It was several minutes before Yuya had the strength to get up and start gathering his cards.

"Don't listen to them." He said to them as he dusted them off. "You're the best cards ever. Those jerks didn't know what they were talking about." He smiled sadly and shoved his reassembled deck back in his pocket. He tried to walk home but found he could only reach the edge of the alleyway before he slumped against the wall in pain. He was bruised everywhere and had a lot of ugly blood stains. He moaned in pain as he shoved himself upright again and began the long trudge home.

Meanwhile, Varsch, Robin, Carter and Devin were all a good distance away in a local park, laughing as they replayed what happened in their minds.

"So did you get what you needed?" Devin asked Varsch. He smirked and waved a tape recorder at them in triumph. They all burst into cheers and slapped each other on the back, revelling in their victory. "Do you have the rest of what we need?" Varsch asked. Nathan nodded and the five of them shared smirks with each other. "Excellent, tomorrow we'll start the next stage of the plan."

"Yuya?" Yoko called as she heard the door click. "Why are you home so late?"

"Sorry, I had to stay behind at school to catch up on some homework." Yuya lied.

"Oh Yuya." Yoko sighed, turning her attention back to her cooking. Yuya quickly made his way up the stairs while she was distracted. He didn't want his mom to worry, or get involved so he didn't tell her what had happened. Besides, hopefully this was just a one-time thing, and now that those jerks had, had their fun they'd leave him alone. He staggered into the bathroom and got out the first-aid kit to try and treat his wounds. They hissed angrily in protest but he kept going with only a few grimaces of pain. As he fixed himself up he kept having flashbacks to what had occurred. He'd been beaten up before, he could handle that. But they disrespected his deck. His blood boiled with rage every time he thought of it. People insulting him he could handle, but he drew the line at his friends or his cards. He sighed heavily as he finished cleaning the last of his cuts. He splashed some cold water on his face and looked himself over in the mirror. He was pleased to see there were no signs of his injuries.

"Yuya!" He heard his mother yell. "Dinner!"

"Coming." He replied rushing downstairs.

Time skip…

Yuya was laying on his bed contemplating the week's events. First of all, one of his most humiliating incidents had been broadcast to his entire class. And, as he'd later found out, uploaded to the internet so the whole school could see. And now he'd been ambushed and beaten up on his way home from school. He couldn't help but think there must be a connection. Whoever these people were they wanted to hurt him. But the question was why?

Unfortunately, there was no way he could figure that out. As he didn't yet know who the leader of the group was. Or that it was a supposed friend of his.

Speaking of that supposed friend, he was right now cutting together a tape from the recording he'd taken in the alley for the next stage of his plan.

Time skip…

"Good morning." Zuzu said as she sat down next Varsch the next morning.

"Same to you." Yuya replied.

"How are things?" Varsch asked, directing the question at both of them.

"Fine." Zuzu smiled.

"Yeah great." Said Yuya, sounding genuinely happy.

He's either gotten over last night already, or he's very good at covering it up. Varsch thought. In actual fact it was both, Yuya was great at covering any sort of pain with happiness, and had become so use to it he wasn't so bothered by it anymore.

"Attention class…" Their teacher said, forcing the three of them to divert their attention.

Time skip…

By the time lunch rolled around Yuya was starving and practically dragged Zuzu out of school so they could find a place to sit and eat their lunch.

"Hey slow down." She cried, pulling her arm away and giving him a light punch. She hadn't hit too hard, it was only playful, so she was quite surprised when Yuya cringed in pain and clutched his arm. "What is it?" She asked.

"Oh, uh, nothing I'm fine." He said with a laugh. Zuzu looked like she didn't really believe him. "Anyway I just remembered I have somewhere I have to be this lunch, see ya later." And with that he took off, ignoring Zuzu's cries for him to stop. He couldn't risk her asking awkward questions that might force him to reveal what happened last night. He didn't understand what was going on but he didn't want his friends involved in it.

"That was weird." Zuzu said aloud to herself. I wonder what's up. She thought. She decided to confront him about it at You Show tonight, for now she would find somewhere to sit and eat her lunch.

Yuya, in the meantime, had just ran up three flights of stairs and was stood in one of the school's corridors, panting heavily.

"Well, well, look who it is." A, sickeningly familiar, voice said. Yuya spun round and found himself face to face with three of the four jerks from yesterday. He let out a small cry of worry, then mentally kicked himself for showing weakness like that. It didn't go unnoticed by the gang of bullies.

"How are you feeling?" Devin asked.

"Recovering okay?" Asked Carter eliciting snickers from the rest of the group. Yuya growled angrily under his breath. Then realised this was the perfect opportunity to teach them a lesson.

"You all disrespected my cards," He said. "I won't let you get away with that. Let's duel."

The four bullies all looked at each other incredulously, then burst out laughing.

"You're serious?!" Devin asked.

"Yes!" Yuya snapped. "I can't let you get away with mistreating my deck, or anyone's deck for that matter so duel me right now."

"Alright then, fine." Nathan said with a smirk. The five of them all activated their duel disks…

Elsewhere, Zuzu had just finished her lunch and was wondering where both Yuya and Varsch were. She decided to go for a walk to find them. She wandered around the courtyard for a bit but couldn't see them. She was about to give up and go get ready for class, when she distinctly heard the sound of Yuya's voice.

"I hate you!" She heard him yell. It made her curious as to who he could be talking to, and when she peaked around the corner she'd heard his voice come from, she was stunned to see it was Varsch.

"But Yuya, I thought we were friends." Varsch said, sounding desperate.

"Friends!" Yuya cried, "Why would I want to be friends with you, you were just using me to get close to Zuzu."

Zuzu gasped when she heard that.

"That's not true." Varsch practically pleaded. "I am your friend I swear."

"I don't care, you're sick and horrible and I hate you!"

"How can you say that?!"

"I know you were just using me."

"I wasn't—"

Varsch was cut off by Yuya slapping him across the face, causing him to reel back clutching his cheek. Zuzu cried out, her hand flying up to her mouth.

"Don't lie!" Yuya yelled, then took off. Zuzu watched him leave wondering how he could have done such a horrible thing. It wasn't like Yuya at all… Her thoughts were interrupted by groans of pain from her other friend.

"Varsch!" She cried, rushing over to him.

"Zuzu?" He said, like he couldn't believe she was there.

"Are you okay?" She asked, cupping his face so she could examine his cheek. It was beginning to bruise but it didn't look too serious.

"How much did you see?" He asked, shifting his gaze to the floor.

"A lot." She muttered sadly. Varsch sighed and pulled away from her grasp. He walked over to the school building and sat down against the wall. Zuzu went and sat next to him.

"Why was Yuya so upset with you?" She asked.

"Well," Varsch started, then looked like he didn't want to carry on but Zuzu gave him a look that clearly said he couldn't avoid this. "Okay I like you."

"What?"

"I really like you Zuzu, so I told Yuya I was going to ask you out and he got mad saying he didn't want one of his "best friends" spending more time with me than with him. Then he started accusing me of just pretending to be friends with him to get close to you."

Zuzu couldn't believe what she was hearing. But she had just heard Yuya say stuff about being used, how could he think that.

"I think he's jealous." Varsch said. "I think he reckons if we went out he'd become a third wheel or something."

"What?! I would never do that!" Zuzu cried, then saw how hurt Varsch looked. "No, I didn't mean I would never go out with you, I mean I would never treat Yuya that way."

"Thanks." Varsch said with a mix of sarcasm and amusment. They both laughed softly.

"I can't help but like you Zuzu." He continued, he raised his head upwards to stare at the sky. Zuzu just watched him, mesmerised, as he began to pour his heart out to her. What she didn't know was that everything he said about her were things he'd heard Yuya say, and they made her heart melt. Varsch turned to face her as he spoke but just tailed off as he looked into her eyes, they were just inches from each other. Before either of them realised it, they'd leaned in and connected their lips. To Varsch this came naturally, as he'd kissed so many girls before, he knew exactly how to make it seem like the most magical kiss in the world. And Zuzu melted into it just as he knew she would.

"Zuzu?" He said when they pulled apart.

"Yes?" She muttered, still dazed.

"I know I could have picked a better moment." He began, taking both her hands in his. "But would you like to go out with me?"

"I'd love to." She replied, smiling at him. Whist in her head she was planning to confront Yuya on his strange behaviour tonight. And in his head, Varsch was congratulating himself on how he'd so easily fooled her.

He also praised Robin on his performance as Yuya when they met up later. Robin said he couldn't really take the credit, he'd just dressed as Yuya, Varsch had been the one to splice together a tape from recordings he'd taken of Yuya. In the end they just all praised each other for their work so far and continued work on the next stage of their plan.

As for Yuya. He'd won the duel, but he'd lost something more important…