As Ichigo ran around the inner rooms of the stadium, looking for Ryou and Retasu, a sinking feeling of dread grew inside her. After all, they should have not taken anywhere near as long as they had, whatever it is they were doing. The idea that something very bad had happened to them was now all but certain. As she rounded a corner, she was suddenly grabbed by a man in a dark cloak behind her, who yanked her back. "Hey! Let go of me!"

"Are you looking for your friends?" The man had a very sinister tone to his voice, which unsettled Ichigo.

Ichigo demanded of him, "How did you know?!"

"Are you or are you not? Answer me!"

"I am," Ichigo spat back. "Get the hell out of my way before I push you out of it!" Anger filled her eyes as she stared him down.

"Master Deep Blue sent me to find you about that," the man replied as he revealed a duel disk and Ichigo realized he was a Ghoul. "Midorikawa Retasu and Shirogane Ryou are under his possession now. You can have them back if he gets defeated, which of course assumes he can be."

"What?!" Ichigo was horrified by the news, her body trembling. "Under his possession... He kidnapped them?! No!" Her pendant then glowed once more as the normal Ichigo lost control and gave way to Dark Ichigo again.

"I see you've revealed yourself," the Ghoul replied.

"I'm going to crush you like an insect," Dark Ichigo threatened him with. "And you can tell your master I'm gonna do the same to him when I face him if you're still alive when this duel is over!" The two then readied their duel disks. "You're gonna tell me how to get them back if I win. You got that?!"

"Sure thing," the Ghoul replied. In reality, he had no idea how to answer to her demand. "You're barking up the wrong tree, girl," he thought to himself. "I don't know where they are, but I'll be sure to give you a run for your money anyway!"

"I'll go first," Dark Ichigo declared as she drew a card. "I summon Elemental HERO Prisma, and I also activate its effect by revealing Elemental HERO Flame Wingman from my extra deck." She then popped open the deck holder attached to her garter belt and revealed the aforementioned monster to him. "I then change the name of Prisma to Elemental HERO Avian. I then activate Polymerization, and I send Elemental HERO Burstinatrix from my hand to my graveyard alongside Prisma to Fusion Summon Flame Wingman to the field!" As Flame Wingman entered the field, she then set one final card. "I then set a card to end my turn."

"An impressive start," the Ghoul replied as he drew a card. "But don't get your hopes up." As he selected a card from his hand, he thought to himself, "This will convince Master Deep Blue to give me more missions and a more important role! I'm sure of it!" He then placed a card onto his duel disk and declared, "I summon Freezing Beast, with 1500 attack! I then activate Summon Dice, paying 1000 life points to activate its effect!"

GHOUL: 3000

DARK ICHIGO: 4000

As the Ghoul rolled his dice, he watched in anticipation. When it landed on two, he happily declared, "Since I rolled a two, I get to Normal Summon a monster again, and I summon Burning Beast, with 1500 attack! I then activate its Union effect and equip it to Freezing Beast! Now, whenever Freezing Beast inflicts battle damage to you, I also get to destroy a Magic or Trap Card you control!"

"But your monster is still weaker," Dark Ichigo pointed out. "How are you gonna get around that?"

"Perhaps you shouldn't have opened your mouth," the Ghoul replied in a confident tone. "I also activate Book of Moon, and set your Flame Wingman face-down on the field!"

"Crap," Dark Ichigo muttered to herself as she set Flame Wingman face-down on her duel disk. "That opens me right up!"

"Freezing Beast, attack!" Freezing Beast then took a swipe at the face-down card on Dark Ichigo's side of the field were Flame Wingman had once stood, destroying it and wiping out her field.

"Reverse Card Open!" The set card Dark Ichigo had then revealed itself to the Ghoul. "Hero Signal! I summon Elemental HERO Stratos to the field, and then I activate its effect to add Vision HERO Vyon to my hand!" After she placed Stratos on the field and Vyon in her hand, she told the Ghoul. "Now I'm ahead of you!"

"We'll see about that. I end my turn."

"My turn," Dark Ichigo declared as she drew a card. "I summon Vision HERO Vyon to my side of the field! I then send Elemental HERO Necroshade from my deck to my graveyard. Now, you may be wondering why I'd send a card to my graveyard on my own. Well, here's why!" She then removed Necroshade from her graveyard and placed it back in her deck box. "I remove Necroshade from play to add another Polymerization to my hand from my deck! Now, I use Polymerization to fuse Stratos and Vyon together to form Vision HERO Adoration!" As Adoration emerged onto the field, it towered over Freezing Beast. "Now, attack his Freezing Beast!" When Adoration took a powerful swing at Freezing Beast, it instead hit Burning Beast due to its Union effect.

GHOUL: 1800

DARK ICHIGO: 4000

The Ghoul looked over his options as he drew a card to begin his turn. "I switch Burning Beast to Defense Position and summon Big Shield Gardna in Defense Position as well. I then set another card and end my turn."

"On my turn," Dark Ichigo began after drawing a card. "I summon Elemental HERO Lady Heat. Now you'll lose 400 life points every time I end my turn, and that number will go up by another 200 for every Elemental HERO monster I control. Now, Elemental HERO Lady Heat, attack Burning Beast, and Vision HERO Adoration, attack Big Shield Gardna!" Both monsters were quickly destroyed and wiped off of the field.

However, the Ghoul had a backup plan. "Reverse Card Open! Just Desserts! Now you lose 500 life points for every monster you control!"

GHOUL: 1800

DARK ICHIGO: 3000

"No matter," Dark Ichigo replied. "I still have the advantage over you. I end my turn, and you lose 400 life points."

GHOUL: 1400

DARK ICHIGO: 3000

As soon as his life points hit 1400, the Ghoul suddenly collapsed onto the floor. "What the Hell?" Dark Ichigo was confused for several seconds before she began to feel a dark presence around her. "This isn't right. I feel like someone else has entered this duel between us." She thought to herself, "What's giving off this feeling? Or... Who is giving off this feeling? Whoever it is possesses dark powers like I do."

As a dark cloud suddenly surrounded her and the now-unconscious Ghoul, she heard Deep Blue's voice coming from the Ghoul. "Looks like this incompetent fool and his stupid Union deck are doing terribly. I can already foresee his defeat." As the Ghoul, now a puppet controlled by Deep Blue, stood up and faced Dark Ichigo, his eyes lit up with a bright light. "I'm ending this distraction of a duel, Momomiya Ichigo. I already have what I need from you."

"Give me back my friends before I reach my hand through that puppet of yours and beat your ass senseless!"

"You'll have to defeat me in the Finals of Battle City Four," Deep Blue warned her. "But I can already see your demise happening at my hands. I'll be sure to keep whittling down the number of allies you have until then." Deep Blue then laughed before making the Ghoul grab his own head. "Time for this puppet to be disposed of."

To Dark Ichigo's horror, the puppet then snapped its own neck and killed itself in front of her. Ichigo, who watched from beside her other self, screamed in fright as Dark Ichigo muttered to herself, "Holy shit..." As the dark clouds disspated around her to reveal a dead Ghoul in a normal room, she began to feel physically ill and quickly put her cards back into her deck and turned off her duel disk before running into the nearest bathroom. As she flung open a stall door, she finally was no longer able to hold in her disgust, and vomited into a toilet, horrified by what Deep Blue had done to one of his own allies. "That monster," she thought to herself. "That soulless monster! He's just as ruthless and cold-hearted as he was in April!"

Ichigo, who was barely holding back tears alongside her, asked her other self, "Other me, what's gonna happen to Retasu and Ryou?"

"Partner," she told her. "I wish I had an answer."