Author's Note: In this chapter, I'll be introducing the love interest for Shark that I came up with. This character was actually going to be used in a completely different story that got scrapped. As for who this character is related to, there's a big clue in the title of this chapter. I remind everyone reading that this story sort of continues the events of my 5D's Alternative trilogy, so I once again ask that everyone forget what they know about the 5D's anime.
Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL (or Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's).
Chapter 1: Stardust Legacy
It was a late Sunday morning as sixteen-year-old Ryoga "Shark" Kamishiro headed for Heartland Academy. Accompanying Shark were two of his fellow former Barians, Durbe and Mizael. Ordinarily, the three would not be going anywhere near the school on a Sunday, but there was a special event being held in front of the school that made going there on a Sunday an exception. Shark's old ally, Gauche was going to be dueling in a special exhibition match. If it had been up to Shark, he probably would've just skipped the event, but all of his friends insisted that he come.
About half way towards the school, Shark and his companions spied a familiar group of people a few feet ahead of them. Two members of this little group were in the middle of an argument. One of the two was a young man with very short dark hair that had three sets of red spikes towards the front. This of course was Shark's old friend and rival, Yuma Tsukumo. The dark-haired young man that Yuma was arguing with was another of Shark's fellow former Barians, Alit. Also in the group was Yuma's girlfriend, Kotori Mizuki, along with Yuma's old friend, Tetsuo Takeda and another one of the former Barians, Gilag.
"I wonder what those two are arguing about?" Durbe asked as they continued to approach.
"Something stupid, I'm sure." Shark assumed as he rubbed the bridge of his nose.
As Shark and his two companions walked up, Kotori, Tetsuo, and Gilag were the only ones to notice their arrival. Yuma and Alit were too wrapped up in their heated debate to notice anything else.
"Oh, hi guys." Kotori greeted.
"What the heck are Yuma and Alit arguing about?" Shark asked.
"They're trying to decide who's going to duel Gauche in that match." Gilag explained. "They've been going on like this for ten minutes."
"Wait, back up. Who said anything about either of these guys dueling Gauche?" a confused Shark asked.
"Don't you know? For this exhibition duel, Gauche is gonna take on one challenger from the audience." Tetsuo explained. "The problem is, Yuma and Alit can't decide which one of 'em is gonna be Gauche's opponent."
"Okay, I think I get it now." Shark replied. "Let me handle this."
With that, Shark walked up behind Yuma and flicked him in the back of his head. Both Yuma and Alit were snapped from their argument.
"Oh, hey Shark." Yuma greeted. "How long have you been here?"
"I just got here." Shark answered. "Kotori and the others just told me what's going on."
"Do you wanna duel Gauche too?" Yuma asked.
"Nah, I'm not really in the mood to duel right now." Shark answered.
"What about Durbe and Mizael?" Alit asked.
"As if I'd waste my time." The blonde dragon tamer huffed. "The only one I consider to be a worthy opponent right now is Tenjo."
"I'm not that interested in dueling Gauche either." Durbe replied as he adjusted his glasses. "But if you two are so eager for the chance, then why don't you duel each other first to decide who duels Gauche."
Yuma and Alit blinked at Durbe in surprise. It seemed that the idea of having a duel to decide Gauche's opponent had never occurred to either of them.
"I've been telling you guys that you should do that for the last ten minutes." A rather frustrated Kotori added. "You two have been too busy arguing to listen to me!"
"Oh… sorry Kotori." Yuma told her. "I guess that is a pretty good way to figure this out."
"Yeah, and I'm always ready for a chance to duel Yuma." Alit agreed.
"There's no time for that now!" Tetsuo interrupted. "The duel is in five minutes! If we don't leave now, none of us are gonna duel Gauche."
"Then I guess there's only one solution left." Gilag decided. "We get there, and Yuma and Alit will have a rock-paper-scissors match to decide who duels."
"Fine, whatever. Let's just get going." An impatient Shark told them.
Within a few moments, the group had reached the front of Heartland Academy. Already, a large crowd of people had gathered there to watch the duel that was about to take place. Standing in front of the building was a man with orange hair wearing a tight-fitting blue and red costume with a golden star-shaped mask. This of course was the man that everyone had come to see, Gauche.
"Welcome, one and all!" Gauche spoke into the microphone he was holding. "I'm Gauche, the Star of Spartan City! And for today only, one of you lucky people will get the chance to face me in a duel! So if anybody has the guts, step up and face me!"
As Yuma and Alit began their rock-paper-scissors match, many other young duelists were debating with one another with who was going to duel Gauche. Shark looked away as Yuma and Alit tied for the third time and noticed that a young woman had arrived on the scene. She looked to be about eighteen and had long very dark-blue hair with a few strands of gold that went half way down her back, and a pair of golden cat-like eyes. The young woman had on a sleeveless white shirt with a blue circle on the front with a dark-blue vest, along with a pair of black fingerless gloves that went up past her elbows. The rest of her outfit consisted of a pair of tight black jeans with a brown pair of cowboy boots. Hanging from her neck was a small gold cross-shaped medallion with an emerald crest.
As the young woman walked, her nose was buried in a book on theoretical physics that she held with her right hand. Using her left hand, she dragged behind her a blue suitcase on wheels. The young lady was so engrossed in the book she was reading that she didn't notice when she walked up before Gauche.
"Well, looks like we have our challenger!" Gauche announced, greatly surprising Yuma and Alit.
"What the… how did this happen?" Alit demanded to know.
"You idiots were so distracted by your little game, you let someone else steal your opponent." Mizael told them.
"It's your own fault for getting distracted." Durbe added.
"I wonder who the girl challenging Gauche is?" Kotori asked.
Shark's eyes widened in surprise when he took a good look at the young woman. "That's… Hikari!"
"You know her, Shark?" Yuma asked.
"Yeah, from a long time ago." Shark answered. "When Rio and I were about eight, Hikari and her family stayed here in the city one summer. It's been years since I've seen her."
"I have to say, Miss. I wasn't expecting you to be the one to challenge me to this duel." Gauche spoke. "I hope you really have what it takes to take me on."
The young woman known as Hikari finally looked up from her book and quickly looked around. "Oh, are you challenging me to a duel?"
"What the… you're the one who walked up and challenged me!" Gauche told her. "Now are we doing this or what?"
"I really don't know what's going on, but if you're challenging me to a duel, I'll be happy to take you on." Hikari replied as she set her book and suitcase down.
With that, Hikari and everyone in the audience put on their D-Gazers as Gauche's D-Gazer tattoo activated. The environment around them took on a slightly different color and several holographic screens appeared in the air. As soon as Hikari and Gauche activated their duel discs, the duel was set.
"I'll start things off." Hikari declared as she drew her first card. "First I'll set two cards in the field. Then I summon Quillbolt Hedgehog in Defense Mode!"
Materializing on Hikari's side of the battlefield was a hamster-like creature with light-brown fur. Growing out of its back was a mass of dark-grey metal bolts.
"That ends my turn." Hikari announced.
"That's all you're doing?" a somewhat outraged Gauche asked. "What kind of wimpy defense is that?"
"Hey, a duelist can only do so much on the first turn." Hikari calmly pointed out. "No need to get so bent out of shape."
"Boy, Gauche really seems to be losing his cool." Yuma observed.
"I don't blame him." Tetsuo replied. "He goes to all this trouble of setting up this duel, only to take on some airhead girl who's got no clue about what's going on."
"Hikari may be a little clueless sometimes, but she's no airhead." Shark told them. "And Gauche is going to regret it if he takes this duel lightly."
"I'm gonna teach you a lesson!" Gauche declared as he drew his first card. "Since my opponent controls a monster while I don't have any on the field, I special summon Heroic Challenger-Assault Halberd from my hand!"
Materializing on Gauche's side of the battlefield was a warrior clad completely in blue and white armor. His left hand was a weapon with three blades.
"Next I summon Heroic Challenger-Spartan in Attack Mode!" Gauche announced.
Appearing next to Assault Halberd was a warrior with green eyes clad in gold and white Roman armor with a helmet and red cape. In his right hand he wielded a spear, and with his left he carried a large red shield.
"I attack your little hedgehog with Assault Halberd!" Gauche announced. "And when Assault Halberd takes down a monster in Defense Mode, my opponent takes piercing damage!"
The warrior in blue charged forward and jumped into the air before coming down and slicing the little hedgehog in half with his blade. The two halves shattered apart and Hikari's life points dropped from 4000 to 3000.
"Spartan, attack this girl directly!" Gauche commanded. "Spartan Spear!"
"Not so fast! I activate the Trap, Scrap-Iron Scarecrow!" Hikari announced. "This card cancels your attack before setting itself back on the field!"
As Spartan threw his spear at Hikari, a scarecrow made out of bits of junk suddenly popped up in front of her. The spear struck an invisible barrier in front of the scarecrow and bounced off, spinning back through the air to come back to the Roman warrior's hand. The scarecrow then vanished and the large representation of Hikari's card reset itself on the field.
"You don't see that card much anymore." Tetsuo remarked. "Scrap-Iron Scarecrow's a pretty old card, but a pretty good one."
"Fine! I'll end my turn there!" Gauche announced.
Hikari drew her next card. "I summon Junk Blader in Attack Mode!"
Appearing on Hikari's side of the battlefield was a red-eyed warrior clade completely in purple armor. He had on a tattered black cape, and in his left hand he carried a large lance-like blade.
"Now I activate the Spell card I set on the field earlier, Emergency Teleport!" Hikari announced. "This card lets me summon a Psychic monster from my hand, so I summon the Tuner monster, Krebons!"
Appearing on the battlefield was a slender humanoid creature clad in a blue and white outfit that one might find on a jester or clown. Its head appeared to be detached from the rest of its body. Its face had a wide grinning mouth filled with yellow teeth, and over its eyes was a black visor displaying green lines.
"A Tuner monster? That means this girl, Hikari uses Synchro Monsters!" Tetsuo realized.
"What's a Synchro Monster?" Kotori asked.
"It's a special kind of monster that you summon by adding up the levels of weaker monsters." Tetsuo explained. "But one of the monsters has to be what's called a Tuner."
"I've never even seen a Synchro Monster before." Yuma remarked.
"That's no surprise, since no one in Heartland uses 'em." Tetsuo replied. "This girl's clearly from out of town."
"Since I have a Tuner on the field, I can summon Quillbolt Hedgehog back from the Graveyard!" Hikari announced. The light-brown hedgehog reappeared on the battlefield. "Now I tune the level two Krebons into the level four Junk Blader and the level two Quillbolt Hedgehog for a level eight Synchro Summon!"
Krebons flashed orange before turning into two rings made of green light. The rings encircled Hikari's two other monsters and changed them into six white stars.
"Clustering hopes will become a new shining star! Become the path its light shines upon!" Hikari chanted. "Synchro Summon! Take flight, Stardust Dragon!"
The stars flashed and created a pillar of white light that shot into the air. The light faded after a moment to reveal a silvery-white dragon with magnificent wings and well-developed arms and legs. Its head ended in a three-pointed crest and at the end of its snout was a long horn. As the dragon flapped its wings, sparkling green lights showered down onto the field. Gauche was shocked upon seeing the dragon, as was everyone in the audience. Everyone that is, except for Shark.
"It's so pretty." An awestruck Kotori declared.
"Such a mighty dragon." Mizael declared. "It might even be a match for my Tachyon."
"N-no way!" a stunned Gauche spoke. "How the hell can you have that card?"
"I equip Stardust Dragon with the Spell, Junk Barrage!" Hikari announced. The dragon began to glow with a faint green aura. "Stardust Dragon, attack Assault Halberd! Shooting Sonic!"
Stardust Dragon reared back his head and fired a sparkling ray of light from his mouth. Assault Halberd was struck in the chest and was instantly vaporized. Gauche's life points dropped down to 3300.
"And now the effect of Junk Barrage kicks in!" Hikari announced. "Since Stardust Dragon destroyed your monster, you take half that monster's ATK as damage!"
Flaming bits of space junk suddenly fell from the sky and struck Gauche, creating several small explosions around him. When it was over, his life points had fallen to 2400.
"I'll set one card on the field and end my turn." Hikari announced. "You're up."
"Guess this girl, Hikari is a lot tougher than we all thought." Alit remarked. "Gauche had really landed himself in a tight spot."
"It's all thanks to that dragon of hers." Mizael responded. "Perhaps there are other worthy opponents besides Tenjo after all."
"But… there's just no way!" Tetsuo spoke. "It's impossible for that girl to have Stardust Dragon!"
"What do you mean, Tetsuo?" Yuma asked.
Before Tetsuo could answer, Gauche drew his next card. "I play Monster Reborn and summon Assault Halberd back to the field!" The warrior in blue reappeared on the battlefield. "Next I summon Heroic Challenger-Extra Sword!"
Appearing next to Gauche's other two monsters was a warrior clad completely in green and yellow-green armor with spiked shoulders. In each of his hands he carried a large sword.
"With these three monsters, I build the overlay network and Xyz Summon Heroic Champion-Kusanagi!" Gauche announced.
A large red vortex appeared in the middle of the battlefield. Spartan, Assault Halberd, and Extra Sword turned into three balls of orange energy and flew into the center of the vortex. Rising out of the anomaly moments later was an extremely large warrior clad in orange and dark-red samurai armor. Three balls of orange light orbited around him, and in his right hand he carried a sword with a single long flame as the blade.
"Wow, an Xyz Monster. I don't see much of those back home." An impressed Hikari remarked. "Of course Kusanagi only has 2500. If you used him to attack Stardust, they'd both be destroyed."
"Except since I used Extra Sword as an Overlay Unity, Kusanagi gains 1000 extra ATK!" Gauche revealed. "Kusanagi, take out that dragon with Heroic Flame Sword!"
"I activate my Trap, Scrap-Iron Scarecrow!" Hikari quickly announced. The scarecrow of junk popped back up onto the field.
"Nice try, but I activate Kusanagi's effect!" Gauche announced. "By detaching one Overlay Unit, Kusanagi can negate the activation of your Trap!"
Hikari's lips curved into a smirk. "I knew you'd try a move like that, so I activate my Counter Trap, Stardust Judgment! Because you used a monster effect to negate my Trap, Stardust Judgment negates that effect and destroys the monster!"
"What!" Gauche exclaimed.
One of the balls of light orbiting Kusanagi flew into the blade of his flaming sword. The giant samurai swung the sword and sent a blast of fire at Hikari's scarecrow. Before the flames could hit, a massive blast of blue light shot from Hikari's other Trap and pushed back the flames. The blue blast continued and vaporized Kusanagi, causing Gauche's jaw to drop.
"One more thing." Hikari continued. "Since I had a Dragon-type Synchro Monster on the field when I activated Stardust Judgment, you take damage equal to that monster's ATK!"
Stardust Dragon reared back his head and fired a blue beam of light down at Gauche. Gauche was knocked to the ground by the attack and his life points dropped to zero. A holographic screen appeared in the air and declared Hikari the winner of the duel. With the duel over, Stardust Dragon vanished and the surrounding area returned to normal. Much of the audience was left in shock by what they had just witnessed.
"That was fun." Hikari declared as she removed her D-Gazer and walked up to Gauche. "Thanks for helping me kill some time."
"Who… who the hell are you?" Gauche asked.
"Oh, sorry. I guess I should've introduced myself earlier." Hikari realized. "I'm Hikari Fudo. It's nice to meet you."
Many of the audience members gasped upon hearing Hikari's last name. The only ones who weren't surprised to hear it were Shark, his fellow ex-Barians, and Yuma.
"Hikari… Fudo?" Teusuo spoke. "But… then that must mean…"
"She's Yusei Fudo's daughter." Shark finished, causing both Tetsuo and Kotori to become surprised.
"What the… you never said that you knew Yusei Fudo's daughter!" Tetsuo told him.
"You never asked." Shark pointed out. "Besides, it was a long time ago."
"Who's Yusei Fudo?" a confused Yuma asked, causing Shark, Tetsuo, and Kotori to fall over.
"Yuma! How the heck could you not know who Yusei Fudo is?" Tetsuo asked.
"Just when I thought when you couldn't be more dense!" Shark exclaimed.
"Pardon us, Nasch. But none of us know who this Yusei Fudo you speak of is either." Durbe calmly pointed out.
"Yeah, well you four have a pretty good excuse for that, since you technically aren't from Earth." Shark replied. "Yuma's only excuse seems to be he's an idiot."
"Hey!" Yuma protested.
"Yusei Fudo is the champion duelist of Neo Domino City." Shark explained, completely ignoring Yuma. "Stardust Dragon was his signature card. He's considered to be one of the strongest duelists in history."
"Yeah, people say that he's as strong as the legendary Yugi Muto and the mythical Jaden Yuki." Tetsuo added.
"Who're those guys?" Yuma asked. This time everyone in the group fell over.
"Jeez Yuma! I understand you not knowing about this Yusei guy, but not knowing about Yugi Muto and Jaden Yuki?" Alit asked.
"Even we know who Yugi Muto is, you dolt!" Mizael told him.
Just as Shark started to chew out Yuma, Hikari turned and noticed him in the audience. She quickly went over to where he and the others were standing.
"Ryoga, is that you?" Hikari asked, causing Shark to turn.
"Uh, yeah. Hi, Hikari." Shark greeted with a slight blush.
"I was hoping I'd run into you while I was here." Hikari revealed. "You've really grown since the last time I saw you. Of course I knew it was you when I saw that hair of yours."
"You look great too." Shark replied, trying very hard not to stare at Hikari's bountiful chest. "You actually look a lot like your mom."
"I know, everyone says I take after her." Hikari responded. "So how's your sister? Is she here?"
"Rio's fine. She's actually away on a trip." Shark revealed. "What brings you back to Heartland?"
"Someone in this city asked my dad for help on a project." Hikari explained. "But he was a little too busy to come, so I came here instead. I was actually supposed to meet the person who asked for help here, but I ended up dueling that pro wrestler guy."
"And you did an impressive job beating him." A voice remarked. Everyone turned to see Kaito with Orbital 7.
"You Kaito Tenjo?" Hikari asked.
"That's right." Kaito confirmed. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Ms. Fudo."
"Sorry my dad couldn't come himself." Hikari told Kaito as she shook his hand. "He had to oversee the upgrades to the main reactor in Neo Domino. Momentum Reactors can be a little tricky sometimes. If you don't know what you're doing, they can blow up in your face."
"Yeah… we've started to realize that." Kaito replied, his expression saddening a bit.
"Well, I guess you should take me to this project of yours so we can get started." Hikari decided before turning back to Shark. "Ryoga, I'm probably going to be in town for at least a week. We should use some of that time to catch up. Give me a call sometime, huh?"
"Yeah… I'll call you, or something." Shark agreed, his face turning a little redder.
"Yuma, I'll see you and the others later." Kaito told him. With that, he walked off with Hikari and Orbital.
As Kaito and the other two walked off, Gauche approached Shark and the others. "Well, that was a different kind of duel than I expected. That girl, Hikari sure takes after her old man."
"Hi Gauche." Yuma greeted. "Sorry you and I didn't get to chance to duel."
"Don't sweat it, kid." Gauche replied. "I'm gonna be in this city for a few days. We should have time for a quick duel later."
"Well before you and Yuma have your duel, you'll have to take me on!" Alit declared.
"You got it!" Gauche agreed.
Kotori looked around and suddenly noticed that someone was missing from the group. "Hey, where's Droite? Shouldn't she be here?"
"Oh, yeah. Droite was feeling pretty under the weather this morning." Gauche explained. "She's back at our hotel trying to get some rest."
"I see." Kotori replied. "Well, I hope there's nothing seriously wrong with her."
Droite wandered through a vast camber with walls and a floor that glowed with an eerie purple light. All around her were endless rows of transparent crystal coffins, each one containing a naked desiccated corpse. Droite had no memory of how she had gotten to this strange place or why she was there. Yet she somehow felt at home there, and it seemed that there was somewhere in the room she was trying to get to. After a few more moments of walking, Droite finally reached the place she was heading for.
The place in question was a large raised altar with a single crystal coffin on it. Droite approached the coffin and found the dried out body of a woman with very long white hair inside. For reasons she didn't understand, Droite reached out and placed her hand on the lid of the coffin. Suddenly the dead woman inside opened her eyes and turned them towards Droite. Droite was disturbed that the eyes were orange like her own. The dead woman's hand suddenly burst through the coffin's lid and grabbed Droite by the shirt.
Droite shot in bed, cold sweat covering her brow. It took her a moment to realize that what she just experienced was only a nightmare. Though it was the most vivid nightmare that she had ever had. After catching her breath, Droite got out of bed and headed for the bathroom. She turned on the sink and splashed some cold water on her face. Droite calmed down a bit and began to look at herself in the mirror. She looked a little paler than she normally did, but assumed that was because she was sick.
Droite took a deep breath and absentmindedly put her hand on her chest. When she did, she suddenly noticed that something was very wrong. Droite moved her hand to different spots on her chest, pressing down on it as hard as she did. But everything she did only confirmed that she seemed to be missing something very important. She didn't have a heartbeat.
Author's Note: I once again apologize if any of the characters were OOC. Anyway, Hikari Fudo was originally going to be the star of a series I was going to do called ZEXAL Alternative. It was going to serve as a sequel to 5D's Alternative and focus on the children of the Signers. But there were a whole lot of problems that I couldn't solve. For one thing, I was having a real headache trying to come up a deck for Hikari that would allow her to use both Stardust Dragon and the Numbers. Synchro and Xyz Monsters can be a little incompatible with one another in some decks. I also didn't know what direction to take with the story, and every variation I came up with was too much of a 5D's story. So I decided to toss the idea and use Hikari for this tale.
I do eventually plan to do an actual 5D's Alternative sequel at some point in the future though. It'll take place two years before the events of this story (in other words, the same time period as the ZEXAL anime), and reveal how the second generation Signers came to be.
Please review and let me know what you think.