Cat: Why, hello :3 Miss me?

Rena: Sure you did!

Cat: I have the excuse of my birthday for not writing this week. I'm 16! Scary...

Rena: Please review! I'm aiming for 300 right now! That'd be a nice Birthday prezzie? Favourite and following is awesome too! But, above all, please enjoy!

Cat: 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 42- Battle Royale Starts!

Very quickly, other members of the group split up and disappeared into different areas of the city. Everyone for themselves and all that.

"I'll see you two later!" Gongenzaka roared over to us, before going left, while Yuya and I ran right.

We tore off through the city, making sure we were as far away from the other competitors as possible. We didn't want an early match. We needed time to search and prepare.

"Kurosaki never did show, did he?" I asked Yuya, as we scavenged through bushes.

"No…" he stood up, obviously having found nothing. "He's one of the 16 competitors. He will definitely come…"

"Then, let's split up and search!" I said, beginning to run off. Friend or not, Yuya was my opponent. I may end up facing him.

"Yuzu!" he called, forcing me to slow down and stop. I looked over my shoulder.

"What?" I asked.

"Be careful," he smiled.

"Yeah, you too, Yuya," I wished him luck before running off again.

I ran down a few streets, not spotting any cards or any people. But suddenly, the Action Field kicked in and I was standing in… Antarctica?

"Just looking at this makes me cold!" I wailed, as my knees knocked together. They should have warned us beforehand of temperature changes! I was in a skirt, for crying out loud!

Then, I spotted one. Plastered to the side of a bin was a brand new Pendulum card.

One down, one to go!

"Man, it's hot!" I heard a voice saying. I blinked and turned, sourcing the voice to one of the other contestants, who I had never seen before, before today. "I'm so hot from running around! It's as hot as my country!"

Then, he spotted me. He grinned and charged towards me. I was about to run for it, wanting to find more cards to bet with before beginning my duels and I didn't even have my second one yet. But he held out his hand instead.

"You're Hiragi Yuzu!"

"Huh?" was all I could say.

"I am Halil from LDS's school in Anatolia! I am an exchange student from their Fusion Course! Nice to meet you!"

"Uh, nice to meet you!" I bowed.

"You are the Fusion User who beat Masumi!" he continued cheerfully. "I want to duel you!"

"Ummm… Ok," I said slowly. "But I don't have my second Pendulum Card yet…"

"I got three when I was running around!" He held it out to me. "If I give you one, we both have two and we can duel!"

Does he even understand this tournament?

"Thank you!" I took it from him. "You are very kind!"

"But I won't lose in a duel!"

"I wonder about that!" I could feel my competitiveness showing and my adrenaline started pumping. "I'm not your ordinary Fusion user! I am an Entertainment Duellist who uses Fusion!"

"Oooo!" he grabbed my hand. "I'll learn from this!"

"Ah… Yes…" I smiled weakly. He was a sweet guy but he had obviously never heard of personal space.

"My turn. Draw!" I could barely make out through his thick accent. "I summon La Jinn, the Mystical Genie of the Lamp! I set two cards and end my turn!"

"My turn! Draw!" I glanced down and grinned. I was finally going to do a summoning I had kinda been wanting to do for a while. "I, using the Scale 3 White Butterfly and Scale 9 White Flower, set the Pendulum Scale!"

"What? Pendulum summoning?" he asked, looking confused.

"It's finally time for my Pendulum debut!" I grinned.

"Continuous trap! Magic-Absorbing Lamp! It negates the activation of one of my opponent's Magic cards and adds it to my hand!"

"Huh!?"

"Give me White Flower," he held out his hand. I sulked, pulling it down from the field.

"My first Pendulum Summoning," I muttered, throwing it over to him. "I summon Fantasia Maiden Opera from my hand. This card cannot attack on the turn it was normal or special summoned. I end my turn!"

"My turn! Draw!" he called. "A Pendulum Card!" he squealed.

"Don't tell me what you drew!" I chided, thinking back to the many times I had said that to Yuya over the years.

"I was so happy, I couldn't help but say it!" he wailed, as I scowled. "The exciting time has finally come! I, using the Scale 1 Red Devil and Scale 9 White Flower, set the Pendulum Scale!"

Bzzzz….

He muttered a few words in his own language, as he picked up the card and continued to slap it into the middle of his disk, only to get the same sound over and over. "Why?" he asked. "Entertaining Duelling is very difficult! But I want to bring it to my country too!" he picked it up and inspected it from underneath.

"Put it near the edge," I told him bluntly. He stared at me. "I'm telling you to put the Pendulum cards in the Pendulum Zones on the edges!" I screamed. I almost added on a 'Yuya, you idiot!' because it always accompanied that voice.

"Near the edges…" he said quietly, fiddling with his disk before it finally came to life. "Wow!"

"Now I've returned the favour from getting the card back!" I smiled. This was good. I now would feel no guilt if I beat him.

"With this," he continued as if nothing had happened. "I am able to summon any monsters simultaneously between the levels of 2 and 8! Pendulum Summon! Come forth, Red Lamp! Purple Lamp! Whoooopeeee! I did a Pendulum summon! It's Entertainment!"

I sighed, running his words through my head. I knew from the moment I met him that Japanese wasn't his first language and I was confirmed when he started jabbering in English while his Pendulum summoning didn't work. But his accent was making some things really difficult and I was having to slowly process every word.

"Red Lamps effect! When this card is special summoned, I can deal 600 points of damage to my opponent!" I blinked, then braced myself as I was immediately smacked in the face with fake fire. My life dropped to 3400 and I shivered, the mild warmth reminding me that I was wearing a skirt in an Action Field that could easily host penguins.

"Yes! I'm learning from this!" he cheered, which made me smile slightly.

"G-Good for you,"

"Furthermore, Purple Lamp's effect activates! When it's special summoned, I can add the magic card Fusion to my hand!"

Note to self: Buy a 'Purple Lamp card' for easy Fusion access.

He pulled it out but didn't even put it in his hand before playing it immediately, like I knew he would.

"I fuse La Jinn, the Mystical Genie of the Lamp and Red Lamp!" he smiled.

I glanced around. No Action card in sight.

"Please come forth! Flaming Spirit of the Lamp, Fire Jinn!"

I frowned, biting the inside of my cheek. This was not looking good. From the beginning, I had never underestimated him but I realised now that I was basically duelling another Masumi (I cringed at the thought of her wearing Halil's clothes) from another LDS school.

"Fire Jinn's affect! When this card is special summoned, I can deal 600 points of damage to my opponent!" I screamed, just dodging a jet of flames that would have hit me head on if I hadn't moved. Inches away, I could tell that that fire was a lot hotter that the Red Lamp's effect damage. My Life dropped lower to 2800 points. Not good.

"And additionally, with Red Devil's Pendulum effect, I can increase the attack power of all Fire monsters by 300!"

I took a step backwards as the monster's attack rose to 2700 points. It was hard to believe it was this guy's first time Pendulum summoning. Apart from the earlier placing mishap, he was pulling it off like he had been doing it for… Longer than Yuya, anyway. I found it quite alarming how quickly people were taking it. It was a step closer to them being mass-produced and used in duels on a regular basis.

But, now wasn't the time for that. It hit me that Halil's monster had just increased in attack points for a reason. Now, I had to run.

"Oh no!" I screeched, as the monster loomed over me and I shot off, faster than Yuya ran from dentist drills.

"Fire Jinn! Attack Fantasia Maiden Opera!" The monster shot towards mine and stopped. It paused for a second, almost as if it was inspecting my Fantasia Maiden, and gave it a simple flick on the forehead. She exploded into gold dust and I scowled. My monster deserved a better battle. Not a patronising, humiliating head-flick. My life was now at 2400.

"Then, I attack directly with Purple Lamp!" he continued. I tried to run faster but my legs wouldn't obey. The harsh, cold air made breathing even more difficult and my shoes were slipping on the icy snow. I had no monsters defending me and I barely had a second to see the fast jet of purple and black blast before it hit me.

I screamed as I felt myself being engulfed by the stream, knocked off my feet and propelled backwards, hitting the snow meters away and skidding. My bare arms and legs scrapping across the freezing snow and, even worse, the pavement underneath. I bit my tongue in order to stop myself crying out from the pain. As I continued to skid, I opened my eyes, hoping to see where I would stop but saw something that made my heart leap. An Action card sticking up in the snow.

"I got it!" I cheered, reaching out and snatching it. Then, I blinked. As I was descending, so was the ground. It had suddenly turned into a steep ice slope. I opened my mouth and let out a terrified shriek as I began to plummet and then painfully collided with the thick ice slope, continuing to spiral downwards.

I could hear Halil shouting after me, my name and several words in English. "Help!" I cried before I shot off the end of the ice slide and collided with- a person!? We both collapsed on the ground in a flurry of limbs, cards and duel disks. We both lay there, groaning.

"Yuzu?" a familiar voice said, sounding shocked.

I rubbed my head, squeezing my eyes shut before focusing on the person. "Gongenzaka!"

I glanced at him. It looked like he had just been duelling. But who? I couldn't see his opponent anywhere.

"Hey! What's with you!? If you don't get off me now, I won't forgive you!" I stared down and blinked before scrambling off Gongenzaka's opponent.

"S-Sorry!" I squeaked, as I stood up.

Battle Royale Mode! Joining! Tag Duel!

Sorry, say what!?

"Huh?" I said.

"A Tag Duel!?" Gongenzaka demanded.

Then, Halil flew in. Literally flew in, carried by his Fusion monster. "What does this mean?" he asked, pointing at his disk.

I stood by Gongenzaka and gulped, surveying the other two duellists in front of us.

It was obviously a Tag Duel, then.

Cat: Chapter whatever-the-next-number-is will be up when i can put it up... Thanks for being patient!

Rena: The question!

Disney or Studio Ghibli?

Man, these questions are getting dire... Any ideas in what questions i should ask? :P

Thanks everyone, you guys are my life xx

-animewatchers186