Cat: So hey guys! So, i'm back from Austria and here is chapter 27!

Rena: We've tried to edit it but we are so tired that everything is blurring together so sorry if spelling is wrong or if a certain section doesn't make sense. Just tell us in a review or something.

Cat: So, i'll try do chapter 28 tomorrow! Gah, holidays are such a pain! They mess up your Fanfiction routine! Anyway, please review!

Rena: This story is in Yuzu's POV. Please give me some artistic licence. If i put some stuff that isn't in the anime in here, don't flame. There would be no point in reading, if it was just the anime in words.

Chapter 27- Opening Match

"Yuya, Yuzu, Sora, Tatsuya, Ayu, Futoshi," my dad addressed us all formally as we stood outside on the pavement. "The day has finally come! To think that all of our students from You Show Duel School qualified for the Miami championship… I'm… I'm so proud of you all!" he burst into tears and tried to hug us. However, years of experience led us to split our group down the middle, not a word spoken between us, so he missed us all. Unfortunately, he smacked onto the ground and was ridden over by a bicycle, without even a word of apology from the rider. Such were the city residents.

"Why did you dodge?" he asked miserably, as we all sweat-dropped.

"Dad, you're way too excited," I sighed.

"We're not even at the stadium yet," Ayu said.

"Y-yeah, that's right," he pulled himself up, clearing his throat. "Then allow me to explain again…"

I sighed and barely listened as my dad began explaining the different brackets of the tournament again, for the fourth time that day. Simply put: there are three brackets; Junior, Junior Youth and Youth. Junior class consists of the younger duellists of the city. Ayu, Tatsuya and Futoshi were qualified for the junior class. Yuya, Sora and I were qualified for the Junior Youth bracket (hence why I called it the 'Junior Youth Championship' and not the 'Miami Championship'). Currently, I didn't know anyone qualified for the 'Youth' bracket, but they had amazing duels to watch, without fail.

This championship is huge. Putting it into words, it's even more popular than the annual tournament in New Domino City. Yeah. That big. People from all over the world attend. A huge concentration of Americans and Europeans arrived over the week, touching down at the teeming airport.

"In order to promote our You Show Duel School's entertainment style, you should all be aiming to win!" my dad cheered, causing us all to sag slightly. Yes, we were aiming to win. But just qualifying for the actual tournament is a feat in itself.

"Now, from here on out, you are not only friends who trained together but also fierce rivals!" we all nodded slowly. Whether the word 'fierce' applied to us, I didn't know but now I was defiantly on my own for now. My friends were my rivals. And I know that Sora and Yuya are good. So, I was going to raise my game and meet them head on. If I had too. There was always the hope of being put in a different section from them, right?

"Fight with all your strength! Don't hesitate or be disheartened! Believe in what you've learned and burn brightly!" he screamed. Not that we cared, silently, without him noticing, we all boarded the school bus. Buckling themselves in, the kids already looked hyped.

I patted my cheeks, to focus myself, trying to shove all the other, unimportant thoughts to the back of my head. "I'll definitely win!" I told myself, tossing all my other musings of Yuto, Shun, Masumi and other people who I couldn't afford to drag me down, right now.

"Alright, you guys all set?" my dad asked from the driver's seat, glancing back at us all.

"Yeah!" we all cheered.

Then, we were off, charging down the street at a ridiculous speed, breaking every law possible. My dad's typical driving. However, we had barely made it to the junction connecting us to the main road when I shouted loudly, causing us to come to an emergency stop.

"Y-Yuzu! What is it?" my dad queried.

"Dad! Yuya! Yuya is!" I babbled.

"Yuya is?" my dad turned to stare at the boy. To realise that he was gone.

"Not here!" we all screamed.

We all vacated the bus even faster than we had entered it. We tore through the school, searching places where he could have hidden. I even ran into the boy's toilets (hey, Sora, Tatsuya and Futoshi weren't around and I didn't have time to find them!) but he wasn't there but maybe, in that circumstance, that was a good thing. He wasn't by his locker, not in the classroom, the canteen. He was nowhere!

"We're gonna be late!" Futoshi gasped, his chubby little body not used to sprinting around the entire building. "Where would Yuya-oniichan go?"

"Look, we need to leave!" my dad wailed. "Where is he?"

"Perhaps he has made his own way to the stadium?" I told my dad who shrugged.

"Well, at this rate, we're gonna have to go without him…"

In the end, we did and we streaked down the roads to the stadium. Arriving outside, we were all giving identification cards at the door. We ran in, searching for red and green hair and goggles but found nothing.

We split up and ran around the whole area but we found nothing. In the end, I regrouped with Ayu, Futoshi and Tatsuya, who all had the same information: nothing.

"Sora! Has Yuya-?" we all ran up to him as he sat in the corner, with the school sign, licking another lollipop.

"Nope, he hasn't come here yet," Sora shrugged, looking like he couldn't care less.

"Yuzu-onechan, what should we do?" Ayu asked me, looking worried.

That was a point though. What do we do? Register Yuya as missing, meaning he might forfeit the competition, after coming so far? Or just say he's at the toilet and pray he shows up in time? Dad was scouring the whole stadium, in case he found his own way here.

"I called his house, but he hasn't gone back there either…" I sighed, remembering the conversation with Yoko, which made her 'motherliness' kick in and she was now scouring the city for her only son. "I can't get hold of him at all! Where could Yuya have gone!?"

"What did you say?" a slightly-familiar voice said sweetly. We all turned to see the creepy fortune-telling girl, Yuya's third opponent when qualifying for the JYC. My anxiety flared even further. Perhaps she had seen him? Perhaps she had kidnapped him?

"Is it true? My darling isn't here yet?" her eyes narrowed. Her words had confirmed that she hadn't seen Yuya recently but her words had infuriated me… More than they should have.

"My… Darling?" I said dangerously, my rage bubbling and seething inside me. The kids backed away from me slightly, as if I was some demon.

"Oh, could it be? My darling has snuck off to introduce himself to my mama and papa!?" she squealed, her eyes sparkling. Through my rage, I pictured the ridiculous image. That would be the last thing Yuya would do. I bet he'd rather admit his love for Sawatari Shingo than introduce himself to her parents. And, even if he did (perish the thought) he would get lost on the way.

My fury burned as I pulled out my fan. Yeah, I was so angry, I was prepared to slap someone who was basically a stranger. "Oh my! What a surprise!" I glared at her, twisting the handle of the instrument. "What're you talking about!? There is no way that would happen!"

"Yuzu-neechan!" Tatsuya hissed. "Calm down!"

"But… What should we do?" Ayu asked, as she held onto my skirt, prepared to grip on and pull so I didn't run and pulverise the annoying brat in front of us. "The tournament's opening ceremony is about to start!"

That was true. We had wasted time with this annoying fan girl and now we had less chance of finding 'Darling' before we had to appear. Yuya better have a good explanation for this, or there was going to be blood on my fan after I was through with him!

I blamed my sudden hatred towards my friend due to his annoying stalker. And then it only got worse when she announced that she would find her 'Darling' through her fortune telling. I stood glaring. If looks could kill, this girl would have died three times over already.

She a purple hankie on the floor and rested her glass apple that she had been holding on top of it. Resting on her knees, she began waving her hands over it to the beat of an extremely annoying chant of 'Darling, Darling, where could you be?' over and over and over.

Facing away from me, she was the perfect target. I leaned in, all ready to smack her over her stupid little head, the kids desperately trying to stop me. I was milliseconds from crashing the paper into her when-

"I see it!" she announced, smiling. I dropped my fan, amazed. Was she telling the truth? Did she know where he was!? We all stared at her.

"W-where is he?" Ayu asked.

"That way!" the girl pointed, making me what to smack her again. 'That way' could be right in front of us, a few miles away or China for all we knew.

"T-that way?" Tatsuya murmured, probably as irritated as I was.

"Yes! I just told you!" she whined, pointing through the window. "He's that way!"

Bzzz Bzzz

"That's my phone…" I told the others, pulling it out of my pocket and flipping it open.

From: Yoko (567898734567890)

Message: Found him

"She found him!" I announced and the others smiled.

"See? I told you so!" she flipped her hair back, a triumphant look across her face.

"Actually, Hochun-san," I said sweetly. "It has not been confirmed where he was found, just that he has been found."

So, now all we had to do was wait for him.

We stood by the wall, the room slowly filling up with more contestants. I ignored them all, not particularly caring what they had to say to one another. However, my ears pricked up when I heard a certain name.

"Hey, I hear Sakaki Yuya has run away!"

"Tsk, just like his father,"

"What a wimp,"

"As they say, like father like son,"

He still wasn't coming.

"There you are!" a voice called from the other side of the room. "Oi! Yuzu! Guys!" We all looked up to see Yuya running towards us, waving. The other contestants stared at him then looked away awkwardly.

"Yuya-oniichan!" the three screamed, waving back at him, grinning.

Relief crashed over me like a pyroclastic flow and, for some reason, I felt the urgent need to cry.

"Sorry for the wait!" Yuya began before I snatched his hand between mine, clamping it in place.

"Yuya!" I hissed. "I was so worried about you! Where did you wander off to!?"

"Sorry, sorry!" he smiled. "I just had something I needed to take care of! We can enter the stadium soon, right? Let's go line up!" He began walking off and I followed his every move with an exasperated expression.

"You really…" I sighed.

"Don't worry about it!" he grinned, before immediately walking into someone's back. The contestant turned and stared down at Yuya before smiling sinisterly.

"It's been a while, weakling!" the person announced, staring down at Yuya (which wasn't hard, this person was huge).

"You're…!" Yuya gasped.

Wait, these guys knew each other? Who was he?

"It was before an important tournament, so I was sure you'd ran away!" the guy grinned. "Just like your old man!"

"What!?" Yuya spat.

"I'll never accept that someone like you beat Strong Ishijima!" the giant grumbled.

"Who is that?" Sora asked Tatsuya.

"No idea…" Tatsuya muttered.

The giant leaned down and pointed at Yuya. "How about I crush you right now and prove what a pushover you are!? Hmmm?"

"That is enough! Ankokuji Gen!" a voice snarled from behind the said person, a hand gripping onto his shoulder, to stop him from advancing any further.

"Gongenzaka!" Yuya cried, being able to see who it was before we could. I blinked, rising onto my toes so I could see him better. Yeah, it was him. He obviously was able to win more duels and make the 60% benchmark and be able to qualify. And, once again, he was defending Yuya from bullies.

"Calling a senior disciple by his name, are we?" Ankokuji smirked. "You must be a real big-shot now, Gongenzaka!"

I didn't realise that this bully was from the Gongenzaka dojo. All the people I had met there were really likable and friendly, if not all a bit stubborn. But I hadn't met one from that school like Ankokuji. And the weird thing was, I had never seen him at the dojo before.

"You are no longer my senior!" Gongenzaka snarled, as the two glared at each other, the atmosphere beginning to become tense.

Man, the last thing we want now is to be disqualified just before the tournament due to violence! I stared on anxiously, praying they didn't begin fighting.

"Players can enter the stadium in a moment," the sweet female voice of the intercom announced to all of us in the room. "All competitors, please line up in front of your respective team placards."

Ankokuji tore his shoulder out from Gongenzaka's grasp, giving Yuya one final look. "At least try stay in the tournament, so I can crush you!" he turned and swaggered off, leaving Yuya and Gongenzaka staring after him.

"To think we'd meet him here…" Gongenzaka muttered.

Yuya, however, didn't seem at all bothered by it. On the contrary, he looked like a child in a sweet shop. "Gongenzaka! You qualified for the tournament, right?"

"Yeah! I, Gongenzaka, made the 60% win rate qualification right before the entry deadline!" Gongenzaka looked smug as he told us, but I didn't blame him. It was good to see him.

"Really! That's great!" Yuya cheered. "Great job!" They high-fived.

Then, the crowd began cheering. The noise was deafening but we all grinned like morons. This was it! We were finally here! I realised that most of the contestants had vanished. Staring up at the screen, I saw that the procession had finally begun. LDS were out first, in a perfect line behind their banner-barer.

As the line kept growing with LDS contestants, it became more a group march, with groups of duellists walking beside each other. I saw Masumi, Hokuto and Yaiba walking together, with Sawatari Shingo just in front of them.

Then, the camera focused in on one person that made me and Yuya gasp. It was Shun. LDS hater Shun. What was he doing there?!

"Why is he in LDS!?" I said, staring up at the screen. Yuya and I glanced at each other both looking equally surprised.

Then, more schools began walking out. Really prestigious schools such as Ryouzanpaku and then international schools such as Knight of Duels.

"Wait, do you know him too?" I whispered, leaning in so the others couldn't hear.

"Yeah, he attacked members of LDS top team in front of my very eyes!"

"Huh!?" my eyes widened. That was Shun!?

I didn't have time to say anything more, however because we had to run down to the entrance tunnel because we would be entering soon.

I watched as a group consisting of only three girls dressed in fairy dresses walked out in front of us, earning a special cheer from the crowd, the MC telling us to keep an eye out for one of their group. Then, it was us.

"Following them, the talk of the town with their Entertainment Duelling, You Show Duel School!" we were introduced.

We all strolled out into the shining sun, the confetti streaming down and the crowd screaming. It didn't take long to locate Yoko and my dad, cheering us on. We couldn't hear them but I was sure my dad was just screaming 'fight' over and over and over. At least he was drowned out.

"You Show Duel School's Sakaki Yuya is becoming a household name with his new form of summoning, Pendulum! We'll be keeping our eyes on him during this tournament!" The MC told the crowd.

Then, we all grouped together, still in out lines, side by side with the other schools. Quickly, the mayor of the city made a quick speech about us being the 'elite' and that we must demonstrate 'fair play'. Then, Nico Smiley came forward.

"Next, we will be conducting the oath of fair play!" Nico announced down his golden mic. "The players' representative this year is… You Show Duel School's Sakaki Yuya-kun!"

Yuya's face made him look like Nico had just dropped an anvil on his head. "Huh? ME!?"

"Yuya is-!?" I screamed. Man, this day just keeps getting better.

"Wait!" Yuya waved his hands frantically. "Nobody told me about this!"

"Sakaki Yuya! To the stage please!" Nico demanded. Before Yuya could protest (or run), two security guards literally picked him up (he was quite small and light, so it wasn't particularly difficult) and threw him onto the stage, where he lay on his stomach and moaned.

The crowd roared with laughter as Nico said something illegible to Yuya, which made him stand up and face the crowd. He stood in front of the mic and screamed. "O-o-o-oath of fairplay!" holding his hand up.

Seriously, I had never seen so many people fall over at once. It had to be some kind of record.

"Yuya! Get it together!" I shouted, hoping he wasn't going to start babbling nonsense, which is what he usually does when he gets flustered. "Everyone is watching you!"

"Everyone is…?" he muttered down the mic, then stood in silence.

The crowd muttered and tittered as Yuya just stood and did nothing. Then, he took a breath loud enough to be amplified through the microphone. Raising his arms above his head, he began. "Ladies and Gentlemen!"

"Yuya?" I stared.

"Pardon me for my earlier mistake," Yuya continued. "In order to turn that around, this is the oath of fair-play! … Is what I'd like to start off with, but I would like you to listen to what I have to say instead!"

"My father is the duellist Sakaki Yushou! The best Entertainment Duellist in the world! But, as you all know, three years ago, before his duel began, he went away somewhere… Everyone called me the child of the Runaway Duellist and I practised Entertainment Duelling desperately, saying 'I'll show them!' But, at some point, I think I ran away from actually duelling. But after learning Pendulum Summoning and fighting really strong duellists, I began to enjoy duelling more and more!"

I watched with amazement. "Yuya…"

"I realised that I wanted to like duelling even more! And I want to be like Sakaki Yushou, someone who people will be proud to know, the best Pro Duellist! I want to be a duellist who can make myself and everyone else enjoy duelling even more!"

And then, the stadium erupted into applause. Yuya flushed and scratched his head, bowed slightly then ran off the stage and re-joined us.

"That was incredible, Yuya!" I smiled, patting him on the back.

"R-really!?" Yuya heaved a sigh of relief. "I was about to wet myself!"

"Now then, we will announce the first matches!" Nico declared. "All competitors please put your registration cards in your duel disks!"

I rummaged in my pocket and pulled out the said card, explaining to Yuya what it was because he had already forgotten. Inserting the cards, we both received our opponents.

"Sawatari!?" Yuya cried.

"My opponent is…" I waited as the machine loaded. Then, I saw the face I did not want to see. "Masumi!?"

"The match date is tomorrow…" Yuya muttered, inspecting the details for his duel with the LDS snob.

"Mine is… today… in the afternoon…" I whispered.

"Mine is tomorrow," Gongenzaka joined our conversation, showing us his disk when Yuya queried who he was fighting. 'Ankokuji' showed up and I realised it was the same guy from the waiting room barely half an hour ago.

"Kurosaki… Shun…" Sora said slowly, as we asked who his opponent was and when he was duelling. "It's him."

"Hiragi Yuzu!" a familiar voice cut through my petrified silence of seeing Sora's opponent. "It seems you're my opponent!"

"Masumi!" I cried, spotting her in the LDS line. "Tell me! Why is Kurosaki Shun listed as an LDS member!?"

"What're you talking about?" she asked. "He's been one of the team from the start!"

"From the… Start?" Yuya whispered.

However, we didn't get much time to think about it. Everyone was off to duel and I found myself at one of the Junior Duel grounds and watching Futoshi's duel along with Yuya and Futoshi's parents who were supporting their son 100%.

After not very long, with his life points below the safety line, Futoshi pulled out an amazing comeback and beat his opponent. We all cheered for him and congratulated him on his first win.

We all gathered around in a circle, all the You Show students and Gongenzaka, chatting. Ayu was up next and she checked her disk, to see her opponent.

"They're from LDS…" she said to my dad, looking up at him.

"LDS?" he responded, then turning to see a small child standing on the field, waiting. I don't know what it was but I suddenly wanted to stand infront of Ayu and get her out of the kid's vision. There was something wrong with that kid, I could tell.

And they were Ayu's opponent.

Cat: Please review! Reviews are what make me write!

Rena: So! Today's question-

Would you be a member of the Reiji fan club that was in this episode?

I don't know about you guys but i so would be! I think its the grey hair... *swoons*

Haha, no i'm joking!

*cough*its his glasses! *cough*

Thanks everyone, you guys are my life xx

-animewatchers186