. After a few more moments of hesitation, she began to reach for the ghost girl's hand.

Akane's eyes snapped open and she found the ceiling of her room above her. She let out a soft groan as she slowly sat up on her bed and touched her forehead. Akane was starting to wonder if she was starting to come down with something. Lately she had been having long instances where she would have trouble focusing, like she was walking around in a fog. There were even a couple of times where she'd come out of one of those foggy spells and have practically no memory of what she had been doing for the past several minutes, almost like she had been sleepwalking.

If that wasn't bad enough, now she was starting to have very strange and vivid dreams and wake up in the morning with a headache. Akane tried to figure out just what her strange illness – if it was an illness – might be, and she recalled that it all seemed to begin right after she had found that strange card, The Invader X. She reached over to her nightstand and pulled the card in question from her deck to take a closer look at it. What was really strange to Akane is that she couldn't quite remember how she had gotten it in the first place. She recalled finding it in the old lighthouse, but that was about it.

Plus there was the fact that the card itself was incredibly strange. For one thing, one of its Fusion Materials required to summon it was supposed to be something called a "New World Genus" monster, and Akane had never heard of such an archetype before. She didn't know where to look for such a card, and as far as she could remember, there were no other cards in the lighthouse as far as she could remember. Then again, her memory on that subject couldn't exactly be trusted. For all she knew, there could be twenty cards of that strange archetype still there in the lighthouse gathering dust.

Regardless, Akane felt that it might be better for her to simply get rid of the card. Just as she was about to toss it to the wastebasket though, something inside her stopped her. She took another look at the card, and suddenly she remembered how that card was the key to making all those around her feel the pain and loneliness she had been feeling every single day since she had lost Mahiro. It would be foolish to just simply throw that power away, and something told her that the keys to summoning The Invader X would reveal themselves in time. As she thought of this, Mahiro's eyes began to glow and an insane grin formed on her face.


It was midmorning as Jaden entered Spica Academy's large gymnasium. The place was filled with students putting up various decorations. A few of them were busy hanging a large banner with the words, "Founders Ball" written in large blue letters. As Jaden looked around, he spotted Hikari talking over something with Shion and went over to them. With the two was another Spica student with long black hair and reddish eyes. This young woman was one of Hikari's closest friends, Yaya Nanto.

"Hey Hikari!" Jaden called as he came over to the trio.

"Oh! Hello Jaden," Hikari responded. "What brings you here?"

"I was actually looking for Amane," Jaden explained. "I was hoping that she'd be willing to duel me."

"Well she's out riding right now, but she should be back here in a few minutes," Hikari told him. "You're welcome to wait for her."

"Thanks," Jaden replied. "So what's going on in here anyway? It looks like you're getting the place ready for a party."

"That's exactly what's going on," Shion confirmed. "In two days is one of the biggest events of the Founders Festival, the Founders Ball. Spica of course will be hosting it, since the current Etoile is from here."

"And one of my duties as Etoile is to oversee the preparations for the ball," Hikari added with a sigh. "It's turning out to be a harder job than I thought. Quite honestly, I'm not sure if I can pull it off."

"Oh c'mon Hikari, you're doing great," Yaya assured her as she gave her a pat on the shoulder. "I mean look how well the place looks."

"Yeah, but there's more to it than just decorating the gym," Hikari pointed out. "There's the catering, and deciding on the music list, and at least a hundred other things! I think I'm in way over my head."

"Isn't Amane helping you with all this?" Jaden asked.

"Amane's… actually not good at this sort of thing," Hikari revealed. "She was helping at first, but she kept making all these mistakes like having the wrong floral arrangements brought in."

"At one point Hikari actually yelled at Amane," Yaya remarked. "I never imagined something like that would happen."

"After that, Amane and I decided that it would be better if I handled the whole thing myself," Hikari continued. "Well, actually Yaya and Shion have been helping a lot. I don't think could've gotten any of this done without them."

"Hey. You know you can always count on me to back you up, Hikari," Yaya told her.

"And as student council president, I'd never live it down if any event hosted by Spica Academy was less than perfect," Shion added. "It's my duty to see that the Founders Ball goes off exactly as planned."

At that moment, a young Spica student with light-brown hair tied in pigtails came running up to the four. "Excuse me, Ms. Hikari? The baking club sent me to get you. The club president has some sort of problem with the cake you asked them to make for the ball. Something about the design."

"Again? I thought we reached a final decision on that this morning!" Hikari responded.

"Apparently the club president thinks it can't work," the brown-haired girl told them. "I don't know what her hang-up is, but she wants you to come and help sort it out."

"Oh dang it!" Hikari complained as she handed the clipboard she was holding to Yaya. "Yaya, take care of things here! I'll be right back!"

With that, Hikari began to rush across the gym. As she got to the door, she ran into someone and caused him to spill the cup of coffee he was holding onto the front of his shirt. That someone turned out to be David Rabb.

"Oh! I'm so sorry!" Hikari told him. "I didn't see you there."

"You dumb little bitch!" David cursed. "You're gonna pay for that! This was my best uniform shirt, dammit!"

"I-I said I was sorry," Hikari responded.

"Wait a sec… you're half of that Etoile duo that everyone around her says is hot stuff," David realized. "So you think that just because you're queen bee around here means that you can treat everyone around you like dirt, is that it? Well I've got news for you! Nobody crosses David Rabb and gets away with it! I'm gonna make you pay for ruining my shirt!"

"I said I was sorry," Hikari told him.

"Back off, Rabb!" Jaden cut in as he and Yaya stepped forward.

"Oh. Jaden Yuki. Interesting surprise to see you here," David responded as his lips curved into a smirk. "Let me guess, this little airhead's a friend of yours."

"Who the hell do you think you are?" Yaya shot back. "Now what happened was an accident, so just lay off!"

David chuckled. "Okay… I'm willing to let this go… that is if your little princess here can beat me in a duel! Otherwise I'm going to make her pay by licking the front of my shirt clean with everyone here watching!"

"Why you…" a furious Yaya responded.

"That's way out of line, Rabb!" Jaden told him. "If you wanna duel someone to settle this, then duel me!"

"Wait Jaden!" Hikari told him as she raised a hand in front of him. "Since I was the one who was challenged to a duel, as Etoile I have no choice but to accept."

"That's a good girl," David responded with a wicked grin. "Now let's get this show on the road. Oh, and Jaden? I'd be glad to duel you after your little friend finishes cleaning my shirt. After all, you and I still have a score to settle."

"Rabb's clearly still the same as ever," Yubel remarked as she appeared next to Jaden. "Guess being under Electra's influence never affected his personality that much."

In moments, Hikari and David moved to the center of them gym and activated their duel disks. All of the students who had been preparing the place for the ball immediately stopped what they were doing in order to watch and see if their beloved Etoile would come out of the duel okay.

"I'll start this off," David declared as he drew his first card. "I set one monster on the field and end my turn!"

Hikari drew her first card. "I summon Hysteric Fairy in Attack Mode!"

Materializing on Hikari's side of the battlefield was a young-looking woman with short straight dark-blue hair and pointed ears. She had a golden halo above her head and a pair of large white-feathered wings on her back. On her face she wore a pair of glasses with red flames, and her outfit consisted of a blue suit with a short skirt, red tie, and black socks with polished shoes. In her left hand she carried a black book with a blue ankh decorating the cover.

"Hysteric Fairy! Attack his face-down monster!" Hikari commanded. "Light of the Just!"

Hysteric Fairy extended her right arm and fired a beam of white light from the palm of her hand. The blast struck David's monster, creating a blast of fire and smoke. Suddenly flying out of the cloud of smoke was a metallic red sphere with five blade-like arms around its midsection and a grey dial on its back. The sphere struck Hysteric Fairy and its bladed arms clamped around her torso. Hysteric Fairy went totally pale with terror as soon as the device clamped onto her, as though she knew exactly what it was.

David chuckled. "That monster you attacked was a Blast Sphere. As you may know, when Blast Sphere is attacked while facedown on the field, it equips itself onto the monster that attacked. Then at the beginning of the opponent's next turn, Blast Sphere detonates, blowing up the monster it's equipped to and dealing the destroyed monster's ATK as damage. Not off to a good start, are you princess?"

"I set three cards on the field and end my turn!" Hikari announced.

"This guy really is scum," Yaya remarked.

"I'm familiar with David Rabb's record," Shion responded. "He's supposed to be a pretty formidable pro duelist. Hikari has her work cut out for her."

David drew his next card. "I summon BM-4 Blast Spider in Attack Mode!"

Appearing on David's side of the field was a large but slender green and black mechanical spider. It had a round orange-brown head resembling a sort of hatch, with a single window-like eye and a pair of curved grey spikes near the bottom like a pair of fangs. Each of its long legs ended with a single black wheel, and on each knee was a pair of large grey spikes. On the back of the robotic arachnid was a pair of very large box-like launchers.

"I set a card on the field and end my turn!" David announced.

"Hey! Why'd he summon a monster with 2200 DEF in Attack Mode?" Yaya wondered.

"Because he's obviously set up some kind of trap," Jaden answered. "Rabb wants Hikari to attack him."

"Yo Jaden!" a familiar voice spoke. Jaden turned to see Atticus arriving with Reggie. "We heard there was some kind of big duel going on in the gym and decided to go check it out."

"Your friend Hikari is dueling David?" Reggie observed.

"Yeah. Hikari accidentally made David spill coffee on himself, so he challenged Hikari out of revenge," Jaden explained.

"That bastard wants to make Hikari lick his shirt clean in front if he beats her!" Yaya added.

"That creep," Reggie responded. "This is low even for him."

"How come you're not dueling Rabb instead?" Atticus asked Jaden.

"I tried, but Hikari insisted on handling this herself," Jaden answered.

"Well I hope she's as tough as her reputation says," Reggie replied. "David's become a much more aggressive player since the last time you saw him."

"It's my turn!" Hikari announced as she drew her next card.

"Right. And you know what that means, princess," David responded. "Blast Sphere detonates and takes out your monster along with a chunk of your life points."

On cue, Blast Sphere exploded and vaporized Hysteric Fairy with a blast of flames. Hikari's life points dropped to 2200.

"At this point I activate my Trap, Angel's Tear!" Hikari announced. "When a Fairy monster I control is destroyed by an opponent's card effect, I gain 400 life points times the destroyed monster's level! Since Hysteric Fairy was level four, I gain 1600 life points!"

A ghostly image of Hysteric Fairy suddenly appeared above Hikari. The slain angel closed her eyes and a single glowing blue tear rolled down her cheek. The teardrop struck the screen of Hikari's duel disk, and in seconds Hikari glowed briefly with a golden aura as her life points rose back up to 3800. Soon after, Hysteric Fairy vanished.

"I now activate Pot of Greed to draw two more cards!" Hikari announced. "And at this moment I also activate my final two face-down cards, Solemn Wishes! Solemn Wishes raises my life points by 500 every time I draw from my deck! And since I have two copies of Solemn Wishes on the field, I gain 1000 life points with each draw!"

Hikari pulled two more cards from the top of her deck. As she did so, sparkling gold lights rained down upon her from above and brought her life points up to 4800.

"I summon Heaven's Sentry in Attack Mode!" Hikari announced.

Materializing on Hikari's side of the field was a woman with long flowing red hair and blue eyes. Atop her head was a golden helmet with wings on the side, and floating above her head was a golden halo. On her back was a pair of large white-feathered wings, and she had golden armor with silver trim covering her chest. Gold bracelets covered her wrists, and around her waist was a long flowing skirt made of a glittering silvery fabric. On her left arm was a large diamond-shaped shield, and in her right hand she carried a large golden staff with a pointed white crystal at the top like the head of a spear.

"Heaven's Sentry gains 1000 ATK when my life points are higher than my opponent's which means right now her ATK is at 2600!" Hikari announced. "Heaven's Sentry, attack Blast Spider! Divine Ray!"

"I activate my Trap, Metaverse!" David announced. "This Trap lets me activate a Field Spell directly from my deck! And the card I activate is Heavy Metal Raiders!"

As Heaven's Sentry fired a beam of white light at Blast Spider from the crystal at the end of her staff, the floor of the gym suddenly changed from wood to polished grey metal. In seconds, the walls of the gym had turned black and had thick grey pipes running along them, and on the wall behind David appeared a massive pair of heavy grey metal doors. The ray of light struck Blast Spider in the face, creating an explosion of fire and smoke. David's life points dropped to 2800, but when the smoke cleared, Blast Spider was still on the field.

"What? I don't understand! How is your monster still on the field?" a startled Hikari asked.

"It's all thanks to the power of my Field Spell, Heavy Metal Raiders," David explained. "The first time one of my Dark Machine monsters would be destroyed in battle, Heavy Metal Raiders keeps it from being destroyed. Not only that, the Machine monster that would've been destroyed gains ATK equal to the damage I took from that battle. Which means that right now, my Blast Spider's ATK is at 2600."

"So Rabb deliberately played Blast Spider in Attack Mode so he could boost its ATK with that combo of Metaverse and Heavy Metal Raiders," Shion realized. "I have to admit that's a pretty bold move. He was willing to take a large amount of damage just to boost the ATK of one monster."

"Like I said, David's gotten a lot more aggressive as a duelist," Reggie told them.

"I set one card on the field and end my turn!" Hikari announced.

David drew his next card. "First I activate the Spell card, Trade-In! I discard a level eight monster from my hand to draw two more cards!"

Jaden looked closely as David place the card he was discarding in the Graveyard slot of his duel disk. "Not good. Rabb just discarded The Big Saturn."

"Wait, as in the Legendary Planet, Big Saturn?" a startled Yaya asked.

"That monster is David's ace," Reggie responded. "Now that Saturn's in the Graveyard, he can summon it to the field at just about any time."

"Next I play the Continuous Spell card, Droid Factory!" David announced. "Once per turn, Droid Factory lets me discard a Machine from my hand to summon a Droid Token to the field in Attack Mode!"

Appearing next to Blast Spider was a black and silver humanoid robot. Its face was a large spherical red light on the front of a triangular silver mask. A similar red light was on the front of its black torso.

"Now I activate Blast Spider's effect!" David announced. "Once per turn, Blast Spider lets me destroy one of my own Dark Machine monsters along with a monster my opponent controls! I use this effect to destroy both my Droid Token and Heaven's Sentry!"

The launchers on Blast Spider's back opened up, revealing silos loaded with Blast Spheres. One Blast Sphere flew out of a silo in the right launcher and collided into the Droid Token, blowing it to pieces. At the same time, another Blast Sphere flew out of one of the silos in the left launcher and attached itself to Heaven's Sentry. In less than a second, the sphere exploded and incinerated the angel.

"When Heaven's Sentry has been destroyed, her effect lets me add a level four or lower Fairy monster to my hand!" Hikari announced. "I use this effect to take Nova Summoner from my deck!"

"Fine, but now Blast Spider's other effect kicks in!" David announced. "When an opponent's monster is destroyed by one of my Dark Machines, either because of battle or that Machine's effect, my opponent takes half of the destroyed monster's original ATK as damage!"

Another Blast Sphere flew out of a silo in Blast Spider's left launcher towards Hikari. The blonde duelist raised her arms to protect herself, but the sphere still hit its target and knocked Hikari's life points down to 4000.

"That's not all!" David continued. "Because I just destroyed one of your monsters with the effect of one of my Dark Machines, the effect of Heavy Metal Raiders lets me summon another Dark Machine from my hand! I summon Devastator Zero!"

The massive doors that had formed behind David the moment he played his Field Spell suddenly opened up, and a wave of some sort of white mist or steam washed over the floor of the battlefield. Suddenly a series out loud thumping noises like footsteps could be heard from the tunnel on the other side of the doors. Lumbering out of the tunnel in a matter of seconds was red humanoid robot that stood at a towering twelve feet. It had a mask-like face with two slots for eyes and a vent like the fender of an old car where its nose and mouth would normally be. Each of its arms ended with a set of four curved grey blade-like claws.

"When Devastator Zero has been special summoned from the hand, he inflicts 800 points of damage for each face-up Spell and Trap card on my opponent's field!" David announced. "Those two copies of Solemn Wishes you have out just became a liability, princess!"

A pair of small Gatling guns rose out of Devastator Zero's shoulders and opened fire on Hikari. Hikari raised her arms to try and shield herself from the hail of bullets, but the attack still lowered her life points to 2400.

"This is like shooting fish in a barrel," David declared with an evil grin. "I know all about your reputation as an elite duelist of this academy, princess. And the fact is that it means nothing. You may be pretty tough in a tag duel, but without that lady prince of yours to back you up, you're powerless!"

Hikari glared back at David. "Don't underestimate me, David Rabb! I can handle myself all on my own if I have to."

David chuckled. "All I hear from you is the sound of a little yipping dog trying to act tough. Now then, Devastator Zero gains 500 ATK for each Dark Machine I have on the field! Since I have two Dark Machines out right now, Zero's ATK is at 3600! I use Devastator Zero to attack you directly! Full-Metal Onslaught!"

Devastator Zero's chest opened up to reveal a compartment full of small missile silos. Several black missiles flew from the silos towards Hikari. Many of the Spica students watching the duel closed their eyes to spare themselves the pain of seeing their beloved Etoile lose.

"I activate my Trap, Draining Shield!" Hikari announced as the missiles flew towards her. "This card cancels the damage from Devastator Zero's attack and raises my life points by an amount equal to its ATK!"

A round silver shield appeared over Hikari's duel disk just as the missiles were about to reach their target. The barrage struck and created a massive explosion, but when the smoke cleared moments later, Hikari was still standing and her life points had climbed to 6000. All of the audience members including Jaden breathed a sigh of relief.

David's grin turned to a scowl. "Don't think you're getting off that easy! Blast Spider! Attack the princess directly! Blast Sphere Bombardment!"

The robotic arachnid fired every single Blast Sphere loaded into its launchers across the field at Hikari. The spheres hit, and once again there was a massive explosion of smoke and flames. When the smoke cleared, Hikari's life points had dropped to 3400.

"Looks like you managed to buy yourself at least one more turn," David observed. "Oh well. It'll at least be amusing to watch you struggle for a little longer. I'll end my turn here."

Hikari drew her next card. As she did, sparkling gold lights rained down on her from above and brought her life points up to 4400.

"One thing's for sure. Hikari seems way more confident than she was the first time I met her," Jaden remarked.

"She's really blossomed ever since she and Amane got together," Yaya responded. "In fact if she and Amane had never gotten together, I'm sure Hikari would've totally gone to pieces by now facing someone like Rabb."

"I play the Continuous Spell card, Valhalla, Hall of the Fallen!" Hikari announced.

Suddenly appearing behind Hikari was a large chamber of white stone that was supported by four Roman pillars with flowering vines wrapped around them. Red curtains were draped over the walls of the room, and there was a large rectangular hole on the room's roof to let in the sky. On a set of steps between two robed statues holding spears was an ornate white throne.

"Once per turn, when I have no monsters on the field, the effect of Valhalla lets me special summon a Fairy monster from my hand!" Hikari announced. "I special summon Alexander, Seraph of Justice!"

A light began to shine down through the skylight in Valhalla's roof, and descending through the opening was a muscular man with long red hair that grew half way down his back. A gold halo was above his head, and on his back were ten white-feathered wings. A gold mask totally covered his face, and he had golden armor with silver trim covering his chest and shoulders, with the symbol of a silver sun decorating the armor on his chest. He had white baggy pants with gold boots covering his legs, and hanging from the front of his black belt was a red breechcloth with gold writing decorating the front. Gold bracelets adorned his wrists, and hanging from his waist was a large sword with a gold handle inside a black scabbard.

"When Alexander has been special summoned, his effect destroys all Dark monsters on the field with an original ATK less than or equal to his own!" Hikari announced. "Since Devastator Zero only had 2600 ATK to begin with, both it and Blast Spider are finished!"

Alexander drew his sword, revealing that the blade was made of flames. With one swing of his muscular arms, the angel sent a massive wave of fire across the battlefield, striking both of David's monsters. Upon being hit, both machines exploded into pieces of debris that rained down on the field.

"After destroying all Dark monsters on the field, Alexander's effect lets me add a certain Field Spell to my hand!" Hikari announced. "And I'm going to play that Field Spell right now! I activate The Sanctuary in the Sky!"

In an instant, the mechanized gymnasium was transformed into the ruins of an ancient Roman city that floated high in the clouds. The exact location of the battlefield was now in the middle of a temple surrounded by pillars.

"Alexander can't attack during the turn he uses his effect, so I end my turn here," Hikari announced.

After a moment, David suddenly burst out laughing. "That's it? That's the best you can do? That was a pretty good show you put on princess, but you just proved that you're all flash and no substance!"

"Just make your move," Hikari told them.

"Oh I will," David responded as he drew his next card. "I'm about to show you just how powerful I really am! I activate Monster Reborn and use its effect to summon The Big Saturn!"

A massive pillar of white light shot up from the ground behind David. In moments the light faded, and hovering behind David was a massive silver and black robot with a spherical torso and a small black head with a silver mask-like face. In the center of the machine's torso was a red circular opening. Instead of legs, the robot had a pair of large rocket boosters that it used to hover in the air. It's arms were a pair of black and silver capsules that hovered at its sides, detached from the rest of its body. On the robot's back was a dual engine jet back, and around its torso was a large ring of white energy.

"So that's The Big Saturn, huh?" Yaya observed. "That thing looks pretty tough."

"True, but both Saturn and Hikari's monster have 2800 ATK," Shion pointed out.

"Not for long," Jaden told them.

"I activate Saturn's effect!" David announced. "I discard one card and pay 1000 life points to raise Saturn's ATK by 1000 until the end of the turn!"

David's life points dropped to 1800. At the same time, the energy ring around Saturn's body vanished and its torso widened, allowing the red opening in the center of its chest to become like a cannon. The machine's rocket booster legs rotated up to become an additional set of cannons, and the engines of its jetpack rotated up to become a pair of shoulder-mounted missile launchers. Saturn's ATK rose to 3800.

"Saturn! Blow that angel to bits!" David commanded. "End of Cosmos!"

Saturn fired all the missiles loaded into its body and its flying arms launched themselves at Hikari's angel. At the same time all three of the robots cannons blasted Wild Wingman with intense beams of energy. The attack created a massive explosion that washed out the entire battlefield. When the smoke cleared, Alexander was gone, but Hikari's life points were untouched.

"Thanks to Sanctuary in the Sky, I take no damage from battles involving Fairy monsters," Hikari announced.

"No big deal," David responded. "I still have this duel in the bag. I'll end my turn here. And since my turn's over, Saturn's ATK goes back to normal."

With that, Saturn's body changed back to its original form and its ATK returned to 2800. Soon after, Hikari drew her next card. As she did so, more sparkling gold lights rained down on her from above and raised her life points to 5400.

"Since I have no monsters on the field, I use the effect of Valhalla to summon The Agent of Judgment – Saturn!" Hikari announced.

A ray of light shined down through the skylight of Hikari's throne room, and descending through the opening was a woman with purple skin and a pair of large purple-feathered wings on her back. She had on white and blue robes, with gold feathers draped over her shoulders and a red gemstone adorning her chest. Atop her head was a white and blue Egyptian-style headdress with a long golden cloth draped around her head.

"There it is! Hikari's ace!" Yaya happily observed.

"So, decided to summon your own monster based on Saturn to take me on, huh?" an amused David remarked. "Too bad for you that my Saturn has more ATK than yours."

"Except my Saturn has an effect that will end this duel!" Hikari announced. "By sacrificing herself while I have Sanctuary in the Sky on the field while my life points are higher than my opponent's, The Agent of Judgment – Saturn inflicts the difference between our life points as damage! Since my life points are at 5400 while yours are only at 1800, you take 3600 points of damage!"

"What!" a stunned David exclaimed.

Judge Saturn raised her arms from her sides, and suddenly her body gave off a blinding flash of golden light. A ring of purple light radiated from the flash across the field and struck David, knocking him to the ground. Upon being hit, David's life points dropped to zero. The Big Saturn vanished from the field, and the inside of the gym returned to its original form. With the duel finally at an end, the Spica students who had been watching cheered and Hikari let out a heavy sigh.

"You little bitch!" David cursed as he got back to his feet, causing Hikari to let out a startled gasp. "You think I'm going to just let you get away with humiliating me like that?"

"What's going on?" a familiar voice cut in. Everyone looked to see that Amane had entered the room.

"What perfect timing," Shion remarked as she let out a sigh of relief.

Amane walked up to Hikari. "You okay?"

"Yeah. I'm fine," Hikari answered.

Amane put an arm around the blonde. "C'mon. Let's get you out of here. Shion, you and Yaya can finish setting up for the ball without Hikari, right?"

"Don't worry about the ball. We've got it all under control," Shion assured her.

"Just a damn minute!" David protested as Amane and Hikari began to walk away.

"Back off, Rabb!" Jaden cut in. His eyes had changed to the orange and teal colors of Yubel's eyes.

David quickly composed himself and adjusted his hat. "Fine. I'll let this slide for now. I know well enough to back down when your eyes get like that. But don't think this is over. Sooner or later I'll settle my score with both you and that princess."

With that, David turned on his heel and left through one of the side doors in the gym. Once he was gone, Jaden let out a heavy sigh and his eyes returned to normal.

"Rabb really does have some major issues," Atticus remarked.

"Yeah," Jaden agreed. "And it looks like I'll have to face him again pretty soon."


Erica stood before a full-length mirror in the clubroom of the Spica Sewing Club, carefully examining the dress she had made for herself. It was a sky-blue dress with a large skirt that had five layers stacked on top of one another like the petals of a flower. There was a large bow on the back of the waist. Erica's right shoulder was bare, while a wide strap covered her left shoulder. As Erica quickly twirled around a bit to take another look at the back of the dress, Keiko was leaning against the opposite wall of the room with her arms crossed.

"Hmm… I don't know," Erica spoke as she continued to examine her new outfit. "Maybe I should've used that sparkling fabric for the skirt. What do you think Keiko?"

"I think you did a great job putting that dress together. And in such a short time too," Keiko told her. "If anything, all you need are a few accessories. Besides that, I think you look perfect."

"I'm glad you think so," Erica replied as she turned around to face her. "But the big question is will Akane think so?"

"Quit worrying so much," Keiko told her. "Akane is clearly already interested in you, at least from what you told me. You could probably go to the ball in some tattered brown rags and she'd still think you were beautiful."

"Perhaps you're right," Erica responded as she turned back to the mirror. After a moment, a small smile came to her face. "Okay. I guess all that's left is to wait for the night of the ball."


Hikari held tightly onto Amane as they rode atop her white horse across the grounds. In a few minutes they had arrived at the Spica stables. Behind the stables was a small shack that the two liked to go sometimes in order to be totally alone. After they dismounted, Amane led Hikari by the hand into the shack. It was a small but cozy building, with only a yellow couch with a simple wooden coffee table in front of it, a small double bed, and a stone fireplace. As soon as the two sat down together on the couch, Hikari cuddled up close to Amane.

"That must've been a pretty rough duel," Amane spoke as she put an arm around Hikari. "You sure you're okay?"

"I'm doing a lot better now," Hikari told her. "It really was hard facing someone like that."

"I wish I had been there to face him for you," Amane replied as she gently brushed a lock of Hikari's hair from her face. "If I see that bastard again, I'm gonna kick his ass. The nerve of him saying that he'd make you lick his uniform clean if he beat you."

"Don't worry about that right now," Hikari responded. "All I want you to do right now is just be here with me."

"I think I can manage that," Amane whispered.

After a few seconds, Hikari had dozed off. It was clear to Amane that her girlfriend was totally worn out, not just because of the duel with David, but also because of all the ball preparations. Amane continued to hold Hikari close, and before she knew it, she had dozed off as well.


Author's Note: I hope everyone enjoyed the duel featured in this chapter, especially the ending. I had briefly thought about calling this chapter, "Saturn vs. Saturn", but I feared that that title might give the ending away. Anyway, I thought I'd take a few moments to talk about some of the cards used in that duel. First we'll cover David's cards. Now as some of you reading are probably aware, BM-4 Blast Spider and Heavy Metal Raiders are very real cards from the still recent Ancient Millennium booster set. Both Blast Spire and that Field Spell are actually my favorite cards from the set, and I actually ended up buying a whole box of Ancient Millennium packs to try and get my hands on them... and to get more copies of Blast Sphere (I love that card). It's a real shame that there aren't really too many decks that can make good use of Heavy Metal Raiders and Blast Spider except for maybe Ally of Justice decks and decks based around Desperado Barrel Dragon and/or Cracking Dragon.

I thought that both of those cards would be a perfect fit for David's deck in this story. To really make Blast Spider work though, I decided that he should have the following Spell card in his arsenal.

Droid Factory

Continuous Spell

Once per turn, you can discard 1 Machine-Type monster from your hand; Special Summon 1 "Droid Token" (Machine-Type/DARK/Level 4/ATK 1500/DEF 0) to your side of the field in Attack Position. You cannot Normal Summon during the turn you activate this effect.

The card was actually inspired by the Quantity monsters that David used in the GX manga. In fact I even thought about calling the Tokens produced by this card, Quantity Tokens. Anyway, I also came up with the following monster for him to use with Heavy Metal Raiders.

Devastator Zero

DARK/Machine/Effect/7/ATK 2600/DEF 2000

When this card is Special Summoned (from the hand): Inflict 800 points of damage for each face-up Spell and Trap Card on the opponent's side of the field. This card gains 500 ATK for each DARK Machine-Type monster you control, including itself.

Now let's turn to Hikari's deck. Truth be told, Hikari's deck kind of made this duel a little hard to write. Her deck is basically an old style Agent deck that focused on boosting the user's life points rather than banishing the opponent's monsters. It had been years since I used such a deck, and even with the research I did to reacquaint myself with the cards for it, there were a few times during the outline stage of the duel where I got a little stuck. As a result, I wound up fabricating the following two monsters.

Heaven's Sentry

LIGHT/Fairy/Effect/4/ATK 1600/DEF 1000

When your life points are higher than your opponent's, this card gains 1000 ATK. If this card is destroyed and sent to the Graveyard; you can add 1 Level 4 or lower Fairy-Type monster from your deck to your hand.

Alexander, Seraph of Justice

LIGHT/Fairy/Effect/7/ATK 2800/DEF 2200

If this card is Special Summoned; destroy all face-up DARK monsters on the field who's original ATK is less than or equal to the ATK of this card, then add 1 "The Sanctuary in the Sky" from your deck to your hand. This card cannot attack during the turn it's been Special Summoned.

Honestly not the most original cards I've made up, but they got the job done. I also made up the following Trap card for Hikari to use early on in the duel.

Angel's Tear

Trap Card

When a Fairy-Type monster you control is destroyed by an opponent's card effect; gain 400 life points times the level of the destroyed monster.

That about covers it, I think. In next week's installment, the final Legendary Planet user will be revealed, so stay tuned.

In the meantime, please review and let me know what you think.