Not even a day out of prison, Yuma was absolutely ready to throw himself back into dueling. His fingers itched to draw his frozen cards again. The deck grew cold in Sector Security's storage but by the time Yuma grabbed it, the cards were warm within his hand once again.

His Duel Runner still needed some fixing to properly run so Yuma signed himself up for a ground tournament hosted within the Top central area. Not that it mattered, a duel is a duel.

Yuma laughed, freely, as he rushed headlong into the game. Opponent after opoments, Yuma took them all on with the same enthusiasm. Win or lose, nothing could stop Yuma's joy.

Not even this man dressed as a knight.

"Now Masked Knight Level the 5th, strike down this knave!"

"You wish. Trap activate! Ice Barrier! Not only does your monster ATK turn to 0, its effect is now gone!" As the armored monster crossover to Yuma's field, ice began to cover every inch of the metal and slowed the monster down to a stop.

The Knight huffed. "I shall yield with a facedown."

"My turn then! Kattobingu! I'll start by Banishing my Ice Barrier from my Graveyard which allows me to send my level 6 Dai-sojo of the Ice Barrier to the grave in exchange for bringing this special little fella. Join the field Sprites of the Ice Barrier!"

A flutter of translucent glowing fairies swarmed the field with the long ears standing high, their blob-like bodies glowed blue even in the bright sunlight. "When Spites are summon I get to add an Ice Barrier spell or trap and I can't think of a more fitting card than Magic Triangle of the Ice Barrier! Hope that face-down isn't important!"

Revealing his Speaker for the Ice Barrier, Scout of the Ice Barrier, Necromancer of the Ice Barrier within his hand, a phantom mirage of those three monsters joined hands and sent a ice spear through the field, hitting the mysterious face-down.

"And I'm not done yet, because by revealing one Ice Barrier from my hand I can special summon Scout of the Ice Barrier! And three's a crowd so why don't you come on out Speaker of the Ice Barrier." A smile etched onto Yuma's face. A level 1 Sprite, level 4 Speaker and Scout were here. It was time for the main actor to emerge.

"Inevitable calamity! Spread your wings and shroud this world with eternal winter! Synchro summon! Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier!"

For the first time in weeks Trishula was set free. With a mighty roar, the white dragon let loose phantom winds blowing away Yuma's opponent's cards. Trishula twisted and turned in the air, seemingly enjoying the open air before landing onto Yuma's field. "Ready, Trishula?"

A happy roar answered him.

In another part of the city, the gray-haired man watched with curious interest at the three headed dragon while the eccentric scientist beside him babbled about energy levels.

"Lazar, it seems we've found the 8th contestant for the Fortune Cup."

(-.-)

The tips Yusei gave him worked like wonders. Since Yuma was allowed to Turbo Duel in the Fortune Cup it was very important that his ride was't smoking every 2 seconds. Still there is one isty bitsy problem with his Duel Runner.

Later into the night, with the moon hanging high in the sky. Yuma dragged his Duel Runner toward Blister's hideout to pick up his goods.

Stopping at the apartment, he knocked on the door. "Blister? "

Through the thick metal, Yuma could pick up the sound of gears clicking together along with energetic pop?

Yuma knocked again, louder and more forceful. "Blister!"

He knocked until his hand began to hurt before the hacker appeared to hear him. Clicks of locks echoed and slowly the door opened.

"Yusei?" Yuma's eyes widened in surprise when he saw who it was that opened the door. "What are you doing here?"

"Yuma? What are YOU doing here?" Yusei asked in return.

In their surprise, they both missed Blister in the background. Rubbing his temple and mumbling something about 'trouble child'.

(-.-)

Yusei hands moved over the wires and bolts at a speed that Yuma could not keep up with, switching between all the tools on the table side without looking. All the while, he talked on and on about all the way the engine works like it was some nursery rhymes. Yuma could not understand a word of it, mechanics had always been more of Tetsuo's thing than Yuma's, still it was nice listening to Yusei. For once Yuma was allowed to see Yusei's shoulders relax.

"I'm sorry. This must be boring for you." Yusei said once he realized that maybe some of the stuff he was discussing was going over Yuma's head.

"It's not boring! But," Yuma smiled sheepishly. " Could you explain how the distributor works again?"

(-.-)

There was a giant black dragon terrorized the Daimon Area and Yuma…..Well

He didn't bat an eye.

The black and red dragon roared, its vine whipping wildly tearing through the cement ground. Behind it stood its master, a cloaked woman with a white mask covering her face and red hair peeking out of her hood. She screamed something about a mark before ordering her dragon to attack Yusei in front of her. Yuma tackled the older boy before the thorny vines could hit him and they tumbled to the ground.

"You okay?" He asked Yusei.

The man nodded. Before a word could escape him, Yuma already dusted himself off the ground and turned to the Black Rose Witch. "Hey, lady, if you're only here to make a mess of the area then I suggest you leave. This place is already wrecked as it is, we don't need you to make it worse."

He readied his duel disk preparing for a fight when wind began to swirl around the Black Rose Witch. In a great flash of light, the Witch vanished leaving only rubbles behind.

" We've found her." One of the boys that Yusei knew said. "We've found the Black Rose Witch."

"Still as reckless as ever, brat." Tanner commented as the rest of the adults caught up to them.

Yuma just shrugged, Black Rose Dragon was vicious but it pales in comparison to Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon. "She doesn't scare me. She's just angry."

Like Anna during WDC with the whole name misunderstanding.

(-.-)

Leo and Luna, it was hard to tell them apart. Especially when Leo was dressing up as Luna. They were fun to talk though, at least Leo was. Yuma wasn't able to spend much time with Luna before he had to go.

"Woah, look at all those people!" Leo gasped as the platform they stood on raised up to the stadium.

Yuma tucked at Leo's sleeves. " And look over there! It's Archfiend Dragon!"

Together they gushed over the Wheel of Fortune as Jack Atlas himself circled the track, his ace monster flew alongside him. Yuma was so happy he could barely stand still.

" The always mysterious Sheri, the great Greiger, The Professor, lovely miss Akiza, ice prince Yuma, little miss Luna and Yusei Fudo!"

Immediately the cheering crowd turned ugly, yelling for Yusei to get lost amongst numerous terrible things. Yuma wanted to do something but Greiger beat him to it. It didn't matter much, Greiger at least was able to convince people to give Yusei a chance.

Goodwin's words were nice but even Yuma would tell they were fake. What was the point of creating a leveled playing field if you just were going to force people into participating?

Yuma was set against the Professor, the third match of the day. The guy looked normal enough but the smile he shot at Yuma was creepy. Leo himself got to duel first against Greiger. How lucky.

(-.-)

There were stars in Leo's eyes when Yuma showed him his own Duel Runner. "No fair, how come you get to Turbo Duel?"

"I went to jail." Was the explanation he offered. They talked more about Jack Atlas, about Yusei and would have moved to the discussion of the tournament itself when Leo was called to the field.

" Break a leg!" Yuma yelled after him.

"Don't worry, I'm gonna win this!"

Leo didn't. In the end Greiger's reactors burned off his last life points. Yuma winced when the last attack landed, decks like Greiger were always hard to face. It didn't help that the man cornered Leo before finishing him off.

At least he didn't pull any punches, that would have been insulting.

On the way to meet up with Leo, hopefully to cheer up his new friend Yuma passed by one of the contestants in the hallway. What was her name again? Aki something? Yuma swore they've met before.

"Good luck!" He told her with a smile regardless before dashing off.

(-.-)

Black petals filled the stadium in a violent whirlwind and Yuma could feel Akiza's pain deep within his skin. Grunting in unison with Yusei, Yuma rubbed his burning hand. For a second he spotted the red dragon again.

(-.-)

Left, right, left, right, left, right.

"That's it, dear boy. Relax into the swing of Hypno Trinket and show me your dragon." The smooth voice flows through his ears.

Slowly, Yuma let his heavy eyes rest. It was like he was laying within a stream of water, every burden that was weighing him down was gone. All he could do was relax and let the water slowly push him around.

Chaos erupted from the pit of his stomach. Echoing the coldness that suddenly overtaken him. Yuma blinked and looked right past Hypno Trinket. " I activate the trap card Terror of Trishula. Since I have Dewloren on my field I get to banish Hypno Trinket!"

The Professor stepped back in shock but recomprosed himself. " Very well, I tribute my face-down monster to call forth Symmetry Klecksography ! Symmetry Klecksography attack Dewloren!"

The ice tiger stood up to the hit valiantly but in the end it was destroyed by the giant butterfly.

Yuma winced when his LP dropped to 50. "My turn! Kattobingu !"

Glittering gold dust entered Yuma's field of vision and he knew he had performed a Shining Draw. 3000 ATK was a huge wall to run through, not impossible though. " I activate the spell Frozen Vines of Ice Barrier! This card allows me to bring back the level 6 Dewloren, Tiger King of the Ice Barrier. Dewloren can't declare an attack when summoned this way. But that's okay because I'm not planning to use him to attack."

"Unfortunately I can not allow you to use his effect either. Chaotic Water trap! All water monsters on the field cannot activate their effect!"

The Tiger King merely grunted at the black liquid underneath his paws, he gave Yuma an expected look.

"You call that chaos? I'll show you true Chaos!" Yuma smirked. "That trap's not going to stop my Spell!"

Surface brought back the level 1 Hexa.

"Or the monster in my hand!"

With two 'Ice Barrier' on the field, the level 3 Scarlet Star of the Ice Barrier special summoned itself onto the field. With two tuners and enough levels to go around Yuma flipped back to perform his summonings.

" I tune my little Hexa and the brave Dewloren in order to Synchro summon! The unstoppable spear that brings forth an undying cold! Gungnir, Dragon of the Ice Barrier!"

Gungnir slammed down to the field, splashing the holographic water everywhere. Steam escaped its mouth as it eyed the Professor.

"Now this is where I show you Gungnir's supper cool ability but Chaotic Water isn't making it easy. So I think I'll synchro summon again! Star, why don't you give Gungnir a hand?"

A young boy, his face covered by a red fluffy hood, extended his hand to Gungnir. The dragon lowered its head allowing him to pet it. " Imbued with the will of a burning star, rise again great spear of calamity and shoot for a new dawn! Gungnir, Chaos Dragon of the Ice Barrier!"

Gungnir came back with blackened wings, imbedded with tiny sparkling red gems. Its claw, once white now blood red, dug into the field as it landed in front of Yuma's protectively. "Since you want to see my dragon so bad, I'll show you Gungnir at its best. So I'll use Power of the Ice Barrier Unleash! I can banish as many 'Ice Barrier' Synchro monsters from my GY and then banish that amount of cards."

The professor gasped as Symmetry Klecksography and Chaotic Water froze off before blowing away as tiny snowflakes. With the field clear, Gungnir's new and improved 2800 ATK were enough to push Yuma forward in an icy victory.

"Verglas Barrage!" He declared.

(-.-)

The star dragon came back again (and again and again and again) in a ruined city.

Evil once sealed rose to the darkened sky around him. Hell fire raged across cracked earth.

There was snow underneath his feet and Yuma understood. "Okay."

The crimson star nodded and burned its scale into his arm.

(-.-)

On some level Yuma could imagine how lonely Akiza must feel, how hurt she must be when everyone sneered and jeered at her. She was hurting and simply lashing out.

"I'm going to enjoy watching my monster bloom and bleed your LP dry." She told him coldly. "Rose Tentacle attack."

Yuma let the vines twist around him for every Ivy Token and eventually slamming him down onto the ground. Smokes filled the dueling field but Yuma's field spell made sure that Akiza' power didn't reach the rest of the stadium.

"Look at you, hopeless and alone! No one can help you and no one wants to! No- "

" It hurts doesn't it? Being alone." Yuma walked out of the dust, chaos healed most of his wounds. " No matter what you do, people just always seem to want to put you down. Talking behind your back, telling you that you'll never amount to anything. Tearing your hopes and dreams down just because they don't understand. But it isn't hopeless, Akiza because…"

2000 LP this early in a duel was actually pretty good in Yuma's standard. Lashing out or not, as a duelist Yuma has to take this duel with 110% seriousness. Akiza was wrapin the madness of her pain and Yuma is going to do anything to help. "I've decided to be your friend!"

"Friend? Who said I want a friend?!" Akiza yelled as her mark glowed. "You don't understand anything! You don't know what I've been through!"

"I don't." Yuma admitted. "But I know what it's like to be lonely and that's enough reason for me to want to be your friend. And I'll prove it with this duel! Trap activate, Aid of the Ice Barrier! I can special summon as many 'Ice Barrier' monsters from my deck whose total ATK is lesser or equal to the amount of damage I took this turn!"

Three flashes of light shot into his field. Blizzed, Cryomancer and Warlock form a wall of defense in front of Yuma. As Akiza's turn ended properly, Yuma flipped back as he drew for turn. "Alright! Let's get everything started with a synchro summon! By tuning Warlock and Blizzed, Cryomancer can work with the two of them to call upon an even greater monster! Noble creature born from promises forged in ice and snow, join me on this battlefield! Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier!"

He sent Rose Tentacle back to Akiza's hand using Brionac at the cost of Sprites. Of course, it would be insulting to not attack her, so he made Akiza's LP to drop to 1700. He ended his turn with a few set card. "I'm ready Akiza! So show me everything you've got."

"You asked for this!" Predictably, Akiza called out Black Rose Dragon to only let it self-destruct. Black rose cut through nearly all the cards on the field but its path of destruction was contained within the dueling field much to everyone's confusion.

"What?" Akiza gasped once she took note of the pristine glass cover and how her range of powers appeared to be limited.

"I activate the second effect of Ice Barrier Domain. When my synchro summoned monster is destroyed by my opponent's card effect, I can banish it instead and special summon back all of its material from my graveyard!"

It strained Yuma to keep Akiza's power from hurting the watchers but as he pants and stood up to face the newly resummoned Black Rose Dragon. He knew it would be worth it.

Then a blood red symbol carved its way into his skin.

(-.-)

"Why are you trying to help me, Yuma?"

"Because when you duel someone, their truest self comes out."

"And what do you see? The scared girl? The face behind the mask?"

"I see someone who's living a lie. You don't enjoy hurting people, you think you have no other path than taking pleasure in hurting people. You think that hate and anger that all you have when you're capable of so much more."

" What? All I am good at is destruction."

"You're a caring person, Akiza."

"?"

"Like I said, you really get to know someone when you duel them. Everytime Black Rose Dragon is destroyed, you always have this look of worry on your face. But she's not the only one you cared for, I know you care for the rest of your deck as much as they care for you."