The next duel was thankfully one that, to Tokyo Mew Mew at least, had not much at stake for the fate of the world, and would merely be a duel to be watched and enjoyed: Mai Kujaku vs "Bandit" Keith Howard. As both duelists drew their starting hands, a now normal Mew Ichigo sat alongside Masaya, watching the proceedings. She noted to him, "Whoever wins this duel will have to go up against me. They're both experts at this game."
"I'm sure you got this," her boyfriend assured her. "You got a good deck by your side." He then felt his phone vibrate in his pocket, and reached in to grab it. As he looked over the screen, he realized it was a text from an unknown number. "Huh..." He stood up from his seat and turned to Ichigo, telling her, "I'll be back. I gotta run and get something."
"Alright," Ichigo replied to him. "I'll be right here."
On the field, Mai went first, drawing a card from her deck. "I summon Dunames Dark Witch, with 1800 attack! I then activate Graceful Charity, allowing me to draw three cards and discard two from my hand." As she drew and discarded cards, she selected another card from her hand to play. "I then set a card and end my turn."
Bandit Keith then drew at the start of his turn. "I draw! I'll set two cards onto my field and end my turn!" He thought to himself as he ended, "She'll get a nasty surprise when she attacks!"
"My turn," Mai replied as she drew a card. "I'm surprised, Keith. I figured you'd have more up your sleeve than that. Anyway, I summon my first Harpie Lady, with 1300 attack! I then activate Elegant Egotist, allowing me to summon Harpie Lady Sisters from my deck to the field, with 1950 attack!" As Harpie Lady and Harpie Lady Sisters took to the field, Mai declared, "Harpie Lady Sisters, attack Keith's set card!"
As Harpie Lady Sisters began its attack, Bandit Keith declared, "You've attacked my Blast Sphere, activating its special effect! I equip it to your Harpie Lady Sisters, and on your next Standby Phase, it will be destroyed, costing you 1950 life points!"
Mai muttered to herself, "Damn it, there he goes again..." She then walked over to Bandit Keith to be given the Battle Sphere card. "Fine, fine. Just hand it over, Keith."
"As you wish," he replied, gleefully handing the card to her.
Once the transaction was complete, Mai resumed her battle phase. "I can still attack you, and now I can do it directly! Dunames Dark Witch and Harpie Lady, attack Keith directly!"
"Not so fast," Bandit Keith once again declared. "Reverse Card Open! Negate Attack! I end the battle phase and stop your attacks dead in their tracks!" He then laughed, full of himself since he had stopped Mai's attacks. "You can't touch me, Mai!"
Mai was getting rather annoyed with him, and replied with an irritated tone, "Alright, alright. I end my turn."
...
Meanwhile, Masaya walked in the halls of the concession and concourse area of the stadium. However, he was not interested in getting food or seeing sights. "I didn't tell Ichigo," he thought to himself. "But I got a threatening text from an unknown number. I need to meet some guy in one of the storage rooms in the stadium. I think he said..." As he looked around, he found the storage room the unknown text sender referred to. "Here it is..." He pried open the doors, looking around to see if anyone was watching, and then slipped in, closing the doors behind him quietly. "Hello?! Hey! Anyone here? I got your text!"
As he walked forward to look around in the dark storage room, filled to the brim with baseball supplies and various other instruments and objects for use in the stadium, he hears footsteps behind him and turned around. "Hello there." A man in a grey tracksuit stood before him. "How's about you give me all the money you got?"
"Is that really why you dragged me out here?!" Masaya was now unusually angry at the man. "Just to mug me?!"
"I work with your father," the man told him, referring to Masaya's adoptive family. "Do as I say, or I'll frame him for some stuff I did at his company. He'll be sure to get fired. Your mom already sent me about 25,000 yen, so I suggest you follow her example."
Masaya was now enraged that the man had dragged his family into his problems. "How could you?! I'm not giving you a single yen of my money, not after you extorted my mom!"
The man frowned, pulling a video camera out of his jacket before also pulling out a metal pipe. "Wanna know what I did? I set up cameras in the bathrooms where me and your father worked, and I didn't discriminate. If you're not gonna give me your money, how about we do something else?" He now gave off a smile that sent chills down Masaya's spine.
Masaya, now deeply disgusted, replied to him, "Are you suggesting I... What?! I'm a teenager, and my body's only for my girlfriend, not some creep that's like three times my age!" He grabbed a wooden baseball bat nearby and held it up to defend himself.
"You're being too feisty," the man commented in a rather creepy tone. "Maybe I can knock you out, take your money, and get some good video."
"Never," Masaya yelled back at him. "Get that camera away from me, you psycho!"
"You say your body is only for your girlfriend, huh?" The man zoomed in on him through the camera. "Have you two even done anything of the sort?" Masaya paused, not willing to answer the question, implying a no, which was the truth. "I thought so."
"What me and Ichigo do and when we decide we're comfortable enough to do those things is none of your business," he growled at the would-be mugger. "I hate fighting other people, but by God, I will bring down upon you rage and fury you've never seen before if you try to touch me or hurt my friends and family! I mean it!"
Then, out of nowhere, the door opened up once again, this time revealing Ichigo, who burst into the room carrying the Strawberry Bell. "Masaya!" She then whacked the mugger across the face with her weapon, but was then punched across the face by the mugger, knocking her out.
As he did, Masaya charged and hit him with the baseball bat on his arm. However, before he could get another swing in, the mugger screamed, "Go to sleep!" He then knocked Masaya out with a blow to the head with the metal pipe, knocking him to the ground below. He then closed the doors of the room again, making sure nobody saw them, before turning back around. "Well, well, looks like I have two bodies for the price of one..." He first zoomed in on several parts of Ichigo's body before putting the camera down to ruffle through Masaya's pockets.
Then, a voice interrupted him. "I wouldn't touch him if I were you," declared Dark Ichigo as she stood up, having taken control of Ichigo at that very moment.
"What?! How did you get up so fast?!" The mugger was in shock, not knowing about the presence of the two Ichigo's.
"I have my ways," Dark Ichigo boasted. "Now, you're gonna play a little game with me to decide what happens next..."
...
Back on the field, it was now Bandit Keith's turn. "I draw! I summon Ground Attack Bugroth, with 1500 attack! I then equip it with 7 Completed, and I choose attack, boosting its attack power to 2200! Now, Bugroth, attack Harpie Lady!" The machine-type monster fired two laser beams at Harpie Lady, obliterating it with ease.
MAI: 3100
KEITH: 4000
"I end my turn," Bandit Keith said. "I suggest you get some stronger monsters soon, Mai."
"Don't worry," Mai reassured both him and herself. "I will! I draw!" She then looked over her cards as the effect of Battle Sphere kicked in, destroying Harpie Lady Sisters and inflicting 1950 damage to her life points.
MAI: 1150
KEITH: 4000
"Alright," she declared. "I summon Amazoness Swords Woman, with 1500 attack! I then set a card! Now, Swords Woman, attack his Bugroth!"
Upon the declaration of the attack, Bandit Keith laughed. "Really? You're going to destroy your own monster like that?!"
"You must have forgotten its effect," Mai corrected him. "Though it may be destroyed, I'm not the one taking battle damage. You are!" Indeed, once Swords Woman was destroyed, it was Bandit Keith's life points that fell.
MAI: 1150
KEITH: 3300
"I set my Dunames Dark Witch into defense position and end my turn," Mai concluded her turn with. "Just wait, Bandit Keith!"
