As the duel between the brainwashed Zakuro and Ichigo continued, Deep Blue his himself in another building at the port. He had a getaway vehicle prepared if anyone found his location, and he was able to control Zakuro's mind from several buildings away. He was annoyed by Zakuro not taking the Infernal Flame Emperor and resisting his control, but it did not deter him from his mission. The room he was in was an office in a warehouse building, and he sat alone, thinking to himself as the duel went on.
On Zakuro's turn, she drew a card and looked through her hand. "I sacrifice my set monster to call upon Thestalos, the Firestorm Monarch, with 2400 attack boosted to 2900!" As Thestalos came to the field, she gave Ichigo a slasher smile, remembering its effect. "Now, I think you know what happens when I sacrifice monsters to summon Thestalos, right? I choose the card furthest to your right! Discard it!"
Ichigo looked at her hand and realized that Zakuro was making her discard Osiris. She recoiled in fear at what discarding the card meant. "I've lost Osiris! I can't use him in the duel anymore!" Ichigo replied to Zakuro, "Fine then. I discard Osiris from my hand, and take 1000 damage as a result."
ZAKURO: 4000
ICHIGO: 1000
Zakuro laughed, overjoyed to have discarded such a powerful card. "Well, well, looks like you can't command him after all, Ichigo. If you can't even protect an Egyptian God, what makes you think you can protect the Earth?! Humanity is doomed if this is what it has to offer. Anyway, I activate Dian Keto the Cure Master, boosting my life points to 5000!"
ZAKURO: 5000
ICHIGO: 1000
"Damn it," Ichigo shouted at Zakuro, begging her to stop and disturbed to hear such rhetoric in her voice. "Shut up! Zakuro, I know that's not you in there speaking! You made a pledge to protect this planet like the rest of us, and you love your home! This planet is not perfect by any means, but its' problems are our problems, and I know you wouldn't trade it for anything!"
Zakuro simply scoffed. "I don't care. All I care about is defeating you. I set my Raging Flame Sprite to defense mode and end my turn!"
"My turn," Ichigo replied to her as she drew a card. "Per Messenger of Peace's effect, I lose 100 life points."
ZAKURO: 5000
ICHIGO: 0900
Ichigo smiled as she selected her next card. "I activate Polymerization, allowing me to fuse Burstinatrix with Prisma and another HERO monster from my hand to form Vision HERO Trinity! This card's attack doubles to 5000 when it is successfully Fusion Summoned to the field, and though it can't attack you directly, it can attack you up to three times in each of my Battle Phases!" As Vision HERO Trinity took to the field, the crowd behind her looked on in awe of the powerful fusion.
"How useless," Zakuro remarked. "I still have Gravity Bind, and you still have Messenger of Peace on the field!"
"You forget that I took the one card from your hand that can stop those," Ichigo retorted. "I took your Heavy Storm, and now I activate that, destroying the last barriers to my attack!" As Heavy Storm took the form of a powerful wind storm and annihalated both of the cards she mentioned, as well as Molten Destruction. "Now, Trinity, destroy Thestalos and Raging Flame Sprite!" Trinity then swung down with its bladed arms at both monsters, decapitating both in one fell swoop and causing them to explode and disintegrate.
ZAKURO: 2400
ICHIGO: 0900
"I end my turn," Ichigo replied. "And my Vision HERO Trinity goes down to 2500 attack!" She then thought to herself, "I need to draw this game out more. Neither of us can lose."
"My turn," Zakuro said as she drew another card. "I set one monster and end my turn!" She thought to herself as she looked over her hand and pondered what to do next, "I'll have to go on the defensive. Vision HERO Trinity is too strong."
"What?!" Deep Blue suddenly interrupted Zakuro's thoughts in her mind through his powers. "You're going on the defensive?! You can't! You shouldn't care if you die, as long as Ichigo dies too!"
"I'm going to lose if I don't try to go defensive," Zakuro began to resist as she cluctched her forehead in sharp and repetitive pain. She stammered out, "Agh, damn it!"
"There you go," Ichigo cheered Zakuro's efforts to resist on. "Resist it!" She then drew a card to begin her turn and had an idea as she drew it and looked at its name. "Bell of Destruction! I can use it to destroy Vision HERO Trinity so the duel comes to a draw! Maybe that will snap Zakuro out of it! But... If we both lose, we both will plunge into the water with these weights on our feet..." As Zakuro continued to writhe in pain, she made her decision. "I set a Magic or Trap card and end my turn!"
"My turn," Zakuro again stammered out in pain, barely being able to draw a card from her deck. "Agh... I... I set a monster..."
Then, Ichigo made her move. "Reverse Card Open! Bell of Destruction! I target Vision HERO Trinity, which will make the duel come to a draw!"
Zakuro's eyes widened as she gasped in horror before she screamed in pain, the brainwashing of Deep Blue being overcome. "No! No! My brainwashing! It failed!" Deep Blue was furious inside of Zakuro's mind as she collapsed to her knees and hyperventilated.
Ichigo thought to herself as the eponymous trap card wrapped itself around Vision HERO Trinity's neck in the form of a metal ring with grenades attached to it, "It worked! She's free from the brainwashing!"
As Zakuro stood up and looked around, confused as to what was going on, she asked Ichigo, "Huh? What the hell is going on?"
Minto, watching from the side as she was still restrained by a single handcuff, called out to her, "Onee-sama! You're in a duel with Ichigo! She's gonna turn it into a draw, but be careful! You two have weights attached to your feet!"
Zakuro looked down at her feet and yelped in fright. "Oh no! Ichigo, what did you do?!"
"This duel is going to be a draw," Ichigo told Zakuro as tears began to fall from her eyes. "I'm going to let you escape, since I'll take the brunt of the physical damage to my body since Trinity is my monster. Zakuro, you're my best friend, and I love you..." She then closed her eyes as Bell of Destruction primed itself to explode, ready to accept her fate.
Zakuro ripped Ichigo's pendant off of her neck and threw it to the floor away from the trap door below her and yelled out to Ichigo, "Ichigo! No!" Then, the Bell of Destruction exploded, and just as Ichigo predicted, she got the brunt of the blast, screaming in pain as she was enveloped in fire and flames.
ZAKURO: 0000 (DRAW)
ICHIGO: 0000 (DRAW)
Purin tried running out onto the field to help Ichigo, screaming, "Ichigo! Ichigo! ICHIGO!" However, both Retasu and Yugi held the young girl back as she cried and screamed, yelling at both of them, "Let go of me! Ichigo's going to die again!"
As Ichigo collapsed to the ground and both her and Zakuro's life points opened, the timers on their trap doors began. Both of their key boxes opened, and Zakuro quickly grabbed her key to undo her ankle weights before ripping her duel disk off and placing her cards down. She then ran over and grabbed Ichigo's key, pleading, "Come on, damn it!" As she trembled and fussed around with the weights on Ichigo's ankles after taking her duel disk off and placing her cards and her thigh pocket holding her Fusion Deck to the side, the two trap doors suddenly opened, and both of them plunged into the waters below, Zakuro screaming as they fell into the water with a loud splash. She felt a sharp pain in her body as she hit the water from 30 feet up, and struggled to lift Ichigo due to the ankle weights.
Above the surface, Minto screamed out in horror as Zakuro fell before noticing the Ghoul from before holding out his cell phone. She immediately realized that he was about to set off the bombs he had mentioned earlier, and called out, "Oh no, you don't!" She used only one hand to call out and summon her weapon, declaring, "Mintone Arrow!" She then aimed it square at the Ghoul, who froze in fear as she then declared her attack, yelling out, "Ribbon Minto Echo!"
A bolt of blue and pink light impacted the Ghoul, blasting him over the catwalk and right into the water below, and also destroying the cellphone in his hand when the arrow sliced through his hand and destroying it, splattering blood and what was left of his hand all over the catwalk. As he fell into the water, Kaiba quickly ran over and grabbed the handcuff key from where the Ghoul stood to unlock Minto's handcuffs. "I got you, Miss Aizawa!"
Retasu meanwhile knew what she had to do. She bolted from the crowd and leapt into the water, jumping over the catwalk and diving almost perfectly into the dark blue water below. As she hit the water, she felt her legs turn into a porpoise fin as her powers kicked in and she began to breathe underwater. She swam down and found that Zakuro had passed out, being unable to free Ichigo from her ankle weights. "Zakuro! Ichigo!" She quickly swam to them and grabbed the key as it floated underwater, a lucky catch. She then finally managed to undo Ichigo's ankle weights before grabbing both of them and dragging them to the surface. "I must save them! It's my calling!"
As Retasu emerged from the water with a still unconscious Ichigo and a now coughing Zakuro, Masaya dived in as well to assist her. "Retasu, I'll grab Ichigo! You take Zakuro!"
"Got it," Retasu nodded affirmatively as she and Zakuro swam quickly to a ladder that led up to the ground floor of the warehouse. Zakuro climbed up first, and Retasu felt her legs return to normal as she grabbed ahold of the ladder and began to climb. The duel had ended, but now, the gang had the Battle City Four Finals to contend with. At least, they thought that they only had the finals to contend with...