"That creep!" Yuzu shouted, slamming her fists on the seats in front of her and startling the people sitting there. "Didn't he learn anything from the war's end?"
"I'm afraid not, and Barrett Academy is full of duelists just like him," Asuka replied.
"Okay, folks, we'll have a short intermission before the next match," Nico announced.
As the tournament was a special event set up by Leo Corp, the first round was to be divided across two days. The losers' bracket and finals would be covered over the third day. The day's third match would commence that afternoon. They headed out to the corridors, catching up with Gongenzaka. After a quick lunch, they wandered around outside to kill some time when they saw Kotori heading to the back of the car park.
"Hey, she's up next, isn't she?" Yuma asked.
"You talked to her a little before the tournament started, didn't you?" Yuzu asked Asuka.
"Oh, uh..." Asuka looked over the others awkwardly.
"What is it?" They asked. Asuka seemed rather reluctant to talk about it, but Yuya and Yuzu's curiosity was peaked, and they headed over as Asuka followed uncertainly.
"Kotori?" Yuzu asked.
Kotori had taken her duel disk and cards out. She hurriedly put them away when she saw the others.
"Oh, hi!" she said.
"Are you getting ready for your match?" Yuya asked. "You can't have much time left; why are you out here?"
"Uh... why do you need to know so badly?" The sweet smile Kotori had previously dropped away and she eyed him suspiciously.
"What? I wasn't..." Yuya stammered.
"It kinda looked like she was trying to practice," Rin spoke up in Yuzu's mind.
"Practice?" Yuzu repeated put loud, and Kotori lost any last traces of friendliness.
"What's that? Why would I need to practice right before the duel? You think I can't handle it?"
"Whoa, hang on, I didn't mean anything by that," Yuzu said quickly.
"Sure you didn't," Kotori scowled. "I put up with that stuff all the time. Everyone's sick of useless Kotori."
"Look, there's a lot we don't know here-" Yuya started.
"That's right," Kotori cut him off. "You don't know me."
Kotori pouted and puffed out her cheeks. She was apparently angry but looked almost comical.
"Just leave me alone," she snapped and stomped off. Yuya and Yuzu looked in shock toward Asuka, who sighed and shrugged.
"That's what I was trying to say. She's friendly at first, but just about anything can set her off suddenly."
"Well," Yuya grimaced, "we might as well get back to our seats before we miss too much."
When they got back to the arena though, the duel hadn't started yet.
"... and another thing, you think waltzing in here to new tournament is going to make people respect you?" Kotori shouted, as Yuma listened silently, bemused. The group heard mutterings along the lines of, 'why's she being so mean?' as they shuffled to their seats.
"Don't just stand there looking at me like that, Yuma!" Kotori growled, causing Yuma to flinch. Yuya noticed, next to him, some emotion cross Yuzu's face. Glancing back at him, she gave an awkward smile and gently patted him on the arm. Yuya, confused, simply returned the smile.
"Um... well, what say we get the duel underway?" Nico announced.
"Thank you," Yuma sighed, cocking his head to Nico's image, and drawing some laughs from the crowd.
Kotori's got the whole crowd on his side and he barely had to do anything, Yuya thought with a wince.
"The duel between Kotori and Yuya..." Nico called out, paused and cleared his throat. "Excuse me. Kotori and Yuma's duel will begin... now!" The action field activated, a baseball-themed one, and the duel computer started its calculations.
"It looks like Yuma will go first!" Nico called out.
"Lucky me," Yuma said, looking over his hand. "First off, I'm going to summon this monster- Summoner Monk!" A gray-skinned man in a black robe appeared and kneeled down.
"This card automatically switches to defense mode when it's summoned. That's not the really important part, though - by discarding a spell card, Summoner Monk lets me summon a new monster from my deck! And since Sacred Crane lets me draw a new card to replace the one I discarded, it's the perfect monster to summon!"
The bird's feathers shone as it landed next to Summoner Monk.
"Now, I overlay both level 4 monsters to Xyz Summon a rank 4 monster! Appear, mighty warrior! My partner!" The silhouette of an armored, sword-wielding warrior appeared. "Zubaba General!" Everyone looked in confusion as the monster came fully into view.
"I don't remember seeing that monster before," said Allen.
"I didn't remember Yuma could Xyz Summon," said Kaito.
"By detaching one material from Zubaba General, I can equip him with one warrior from my hand and add its attack to his!" Yuma called. "And what better monster to equip than... the mighty Gate Guardian!"
"No way," Yuya said as they all leaned forward in their seats, but it was true. The ancient elemental guardian god rose up and towered over the dueling field, Zubaba General standing on one shoulder and Yuma on the other.
"Zubaba General's attack points increase from 2000 to 5750!" Yuma shouted. Kotori gaped up at the combined monsters.
"I set one more card and end my turn," Yuma said. Kotori gave a start like she was breaking out of a trance before drawing her new card.
"Okay... first I Normal Summon Shining Angel. Then I activate Photon Lead, which allows me to Special Summon another level 4 LIGHT monster from my hand, and I choose Nova Summoner!" Kotori summoned an angel in a flowing white tunic and a golden, feathery ring wrapped in a ribbon. She paused briefly and looked over her monsters. "Now I overlay my level 4 angel and summoner to Xyz Summon rank 4 Fairy Cheer Girl, in defense mode. By detaching one Xyz Material, she allows me to draw another card! And then, uh... I end my turn." Up in the stands, her friends groaned.
"Well at least she didn't forget to use Fairy Cheer Girl's effect," said Allen, "...but I'm sure she could have had another card so it wouldn't matter!" he added quickly upon seeing the hurt look on Sayaka's face.
Even Yuma looked unimpressed.
"Well then... I equip Zubaba General with Twin Swords of Flashing Light - Tryce! It's well worth 500 attack points and a card form my hand to allow him to attack twice per battle phase!" Kotori froze in terror as two massive swords appeared in Gate Guardian's hands.
"Speaking of the battle phase, I now enter it!" Yuma shouted. "Zubaba General attacks Fairy Cheer Girl!" The General pointed with his sword and Gate Guardian stomped forward. Fairy Cheer Girl barely had time to gasp before she simply vanished under one of the massive blades.
"Now, he can attack again! Attack Kotori directly!" Yuma ordered. Kotori trembled on the spot before snapping her fingers.
"Wait, I can grab an action card!"
"Too late!" Yuma shouted, and the second sword knocked Kotori over and sent her skidding backwards on her butt. Though she wasn't hurt, she sat on the ground blinking in surprise as Yuma dropped to the ground. He turned and walked away without another word. Yuya looked around at the reactions of the other spectators. While some looked annoyed that Yuma had humiliated his opponent like that, others seemed a little relieved that someone had managed to shut Kotori up.
"Hey!" Kotori shouted, staggering back to her feet. "Don't you just walk away form me!"
"I'm walking away," Yuma called back without turning around. Kotori glared after him, then looked up at the crowed and the displays of her own face, tears forming in the corners of her eyes. Then something seemed to break and she turned and bolted out of the stadium in the other direction.
Concerned, Yuzu went looking for her in the stadium corridors.
"Did you know either Kotori or Yuma?" Yuzu asked Ruri as she walked down the walkway.
"You know we had the Clover and Spade Branches in the duel school right?" Ruri replied. "There was another; Heart Branch, for junior duelists. They would have been in that. I think Kaito's brother was going to enroll there... than Academia came. A bunch of kids against an invading army... they never had a chance." Yuzu paused as someone came into view in front of her.
"Oh... hello, Sho."
He was casually leaning against a wall, looking over something in his hands.
"What's, uh... what are you doing?" Yuzu asked.
"I'm having a look at the cards you have here," he replied, revealing that he had a bunch of torn-open packs in one hand and a stack of Pendulum cards in the other. "You know, I thought that Pendulum would help any duelist to improve their deck; make faster plays and all that. Yet these seem to be specialized for specific archetypes - only certain deck builds could make use of them."
"Well, I do have to admit, I've had trouble finding Pendulums that fit my deck," Yuzu replied. "Anyway, I was looking for Kotori - she seemed pretty torn up by that match."
"Things have been messy between them for a while," said Sho. "What you saw in the arena was Yuma moving on."
"That's a pretty extreme way to 'move on'," Yuzu said, starting after him as he turned around. "You're not really defending how he acted..."
Sho turned back, looking at her out of the corner of his eye, and she became disarmed by how his expression changed.
"People shouldn't cling on to unhealthy relationships," he replied coldly. "It's for the best."
Before Yuzu could reply, the next duel between her and Sawatari was announced and Sho walked off down the corridor. Yuzu reluctantly decided to return for the match.
It occurred Yuzu that she hadn't really interacted with Sawatari since the day she met Yuto - when everything had changed. That seemed like a lifetime ago, now. She stepped back out into the light, into the arena where Sawatari was waiting.
AN: I'm back! Fancy that. I've had a lot going on this year so I'll have to ask you to forgive the briefer chapter. I also found myself struggling to get engaged with the ZeXal characters, I have to admit, even with their changed personalities. There's definitely a reason why they're this way which I'll touch on eventually.
Edit: An earlier version had Yuya and Yuma's names mixed up at one point, so Smiley has a new line referencing that.
