Yuya Sakaki sat at a coffee table, a Field of Duel Monsters cards set out in front of him. He awkwardly looked up at Yuzu Hiiragi, sitting opposite him.
"Well... Odd-Eyes attacks, dealing double damage for game."
"Augh!" Yuzu groaned, running her hands down her face. "That's the fourth time in a row! How am I supposed to get this deck working?" Yuto leaned over and studied the cards Yuzu had scattered over the table during the duel.
"It doesn't help that you've ended up trying to cram all four of your archetypes into one deck. I mean, no offense to the rest of you; it's just all your Extra Deck monsters are designed to work with their own archetypes. They don't really work together."
"Well we can't all just end up with monsters that can be tossed into any deck," Rin interjected. "Some of us have to actually work to get our combos off. No offense."
"Look," Ruri said, resting her hand on Yuzu's shoulder, "you don't have to try and use all of our cards just for our sake. You need to find a new style that's right for you." Yuri had been, as he often did, sitting removed from the others and watching silently but now he spoke.
"The problem your Melodious monsters have is that they're built for swarming the field with low level monsters quickly. That lends itself well to Synchro and Xyz Summoning- Fusion's advantages are kind of wasted with them."
"Well we can thank Sora for that..." Yuzu laughed.
"Did someone say my name?" Yuto, Yugo, Yuri, Serina, Ruri and Rin sank back into their counterparts' subconsciousness as they looked around in surprise. Sure enough, the familiar blob of cyan hair rose up over the back of a couch as Sora Shiunin emerged with a sly smirk on his face. While both of the two older teens were sputtering out a protest, he flipped over the couch and bounced across the room to come to a sit right next to Yuya.
"Sora!? What are doing here?" Yuya cried.
"I just wanted to check on my buddies." Sora's smirk widened into a grin. "I'm not interrupting something am I? Could I have stumbled onto an official-for-real-first-time-date?" Yuzu's eye began to twitch in frustration.
"Still following me around then?" Yuya sighed.
"Of course not - I'm following both of you around!" Sora beamed. He was interrupted by a chuckle and looked to see Shingo Sawatari leaning in the doorway with a smirk. Before he could say anything, a huge hand clapped down on his shoulder. Noboru Gongenzaka caught him in headlock.
"You were so focused on sneaking around you never noticed the man Gogenzaka!"
"Can the… man Gongenzaka… let me breathe?" Sawatari choked.
Now it was Yuzu's turn to get angry. "Did everyone just decide to follow us around and spy on us today!?"
"Well, I didn't hear anything," Reiji Akaba said as he casually entered with a cup of coffee.
"Then. Why. Are. You. Here." Yuzu asked through gritted teeth.
"Actually, I was looking for you two to ask if you knew that the You Show School's representatives from its interdimensional branches are arriving around now. You both are representing Pendulum's branch."
"Of course we know," Yuzu growled. "We were just trying to… tch. Let's go, Yuya." She quickly gathered their cards up, grabbed Yuya by his collar and dragged him out of the back room of the café. Sora, Sawatari and Gongenzaka shared a look, stifling laughter. Reiji simply watched, sipping at his coffee.
Yuya and Yuzu's hopes of ditching their friends were dashed when Sora suddenly caught up with them and, ignoring their exasperated looks, started walking next to them with his hands clasped behind his head.
"Are you just going to keep following us around all day?" Yuzu asked.
"You can't get rid of him," said Yuya. "Do you know I found him at the table again this morning?"
"Hey, I'm paying rent now!" Sora cut in.
"What!? You have money. You." Yuya said in disbelief.
"Ugh," Sora scoffed, "don't you two talk with your parents about anything? Yusho and Shuzo gave me a job! I'm helping you guys at the school!"
"…huh, yeah, we didn't know that," Yuzu said.
As the trio approached You Show Duel School, they could already see the students from You Show's other branches arriving. They made their way through the crowds into the building looking for familiar faces.
"Guys!" Asuka Tenjoin called, running forward and grabbing Yuya and Yuzu in a hug.
"I've been introducing all the groups of students as they arrive. I hear you're already familiar with Allen and Sayaka here," Allen Kozuki and Sayaka Sayama waved and smiled. "The girl with the hair ribbon is Kotori Mizuki."
"Well, she seems nice," Yuzu said. Asuka cleared her throat awkwardly.
"Uh, prepare to disappointed," She muttered under her breath.
Shuzo made his appearance, clapping his hands together.
"Alright, everyone! Now that we've all gathered, my daughter will participate in an exhibition match. Perhaps you can be the opponent, Sora?" Yuzu and Sora looked at each other in surprise but stood apart on the area as the other students filed into the stands.
"I was going to do that…" Yuya pouted. Shuzo set the stage for "Sweets Island", Sora's favourite. Sora clicked his fingers and grinned appreciatively. A monitor on the wall lit up:
YUZU HIIRAGI – MELODIOUS
Vs
SORA SHIUNIN – FRIGHTFUR
Facing each other, the two activated their duel disks.
"Duel!"
