Disclaimer: Once more, I don't own Yugioh, nor the story line of Yugioh. But I do own this tournament, Kou, Namia, Osmos, and other characters from previous chapters that you don't recognize.

Chapter 16: Putting it Together

Kou slid the last card in his hand into the duel disk, taking one last look at the clock. 11:35. He had ten minutes to stop the soul eater. But if what she had told him was true, he really had six minutes to find someone who could separate the soul eater and Namia from each other. Which meant even if he did manage to beat her, Namia would lose her soul to the Shadow Realm. And even if he could bypass that, the soul eater would still be attached to her soul. The chances he would find someone who could do magic at all, much less high level magic, was slim to none.

'I'm sorry, Kouichi, I didn't want you to-"' Chiro was cut off in his apology for not telling Kou the problem of separating the Soul Eater and Namia.

'Save it, if this doesn't work… Well we'll have a lot of time to talk."' he pressed the activation button. "I activate Replay, and re use Card of Sanctity!" he drew six cards, praying for luck, he looked at them. He looked away from his cards, back up at the Soul eater with a smirk. "Its over!"

Kou-250

Soul Eater-8000

The soul eater raised the eyebrows of Namia. "Funnny, you talk like you already won, when you have the least of LP, you'll lose if I can just get a monster." she smirked. 'As soon as this fool finishes his turn, it won't matter about his traps, I have the cards I need to win."' she was looking at the Phoenix of Gold Fire (3500/3500) with glee.

"I'll show you how I plan to win!" he flipped his facedown card. "I'll activate my facedown card, Black Luster Ritual!" he discarded a card and his false Horus (3000/1800) disappeared. "I'll discard Buster Blader from my hand, and tribute my false Horus, to summon my mighty Black Luster Soldier (3000/2500) in attack mode!" he smirked as the Soul Eater Snickered.

"You idiot, Buster Blader wasn't needed as a sacrifice, you could have just used your Horus!" she noticed he was still smiling and raised her eyebrows at this strange behavior. "Do you understand you just wasted one of your monsters for no reason?" she asked him.

"I need Buster Blader in my graveyard for my next move to work." he answered vaguely removing Black Luster from his deck and summoning him onto the field. "Now I'll activate, Miracle Restoring!" he held his hand out in front of the graveyard slot and took Buster Blader from it. "All I have to do is remove two spell counters from my side of the field, and I can special summon Buster Blader (2600/2300) back from the grave, in attack mode." another mighty warrior appeared, and with a swing of its blade, its attack increased.

The soul eater was in shock from this latest move, but she concealed it well, still confident in her victory. "Even though your monster gets more attack points from my dragons in the graveyard, it still isn't enough." she smirked.

"Don't worry, I set all four of these cards and attack you directly with Buster Blader (4100/2300) and Black Luster Soldier (3000/2500)! Double Saber Slash!" the two warriors crossed blades and made an X kind of fashion, then they charged over and slashed right through Namia's body. Blood splashed onto the shadowy ground, as the soul eater smirked, not feeling any pain.

Kou-250

Soul eater-900

"Try again!" she screeched, drawing her card, blood still flowing from a deep cut on her arm. "Ah, now this looks nice, I'll activate Change of Heart, and Brain Control!" both of Kou's monsters floated over to Namia's field, still glaring with their brilliant warrior eyes. Kou gasped as she pressed another card into her disk. "Now I'll also play Premature Burial, which costs me 800 LP, but let's me bring my Horus back from the grave!" she smirked. "You see, the only way to normal summon one of my strongest creatures is to offer three monsters, behold, the Phoenix of Gold Fire (3500/3500)!" she laughed as the Phoenix flew through the shadows and onto her side of the field. "Its almost over." she continued laughing, as Kou eyed his watch. 11:40.

Shisei looked at the puzzles with mild interest, trying to figure the second one out. He had already scribbled down the answers to the first and third. The first being Tornado Wall and the third being… well, Dedication through Light and Darkness. He supposed Osmos had given him that one to confuse him. Muttering to himself, he continued to scramble the letters of the first one. Then he looked at it in someone's rearview mirror. Nothing worked.

"Having trouble Mr. Aragashi?" Osmos asked with concern. He got Shisei's middle finger waving back to him as a response.

"No, I'm perfectly fine, as a matter of fact, I just finished." he smirked, and showed the paper to Osmos. "Tornado Wall, Gemini Elf, and Dedication through Light and Darkness." he smirked. Osmos took the paper back, then smirked.

"Ah, so you have, but, unfortunately, you missed the last one." he folded the paper and smirked at the smaller, younger boy. Shisei looked at him with a look of shock on his face.

"What do you mean, you gave me that one!" he glared hotly at a smiling Osmos. The other men in Osmos's party turned to see Shisei glaring at him.

"Simple, I put down Dedication through Light and Darkness, but in actuality, it was another card that hasn't been released yet, deemed Dedication through Darkness and Light!" he smiled evilly at a shocked Shisei. "It lets you summon a Dark Paladin by offering a Buster Blader, if you wanted to know, here, I'll give you one for being such a good sport." he smirked and slid a card out of his pocket, and into the pocket of Shisei's. "Cheer up, you have a card that hasn't been released anywhere else, you'll have something interesting to tell that boy, Kouichi." his smile couldn't have possibly gotten wider as he said this.

Shisei could only look down. He had no idea what kind of danger his friends were in, but he had failed to save them. 'Wait!"' he thought, he suddenly had an idea, Osmos continued to babble as he went over it in his head. 'It might work."' he took a deep breath, and looked up at Osmos with determination.

Kou gulped as the Phoenix of Gold Fire (3500/3500) glared down at him, its eyes shining ferociously. Namia's body, now a pale color from the blood loss, smirked. "Whoa, this girl's only got a few minutes to live, much less duel!" the Soul Eater told Kou. "But, make the most of life!" she laughed at the boy across from her. "Now, attack his LP and in this duel, Phoenix!" the ceature swept fire over a ducking for cover, Kou. The flames hit his entire backside, but he knew he had to get up, he had only two minutes left to figure out a way out of this mess.

Kou-750

Soul Eater-100

The soul eater shrieked with rage, though it was quite a deal hoarse, Namia's body had been put through to much. "How-are-you-still-alive!" she accented her rage with force on each word.

"Emergency Provisions, I'll draw." Kou drew and placed the card quickly in his slot. "I'll activate Pot of Greed, two cards." he slid the two cards from his deck in a hurried fashion. His eyes widened as he looked at the cards. 'I can win, but Namia will lose her body and soul if I use this card."' he thought, looking at Monster Reborn. "I'll set one monster in defense mode, end turn." he told her. The soul eater seemed to be getting slightly tired as well.

"I'll attack your set monster." she smirked as his monster was blown apart, and he lost LP equal to half the attack of the Chaosrider Gestapo (1400/1500).

Kou-50

Soul Eater-100

One minute was left.

"Your wrong, I got that one right!" Shisei stated. Osmos stopped in his rant and looked at him with malice.

"I made the puzzles, Mr. Aragashi, I'm qui-" he was cut off as Shisei began to explain.

"You said that whatever you imagine the card could be, then I should guess at that." he began. Osmos listened with interest at how Shisei would trick the trickster. "So even though you had meant Dedication through Darkness and Light, you had to have first imagined Dedication throughlight and darkness, even if it was when you first printed the card." he finished.

"Ah, so you are correct." Osmos smiled politely again, and stood up. "You're a champion puzzle solver, and you did it all in 14 minutes, and 50 seconds, very well, they shall be safe." and with that, he clapped his hands, and strode away.

"HEY!" Shisei yelled after him. "IF MY FRIENDS AREN'T SAFE, YOUR GOING TO BE IN TROUBLE!" Shisei then ran the opposite way of Osmos, back to the arena.

Kou had heard of miracles, but never actually had one. The second hand on his watch had been ticking, closer and closer. Scheming with the minute hand, they were going to end it… 10...9...8...7...6...5...4...3...2... He was at one when suddenly, the sunlight forced him to cover his eyes. 'Damn sun… Wait, there's no sun in this place!"' he thought, hardly believing it, he looked up. People were gasping and clapping, seeing the mighty Phoenix of Namia's and Kou about to lose. Blood was still pooling around Namia's feet. 'Got to go quick!"' Kou thought, he felt his own body draining him of energy, as he drew.

Namia looked up at Kou, with that pale and sickly face. "Kou, I'm sor- sorry." she smiled weakly, fell to her knees.

"NO!" Kou activated the card. "I play Monster Reborn, Reviving My Buster Blader, then I'll activate Scroll of Bewitchment, to make the Phoenix an earth monster, attack and end this duel, Buster Blader (4100/2300)!" the monster nodded and quickly sliced the screeching Phoenix in half. Bright golden feathers fluttered around Namia, who lay motionless on the ground, and then disappeared into digital dust. Kou felt the tears stinging his eyes, he felt tired, he looked around at the referee, who had just noticed both of their severe wounds. "H-hospital!" Kou tried to yell to him, pointing a heavy finger at Namia, then, he saw only black.

Kou-50

Namia-0

Kou opened his eyes drowsily, he saw a duel monster's card, Total Defense Shogun, standing before him. "Are you alright?" it asked him in a worried voice. He realized it wasn't his favorite monster, but Shisei, looking at him with anxiety.

Kou sat up and saw Namia lying in bed next to him, she had apparently gotten a blood transfusion, as she looked nice and tan. "Wha, when?" Kou began.

'You've been out for three days, your friend's match with Mai is going to be in a few minutes, it was post poned so they could clean the ring."' Chiro informed him. 'by the way, that was nice dueling kid. I'm proud of you."' he finished, with a mental smile.

'Chiro… thanks. But I don't really care."' he received a mental hit over the head, as Shisei looked at him amused.

"Man, I'd hate to have a voice in my head." Sei told him. Kou looked at him in shock. "Your other self came around and explained what had happened yesterday, so I know." he patted Kou's head as though he were a dog. "So don't you worry your pretty little head over Chiro." he smirked and ducked a real hit.

"Oh ha-ha, I'm about to bust my gut from laughter." Kou rolled his eyes. "What about Namia?" he asked.

"Oh, she knows as much as we know about the Shadow Realm now, I thought I should tell her." he looked at his watch nervously. "I'll explain the rest after my next match, Mai is probably already down there!" he left toward the door, flashing a thumbs up at Kou, as he disappeared out of the door.

Mai looked up at Shisei, who was approaching from the opposite side of the ring. "About time, now are you ready to get this show on the road?" she asked, inserting her deck into the slot, Shisei smirked and did the same, getting in a duel position.

Mai-8000

Shisei-8000

"Let's rock and roll!" Sei drew his five cards, and then his sixth.

Next time: Shisei and Mai begin their folly. Mai starts of strong, leaving Shisei in the dust with her Harpies. But it'll take more than a sexist rant and some smoking hot duel monsteress's to take Shisei down. See how the match turns out, next time on Duel Monsters, Maximum!

A/N: Okay, a lot to say this time. First off, Replay is not a card I created. I would credit Wolf General, but I've seen it in many other fictions besides his. So to whoever created such a useful card (or if it's a real one and I just haven't seen it, unlikely, but possible) then thank you for not flaming me with its use. Second, this is how Shisei got Gemini Elf for the answer in the second puzzle:

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ ZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA

Now study that and see if you understand. No? All you have to do is write the alphabet like this, one backwards and one forward, then you use each letter on top as its corresponding on the bottom. In other words, the letter Z is the letter A and keep going with y being b and so forth. Finally, review if you could find it in your poor worn out heart.

To Rex the emerald dragon: As you have seen the puzzles were way to weird, took me while to think of the loophole in the last one. These puzzles were done mostly to add more depth to Shisei's skills, we saw how good of a swordsman Kou is, so I wanted to show you how sly Shisei is. But thanks for your reviews and support.