Yuri was quite a proud individual, and rightfully so. He was the best duelist in the Fusion Dimension, defeating any and all duelists who dared to challenge him. He had the highest body count of anyone in Academia, having carded more people than anyone else. Not to mention he was incredibly handsome. The rest of his peers wished they were him.

Being such a proud individual, Yuri took great care not to allow any of his weaknesses to be discovered. But after word got out that his XYZ doppelganger had been begging for mercy when he was being tickle tortured, the rest of Academia wondered if Yuri might also be ticklish.

Of course, nobody was stupid enough to try. Everyone knew that if Yuri found out that they were even thinking about tickling him he would card them on the spot. Or worse, sic his Starve Venom Fusion Dragon on them. It was very rare that Yuri let his dragon eat people, but if he was angry enough he would do it. It had happened twice before. The people who had witnessed it had effectively been traumatized for life. Even the Professor had shut off the cameras when he realized what was happening.

All in all, nobody was dumb enough to even consider trying to tickle Yuri. The guarantee of being carded or even eaten by his favorite dragon was just not worth the brief entertainment of humiliating the proud duelist. Not even the people who hated him most would try.

Or so Yuri thought.

A few days after the very important XYZ prisoner was rescued by his less important XYZ friend, Yuri was eating breakfast in the dining hall. The dining hall was full of people, though Yuri's table was empty as usual. Yuri had just finished his food when he heard a few voices talking some distance behind him. Curious, the cabbage-head began eavesdropping as he sipped his tea.

"Do I have to?"

"Of course you do! You lost the duel!"

"I don't wanna do it!"

"Hey, you were the one that said whoever lost the duel would have to do it!"

"He's gonna kill me!"

"So what? If you didn't want to risk death, you shouldn't have suggested it! Now go on!"

Yuri was about to get up from his seat when he heard quick footsteps rush towards him. Before he could look behind him, a pair of hands grabbed ahold of his sides and began tickling him. The cabbage shrieked and frantically tried to elbow his assailant behind him, but they kept tickling him.

"HAHAHAHAHAHA! STOHOHOHOHOHOP! YOHOHOHOHOU'RE SOHOHOHOHO DEHEHEHEHEHEHEAD!" Yuri squealed, dropping his plate on the table. He began aggressively smacking the hands tickling him.

"Ow! Ow! Stop!" cried his assailant. "I don't wanna do this any more than you want me to! But I lost a duel, and the deal was that the loser of the duel had to tickle you until the winner said to stop!"

"GEHEHEHET AHAHAHAWAYHAYHAYHAY FROM MEHEHEHEHEHE!" Yuri shrieked. He began clawing furiously at his assailant's hands.

The whole dining hall began clearing out the moment Yuri's predicament was noticed. Nobody wanted to risk Yuri's wrath from watching his humiliation. Everyone could already tell that he was furious at what was happening.

Yuri spit enraged curses while laughing helplessly. He had the exact same skincare routine that Yuto had, and his soft skin was equally sensitive. But unlike Yuto, whose death spot was his armpits, Yuri's death spot was his ribs and sides. Which his assailant was apparently choosing to keep targeting instead of picking a different spot.

"NAHAHAHAHA! I'M GOHOHOHOHOHONNAHAHAHAHA SIC STAHAHAHAHARVE VEHEHEHEHENOHOHOHOM OHOHOHOHON YOUHOUHOUHOUHOU!" Yuri screeched, thrashing around. He was now attempting to bite the hands tickling him, but he couldn't quite reach them with his mouth.

"It's not like I wanted to do this to you!" protested his assailant. "It was the terms of the duel!"

"Yeah, but like, you were the one that set the terms!" said the other voice a little ways behind them. "You said that the loser would have to tickle him until the winner said to stop! And you wouldn't let me have a say in the terms! So really this is all your own damn fault!"

"I was SO sure I was gonna win though!" Yuri's assailant cried. "It's not fair!"

"It's totally fair!" the other voice snapped. "If I had lost you would have made me go through with it! Don't set terms for duels unless you're prepared to have to go through with them if you lose!"

"Whatever! Can I stop now?" groaned the assailant.

"No. You can't. Not for at least another ten minutes! Maybe even longer!" replied the other person.

Now, Yuri might have been willing to forgive the other person for this situation. After all, according to them, they hadn't been allowed to change the terms of the duel that led to this. And Yuri's assailant hadn't argued that point, so clearly it was true. But any willingness to forgive was squashed the moment the other person refused to let Yuri's assailant stop tickling him. Now they were equally guilty. And Yuri was absolutely going to punish them.

"YOHOHOHOU'RE BOHOHOHOTH DEHEHEHEHEHEAD! YOHOHOHOHOU'RE BOHOHOHOHOTH DEHEHEHEHEAD!" Yuri squealed, digging his nails deep enough into his assailant's hands to draw blood. The assailant hissed in pain, digging their fingers into Yuri's sides more aggressively. "Stop fighting and just accept this situation with dignity!"

A group of younger students walked into the dining hall to eat, and then immediately turned around and walked back out. Even the younger students weren't stupid enough to stay and watch Yuri's humiliation.

Yuri threw his head back, managing to smack his assailant in the chest. "OW! Stop!" his assailant groaned. "Dude, c'mon! Let me stop tickling him! Seriously, he's really fighting me! And it really hurts too!"

"Nope," the other person said. "If you really didn't want to tickle him, then you shouldn't have said that the loser of the duel would have to do that! Or at least let me change the terms. I would have said that the loser just had to wear a girly pink dress for a week or something!"

"Oh, like that's any better!" sneered the assailant. "Either way, I would have been screwed! You totally cheated!"

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

"How did I cheat?!"

"I don't know, you just probably did! I had the perfect strategy!"

"Screw you!"

"C'mon, let me stop! It's almost time for class! We're gonna be late!"

"I really don't care if we're late! I was planning on ditching anyway!"

Yuri was starting to have trouble breathing from how hard he was laughing. The plate on the table had a puddle of tears on it by this point. The poor cabbage wasn't sure he would be able to last much longer.

So, in a desperate attempt to end the tickling, Yuri raised his hand and jabbed backwards. His fingers made contact with his assailant's eyes, causing said assailant to yelp and grab at their face. This, in turn, finally ended the tickle torture that Yuri was facing.

"Hey, I didn't say you could stop!" said the other person.

"Dude, he poked me in the eye!" the assailant protested. "It hurts!"

Before the argument could continue, Yuri jumped out of his seat and turned to face the other two students. Both of them gulped when they saw the look of pure rage on the cabbage-head's face.

"U-uh… h-hey, before you do anything we might regret, just remember, he was the one that set the terms of the duel!" the person further away stammered. "He was the one that said that the loser would have to tickle you! He wouldn't let me change the terms!"

"Yes, but you were the one that told him he couldn't stop when he asked to!" Yuri hissed. "So you're both equally guilty in my eyes!" The cabbage-headed duelist summoned his favorite monster, grinning sadistically at the looks of wide-eyed terror on the other two duelists' faces as Starve Venom appeared. "Starve Venom… breakfast!"

The Professor, who had been watching the scene unfold from the cameras, immediately turned the screen off as the dragon leapt at the two duelists. Was it mean of him to put those two boys up to the duel that resulted in Yuri's humiliation? Perhaps. But he wanted to know if the cabbage-haired boy would crack under such torture as quickly as the XYZ duelist had. After all, if Yuri were captured by the rebellion and interrogated, it was important to know whether or not tickle torture would be an effective way for the rebellion to get information out of him.

Fortunately it seemed that Yuri, despite clearly being as ticklish as Yuto, had much more discipline and self-control than the XYZ rebel. He hadn't cracked and started begging for mercy. This was a very good sign! The Professor felt confident that Yuri would be able to withstand a tickle interrogation should he be captured.

Back in the dining hall, Yuri smiled in satisfaction as Starve Venom finished eating the two duelists responsible for his humiliating scene, completely unaware that he had been set up. All he knew was that those two would never bother him again. "Let that be a lesson to anyone who thinks it's a good idea to try a stunt like that again," he said, gently scratching his dragon under the chin. "Nobody will get away with it. Absolutely nobody."

Starve Venom growled in agreement, happy to have been able to help his young duelist, and extra happy that he'd gotten a good meal out of it. Yuri then noticed the time on the clock in the dining hall. "Looks like it's time for me to go to class. Come, Starve Venom. We mustn't be late!"

Meanwhile, in the Synchro Dimension, a certain blunana was trying to find his way out of a Tops-exclusive neighborhood. He wasn't sure how he had ended up there, but somehow he had gotten lost and was now surrounded by very fancy homes that he knew weren't in the Commons' part of town. He was very hungry too, having gotten lost hours ago.

He noticed a garden with a beautiful apple tree, and his stomach growled loudly. Yugo looked around him furtively. There didn't appear to be anyone around. Perhaps he could sneak an apple or two?

But fate had other ideas.