Alright, another chapter lets go!

Countdown to the tournament

"… We're here." Akashi told Jude and Iris as they arrived in the Tatsunagi building.

"An Ezel statue huh?" He muttered as they were greeted by a statue of Blond Ezel outside the main entrance. "Stay close to me Iris…" he whispered.

"I know, no need to remind me." She replied.

"Takuto-sama is waiting for us in his office." The Genesis player explained as he led the group with him inside, before running into two other figures.

"Aka, are those two the look alikes?"

"Yes, they have a meeting, can you get Saya-san to meet them?"

"We already called her." Hiroto replied.

"Got it, thanks you two." The conversation had ended as the four had entered the elevator going up the building, before entering a room completely made of class in all corners.

"Ah, Akashi, Rekka, I see that you brought them." Takuto greeted, and to his left was Aria. "Miss Saya is still on her way-"

"I'm here!" She interrupted entering. "You're… Jude, and Iris right?" She asked.

"Yes, we are Miss Saya, we, we want to ask you something-"

"You wanted to ask if it was me you met there right?" She asked, and when Jude nodded, she paused for a bit as she got a slight headache before smiling. "… There we go, another part of my memory is returned… yes… I did go there, but you already knew that didn't you?"

"What?" Akashi questioned. "Miss Saya what are-"

"… I, I… I called myself by another name when I was with them." She said. "I, I know you don't trust me, but please believe me, I didn't do it, I didn't sell you out."

"… We know." Iris finally said. "We're sorry Saya-chan… it was cause, you used the same thing as them, and none of us were thinking clearly…"

"How, how is everyone else? Mako? Emilia? Ao?"

"Mako and Ao are ok," Jude said to Saya's relief. "Emilia though… she… she was lost on that day."

"… I see…" She softly said. "I'll… I'll react later… but I'm glad to see you all again."

"If you say so." The male look alike began although he was still careful.

"I'm sorry to interrupt." Aria said as the two Limit Break users looked at her. "But I believe we have things to discuss."

"Why should we trust you?" He accused her. "You use the same thing they did."

"And what about Miss Saya?" She countered, although with the Megacolony symbol glowing on her hand, it was clear Gredora had taken over. "You trust her, do you not? User of the Gold Paladin, the more time we bicker, the more time they have."

"… Alright fine." Jude spoke for the two. "But most likely, you wanted our cards so you can merge your Imaginary Gifts with Limit Break right?" And when Takuto nodded he continued. "Fine, but we also get cards like that to help us."

"Hold up, you're in no-" Rekka chimed in.

"I accept your conditions." Takuto immediately said. "Now, if the pleasantries are out of the way, we have important topics to discuss."

Several days later.

Takeru walked into the stadium that he has been to several times. In this month alone, he had gone there for his exhibition match, then it was to support Sakuya, now it's with his friends to participate.

"You ready Takeru?"

"I'm ready Satoshi." He replied with a smile. "Today's just the qualifiers, right?"

"Yeah."

"We need to top right?"

"Best case scenario, but we'll be fine if we make the top 4. But that's the last of the good news, there's a super team in our group as well." He explained as he sighed.

"Any idea who they are?"

"… Regretfully I do…" Was the reply before they showed the team. "Team Vesperia is playing with us."

"Wait, isn't that the team of Tsubasa Rokuya?" He asked.

"Yep…"

'Huh, never expected that we'll be facing them.' Takeru thought.

"Wait, Satoshi, isn't it a good idea that we'll be facing them. Good way to gauge our opponent." He then looked at the person's teammates. "Let's see, his teammates are… Sharlene Chen… and… Izumi Takahashi- wait…" He said as his eyes widened. "Wasn't she your ex?"

"Please don't remind me…" He groaned.

"Oh he's so dead." Claire interrupted as she arrived along with Sakuya.

"You'd think you'd help me since you're my sister."

"I can, but at times I just want my brother to struggle is all." She counter teased.

"A-anyway…" Sakuya added. "Can we go in?" She asked, although her face seemed to be tired.

"You ok Sakuya? You look out of it."

"Sorry… didn't get enough sleep." She replied. "Spent the last night looking at deck combinations."

'Well… that's partly true…' she thought to herself.

"If, you say so." He said, not fully buying it.

"Come on, let's register." Satoshi told the group as they entered, signing up.

"So, does anyone have a team name?" The Royal Paladin player asked.

"I don't know." Claire shrugged. "Never thought of it."

"Well, let's just go 'Kai Rebirth' so it's easy to remember?" Sakuya suggested.

"Fair enough." The Dimension Police nodded as he registered for them.

"So, you fixed your deck already?" Sakuya asked.

"Already did."

"Me too, what about you Sakuya?"

"Same here Claire." The girl agreed. "Still though, if most of the entrants are by 3's… what do we do with the 4th person?"

"They don't play." Satoshi told them all. "I just talked with the receptionist, we get sent to a separate room each, and we must play everyone else in the room at least once. Top 4 teams as I mentioned to Takeru earlier proceed, the remaining teams are gone."

"I see, so, let's decide on who's playing." Takeru said.

"I think I'll sit this one out." Claire told them.

"You sure?" Sakuya asked. "I could always step out of it you know?"

"Nah it's fine, you all can do it." She said before looking at Satoshi knowingly.

'You are a terrible sister…' he realized exactly why she volunteered.

"I don't think both have a problem with it." Claire shrugged.

"Ok… fine." The male sighed as he gave Takeru and Sakuya a stub each.

"What is this?" The girl asked.

"It's your identifier in the group, basically, we need to present that when we enter the room."

"I see… well, good luck to all of us." Sakuya smiled as she left for her own group.

"I should go as well." Takeru said and after a bit so did Satoshi.

"You didn't play?" a guy with blue hair asked. And as the girl looked, she recognized that person as one that she had met before, albeit this time their facial features were covered.

"Oh, Io-" Claire started to note before the guy immediately placed his finger over his mouth to signify to her to keep quiet, so she just jumped to her answer. "No, I didn't."

"Shame, I kinda wanted to see the girl who beat Aka basically dunk on everyone." He told her. "Still, while you're here, mind I ask you for a game then?"

"… You sure?" She asked. "I mean… if you don't mind-"

"It's fine it's fine… and if you want, I can sign some autographs for you after." He told her.

"It's a deal."

At Room A(Takeru's Group)

"Huh… this is the room?" He wondered, although when he entered, he was immediately stunned, although more so because instead of everyone making last minute adjustments to their decks, it was more of, everyone crowding around a man with blonde hair and a white coat.

'That person… isn't he?' he thought, recognizing it but it being confirmed by the people.

"It's Tsubasa! Rokuya Tsubasa!" One of the people noted.

"Yooo! If we beat him, we can have a shot on winning the tournament!"

Room B(Satoshi's Group)

'Ok, so this is the room.' He thought as he looked around. 'Huh, at least the place is- OH YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!' he realized as he saw a girl with white hair tied in a ponytail. She was wearing a brown coat and when she saw him, she immediately approached him ignoring the groups of people swooning over her.

"So, you're here too Satoshi." She said in a displeased tone.

"Y-yeah, I guess we are." He replied.

"Just one thing, I'm going to destroy you." Was all she said before leaving.

"Whoa… did you see that?" Some gossiped.

"Yeah, what's her relationship with them?"

'Dang it, Claire!' he thought.

Room C(Sakuya's Group)

"Ok, this is supposed to be the room and-" She paused as she saw a girl with blue hair pacing back and forth outside the room. "Ummm, you ok?"

"W-waah!" She looked surprised. "O-oh, I'm sorry, I was just thinking about stuff is all."

"I… I see," Sakuya said, although there was something familiar with how the girl looked, she just couldn't place it. "A-Are you also here to fight?"

"Y-yeah I am." She replied. "Sorry, I'm just getting the jitters, it's my first time playing with other teammates."

"In that case." Pulling from what Saya had advised her she just went with it. "It's fine if you're nervous, and it will go away."

"Yeah, you're right." The girl finally smiled. "Thanks."

"No problem, I'm Sakuya by the way."

"Oh, you mean from Kai Rebirth? I see, I'm Sharlene."

"I see, wait, Sharlene, as in Sharlene Chen?" She asked.

"Yeah!" The Aqua Force user smiled. "Rokuya-san asked Leon-sama if they had anyone, they knew who could participate with them, and they recommended me."

"I-I see." The stutter was more so a shock as she didn't expect Sharlene, to be like this.

"Anyway, thanks for the advice, Sakuya-chan! Shall we go in?"

"Huh? R-right." She remembered as they entered.

Several minutes later, an announcement rang out on the intercom on each of the rooms.

"Attention everyone." It started. "The time is currently 10AM in the morning, the qualifiers will last until all representatives have faced each other, or the top 4 teams have been confirmed. As a reminder, we have judges and referees on hand in each room to ensure any question of rules can be done. Once a match has been completed you are to head to your next opponent as soon as possible. Your current and future matchups will be posted in the board at the center of each room for your reference. That will be all, good luck."

And as they said that the people in each of the rooms went to their respective opponents and as they set their respective decks… a final countdown was started… and as it hit 0.

"Stand up, ('The/My',) Vanguard!"

End of chapter.

Just a short chapter, see you in the next one.