Senshi and Conner might have defeated Ying and Yang, but things aren't quite over yet. Meldrick managed to brainwash Houki and Charlotte, and is planning to use them against Ichika. His trap is set in the harbor and all that he needs now is for Ichika to show himself.

"The trap is set." Meldrick said as he walked through the harbor with the girls and Oberin. "Ichika's friends are the perfect opponent to use against him. With him hesitant to fight against his friends, he'll fall and the power, as well as Izanagi, shall be mine."

"Master Meldrick!" He looked ahead and saw Valatin arriving with him dropping to one knee. "Everything is set. Your trap is ready. All that's left is for Orimura to show himself. As per your request, I also managed to acquire this." He pressed a button on his duel disk and sent a total of 4000 points to both Meldrick and Oberin.

"Excellent work, Valatin." Meldrick said. "Should my plan fail, we can use these points to enter the finals."

"We haven't heard from Ying and Yang, so we must assume they have failed." Oberin claimed.

"No matter. I have come prepared with contingency plans." Meldrick said as he wasn't worried about things at all. "Valatin, I leave things in your hands. I must keep my real face hidden until the time is right for me to strike personally."

"Understood." Valatin said.

"And Valatin... I shouldn't remind you what will happen should you fail me." Meldrick stated with Valatin getting a little nervous. He just hopes things do go well and the plan works.

...

Laura

"Where are they?" Laura said as she wondered around the streets and tried to find Houki and Charlotte. "I tried calling them, but they won't answer. Where could Houki and Charlotte be?" She roamed around the streets, but didn't know where they were. While she was trying to find them, she was being followed by three of Meldrick's minions.

"Are you sure that's her?"

"Of course that's her. Master Meldrick desires her for his plans and he will have it."

"Hurry, we're going to lose her." The three of them followed Laura down to an alleyway and were trying not to lose her. However, when they stepped into the place, Laura came right at them as she attacked on and knocked him right down.

"How'd she do that?!"

"Like this." Laura said as she twirled around and kicked another one down. She attacked the third one and took him out as well. "Now, answer me. Why are you three following me?"

"It's not just them sweetheart." Laura looked down the other side of the path and saw more of them found her. "You're coming with us." Laura could see she's in trouble and decided to run for it. With two of his friends under Meldrick's control and a third being hunted, Ichika better do something fast.

...

Senshi

Thanks to Mila, Senshi and the others now know where Houki and Charlotte are being held. Grabbing a ride in a helicopter; Senshi, Rin, Cecilia, Conner, and Mila were heading towards where Meldrick is holding them.

"If that creep has hurt them, I swear I'm going to hurt on him." Rin said as they were all a little anxious about this.

"Sure. I'm sure you can take him and all his men down by yourself." Conner teased. He was really the only one that was relaxed about this whole thing.

"Could you please take this serious?! Our friends lives are in danger!" Cecilia said.

"Would you relax. What's the worst this guy can do in the first place?" Conner said. "The only reason I'm coming along is because this Meldrick holds a card I'm looking for, one that I wish to obtain myself. If anything, you all should be lucky that I'm tagging along."

"WE should be lucky YOU'RE here?! Are you kidding me?!" Rin shouted.

"If you remember, I did most of the heavy lifting against those two clowns earlier." Conner said. "Without me, I doubt you would have been able to defeat them. Besides, what's the deal with this Meldrick anyway? Aren't you just humoring him with all of this just so he can gets his card back?"

"This is more than just about a card." Senshi claimed.

"What are you talking about? What does this Meldrick want from you?" Conner questioned.

"Well, it's a little hard to explain." Senshi said as he wasn't sure he should tell Conner what's really going on.

"Don't bother." Rin said as she stopped him from saying anything. "This jerk here doesn't care about anyone but himself. I doubt he would believe us even if we told him."

"Agreed." Cecilia said as they weren't big fans of Conner or his attitude.

"Watch it! My brother is a great guy!" Mila claimed. "Conner, the guys did grab me and held us captive. It seems like this is about more than just a card. Whoever these guys are seem pretty serious." She said to try and reason with him. Senshi can only hope they're not too late to save them.

"Mila, are we close?" Cecilia asked.

"Yeah. It was right around here." Mila said. They were flying over the harbor now and kept their eyes open for anything. They searched around until Rin spotted someone that was waiting for them. She took a closer look and could see it was Houki.

"Down there! I see Houki!" Rin said. Seeing her, they managed to get the helicopter to land. Once it landed, Senshi jumped out with Rin and Cecilia following after him.

"Houki! Are you okay?!" Senshi said, but it wasn't a good sign that Houki was just standing there.

"Houki? It's us." Rin said. She was going to move closer, but Senshi held out his arm and stopped her from really doing anything.

"Houki? Is that you?" Senshi said as he had a bad feeling about this. Houki looked right up at them, but she smirked and she had a blank look in her eyes.

"Sorry, but Houki isn't here." She claimed, but it didn't really sound like her.

"Meldrick!" Senshi said as he instantly saw what was going on. He saw now they were too late with Houki now under Meldrick's control.

"You're too late, Great Hero. Houki is now under my control. How ironic that one of your closest friends will be what's used to defeat you." This wasn't looking good at all. Now that Houki is under Meldrick's control, Senshi is furious but doesn't know what to do now.

"What's going on? Houki sounds kind of weird." Mila said as she didn't quite get what was going on.

"It's difficult to explain, but the truth is that Houki is being controlled by Meldrick." Cecilia claimed.

"What, like this guy is a hypnotist or something?" Conner said as he found Houki being controlled hard to believe.

"Just humor us for once." Rin said.

"Meldrick, release her at once!" Senshi demanded.

"I'm afraid it's not quite that simple, Ichika Orimura." They all looked to the side and saw Valatin came out of hiding and stood with Houki. "If you wish to save Houki, you're going to have to duel her to do that. Of course, it's not going to be as simple and easy as you think."

"Who might you be?" Senshi questioned.

"My name is Valatin, a proud servant and lieutenant of Master Meldrick." He said proudly.

"How can you be proud to serve such a madman?!" Rin said.

"Never mind that now. What matters is that you wish to save your friends, and you have two things my master desires." Valatin said. "Follow us to the grand stage of where it will be decided." He said as he began to walk away with Houki following him.

"I'm not playing your games!" Senshi shouted. "Release Houki at once!"

"I think you'll do what we say, unless you don't really care what happens to both of or your friends." They all looked behind them and spotted Charlotte was there with her under Meldrick's control.

"Charlotte! Meldrick, leave her alone! She's done nothing to you!" Senshi demanded.

"But the fun hasn't even begun." Charlotte said as she walked passed them. "This is really the only way you can save your friends. You don't really have much choice in the matter." It seems like he really doesn't. If he wants to save the girls, he'll have to do what Meldrick says; and he just knows that it won't be good for any of them. Senshi and the rest of them followed after them and soon found themselves on a wooden pier designed to be a duel field.

"What is this, Valatin? What are we doing here?" Senshi questioned.

"This is where we are going to duel." Valatin claimed. "You see, things are going to be different this time. "This time, you'll be dueling against Houki AND myself. It's going to be two against one."

"Two against one?! That isn't fair!" Cecilia said.

"Shut it! We're making the rules here!" Valatin claimed. "It's quite simple, Ichika. You win and your little friends get to go free. That's assuming you can actually bring yourself to fight against her." Senshi already didn't like this. He looked to Houki in hopes she snaps out of it, but that look on her face says that she might not. "There's just one thing. We added a little something to the field."

"Wait, what do you mean a little something?" Senshi questioned.

"We'll show you." Charlotte said as she took a cuff and chain with her clipping one on Senshi's ankle and one on Houki's. Senshi took a look and saw the chain went right through the field.

"What's this about?" Senshi questioned.

"That is for the loser. Whoever loses this duel is going to end up swimming with the fishes." Valatin said with a wicked smirk on his face. "It's to get your brain racking. The price of victory will be your best friend. Whoever wins, the pier will open up and the loser will be waited down to the bottom."

"Wait just a minute. What about you? You're not tied down." Senshi said.

"Of course not! That's the point!" Valatin claimed. This wasn't looking good at all. The loser of the duel is going to be dragged to the bottom of the ocean. They're trying to make it seem like that no matter the outcome, Senshi and Ichika still lose. "This duel isn't about me! It's about you! How far are you willing to go just to have victory?! Will you sacrifice your best friend to have it?!"

"Oh man. This is nuts and completely unfair!" Mila said as none of them, not even Conner, was liking this. "Conner. We have to do something."

"As head of this tournament, I declare this duel null and void!" Conner declared.

"Think again, Conner! This duel has nothing to do with your tournament!" Valatin said. "We're calling the shots! You have no power over us here! Besides, Ichika doesn't really have a choice. This is the only way he can save his friends."

"You're mad. You have no problem doing something like this?" Senshi said.

"Of course not! I'll duel to ensure Master Meldrick's victory, but why should I be the one to pay the price?!" Valatin claimed. "This way, you're defeat will almost be for certain!"

"He's right. You don't have much choice." Charlotte said as she made her way to a different pier. "And just to ensure everything goes well, I've got something for Charlotte here." She sat in a chair and was completely restricted.

"Charlotte!" Senshi called as he didn't like this. "What are you doing?!" This doesn't look good at all for her, and it got a lot worse when they saw a crane driving over by one of Meldrick's minions and placed a freight hanging over her.

"Decline the challenge and Charlotte is going to be a lot flatter." Charlotte warned. They're not leaving him much choice in this. "The same goes for the rest of you." She said as she looked to the others. "You all can watch, but if you interrupt or try to stop this, Charlotte will be done for."

"Face it, Orimura. There's nothing you and your friends can do." Valatin claimed. None of them liked this at all, but it seems like he was right. "Now, what do you say?"

"You've made it clear I don't have a choice." Senshi said as he accepted the challenge.

"Good. Now, place Izanagi on the ground. If you lose, it's going back to Master Meldrick. No way you're using it." Valatin added.

"Fine." Senshi said as he reached for his deck and pulled out the card.

'We can't use Izanagi anyway. It's just too dangerous.' Ichika thought.

'Perhaps, but we still must take this challenge. This is the only way.' Senshi told him. He placed the card down and took the challenge. "Okay, Valatin. Let's get this over with."

"One more thing. I wouldn't want Charlotte to miss this." Charlotte said. That was when Meldrick released his hold on her. She passed out for a moment, but she woke up with her in control again. "What happened? Where am I?" She questioned. She looked around and saw the position she was in. "What is this?!"

"Ready, Houki." Valatin said.

"Yeah." Houki claimed.

"Houki! Snap out of it before it's too late!" Senshi called.

"Not happening! There's no getting out of this now!" Valatin said. "It's time for you to meet your fate!" He activated his duel disk with Houki activating hers. There's no other choice for Senshi now. He activated his duel disk and it was on.

"Let's duel!" All three said as this duel was starting with both sides having 4000LP now.

"Houki, how about you start us off." Valatin said. Houki did just that with Senshi readying himself.

"By cutting her attack points in half, I can summon Yumira the Healing Light without a tribute." Houki said as she played her first card. Yumira came out with her power dropping to 1000atk points. "Next, I place one card facedown and that ends my turn. Since it's the end of my turn, Yumira's special ability increases our life points by 400." Yumira unleashed a shining light with Houki's and Valatin's combined life points increased to 4400.

"Houki? Ichika? What's going on?! Rin! Cecilia! Why are they dueling?!" Charlotte asked.

"Believe us, Charlotte... None of us like this." Rin said.

"Houki's being controlled by a madman named Meldrick that is after Ichika." Cecilia said.

"Meldrick?" Charlotte said as she already didn't like the sound of that. "That must be who Tatenashi told us to watch out for!"

"It's your move, Ichika. That's assuming you even have the courage to face your friend." Valatin taunted.

'I can't lose this duel, but I must figure out how I'm going to save Houki.' Senshi thought. 'If I don't figure out how to get both of us out of here, everything will be lost.' Being forced to duel against his friend, how can Senshi get out of this? Will he have to sacrifice the world to save his friend or sacrifice his friend to save the world?

AN: Okay... Here's the thing people. I put up a poll that decides the future of this series. I'll continue to work on some of it, but I want you all to vote. This story doesn't appear to be doing well, and there are others that go with this one. If you don't want this story, want to see the ones after this, and the prequel to be deleted, show some support. Please just review, fav, and follow. That's all I'm asking.