The tournament on Duel Island has begun. Duelists have to win a total of ten stars for them to enter the castle. The first opponent Ichika wanted to face was William Alba. It seemed like William had Ichika, but Ichika pulled a game changer and has taken the lead.

"Ready to face your punishment, William?" Ichika questioned. He had 3200LP with Rocket Battler at 1400atk points, Kuribot at 300atk points, and Rocket Flyer at 1500atk points. He also had a face-down ready. As for William, he had 1100LP and only his Swarming the Field spell and one face-down. He was also looking very irritated.

"Ichika's got him now!" Charlotte said.

"Yes. Quite the effective trap he had." Laura said.

"All he's got to do is just attack with one of his monsters and he wins!" Cecilia said.

"Yeah! Knock that bug right out of the game!" Rin cheered.

"I can't believe this is happening. I'm not going to lose to some nobody." William said.

"It seems you're out of moves, William." Ichika said. "In that case, I'll just take my turn." He drew his card and was ready to end this, but he also knew to be cautious. 'I could attack right now and be done with it, but that face-down he has could change everything.' As the duel was going on, it was starting to draw a crowd.

"Hey! There's a a duel going on!"

"That's William Alba, but who is the other guy?"

"That would be Ichika Orimura over there." Houki said. "The rest of these girls, just ignored since they really shouldn't be here."

"Hey!" All four of them shouted.

"Ichika Orimura?! The guy that beat Conner Knight?! I wasn't expecting a duel like this until the finals."

"Well, once Ichika wins, that bug won't even make it to the finals." Houki said, but someone just laughed her comment off.

"You're joking right." All five of them looked and they saw the Hector was there. "You're little friend doesn't stand a chance. William's a well-known duelist himself. He's got some moves."

"Oh great. You're here." Houki said.

"Who's he?" Rin asked.

"Hector, a dude with an attitude." Houki said. "You don't know Ichika. He's about to win this right now."

"Yeah right. You really think someone like William is going down easy?" Hector said. "This isn't some friendship game. You need strategy and talent to win. Just watch and see."

"William, I'm ending this now! Rocket Flyer, attack him directly to end this!" Ichika ordered. His robot activated it's thrusters and flew straight at William.

"No! I'm doomed!" William claimed and it appeared Ichika won, until William smirked. "Fooled you! I have a trap of my own! I activate Life Parasite! I took the chance that you would actually try to destroy my insects! Now that I've got five in my graveyard, this trap destroys all your monster and you lose life points to the grand total of half of your monsters'! That means you're losing 1600LP."

"I told you. Ichika walked right into that one." Hector said. A parasite-like creature appeared on the field and was about to attack all of Ichika's monsters.

"Actually, I expected that William." Ichika said with William surprised. "I activate my face-down! The spell Monster Retrieval! It brings all my monsters on my field back into my deck!" All three of them came back and William's trap missed.

"Rats! I thought I had him!" William said.

"That was close, but Ichika saved his monsters and didn't lose any of his life points." Charlotte said.

"Yeah, but he's left defenseless now. He better come up with something to protect himself or else he could be in trouble." Hector said.

"I have just the thing to help myself. I play Stratos Takeoff! This spell allows me to summon one Infinite Stratos from my hand or graveyard. Rise, Infinite Stratos Schwarzer Regen!" He summoned out his monster with her only having 2100atk points. "However, since I already went through my battle phase, I can do nothing more than to end my turn."

"I'll show you." William said as he refused to be defeated by him. "I play my Pot of Greed. I can now draw two more cards." He drew his cards and he laughed with what he got. "You're in real trouble now! I summon my Vile Caterpillar!" He summoned out a black caterpillar to the field with it having only 100atk points.

"I don't get it. That monster barely has any attack points." Ichika said. "What is he up to?"

"I'll get around to that." William said. "First, I'll use my Caterpillar's ability. All I have to do is get rid of a card and I can draw one more card. I don't need my Swarming the Field anymore." His caterpillar ate his own spell and allowed William to draw another card.

"What's that bug up to?" Rin said.

"Not sure, but it can't be good." Houki said.

"You're right. It won't be good for Ichika. If he's not able to stop it, he's done for." Hector said.

"Now watch! Now that I have Vile Caterpillar, I can sacrifice it to summon out Evil Cocoon!" William said. His caterpillar encased itself into a cocoon and it was placed it had a total of 2500def points.

"What is that thing?!" Ichika said.

"Just you wait. Once I get the monster I need, you're done for." William said. "I'll just place this one card facedown to end my turn." Ichika may not know what he's up to, but he knows he needs to stop this and fast.

'It looks like I have some time, but that cocoon has a lot of defense power.' Ichika thought. 'Schwarzer Regen's ability would inflict piercing damage, but I need to make her stronger to do that.'

"Come on, Ichika! You can still win!" Charlotte cheered.

"Will you give it a rest? All that stupid cheerleading isn't helping." Hector said. "You're just distracting him, but that's probably a good thing. If he can't beat that thing, he's done for."

"It's not over yet." Houki said. "Ichika can still win and we've got his back."

"He can't win, so do everyone a favor and quit your yapping." Hector said.

"I won't stop yapping you insensitive jerk. Do us a favor and just get lost." Houki said.

"Just ignore him. Ichika's the one that needs help." Cecilia said.

"You're right. There's got to be something he can do." Houki said.

"Well, here goes something." Ichika said as he drew his next card. "Yes. This will work. I activate Rocket Boost! An Infinite Stratos equipped with this gains an additional 500LP." Schwarzer Regen was given rocket boosters and her attack points rose to 2600. "There's more. When she attacks a monster that's in defense mode, and her attack points are higher, she can inflict piercing damage!"

"She can?!" William said.

"That's right! That means she can destroy your cocoon and deal damage!" Ichika called. "Attack with Soldier's Charge!" Schwarzer Regen pulled out a laser lance and charged at the cocoon.

"Did you really think I let you destroy my monster?!" William taunted. "I play my trap! I activate Insect Exoskeleton! It can equip onto an insect and it's defense points rise by a thousand!" The cocoon's defense points rose all the way to 3500. Schwarzer Regen attacked it, but she didn't even damage it. All that did was cause Ichika's life points to drop to 2300. "Ha! All you did with that attack was damage yourself!"

"Laugh while you can, William. I end my turn." Ichika said.

"Acting tough isn't going to help you." William said as he drew his next card. "I don't think there's much I can do right now. So I'll just pass this turn."

'I see what he's doing. He's stalling until he can get whatever monster he's looking for.' Ichika thought. 'The longer this duel goes on, the great the trouble I'm in.' Ichika drew his next card and was trying to decide what to do. 'I don't have anything in my hand at the moment that can help. What I should do is pull out a little defense.'

"You can't stall forever." William said.

"I summon Infinite Stratos Uchigane!" Ichika said. He summoned out his warrior with her having 800atk points. "Thanks to her special ability, I can sacrifice her to summon another Infinite Stratos to the field. I release Uchigane to summon Infinite Stratos Akatsubaki!" Ichika summoned out a new woman wearing a red flight suit with her having 2400atk points. "I end my turn."

"Does he really think summoning powerful monsters like that is really going to help him?" Hector said. "It doesn't matter how powerful his monsters are if William's monster just mows them down. I'm starting to think it was just luck that he beat Conner."

"Come on, Ichika." Charlotte said as the girls were still with him.

"You can't hold out much longer." William said as he drew his next card. He laughed with delight as he saw it. "Here it is! With this, this duel is mine! It's time for my cocoon to hatch!"

"Into what?!" Ichika said.

"You're about to see! I summon my most powerful insect! I summon Vicious Moth of Demise!" The cocoon hatched and out came a massive moth with dark purple wings. It was monstrous with it having 2800atk points.

"What is that thing?!" Ichika said.

"Behold, the most powerful insect in my deck! Even the infamous Great Moth fears this one!" William said. "Let me show you why. This moth can cut your monster's attack points in half!" His moth unleashed poisonous powder with Schwarzer Regen losing power and her attack points dropped to 1300. "Now witness my moth's power! Attack!" His moth unleashed a powerful gust and blasted Schwarzer Regen with Ichika's life points dropping to 800. "There's more! All those attack points taken away go to you as damage when your monster is destroyed! I win!"

"Guess again!" Ichika called. William took a closer look and saw Schwarzer Regen using a shield to block the attack. "What you didn't know was that Schwarzer Regen has a second ability. Once a turn, she can prevent an Infinite Stratos monster from being destroyed."

"Darn it! You may have bought yourself another turn, but it's your last turn. Go and finish it!" William shouted.

'This is it. It all comes down to this one last draw.' Ichika thought. It's all or nothing as he drew his final card.

"You still got this, Ichika!" Cecilia.

"That's right! You can still turn this around!" Rin cheered.

"Give it a rest already." Hector said as he was tired of all their cheering. "It's practically over."

"It's not. He can still turn this around." Houki said.

"Get real." Hector said. "This is the real world. You can't turn a duel around with one card. A miraculous draw might happen in T.V., but not here."

"Do you ever think positive about anyone?" Houki said.

"Stop complaining about him." Laura said. "Just take a look at Ichika. He's smiling." All of them looked and they saw he was actually smiling and laughing.

"What are you laughing about?!" William shouted.

"Tell me, William. What is it about dueling that you like?" Ichika questioned, but William didn't get it. "Is it when everything goes as you plan, or is it how everything can be turned around with just one card. I activate Riryoku!"

"Not Riryoku!" William shouted as he and Hector were surprised that he drew that card.

"That's right! It drains half the attack points of one monster and transfer it to another!" Ichika said. William's moth's power was being drained as it went down to 1400 and transferred to Akatsubaki as it rose to 3800. "Akatsubaki, attack and end this!" Akatsubaki pulled out a pair of swords and flew right at the moth. She sliced it to pieces an instantly destroyed it.

"My moth!" William shouted.

"You're finished, William." Ichika said as all of William's life points dropped to zero.

"He won!" Charlotte cheered as all of the girls were happy for him.

"Amazing..." Hector said as he was amazed as well. "He actually turned the duel around with just one card. I can see why he beat Conner!" With the duel won, Ichika took the only two stars that William had.

"This can't be happening to me." William said.

"It is. You used dirty and underhanded tactics to win, William. This is what you deserve." Ichika said.

"He's right. I'll also be taking this." Houki said as she took his glove. "I'll be sure to disinfect it first." William's the first out of the tournament and Ichika is the first one ahead.

"I now have three stars, but I still need seven more." Ichika said. "I'll get in that castle and rescue Chifuyu." Ichika's on the right track and nothing is going to stop him.