(A/N: Yes I said I wasn't going to write any more ZeXal fanfiction but that hasn't stopped me from breaking my promises before.)
The sleek form, red with bespoke blue spokes, sat in the driveway of the Tsukumo home. A glittering bow rested on the bell attached to its handles.
Yuma left his house in the morning to see the unfamiliar thing. "What is this, Astral?" he asked the shimmering blue alien at his side. "Is this from Astral World?"
"It has a high quantity of Chaos," Astral observed. "It looks more like a human invention."
Yuma gazed quizzically at the vehicle of sorts. "Are you sure?"
Tori whizzed down the street riding a similar metal form, hers a verdant hue with a plastic pink horn on the front. "Hey Yuma!" she called. "Aren't these fun?"
"What are they, Tori?" Yuma mounted the cold beast the same way he saw Tori riding it. He did not find it most comfortable; the seat's shape confounded him, and the rubber of the handlebars ahead of him felt sticky in his hands.
"It's a bicycle!" Tori swooped back on the bike and rode circles around Yuma.
"Observation," Astral muttered to himself, "Yuma is having an incredibly out of touch Thursday."
Yuma peddled the bike ahead, but it tipped slightly. "How do you make it stay up?"
Tori stopped her bike and dismounted it. "You just keep your balance, like this." She got on the bike again and continued to ride around Yuma.
"Like this?" Yuma tried to do as he witnessed Tori achieve, but struggled. His bicycle tipped, and were it not for the two training wheels on the side, he would have fallen to the ground.
This ground rumbled.
"Look out!" Tori warned.
Yuma raced forwards on his bike, finally getting the hang of its motion. "Can we name these bicycles?"
Astral frowned. "You would name the bicycle?"
"Yeah," Yuma said. "Something like Kattobingu."
Tori laughed. "You're so silly. Yuma."
The rumbling on the road grew closer. "Hey idiots," a raspy voice snarled. "What are those things you have there?"
Yuma craned his neck to see Shark on his peculiar shark bike, the burgundy form tearing through the brightness of the city. He made the connection in his mind between their rides, and realised that his new bicycle was almost in the same genre of vehicles as Shark's iconic and much beloathed traffic disrupter.
Shark stopped his bike just shy of Yuma's, the pointed front nearly scratching the paint on Yuma's Kattobingu.
"Look, Shark! I have a bike now, too."
Shark sneered. "You call that a bike?" He stepped down and inspected Kattobingu. "It must be easy on the gas."
"Do you like it?"
"I'm having that." Shark grinned menacingly.
"That's not yours," Astral scolded.
Shark tried to shove Yuma off of the bike. "Meet me in front of the school. We'll race for the bicycle bell."
"The bell?" Tori asked.
"You know you can't have a bike without the bell. Whoever has the bell has the bike."
Shark returned to his own bike and drove off, leaving a whiff of air-polluting exhaust for Yuma, Astral, and Tori.
"I don't want to lose my Kattobingu!" Yuma wailed.
"Don't let him defeat you, Yuma," Tori encouraged.
"I worry for you," Astral sighed. "His vehicle is a lot faster and stronger than yours."
"What can we do? I can't give up that easily." Yuma stared down at the ground.
"We won't give up," Astral reassured him. "We'll do our best."
Yuma rode his bike to school, alongside Tori on hers. The morning passed fretfully, and by lunch, Yuma met Shark in front of the building.
"Ready to get your loss handed to you?" Shark laughed.
"I'm not going to lose, because I have Kattobingu," Yuma declared.
Dextra stood by a line drawn in sidewalk chalk, both amusement and irritation on her face as she held two Yu-Gi-Oh! cards. Yuma pedalled over to the starting line, and Shark pulled his bike ahead, revving the engine as loud as he could.
"Start," Dextra instructed, waving the cards like flags, and both Yuma and Shark pushed past the chalk line on their bikes.
Shark took a swift lead, leaving Yuma behind in his exhaust. Yuma pedalled like his life depended on it (and really, it could have) to try to surpass his opponent. "I can't lose my Kattobingu," he repeated to himself. Astral pushed the bike from behind, eager to help his bestie.
He caught up to Shark, who grimaced and veered over to the side, nearly knocking Yuma's Kattobingu off of the road.
"That's not very nice," Yuma chided.
Tori sat on a bank, watching the race. "Yuma!" she called in her usual style.
Yuma pedalled faster, but his legs grew tired, and Kattobingu had already taken quite a hit from Shark's hefty motor vehicle. His breath grew heavy and his legs ached.
Shark slowed his pace to try to knock Yuma off of the path again, but his bike ran on mere fumes, and he slowed to a graceless halt. He cursed beneath his breath and hit the gas pedal as hard as possible.
The finish line up ahead, both Yuma and Shark put the hustle on. A wooden ramp lay in their way.
"Do you think we can make it over that?" Yuma asked.
"It looks probable," Astral determined.
"We have to try."
Yuma raced over to the small ramp and propelled himself up. Shark tried to follow, but his bike did not have enough gas to sent him any further than halfway up the ramp effectively. The shark bike tipped over and crashed onto the pavement.
Yuma did not notice the sound of Shark's crash, for he was too invested in reaching his goal of getting to the finish line. He had three meters, two meters, one meter…
Kattobingu crossed the finish line, and Yuma slowed the bike, adrenaline and relief rushing through him. "We did it, Astral," he cheered.
"Indeed."
Yuma glanced back to see Shark on the ground being pulled out of the wreckage by Kite. The shark bike had not sustained much damage, but Shark had hit his head.
"Are you okay?" Yuma approached Shark. "Did you get hurt?"
"I'm fine," Shark grumbled. "You can keep your bike, I didn't want it anyway."
And keep his bike he did.