At the hideout
Yuto entered the hideout, immediately seeing O'Brien and Shark.
"What were you guys doing?" Yuto asked them as he took off his mask.
"Well, I was at You Show Duel School. Sakaki Yuya's manager...I think… was there. They were talking about free pass to some Miami Championship. But Yuya turned it down and wanted Nico, his manager, to get him 4 duels before the Championship." Shark explained.
"Why did he turn it down?" O'Brien asked, who was in the hideout the entire day coming up with plans.
"He said that he didn't think it was fair that he could get in for free and other people didn't. He wanted to test himself as a duelist. Hmph, that's what I like about him, he's willing to test his own strength." Shark smirked. "What about you?"
"First, I have to ask you, is there someone who goes to your Duel School named Sora?" Yuto asked.
"Yeah." O'Brien told Yuto.
Yuto put a grim expression on his face. "I dueled him and an LDS student, I was teleported by Hiragi Yuzu's bracelet during the duel. They thought that I was the culprit for the incident of that Professor Marco person Shun dueled."
Speaking of Shun, he had just walked into the hideout. (This is before he was scanning the LDS tower from last chapter, that occurs at night, the sun is setting still.)
"You...don't tell me you dueled another person from LDS!" Shark exclaimed.
"So what if I did?" Shun said nonchalantly.
"Shun, we know your pain. After all, you're not the only person who has experienced pain. We all have, my Dad, Shark's parents, O'Brien's parents. But, Shun, listen to me. This is not our battlefield." Yuto told Shun.
Shun remained silent and didn't respond. He just walked past them, however, it was better than shoving past them. In reality, Shun didn't actually duel anyone, he was just scouting, but he didn't tell the others, so they were unaware of this. However, for some reason Shun didn't want to tell them that he was just scouting.
"Guys, come with me. Shun, we'll be back in a couple of minutes!" Yuto called out to Shun.
"Fine." Shun replied.
Outside
"What do you want, Yuto?" O'Brien asked.
"That Miami Championship thing, are you guys planning on entering?" Yuto asked.
"No." O'Brien said.
"Maybe." Shark said.
"Maybe?" Yuto repeated.
"To be honest, I thought that if I entered, I could get closer to Akaba Reiji. I don't have the needed requirements to get into the championship, so Yuya offered his pass to me. I took it, so I might join." Shark explained his reason for thinking on joining the tournament.
"Anyways, besides that, Shun is going to far with what he's doing." Yuto got to the point.
"We knew that. But, what we don't is how to stop him from going too far." O'Brien said.
"Honestly, I think that he's going to do anything to get Ruri back. Even if it means...defeating us." Yuto told them. He has noticed how harsh Shun has been, and a very big strain had been put on their friendship. It was funny, Yuto's best friend is turning out to be one of his worst problems.
"I think you should follow him in secret while he's out Yuto, except at night." O'Brien suggested.
"We'll have to worry about this later, let's get some sleep." Shark told them as he walked back into the hideout.
Later
Yuto, Shark, O'Brien, and Shun we're currently sound asleep. Well, at least the first three were, Shun was faking his sleep. He was actually going to go out and scout for any weak points in LDS.
Shun quietly got up from his "bed"/the floor and made sure the others were sleeping. Shun strapped on his duel disk and left the hideout.
(He's going to be doing what he was doing at the end of last Chapter now.)
Days later
Sora and Yuzu we're currently at the docks. Yuto was hiding in between 2 buildings so no one could see him. He was listening in on what they were doing. Yuzu was trying to do a Fusion Summon, however, she failed because she had the Fusion Monster in her main deck and not her extra deck. Now, after a bit, her bracelet started shining again, Yuto looked over and realized that he was about to be teleported again.
With Yuto
Yuto found himself in an alleyway.
"Great, again." Yuto said to himself. Suddenly, he heard a small explosion, one that didn't actually make much sound. Yuto ran to where he heard the sound and saw Shun dueling someone from LDS.
"Go, Rise Falcon! End this, Brave Claw Revolution!" Shun yelled as he destroyed the monster the person had, he was sent back and dropped to the floor in pain, he looked up in terror as Shun walked up to him. Yuto knew what he was about to do.
"Shun, stop!" Yuto shouted, but it was too late, Shun had pressed the button, the man's body was enveloped with a purple light. Soon, the body was gone, and a card dropped to the ground.
Shun turned around and faced Yuto. The two gave each other a serious stare, not letting their eyes off of the other person for even one second. A cold tension had grew in between the two.l, as a gust of wind blew at Yuto's cape as if it was a flag.
"I told you, this isn't our battlefield, if you're going to assault the people from LDS then at least don't card them." Yuto told Shun.
"If I let them be, they might take the chance they have to call reinforcements." Shun quickly rebutted.
"I'll be heading back to base." Yuto informed Shun quietly.
"Fine with me." Shun replied calmly as Yuto left the alley they were in.
Days later (In episode 21 I think)
Shun was standing near the docks in the shadows in between two crates. Unknown to him, Yuto was watching him nearby. Then, they heard the voice of a boy.
"I would've ended that Duel one turn earlier." Sora bragged.
"Your opponent's monster was only 1500 attack. Instead of summoning Furnimal Bear, you could've summoned Furnimal Lion." Yuzu told Sora.
"I know. I just wanted to show you more Fusion Summoning. You didn't seem to get it last time, after all." Sora explained.
"I've got Fusion down now! I've gotten more than enough practice! Now, I just need to polish those skills in a real match!" Yuzu exclaimed in excitement.
"Well, aren't you confident." Sora commented. "Then I guess you should show me your Fusion Summoning. I've been waiting to have another match with you for a while now."
"You're on!" Yuzu accepted the challenge. However, they were interrupted when they saw Kotsu Masumi walk in front of them.
"You're...Kotsu Masumi." Yuzu realized.
Oh no, its her. Sora rolled his eyes.
"Have you heard the news?" Masumi asked Yuzu.
"News?" Yuzu repeated.
"The constant assaults by a mysterious Duelist, no doubt that one me and the twerp dueled the other day." Masumi assumed the duelist being Yuto.
Shun, who was listening, perked his ears. Yuto dueled at some point. The assaults were really him, by Yuto dueled the girl and the boy.
"More assault incidents?" Yuzu said in shock. There was even more. How many was there going to be before it all stopped?
"All victims are connected to LDS. However, we can't get any word from them, because they have disappeared. All of them." Masumi explained.
"Disappeared?" Yuzu questioned.
"They're all gone!" Masumi exclaimed as her body started trembling, tears coming down her face. "Professor Marco and members of the LDS top team. Please, tell me where I can find that guy! You know, don't you!" Masumi was at a very high level of panic. It could be seen all over her, the trembling hands, the fear on her face.
"Him…?" Yuzu was confused by whom Masumi meant by 'him.'
"The one who dueled me and the boy last time, the black-masked man!" Masumi reminded Yuzu as she clenched her fist. "If I had captured him back then...if I had beaten him then...I could've been able to prevent all of the incidents after that!" Masumi pointed her finger at Yuzu with anger. "It's all because you let him get away!"
"I don't know anything…" Yuzu denied.
Masumi closed her eyes, gritted her teeth and clenched her trembling hand into a fist. "Don't lie to me! Professor Marco has disappeared. That kind and strong Professor Marco...he might be suffering somewhere right now!"
Yeah, suffering in a card. Shun thought to himself.
"That's why I need to find him as fast as possible! Hurry up and tell me where he is!" Masumi demanded.
"I've told you that I don't know!" Yuzu yelled.
"Then how come you were at the scene of the first incident when he was there!? If you're going to be ignorant then…" Masumi trailed off as she got her duel disk from her holster and strapped it onto her wrist. "Then, as a Duelist, I'll beat the answers out of you!"
"An LDS Fusion Summon isn't a problem for you now." Sora told Yuzu confidently. "You can take her out in a jiff."
"You're saying I should take her challenge?" Yuzu asked Sora.
"Yeah, plus, you've been saying a lot now that you've been getting enough practice. This is the perfect time to test your skills." Sora explained his reason.
"Me, taken out in a jiff, by her?! Did you see how badly she lost to me last time?!" Masumi exclaimed.
"Yeah, but that was last time. Yuzu is on a completely different level compared to back then. She now understands that LDS Fusion Summons aren't a threat to her anymore." Sora told Masumi, angering her.
"That is an insult to Professor Marco who taught me Fusion Summoning! I won't forgive you! I'll beat some sense into you first!" Masumi declared at Sora.
"Huh? You want to duel me?" Sora asked. "You shouldn't do that. You'll just lose the little amount of confidence you have left."
"Shut up! LDS is the strongest! I'll make you never forget it!" Masumi yelled, at those words Shun finally spoke.
"You are LDS?!" Shun exclaimed.
Masumi gasped in shock, Sora looked behind him and widened his eyes. With great speed, Shun ran out of his hiding place and rammed into Yuzu, who screamed as she dropped her Duel disk, however, Shun kept running. Yuzu fell to the ground, while her Duel disk also did, her deck scattered around the ground. Shun looked at Masumi and activated his duel disk.
"If you're LDS, then I'll be your opponent!" Shun yelled as he activated his duel disk. A drop of sweat formed on Masumi's head. Shun took a step towards her while Masumi stepped back.
"Are you… the real culprit of all the incidents, so it really wasn't that Masked Man?" Masumi asked.
"The Masked Man is a comrade of mine and nothing more than that!" Shun responded. These words hurt Yuto, as before the war, Yuto and Shun were best friends, so for Shun to say that he is just a comrade to him hurt Yuto inside.
"Now, face me!" Shun yelled.
No response
"Duel me!" Shun challenged Masumi forcefully.
This has gone too far! Yuto thought as he jumped off the roof of the warehouse he was on.
"Stop it, Shun!" Yuto yelled as he landed on the ground and forced Shun's hand with the activated Duel disk down. Shun looked at him with a look of shock under his sunglasses and scarf. How did Yuto know he was here? "Stop being so reckless!"
Masumi, Yuzu, and Sora gasped in shock at the sudden appearance of Yuto.
"Yuto!" Shun yelled out his comrade's name.
Yuto slipped down his mask so he could talk more clearly. "God damn it Shun, why the hell do I always have to fix the messes that you cause?! I thought I told you before that this isn't our battlefield! I already told you that these people aren't our enemies! "
Shun forced Yuto's hand off of him and put down his scarf mask. "This is MY battlefield! I have to do this, in order to get Ruri back! I'll do anything to get her back. If ANYONE gets in my way, then I'll defeat them too!" Shun raised his voice. Meanwhile, Masumi ws talking on her duel disk like a phone.
"I've finally found the culprit behind the incident. Send backup, Yaiba, Hokuto!" Masumi said through the phone. Everyone looked at Masumi, however, Yuzu was the one who spoke up.
"Wait! We don't know if he's the culprit yet!" Shun, who finally noticed Yuzu, looked at her, and gasped in shock, she looked like…
"Ruri! Why is Ruri here…?" Shun asked himself as he took off his shades and walked towards Yuzu, as Yuzu stepped back out of fear and confusion. "Did you escape on your own, Ruri?!"
"This has gone on long enough!" Yuto yelled as he ran in front of Shun and with extreme force, he punched Shun in the stomach. Shun spit out saliva as he just stood there in pain. Shun took one last look at Yuzu, thinking she was his little sister. The one he had lost.
"Ruri…" Shun stopped as he finally lost consciousness.
"She is not Ruri. I wish she was, but she isn't." Yuto whispered to Shun, if he had any bit of consciousness left, he would have been able to hear that. Yuto picked up Shun and held him over his shoulder.
"Contact LDS and send as many people as possible!" Masumi told Hokuto through the disk.
"Alright! Yaiba is right on it!" Hokuto responded through the disk.
Yuto looked at Yuzu's scattered cards on the floor and saw the card that his enemies used, Fusion. Yuto bent down and picked it up. Yuto looked at Yuzu and held up the card.
"This card doesn't suit you." Yuto said.
"Well isn't that too bad." Sora suddenly said. Yuto turned to Sora and looked at him. "I don't like hearing that about presens I give people though. I wouldn't mind showing you even more of a reason on why that card is amazing though, without any other people interrupting."
"Sora!" Yuzu scolded. However, that call went on deaf ears as Yuto and Sora stared at each other dead in the eyes. An intense burning fire could be felt between these two. Yuto had a really big suspicion on this boy, thinking that he is from Fusion. He was pretty sure Sora knew that he was from the Xyz Dimension, if his hunch was correct, that is. Yuzu walked in between the two.
"Cut it out, Sora! And you too!" Yuzu told both Yuto and Sora.
"Masumi!" Hokuto called out.
Masumi looked to where she heard his voice and saw Yaiba, Hokuto, and Yuya running towards her. Once again, Yuzu's bracelet shined, and Yuto disappeared. Also, since he was holding Shun, Shun disappeared with Yuto.
With Yuto and Shun
Yuto found himself in an alleyway. Just his luck, he got transported again. Actually, he was about to leave anyway. He should wait for Shun to wake up, after all, he needs to talk to Shun.
Later
Yuto heard Shun groaning and looked at his body which was on the ground, Shun had his eyes open. Shun rose to his feet.
"What happened?" Shun asked Yuto.
"I knocked you out." Yuto responded. Shun put his hand on his stomach, he remembered now, how Yuto knocked him out, how there was someone from LDS, how there was a girl who looked like…
"Ruri!" Shun exclaimed as he was about to run, however Yuto put a hand in his way. "What are you doing? I saw Ruri!"
"So you didn't hear me after all. What's gotten into you, Shun?" Yuto asked.
"First off, you FREAKING PUNCHED ME IN THE STOMACH, you might not know it, but you're actually a really strong person. Second off, I saw my little sister and what do you, you come up to my face, and punched me, IN THE STOMACH, HARD! So why the hell are you asking me what's gotten into me?!" Shun yelled.
"Calm down. You're going to get us caught. You've already attracted so much attention, even more than me, and look how much attention I got. Besides, about the girl, she isn't Ruri. She just looks like her." Yuto told Shun.
"Yuto, I have known Ruri longer than you, I am her brother for crying out loud. We have been together for almost my entire life, do you think I would forget the face of my own sister?! I saw her face, it was Ruri!" Shun rebutted.
"She's not Ruri. I saw the girl had the card Fusion in her scattered deck, heck I even saw her try to perform a Fusion Summon. If you know your sister, then you would know that she wouldn't use the card or the Summoning Method that brought so much pain to her and her loved ones, with a smile on her face no less." Yuto countered.
A long silence filled in between the 2. Neither of them had said a word. Finally, Yuto managed to break the silence.
"Shun." Yuto said.
"What?" Shun responded rudely.
"Did you really mean what you said to me back there when I came. Where if someone got in your way, then you would beat them too. Did you mean to say, that if I got in your way, that you would…" Yuto stopped talking, as he figured Shun knew where he was going with this question.
Another long silence followed. Shun thought about it. Yuto was his best friend, but to him, Ruri was the most important person in the world. He would give anything to get her back, even if it meant eradicating his best friend.
"Yuto... I would do anything. Ruri is the most important thing to me, I would do anything to get her back. Even if it means getting you out of my way." Shun responded.
Yuto frowned. So this is what it came to. At that moment, Yuto felt a big pillar of sadness and rage pile up on his heart. Shun had to think about the answer, and not only that but he said that he would get Yuto out of his way if it meant saving Ruri. That was the last straw, Yuto knew that the real Shun wouldn't act like this, Shun has been blinded by rage too much. Soon, these actions might get the very person he's trying to safe killed. Yuto and especially Shun wouldn't want that. Yuto put on his most serious face as his eyes flashed completely blue for a second, however, this didn't go noticed by Shun.
"Shun, duel me." Yuto suddenly challenged Shun.
"Excuse me?" Shun asked, had he heard him right, Yuto wanted to duel him, was it something he said? (Umm, yeah, it kinda is.)
"I said duel me. This has gone too far to your head. If your willing to go this far, if our so called friendship at this moment is having so many problems...then, there is only one way for us to settle it." Yuto explained.
"With a duel. Hmph, don't you remember the last 3 times we dueled, I beat you, and we didn't even get to finish the duel before those 3. You know I've always had the very small edge on you when it comes to dueling." Shun told Yuto.
"I know. But ever since our last duel, I've gotten stronger. Plus, you're being blinded by rage. This is one of the if not the only way I know to get my old friend back. So, do you accept my challenge, Shun?" Yuto asked.
A third long silence has filled between the 2, at that moment, a really strong gust of wind blew on both Xyz Users. Both were staring each other right in the eye, as they both knew what Shun's answer was going to be.
Shun activated his duel disk, prompting Yuto to do the same. Shun and Yuto walked away from each other so they could have space. The 2 faced off, putting on their most serious faces. They both knew, that no matter what the outcome of this duel was, there friendship, was going to change drastically.
"DUEL!" Both Xyz Duelists shouted in unison.
We're finished!
I realize that I forgot to put in a chapter preview last chapter. Sorry about that guys.
Nothing much new is happening here, sorry guys.
So yeah, Shun and Yuto are going to Duel. I actually thought they were going to duel at this point in the anime for like 1 episode but they didn't. You could actually feel the tension between the 2 in episode 21, or at least I could. The war had changed Shun into a monster, one who doesn't listen to much reason. Yuto, well he became more serious but still kept a straight head, and he always kept fighting, fighting for a sliver of hope, and he found that hope, in one boy, in the Standard Dimension, and his name was Sakaki Yuya. My god that sounded cheesy.
Anyways, here is the next chapter preview.
Yuto and Shun initiate a duel, its unknown who is going to win. But both are winning for a purpose, Shun, to get Yuto out of his way, and Yuto, to get his old friend currently driven by rage back. Things go down as one friendship, starts to change. The question...is the change for the better, or the worse?
Matrixnis: I actually forgot that they attacked in that episode, I thought it was in Heartland in like Episode 109 or something. I agree with you on how Yuto didn't interact with anyone except Yuya, and rarely with Shun after being absorbed. He did interact with Serena and Ruri in 124 and 125, but both girls were brainwashed, Ruri has interacted with Yuto a lot as we have seen, and not long after he takes control, he fricking loses control on Ruri's turn. Although, it did lead to a really badass scene with berserk Yuya and Yuto summoning Odd Eyes Raging Dragon, which is to this day, one of my favorite Arc-V moments and one of my favorite in the entire franchise honestly. Oh yeah, and Yuto won't be getting absorbed by Yuya, who knows, maybe it will be the other way around. I don't know, there is still some time left until that day comes when the decision will be made. But even if Yuya does get absorbed, I'll make sure to find a way for him to separate at least once. :)
Venomous Blade: Your wish is my command Mr. Blade of the Venomousness. In the setting I put the line in, it probably isn't funny though, as this was a serious moment.
That's all for now guys. Hope you guys enjoyed the chapter. See you guys in the next chapter.
Take care, goodbye!
