Signs of Renewal

by Donjusticia

Tragedy strikes when Ruri and Rin both lose their lives in a desperate escape attempt. Lost to the underworld, Ruri is about to give up when a mysterious force makes her a tantalizing offer. Witness the thrilling tale of revenge, sacrifice, friendship, and redemption as the Dark Signers rise once again to rule over a universe crumbling into war and chaos.

10. Part 1: Chapter 9

Part 1: Chapter 9 – Reunion

"Errrrrrrrrrrrrrgh…"

Sora struggled to open his eyelids, which pressed down against his eyeballs like sheets of cold steel. The second he managed to crack them open just a little, just enough to make out the blurry outline of clouds in the sky… he immediately regreted it.

As his heart hammered against his chest, it seemed to spread a wave of pain throughout his body. He became conscious of several blisters burning with heat, gashes screaming with a sharp stinging sensation, and the great thumping pain of bruises against the back of his head. With a sharp groan he cracked open his eyes the rest of the way and began groggily blinking as the burning rays of the sun scorched his pupils. When he had finally adjusted to the light of the sun, he slowly tried to lift his rigid body off the ground.

"AAAAAAAAGH!" He yelped before collapsing back onto his back. The second he had pressed his hands on the ground and lifted his body up a few inches, he had been completely incapacited by the twin pains of heat blisters popping on his hands and the feeling of a shattered rib stabbing against his side.

Sora desperately began trying to remember how he'd gotten in this position. There was Ruri… beating him to death with her monster… what was that thing? It was unlike anything Sora had ever seen before. It annihilated every single card Sora had on the field and his graveyard, and it was just about to annihilate him. But…why didn't it? Why was he still alive?

He suddenly remembered what he had seen, just as Ruri had raised him into the air to deliver the finishing blow.

"Yuzu!" he groaned, tears streaming out his eyes. Suddenly, all the pain he was experiencing seemed utterly miniscule, completely overshadowed in comparison to an even more overwhelming agony that gripped his insides and refused to let him find comfort and peace.

He had failed her. He had vowed to do everything in his power to protect her, but he had failed. Crippled by the overwhelming power of Ruri's monster, he had been utterly helpless as he watched Yuzu get ruthlessly off the track by a raging psychopath before crashing head-first into a building.

Why!? Why did it have to be her!? Why hadn't he been able to prevent it!? Why was he still alive when she was now dead!?

"YUUUUZUUUUU!" Sora screamed with agony, ripping himself from the ground and managing to stand on his two legs before violently falling down on his hands and knees and getting sick. Utterly stripped of all dignity, he let himself make a huge mess of himself and the building as he let out the scanty watery contents of his stomach, before letting out a few final wretches. Pressing down on his throbbing hands, he panted for a long time for breath, the pain in his chest threatening to make him black out once again.

Gritting his teeth, he looked in the direction of Yuzu's crash site. She couldn't be dead; he refused to believe it! There had to be a chance she survived. And if there was any chance she did, he didn't care how much he hurt. He didn't care if Ruri showed up again and killed him. There was absolutely no way he was going to let her get to Yuzu!

As his rage and determination grew, his body flooded with just enough adrenaline to help him forget his pain and start punching a code into his Duel Disk. From the side, a small compartment popped open, revealing a miniature pocket medical kit with a couple small syringes, pain pills, a roll of bandages, scissors, a sewing needle and thread, a container of ointment, antiseptic wipes, and a single fast-acting poison lozenge for personal use.

Ignoring the pain pills, which would dull his senses if he took them, he immediately set to work treating his numerous injuries. Tearing off pieces of bandage, applying antiseptic, smearing ointment over his burns, and cutting off bits of thread, he bound his gashes, treated his burns, and began stitching together his more serious lascerations, biting down on a thick piece of bandage as he did.

When he had treated as many wounds as he could bear, he removed the cap from one of the syringes and shot it into his arm before throwing away the empty container.

Immediately, Sora screamed with even more pain as the contents of the syringe took effect. In a burst of sudden energy, Sora managed to leap to his feet, and stand upright as his heart hammered against his broken chest. Every fiber of his being felt like it wanted to die… but he was alive, and now thanks to the drug, he could run.

Taking a deep, shaky breath, he began sprinting towards the crash sight, using every ounce of energy he could get from the drug as he ignored his pain and leapt from building to building. Down below, he spied numerous patrols of security in Duel Chasers, and massive armored cars clearing away mobs of unruly Commons.

Carefully, Sora evaded the glances of Security, and eventually made it to a building overlooking the gaping hole of Yuzu's crash site. Making his way down to some lower buildings, he backed off to the edge of a roof and made a running leap off the edge of a building parallel to the hole.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!" Sora screamed as he flew through the air. Stretching out his bandaged hand, he managed to grab onto the edge of a floor before plummeting to the ground, pulling himself into the building.

"Yuzu! YUZU!" he called, looking through the remains of the building. The building was completely empty of people, but quite a bit of the interior had been destroyed, far more than what would have been expected of a D-Wheel explosion. Looking up at the sealing and walls, Sora noticed deep gashes in the building, which looked like claw and sword marks. Taking a closer look, he noticed bits of melted metal and the remains of what looked like hardened… magma.

Sora quickly looked around to make sure no one was watching as his mind slowly connected the dots. There hadn't just been an explosion. There had been a fight! But between whom?

Ruri seemed like a likely candidate for one of them. After all, she had left the duel immediately when she had seen Yuzu crash. But why? What was she interested in? And who did she end up fighting.

Sora gulped as his anxiety grew. "YUZU!?" he bellowed once again.

She was nowhere in sight. Sorting through some bits of rubble, he managed to find Yuzu's broken D-Wheeler, but there was no sign of the rider. Sora hated to think what his discovery implied.

"YUZU!"

He told himself to calm down. It didn't make sense. Ruri couldn't have been Yuzu's opponent… Yuzu wouldn't have even been able to duel. So where was she? Did Ruri take her? Then why was there a battle? Who did Ruri fight?

Sora was interrupted in his thoughts when he heard the sound of engines engaging outside the building. Rushing over to the hole in the building, Sora looked down to see a massive squad of about three-hundred Arrest Corps officers reporting to another massive squadron of Security Officers, most of which were piloting a convoy of armored vehicles. A pair of tall Arrest Corps officers nodded to a Security Officer, who seemed to be the leader, before they each mounted a D-Wheeler and raced off towards the stadium.

Had Ruri and Yuzu been captured? Right now that seemed to make the most sense. From what he'd seen, it looked like the Arrest Corps had been rounding everyone up.

Most likely, Ruri had come to Yuzu's crash site, for whatever reason, and been confronted by the Arrest Corps. She had resisted arrest, hence the battle, before finally getting beaten and dragged away with Yuzu. Now both of them were probably in one of the armored cars, waiting to be carted off to who-knows-where.

There was, however, a bit of comfort to his theory. Security would never arrest a dead person. Yuzu had to be alive. Severly injured, probably, but very much alive. And as long as she was alive, he could save her.

Sora glanced at his Duel Disk, which was displaying the current time. The effects of each syringe was designed to last six hours. He had spent about fifteen in the building, and he still had one syringe left for the other half of the day. Hopefully, by then, he'd be able to track down Yuzu and rescue her.

Filled with hope and determination, Sora sprinted towards the edge of the hole, and leaped down to a roof of a short building on the other side of the street, coming to a rolling stop when he hit the ground. As one of the armored trucks began pulling away, Sora began following it.

"I'm still here for you, Yuzu." Sora promised as he followed the convoy. "No matter what happens to me, I won't let anything happen to you!"

…

As Yuya returned to the stadium, he could hear all kinds of voices shouting down at him. Some were praising him while others sounded ready to kill him.

"Excellent work Yuya!" A member of the Tops clapped, "Truly splendid work shutting up that horrid drivel about revolt."

"How could you do this to us!?" a member of the Commons roared, "Shinji was our comrade! And you silenced him!"

"TOPS DOG!" a group angrily agreed before another group rallied behind them with a furious chant of "SHINJI! SHINJI! SHINJI! SHINJI!"

Melissa Clair couldn't stop trembling. Things were getting out of hand! She knew she had to somehow stop this all, but she didn't know what to say.

"This is no time to get angry!" Melissa Clair desperately protested, holding back tears, "W-we've finally had a… an excellent and suspenseful duel!"

"Yeah…" she thought to herself, "…that was the right word." In fact it was STILL suspenseful for her. Now, more than at any other time she had provided commentary for the Friendship Cup, she could feel just how thin a tightrope she walked as she desperately tried to reign in decades of Commons anger and suppress a revolt with some cheap gladiator-style entertainment. There had been times when she had begun to feel the dangers that came with her job… times when the Commons threatened to ignore the entertainment the city had provided them and rise up against the Tops. She had always known that if such a thing happened, she would be one of the first to be blamed.

Now, looking back, she couldn't believe she had been stupid enough to accept what back then looked like the chance of a lifetime. What had it gotten her? Money and fame? Sure. But at what cost? Now the commons were riled up worse than they had ever been and Security was making sure SHE was paying for it! They had Aliesha in their custody. Who knows what they would do to her if she didn't find a way to fix this fast! What worried her even more is what would happen if Security lost control over the situation.

As the shouting intensified, Yuya felt his own guilt deepen.

"What have I done?" Yuya inwardly groaned. "I put victory over entertainment, just so I could get to Yuzu and duel Jack. Forget about helping them smile! I've only created more division than ever before!"

Shinji then pulled up to the center of the arena before leaping off his bike, throwing down his helmet and shouting at the crowd at the top of his lungs.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING!" he protested, "SECURITY IS ROUNDING UP YOUR FELLOW COMMONS AS WE SPEAK! STOP SITTING AROUND AND DOING NOTHING! YOU HAVE THE POWER TO RISE UP! STAND AGAINST SECURITY! USE YOUR POWER! GO! GOOOOO! WHY ARE YOU STILL SITTING! DON'T BE COWARDS! STAND AND FIGHT! FIGHT THE TOPS! FIGHT SECURITY! DO IT!"

A pair of beefy escorts in green pants and jackets, rushed over to Shinji, pinning him against the ground before taking an arm in each of theirs and dragging him away.

Shinji flailed like a possessed demon, raving and spitting at the escorts before his bloodshot eyes locked onto Yuya.

"REMEMBER THIS YUYA!" he shouted, "I WILL NEVER FORGIVE YOU! I WILL KILL YOU FOR THIS! YOU HEAR ME! IF CROW DOESN'T AVENGE MY GRUDGE, THEN I WILL KILL YOU! I WILL KILL YOU FOR KILLING MY BRETHREN! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!"

"No! You've got it all wrong!" Yuya protested, "I never meant for any of this to happen! I will help you! You and everyone in this dimension! Stay strong in the underground! Shini!?"

Melissa Clair gaped at the scene with her mouth open, half relieved that Shinji was finally getting dragged away, and half fearful that his removal would only make things worse.

Presently however, just as the two escorts were about to cart Shinji into the underground, a pair of Arrest Corps officers pulled up in front of them on a pair of large D-Wheelers.

"S-security?" Melissa gasped, "W-what are they doing here?"

Yuya heard one of the Arrest Corps officers speak to the escorts.

"Officer Santiago Guevarra." A tall Arrest Corps officer introduced himself, presenting a badge to the escorts. "You will kindly hand over the loser to us so we can personally escort him to the underground under our protection. This is a matter of public security."

"But… we've already got this under control." One of the escorts huffed.

"Yeah…" his companion agreed, "…It's not like this our first time doing this. We can handle ourselves without security poking their nose in where it doesn't belong."

"Have you heard of directive Alekhine's Gun?" the other Arrest Corps Officer, wearing a more feminine suit growled. Getting up from her bike, she strolled over towards the officers until she was standing a full foot and a half over their heads, causing both escorts to back away. "If not, then let's just say that it's a bad idea to stand in the way of Security right now. So hand him over! Otherwise…" she cracked her knuckles, "…the two of you will wish you could go to the underground!"

"Mita." Santiago growled, putting his hand on her shoulder. Next to her, Santiago was a half-foot shorter, but in terms of broadness, he had her beat. Eyeing the guards through his mask he repeated his previous order.

"Hand him over," he growled. "and we'll overlook your previous act of insubordination."

The two escorts looked at each other before relinquishing their hold on Shinji and running away. Shinji tried to use the opportunity to make a dash for freedom, but the two officers were too fast for him. In a flash, Mita and Santiago each pinned Shinji to the ground before pulling his hands behind his back and cuffing him with a pair of solid vision hand-cuffs.

"If you think I'll talk, or betray the revolution…" Shinji snarled at them, "…then you are wrong! I'll never stop fighting! Not even if you torture me! I'll…"

The rest of Shinji's sentence was cut off as Mita slammed Shinji's face onto the ground before leaning her own helmet against his ear.

"If you really want to defeat Security and free the Commons from their oppression…" she whispered, "…then you'll come with us."

"Wha-?" Shinji gasped, not sure if he had heard her right.

"On your feet, scum!" Santiago roared, yanking Shinji off the ground with immense strength. Still processing Mita's last sentence, Shinji offered no further resistance as Mita and Santiago dragged him away in the direction of the underground.

Yuya watched helplessly as Security dragged Shinji away. Shaking his head in frustration, he decided to leave Shinji for now and address a matter that was actually within his power to control. Running over to his D-Wheel, he attempted to mount the bike and drive away, when a security officer clamped his hand over Yuya's wrist, preventing him from punching down on the accelerator.

"Let me go!" Yuya protested, attempting to wrench his arm free. "I found Yuzu! I have to get to her!"

From his control room, Roger didn't fail to catch Yuya's words. Eyes widening with interest, he quickly contacted the Security Officer that was holding Yuya's arm.

"Let him go!" he ordered. "Let's let the boy reunite with his friend."

The security officer complied with a nod, letting go of Yuya's hand and enabling the boy to mount his bike and zoom away at top speed.

"Follow him." Roger instructed another group of Security officers with a smile. "If we play this out right, Yuya might just become one of my true trump cards for dealing with these Dark Signers."

…

When Yuya exited the highway leading to the segment of city across from the Duel Palace, he braced himself for possible encounters against armored security vehicles attacking crowds of civilians. However, in stark contrast to the decrepit slums, the more middle-class segments of the city were surprisingly quieter. True, there were plenty of Security officers in helicopters, Duel Chasers, armored vehicles, and on foot, but they were not hunting the more well-to-do citizens as vigorously as they had the crowds of angry Commons.

Parking his bike in an empty alleyway, Yuya's eyes darted across the vast cityscape, searching for any sign of Yuzu. He didn't dare raise his voice to find her, for fear of Security become hostile. Fortunately, as he continued to search for Yuzu, despite receiving some occaisional glances from officers, nobody made any moves on him.

Others were not so lucky.

"What do you mean my presence is requested at Security Headquarters?" A store owner argued with a Security Officer. "What have I done?"

"This is a matter of state security." The officer curtly replied, "In compliance with directive, Alekhine's Gun, all male citizens age eighteen and older are required by law to submit a minimum of eight volunteer hours of service to the state. Non-compliance with the law will not be tolerated."

"Non-compliance my foot!" the store owner snarled, "I've paid my taxes and done plenty of community service, what gives you the right to say I haven't already given enough!? I'm not budging until…"

The man's protests were immediately silenced as a group of three Security officers slammed the man against his store, slipped a muzzle over his face, and hand-cuffed his hands behind his back. A few bystanders looked on the scene with worried faces, but nobody made any move to help the man as he was dragged into the back of an armored truck.

Yuya clenched his fist with anger. He wanted to walk right up to security and stop them right then and there. But what could he do? Looking through the area, Yuya could see dozens of Security Officers swarming the streets and buildings. Most people were complying with the orders from Security, but the few who offered any resistance were swiftly dealt with. If Yuya tried to stop Security, he might manage to win against a few of them, but Yuya was certain his act of defiance would end up being little more than a symbolic gesture once Security pressed down on him in full force. They weren't even giving most people the opportunity to duel. Instead, net guns were quickly deployed in several situations in order to suppress any feeble resistance the city residents offered.

Trying to be as inconspicuous as possible, Yuya made his way down an abandoned alleyway, passing by a group of Security officers who had surrounded a Tops man and his family.

"What's this all about!?" the Tops man with long black hair and an elegant tuxedo snapped. "You oafs have no right to treat me like this! I'll have you know that I come from a long line of well respected Tops citizens! One of them was even a governor of the city! Saito Tami! Look him up!"

"Citizen Tami," An Arrest Corps officer growled, "we are uninterested in your lineage. You're presence is demanded immediately in Security Headquarters in order to address a matter of state security. Any non-compliace with the law will be met with swift and decisive punishment."

"Daddy?" A little girl whimpered, looking up at her father. She looked to be about ten years old, wore a pair of stylish black pants and shoes, a black shirt with onyx stones around the neck and chest, a blue choker with a golden crescent moon in the center, and a pair of silver earings shaped like crosses and inlaid with diamonds. Her long hair was styled into a silky braid that looped around the right half of her neck and cascaded down her right shoulder. Her skin was quite fair, like the marble of a statue, but her eyes were a smoky onyx black and her lips were a deep cherry red. Nervously bowing to the Arrest Corps officer, she twiddled her thumbs and began timidly speaking.

"Uhm… honorable Officer…" she whimpered, "…my daddy hasn't done anything wrong… so uhm…"

"Be quiet Gin!" her mother scolded from behind the girl. Unlike the father and the daughter, Gin, the mother had a head of curly blonde hair, but her eyes were a deep onyx black, just like Gin's. "Your father's not in any trouble. These oafs wouldn't dare arrest us."

"All male citizens age eighteen and older are required to contribute to public security as per directive Alekhine's Gun." The Arrest Corps officer growled. "No exceptions!"

"Look!" the father snapped, "We're not low-lifes! Surely there's an exception provided for someone of our rank!" he signaled over a servant who hastily handed the man over a pen and a blank check. Scribbling down on the piece of paper, the father handed the check over to the Arrest Corps officer who examined it thoughtfully.

"Look… there's my contribution, alright?" he huffed, "There ought to be enough in there for the entire Arrest Corps to buy themselves some new suits. So can we please… just… get on with our day? My daughter, Gin, has Baguazhang practice in the dojo, and I promised I'd watch."

"Get in the car, Mr. Tami." The Arrest Corps officer instructed.

"Thank you!" Mr. Tami sighed, heading over to the limo with the rest of his family.

"Not that car!" the Arrest Corps officer snapped. "This one!" he pointed in the direction of an armored truck.

"What!" Mr. Tami exclaimed. The mother gasped, and Gin's dark eyes widened in shock. "What am I going in that abominable thing for!?"

"You are under arrest." The Officer cooly replied, grabbing Mr. Tami by the hands and activating a pair of solid vision handcuffs.

"Daddy!" Gin shrieked, rushing forward to help him. In panic, her mother grabbed Gin by the shoulders and pulled her back before pushing her into the limo.

"What am I under arrest for!" Mr. Tami roared, trying to rip himself away from the Secuirty officers.

"For bribing an officer of the state." The Arrest Corps officer growled. "You will remain held in our custody without trial. Under the provisions set by directive, Alekhine's Gun, the time of your release and the severity of your punishment are placed entirely within the discretion of the Public Security Bureau."

"DADDY!" Gin shrieked once more, trying to claw her way out of the car. A servant inside the limo held her back while her mother plead with some of the officers. With a violent shove, a security officer knocked the mother to the ground before the other officers roughly dragged Mr. Tami into the back of an armored truck.

The Arrest Corps officer approached the mother who was whimpering on the ground.

"You will immediately return to your home and await instructions from the Public Security Bureau." He admonished, pocketing Mr. Tami's check. "For the sake of your daughter, I suggest you comply with every order you receive. Otherwise, we will not be this lenient in the future."

Shakily getting up from the ground, dress and hair stained with dirt, the mother quietly nodded her head before rushing into the limo and cradling her weeping daughter in her arms. Giving instructions to the driver, the limo zoomed away in the direction of a few buildings on top of a large sky-platform. Heading in the opposite direction, the armored truck rumbled away while the other Security officers dispersed on Duel Chasers.

Yuya froze in utter shock after witnessing the scene. "They're going after the Tops?" he murmered, "Why!? What are they afraid of?"

Yuya shook his head in frustration. The city was growing more messed up by the hour. No wonder Shinji was so desperate to start a revolution! First they threw losers of the Friendship Cup into the waste disposal facilities to labor until they dropped, then they started rounding up Commons at the earliest provocation, and now they were even going after the Tops, the very people who seemed like they ought to be immune such brutality.

Yuya looked down at the ground and put his goggles over his eyes as his hopelessness grew. He had remembered a game he and his mother, Yoko, had played when he was little. It was really mainly a bunch of moral dilemma questions. Yoko would ask Yuya what he would do if say… he saw a bully taking someone's lunch away. Young Yuya would enthusiastically say something like, "I would tell him, 'No!'" Later, as he began understanding more of his dad's teachings, he would refine his answers to something like, "I would teach them that it's wrong to hurt others and show them that instead of fighting, they could share their lunch with each other."

"How about now?" he thought to himself, "How am I doing with that?" he slammed his fist against a wall and began mentally mocking himself.

"Well Yuya, you've not only done nothing to stop the bullies, but you've probably made things even worse by single-handedly taking out the one guy who was willing to stand up to this kind of oppression, Shinji Weber."

"No!" he argued with himself. "Shinji's method wasn't the answer! It only would have made things worse!"

But how had his dueling helped to make things better? He hadn't managed to bring a smile to a single person's face. The city was deteriorating and he was no closer to either ending the war or finding Yuzu.

He exhaled when he thought of Yuzu. "She hasn't given up." He thought to himself. "She's still fighting." He angrily ripped off his goggles and snapped them back over his forehead before wiping away at his eyes which had started to tear up. "As long as she hasn't given up, there's no way I can give up either! I made a promise to her. Even if Security starts burning the city to the ground, I won't stop fighting until I've returned the smiles of each and every person to this city! I WILL do this! I KNOW my dueling can do this! There is STILL hope!"

"YUZU!" he called out, deciding to waste no more time with caution. He couldn't let fear or his past failures control him. There were people counting on him to stay strong, and he was not about to let them down.

"YUZU! YUZU!" Yuya kept calling at the top of his lungs, dashing from alleyway to alleyway he had passed during his duel against Shinji. Eyes frantically darting around the landscape, he was about to retrace his steps and continue his search in another direction, when a hand suddenly shot out from the shadows of a dark alleyway and pulled him inside.

Yuya gasped when he saw who it was.

"YUZU!" he exclaimed, rushing over to hug her.

"SHHHHH!" she hissed, putting her finger to his mouth before beckoning for him to follow her. Quietly the two made their way down a few winding dark alleyways before coming across a shadowy intersection enclosed with a wall of run-down abandoned homes. Yuzu seemed to look around before indicating the top of one of the ruined buildings. Yuya nodded his head in understanding and climbed to the top of he building with her before they both snuck into the shadowy recesses of a broken corner of the building, hiding themselves from sight.

When they had both scanned the area for any sings of Secuirty and found none, Yuya settled down next to Yuzu, and stared into her eyes, wanting to make sure it was really her.

Yuzu stared back at him with her brilliant blue eyes and nodded her head as if understanding his unspoken question.

"Yuzu!" he rejoiced, pulling her into an affectionate hug.

"Yuya!" she wept, hugging her friend back, overjoyed to be with him again.

Yuya held her close, letting a few tears of relief trickle down his cheeks. She was really here! She was alive and okay! He could barely fathom the immense amount of relief and joy he felt after seeing her crash into the building and wondering if she was really alive, only to have her hear with him now, safe and in the flesh.

"I'm so sorry!" Yuzu wept. "I wanted to come back to you as soon as I recovered, but I was held back!"

"It's okay!" Yuya smiled, nuzzling against her neck as he wrapped his arms more tightly around her. "I'm so happy right now!"

Yuzu nodded her head and hugged him back, smiling peacefully as she did. Yuya let himself relax as his heart beat against her chest, appreciating the opportunity to hold her warm body in his arms.

That's when he noticed something off about her.

"Yuzu?" he asked, sounding very concerned. Pulling away from her he stuck his hand against her forehead.

"What is it?" Yuzu asked, shocked by the sudden tone shift.

"You're cold!" Yuya gasped, looking even more panicked. "Are you feeling alright!? Do you have a fever!?"

Yuzu looked down at the ground, looking like she was suddenly very uncomfortable.

"Hold on!" Yuya exclaimed, "I'll get you something you can wrap yourself up in!" he glanced over at a discarded tarp and some old bits of clothing hanging on a clothes line. Getting up from the ground, he took a step forward to get Yuzu something, when Yuzu grabbed his arm from behind and held him back.

"What is it!?" Yuya asked, turning around and putting his hand on Yuzu's shoulder. Something was clearly upsetting her. She was looking down on the ground and kept opening and closing her mouth as if she wanted to speak, but couldn't figure out what to say.

"Yuya…?" she finally hesitantly asked.

"Yes Yuzu?" Yuya asked, hoping there was something he could do to help.

She swallowed before nervously looking into Yuya's eyes. "Do… do you know how I… how I…" she gulped again, "…survived… the crash?"

Yuya thought back to the awful crash. It had been horrible to see. There hadn't been clear footage of what went on, but the explosion from the building seemed to suggest that it would have been a horrific experience for Yuzu.

"I don't know." Yuya admitted.

"Yes… of course you wouldn't…" Yuzu nervously replied, sounding apologetic, "…it's just… it's just…"

Yuya held Yuzu's hands in his own. "It doesn't matter, Yuzu." He reassured her, "All that matters is that you are here now. You don't have to worry about what happened anymore. I'm here for you! I'll always be here for you!"

Yuzu looked back at Yuya, eyes glistening with tears. Nodding her head she stepped back from him, looking as if she'd decided something.

"Thank you… Yuya." She sighed. "Please don't be shocked. There's something I need to show you."

Yuya stared back at his friend, wondering what she was talking about.

Holding up her right arm, Yuzu closed her eyes and inhaled, seeming to focus on something. Instantly, with a slight ringing sound, a crimson flower mark blazed to life on Yuzu's arm, burning against her skin like fire.

"Nani!?" Yuya gasped in shock, wondering what Yuzu just did. With a sudden flash of recollection, Yuya remembered seeing that exact flower mark in his vision when he was dueling Shinji. What was it doing on Yuzu's arm? What had the woman said about it?

"Please don't panic!" Yuzu begged, holding out her hands. "It's still me! I haven't changed!"

"Changed!?" Yuya stammered, "What are you talking about? What is that thing? Are you okay!?"

Yuzu looked very saddened. "I'm sorry." She mumbled.

"Sorry? About what?" Yuya begged, struggling to figure out what was going on and what exactly was upsetting Yuzu.

"I shouldn't have done this to you." Yuzu wept. "I should have known it would only upset you."

Yuya looked back at Yuzu, deeply hurt by her last statement, not because her words had offended him, but because he knew something he had done had caused Yuzu to lose her confidence in him.

Rushing forward, he pulled Yuzu into a hug once again, refusing to let her go. "There's nothing you can do to upset me." Yuya whispered in her ear. "Whatever's going on here, you can tell me about it. I promise I'll understand!"

Tears gushed from Yuzu's eyes. "But… but how can you understand!" she half cried and half laughed, "What happened to me… it's so… it's so…"

"Tell me what happened." Yuya begged, stroking the back of Yuzu's head.

Yuzu nodded her head, tears still streaming from her eyes. "Alright." She conceded, "I will. I'll show you everything.

Backing away from Yuya she closed her eyes and clamped her hands together. Instantly, Yuzu became encased in a black whirlwind, throwing Yuya back a bit while completely concealing Yuzu from view.

"YUZU!" Yuya yelped in panic.

"IT'S OKAY!" Yuzu called back. As quickly as the dark whirlwind appeared, it vanished away. From its center Yuzu stepped towards Yuya.

Her expression and manner remained unchanged, but her appearance had been altered. Her eyes, which had once looked so bright, now had literally blackened to the color of coal with glimmering blue irises burning against the blackness like flames. Over her left eye, a bright crimson mark shaped like six flower petals and a tear-drop shaped leaf burned against her skin with lurid red light. Her clothing had changed as well. Her riding outfit had vanished away and she now wore a short black top with elegant red patterns woven into the fabric. On her back, she wore a black-and-red cape that stretched down to her upper legs. Most of her midriff was exposed, and her bottom half was only barely covered with a pair of black-and-red shorts held together with a thick leather belt. On her legs she wore a pair of black-and-red shoes and a pair of black stockings that came up past her knees. Over her arms, she wore a pair of fingerless gloves that stretched past her elbows. Depite the arm covering, however, the flower mark burned brightly against her skin, the blackness of the glove only brightening its intense red light.

Yuya's mouth gaped open in shock. "How did you do that!?" he gasped. "Wha-what happened to you?"

Yuzu took in a deep breath and looked directly into Yuya's eyes. "I wish there was some other way I could tell you this. But… when I was hit by Sergey, I… I crashed and… and then… I… I died."

"Died?" Yuya gasped, shaking his head with disbelief. No. It was impossible! She was standing right in front of him!

A tear trickled down Yuzu's cheek. "It's true." She wept. "Look!" she commanded, pressing Yuya's hand against her chest so he could feel her heart. Sure enough, as Yuya felt against her cold, stony chest, he could feel absolutely no heartbeat, even though Yuzu was standing in front of him, talking to him and touching him as if she were real. Had he gone crazy?

A look from Yuzu's eyes told him he hadn't. There was more to her than just the irrational thoughts of a crazy person. Looking into her eyes, he could see that she was a real person, who had needs, hopes, feelings, and desires.

"I…" Yuya stammered, not knowing how to continue. She was dead? Then how was she standing in front of him? Was she a ghost?

Yuzu seemed to know what Yuya was thinking. "It's really me." She promised, "I can prove it! Remember the letter you wrote to me? I have it memorized. I could quote it to you right now, word for word. Or better yet, you can ask me anything. I promise I'll…"

Yuya cut the rest of her sentence off by taking her hands into his own and staring directly into her eyes.

"You don't have to." He replied. "I know it's really you. There's no one else you could be." He looked down at the ground, tears glistening in his eyes, "But then… how… how… how can you be dead!?"

Yuzu looked down at the ground, struggling to figure out what to say. She still wasn't even sure she understood it all herself. Taking another deep breath, she decided to just relate to Yuya what she had experienced.

"After I got killed…" she began, "…I remember waking up in this awful place. It was dark and lonely. I had no idea what was going on. I felt like giving up and just… fading away… but, but I was helped…" she looked into Yuya's eyes, "…by Ruri."

"Ruri!" Yuya gasped. "Shun's sister?"

Yuzu nodded. "She found me there and… and helped me come back. She and Rin had been killed as well… but… but somehow they had all been brought back, just like… just like I have been brought back."

"How did she bring you back?" Yuya asked, still trying to process what Yuzu was saying. He knew she wasn't lying to him, and it felt all too real for her story to be the ravings of a deranged lunatic.

Yuzu thought about how to answer Yuya's question before responding. Holding up her arm to show him the mark, she let Yuya trace his finger over the primitive flower drawing, his eyes open wide in a curious expression.

"I don't quite understand how it works." Yuzu admitted, "But I do know it has something to do with this. Somehow… a… a spirit, took pity on me… and… and used her power to bring me back from the dead. Or at least… I am… less dead… than I was before." She looked at Yuya helplessly, struggling over how much like a stark raving mad paranoid schizophrenic she sounded.

Yuya hung his head down in shame when he saw the pain spread across Yuzu's face. "This is all my fault." He groaned.

"Wha- your fault!" Yuzu gasped, "How…?"

"If I hadn't left you in the battle-royal," Yuya wept, "if I had of just stayed with you, then you wouldn't have been taken away to the Synchro Dimension. You wouldn't have had to face Sergey, and… and…" he fell to his knees and began weeping uncontrollably.

"It's not your fault!" Yuzu protested, falling down to her own knees and cradling Yuya's head in her arms. "If anything… you were the one who kept me going! All those times I read your letter… all those times I wanted to give up… If you hadn't of been there… I would've abandoned hope long ago! You saved me, Yuya! You gave me the strength I needed to come back!"

Yuya grabbed Yuzu into another hug, kissing her forehead before weeping into her hair. Losing control of her own emotions, Yuzu let herself weep with her friend as they held each other close, neither daring to let go.

After a while, the weeping stopped and they just sat on top of the roof, holding each other in their arms while keeping perfectly silent. Eventually, Yuzu broke the silence.

"No matter what's happened to me…" she shakily began, "…I'll always be your friend. I still want to end the dimensional war, just like you do… but..." she hung her head down, "I understand… if… if I can't go home with you anymore."

"What are you saying?" Yuya gasped, pulling Yuzu up so she was looking into his eyes.

"I'm saying…" Yuzu stammered, "…I'm saying I'm DEAD, Yuya! I don't… I don't want anyone else to see me like this! What will I tell my dad!? Or your mom!? Or Tatsuya, or Ayu, or Futoshi!? You know how you reacted when you learned what happened to me! How am I supposed to tell them that I've basically become an undead zombie!?"

"You're NOT undead!" Yuya snarled, giving Yuzu a little shake.

"But…!" Yuzu protested.

"Listen to me!" Yuya firmly insisted, "I don't care if your heart isn't beating or if you're hurt in any other way! That's not who you are! You are Yuzu! You're my friend! You're still my friend! I made a promise to you! You hear me!? To YOU!"

"I…" Yuzu began.

"Listen!" Yuya continued, "None of that matters to me! I don't care how you look! None of that is or ever was important to me! You might see yourself as… as… well as something else. But that's not how I see you! I still care for you, Yuzu, no matter what happens to your body. Even if you can never go back to how you were before… even if you really do start…" Yuya shuddered at the gruesome thought of Yuzu decomposing like a corpse, "…then I'll be with you! It's like you said…" he put his hand on her cheek, wiping away tears as they streamed from her eyes, "…I am… and always will be…" he felt a fresh stream of tears flowing down his own cheek, "…your friend!"

"YUYA!" Yuzu bawled, pulling Yuya into a bone-breaking hug. Yuya gasped at the firmness of her grip. She had always been physically fit, but this felt like a hydraulic press.

"Uhm…Yuzu!" Yuya gasped, feeling the oxygen rapidly leave his lungs.

"Eep!" Yuzu yelped, realizing she had forgotten the strength of her resurrected body. Hastily relinquishing Yuya from her grip, she watched with concern as he fell to the ground and started gasping for breath.

"I'm so sorry!" she whimpered. "I didn't mean to…"

Yuya just started laughing where he lay.

"Yuya?" she asked, a concerned expression coming over her face.

"I'm okay… I'm okay!" Yuya chortled, still shaking with laughter, "Gosh… wow!" he continued laughing as a wave of relief swept through him. It was absolutely true. Nothing important had truly changed. They were still friends. Only difference now was… while Yuzu had to resort to a paper fan in the past, now she could probably just smack him upside the head with equal force using just her bare hands.

"I'm really gonna…" Yuya struggled to stop laughing, "…gonna have to make sure I don't get you mad anymore!" he wiped his tear-stained face on his sleeve, "Otherwise… otherwise you'll put me in the hospital for a week with those things!" he looked back at Yuzu with a smile.

Yuzu smiled back at him and let herself giggle with relief, imagining herself angrily punching Yuya fifty meters in the air with her super streangth.

"Honestly…" Yuya continued. "…you said that Ruri brought you back?"

"Yeah…" Yuzu giggled, "…she… she had gained this power before and she… shared it with me."

"She must have been a body-builder then…" Yuya snickered, "…which I can somehow see… her being Shun's sister and all." He paused, looking like he had suddenly remembered something. "By the way… you met Ruri. How is she…?" Yuya didn't know where to begin.

"She was killed in Academia." Yuzu explained. "Somehow she escaped after being raised from the dead. I don't know all the details of her past, but I know she's on our side. She raised me from the dead, and she's fighting against Academia and Roger right now. She want's to end the war just like we do, and…" she looked down at her mark, a determined expression spreading over her face, "…and I've promised to fight with her."

Yuya nodded in understanding. "And Rin?" he asked, "Where is she?"

"I haven't met her." Yuzu replied. "I know she's with Ruri but…" she paused and looked around is if she suddenly sensed something.

"Somethings not right!" She murmured, eyes widening with fear.

Yuya heard it too. The sound of a hatch opening.

Whipping his head around, Yuya barely managed to catch a glimpse of three large Security trucks, which had somehow managed to sneak right up to their building and deploy their gun turrets without either himself or Yuzu noticing until now. In front of each Security Truck, a column of three Goyo Defender stood at attention with their shields held in front and their Juttes raised above their heads.

"LET'S GO!" Yuya shouted, grabbing Yuzu's arm and pulling her away with him. He and Yuzu barely managed to make it off the roof of the building before three massive energy nets whooshed over their heads. Landing on the ground, he and Yuzu started making a mad dash for a narrow alleyway, when their forward progress was immediately arrested by the appearance of a fourth armored truck, which aimed its turret at them.

Yuzu froze in shock when she saw the massive vehicle. She had seen them before from up above on the buildings, but seeing them on the ground was an entirely different experience. The vehicle was massive, with thick armor plating and reinforced windows. Inside, she could make out the silloutettes of a single driver, and three other Security officers working at computers inside a massive control room. Operating a joystick, one of the security officers lowered the turret at Yuya and Yuzu, threatening to open fire.

Yuya and Yuzu attempted to sprint in the opposite direction, but were immediately stopped yet again as the three other trucks swiftly pulled up through the adjescent streets and surrounded them on all sides, moving with an eerily deathly silence despite the size of the engines they must have used. No wonder these machines hadn't caused such an uproar throughout the city. Nobody would have even heard them coming!

"There's a gap!" Yuya shouted, pointing in the direction of the lone truck facing opposite from the other three, "Quickly, Yuzu!" he yelled, taking her hand and rushing towards the truck in a mad effort to escape through the small gap between the truck's back end and the adjascent houses.

"Since the only monsters we control are Goyo Defender!" a Security officer from within the truck blared through an amplifier, "I summon three Goyo Defender from the Extra Deck!"

Yuya and Yuzu skidded to a stop as three Goyo Defender matierilized in front of them and nearly bashed them in the heads with their shields.

"Next!" the officer continued, "I Normal Summon Road Blocker!"

From the ground, a large metal wall with a single green eye painted on its front rose from the ground. In front of the wall was a deployment of nasty spikes that looked like they were designed to shred the tires of fleeing vehicles. Backing away, Yuya and Yuzu noticed a holographic indicator appear and show an ATK of 0.

"Furthermore!" the officer continued, "Because I control Road Blocker, I can tribute this monster in order to Special Summon Road Blocker 2, and Road Blocker 2 can be tributed in order to Special Summon the thirty-five hundred defense, Level seven, Road Blocker 3!"

Yuzu and Yuya's mouths gaped open as Security's monster began to evolve before their eyes. Opening up, the monster deployed a set of long walls from its sides, which slammed against the sides of the houses, leaving large cracks in the stone. The central wall bulked up and increased in height before deploying a pyramidal top that blocked out the sun and seemed to stare down at Yuya and Yuzu with three large painted green eyes. Massive spikes popped from the depths of the earth in front of the wall in concentric rows, which rapidly approached Yuya and Yuzu as the row numbers increased. Just like the officer had claimed, holographic indicators displayed a massive defense of 3500.

"While Road Blocker 3 is on my field," the officer explained, "My opponent cannot activate Field Spell Cards and the effects of my opponent's Field Spell Cards are negated! Furthermore, other monsters I control are unaffected by my opponent's Spell/Trap Card effects, all my monsters cannot be destroyed by card effects, Road Blocker 3 cannot be destroyed by battle, and my opponent cannot target any other monsters I control for attacks! I set one card face-down and end my turn!" the officer yelled.

Jumping back, Yuya and Yuzu quickly activated their Duel Disks.

"Atashi no…" Yuzu began before all four trucks fired a barrage of holographic nets at her from their turrets, stopping her before she could even begin a turn.

"YUZU!" Yuya yelled as Yuzu was thrown violently down onto the ground where she flailed against her bindings. He couldn't believe it. Why had they all fired at her and left him alone!?

"ORE NO TURN!" Yuya bellowed, yanking a card from his deck before the trucks could reload their turrets.

"FIELD ACTIVATE!" Yuya's Duel Disk droned, "CROSS-OVER! INTRUSION PENALTY! TWO-THOUSAND LIFE POINTS!" Immediately electric shocks coursed through Yuya's body as multiple transluscent blue platforms appeared across the field and Yuya lost 2000 LP before he could even begin. Shaking off the pain, Yuya continued with his turn.

"I, using the scale two, Entermate Rakudown, and the scale eight, Entermate Odd-Eyes Unicorn, set the Pendulum Scales!" he roared, slamming down his two Pendulum Cards. As the word, "PENDULUM" spelled itself across his Duel Disk in large capital letters the color of the rainbow, a pair of monsters rose above Yuya's field in a two columns of blue light. In the column to Yuya's left, a large brown camel with half-lidded eyes, lazily looked down at the duel field while wearing a top-hat and tuxedo vest. In the column to Yuya's right, A green unicorn with a pink mane, heterochromatic red and green eyes, and blue hooves and horns, smiled down at Yuya's opponents before rising into the air. Beneath the monsters, the numbers "2" and "8" appeared before a massive version of Yuya's pendulum appeared in the sky above them.

Yuya heard the trucks fire their nets and braced himself for the impact. However, instead of hitting him, all four of the nets once again slammed against Yuzu, who had just barely managed to make a small tear in one of the nets as she fought against her bonds.

"YUZU!" Yuya roared, feeling his rage build within him. Raising his arms to the air, he continued with his turn.

"Using the set Pendulum Scale I Pendulum Summon!" Yuya bellowed. "Swing! Pendulum of my soul! Draw an arc of light across the aether!" the Pendulum began swinging across the sky, drawing a large circular arc of light as it oscillated back and forth. "PENDULUM SHOKAN!" Yuya roared, "COME FORTH! MY MONSTER SERVANTS!" A pink portal opened up between the two columns of blue light before three streams of red, yellow, and blue light poured out. "First up, Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon in attack position! Followed by… Entermate Bubbulldog in attack position, and Entermate Partnaga in defense position!"

A large bulldog with a soap dispenser on top of its head and a covering of bath bubbles over its waist appeared to Yuya's field. Next to the bulldog, a large springy snake with yellow and red stripes, a green star over its eye, a tophat on its head, and a white cartoony glove on its tail bounced next to Yuzu, hissing at the convoy of vehicles. Finally, landing on Yuya's field with a massive thud, Yuya's Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon appeared. Raising its head to the air, it gave a mighty roar before letting Yuya mount its back.

The Security trucks fired another barrage of nets, this time aiming at Yuya and his monsters. With an angry snarl, Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon whipped the nets away with his tail before stomping on one of them and tearing it to shreds with his mouth.

"Entermate Partnaga's monster effect!" Yuya roared, "I target my Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon in order to increase its attack by three-hundred for each Entermate Monster I control!"

Odd-Eyes roared as his ATK rose from 2500 to 3100.

At this time, I also activate Entermate Rakudown's monster effect by targeting Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon! Until the end of this turn, all monsters my opponent controls lose eight-hundred defense, also, if the targeted monster attacks a defense position monster, it will inflict piercing damage!"

Shockwaves emanated from Rakudown, slamming against Road Blocker 3 and reducing its defense to 2700.

"Useless!" a Security officer countered. "Road Blocker 3 cannot be destroyed by battle, and you will only end up inflicting four-hundred damage!"

"Ekay Odd-Eyes!" Yuya ordered, ignoring the officer's statement, "Attack Road Blocker 3!"

Odd-Eyes charged forward, Opening its mouth wide to reveal its long, pointy teeth.

"At this time, Entermate Odd-Eyes Unicorn's Pendulum effect activates!" Yuya declared, "My attacking monster gains attack equal to the attack of another monster I control! I choose to increase my monster's attack by the attack of Entermate Bubbulldog!"

As Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon's ATK skyrocketed to a massive 5400, Odd-Eyes threw back his head and fired a burst of spiraling multi-colored flame at the intimidating wall.

As the flames burned against the unmoving wall, Yuya angrily stretched his hand forward.

"When Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon battles a Level five or higher monster, any battle damage it inflicts is doubled! REACTION FORCE!"

"NANI!?" the officer exclaimed as the spiral of flame punched through the wall and blasted against the armored truck, nearly pushing it onto its side as the Life Points of the officer dropped to 0.

"Get Yuzu, Odd-Eyes!" Yuya commanded his monster, as the officers struggled to get their vehicle running again. Complying with his order Odd-Eyes gently picked up Yuzu with his mouth. From within her cacoon of netting, Yuzu continued to struggle against the bindings as she slowly managed to tear at the solid vision.

From his desk, Roger smiled. "Checkmate… Yuya."

"Trap activate!" an officer from another vehicle bellowed as a trap card flipped face-up, revealing a picture of a Goyo Guardian beating a group of goblins with a Jutte. "Goyo Punishment! If we take damage while we control a Goyo Monster, we can inflict damage to our opponent equal to the damage we took!"

"Activate the others." Roger ordered. "Just to be sure."

"We chain a second Goyo Punishment to the first one!" an officer from onther vehicle roared.

"And we chain a third Goyo Punishment to the activation of the second one!" an officer from the final vehicle roared. As Yuya desperately fled from Security while carrying Yuzu in his monster's mouth, each trap fired a blast of crimson flame in Yuya's direction.

"Entermate Raingoat's effect!" Yuya countered, throwing a card into his graveyard. "The effect damage is negated!"

A large blue raincoat shaped like a goat flew behind Yuya before unfoling its coat and blocking the first column of flame.

"There are still two more!" the officers countered, silently charging forward in their massive vehicles.

Yuya looked ahead to where he was running and spied an action card resting on a platform level with Odd-Eye's head. Jumping up onto his dragon's head, he leaned off to the side and snagged the action card.

"Action Magic!" Yuya roared, "Acceleration! The Effect Damage is negated!" In a burst of speed, Odd-Eyes surged forward, evading the second blast of flame.

"Goyo Punishment!" the third officer roared.

"Go! Odd-Eyes!" Yuya roared, leaping off his dragon's back and making a mad dash towards another Action Card lying on a distant platform. In response to Yuya's sudden change in direction, the column of flame looped around and sped toward's Yuya's face like a homing missile. Just as the flame was about to hit Yuya, Yuya leaped into the air, pulled himself onto a platform, and launched himself onto the adjacent platform, barely snagging the Action Card with the tip of his fingers.

Filled with determination, Yuya held up the Action Card… and stopped when he saw what it was.

Great Escape.

Despite its name, the Action Card Yuya grabbed would do nothing to help either him or Yuzu flee from their pursuers. Before Yuya could get out of the way, the column of flame slammed against him, knocking him off the platform and blasting him onto the ground while reducing his Life Points to 0.

As the flames rushed past Yuya, the boy watched helplessly as the column of raging fire slammed against his ace monster, blowing it to dust and causing Yuzu to drop to the ground where she continued to angrily tear at her bindings.

"YUYA!" she screamed, struggling to stay focused as feelings of immense rage and fear rose up within her. She couldn't stand it! She knew she could beat them! She knew Yuya could have beaten them! But they had to play dirty! They always had to play dirty! They were hardly even playing with all their stupid nets!

"We can still win." Ti'ika Sara rumbled within Yuzu. "We can still punish them!"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!" Yuzu roared, struggling to snap her bindings apart.

"You can't do it without me… partner." Ti'ika Sara admonished. "Only my power can stop them now! Stop holding back! Embrace your destiny!"

Yuya struggled to get back to his feet before a truck blasted him with a net, ensnaring him in thick holographic energy.

"YUYA!" Yuzu screamed.

"YUZU!" Yuya hollered back before a squad of Security officers rushed from a vehicle, put a sack over Yuya's head and dragged him off into the back of a truck.

"Do you WANT them to take Yuya away?"

"TELL ME WHAT TO DO!" Yuzu roared, as the intensity of her anger caused her vision to begin blurring.

"Stop letting your mercy get in the way." Ti'ika Sara growled, "You can't tear these nets apart unless you're first willing to tear them apart! Surrender your will to me! I will help you break these mortals!"

Yuzu gritted her teeth, struggling to understand what her inner-spirit was saying. She didn't feel like she was holding anything back at all! She wanted to defeat Security! She wanted to save Yuya!"

"Fire some electric rounds at the Dark Signer." One of the officers barked. Yuzu's eyes widened as the turrets on top of the vehicles crackled with electricity. A new barrage of bluish-white nets materialized in the center of the turrets before launching at Yuzu. Unlike the previous nets, these ones remained connected to the trucks by a thick line. The instant they connected with Yuzu, huge bolts of electricity ran from the trucks down the line and straight into Yuzu.

"YUZUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!" Yuya bellowed with all him might, before the Security officers slammed a muzzle over his netted face and slugged him in the gut.

"NO!" Yuzu screamed in agony as the three trucks reeled in their nets and lifted Yuzu off the ground, still pumping a continuous stream of electricity into her body. If she wasn't already dead, she was certain the voltage would have killed her.

"I… can't…" Yuzu groaned, feeling like she'd black out any second.

"Yes you can!" Ti'ika Sara growled. "Just stop fighting me! Stop holding back!"

"I'm not holding back!" Yuzu roared. "I'm trying to break free! I want to beat them! I want to save Yuya!"

Ti'ika Sara sighed. "That's not enough, Yuzu. You can't just want to beat them. You need something better, something more intense, something stronger!"

"WHAT!?" Yuzu shrieked, gnashing her teeth together. The truck containing Yuya began silently pulling away.

"Do you want to save him?" Ti'ika Sara pressed.

"YES!" Yuzu begged, tears streaming from her eyes.

"Then if you want to save him… kill them." Ti'ika Sara began to giggle.

"WHAT!?" Yuzu moaned.

"This is a war and they are your enemies. You cannot protect the people you love AND spare your enemies!" Ti'ika Sara hissed. "If you keep holding back like this, you'll lose EVERYTHING!"

"WHAT DO I DO!?" Yuzu wept, "WHAT DO I DO!? WHAT DO I DO!?"

"I TOLD YOU!" Ti'ika Sara roared, "STOP HESITATING! ACCEPT WHAT HAS TO BE DONE! KILL THEM ALL! HOLD NOTHING BACK!"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!" Yuzu roared as the pain and anger grew. It was a viscious, endless cycle. Electricity would surge through her body, pain would rip through her flesh, and rage would burst against her skin, clawing to get out. Rather than cancelling each other out, they amplified and fed on each other, the electricity intensifying as she struggled against her bindings more vigorously, the pain growing as she struggled against the electricity, and the rage boiling over until she felt like she'd explode like a volcano. And yet… despite all the raging energy, Yuzu still felt utterly helpless in her situation.

"Fine then." Ti'ika Sara grumbled. "Go ahead and pass out. I'll take over once you're asleep."

"Keep shocking her until she passes out." Roger instructed. "Once she is safely contained, bring her immediately to headquarters. Until then, continue amplifying the voltage."

"Confirmed." All the officers responded in unison, before adjusting some settings on their computers. Crackling with electricity, the air near the nets began burning with heat as the officers continued doubling and doubling the voltage.

As Yuzu cooked inside the netting she gradually began to lose focus. Just when she was about to pass out, Yuzu suddenly heard another surge of even more intense electricity whoosh past her net before slamming into the trucks. After the sound of an earsplitting explosion, Yuzu suddenly felt the incessant surge of electricity stop. After experiencing so much heat from the rampant electric shocks, Yuzu was surprised by just how cold the world was becoming. Letting out a breath of hot, steamy air, she could see that it wasn't just her imagination. Her breath billowed from her mouth in a cloud of white steam as the cool air caused the water-vapor in her breath to condense. Craning her head to look through the netting, she looked up to the direction the lightning had originated, and spied a rider on top of a motorcycle on the roof of a distant building. The rider was about her own height, with a skin-tight black leather riding suit with green trimmings hugging her feminine body, and a large black helmet with luminescent green whale and wave patterns decorating the sides. Between the fingers of her black gloves, Yuzu could see sparks of black electricity crackle over her hands as the rider clenched her fists with fury. The bike she was riding on looked smooth, sleek, streamlined, and other-worldly, with a front shaped like the head of a whale, a smooth body, and a back-end shaped like the tail of a whale. The body of the bike floated slightly above a pair of massive black wheels with florescent green light glowing against the rims, and which stood perfectly upright despite not being attached to anything. All around the girl, the temperature seemed to have rapidly dropped as steam poured from her mouth whenever she breathed and ice slowly formed over the top of the building. As the girl raised her right arm into the air, Yuzu could make out a large green whale mark blazing through the black leather of her outfit. Through the visor of the girl's helmet, Yuzu could make out a pair of glowing yellow eyes, two glowing green lightning bolt shaped marks on the sides of her eyes, and a face that looked exactly like hers.

"Rin?" Yuzu groaned.

"A Dark Signer!" Roger yelped, before pushing a button on his control panel. "CAPTURE HER IMMEDIATELY! USE YOUR NETS!"

"We can't sir!" the officers hollered back. "She somehow overloaded our systems! Some kind of electric weapon!"

"No! No! No! No! NO!" Roger roared, before pushing another button. "Send back-up immediately to sector AB-122! Do not let EITHER of them escape! Stall the Dark Signer at your current position until reinforcements arrive!"

"I've had it with you!" Rin roared. "I've had it with Security having their way with my city! You're not oppressing us anymore!" She slammed her hand against a panel on her bike. Immediately, just above the handles of the bike, two massive bolts of fluorescent green lightning shot out the sides of her bike before coalescing into a green Duel Disk with a field shaped like a pair of jagged green lightning bolts.

"My turn!" she called, "DRAW!"

"Intrusion penalty, darling." A sauve male voice called from the bike's panel. "So sorry love, but it looks like that'll be two-thousand Life Points." Rin grimaced as a surge of electricity shot though her body, dropping her Life Points to 2000.

"I don't care." She growled. "I'm not letting these people get away with this any more! I'M COMING TO GET YOU YUZU!" she called to her counterpart, who was still feeling very weak from the endless assault of electric shocks.

"I was hoping you'd say that." The girl's bike called back. "Shall we have a little fun with them? Or would you rather make this quick?"

"Let's make this quick." Rin growled. "I can't stomach any more of these people!"

"I'm pretty sure I know EXACTLY what you're thinking of doing, darling." The voice chuckled.

Rin smiled beneath her helmet. "You'd be right… Yene Paryqaqa."

She slammed a card down on the left lightning bolt. "I summon the Level four Gemini Tuner Monster, Synthphonist Violinist!"

From a portal that appeared in front of the girl's bike, a monster that looked like a cross between a travelling street performer and a robot leaped onto the dueling field. Flipping her short, curly raven black hair out of her eyes, she grinned before adjusting a feathery three-corner hat on her head. The right side of her face was sheathed in metal, with a glowing blue robotic eye staring confidently down at the competition. While most of her body was organic, her left arm was robotic and her left leg looked like a metallic peg-leg. A holographic indicator appeared and showed an ATK of 1700.

"Let's go!" Rin roared, speeding off the roof on her motorbike and charging headlong towards Yuzu. Behind her bike, she left behind a bright green streak of light. Without a second of hesitation, she continued with her turn.

"I next activate the Magic Card, Synthphonist Tuning, and use its effect to add Synthphonist Flutist to my hand!" Expertly weaving through bits of wood and stone rubble, she rapidly closed the distance between the wall of Security vehicles with Synthphonist Violinist hovering right next to her.

"If you're planning on attacking, Dark Signer," Roger sneered, "Then it isn't going to work. Goyo Defender gains one-thousand attack for every other Goyo Defender on the field whenever it is attacked. With nine on their field, that makes any Goyo Defender capable to increasing its own attack to nine-thousand."

"I next activate the second effect of Synthphonist Tuning!" Rin continued, jumping her bike over a large pile of rubble and flying eight meters into the air. "By shuffling this card into the deck, I Normal Summon one Synthphonist Monster! I choose to Normal Summon the already Normal Summoned, Synthphonist Violinist!"

Synthphonist Violinist twirled through the air as her body and clothing began sparkling with electricity. Throwing out her left arm, Violinist roared with excitement and delight as her prosthetic limb morphed into a massive violin-shaped broadsword that sparkled with intense yellow electricity. From her left leg, a metallic violin bow shot out, which Violinist caught in her organic right arm.

"Cut her free, Violinist!" Rin ordered stretching her hand towards Yuzu. Violinist dashed forward, strumming out a rapid violin rhythm on her left arm with her metallic violin bow. As she continued playing her instrument, the lightning around the sword intensified. When the robotic arm looked like it would explode with electricity, the cyborg girl ripped her bow across the sword, sending a massive bolt of electicity towards Yuzu's netting and severing two of the cables holding her up. Before Yuzu slammed against the ground, Violinist leaped forward, and swung her sword through the air, severing Yuzu's netting without cutting the girl before catching her in her right arm. Rin whipped around on her bike, grabbed Yuzu from her monster and set her on the back of her bike where she leaned limply against the Synchro Duelist, still completely drained of energy.

"Can you ride?" Rin asked, looking concerned.

"I can't…" Yuzu groaned.

"Sorry then." Rin apologized, laying Yuzu's head against the back of the whale tail. "Bind her!" she commanded. Immediately, a set of black chains shot out from the body of Rin's bike, strapping Yuzu securely against the top rear of the vehicle.

"Let's get out of here!" Rin shouted, slamming down on the accelerator of her bike. The whale eyes on the front of her bike glowed with green light before the bike shot forward at break-neck speed.

"We're not letting you get away!" an officer from one of the trucks roared, speeding forward with the other two trucks and nine Goyo Defenders. "I activate the trap card, Oasis of Dragon Souls, in order to bring back Road Blocker 3 from our graveyard as a Wyrm-Type Monster in defense position!"

As the Security Officer's trap activated, Road Blocker 3 rose from the ground directly in front of Rin, bearing an elaborate dragon design on its walls as the effect of the trap changed its type.

"Synthphonist Violinist effect!" Rin countered, not slowing down despite nearing Road Blocker 3's wall of spikes. "If my opponent activates a Spell or Trap Card, I can negate the activation of that Spell or Trap Card and shuffle it into the deck! Go! Synthphonist Violinist!"

Narrowing her left eye with determination, the black-haired cyborg girl placed her chin against the violin body of her left arm and began furiously building up another charge of electricity as she rapidly sawed against the strings of her violin with her bow. Before Road Blocker 3 could fully materialize, Violinist swung her violin broadsword through the air, sending a wave of solid electricity straight towards the trap card, blowing it to pieces and causing Road Blocker 3 to vanish away before it could even be successfully summoned.

"Your not getting in my way again!" Rin shouted back at the vehicles as she slammed another card against her Duel Disk. "I activate the Magic Card, Gemini Storm! By tributing one Gemini Monster on my side of the field that is treated as an Effect Monster, I can destroy all other monsters on the field with an attack lower than the attack of the tributed monster, and inflict five-hundred damage to my opponent's Life Points for each monster destroyed with this effect! Go Synthphonist Violinist! Gemini Overload!"

Synthphonist Violinist tipped her three cornered hat towards Rin before stopping in her tracks and facing down against the wall of charging vehicles as if she wanted them to run her over. As the distance between themselves and Synthphonist Violinist increased, Yuzu was able to make out Violinist sparkling with more and more intense bursts of electricity before exploding in a violent sphere of lightning, which ripped through all nine Goyo Defenders, blowing the other monsters to dust, stopping the vehicles dead in their tracks, and reducing the Life Points of all remaining officers to 0 as they each took 4500 damage from the card effect.

"Hang on Yuzu!" Rin called back as the duel came to an end. "Were not in the clear yet!"

Sure enough, just as Rin said those words, a pack of six Duel Chasers pulled up next to the two Dark Signers, surrounding them on the left and right. Each Security officer controlled a pair of Goyo Defender and a single copy of Goyo Chaser.

"Ergh!" Rin groaned in frustration. "I don't have time for this!" Slamming down on the accelerator, her bike let out an intense humming noise before exploding forward in a sudden burst of speed, leaving the other Duel-Chasers in the dust.

"Try and keep up!" Rin called back to the officers, holding out her right arm. Yuzu noticed the marks on Rin's arm and face begin glowing with intense green light before a massive blast of icy air shot from her hand. Ducking her head back against the tail of Rin's bike, Yuzu caught an upside-down glimpse of Rin's freezing air slamming against the ground in front of the Duel Chasers and exploding in a cold blast of ice and snow. Undaunted, the Security officers burst through the cold barrier, slamming down on their own accelerators in order to catch up to Rin.

"You've gotta be kidding me!" Rin exclaimed. "What are these guys!? Robots!? Oh wait…" she seemed to suddenly remember something. Making a rapid right turn, she slammd the front wheel of her bike against the wall of a building, leaped over the building, flew forty meters into the air, and landed on a duel highway overlooking the buildings. The pack of bikes tried to follow Rin, but all of them stopped when they came to the wall of the building. Rin sped forward, passing several speeding cars on her bike, before a large blockade of Nine More Security officers, each with their own pairs of Goyo Defenders and a single Goyo Chaser, came into sight.

"Wanna see another trick I learned?" she called to the Security officers. Extending her hand forward, black electricity began crackling between her fingers. With a mighty roar, she let loose a bolt of cold black lightning. Yuzu leaned her head forward and just barely managed to catch a glimpse of Rin's lightning slamming into the center of the blockade and blowing a small gap in the wall as monsters and bikes were knocked back. Leaning forward, Rin charged headlong into the blockade, and surged through the small gap, sweating and panting for breath as she did.

"Wow…" she groaned, looking at her fingers. "…that took a lot more out of me than I thought it would…" she looked back. "…oh no!" she groaned.

Yuzu craned her head back and caught a glimpse of the blockade in hot pursuit of Rin.

"What do we do?" Yuzu called to Rin.

"You just rest and try to recover your energy!" Rin called back. "Your new body should be able to regenerate from its injuries after a while if you take it easy. I'll take care of these guys in a duel!"

"But they're technically already dueling each other!" Yuzu exclaimed, "You'll take the intrusion penalty! Not to mention you'll be fighting nine of them at once!"

"I've watched cop shows!" Rin retorted, "I know what they'll do! If we don't initiate the duel now, they'll just force us into one! I'm battling them on my terms!"

Rearing up on the back wheel of her bike, Rin slowed down her momentum until she had let the pack of security officers pull up to her bike. Shuffling her hand from the previous duel into the deck in her bike, she plucked five new cards from the top of her deck for her opening hand.

"Turbo Field activate!" she called, "Speed World Mach 2!" a holographic image of a Field Spell Card appeared in front of Rin's bike. On the picture of the card was an image of an infinitely looping green and blue trackway with shining bikes racing along the tracks at light-speed. From the center of Rin's bike, a ring of holographic energy shot out, bathing the trackway in fluorescent blue and green light. Above their heads, holographic images of Rin's head, and the head of each Security officer appeared with a score indicator beneath each of their heads baring the label, "Speed Counters."

"This duel is now a Turbo Duel!" Rin declared. "Due to the effect of Speed World Mach 2, each time a player draws a card or Special Summons a monster or monsters, they will get to place one of their own Speed Counters on Speed World Mach 2! As the number of Speed Counters for each player grows, our speed will grow and we will be able to unlock different effects by paying Speed Counters and reducing our momentum!"

The Secuirty officers remained silent, keeping pace with Rin.

"Glad everyone understands!" Rin snarled, "Watashi no turn! Draw!" she groaned as her Life Points dropped to 2000 with the intrusion penalty. From up above, the holographic score keeper showed Rin's Speed Counter count increase from zero to one. Recovering quickly from the shock of the intrusion penalty, she slammed a card into the center of her lightning bolt shaped duel field.

"First things first!" she declared, "Even though Speed World Mach 2 is active, I am still allowed to play one Field Magic Card in addition to Speed World Mach 2. I'll start the show with the Field Magic, Synthphonist Orchestra!"

Marble columns with robotic wiring began appearing along the edges of the trackway while the bottom of the track became covered in an elegant marble floor with glowing green and gold circuitry, metal hatchways, ramps, and organ pipes.

"Next!" Rin declared, "I activate Synthphonist Tuning in order to add the monster, Synthphonist Oboist, to my hand!" Swerving to avoid an organ pipe sticking out of the trackway, she weaved in between two Goyo Defenders and raced forward, plucking a card from her deck and adding it to her hand as she did.

"Next! I shuffle Synthphonist Tuning into my deck to activate its effect! In addition to gaining a Synth Counter due to the effect of Synthphonist Orchestra, I get to normal summon the Synthphonist Oboist from my hand! Come forth! Synthphonist Oboist!"

The circuitry on the field began glowing with light as it gained one Synth Counter and Rin's monster appeared to the field. Synthphonist Oboist was a fairly normal looking brown-haired girl with a black dress. However, much like Synthphonist Violinist, her body was also interlaced with robotic parts with metallic wiring interlacing through segments of her skin and three pairs of mechanical oboes resting against her shoulder blades like folded wings. A holographic indicator appeared and showed an ATK of 1200.

"Synthphonist Orchestra effect!" Rin declared, "I normal Summon Synthphonist Flutist from my hand!"

A young white-haired girl in an elegant dress appeared to Rin's field. Similar to Synthphonist Violnist, her right arm was missing and replaced with a prosthetic limb. A second holographic indicator appeared and showed an attack of 800.

"I now activate the Quick-Play Magic Card, Synthphonist Rehearsal!" The trackway around the contestants began shifting as ramps and organ pipes cleared away, and rectangular segments levitated off the sides of the trackway, connecting in the air until an elegant marble and steel stage hovered in the air above the heads of the duelists. Crackling with electricity, columns rose from the corners of the stage and an elegant white curtain draped over the edges, concealing the center of the stage.

"Synthphonist Rehearsal allows me to Special Summon one Sonic Synthphonist Monster from my Extra Deck with its effect negated, ignoring the summoning conditions. It cannot attack, and it is shuffled into the Extra Deck during the End-Phase." Rin explained. From the center of the hovering stage, large mechanical arms rose up and began operating on something in the center of the stage, moving about as if they were assembling a machine.

"Using the effect of my magic card, I Special Summon the Synchro Tuner Monster, Sonic Synthphonist Adept!"

With the sound of whirring mechanical parts, the curtains opened to reveal a new monster. Her short hair was a smooth purple and blue, with mechanical hairclips that resembled computer chips tying her locks into a round bundle. Her eyes were an icy bluish white and covered with a clear rectangular visor that flashed with images like a computer screen. She was dressed in a simple white toga, which was inlaid with patterns of transluscent green circuitry which seemed to fade in and out of existence as it pulsated with electricity. A pair of hybrid instruments composed of timpanis, chimes, flutes, and trumpets stuck out of her back like a pair of mechanical wings, while her lower left arm was a robotic, with a set of built-in piano keys. Pressing a few keys on her piano while minotoring the screen of her visor, Rin's new monster made some adjustments until the instruments on her back opened up like wings, shot a pair of chords into small plug-ins located within her hair-clips, and began humming with the sound of multiple synchronized instruments and electricity. Leaping down from the mechanical stage, she posed behind Rin's bike, facing off against the pursuing officers while a holographic indicator showed an ATK of 1600. Meanwhile, the score counter showed the speed counters increase from one to two.

Rin's bike began steadily increasing in speed as her speed counters rose. As her speed increased, Rin threw another card onto her Duel Disk.

"I next activate the magic card, Synthphonist Resonance, in order to Normal Summon all of my synthphonist monsters!"

In a flash of electricity, Rin's Synthphonist Oboist and Flutist each began to transform, Flutist growing electrical spikes from her bike while her prosthetic arm grew flute keys and computer equipment, and Oboist glowing with electricity as mechanical parts detached from her body, and her oboes spread out like the spokes of a bycicle wheel before creating a disk of solid electricity between their metallic bodies.

Rin threw down the last card in her hand. "I next activate the magic card, Synthphonist Harmony! By declaring a Level between one and four, I can change the Levels of all Synthphonist monsters I control to the declared Level!" swerving to make a rapid right turn onto a connecting trackway, she stretched her arm towards her monsters. "I declare a level of two in order to change the Levels of my Oboist, Flutist, and Adept to two!"

All three of Rin's monsters let out a clear sustained note from each of their instruments, harmonizing their sounds together until holographic indicators showed their levels each adjust to two.

"Synthphonist Flutist effect!" Rin declared, stretching her hand towards her monster, "When the Level of one or more Synthphonist Monsters change, I can draw one card from my deck!"

Flutist smiled gleefully as she put her instrument to her mouth and began blowing through it, punching away at flute keys like a keyboard until her computer screens lit up with the words, "DRAW ONE!"

Rin plucked a card from the top of her deck and raced forward with even more speed as her speed counters rose from two to three.

"With this, the stage is set!" Rin declared, stretching her hand forward, "I tune my Level two Sonic Synthphonist Adept with the Level two Synthphonist Oboist, and the Level two Synthphonist Flutist!"

Adept, Flutist, and Oboist each morphed into a pair of green rings which aligned with one another before connecting together like a ring of jumpled hoola-hoops and rapidly rotating in various directions like spinning coins. Raising her hand to the air she began chanting:

"Piercing tone of the oboe, gentle song of the flute, synchronize now with the master of a thousand instruments! Blend your rich music together, tune to each other's pitches, and unleash a new melody! SYNCHRO SHOKAN! In my time of need lend me your power! Sonic Synthphonist Prodigy!"

In an explosion of harmonic sound, the circling rings blew outward in a violent gust of cold wind, revealing a new monster in place of the original three. Scanning the field with a set of green robotic eyes, Sonic Synthponist Prodigy adjusted the positions of an elaborate set of musical instruments attached to her back, till the bells of the instruments were pointing at Rin's opponents like artillery cannons. Holding out its hand, a holographic indicator appeared in front of the monster and showed an ATK of 2400.

With the Special Summon of her monster, Rin's speed increased even further as her Speed Counters rose from three to four.

"I now activate the effect of Sonic Synthphonist Adept!" said Rin, leaning forward on her bike, "If it is used as a Synchro Material for a Synchro Summon, I get to draw one card!" she yanked a second card from the top of her deck, gaining speed as her speed counters rose from four to five.

"Normally, if I were going first, I would only be able to gain a maximum of four Speed Counters through the effect of Speed World Mach 2 for my first turn in order to keep things balanced." She explained, "However, since you guys were already technically dueling when we started, this isn't treated as my first turn, and therefore… I have no limits right now!"

She made a sharp turn to the left, zipping onto another trackway with Security barely keeping up with her as the gap between her bike and theirs widened.

"Is she meaning to run away?" Roger asked from his headquarters, monitoring Rin's rapid acceleration patterns.

"I next activate the second effect of Synthphonist Harmony!" Rin declared, "By shuffling this card from my graveyard into the deck, I can add one Synthphonist monster from my graveyard to my hand!" she shuffled a card into her deck before adding a card to her hand. "I choose to add the Level four Synthphonist Oboist to my hand with this effect! In addition," she continued, "because I shuffled a card into the deck, Synthphonist Orchestra gains another Synth Counter!"

The circuitry in the trackway began brightening with even more electricity.

"I remove two Synth Counters from Synthphonist Orchestra, Special Summoning Synthphonist Snare Drummer and increasing my Speed Counters to six!"

From a hatch in the trackway, a petit girl with short purple hair and a snare drum attached to her midriff burst from the ground in a blast of air. Adjusting her solid black visor, she sprinted next to Rin's Sonic Synthphonist Prodigy before acrobatically front flipping in front of the Synchro Monster and posing in front of Prodigy with one arm held out in a battle stance.

"I next activate the effect of Sonic Synthphonist Prodigy! Once per turn, I can Normal Summon one Synthphonist Monster in addition to my Normal Summon or Set. I choose to Normal Summon the Synthphonist Oboist I added to my hand!"

Through a blue portal, Oboist descended onto Rin's field once more, staring down at Rin's opponents with a determined expression on her face.

"BATTLE!" Rin declared, extending her hands towards a group of the three nearest bikes. "Sonic Synthphonist Prodigy can attack once for each tuner used in her Synchro Summon! I choose to attack the Goyo Chasers of three different officers! GO SONIC SYNTHPHONIST PRODIGY! HARMONIC BARRAGE!"

Prodigy smiled as her green eyes glowed with intense electric light. Extending out her hands, she let out a stream of multiple harmonic blasts from the bells of the numerous instruments attached to her back, blasting away three Goyo Chasers and knocking three officers away from her bike as each of their individual Life Points dropped to 3500. Recovering quickly, the officers slammed down on their accelerators, rapidly gaining on Rin once more.

"I'm not done yet!" Rin warned, "If you don't back off, I'll make you!"

The officers continued their pursuit, expertly weaving through the obstacles on the track as they managed to keep pace with Rin's accelerating bike.

"You asked for it." Rin muttered, slamming down another card.

"I activate the Quick-Play Magic, Synthphonist Synchronization! Once this card is activated, I immediately Synchro Summon 1 Synthphonist Monster using monsters I control, and if I do, all monsters used in the Synchro Summon are treated as Tuners!" she stretched her hand towards her monsters, glaring down at her opponents as she did. "I tune the Level two Synthphonist Snare Drummer with the Level six Sonic Synthphonist Prodigy and Synchro Summon!"

Together, Prodigy and Snare Drummer morphed into a column of eight concentric green rings which connected together and began spinning together in opposite directions until they looked like a sphere of swirling green light. As they span through the air, the air swirled around the spinning rings, which began to glow with bright gold and white light as Rin commenced her summoning chant:

"Incorporeal spirits of flesh, metal, and music, by the supreme inspiriation of the great master, become one in concert to strike fire in the hearts of man and lift his soul to a higher plane of knowledge! Strike at speeds beyond the speed of lightning and tear down the barriers concealing the secrets of your art! SYNCHRO SHOKAN! Master of all musical arts! Hypersonic Synthphonist Virtuoso!"

In a storm of cold wind and electricity, the sphere of spinning rings exploded in a single harmonic blast of multiple musical instruments. Ascending straight into the sky at lightning-fast speeds, Rin's new monster left an arc of electricity through the air as it looped around before landing right behind Rin's bike, staring down at the opposition. Rin's new monster was dressed in an elegant green, white, and orange dress with sheets of metal, wiring, circuitry, humming computer disks, and mechanical instruments woven into the fabric. Her hair was a silky golden brown tied up into a bun with a long ponytail hanging down to her middle back. A silver tiara with a large rounded glass visor rested on top of her head, covering her red eyes with the glass visor. On the center of her forehead, a large computer chip blinked with blue, green, yellow, and red lights while subtle lines of circuitry ran from the chip, down her cheeks, through her neck, and into her bosom. Two mechanical Sousaphones curled around her slender waist and over her broad shoulders, bells facing forward like a pair of large cannons. Attached to her shoulder blades, a pair of large mechanical harps unfolded like pairs of wings before electricity began sparkling through the strings. The front of her dress was patterned like the keys of a piano, with small silver bells sewn along the edges of the collar. Over her large hips, a semi-circle of mechanical drums hummed with energy while mechanical drumsticks beat out a steady rhythm. Over her left arm, a large mechanical hybrid flute and clarinet stuck out like a built-in arm cannon, while her right arm bore a large mechanical shield shaped like a cello. In her right arm, she held a large mechanized cross between a maestro baton, drumstick, and violin string, which shone with fluorescent green light while crackling with sparks of lightning. A holographic indicator appeared below Rin's monster and showed an ATK of 3000, while the score indicator showed her Speed Counters rise to seven.

"Synthphonist Prodigy's effect activates!" Rin continued, "I special Summon Synthphonist Snare Drummer in attack position and increase my Speed Counters to eight!"

Snare Drummer rose from a black portal before posing between Virtuoso and Oboist.

"And now my Hypersonic Synthphonist Virtuoso's effect activates!" Rin declared, "Once per turn, during either player's turn, I can reduce the attack and defense of all monsters my opponent controls by five-hundred for each tuner used in its Synchro Summon! And since both Synthphonist Prodigy and Snare Drummer were treated as Tuners, that means all of your monsters lose one-thousand attack! GO! Explosive timbre!

The bells and strings of Virtuoso's instruments glowed with electricity before unleashing a massive concentrated blast of harmonized sound at all of Security's monsters, driving back the bikes while lowering the ATK of all Goyo Defenders to 0 and all Goyo Chasers to 900.

"I next activate the second effect of Synthphonist Rehearsal!" Rin explained, pulling two cards from her graveyard and shuffling one of them into the deck while placing the other one in her Extra Deck. By shuffling the Synthphonist Rehearsal into my deck and the Synthphonist Prodigy into my Extra Deck, Synthphonist Orchestra gains one Synth Counter and my Synthphonist Virtuoso gains the effects of the Synthphonist Prodigy I shuffled into the deck, meaning it can now attack twice! GO! GRAND HARMONIC FUSILLADE!"

Twiriling her glowing baton into the air, Virtuoso let out a little yell before leveling her baton at her opponents and shooting two streams of concentrated sound and electricity from the bells of her instruments at two Goyo Chasers. As their monsters were blasted to oblivion, two more Security Officers were blown back as their Life Points each dropped to 1900.

Yuzu looked over at the swarm of bikes. Despite the fury of Rin's attacks, Security continued forward undaunted, as if they were nothing but robots programed to track them down.

"They're still coming." Yuzu groaned.

"Sorry Yuzu." Rin apologized, swerving to avoid a large organ pipe. "There's only one other thing I can do right now. If they don't take the hint after that, I'll have to finish them off next turn."

She extended her hand towards her Synchro Monster before placing the last card in her hand on her Duel Disk. "Hypersonic Synthphonist Virtuoso allows me to Normal Summon up to two Synthphonist Monsters in addition to my Normal Summon or Set, but monsters summoned this way cannot attack. I use Virtuoso's effect now to Normal Summon Synthphonist Trumpetist from my hand and the Synthphonist Snare Drummer on my field."

As Snare Drummer began to transform till her Snare Drum had split into four segements and her fingers had each sprouted a metallic drumstick, Synthphonist Trumpetist descended to Rin's field through a blue portal. Trumpetist had a head of short sandy auburn hair, and wore green and brown hunter clothing with a short green hood pulled over her head and a large mechanical bow and quiver slung over her back. Her left arm was covered in a mechanical sling that looped over her neck while her right arm and hand were each covered in a long green sleeve and large brown glove. Her left eye was robotic and elongated into a miniature telescope with a trumpet shaped bell holding up a blinking robotic green eye at the end. A holographic indicator showed an ATK of 1800.

"I now activate Snare Drummers effect! By declaring a Level of three, all my Synthphonist Monsters become the declared Level! Go! Synthphonist Snare Drummer!" Rin ordered.

Over the hoods of Snare Drummer's individual Snare Drums, a holographic computer screen appeared. Wildly drumming her fingers through the air, Snare Drummer simultaneously typed away at the computer screen and beat out a rapid rhythm on her drums before holographic indicators showed the Levels of all of Rin's monsters change to three.

Slamming down on the accelerator, Rin raised her hands into the air and continued with her turn.

"I Tune my Level three Hypersonic Synthphonist Virtuoso with my Level three Trumpetist, and my Level three Snare Drummer and Synchro Summon!"

Flying into the air, Rin's Virtuoso and Trumpetist each morphed into a column of three green rings before enveloping Snare Drummer in their light. Snare Drummer slowly faded away, leaving behind three solitary spheres of white light, which clustered together like the nucleus of an atom before the six rings of green light began spinning against each other in a sphere of wind, sound, and green light.

"Ascending past all obstacles, overcoming all flaws and weaknesses! By the strength of your resolve, fly forward at twice the speed of light and lay hold on your greatest dreams! Become the mediator between spiritual and sensual and astound the world with your opulent melody! SYNCHRO SHOKAN!" Rin chanted, slamming her bike onto a ramp and jumping into the air as she raised her hands above her head, "The awe inspiring composer! Hypersonic Synthphonist Marvel!"

Yuzu was momentarily blinded by the intense shower of lightning that burst from the center of the sphere of spinning rings and wind. In another blast of sound, Rin's new Synchro Monster rapidly pieroutted through the air like a lightning fast top before coming to a stop behind Rin's bike, scattering gusts of wind as she did. Hypersonic Synthphonist Marvel's massive mane of smooth, clean, and elegant hair was a curly orange and white with mechanical bows and bells tying up the back into a curly ponytail while two more bell-trimmed bows on the sides of her head tied off her hair into a pair of sidetails that cascaded over her bosom like a pair of orange-cream waterfalls. Tiny robotic lights blinked against her forehead, nose, and cheeks like freckles, while her ears were covered with two robotic caps with curled forward facing ear-trumpets attached to the caps. Her eyes were a brilliant golden color, and her smile was genuinely warm. Similar to Prodigy and Virtuoso, her dress was large and elegant, with black and white checkerboard patterns, Lilac sleeves, silver and gold bells trimming the edges, and various mechanical parts and circuitry seamlessly weaving themselves into her figure like bits of elegant jewelry. A pair of massive hybrid mechanical piano and harpsichord instrumetns stuck out of her back like wings, while dozens of miniature trumpets, clarinets, flutes, piccolos, oboes, bassoons, trombones, tubas, and other wind instruments curled around her hips, back, and arms into a veritable wall of instruments that rested behind her back. The front of each of her arms was covered in the mechanical strings of violins and cellos, and a pair of mechanical harps rested against the sides of her dress, with the top of the harps attached to the top of her hips. Curtsying to the pursuing force of Security Officers, she grinned as a holographic indicator showed an ATK of 3300 while the score board showed Rin's Speed Counters rise to nine.

"Synthphonist Trumpetist's effect!" Rin declared as a ghostly after image of Synthphonist Trumpetist appeared over her head. "If it is used as a Synchro Material for a Synchro Summon of a Synthphonist Monster, I can inflict four-hundred damage to my opponent for each material used in that Synchro Monster's Synchro Summon. With three materials, that's twelve-hundred damge! GO! Brass Arrows!"

The ghostly image of Synthphonist Trumpetist began crackling with electricity. Removing the mechanized bow from her back, the cast over her left arm opened up to reveal a prosphetic arm with trumpet keys and fingers curled over a large trumpet bell. Slapping the bow onto her right arm, the bow and arm merged together into a hybrid arm, trumpet and compact bow. Taking out a group of three metallic arrows, she loaded each one into the bell of her trumpet arm before pulling back the string of the bow and letting it loose, sending a blast of trumpet music and electricity at all of Rin's opponents. The four Security officers who hadn't been damaged, groaned as their Life Points dropped to 2800, while the three officers with 3500 Life Points had theirs dropped to 2300, and the last two with 1900 Life Points had theirs reduced to 700. Yet despite this, they continued their pursuit, seemingly unfazed by the damage.

"Why aren't they falling back!?" Yuzu gasped, stunned by their resolve.

"They don't have any sense of self preservation!" Rin growled. "We'll have to beat them if we want them off our backs."

"Let me go!" Yuzu groaned, struggling against the chains, "I can help!"

"You're still badly injured." Rin shouted back, "Just stay there. I promise you I'll handle this!" She leaned forward. "Since Synthphonist Virtuoso left the field, its effect activates! I can Special Summon one Level six or lower Synthphonist monster from my graveyard. With this effect, I Special Summon Synthphonist Snare Drummer from my graveyard in defense position!"

Snare Drummer appeared to Rin's field once more, a holographic indicator showing a defense of 300 while the score counter showed Rin's Speed Counters at ten.

"Next," she continued, "I use my regular Normal Summon to Normal Summon Synthphonist Oboist!"

Synthphonist Oboist's Oboes unfolded from her back before generating an electric shield in front of herself and Rin's other monsters.

Rin hung her head down in resignation. "Sorry I couldn't get us away from them this turn." She apologized before pressing a button on her Duel Disk and brining up a holographic screen showing Speed World Mach 2. "I'll put my Speed Counters to good use now. By reducing my speed counters by six, I am allowed to draw one card from my deck." Her bike began to dramatically decelerate as she tore a card from the top of her deck. "Because the card drawn was drawn by the effect of Speed World Mach 2, I don't earn a Speed Counter." She explained before setting the card she had just drawn face-down. "I set one card face down and activate another effect of Speed World Mach 2. By removing two Speed Counters from my card, I can increase my Life Points by 500. I activate this effect twice to increase my Life Points by 1000. Turn end."

As Rin's Speed Counters dropped to zero and her Life Points rose to 3000, her bike rapidly lost momentum until she was only about a meter in front of the pack of Duel Chasers. One of the Duel Chasers with a label, DC-294, pulled forward and its rider, a thin man with a crooked nose, yanked a card from his deck.

"My turn!" DC-294 declared. "I activate the Magic Card, Level Limit Area B! With this card's effect, all Level four and higher monsters are forced into defense position! Restrain her monsters now!" he roared, extending his hand forward.

The instant DC-294's Spell Card appeared to the field, an aura of red light glowed around each Security officer's Goyo Chaser, Rin's Hypersonic Synthphonist Marvel, and Synthphonist Bassoonist, until each of those monsters were brought unwillingly down to their knees. Holographic indicators showed each Goyo Chaser having a defense of 1000, Marvel having a defense of 3300, and Oboist having a defense of 1800.

"Seal off the Effects of her Field Spells!" Roger ordered the officer from behind his desk, "And make sure no news agencies cover this duel!" he shouted to a group of surveillance officers.

"I next Normal Summon the Level four monster, Road Blocker!" DC-294 continued. "With Level Limit Area B's effect, the monster is switched to Defense mode. Furthermore, while Road Blocker in on the field, the effects of your Field Magic Cards are negated, other monsters I control cannot be targeted or destroyed by Magic or Trap Card effects, and if a monster I control attacks, you cannot activate Spell or Trap Cards until the end of the Damage Step!"

Directly in front of Rin, A large wall with an eye painted in its center rose up from the track, stopping any of Rin's attempts to accelerate past the monster. A holographic indicator showed a defense of 2000.

"Great…" Rin panted, "…and I don't think I even have enough energy to phase through that thing!"

"Turn end." DC-294 declared, smiling confidently as he pulled back and let a more obese officer with the label, DC-578, on his bike pull forward.

"My turn!" he declared, "I tribute Road Blocker in order to Special Summon Road Blocker 2 with its own effect!"

The monster in front of Rin's bike began bulking up in thickness before deploying a set of walls on either side and a barrier of tire shredders in front of itself. A holographic indicator showed a defense of 3000.

"I next set one card face-down and end my turn!" DC-578 declared, setting down a copy of Gravity Bind. "With this upgrade, now you cannot even attack our other monsters thanks to Road Blocker 2's effect!"

Rin glared angrily at the officer, while shielding Yuzu protectively with one of her arms as some Officers looked like they would make a grab for her.

"My turn!" an officer with a goatee and a bike with the label DC-190 declared as he yanked a card from the top of his deck. "I add to our defenses by tributing Road Blocker 2 in order to Special Summon Road Blocker 3 from my hand with its own effect!"

Road Blocker 3 underwent a final transformation as its top expanded into a pyramidal cap with three painted eyes staring eerily down at Rin while a holographic indicator appeared to show a defense of 3500.

"I next completely lock you down by activating Goyo Checkpoint and equipping one of my Goyo Defender with Ring of Magnetism!" he continued, slapping down two more cards. An image of Goyo Checkpoint appeared to his field, while a ring appeared on one of Goyo Defender's hands. "Road Blocker 3's effect makes it so it is the only monster you can target with attacks, but with Ring of magnetism making it so you can only attack Goyo Defender for attacks, you cannot attack at all! With this I end my turn!" he laughed as if victory was already assured.

"WHAT IN THE NAME OF THE FREAKING UNDERWORLD ARE YOU IDIOTS SMILING ABOUT!?" A harsh female voice called from overhead. Whipping their heads around, Rin, Yuzu, and all nine arrest Corps Officers swerved out of the way as a pair of motorbikes sped off the edge of an overhead trackway and slammed down onto the trackway where they were dueling. On one bike that looked like an old Duel Chaser retrofitted with metal spikes, larger tires, and a bigger engine, a tough-looking woman who appeared to be in about her sixties, wearing a black Security helmet with horns on the side and a black security outfit with blood-red spikes on the shoulders, arms, and knees, bared her teeth at Rin and the surrounding Security officers. Her hair and eyes were a deep gray and her face was marked with multiple scars. Riding along next to her in an equally intimidating spike-covered bike with a ram skull on the front, a boy about the same age as Rin, with short blue hair, a small grey headband, a freckled face, green eyes, a black leather jacket, and black leather pants kept pace with the elderly lady.

From the corner of her eye, Yuzu saw Rin briefly glance at the two riders before her eyes suddenly widened with shock and she let out a surprised gasp. Turning her head away and keeping her face pointing forwards away from the gaze of the riders, Rin began speaking to them.

"What are you doing here?" she asked.

"I should be asking you the same thing!" the elderly lady barked. "What's a young girl like you doing making deals with the Earthbound!"

Yuzu saw Rin grip the handles of her bike. "W-what do you know about the Earthbound?" she asked.

"We know they're bad news." the boy explained. "I don't know who you are, but whoever you are, stop what you're doing right now. Whatever the Earthbound are offering you, it just isn't worth it. If you let us, we can free you from your curse and help your spirit find rest."

"Of course…" the woman growled, "…if you're bent on causing trouble, we can always just beat the crap out of you and send your spirit back on its way to the afterlife."

"Please…" Rin begged, sounding desperate, "…I don't want to fight you! I don't want to hurt you! This doesn't concern you! So just… just leave!"

"We're not the one's that are getting hurt!" the woman growled. "I've taken on disciples like you before! Ever heard of Sergey Volkov?"

"W-why are you interested in us!?" Rin stammered, still keeping her face hidden.

"We're the Phoenix Guard." The boy proclaimed holding up his right arm. Over the portion of his arm just beneath the wrist, a crimson Yin-Yang mark blazed to life. "And we've sworn an oath to protect everyone in all dimensions from the threat of the Earthbound, including you."

"Even if you don't want our help." The woman agreed, holding up her own arm. Over her right upper arm, a crimson mark shaped like a pair of dragon wings blazed through her sleeve.

"Who are these people!?" Roger roared. "Swiping through his computer screen, he zoomed in on the two interlopers.

"Hey Roger!" Roger suddenly heard the woman bark as she addressed one of the Security Officers. "If you're listening to us right now, tell your goons to back off before they get themselves killed!"

Roger pushed a button on his desk. "Who are you!?" he shouted as the Officer's bike projected his voice onto the dueling field.

"Emma Grayson." The woman barked, "Officer, Emma Grayson… or at least… I used to be. Remember me?"

Roger stroked his chin, trying to see if he could recall an officer with her name.

"Of course you don't." the woman snarled. "I was there when we were capturing Sergey Volkov. I was the one who told you to lock that miserable creature in the deepest darkest cell you could find."

Roger suddenly remembered her. She had been an officer with a great deal of experience. After she helped to capture Sergey, she had confronted him face-to-face about how to deal with the infamous duelist crusher. After ignoring her pleas and deciding to send Sergey off to the Underground, she had stormed off and resigned from her post the next day. What was she doing now?

"It was bad enough when you sent Sergey to the underground." Grayson rumbled, "But now I come to find out that you not only let Sergey get away with rampaging through the underground, but you've decided to make that freak a participant in the Friendship Cup!? What the heck are you trying to do!?"

"What concern is it of yours?" Roger asked. "You are not a part of Security anymore. Leave the security work to Security. If you do anything more, you and that boy… uhm…"

"Kyosuke…" the boy replied, "…Kyosuke Kiryu."

Roger blinked, "That marshall from that run-down village, Crashtown?"

"It's Satisfaction Town now." The boy replied, "And no, I'm not that guy. But I won't let his legacy go to waste."

"Regardless of Kiryu's… legacy," Roger replied, "if the two of you don't leave immediately, you will be guilty of obstructing Security."

"Obstruct my foot!" Grayson snapped. "We're the only guys in this duel who know how to protect the city from this kind of threat. These scrubs couldn't take on an Earthbound Disciple if it had its hands and feet hog-tied together! Believe me, we're the only way this Disciple's ever going to get arrested, and when we arrest it, we're sure as heck not gonna let it duel ever again! So order your Security to leave before they get in OUR way and end up getting us all killed!"

Roger considered Emma's words. He certainly did NOT like Emma taking matters into her own hands and potentially getting in his way, but she did help take down Sergey Volkov back when she worked with Security. Perhaps he could make an exception for her, just this once.

"Officer Grayson…" Roger began.

"Don't you try and sweet-talk me!" Emma snapped.

"No need to get upset." Roger smoothly replied, "I merely wished to call you by your previous title for nostalgia's sake. And speaking of the past, I've considered your plea, and I am willing to let you work alongside my Security. After all, you DO have some experience with this particular situation."

"You'll only get these people killed!" Emma snarled. "Back off and let us do our job!"

"You will work with Security or against them." Roger curtly replied. "Final offer."

"FINE!" Emma growled. "Come on Kiryu! Just like we've practiced!"

"Watch me dad!" Kiryu called to the heavens as he drew five cards from the top of his deck. "I promise to make you proud!"

"Please…" Rin begged once again, "DON'T!"

"ORE NO TURN!" Emma called, drawing her opening hand.

FEATURED ORIGINAL CHARACTERS (IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE)

Name: Gin Tami / Original concept by: Greninja / Deck: Unrevealed / Allegiance: None, Synchro Dimension Civilian / Status: Active

Name: Emma Grayson / Original concept by: Donjusticia / Deck: Unrevealed / Allegiance: Phoenix Guard / Status: Active

Name: Kiryu Kyosuke / Orignal concept by: FanOfKings / Deck: Unrevealed / Allegiance: Phoenix Guard / Status: Active

FEATURED FANFIC CARDS

Security's Monsters

Road Blocker/ WIND/ Level 4/ Machine/ Effect/ ATK 0/ DEF 2000/ The effects of your opponent's Field Spell Cards are negated. Other monsters you control cannot be targeted or destroyed by the effects of your opponent's Spell/Trap cards. If a monster you control attacks, your opponent cannot activate Spell/Trap Cards until the end of the Damage Step.

Road Blocker 2/ WIND/ Level 5/ Machine/ Effect/ ATK 0/ DEF 3000/ You can Special Summon this card by tributing 1 "Road Blocker" you control. The effects of your opponent's Field Spell Cards are negated. Other monsters you control are unaffected by the effects of your opponent's Spell/Trap Cards. If a monster you control attacks, your opponent cannot activate Spell/Trap Cards until the end of the Damage Step. Your opponent cannot target any monsters you control for attacks except this one.

Road Blocker 3/ WIND/ Level 7/ Machine/ Effect/ ATK 0/ DEF 3500/ Must first be Special Summoned (from your hand) by tributing 1 "Road Blocker 2" you control. Cannot be destroyed by battle. The effects of your opponent's Field Spell Cards are negated, also, your opponent cannot activate Field Spell Cards. Other monsters you control are unaffected by the effects of your opponent's Spell/Trap Cards. Monsters you control cannot be destroyed by card effects. If a monster you control attacks, your opponent cannot activate Spell/Trap Cards until the end of the Damage Step. Your opponent cannot target any monsters you control for attacks except this one.

Security's Spells

Goyo Checkpoint/ Spell/ Continuous/ While you control a face-up "Goyo" monster, your opponent must pay 1000 LP to declare an attack.

Security's Traps

Goyo Punishment/ Trap/ Normal/ If you take damage while you control a face-up "Goyo" monster, you can activate this effect: Inflict damage to your opponent's LP equal to the damage you took.

Rin's Monsters

Synthphonist Flutist/ WIND/ Level 3/ Psychic/ Gemini/ Tuner/ Effect/ ATK 800/ DEF 1000/ This card is treated as a Normal Monster while face-up on the field or in the Graveyard. While this card is a Normal Monster on the field, you can Normal Summon it to have it become an Effect Monster with this effect.

Once per turn, during either player's turn, if the level of 1 or more of your monsters changes due to a card effect, you can activate this effect: Draw 1 card.

Synthphonist Oboist/ WIND/ Level 4/ Psychic/ Gemini/ Tuner/ Effect/ ATK 1200/ DEF 1800/ If this card is used as a Material for a Synchro Summon, you can target 1 monster you control: That target cannot be destroyed by battle. This card is treated as a Normal Monster while face-up on the field or in the Graveyard. While this card is a Normal Monster on the field, you can Normal Summon it to have it become an Effect Monster with this effect.

If a monster declares an attack, negate the attack, and if you do, you can reduce the level of 1 monster you control by 1 (Min. 1).

Synthphonist Snare Drummer/ WIND/ Level 2/ Psychic/ Gemini/ Effect/ ATK 900/ DEF 300/ This card is treated as a Normal Monster while face-up on the field or in the Graveyard. While this card is a Normal Monster on the field, you can Normal Summon it to have it become an Effect Monster with this effect.

Once per turn, you can declare a level from 1-3: The levels of all monsters you control become the declared level until the end of this turn.

Synthphonist Violinist/ WIND/ Level 4/ Psychic/ Gemini/ Tuner/ Effect/ ATK 1700/ DEF 1000/ This card is treated as a Normal Monster while face-up on the field or in the Graveyard. While this card is a Normal Monster on the field, you can Normal Summon it to have it become an Effect Monster with this effect.

Once per turn, if your opponent activates a Spell/Trap Card, you can negate the activation of that Spell/Trap Card, and if you do, shuffle that card into the Deck. Then, you can reduce the level of 1 monster you control by 1 (Min. 1).

Synthphonist Trumpetist/ WIND/ Level 4/ Psychic/ Gemini/ Tuner/ Effect/ ATK 1800/ DEF 1200/ If this card is used as a Material for the Synchro Summon of a "Synthphonist" Monster, you can activate this effect. Infict 400 damage to your opponent's LP for each material used in that monster's Synchro Summon. This card is treated as a Normal Monster while face-up on the field or in the graveyard. While this card is a Normal Monster on the field, you can Normal Summon it to have it become an Effect Monster with this effect.

Monsters you control gain ATK equal to their Level X 100.

Rin's Extra Deck

Sonic Synthphonist Adept/ WIND/ Level 4/ Psychic/ Synchro/ Tuner/ Effect/ ATK 1600/ DEF 1600/ 1 Tuner + 1 or more "Synthphonist" monsters

Once per turn, during either player's turn, you can target a number of cards in either player's graveyard, up to the number of "Synthphonist" Tuners used in this card's Synchro Summon: Shuffle those targets into the deck, and if you do, "Synthphonist" monsters you control gain 200 ATK and DEF for each card returned until the End-Phase. If this card is used as a Synchro Material for a Synchro Summon, you can activate this effect: Draw 1 card.

Sonic Synthphonist Prodigy/ WIND/ Level 6/ Psychic/ Synchro/ Tuner/ Effect/ ATK 2400/ DEF 2400/ 1 Tuner + 1 or more "Synthphonist" monsters

This card can attack once per Battle-Phase for each Tuner used as a Synchro Material for its Synchro Summon. Once per turn, you can Normal Summon 1 "Synthphonist" monster in addition to your Normal Summon/Set. If this card is sent from the field to the Graveyard, you can target 1 Gemini Monster in your Graveyard: Special Summon it.

Hypersonic Synthphonist Virtuoso/ WIND/ Level 8/ Psychic/ Synchro/ Tuner/ Effect/ ATK 3000/ DEF 3000/ 1 Synchro Tuner + 1 or more "Synthphonist" monsters

Once per turn, during either player's turn, you can decrease the ATK and DEF of all monsters your opponent controls by 500 for each Tuner used in this card's Synchro Summon. You can Normal Summon 2 "Synthphonist" monsters in addition to your Normal Summon/Set but monsters Normal Summoned with this effect cannot attack. If this card is removed from the field, you can target 1 Level 6 or lower monster in your graveyard: Special Summon it.

Hypersonic Synthphonist Marvel/ WIND/ Level 9/ Psychic/ Synchro/ Tuner/ Effect/ ATK 3300/ DEF 3300/ Effects unrevealed.

Rin's Spells

Gemini Storm/ Spell/ Normal/ Tribute 1 Gemini Monster you control that is treated as an Effect Monster: Destroy all monsters on the field whose ATK is lower than the ATK of the tributed monster, and if you do, inflict 500 damage to your opponent's LP for each monster destroyed with this effect. (You cannot conduct your Battle-Phase the turn you activate this effect).

Speed World Mach 2/ Spell/ Turbo Field/ The Player who reaches Checkpoint 1 first takes the first turn. You can activate 1 other Field Spell Card in addition to this card. Cannot be destroyed by card effects. (This effect remains even if this card's effects are negated). Each time a player draws a card(s) or Special Summons a monster(s), (other than with the effects of this card), that player places one of his/her own Speed Counters on this card (Max. 12). (The Player who goes first cannot place more than 4 Speed Counters on this card for their first turn). If a player takes damage, that player loses 1 of his/her Speed Counters for every 1000 Points of Damage he/she took. During either player's turn, you can remove a number of your own Speed Counters from this card to activate 1 of the following effects based on the number of Speed Counters removed. 1+: Increase the ATK or DEF of 1 monster you control by 100 for each Speed Counter removed for this effect. 2: Increase your LP by 500. 4: Halve the damage you take from 1 battle or card effect. 6: Draw 1 card. 8: Destroy 1 card on the field. 10: Negate the activation of a card or effect, and if you do, destroy it. 12: Special Summon 1 Level 4 or lower monster from your Hand, Deck, Graveyard, or Extra Deck ignoring the summoning conditions.

(I dare anyone to create this card in Yu-Gi-Oh Card Maker and attempt to read the text WITHOUT a microscope.)

Synthphonist Orchestra/ Spell/ Field/ You can Normal Summon 1 "Synthphonist" monster in addition to your Normal Summon/Set. Each time a card(s) is returned to the Deck, place 1 "Synth" counter on this card. Once per turn, you can remove any number of "Synth" counters from this card: Special Summon 1 "Synthphonist" monster from your Deck whose Level is equal to the number of counters removed. If this card would be destroyed, you can remove 1 "Synth" counter from this card instead.

Synthphonist Tuning/ Spell/ Normal/ Activate only if you control a face-up "Synthphonist" Tuner monster: Add 1 "Synthphonist" monster from your Deck to your Hand. You can shuffle this card from the Graveyard into the Deck: Immediately after this effect resolves, Normal Summon 1 "Synthphonist" monster. (You can only use each effect of "Synthphonist Tuning" once per turn).

Synthphonist Resonance/ Spell/ Quick-Play/ Immediately after this effect resolves: Normal Summon all face-up "Synthphonist" Gemini Monsters you control. You can shuffle this card from the Graveyard into the Deck: Special Summon 1 Level 4 or lower "Synthphonist" monster from your Hand. (You can only use each effect of "Synthphonist Resonance" once per turn).

Synthphonist Harmony/ Spell/ Normal/ Declare a Level from 1 to 4: The Levels of all face-up "Synthphonist" monsters you control become the declared Level until the end of this turn. You can shuffle this card from your graveyard into the deck: Add 1 "Synthphonist" monster from your graveyard to your hand. (You can only use each effect of "Synthphonist Harmony" once per turn).

Synthphonist Rehearsal/ Spell/ Quick-Play/ Special Summon 1 "Sonic Synthphonist" Monster from your Extra Deck, ignoring the summoning conditions. That monster's effects are negated and it cannot attack. Also, shuffle it into the Extra Deck during the End-Phase. You can shuffle this card and 1 "Synthphonist" Synchro Monster from your graveyard into the deck to target 1 "Synthphonist" Synchro Monster you control: This turn, that Target gains the effect of the "Synthphonist" monster shuffled into the Extra Deck with effect. (This is a Quick Effect). (You can only use each effect of "Synthphonist Rehearsal" once per turn).

Synthphonist Synchronization/ Spell/ Quick-Play/ Immediately after this effect resolves: Synchro Summon 1 "Synthphonist" monster using monsters you control. (Monsters used as Materials for this Synchro Summon are treated as Tuners. You cannot Special Summon other monsters from the Extra Deck except Synchro Monsters. You can only activate 1 "Synthphonist Synchronization" per turn).