A Childish Payroll

"Where'd she go?!" A man wondered.

"Find her!" Another man ordered.

A group of men dressed in matching uniforms that were black, white and blue were running through some hallways, apparently looking for someone.

As they searched the place, they passed by a corner, where a small child was hiding. She was a girl with shoulder-length hair that was pink and green eyes. She wearing a worn white sweater, brown skirt and black shoes. She peeked out nervously, noting that they were all gone. And so, she started running down the hallway, fear plastered on her face.

She was about to reach a gate when more of those uniformed men showed up and surrounded her. "Stop right there!"

The girl yelped as the men approached her slowly.

"You're not going anywhere." One of the men said.

The girl trembled as they came closer and closer. And then...

"STAY WAY FROM ME!" She shouted loudly as the men were suddenly pushed back by a powerful shockwave. All of them ended up knocked out as they crashed into the walls. The frightened girl then ran up to the gate and tried to open it. She pulled it as hard as she could. It didn't budge... until her body emanated shockwave after shockwave while the gate started to open up slowly. With a creaky noise, the gate was slightly opened.

"There she is!" The girl turned around and saw more men running in her direction. "Don't let her escape!"

In a panic, the girl got down on all fours and crawled through opening. At that, she ran as fast she could from the building.

'Someone, please! Help me!'


Somewhere, in a dark room, with one single candle being the only light source, a person was sitting quietly on an armchair, seemingly swinging with a sword. A katana to be exact.

Everything was quiet until suddenly, a screen on the left wall lit up, showing the image of a person inside a tube. "Blaze."

The stranger now named Blaze turned to the screen. "What do you want?" He asked with a male voice.

"There's an urgent matter that needs to be dealt with. You see..." The screen showed an image of the pink-haired girl. "This child has psychic abilities, and she's been tested. However, no matter how much we trained her, she couldn't meet up to my expectations. She never learned how to control her powers. And thus, she's a failure."

"What's that got to do with me?"

"We were about to ship her away, but she managed to escape. It would be bad if she told anyone about us. I want you to find her and bring her back to me."

Blaze scoffed. "You expect me to do your dirty work just like that? I'm starting believe you forgot how I do things."

The person in the tube chuckled. "Oh, I never forget, my friend. I know that you're not doing something for others for free. And I'm sure you know that I will gladly pay you real good. But only AFTER you've brought the girl back."

"Very well. Leave it to me." Blaze replied as the screen turned off. He stood up from his armchair and sheathed his katana on his back.


Meanwhile, Cody and Jeremy were walking down the streets in the city. Cody was staring at the box he got from Bobo the Dueling Ape.

"So, what do you think we'll find out this time?" Jeremy wondered.

"Who knows? I just hope that this one can give us more answers than questions." Cody replied, narrowing his eyes.

"Well, I have a feeling that this message will tell us plenty."

"Maybe..."


"Hey! Watch it!"

"Careful!"

In another part of the city, the little girl was running, accidentally bumping into some people in the process. Despite their angry reactions, she was focused to get as far away as possible from... that place.

'I don't want to go back! I don't want to go back there! Help me!' She thought with tears ready to come out from her eyes.

She ran and ran, hardly paying attention to where she was going. She turned and ran into an alley. This particular alley looked really dirty and abandoned. The girl kept running and running as she reached a clearing and...

"Ugh!"

She bumped into someone and fell backwards, landing on her butt.

"Ow..." She groaned.

"What's this?"

She looked up and saw three men in ripped shirts and jeans, wearing bandanas that covered their mouths and red caps, glaring down at her.

The middle one growled. "That hurt, you little runt!"

The girl started to tremble.

"Away from home, little girl?" The guy on the right taunted. "Past the curfew?

The guy in cracked his knuckles and approached her slowly. "Maybe we should teach you some manners."

The girl was shaking terribly while staring at the trio in horror. And then...

"NOOOOOO!"


On the top of a nearby building, a person was standing in place, looking over the city. The person was wearing a trench coat and a fedora. The outfit also included shades and a black scarf that covered their mouth, making it impossible to see their face. What's more about this person was the sword hilt on their back, and the duel disk strapped on their left arm.

They stood there in silence, until they saw some trashcans flying around. "There you are." Blaze muttered and jumped from one building to the next.


"Huh?" Cody stopped and looked up.

"What's wrong?" Jeremy asked in confusion.

"Look!"

Jeremy followed his finger and saw flying trashcans. "What in the world is that?"

Cody didn't say anything. He simply ran towards the commotion.

"Cody, wait!" Jeremy called out while running after him.

But he ignored him, and kept running, focused on the direction of whatever was happening. Eventually, he had turn and enter an alley. As he ran through it...

"NO! Stay away!"

"Ah!" He gasped at the sound of a girl crying out. "Someone's in trouble!" He kept up the pace, intending to reach his destination.

"Gaaah!" He stopped when he saw some guys wearing bandanas and caps running from the opposite direction, and appearing to be frightened for some reason.

"This is crazy!" One of them yelled.

"What kind of freak show is that!?" Another one questioned.

"Let's get out of here!" The third one cried out as they passed by a confused Cody.

"What the...?" He trailed off as an equally confused Jeremy caught up with him.

"What was that all about?"

Cody remained silent for a moment before turning to the direction those guys came from. "One way to find out." And with that, the boys started running again.

After a while, they came to an area that was completely surrounded by the walls of buildings, with no way out other than the alley they ran through. However...

"What?" Cody muttered in disbelief. "What is is this?"

And the reason to the way he was feeling... was because of the countless pieces of trash and pebbles floating around here.

"What in blazes?" Jeremy said, completely shocked.

"Stay away from me!"

The boys turned and saw two people nearby. One of them was a pink-haired girl with green eyes filled with tears as he was whimpering and cowering at the corner. The other person standing in front of her was a person wearing a trench coat and a fedora and had a duel disk on their left arm for some reason.

But the one thing of this person that caught Cody's attention was the katana in their right hand. He gave the stranger a glare and stepped forward. "Hey!"

The stranger merely turned to him, allowing him to notice the shades and scarf that covered their face. While he couldn't see his expression, he let out a hmph. "More pests in here? Just get out of here, punk." He said evenly.

"And let you come after an innocent girl? I don't care what your deal with her is, but I won't let you have it your way!" Cody rushed towards him.

"Fool." Blaze muttered and swung his katana downward... sending out an arc of flames!

"Whoa!" Cody exclaimed as he barely dodged that.

"What?! What the hell just happened?!" Jeremy shouted, not believing what he saw.

"There's more where that came from." Blaze said as he kept swinging his blade, sending more flaming arcs at Cody.

"Argh!" He was forced to keep dodging from those attacks. It looked like this was about to keep going on. "Agh!" Until he accidentally tripped and fell on the ground.

"Got you!" Blaze was about to strike again.

"Oh no, you don't!" Jeremy shouted and tackled him.

"Ooff!" Blaze stumbled.

Jeremy didn't stop there. He followed it up with a kick that sent the katana flying out of Blaze's grip. He then quickly rushed over and grabbed it. "Ha!" He turned to the man. "Not so tough without your fire sword, huh?"

Blaze just stood there, staring at him for a while. And then... "Hmph!" He raised his left hand and fired off a fireball.

"Yikes!" Jeremy cried out as he barely dodged it.

Blaze then waved his arms, allowing more flames to appear. He then moved his hands like he was drawing a circle. And when he did, the flames lined up and circled around himself, cutting Jeremy off.

"Idiot." Blaze muttered. He then turned around and faced the little girl, who was still sitting near the corner, trembling in fear. He began walking towards her slowly.

The girl looked around, hoping to find a way out. But the flames blocked her view from the rest of the area. She could only watch as the man approached her. Her body shivered by cold fear. 'No, please! Don't take me back there!' She closed her eyes. 'Please, help me!'

"Don't come any closer!"

Upon hearing that voice, she opened her eyes slowly and looked up to see Cody standing between her and Blaze, holding his arms stretched out protectively.

"I won't let you lay a finger on her!" Cody said fiercely.

"Step aside, pest." Blaze said darkly.

"Make me."

The fire manipulating man went silent. 'I could use my flames to burn him. But, he's so protective towards the girl that she's too close to him. I might accidentally hurt her, and the master wants me to bring her back so he could ship her away. In that case...'
"If that's how it's gonna be, well then..." Blaze turned around and took a few steps before facing him again. "Then you're forcing me to use my most... professional method." He then raised his left arm and activated his duel disk.

"A duel?" Cody raised an eyebrow. "Fine, let's go!"

"Uhh." The girl stared at him with a mix of confusion and worry in her eyes.

He then turned to her and gave her a soft smile. "Don't worry. I won't let him hurt you."

"Huh?" The girl blinked.

He then turned to his opponent and activated his own duel disk. "Time to duel!" He drew his opening hand.

"Let's get this started." Blaze followed suit.

Cody: 4000

Blaze: 4000

"The first move is mine." Blaze drew his sixth card. "I summon Shiranui Spectralsword in defense mode." A translucent, purple haired samurai in garb with some armor appeared, wielding a blade. (ATK: 800 DEF: 0 LV: 2) "Then I'll place one card facedown and end my turn." A card appeared near his feet.

"Okay then, my turn!" Cody drew. "First I activate the spell card, Herculean Power!" The named spell card appeared. "Now, once per turn, when you have a monster on the field and I don't, I can summon a level 4 or below Gemini monster from my hand. And I choose Lucky Pied Piper!" A green-clad fairy with a brown hat holding a flute appeared. (ATK: 1500 DEF: 500 LV: 4) "And for my normal summoning, I gemini summon Lucky Pied Piper." The fairy glowed white.

"Hm?" Blaze hummed at that.

"Now attack his Spectralsword!" The fairy started to play the flute. And right after the melody was heard, it released a powerful sound wave.

"I activate the trap card, Backfire!" Blaze's facedown card flipped up. "With this in play, you'll take 500 points of damage whenever one of my fire attribute monsters is destroyed."

Cody gasped as the samurai was overwhelmed by the sound wave and then exploded. Right after that, Blaze's trap card shot out a fireball. It hit right at Cody and exploded. "AAAAHH!" He cried out in pain as he was burned and fell down to his knees.

Cody: 4000-3500

The girl looked at him worriedly as he winced and groaned.

'What the hell? That fireball really hurt. It felt as hot as the flames surrounding us.' Cody thought as he noticed the soot on his hand. 'How could he make this feel so real?'

"What's wrong?" Blaze spoke up, snapping him out of his stupor. "Afraid of getting burned? Why don't you just give up and step aside. My business with the girl has nothing to do with you."

Cody narrowed his eyes and stood up. "Not a chance! I won't give up that easily! Especially since now Lucky Pied Pier's effect activates. Every time he destroys a monster and sends it to the graveyard, I get to draw one card from my deck." He drew. "Then I'll place two cards facedown and end my turn." Two cards appeared near his feet.

"My turn then." Blaze drew. "And I'll start by activating the spell card, Shuffle Reborn. Since I have no monsters on the field, I can summon 1 monster back from my graveyard and negate its effects. So rise once more, Shiranui Spectralsword!" The translucent samurai appeared again. (ATK: 800 DEF: 0 LV: 2) "Next I summon Shiranui Swordmaster in attack mode!" Another samurai with a blade appeared. This one was an old man with relatively long, grey hair, wearing simple Japanese clothing. (ATK: 600 DEF: 0 LV: 2) "Then I activate the spell card, Star Changer. With this card, I can change a monster's level by either increase or reduce it by 1. And I choose to increase Spectralsword's level." Two stars appeared above the translucent samurai before a third one appeared as well. (LV: 2-3) "And now, Spectralsword, tune with the Swordmaster!" The two samurais jumped up in the air.

'A synchro summon!' Cody thought and glanced at one of his facedown cards. 'If it's a monster with over 2000 attack points, I can use my Void Trap Hole to destroy it.'

"Spirits of the unknown flames, join together and create a force from the great beyond." Spectralsword's body turned into three rings of green light and surrounded the older samurai. His body became transparent and revealed two stars. The lined up and created a beam of light. "I synchro summon Shiranui Swordsaga!" And from the light... the older samurai appeared again, with his sword at hand. However, as he made a battle stance, the spirit of Spectralsword appeared behind him. (ATK: 1900 DEF: 0 LV: 5)

Cody gritted his teeth. '1900 attack points. That makes my Void Trap Hole useless.'

"Next I activate the spell card, Soul Release!" Blaze continued and held up his spell card. "With this, I can remove up to 5 cards in our graveyards from play. But I actually only remove one card, and that's Shiranui Swordmaster." He reached for his graveyard slot.

Cody narrowed his eyes. "I don't know why you would do that, but I don't like it! So I activate Gemini Counter!" One of his facedown cards flipped up. "This lets me negate the activation of your spell card and destroy it. But before that, I must change my Gemini monster to facedown position." Lucky Pied Piper vanished and was replaced by a facedown card. After that, Blaze's spell card was destroyed.

"Fine. Then I'll just destroy your facedown monster. Swordsaga, attack!" The samurai swung his katana, sending an arc of flames that burned the facedown card down, revealing the piper briefly before he vanished. "I end my turn."

"Then it's my turn!" Cody drew. "And once again, I have no monsters on my field, so now I can use Herculean Power and summon another Gemini monster. So come on out, Goggle Golem!" The goggle wearing stone golem appeared. (ATK: 1500 DEF: 500 LV: 4) "And now I gemini summon him." The golem glowed white. "So now he becomes an effect monster, allowing me to use his ability. From now on, his original attack points become 2100!" (ATK: 1500-2100) "Take down his Swordsaga with Rocky Knuckle!" The stone golem dashed forward and threw a right hook. The samurai tried to block it with his sword, but the punch broke the blade apart, before getting a direct hit on him, shattering him into pixels.

Blaze: 4000-3800

Blaze wasn't fazed. "This is nothing. At least not compared to what you're about to get. After all, you just triggered Backfire's effect, so now you'll take another 500 points of damage!" His trap card shot out another fireball. It headed straight to Cody. When it exploded, Blaze chuckled. "You should know better than play with fire.

The smoke cleared to reveal Cody. "Huh?" To Blaze's confusion, he didn't seem to be harmed from the blast. He then also noticed a winged puffball with peach pink fur flying in front of him. "What is that?"

"It's Hanewata." Cody explained. "I discarded it as soon as I attacked." The puffball vanished. "Thanks to its effect, I'll take no effect damage this turn.

Cody: 3500

"Hmm." Blaze just stared at him.

"I end my turn."

Blaze drew his next card. "First I activate the effect of Shuffle Reborn." The spell card came out of his graveyard slot. "By removing this card in my graveyard from play, I can select one card I control, like Backfire." The trap glowed before vanishing. "I get to shuffle that card into my deck and then draw a new card." His deck was automatically shuffled for a moment before he drew again. "And I just drew the spell card, Mystical Space Typhoon. And I think I'll use it to destroy your facedown card." A whirlwind blew Cody's trap card away.

"My Void Trap Hole!" Cody muttered upset.

"And this is just the beginning. I activate the effect of Spectralsword in my graveyard." The translucent samurai appeared. "By removing it from play, along with another zombie type monster in my graveyard, I can summon out a zombie type synchro monster."

"Say what?!"

At that moment, Swordsaga appeared on the field. And then, both monsters jumped up in the air. "And now, the spirits from the great beyond will join forces and bring out a warrior with greater strength, using the power of the unknown flames." Spectralsword turned into two rings of green light and surrounded Swordsaga, who turned transparent and revealed 5 stars that lined up and created a beam of light. "I synchro summon Shiranui Squiresaga!" The light faded and revealed a woman with brown hair, clad in pink and red, Japanese clothing, and a Japanese spear strapped on her back, wielding a fiery katana. And for a brief moment, the spirit of an armored samurai with white hair tied in a ponytail appeared. (ATK: 2100 DEF: 0 LV: 7)

The girl gasped at this, while Cody started to get nervous. "This is bad."

"It gets worse. Since Swordsaga was removed from play, I get to summon a Shiranui Token to the field." The spirit of the older samurai appeared. (ATK: 0 DEF: 0 LV: 1) "A little precaution in you try something funny. And next I activate Squiresaga's effect. First, I remove one monster on my field or graveyard from play, like my Swordmaster." He took the named card from his graveyard slot and put it away. "And then, I can activate at least one of her three abilities in sequence, depending of what the monster I just removed was. First, since my Swordmaster was a zombie type monster, every monster on my field gains 300 extra attack points." The female warrior glowed with an orange aura. (ATK: 2100-2400)

"No! Now she's stronger than my Golem." Cody muttered.

"And next, since Swordmaster was also a fire attribute monster, I can destroy one spell or trap card on the field. So there goes your Herculean Power." Cody's spell card shattered into pixels. "And with that done, Swordmaster's ability activates."

Cody gasped. 'That's right! He tried to remove that card from play earlier!'

"When he's removed from play, I can select one zombie type monster on my field. From the great beyond, he can share his spiritual energy and increase that monster's attack points by 600 until the end of this turn. And naturally, my choice is Squiresaga." Once again, the female warrior glowed with an orange aura. (ATK: 2400-3000)

"And for my next move, I activate the spell card, Gold Sarcophagus." A golden box with an eye symbol appeared in the air. While it opened itself, Blaze continued. "This lets me take one card from my deck and remove it from play. And after two turns, that card goes to my hand. I think I'll remove Shiranui Spiritmaster." A monster card appeared and went into the golden box. Once it was closed, it vanished.

Cody raised an eyebrow. 'Could he be planning to summon that monster later. If so, then why?'

"By the way... Shiranui Spiritmaster's special ability activates."

Cody's eyes widened. "Come again?" He then saw a priestly looking figure with eyes closed and hands together in prayer appear on the field. The priest muttered something, but Cody could neither hear or understand it. He then noticed a red aura surrounding his Goggle Golem. And then... it exploded. "My Golem! What happened to him?"

"That was Spiritmaster's ability. "Blaze explained as the priest vanished. "As soon as he's removed from play, I can destroy one face-up card on your field. And of course, your Golem was my only option. And that leaves you wide open for a direct attack. Shiranui Swordsaga, attack with Burning Soul Blade!" The female warrior swung her katana, sending an arc of flames.

"AAAAHHH!" Cody cried out as the flames enveloped him.

Cody: 3500-0500

"AAAH! The girl cried out as well as the flames almost hit her.

Cody fell down to his knees again.

"I end my turn." Blaze concluded. "Unless you want to give up, make your move."

Cody struggled to get up.

The girl wasn't sure what to do. She could only watch as Cody tried to stand up. Eventually, she mustered the courage to speak up. "Are... are you... okay?" Her voice was soft and almost quiet.

But Cody heard her and turned to her. He tried to ignore the pain and smiled to her. "Don't worry, I won't let you get hurt." He then faced his opponent and finally got up on his feet. "My turn!" He drew. He glanced at the new card before inserting into his duel disk. "I place one card facedown. And then I'll play a facedown monster in defense mode and end my turn." The two facedown cards appearing on the field made a 'T' formation.


Meanwhile, Jeremy was standing right outside the circle of flames, not able to see what was going in there. "I hope Cody's okay." He muttered worriedly. "Cody! Are you in there!"


"Then it's my turn..." Blaze drew.

"I activate my trap card, Lost Wind!" Cody interrupted and revealed his trap card. "This card lets me select one special summoned monster on the field. That monster loses half its original attack points and its special abilities are negated. I choose your Shiranui Squiresaga!"

"What!?" Blaze exclaimed as a whirlwind surrounded the female warrior for about 8 seconds. She fell down and became weaker. (ATK: 2400-1350) The man hissed. "Then I can't use her ability again." He looked at his new card, and then the other one in his hand. He inserted both of them into his duel disk. "I place two cards facedown and switch Suiresaga to defense mode." The female warrior kneeled down and turned blue. "I end my turn."

"I draw!" Cody looked at his new card and looked at it. He nodded. "First I reveal my facedown monster, Cobra Jar!" His facedown card flipped up and revealed the green cobra peeking out of its blue jar. (ATK. 600 DEF: 300 LV: 2) "And thanks to its flip effect, I get to summon a Poisonous Snake Token." The cobra slithered out of the jar and positioned itself right next to it. (ATK: 1200 DEF: 1200 LV: 3) "Now attack his Squiresaga!" The snake jumped forward.

"I activate the spell card, Burial from a Different Dimension!" One of Blaze's facedown cards flipped up. "Thanks to this, I can select up to three monster cards that are removed from the game and return them to the graveyard. I choose Shiranui Swordsaga, Swordmaster and Spiritmaster." He held up the three named cards before sliding them into his graveyard slot.

"What good would that do?" Cody questioned.

"Plenty, actually. Because this gives me the perfect opportunity to activate my trap card." Blaze's other facedown card flipped up. "It's called Crevice Into the Different Dimension. First, I declare one attribute. And then, I can select 2 monsters of that attribute from the graveyards and remove them from play. I choose fire. And the monsters I remove are Shiranui Swordmaster and Spiritmaster." He held up the two named cards. "And now, since Spiritmaster was removed from play, I can use his ability again. Which means your little snake is destroyed." The cobra exploded before it could reach his field.

"In that case, I'll have Cobra Jar attack instead. Go!" At Cody's command, a new cobra jumped out of the jar and lashed on the female warrior. It sunk its fangs into her neck, causing her to cry before she exploded. After the snake crawled back into its jar. Cody continued. "Now I summon Tuned Magician in attack mode!" The green, white and yellow clad spellcaster appeared. (ATK: 1800 DEF: 1600 LV: 4) "Then I'll equip him with the spell card, Supervise!" The spell card appeared behind the spellcaster, releasing an orange aura that surrounded him. "Thanks to this spell, I can turn my Gemini monster into an effect monster without the need of a gemini summon. And thanks to his ability, Tuned Magician is now a Tuner monster, allowing him to give my Cobra Jar a tune up!"

"Say what?" Blaze questioned.

The spellcaster turned into four rings of green light, while Cobra Jar rose up in the air and became transparent, revealing two stars. "Now two become one to create a beast of ferocious might." The stars lined up and created a beam of light. "I synchro summon Celestial Wolf Lord, Blue Sirius!" The light died down and revealed a bipedal wolf with blue fur. This wolf had three heads and wore spiky silver armor. (ATK: 2400 DEF: 1500 LV: 6)

The girl stared at the new monster in awe.

"And now the effect of Supervise activates! If it's sent to the graveyard, a normal monster is automatically resurrected from my graveyard."

"But you don't have any." Blaze pointed out.

But Cody smirked. "Actually, I do. Because one of the perks of my Gemini monsters is that they count as normal monsters when they're on the field or in the graveyard."

"What?!"

"So now I can bring back Tuned Magician!" The spellcaster appeared again. (ATK: 1800 DEF: 1600 LV: 4) "And with that, I'm done. Your turn."

"You think you have the advantage?" Blaze asked, sounding calm despite the turn of events. "Don't be so sure." He drew. He looked at his new card and then turned to Cody. "Because you're about to get burned. I activate the spell card, Monster Reborn. Now I can summon a monster back from the grave. I'm bringing back Shiranui Squiresaga!" The female warrior appeared again. (ATK: 2100 DEF: 0 LV: 7) "And once again, I can now remove a monster from my graveyard to use her abilities. And I think I choose my Swordsaga." He took the named card from his graveyard slot.

"Great, now he's at it again." Cody muttered.

"For starters, since Swordsaga was a zombie type, Squiresaga grows 300 points stronger." (ATK: 2100-2400)

Cody gritted his teeth. "No! If she attacks my Magician, I'll lose!"

"But why stop there when I can add insult to your injury? Since my Swordsaga was also a synchro monster, I'm allowed to destroy a monster on the field. So, I'm afraid your little dog is about to roll over."

Cody watched as the female warrior stabbed her sword into the ground, from which lines of flames spread out and surrounded the three-headed wolf. And then... a blazing pillar of flames erupted and engulfed it. "Ah!" Cody held up his arms protectively due to the intense heat. Moments later, the pillar suddenly exploded... "Gyah!" Sending Cody flying. He hit one of the walls near the girl and collapsed.

"No!" She cried out.

"Ngh..." Cody groaned as he tried to get up. But he could barely move.

"I'm afraid this is the end of the line." Blaze spoke up. "Especially since removing my Swordsaga from play gives me another Shiranui Token." A duplicate of the samurai spirit appeared. (ATK: 0 DEF: 0 LV: 1) "I told you before, my business with the girl doesn't concern you. So, I'm giving you one last chance. Just give up. I promise you that if you don't, then my last attack will finish you off."

But Cody was just lying there. He was really burned and battered. He could barely keep his eyes open. 'This is bad. For some reason, his attacks feel real. I've never felt such a burning before. Ngh... I can barely see...' His vision started to get blurry. 'Looks like... this is it. I couldn't... protect the girl...' At that, everything went black, leaving Cody to believe that he was about to lose.

However, it was at that moment that something popped up in his mind. It appeared to be visions. They appeared to be foggy. But, from what he could tell, they showed him the interior of some kind of lab, with some people in black, white and blue uniforms. And then, a person with a duel disk facing him, stumbling for some reason. And then... everything turned white.

"Gah!" And then suddenly, his body emanated a shockwave that pushed Blaze back.

"What the...?" He trailed off before turning to Cody. "What just...?" He watched as Cody started to get up.

When he raised his head... his eyes were revealed and had a blue glowing and a cold look.

"Huh?" Blaze was certainly really surprised.

"You should have known better than challenging me." He said with coldness in his voice.

For the first time in the entire day, Blaze started to get nervous, and took one step back.

"And now you're about to face the consequences."

With that, Suiresaga suddenly fell to her knees as a dark blue aura surrounded her.

"What? What is this?" Blaze questioned.

"It was foolish of you to destroy my Blue Sirius. Because you did, his special ability activates, draining 2400 of your monster's attack points."

"Say what?!" (ATK: 2400-0) "No!"

"And now to finish you off." Cody drew.

Blaze tried to calm himself. 'I don't know what's gotten into him, but he can't possibly win this duel. I still have 3800 life points. Even if he'll cause some damage by attacking Squiresaga, I still have my two Tokens protecting me. I can survive this turn.'

Cody revealed the card he drew. "I activate the spell card, Pot of Avarice. Now I can take 5 monster cards from my graveyard and shuffle them back into my deck." The spirits of Lucky Pied Piper, Goggle Golem, Hanewata, Cobra Jar and Blue Sirius appeared. After he put those cards into his deck, it shuffled automatically. "And then, I draw two cards." After drawing his extra cards, he looked at them. He then gave Blaze an evil grin, making him even more nervous.

"What? What did you get?!"

"Just something to put you out of your misery." He replied.

The girl started to get worried due to his sudden behavior.

"Now I summon the Tuner monster, Torapart!" The two identical puppets with brass cymbals appeared. (ATK: 600 DEF: 600 LV: 2) "And since my Tuned Magician is currently not an effect monster, he's not a Tuner monster. Which means my Torapart can give him a tune up!" The two puppets turned into rings of green light and surrounded the spellcaster. "Now watch as I summon the monster that will show you the gravity of the situation you put yourself into." The spellcaster's body turned transparent and revealed 4 stars that lined up and created a beam of light. "I synchro summon Gravity Warrior!" The light died down and revealed the mechanical lion-like warrior that let out a mighty roar. (ATK. 2100 DEF: 1000 LV: 6)

"And now that he was successfully synchro summoned, his special ability activates. He gains 300 attack for every face up monster on your field."

Blaze gasped. "And I've got three!"

"So my Gravity Warrior gains 900 attack points." The lion-like warrior roared as he glowed with a blue aura. (ATK: 2100-3000) "And to kick things up, I equip him with the spell card, Lightning Blade!" The broad sword with a golden handle appeared in the air. As soon as Gravity Warrior grabbed it, the sword sizzled with electricity. "Thanks to his new weapon, my Gravity Warrior gains 800 more attack points!" (ATK: 3000-3800)

"Oh no!"

"Now it's over! Gravity Warrior, attack! Destroy his Squiresaga and end this duel once and for all!" The mechanical dashed forward and stabbed the female warrior with his blade. When she got hit, it zapped her greatly, making her cry out before she exploded.

The electricity spread and hit Blaze directly... causing unbearable pain. "AAAAAAAAAHHHHH!"

Blaze: 3800-0000

When it finally stopped, time seemed to slow down as he started to fall over. 'That... that was...' His vision got blurry. '...real damage.' And with that, he was down.

Cody stared at his fallen opponent and gave him a sinister smirk. "That's right. Lie there. That's where scum like you belong. down on the ground. Now then, time to-COUGH COUGH!" He couldn't finish his sentence as he started to cough, because of the smoke coming from the blaze. And then, he stopped as his eyes lost their glowing. And then, he collapsed.

"Ah! Mister!" The girl cried out, forgetting about Cody's unusual behavior and rushed over to him. She nudged him. "Wake up! Please, wake up!"


Meanwhile, Jeremy was still outside the circle of flames. "Cody! Cody what's going on? Cody!" He then gritted his teeth. "Come on, buddy. What's going on in there?" Right after he asked that, he widened his eyes when saw the flames getting weaker and weaker. And then... they were all gone. "What? What just happened?" He looked around and the first thing he noticed was Blaze's unconscious form. He also noticed that his trench coat were ripped in a few places. "Whoa! What happened to that guy?"

"Please, wake up!"

He turned to the source of the voice and found the little girl sitting right next to Cody. "Cody!" He rushed over to them and kneeled down. He grimaced when he noticed the burn marks on his body. "Aw man, Cody! What happed to you?" He then nudged. "Cody, come on! Wake up!"


'...uhh...'

"... up...

'What?' Cody stirred as he heard a faint voice.

"...wake up..."

'Who's there?' He started to open his eyes. At first, everything seemed foggy, so he blinked a few times.

"Cody, wake up! Please!"

Finally, everything was clear to him, and the first thing he saw was the faces of Jeremy and the little girl. "Jeremy?"

The Scrap duelist sighed in relief. "Oh thank God, you're okay!"

"Y-yeah..." Cody muttered as he managed to get up on his knees. "What happened?"

Jeremy frowned. "That's what I want to know. That guy surrounded you two with some fire wall or something. And when the flames died down, I found you unconscious. Seriously, man, what did that guy do to you?"

"I..." Cody trailed off, placing a hand on his head, trying to remember. "I don't know. The last thing I remember was that I dueled him. And then... then... the rest is blank. All I could remember was that how painful that duel was. It was like all damage he dealt was real."

"That would explain why you look like BBQ chicken. You really need some first aid. Can you stand?"

Cody didn't answer. He simply tried to stand up. But when he was about to get up on his feet, he fell down.

"Ah!" The girl gasped and grabbed his arm. "Are you okay?"

He turned to her. "I almost forgot about you. What about you? Are you hurt?"

The girl hesitated, looking down to the ground.

"Where are you coming from?"

The girl fiddled. "I... uh..."

Cody placed a hand on her left cheek. She flinched at the contact. But she could feel the warmth from his hand and looked up. She looked up, seeing him give her a soft and assuring look.

"It's okay. We won't let anything happen to you. You're with friends now."

The girl's eyes widened slightly. They were slowly filled with hope.

Cody grunted as he tried to get up again. This time, he was successful, even though he stumbled a bit. He then held out his hand to her. "Come. Let us take you to somewhere safe."

The girl stared at him, feeling some warmth coming from his gentle smile. Eventually, she grabbed his hand and held it firmly, not wanting to let go of him.

"Good. Now, let's go home." Cody took a few steps before stumbling again.

"Whoa!" Jeremy was quick to react and caught him, putting his other arm over his shoulders. "Take it easy, Cody."

"Thanks."

Jeremy smiled and nodded as the trio left the area.

But, unbeknownst to them, Blaze wasn't nowhere to be found. He was already gone.


"Unbelievable..." Blaze muttered as he entered his dark room. He dropped his katana and fell backwards on his armchair. "That kid. I can't believe he's..."

His musings were interrupted as the screen on the wall lit up, showing the person in tube. "Blaze. I was wondering when you would return. I trust you have some good news."

Blaze grunted and got up on his feet, approaching the screen slowly. "I'm afraid I've got bad news. The girl got away."

"What?!" The person in the tube exclaimed. "You mean you couldn't bring her back? What's the meaning of this, Blaze?!"

"Trust me, I had her, but then..." Before Blaze could finish, he lost his balance and fell down on the floor. "Agh!"

"Hm?" His master noticed that. "What happened to you? You're not the kind of person who would get hurt when you're out doing your job."

Blaze managed to get up a little. "Well, like I said, I had the girl, but then someone interfered."

"Go on." His master urged.

"And since that kid refused to hand the girl over to me. I decided to crush him in a duel. With my abilities, I was sure I could to take him down. But then, he... he..."

"He what? Tell me!"

"He suddenly attacked me with his monster. And that attack... it was real!"

His master remained silent for a moment. "His attack... was real?"

"Yeah. That last attack was real." Blaze continued "The pain it caused was real. Which is why I am in this state. Master, I believe that kid... is a psychic duelist."

"Hmmm." His master was getting curious. "Tell me everything."


Well, I'm glad I got this one done. And I hope you guys enjoyed it. And now, I need to rest. Especially since I'm currently on a vacation in Crete.

Until next time.