Reita hadn't known friendship and comradery as a child, she always seemed to be on the outside looking in. People were frightened by her awkwardness and her occult dueling style, she had tried and tried but no one would give her the chance to be friends. Until... she met him. He wasn't a particularly interesting boy by any means, he was polite and quiet but seemed to be a passionate duelist. They had met in their first year of middle school after a duel club meeting between North and West, a young Toshiru was putting out club supplies and noticed a long haired girl sitting alone in the corner. It wasn't unexpected to see people who wanted to be on their own to focus, Toshiru had remembered last weeks meeting with East where he saw Kazechi do the same thing. This was different however, the girl looked sad and alone, being the person he was Toshiru got worried but didn't know how to help. He was friendly but was by no means a social butterfly, he walked over to the table she was sitting at and but on a smile.

"H-hey! I saw you were sitting here alone and was wondering if you were okay! My name is Toshiru!" Toshiru stuttered nervously as he noticed a duel disk and deck on the table, she was studying new strategies for her deck. "Whoa! You have a Ghostrick deck? That's so cool!" Toshiru exclaimed, he had never seen anyone use a Ghostrick deck before and was fascinated by the deck.

"Thank you... I'm Reita..." the brown haired girl said as she looked up, she was used to seeing people be curious of her Ghostrick cards but knew it was only because it was a rouge deck. As such, she didn't get her hopes up that this person wanted to be her friend.

"It's nice to meet you Reita. It looks like everyone else is getting started with dueling, if it's alright would you like to duel me?" Toshiru said in an awkward voice

"A duel...? With... me...?" Reita said as she lifted her head, when she had attended the meets at other schools most people wouldn't want to duel her. So she had gotten used to studying her cards and thinking of new strategies alone... but now someone had gone out of their way to challenge her to a duel...

"Yeah, I mean after all dueling new people is the best way to make new friends!" Toshiru said as he got out his cards, he might've been shy and awkward but he never missed the chance to make a new friend while dueling.

"Alright... let's duel...!" Reita said as she got out a game mat and a small timer, her favorite type of dueling was unique. As incredible as the solid vision holograms and cool effects were, she loved dueling on standard games mats the best. The two smiled shyly as they started to duel...

Back in the present, Naturia Exterio charged towards Ghostrick Alucard. If this attack landed successfully, Toshiru would finally lower Reita's life points!

"Too bad Ishi, but I activate this! Go mirror force! Now all your attack position monsters are destroyed!" Reita shouted as the trap card became revealed.

"Sorry Reita, but I activate Exterio's effect! Now by removing one card from my graveyard, and by sending the top card of my deck to the graveyard, I can negate the activation of a spell/trap card on the field! So I remove Naturia Cliff and send the top card of my deck to the graveyard to negate mirror force!" Toshiru shouted as a barrage of leaves shot from around Exterio, negating and destroying the trap card. "Now go Exterio, destroy Reita's Alucard!" Toshiru said as Exterio slashed at Aluard, destroying the vampiric creature and reducing Reita's life points by 1,000 points!

Toshiru: 1,100 LP

Reita: 3,000 LP

"Now I'll end my turn!" Toshiru said as he smiled, he was finally starting to make a comeback!

In the stands Takehoko was watching the duel intently, Toshiru may have struck back but it looked like Reita wasn't finished yet either... this match would be a tough one to call.

"My turn, I draw!" Reita said as she drew a new card from her deck, bringing her hand up to two cards. Things weren't looking good, she had one monster and two cards on the field. However...

"I'll switch my Ghostrick Ghoul into defense mode and set one monster in facedown defense mode to start off! Then I'll place one card facedown and end my turn!" Reita said confidently, what could she be planning...

"Alright then I draw! And now I'll have my Naturia Exterio attack your facedown monster!" Toshiru said as his monster jumped out and slashed the facedown monster, destroying it instantly

"Thank you Ishi! You just destroyed my Ghostrick Yuki-onna, and when it's destroyed I can switch the monster that destroyed it into facedown defense position! And you can't switch it's battle position either!" Reita said happily as Toshiru has fallen right into her trap

"I play one card facedown and end my turn!" Toshiru said as he looked at his field with a concerned look, his main win condition had just been sealed away...

"I draw! I'll activate my facedown card, go powerful rebirth! Now I can choose one monster in my graveyard and special summon it to the field! And the plus side is that my monster gains 100 attack and defense points and 1 level! So come on out, Ghostrick Skeleton!" Reita said as the cloaked Skeleton appeared from the ground, it was now a level 4 monster with 1,300 attack points and 1,200 defense points. "Next I'll activate the card I just drew, go Synchro Boost! With this card my Ghostrick Ghoul gains 500 attack points and his level is increased by 1!" Reita said as a blue light surrounded the zombie looking monster.

"What the..." Toshiru said with a surprised look, all of a sudden Reita had two level four monsters on the field, was she planning on xyz summoning again?!

"Now watch Ishi! You're not the only one full of surprises! First I activate my facedown card, go I overlay my Ghostrick Ghoul and my Ghostrick Skeleton to xyz summon!" Reita said as the zombie and Skeleton turned into two spheres and combined together to form a new monster.

"Not good..." Toshiru said with a nervous smile, he was in trouble now...

"Come on out! Ghostrick Angel of Mischief!" Reita shouted as a pink haired girl appeared from the card, she wore a black dress and had bright green eyes. The monster's wings were a combination of black and white, and it had a black top hat with a maroon feather in it. The monster was stronger than Alucard, with an impressive 2,000 attack points and 2,500 defense points. Reita had summoned the monster in defense mode, obviously making use of it's high defense points. "Now for her effect! Once per turn I can remove one overlay unit to add one ghostrick spell or trap card to my hand, and then one per turn I can equip one ghostrick card from my hand as an overlay unit for her!" Reita said with a triumphant look on her face

"So you can continuously add ghostrick spell and trap cards to your hand... not a bad effect." Toshiru said as he looked at the new monster, it was certainly a powerful monster but it's effect didn't seem too dire. It was then however that he saw the rest of the monsters effect on his duel disk and gasped...

"I can see you saw the other part of my Angel's effect right Ishi? Once I get 10 overlay units onto Angel of Mischief, I win this duel!" Reita said as she winked at Toshiru, she finally had him right where she wanted him! "Now with that I'll end my turn!" Reita said as she parted her long silver hair

"Alright then! I draw! I'll play another card facedown and end my turn!" Toshiru said as he looked at his field. He had Exterio as his only monster card, but he couldn't change it's battle position manually so it was stuck. And he had two trap cards facedown on the field Meteorain and Zero Gravity. Meteorain could let his monster deal piercing damage to Reita's monsters, but he had no attack position monsters. On the other hand Zero Gravity could change all monster's battle positions, but it could only work on face up monsters... so Exterio would be unaffected...

"My turn, I draw! And I think I'll activate my Angel's effect! I make the Ghostrick Yeti in my hand one of her overlay units, bringing her up to 3 now!" Reita said as another glowing sphere circled around the angel. "And with that I'll end my turn!" Reita said as a determined look came across her face, she could win this in just a few more turns!

"Alright, I draw!" Toshiru said as he drew another card, it was Megamorph! This equip spell card could double a monster's attack points as long as the controller's life points were lower than their opponents. Although it wouldn't be too useful given on how Toshiru had no attack position monsters. Toshiru looked worried as he ended his turn, it was like he was running on a treadmill... he was getting nowhere fast!

What will the outcome of this duel be? Will Toshiru be able to overcome Reita's killer strategy? Find out next time!