Episode 10: Mankind Works in Mysterious Ways

"Let's face it Yamashita, your out of your league!" Yukio bellowed before snapping his arm down at Reku. "Zergo's Man Slayer, direct attack!"

Winding back its arm, the gray skinned behemoth prepared to strike the defending Reku with its jagged fist. Snarling, smoke bubbled out from behind the metal mask covering its mouth, whipping past the beasts head as he snapped forward to punch Reku.

"NO!" Akina screamed, the scene slowing down as Reku was hit by the ridged fist, sliding backwards towards her and Kaira who was wide eyed, watching as Reku took a massive hit.

Reku-1000 LP
Yukio-4000 LP

"Yukio!" Reku screamed, his teeth clenching as the shock wave from the attack continued to push him backwards. "Your attack isn't going to go past as easily as you would like. It triggered my set trap!" With that, Reku came to a halt, snapping his right arm forward to the rising card before him. "Activate! Monster Steel Tunnel!"

"Monster Steel Tunnel?" Yukio cocked an eyebrow as the purple bordered card flipped up on the field. "It's been a while, so I'm a bit out of touch with every card. What does that one do again?"

"It's simple." Reku slowly was making his way back to the spot on the dueling field that he was just moments before inhabiting. With a flick of his right wrist he pulled out his deck and fanned it out. "When I receive a direct attack, I may activate it and special summon a monster from my deck with equal or less attack points. Since your monster has 2600 whooping points, I get to summon a monster of 2600 attack or less." Snapping one of the cards from his deck, Reku proceeded to place it in a monster card zone. "And I choose a good buddy of mine; Barrel Dragon (2600/2200)!"

A large, black metal behemoth rose up behind the black haired duelist. Three long, thin barrels sticking out of its upper body, pointed directly at the monster opposing it. Roaring with a mechanical grinding screech, the monster made his appearance very clear upon the field. A sound echoed out of the inner chamber of the strange beast's chest cavity as gears began to creek slowly, starting their processes.

"So you summed a monster that can match mine in attack power." Yukio brushed a lock of his blue hair out of his face. "Yamashita you fool, even that won't be able to stop me. I'll still beat you." Looking down at the cards he held, he looked up, smirking darkly. "Oh well, nothing more I can play this turn. Your move."

"Alright then." Reku snapped the next card from his deck, instantly slipping it into his duel disk. "I'll set one card face-down first." A brown backed card rippled into existence behind Reku's black machine monster. "Then I'll just activate the special ability that my Barrel Dragon holds."

Before Reku, three golden coins appeared, twirling inches above the ground. With a blast of energy, the three coins were sent skyward, twirling the whole time. One by one, the golden currency fell from the heavens to the soft grass below. Two of the coins had the Eye of Ra face up, the other was completely blank.

"I have flipped two heads it appears." Reku smirked, pointing to Yukio's power house monster. "Barrel Dragon's ability activates then. If two out of the three coin flips are heads, I can destroy one monster card on your side of the field! I of course choose your Zergo's Man Slayer!"

The two barrels resting on the side of Reku's great beast began to glow, embers shooting out from the two holes. Within seconds of Reku's speech, the two barrels blasted out bullets of red hot energy, rushing across the field and embedding themselves into the chest cavity of the wild behemoth on Yukio's field. Screaming in pain, the monster clutched its wounds before exploding, sending waves of embers and smoke rushing out from the area.

"Player direct attack!" Reku bellowed, snapping his arm down so that his palm was extended out towards his blue haired foe. Roaring, Reku's Barrel Dragon took aim with its center cannon, charging up for the blast. Within seconds the barrel let go, sending a blast of energy rushing across the front lawn and into the chest of Yukio, causing him to go flying backwards.

Reku-1000 LP
Yukio-1400 LP

"Yamashita." Yukio growled as he pulled himself to his feet, patting the spot on his chest where the holographic blast had smacked into him. It was burning his chest slightly, his body no longer being used to the solid vision technology used by duel disks. "My inner anger won't let you beat me that easily! It is my turn to draw!" Yukio snapped the top card off his deck, slicing it through the air. "Zergo's Tainted Cards activate!"

The green bordered card on Yukio's field began to suddenly erupt with energy as it's effect kicked in. Yukio reached back up to his deck, snapping the top two cards off of it and whipping them through the air.

"I draw two cards, and discard two more." Holding up the two cards, Reku could see the yellow bordered monster cards with the names; Zergo's Acid Crawler (1600/1100) and Zergo's Cyborg (1500/1700). Sliding them into his graveyard, the glass pot on Yukio's field began to spurt to life once again. "Adding two more souls to my Zergo's Soul Container."

"That makes a total of eight monsters in his grave, if I've counted right." Reku looked at the container resting on the grass. "What is he building up that pot for? I am starting to grow a bit nervous the more he puts into it."

Yukio, seeing Reku gazing at his Soul Container, decided to enlighten him a bit. "Alright Yamashita, you want to know what is going to happen because of my little magic card? I'll tell you then."

The pot suddenly began to crack, waves of energy bursting outwards onto the field, creating a mist of white haze. Screams echoed from inside the vase, sounding like ghosts trying to escape eternal imprisonment.

"I sacrifice my Zergo's Soul Container, and for every three souls I have trapped in there, I get to summon one Zergo's Soul Token to my side of the field." The pot shattered, sending three blasts of energy outwards and landing on Yukio's field before him. The spheres rotated slowly, moaning like three ghosts (0/0).

"Three of them?" Reku pointed to the three newly summoned tokens with three fingers on his right hand. "You said for every three monsters in there it created one, but I counted only eight monsters, where did the ninth one come from?"

"You forget Yamashita that Zergo's Rage Behemoth went to the grave twice, counting once for each time." Yukio held up one of the three cards he still was holding. "And now you'll just plain forget everything you think you know about this game. I will knock all the sense out of you."

"Oh…shit…" Reku's eyes widened as he watched two of the spheres on Yukio's field begin to fade away. He didn't remember Yukio's deck too well, but he did remember one thing in particular. One really big, demonic looking thing.

"I make a double sacrifice in order to bring out Zergo!" A pillar of flames rushed upwards behind the blue haired boy, snapping his strands of hair forwards with the intense shock wave. From the flames came a long, blue skinned claw, slashing away the red hot embers. Behind the fire was emerged a blue skinned behemoth, even taller than Reku's Barrel Dragon. Its body was wrapped in a black, rather fine robe running up and over the top of the monsters head. Two, blood red eyes glared down at Reku, accompanied by a sick and twisted green from a mouth bearing two razor sharp fangs. (3500/3500)

Kaira shriek, jumping back and clutching onto Akina's arm as she also slowly stepped backwards.

"What is that thing! I've never seen a duel monster like it before!" Kaira had her eyes closed, her head looking away from the blue skinned monster that now towered high over the rest of the playing field.

"I've never been sure myself. But with its overwhelming attack, it's quite tough to try and bring down." Akina kept her soft, blue eyes locked on the back of Reku's head. Her right fist tightening into a fist. "Don't give up Reku; I'm sure you have a way to get around that thing!"

"Yamashita!" Yukio extending his arm out and downward, his fingers outstretched with enough strain to make his hand visibly shake. "You should remember this beast! Fear his rage now! Hell's Dark Flame!"

With a snap of its right arm the blue skinned monster whipped the black robe out from before him, it flowing outwards to his side. Cupping its blue claws, the monster began to form a ball of raging flames, swirling in a vortex within the ten fingers. With a thrust of his arms outward, the monster sent the blaze rushing outward in a stream, encircling the black metal dragon monster that stood between Zergo and Reku, causing the machine to instantly melt.

Reku-100 LP
Yukio-1400 LP

"REKU!" Akina cried out, watching as her loved one's life points plummeted by 900, leaving him with only 100 life points left to fight on. And against such a behemoth of a monster! Zergo had enough attack power to back it up that Reku couldn't beat it in a simple attack.

Reku, without saying anything, placed his hand on the top card of his deck, waiting for Yukio to end his turn so that he could draw it and find out what it was he had to work with.

Seeing this, Yukio nodded. "Yup, your move."

"Draw!" Reku snapped the card from his deck, holding it up in front of his face. His eyes narrowed a glint of red reflecting off the surface of his dark brown eyes. "It's time I took down Zergo and won this duel. Magic card activate! Hole in the Plan!"

"Which does?" Yukio cocked an eyebrow, watching as Reku slid the magic card into his emerald green duel disk.

"I allows me to remove monsters from my graveyard in order to special summon a tribute monster from my hand. For every star above four the monster has, I must remove one monster. I choose this monster." Holding up one of the remaining cards in his hand, he flipped it over to show a yellow bordered monster card. "Mech Dragon Blaster (2500/2000), a seven star monster. This means I must remove three monsters from my grave from the game."

Holding up his duel disk, Reku watched as the three monster cards in his graveyard slot; Barrel Dragon, Robotic Knight, and Warrior of the White Flame, popped out. Taking the monster card he was still holding, Reku slapped it down on his duel disk.

A large, green scaled dragon monster appeared on the field before Reku. Standing on its two hind feet, the monster was massive in size, though still small compared to the towering Zergo. Random parts of his body seemed to have been replaced with machinery. Metal panels, exposed wiring and some flashing lights run all the way around the monster. Roaring once, the monster revealed that inside its mouth was a large, gray cannon.

"I hate to be the bearer of bad news to you." Yukio lowered his head slightly, a smirk creasing his lips. "Your monster is far too weak to stand up to the power that my monster has. I don't know what you plan to do with it, but it won't work."

"Then you should get all your information before printing the news." Reku held up another card, its brown back still facing Yukio. "I have a card here that will change all that."

"Oh, and what would that be?" Yukio watched the card intently as Reku slowly moved it towards his duel disk. His eyes widened as he saw something he didn't expect. Almost as if the world was moving in slow motion, the card inched its way to the duel disk. A tail of crimson red light flew off behind it as it made its journey through the air.

"I activate this card; Oracles Rage Incarnate Seal of Power – Ruby Crystal!" The card entered the slot on Reku's duel disk, causing a surge of power to blast out from the hole. Red sparks of lightning cracked across Reku's body as a ruby red aura proceeded to engulf Reku's being. A strange, circular design formed on his head, looking like a group of lines off to the right side of this circle, forming an abstract crescent moon.

The newly summoned machine monster began to roar, sparks of red lightning cracking their way across the surface of his scales. His body began to warp, a painful ripping sound coming from all down the dragons body. Large, ruby coloured crystals began to blast through the hide of the beast, jutting upwards.

Roaring, the monster stomped its massive foot into the ground. A red aura bursting up from the bottom of his feet, consuming his legs then up across his body until it came to the top of his head.

The crystal spikes ceased to come out of the monsters hide, leaving a very sharp looking machine dragon upon Reku's field. (3500/2000)

"A one-thousand point boost and a vicious looking monster?" Yukio cocked an eyebrow, Reku's monster was indeed impressive, but he didn't quite see how this was going to stop his Zergo, who had identical attack points at the moment. "You realize that you can't overpower my monster, don't you?" His tough guy façade surved as a powerful front, but deep down he felt something to be afraid of. Reku's monster had more to it than what he thought, he just knew it!

"You're wrong Yukio." Reku's voice had changed; it took on a darker, more forceful tone. "My monster is now immortal, incapable of being destroyed in battle. So now attack! Wipe out his monster!"

Opening its maw, the monster revealed the silver coloured barrel inside. The gears began to turn, pushing the end of the barrel out slightly. A ball of flames erupted from the darkness of the cannon, blasting outwards and crashing into the chest of the large demon like monster. The monster soon blasted apart into tiny data fragments.

"Well, you're a fool then." Yukio slid his deck out of his duel disk. "Or has all these years rotted your memory? When Zergo leaves the field, I get to summon out Zergo's True Form! (4000/4000)"

A uprush of flames engulfed the area that once contained Zergo just seconds before. Now standing there was a more hideous version of Yukio's demonic creature. The hideous monster now had a set of devil horns erupting from the top of its skull, and two longer, blood soaked fangs hanging from his upper lip. The blue skin of the monster had darkened, almost making it back, but illuminated by a red glow from the monsters eyes. Two gray scaled wings had burst from out of the back of the monster, flapping every once and a while to keep the monster hovering inches about Yukio's field.

"No, I didn't forget, I just need to tell you two more things." Reku held up his right hand, two fingers being held up to identify that he had two items on his list. "First, my monster can attack every monster on the field in the same battle phase." His middle finger dropped down into his fist, the first item spoken. "Second, I reveal my set quick play magic card; Sacred Blue Flame! This card increases the attack points of a fire monster on my field by 500 points."

The green mechanical lizard began to roar, a blast of blue fire engulfing his body (4000/2000). With his mouth still open, he blasted out two flame balls that were deep blue in colour. The two of them raced across the field, one crashing into the small glass orb that was still on Yukio's field, the other smashing into the newly summoned demonic creature. The two of them exploded, a wave of blue flames rushing back over Yukio who had to shield himself from the heat.

"This is bad…" Tal observed, stepping forward towards Yukio. "Alright, Yukio concedes this duel. He has more pressing matters to attend to."

"What!" Yukio glared up at the man who had spoken. He felt the strong hand of Tal clamp around his shoulder. "I have no where to go. I'm not surrendering this duel to this loser!"

"You are, you've lost." Tal growled a light rushing through his shirt from his chest. The medallion that was wrapped around his neck had activated, sending out streams of shadows. The strands of darkness wrapped around the three other bodies of Tal's little team, consuming and then sucking their body mass away, leaving no trace of any of them. The shadows then proceeded to wrap around Tal's bulky body, dragging his mass into the darkness until he was completely gone.

"He still has his shadow magic." Akina bit her lower lip, watching the scene unfold before her. Looking on, she watched the ruby colored aura vanish from around her boyfriend, his body then faltering and waving back and forth. Within a few seconds, she had closed the gap between them and wrapped her arms around him.

"Woah…" He exclaimed, reaching up and placing his hand on his head. "It's been a while since I've felt that power. It's kinda overwhelming." Reku's body was shaking a bit, cracks of ruby coloured lightning still tracing is way down his skin before fizzling out.

"What a powerful card, that crystal card." Kaira joined the other two, trotting up to them and moving around before them. "I see now what you mean when you said you've used some increasable powers."

"Yeah…" Reku looked up at the girl, then to his monster that was still sitting on the field. Growling deep in its throat, the Mech Dragon Blaster Ruby Mode finally vanished from the field, leaving a whisk of ruby colored smoke twisting its way into the darkening sky.

Suddenly, the three of their heads were jerked skyward as a females voice came booming into the vicinity.

"Reku, I felt the energy of your crystal and then it faded, are you alright? What happened?" It was Order, panic striking every cord of her voice as she spoke to them.

Kaira, never having heard such a strange thing, was also panicking, backing up and shivering. "It's not every day that strange, loud, female voices yell from the sky."

"We're fine Order." Reku called back, neither him nor Akina noticing the freaked out Kaira who was trying to get away from the area, but frozen almost in place. "It's hard to explain, but old faces are popping up like weeds, all under the control of Freyr."

"I was afraid of that, I'll bring you here, there are some people here you need to meet. Where is Ronin, I don't sense his presence?" Order's voice faded as Reku's eyes fell to the dark grass below. Sighing, he shook his head.

"I don't have a clue; he took off running like a mad man. Something seems to have gotten into him." Reku's voice wavered slightly as he thought about what he just said. Taking a deep breath, he looked back up at the sky. "I'm beginning to wonder if it doesn't have something to do with him loosing to Dementia. Normally we can recover after a duel, even a darkness game, pretty quickly. But he was completely wiped out."

"It's all very possible I suppose. Alright, hold on a second." Order's voice trailed off as well as she began to transport Reku, Akina, and an unwilling Kaira who found it impossible to run once the intense light began to surround her.

Soon enough the three of them found themselves in the golden room that Order had turned into her basic head-quarters. Reku and Akina had their footing on the ground in no time, unlike Kaira who found herself spinning a bit and then colliding with the golden tiled floor.

A roaring laughter broke through the chamber, snapping Reku's and Akina's head over to the far end of the room as they followed the trail of sound. There, the silver haired boy they recognized of old was sitting in the large golden throne rolling with laughter. Next to him, leaning up against the wall where three figures neither Reku nor Akina had never seen before. One of them with raven black hair was also doubled over laughing his heart out.

"All this time and she still has no coordination!" He taunted lifting his finger up to point at the grounded Kaira. Gurabe made an agreeing noise deep in his throat as he nodded, still laughing his heart out at Kaira.

"You guys sure are mean." Another of the unidentified figures scolded, glaring at his companion and the young man in the chair. His hair was sky blue, reflecting the light of the torches in the golden room. His sun yellow eyes fixed on the two of them, parental anger flowing through them.

"SHUT UP HERURU!" Kaira's voice broke over the rolling laughter, the angry blond girl storming past Reku and Akina up to the laughing figure. She lifted her finger, pointing angrily at the man who had stopped laughing, but was still snickering. She opened her mouth to yell at him some more, then she lost what she was going to say. Instead; "Wait, why are you guys here?" Looking around, she looked back at them. "Where is here?"

Gurabe, who had stopped laughing with the figure, Heruru, broke out laughing again, slapping his knees with how stupid Kaira's comment was. Looking back at her, he continued to snicker as well.

"Human's not too bright, is she?" He asked the three figures against the wall.

"Never has been." Heruru shot back, getting a very cold glare from the girl before him. "Even funnier, she actually thinks she can scare me."

It was then that Reku's intense, confused gaze at the scene unfolding before him was interrupted by a sharp elbow to the rib cage. Grabbing his side, he looked to see what hit him. It was Akina, staring at Kaira and the three new figures as well.

"How in the world does she know these people, and who are they?" She whispered into Reku's ear as he crouched down slightly to her. Shrugging slightly, Reku straightened back up.

"I have no clue."

"Well, we spent quite a good deal of time together about…oh…five years ago." One of the figures spoke, the one with sky blue hair. "Her and a man named Kiro Rinku. Allow me to introduce us. My name is Hebanu. The one here with a laughing disorder is named Heruru." This made Hebanu receive a very cold glare from the black haired companion. "And this guy here is named Kooru." Hebanu, ignoring the stare, motioned to the silver haired man on the other side of him.

"So you three are the demons that he was talking about." Reku pointed to the three of them, getting a nod from the one identified as Kooru. Scratching his chin, Reku looked around the room. Order and Deruku were standing by a golden table, silent so to not interrupt the drama. Gurabe was slouched over in the golden chair next to the three demons against the wall. Kaira still standing before them. "Seems we've constructed quite an arsenal of odd faces."

"Not quite yet." Order broke in, waving her arm. "There are still two more willing participants to join this group. They are waiting right now, so just give me a moment to fetch them." Closing her eyes, the dull red haired woman began to hum slightly, drawing on the power that lay inside of her.

A flash of light raced through the chamber, originating at a ball of energy in an open area before Reku and Akina. Seconds later, the ball of light vanished, leaving two familiar faces standing a bit dumbstruck at the gawking crowd. Joe and Kevin had made their appearance.

Ronin's legs were burning, his lungs furiously begging for some air to replenish them. The sweat poured down his head by the buckets full, stinging it his eyes and causing him to taste the saltiness of them as they dripped down into his open mouth.

He wasn't even sure why he was running. He had been ever sense he burst out of Reku's house and knocked him to the ground.

His mind was in a blur, he could make out heads or tails of his thoughts as he pounded down the stone sidewalk. All he could think about was the last conversation he had with Reku. His final thoughts before he went busting out of Reku's house and past the figures standing on Reku's lawn. His sudden new vow to himself; I'm always the weak one compared to you Reku. I'm always the one who sits in your shadow as you rise higher and higher to greatness. I'll show you. You won't be the one having the final laugh this time.

Vaguely, off in the distance of his conciseness, he heard his named being called. His body though ignored it, continuing to run blindly down the street. It seemed as if the voice was trying to get his attention, but it his mind blocked it out. Ronin didn't want to talk to anyone, not even voices in the deepest part of his head.

Meanwhile, the real owner of the voice stood a bit dumbfounded on the street. Ryokurio stood scratching the back of his head as he watched Ronin disappear over a hump in the road. He had been out unloading stuff from his pickup when Ronin had raced by like a bullet.

"Well that was strange." He commented to himself, debating what he should do. "Ronin looked a bit shaken, and like he's been running for a good long while. He doesn't look healthy at all."

"Hey brother, what's going on?" Usami yelled from the house as she, followed close in toe by Sachiko, ran across the small yard to her dumbfounded brother. "What were you yelling at just now?" She asked, looking down the street the direction her brother was facing. By now, Ronin was gone from sight, so she couldn't see anything.

"It was Ronin, running full boar down the street." Ryokurio looked down at his sister, than up a bit to look at Sachiko who seemed disgusted at the mere name. Turning up her nose, she walked away from the two siblings and sat down on the bumper of Ryokurio's truck.

Elbowing her brother slightly in the ribs, she stood up on her tip toes and whispered into his ear: "Watch what you say about him. I think its still a very sore subject for Sachiko yet."

"I understand." Ryokurio nodded, his sister setting herself back down on the flats of her feet. Ryokurio looked back down the street, sighing slightly. "I don't know, he just looked like he was in bad shape. I think there is something the matter with him." He was still whispering slightly, scratching his chin while he spoke. He soon made up his mind. "Very well, I'm going after him."

"But you just got here." His sister protested. "Whatever is going on with Ronin I'm sure he can handle it on his own."

"I would hate to leave him out there if he's really suffering." He walked past his shorter sister, heading for his silver truck. "I don't really care if he can handle it on his own or not, I just know that if he's struggling in some kind of internal battle, that he will need help to get out of it." Placing his hand on the handle of his door, Ryokurio's eyes stared off into the void. "Trust me; I know what I'm talking about."With that, he pulled open the door of his truck and hopped in. Sachiko jumped off the bumper and moved out of the way of the truck so it could back up.

Usami's eyes widened as she finally realized what her brother was talking about. "That's right; he was possessed by the power of the Orichalcos once. All because he was having a huge inner conflict within himself, and the darkness flowed out of his soul because of his solitude inside. All he needed was someone to save him, and I was just a bit too late to react then." She gulped slightly. "He doesn't want Ronin, or anyone, to be left alone like he was."

Ryokurio's truck backed out of the driveway, turned to face the direction he last saw Ronin heading in and sped off down the street, leaving a slight trail of dust behind it as it moved across the pavement in the late evening neighborhood.

Sachiko, at the same time, was lost in her own thoughts. Her face and eyes showed no emotion at all as she finished watching Ryokurio disappear over the hump in the road. Turning, she made her way back to the house with Usami following behind her after a short pause.

"I don't really care about Ronin, and I don't want to see his damn face again. But…" Sachiko's eyes drifted slowly to the darkening sky above. "…I do have to wonder what the matter with him is."

She entered the house, not showing any emotion of what she was thinking or feeling as she did so. Usami decided against saying anything, just letting the long haired girl be alone for a while. When she was ready, Usami knew that she would talk.

Ronin found himself in a dark alley way, panting hard as he leaned against a cold brick wall. His legs began to wobble under him, giving out and dropping the young man down onto the ground below.

"What is going on with me!" His mind screamed, racing for any kind of answer. "Why am I acting like this!"

His fingers scraped against the cold ground as he curled them into fists. Hand trembling, he picked up a small stone that lay on the ground next to him, and chucked it down into the blackness of the alley. He could hear it cracking as it hit brick and stone. Echo's tracing their way down the small corridor. Growing dimmer and fainter, the ricocheting sound finally died out, leaving only silence.

"It's because right now I am so weak." Ronin's voice was strained as he spoke, vile filling his words as he hated to admit them to himself. "I am too weak to do jack shit!" Closing his eyes tight, he began to grind his teeth. "And look at me now, reduced to throwing a pity party because of how much of a loser I am!"

His eyes snapped open, as his fingers grasped around every loose rock in the vicinity of his hand. They all soon found themselves cracking against the opposite wall, flying into it at full force.

"I was beginning to wonder if that wasn't what your problem was. It kinda looked like it when you went racing out of that house earlier." A voice came from the darkness of the alley way. Snapping his head up, Ronin watched helplessly as a tall, buff man walked out from the shadows. A cold smirk dawned his face, accompanied by his cruel looking brown eyes. "Its power you want right? You've been left behind and no matter what you try; you just can't seem to win."

"How…did…you know that?" Ronin slowly pushed himself up the wall, never once taking his eyes off the man before him. Once he was standing again, he stood there defiant of the man before him. "Answer me."

"It's easy to see." The man shrugged slightly. "And besides, you've just told me that every thing I said is right." Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a stack of brown backed Duel Monsters cards. "I don't want anything from you, but here, I want you to have a small gift." Extending his hand, the man offered the cards to Ronin, who hesitantly took them.

"Then why give me cards?" Ronin asked, fanning out the cards but not looking at them just yet. "There must be something you want, no one just hands cards away."

"Well, now that you mention it." The man shoved his hands into his pockets and turned around. Slowly he began to walk into the shadows. "I want you to become stronger, to defeat your rivals and show them your incredible might. Make your deck with those cards I have given to you, and in return you will become truly stronger than anyone."

Ronin's head was still pounding, not really much energy was in him to argue with the strangely familiar man. One last question did pop into his mind though before the man vanished into the shadows of the alley.

"Who are you?"

"Ronin, Ronin, Ronin." The man stopped, shaking his head. Out of the corner of his eye, the man stared at the young man who was still leaning up against the wall. "You know me, I'm your old hated enemy; Tal."

"Tal…" Ronin was shocked, taken back by the sudden appearance of the old enemy they had fought all those years ago.

"Yeah, though now I'm working under a new master." Tal spoke softly as he turned and continued to walk into the shadows. "Don't mistake my kindness here as us being allies. If you stand in Freyr's way, I will have to take you out. But even so, you seem like you could be a greater force to recon with all on your own. You know what you want to do, and what you have to do. It's up to you to make the choice." And with that Tal vanished into the endless darkness, leaving a stunned Ronin standing there with the fanned out cards in his hand.

Looking down, he began to look over each of the new weapons he had. It was so amazing to him to see such cards that he lost his balance and fell once again to the cold ground below. He sat there for a long time, just staring at the new cards.

"I can become powerful with these." Ronin looked up, gazing into the cold brick of the opposite wall. His voice starting to fill with a bit of malice as he spoke through smirking lips. "I can show everyone. I don't need Reku or anyone else. I can be the most increasable force anyone has ever seen!" Looking down one last time, he squeezed his hand around the cards he held. "And I can do it on my own terms."

"If things go as planned, I've even started to break their group down from the inside." Tal smirked, walking into the subway chamber again.

In the chamber sat a very annoyed Yukio, as well as his two former team mates; Akiaki and Seki. On the other end of the chamber, Hygin and Archip were leaning against the wall, both looking at Tal very curious with his last statement.

"How'd you manage that?" Archip asked, pushing himself away from the wall and walking over to the buff leader of the human group. "I mean, they seem to have a pretty good bond of friendship. It wouldn't be very easy to get inside of that and tear it all down."

"Oh, but it was incredibly easy." Tal spoke on the contrary. Walking past the five people sitting there, he moved to the edge of the platform looking out over the abandoned tracks. "Ronin seems to be struggling with himself. A bit of doubt brought to the surface, and I exposed that just like I did last time."

"Last time?" Akiaki, who had been completely quite, finally asked drawing all heads and eyes to him. He was wearing a tattered blue shirt now, covered by an open leather jacket which just hung from his shoulders. His blond hair still long and a total mess around his head.

"Yeah, last time." Tal nodded, realizing that none of those three had ever heard the tales of what happened after they were lost in the darkness. "I had played with Ronin's emotions for a girl just enough to drive him into an utter conflict with his best friend. The battle that was waged after that was one that almost shook the very foundation of the Earth."

"Think he would do it again?" Seki asked, also breaking her complete silence of so long. "I mean, who's to say that this doubt of his will last very long?"

"I'm almost positive of it." The smirk that crossed Tal's face at this time made all but Yukio slid back a step. "Ronin is quite emotionally unstable I've observed. I think when he lost to Dementia something happened to his pride that finally made him snap. I can't say if its was just the loss in general, or if Dementia has some sort of dark magic involved in it." Looking around, he saw that his confidence in this young man was a bit shocking to them all. "Trust me, he is still sane enough that he wouldn't work for Freyr of his own will, but I think he's snapped enough that he's not a part of the other group anymore either. A lone vigilantly, taking the law into his own hand." Clenching his hand into a fist, Tal turned back to the tracks that lay unused. "And I'm sure he's planning to do just that."

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CARD OF THE EPISODE

Barrel Dragon
2600/2200/7/Dark/Machine
Toss a coin 3 times. If 2 out of 3 results are Heads, destroy 1 monster on your opponent's side of the field. You can only use this effect once per turn, during your Main Phase.

Kaira: "Well it would seem that there is a lot going on now. I mean, ever since I met Ronin earlier this morning, I never imagined all the crazy stuff that has happened would ever! But I digress, right now, were looking at a pretty powerful machine monster used by Reku. Barrel Dragon is a two tribute monster with a pretty devastating effect, but only if you can pull it off. It's a gamble if it will work or not, having to hope to flip two heads at least. The good news is that there is no draw back if you fail to do so. And at 2600 attack points, this is quite a force on the offensive as well. I hope you all enjoyed watching this bad boy in action and continue to come back for more!"

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