"So Conner was actually defeated in a duel? That's a surprise."

"Yes, sir. The duelist that defeated him was a young boy named Ichika Orimura. Our sources say that he is the younger brother to Chifuyu Orimura."

"Ichika Orimura, is it? Interesting." This man found it interesting like everyone else. He had silver hair that covered his right eye. He also wore a red suit with a blue tie. He enjoyed himself to a glass of juice and saw something spectacular out of this. "Get me the packaging supplies. I say we invite this Ichika to my tournament. I also have a special message that I want to give him."

"Yes, Master Peggrin."

...

Ichika

Hearing the regional champ was defeated by some nobody spread like wildfire to duelists. Ichika couldn't believe it himself. He just wasn't sure what to think anymore. All he did was lay in his bed and did some thinking. He stared at his charm and was trying to figure things out.

'Weird. I actually defeated a regional champ.' Ichika thought. 'It was like it was me, but it was also like I was someone else. I wonder if he can even hear me.'

"I can." Ichika looked to the side and was surprised to see a ghost of himself, the form he took from when he dueled Conner.

"You!" Ichika said. "So I wasn't imagining things. You really were there."

"Yes. When your duel with Conner started, I stepped in." The spirit said. "I sensed you weren't as confident and unsure of your abilities. I stepped in and helped you in the duel."

"Stepped in? Don't you mean you took over my body and dueled for me?" Ichika questioned.

"Not exactly. It was more like we were dueling together." The spirit said. "It's very strange. I'm not quite sure what this means. What I also find strange is that you don't appear to be frightened by me."

"I am a little surprised, but when I look at you, I feel like I'm looking at myself in some sort of mirror." Ichika said. "I don't really have a reason to be afraid of you. Who are you anyway?" That appeared to be a tough question for him to answer.

"To be perfectly honest, I'm not sure." The spirit said.

"What do you mean you aren't sure?" Ichika said.

"I have no memory of who I am or anything of my past." The spirit said. "I laid dormant inside your charm until it came into your possession and we became one."

"You don't remember anything from your past? That sounds sad." Ichika said. This was all very weird to Ichika. He always felt like there was another presence and now he's actually talking to him. Ichika knew it had something to do with his charm.

"Ichika Dear! Hello! Are you home?! The door was unlocked!"

"Who is that?" The spirit asked.

"That sounds like Cecilia." Ichika said. Ichika went on downstairs and saw Cecilia down there. "Hey, Cecilia. What are you doing here?"

"I came here to see you." Cecilia said. "You've been acting so distant since your duel with that Conner. I thought I come to check on you."

"I see. Thanks for the concern, but I'm fine. I've just got a lot on my mind." Ichika said.

"Really? Tell me all about it. Maybe I can help." Cecilia said. The truth of the matter, there was another reason Cecilia came over. The thing about the five girls that Ichika hangs out with all have a crush on him. 'This is a great opportunity. I'm alone with Ichika in his house. If I can comfort him with his problems, he'll be mine.' She thought as she loved the idea with it just being the two of them.

"Hey! Charlotte!" Ichika said. Cecilia was shocked to hear that name. She turned around to see Charlotte and Charlotte seemed just as surprised as Cecilia.

"Hello, Cecilia and Ichika." Charlotte said as she didn't like the fact that Cecilia was here. "What's going on here?"

"Cecilia came to check on me. Are you here for the same reason?" Ichika said.

"Yeah..." Charlotte said. She wanted it to be just the two of them, but Cecilia has ruined that.

"Come on in, both of you." Ichika said as he invited the both of them in. "Chifuyu is out for a moment, but she should be back soon." He invited both of the girls in and they had a seat. "Make yourselves comfortable. I'll get you both something to drink." Ichika walked over to the fridge, but he heard someone knocking on the door. "It's open!" He called. The door opened up and all of them saw Houki, Rin, and Laura there. None of the girls really seemed happy to see each other.

"What are you two doing here?" Rin said.

"It would seem that we all had the same idea." Cecilia said.

"It would seem so." Charlotte said.

"You girls didn't had to come check on me, but I appreciate how much you all care." Ichika said.

"Are you saying it's a problem for us to be concern about you?" Rin said.

"Yeah. Since when do we need permission to check on our friend?" Houki said.

"I also thought it would be nice surprise." Laura said. This didn't go the way the girls wanted, but they still made themselves comfortable.

"I appreciate you all coming over, but you don't need to worry about me." Ichika said. "I'm actually doing fine. I just needed time to think."

"That's understandable. You actually dueled Conner Knight and won." Charlotte said.

"Yeah. News about that has spread far and wide. You're already famous." Rin said.

"This is nonsense." Laura said. "You should be quite proud of your victory and accepted it with pride."

"I guess you owe it to that new deck of yours." Cecilia said.

"It's not just the deck, Cecilia. It's the duelist as well." Houki said. "I guess you wouldn't understand since none of you can duel like me and Ichika." It's true. Houki is the only one out of the five of them that can duel. That means she and Ichika have a special bond. That's a problem for the rest of them.

"What's going on here? Having a party?" All of them looked to see Chifuyu entered the house with a large box in his hands.

"Welcome home, sis. What do you have in your hands?" Ichika said.

"It actually came for you." Chifuyu said as she handed it over to him.

"It's from Peggrin." Ichika said. "Peggrin? Hold on! Isn't he the head of the largest game company in the world?!"

"Yeah. In fact, take a look." Rin said as she pulled out her phone and brought up a video. "This happened during a local tournament. The two finalists were named William Alba and Flint Blester. William's specialty is with insects and Flint's is with fire." All of them tried to watch the video go on. Flint had a set of monsters ready, but William played a trap that destroyed all of them and won him the duel.

"It's over! William Alba wins! As a special reward, Peggrin of Gamers Industry rewards him the trophy." Peggrin walked over to William and handed him the trophy.

"A very well duel." Peggrin said. "You have true talent. That's why I wish to invite you to a special tournament I'm holding."

"A special tournament? That might be what's in the package." Laura said.

"Yeah. Laura's probably right. You did defeat Conner and he's a regional champ." Charlotte said.

"Open it up. Let's see what's in it." Houki said. Ichika opened up the box and it had a few items.

"A glove, a pair of stars, and a video?" Ichika said. "What is all this?"

"Play what's on the disc. It might explain everything." Charlotte said. Ichika insert it in a player and turned on the television. On the screen was Peggrin himself.

"Hello, Mr. Ichika Orimura. You may call me Peggrin. I've heard about your duel with Conner Knight and it caught my interest. Defeating a regional champ is quite the accomplishment. That's why I want to invite you to the tournament I'm holding."

"Seriously? He's inviting me?" Ichika said.

"Of course, I wish to see your skills for myself." Peggrin said. "We'll set a time limit for ten minutes. Whoever has the most life points at the end wins."

"Is he saying he wants to duel?" Cecilia said.

"How can he duel you through a video?" Houki said.

"I'm sure you're curious as to how we're going to do this." Peggrin said. "The answer might astound you." There was a faint glow from his hair and everything turned dark. Ichika looked around and saw only he was the one moving. Everyone was frozen

"What is this?! What have you done, Peggrin?!" Ichika said.

"This is how we shall duel." Peggrin said. "We're able to interact with each other like this. If you wish for things to be restored, you'll have to duel me."

"You're on!" Ichika said as he used the power in his charm and the spirit within took over. "I'm ready, Peggrin." Both of them activated a duel disk and began their duel as the timer began.

"I'll start this by placing one card facedown and that's all I'll do." Peggrin said.

"That's it? I better be careful. It must be a trap." Ichika said as he drew his first card.

"I'm sure that Rocket Battler will help with that." Peggrin said.

"What?" Ichika said. That was the very card he drew. 'How does he know what card I just drew? All this is rather strange. I better be careful.' He thought as he exercised caution. "I summon Rocket Battler!" A white rocket flew out on the field and it morphed into a battle robot with 1400atk points. "Attack now with Satellite Laser!" The head of the ship was on the robot's arm and aimed the laser.

"Just as I thought. That's why I'm playing Magic Cylinder to redirect your attack." Peggrin said. The bot fired the laser, but it was redirected and blasted Ichika with his life points dropping to 2600. Ichika actually felt pain.

"What happened? That felt real." Ichika said.

"That's because it was." Peggrin said.

"What do you mean?" Ichika asked.

"That's from the power that is allowing us to do this." Peggrin said as he drew his card. "Tell me, Ichika. Do you believe in magic? There was actually a time magic existed in this world through the use of eight magical items. In fact, you happen to have one around your wrist."

"Eight magic items? You're saying my charm is one of them?" Ichika said.

"Yes, each one having great power that only a few are able to truly use." Peggrin said. "We'll cover more of that later. I pay 800 life points to play Brain Control. This spell will allows me control your monster for this one turn." Ichika's robot switched sides and was now under Peggrin's control. "He won't be staying for long. I sacrifice him to summon Illusion Magician." Ichika's bot vanished to bring out a magician in a blue robe and hold a star staff that had 1900atk points. "Now, attack with Mind Disruptor." His magician unleashed a shockwave that hit Ichika and caused some severe pain in his head as his life points dropped to 700.

'That's the second time he's land a clear attack on me, and time's running out.' Ichika thought.

"I place one card facedown and end my turn." Peggrin said.

'This is bad. I'm behind by 2500LP. I need a powerful monster to turn this around.' Ichika thought. 'Luckily, I have a monster to do just that.' "I summon Infinite Stratos Uchigane!" He summoned another lady wearing a flight mecha suit that was similar to samurai armor. She also had 800atk points. "Thanks to her special ability, I can sacrifice her to summon another Infinite Stratos. The one I choose is Byakushiki!" His monster vanished and Byakushiki took her place with 2500atk points.

"Ooh! The big scary Byakushiki." Peggrin said.

"Mock me while you can, Peggrin. He'll help me win this duel." Ichika said. "Attack!" Byakushiki went on the offense and attacked the magician with an explosion going off. What confused Ichika is that Peggrin's life points dropped all the way to 1650. "Why did you lose more life points?"

"Take a closer look." Peggrin said. Ichika looked and saw his magician survived, but had only 950atk points. "If you're wondering why this happened, it's because I activated my trap called Eye of Black Magic. This trap might cut a spellcaster's attack points in half, but it can't be destroyed."

"But why would you save that monster?" Ichika questioned. "What are you planning?"

"Take a look again." Peggrin said as he pointed to Byakushiki. Ichika saw an eye over it and it looked like it was in a trance. "My Eye of Black Magic allows me to control your monster when my turn comes as long as my magician remains on the field." This wasn't looking good for Ichika at all.

"I'll just set a card of my own to end my turn." Ichika said.

"Do you really think I'm foolish enough to walk into a trap?" Peggrin said. "We're almost out of time. There's even no reason for me to take my next turn. Seeing as how I have more life points, it looks like I'm the winner." There was less than a minute left.

"Time's still ticking, Peggrin. I have just enough time for one last move." Ichika said as he took his turn. "I activate Stratos Takeoff! This will allow me to summon Infinite Stratos Schwarzer Regen!" Ichika summoned out another female pilot in a black suit and had 2100atk points. "Attack his magician now!" Schwarzer Regen had a beam saber emerged from the hand and wnet on the attack. Just before the attack landed, the monsters vanished.

"Too bad. Time is up. If that attack had landed, you would have won." Peggrin said.

"Wait. This still makes sense. How did you do any of this?" Ichika asked. "How did you know what was in my hand?"

"That's quite simple." Peggrin said as he moved his hair out of the way and showed a black and gold patch with the same circle that was on Ichika's charm, black dot in the center, gold surrounding it, broad gold edge. Ichika couldn't believe what he was seeing "It's because I hold one of the Mystical Artifacts. The Mystical Patch. These powerful items hold much power and I plan to take your charm. That's why I'm hoping you'll enter my tournament."

"You're mad. I refuse." Ichika said.

"I don't think you have much of a choice." Peggrin said as he used his patch again. He fired a beam and it hit Chifuyu as her very soul was taken out of her body and was taken through the television.

"Chifuyu!" Ichika called as he switched back. Time started moving again, but Chifuyu's body collapsed with the girls confused again.

"We will duel again, Ichika. It's the only way you'll get your sister's soul back." Peggrin claimed as he laughed with Ichika trying to call for his sister through the screen. Peggrin has thrown down the glove. If Ichika wants to save his sister, he has to compete in Peggrin's tournament. He wanted the chance to help his sister. Looks like he got one.