Wedding bells were ringing as newlywed was made. Their names were Jefferson Stride, who was dashing with slick black hair and his new wife, Veronica, who was beautiful with blue hair like the ocean. This wedding actually happened a few years ago and Rangiku was there to see it. She and Veronica were close friends even though Veronica was around much older.
"Congratulations, Veronica." Rangiku said.
"Thank you, Rangiku. Here, I want you to have this." Veronica said as she gave her a card.
"Gift of Love?" Rangiku said.
"That card brought great joy for me and it means a lot. I want you to have it now." Veronica said in hopes that it will bring Rangiku the same kind of joy she found.
…
Present Day
A festival known as the love festival was happening at Ichigo's school. A day to celebrate love and all that is loved in the world.
"Hi and welcome to the Heart Café." Orihime said as she was dressed in a cute waiter's outfit. That was probably the reason most guys showed up.
"Those guys do know not to look and not touch, right?" Ichigo said as he and the others were helping around.
"Don't worry, Orihime knows to let them down easy and if they don't get it, they know not to steal your girl." Rukia said.
"Ichigo, stop standing around. I've got too much on my plate to do the cooking, making sure the fair is going well, and do your job." Uryu said.
"No one asked you to be here anyway." Ichigo said.
"Hello! Got a seat for one more?" Rangiku said as she came in the café.
"Hi Rangiku!" Orihime said.
"Wow, Orihime and Rukia, you two look adorable in those clothes. I'm starting to wish I'm working here." Rangiku said.
"I would be happy to trade places. I don't even want to do this." Ichigo said.
"Ichigo!" Keigo shouted as he ran into the room and right into Ichigo's foot.
"What do you want?" Ichigo said.
"I just thought you would like to see this." Keigo said as he held up a poster. "It's a duel event for the festival. Pairs of a boy and girls can take on pro duelists, Jefferson and Veronica Stride."
"Veronica?" Rangiku said.
"Yeah. This is going to be her last duel because Veronica is thinking of retiring." Keigo said.
'Retiring?! That can't be right. Veronica loves to duel. She wouldn't give it up.' Rangiku thought.
"Of course, you need a girl to partner up with unless Orihime is willing to duel." Keigo said.
"Wait, Ichigo let me be your partner." Rangiku said.
"What? But Orihime is my girlfriend and I promised I spend the festival with her." Ichigo said, but Rangiku seemed to not care. She just grabbed Ichigo's arm and pulled him along.
"Well, for this duel, you're mine." Rangiku said and they all thought that was weird of her.
…..
Duel Field
Another pairing went down by Jefferson and Veronica waved to the crowd.
"Another win. Is there any other pairings that wish to take them on?"
"We will." All of them looked to see Rangiku and Ichigo come onto the field.
"Rangiku! How nice to see you again." Veronica said.
"Isn't she your old friend that came to our wedding?" Jefferson said.
"Yes and if I remember correctly, that's Ichigo Kurosaki. He won the Karakura Town Tournament." Veronica said. "I didn't know you got a boyfriend that was a champion."
"I'm not her boyfriend! I have a different girlfriend. Wait! Rangiku, you know her?" Ichigo said.
"Never mind that. Veronica, is it true that you might retire from dueling?" Rangiku said and Veronica wasn't expecting her to hear that.
"Let me explain. Veronica said.
"I don't want to hear excuses." Rangiku said. "The least you can do is give me one last duel and when it's over, you're going to explain yourself." Veronica saw that she wasn't going to change her mind.
"Alright. I know you too well and you won't listen until we do this." Veronica said. "Let's get started."
"Here's the rules. We each have our own field, but we can help our partners. Also, we'll each have 4000LP and none of can attack on our first turn." Jefferson said.
"Since I'm already here." Ichigo said and all of them activated their duel disks just as Ichigo's friends arrived.
"Looks like they're getting started." Rukia said.
"Let's duel!" All of them said having 4000LP.
"I'll start." Jefferson said. "I summon my Land Battle Cruiser." A high tech vehicle with cannons rode up with 1600atk points. "Then I'll activate my Thruster Engine spell. Now, all machines gain 200atk points." His vehicle's points went to 1800. "I'll end my turn."
"My move." Ichigo said. "I summon my Swordsman of the Black Blade." His swordsman came up with 1900atk points. "I place one face down and end my turn."
"It's my turn." Veronica said. "I summon my Sky Battle Jet." A jet flew up on the field with 1400atk points. "Thanks to my husband's spell, it gains more attack points." It rose to 1600atk points. "There's more. When it's summoned, it deals 400 points of damage and it's come to you Ichigo." The jet fired missiles and blasted Ichigo and he now has 3600LP. "I'll place one face down to end my turn."
'They're up to something. My swordsman still has more attack points.' Ichigo thought.
"It's my move now." Rangiku said. "First I'm going to use my Beast Infection. This spell will change your monsters to beast types." Both of them changed into a bird and cat like creature and their points dropped.
"Not good. Now my spell won't work." Jefferson said.
"I'm not done. I activate Dizzy Drop." Rangiku said. "This allows me to summon a level five monster if I drop its attack points by 500. I summon Volcanic Feline." A cat made out of molten rocks came up with 1900atk points that dropped to 1400. "Volcanic Feline has a powerful ability. She can destroy all beast types on the turn she's summon and you both lose 400LP for each one." The cat unleashed a volcanic gas that destroyed both monsters and Veronica and Jefferson's points dropped 3600. "I'll end my turn."
"Nice move." Ichigo said. "Since you couldn't battle, you found another way to deal damage."
"It's back to me." Jefferson said. "I'll use my Factory Remade. This brings back all the machine monsters that were destroyed at the cost of 1000LP." Jefferson's points dropped to 2600 and both vehicles came up with the 200 point boost.
"I thought Rangiku turned them to beasts." Orihime said.
"Only when they were on the field, but they turned back when they entered the graveyard." Uryu said.
"Now, Sky Battle Jet's ability activates." Jefferson said. "Don't want to leave the lady out." The jet fired more missiles and Rangiku got blasted this time and her points dropped to 3600. "Mind if I use your monster, dear?" She allowed it. "I sacrifice both monsters to summon Land Battleship Gaia!" Both monsters were sacrificed and a ship made for traveling on land came up with 2600atk points and went up to 2800.
"It's packing some serious power." Uryu said.
"I use Gaia's ability. I send an earth attribute monster to the graveyard to give him a 1000atk points" Jefferson said. He discarded the card and his ship's points went to 3800. "Now, Gaia, attack Volcanic Feline. Terra Demise." The battleship fired energy cannons and were heading straight for Rangiku.
"I activate my trap." Ichigo said. "It's called Light Up Dark. All I have to do is sacrifice my swordsman and your attack is stopped." His swordsman stepped in the blast and protected Rangiku's monster.
"Thanks, Ichigo." Rangiku said.
"We're partners now. It's what I do." Ichigo said.
"Pretty good. I'll end my turn." Jefferson said and his ship's points returned to normal.
"My move. I summon Lunar Reaper in attack mode." Ichigo said and a woman in black with a star staff came up and had 1100atk points. "I'm also going to use the spell, Moon Sediment. I can only activate this when Lunar Reaper is out. Now, I can destroy your Thruster Engine." She unleashed a light and blasted the spell with Gaia's points dropping. "I also gain 700LP." Ichigo's points raised to 4300. "Since you took your wife's only monster, she's open for an attack. Lunar Reaper, attack Veronica with Moon Scythe." His monster unleashed an energy slash and it hit Veronica with her points dropping to 2500.
"I activate my face down, Battle Model Ship." Veronica said. "Since I took damage, this trap gives me Model Plane tokens for every 500 points I lost." Two model planes came up with 0def points.
"I'll just end my turn there." Ichigo said.
"Here goes." Veronica said. "I sacrifice both my tokens and summon Sky Battleship Titania." An air ship flew down and had 2600atk points. "I use Titania's ability. I send a wind attribute monster to the graveyard to give her 1000atk points." She discarded the card and it rose to 3600atk points. "Titania, attack Lunar Reaper with Uranus Wrath." A barrage of energy cannons rained down and blasted Ichigo's monster and his points dropped to 1800. "I'll end my turn."
"Rangiku, you better help me out." Ichigo said.
"Don't worry. I know what I'm doing." Rangiku said as she drew her card, but saw it was the same one Veronica gave her. 'Gift of Love? This is the card Veronica gave me. I can't get distracted.' She thought. "I summon my Ash Cat." Her grey cat covered in ash came up with no attack points. "Now I unite my earth attribute, level one Ash Cat with my level five Volcanic Feline." Both of them became orange energy and merged on the ground. "I unite summon Haineko." Her cat like woman came up and had 1000atk points. "Now, I use Haineko's ability. I use both of her unite units to give her 1000atk points for each one." She ate both the units and her points went to 3000. "Haineko, attack Sky Battleship Titania with Ash Cloud Growl." Haineko created a storm of ash and aimed for Titania.
"I don't think so. The monster I discarded was Sky Battle Decoy." Veronica said. "If I remove this card from play, I take no damage and my monster survives." Titania brought a shield and block the attack.
"No! That was my only chance. I guess I have no choice, but to end my turn." Rangiku said.
"Are you serious? I'm left wide open!" Ichigo said.
"I'm disappointed in you, Rangiku. You should know that in a tag duel, you need to help your partner." Veronica said.
'She's right. I've been too distracted with her retiring that I need to help Ichigo.' Rangiku thought, but saw what she held. 'Wait, that's it. I can use this spell.'
"It's my turn. I'm going to use Polymerzation." Jefferson said.
"That isn't good." Ichigo said.
"Now, I fuse Land Battleship Gaia and Sky Battleship Titania." Jefferson said.
"Fuse?" Orihime said.
"He's combining their monsters." Rukia said.
"Wrath of sky and land will have you meet your end." Jefferson said. "I fusion summon, Battleship Armada Mercury!" An elite blue and green ship floated down to the sky that was larger than a football stadium and had 3200atk points. "I send my top card to the grave and you both lose half of your life points." Mercury fired energy shots and blasted them with Ichigo having 900LP and Rangiku at 1800. "Now, Mercury, attack Ichigo with Catastrophe Zone." An all-out attack came down and was heading on Ichigo.
"I activate, Gift of Love!" Rangiku said.
"Love?!" Orihime said.
"Please change the name." Ichigo said.
"That's the card I gave her!" Veronica said.
"I select one monster and give it to another duelist, like Ichigo." Rangiku said and Haineko went to his field. "It also makes your attack a direct one onto me." Rangiku took the attack and was blown back by all that damage with her points down to zero.
"Rangiku!" Ichigo shouted.
"I'm impress that she took that big of a blow, but the duel has to go on." Jefferson said. "I activate Double Deception. This one of a kind card only works in tag duels. On Veronicas' next turn, she can use my monster and you can't attack us directly until it's destroy."
"So it all comes down to this." Ichigo said as he took his turn. 'Rangiku gave me her best card and I know I can use it. I think I know how.' He thought. "I activate the spell, Necromancy Contact. First, I put all the cards in my hand in my deck, shuffle, and draw five new cards. Also, if any of them are a monster, I can summon them regardless of their level and you both lose life points equal to the strongest monster's attack points."
"He's taking a big chance. He needs a monster with 2600atk points to end this, but the chances of that are slim." Uryu said.
"Here goes." Ichigo said as he drew his cards one by one. "A spell, Monster Reborn. A monster, Soul Seizer with 1500atk points. Another monster, Twin Shield Blocker, but he has no attack points. A trap, Training Mannequin. The last on is…a spell, Treasure Giving. At least I got two monsters." Both his monsters rose to the field. "Since Soul Seizer is the strongest, that's 1500 points of damage." Veronica and Jefferson got shocked and had 1100 and 1000LP.
"That's not enough, kid." Jefferson said.
"I'm not done. I unite Soul Seizer and my Blocker." Ichigo said as his monsters turned to energy and came together. "I unite summon Zangetsu!" Zangetsu came up with 2500atk points. "I use Zangetsu's ability. I use one unite unit to give half of Soul Seizer's attack points to Zangetsu and your monster loses the other half." Zangetsu slashed one unit and his points went to 3250 and Mercury went to 2450. "Zangetsu, attack with Piercing Heaven." Zangetsu jumped up to Mercury and slashed it right down the middle and caused an explosion that Jefferson got caught in and he lost. "Now, Haineko, attack Veronica directly!" Haineko scratched at Veronica and she lost all her points and made Ichigo and Rangiku the winners and everyone cheered. After the duel, Rangiku got her answers.
"You're not retiring?" Rangiku said.
"No, you misheard. I'm just taking a break from it so I can take a career in education to teach younger duelists." Veronica said.
"Veronica, I'm sorry." Rangiku said.
"It's okay. I would have explain, but I knew you wouldn't listen until we did duel." Veronica said. "You used that spell I gave you well. It saved your partner."
"Yeah." Rangiku said as she took a look at Ichigo with him and his friends talking to Jefferson. "He's a great guy."
"Why don't you tell him that yourself?" Veronica said as she shoved her right to Ichigo's arms creating an awkward instead of a romantic moment.
AN: I know, so long, unlike my other chapters, but I just wanted to make this a one parter.