"Good morning, housemate!"

Yuya snapped awake as Sora's voice rang in his ears. He found himself on the floor tangled in his bedsheets as Sora stood in the doorway.

"Sora... what the crap..?" Yuya groaned.

"Exercise time," Sora beamed. "Yusho and Yoko do so much for you; the least you can do is get prepared for a big day of dueling!"

"Hey, I'm plenty prepared," Yuya protested.

"I'll be the judge of that," said Sora, practically throwing Yuya at his wardrobe. "I'll be waiting in the corridor." Yuya stumbled out of his room a few minutes later and Sora flipped over the handrail down to the ground floor. Yuya jumped for the pole allowing him down, wondering why he was going along with this.

"Come on Yuya, any workout you can walk away from isn't worth doing!" Sora called from the top of a building. Yuya struggled up onto the roof.

"You do this every morning?" he panted.

"Of course," Sora laughed. "How do think I stay in shape with such an awful diet?" Eventually they walked back through the door of Yuya's house to the kitchen, Yuya flopping down at the table.

"Oh, boys, so good to see you up and about already," said Yoko, piling pancakes in front of each of them.

"Thanks, big sis!" Sora said. "Oh, I'm sorry, I keep seeing your youthful face and forgetting..."

"Sora... it's so nice to have your sweet personality back," Yoko blushed.

"I guess you haven't changed, " Yuya said once she'd left. Sora looked straight at him, suddenly serious.

"Well, that's the thing, Yuya... I've actually changed a lot." They sat and ate in silence.

They met up with Yuzu on the way to the stadium.

"Hard to think that we're just having a normal tournament again," she said. "The last one seems like a lifetime ago." The Miami Duel Stadium towered over them, other duelists coming into view. Asuka turned to greet them.

"Well, it's all going off in a few hours," she said. "I heard there was a bit of a commotion earlier." Kotori, the girl with the green hair and ribbon, stormed out of the building and round the corner. Allen came out after her with Sayaka.

"What's wrong with her?" Sora asked when they came over.

"She just heard about Yuma Tsukumo," Allen replied.

"They knew each other?" Yuya asked.

"From what we could tell..." said Sayaka, "they really didn't get along."

"Yuma Tsukumo?" a voice behind them chimed in. "The cheater's here?" They all turned and gasped.

"Kaito!"

It was all there: the black jacket, the flip of blonde hair, the constant glare.

"You're not enrolling in a school here are you?" asked Asuka.

"No, I'm just here to spectate," Kaito replied. "But I can't imagine the kind of dueling I'm going to see if the LDS admitted someone like Yuma."

"Is he really that bad?" asked Yuya.

"Trust me," Kaito went on. "He had some decent cards but not a clue of what to do with them. The only bigger embarrassment for the whole thing was those two crazy girls who got kicked out for bringing real weapons. Actually, come to think of it... hey Allen, wasn't one of those girls your sister?"

"Uh, why don't we head inside?" Allen stammered. They entered the building, making their though crowds of spectators and students from the city's various duel schools. Fubuki Tenjoin led a small group over the complex.

"Right this way, everyone! And a very special welcome to all of the new lady duelists joining us," he said, flashing a wink to a group of girls who began giggling and swooning. Asuka cringed.

"Speaking of embarrassing siblings..." They followed the duelists crowding around to look down into the arena. Reiji stood in the center of the field. Yuya's face brightened as soon as he saw who was standing next to him.

"Dad!"

"Welcome to our assembled duelists," Yusho announced, his smile displayed on screens all over the stadium.

"Soon you'll all enter your duelist information from your duel disks into the stadium computer," Reiji explained. At this point, Kotori ran back to the railing, slumping over and panting for breath.

"Get ready to upload you data to the stadium's system," Reiji went on.

"And with that," Yusho finished, "we turn things over to our MC, Nico Smiley!" The grinning announcer in the yellow pinstriped suit appeared on the screens.

"Okay, folks! We're about to see the matchups for the first round! The competitors from LDS, Gongenzaka Dojo, Barrett Academy and all 3 branches of the You Show School will be divided separately and paired off. And here they come..." The duelists were tallied out and shown all over the stadium.

"I'm dueling... Sawatari!?" Yuzu said. "Oh, I've been waiting a long time for this!"

"Gongenzaka will be against Jun Manjoume," Asuka said. "I'm taking on Sho Marufuji."

"I have Ryo," said Sora.

"Oh, wow..." Yuya said. "Is he as dangerous as everyone says?"

"Every bit," Sora replied. "But you need to focus on your duel - you're up first. Who's your opponent?"

"I don't actually know." Yuya looked at the picture next to his: a purple-haired girl in a red Academia jacket with the sleeves torn off.

"Who's Rei Saotome?"