For best results, picture the funniest expressions Sawatari's made over the anime while reading this chapter.


"Yuzu Hiiragi!" Sawatari called, pointing at her from across the arena. "Even after all this time, don't think I've forgotten your insults. We have unfinished business-"

"You're sure right we do!" Yuzu shouted. "You lousy, slime-coated, weasel-using weasel!"

"Uh..." Sawatari deflated. "Laying it on a bit thick, aren't you?"

"You're lucky we never got to settle things before, because it spared you from the humiliation I was going to dish out! But now your luck's run out!"

Sawatari paused, taken aback . However, his smile returned. "Your attempts to goad me are as transparent as..."

"Come on, where's all your big talk now, hundredth-rate duelist?" Yuzu now wore a smirk.

Sawatari caught himself and returned the smirk. "Perhaps it is time for more than words." He looked to to the announcer's box. "Smiley! Start the duel already!"

"Oh - um - yes!" Nico stammered over the loudspeaker. "Let's begin!"

The action field generator fired up and a set of skyscrapers rose out of the ground. Yuzu remembered this field. It was Prison Tower of Darktown, the field Sawatari had played his first duel against Yuya on. The duel where he'd had his cronies take her and the children hostage and put them in danger. Yuzu wasn't sure if fate had led her to face him on this field, if Sawatari had pulled some strings to set this up to mock her or if Reiji himself had indulged in some warped sense of humor, but whatever the cause she felt her anger rising as the duel began.

"Right," Sawatari said. "First, I set my left Pendulum Scale to 0 with Abyss Actor - Mellow Madonna!" A beam of blue light shone up into the sky next to Sawatari, and a purple-skinned woman was revealed floating inside it. "I pay 1000 points to activate Mellow Madonna's Pendulum Effect! I now search my deck for a new Abyss Actor monster, although for the rest of the turn I can only special summon Abyss Actor Pendulum Monsters. But of course, with a deck as expertly constructed as mine, that won't be a hindrance at all! I choose to add Abyss Actor - Comic Relief, and I'll now set my right Pendulum Scale to 8!" A second pillar of light appeared on Sawatari's other side, with a chubby pink devil floating inside it.

"I can now Special Summon monsters between level 1 and 7 simultaneously! Pendulum Summon! Appear, my beautiful opening act! Level 4 Sassy Rookie in attack mode, and Leading Lady in defense mode!" As his monsters appeared and posed for the crowd, Rookie with 1700 ATK and Leading Lady with 1000 DEF, Sawatari leaped up onto a platform above Yuzu. "And for a real topper to my opening, I activate Abyss Script - Opening Ceremony!" A golden arch materialized over him, raining golden particles of light.

"I gain 500 life points for every Abyss Actor monster I control!" Sawatari called as his points returned to 4000. "All of sudden, it's like I never paid any points at all! I'll leave you to your turn, Yuzu, but perhaps I should apologize in advance for leaving you facing such a masterfully executed starting turn!"

Yuzu rolled her eyes as she drew. She looked up from her hand and saw Sawatari already jumping away looking for an action card.

"I activate the spell, Ostinato! I now Fusion Summon a Melodious monster by using for materials Aria and Elegy the Melodious Divas in my deck!

"Join your voices, with the guidance of the baton, gather your power! Fusion Summon! Now come to the stage, Schuberta the Melodious Maestra!"

Sawatari snatched up an action card but said nothing.

"Now then, Battle Phase! Shuberta attacks Sassy Rookie!" Schuberta soared upwards and let out a high note, sending a shockwave towards Sawatari's monster.

"Sassy Rookie's Effect!" Sawatari shouted. "Once per turn, he can't be destroyed!" Sassy Rookie twisted out of the way of the shockwave and Sawatari braced himself as his life points dropped to 3300.

"Well at least I knocked off that perfect score you were so proud of!" Yuzu called up, and Sawatari simply laughed.

"Oh Yuzu, that hurt less than that silly fan of yours. And now Leading Lady's effect activates! Since I took 700 battle damage, Schuberta loses 700 attack points!" Schuberta's attack was reduced to 1700.

"That's going to be a real shame... when I take control of her next turn," Sawatari grinned.

"She'll have to be around for you to do that!" Yuzu said. "In the end phase, a monster Fusion Summoned by Ostinato is destroyed and splits back into its materials!" As she spoke, Schuberta disappeared in a golden glow of Yuzu's own, which coalesced into two glowing spheres that became Aria and Elegy. "I Special Summon Aria and Elegy back from my graveyard in defense mode! Aria's effect prevents all Melodious monsters from being targeted by effects and destroyed by battle, and Elegy prevents Melodious monsters from being destroyed by effects!"

"Yuzu's defense combo!" Shuzo shouted.

"That's why she didn't use Schuberta's graveyard banishing effect!" Yuya beamed.

"Elegy also increases the attack of all of my Fairy monsters by 300," Yuzu said as Elegy sang and caused a light to shine down on Yuzu's field, raising her own attack to 2300 and Aria's to 1900. "But they're fine defending for now under their protective effects."

Sawatari's smirk dropped from his face, becoming an angry glare.

"Think you're clever, do you Yuzu?" He drew his next card with extra flourish. "I activate the spell card, Abyss Script - Fantasy Magic! During this turn, my Sassy Rookie can return monsters he battles to the hand!"

Yuzu leaped up to a platform and grabbed an action card. She knew from the old duel that this field had a high amount of traps, but she had to take the risk.

The Invisibility action spell... I can target one of my monsters and make it immune to effects that turn. She was about to play the card when a word jumped out at her: TARGET. Aria's effect prevented her monsters from being targeted by effects - including her own.

"Sassy Rookie attacks Aria!" Sawatari shouted. "Aria's back in your hand, and now Elegy is vulnerable to attack! But instead, I have a different plan for her. "

"What?" Yuzu gasped.

"I activate Abyss Actor - Comic Relief's Pendulum Effect!" Sawatari shouted. "I target your Elegy and swap control of her with my Sassy Rookie!"

"No!" Yuzu cried. "I activate the Invisibility action card! This turn, Elegy is unaffected by other effects!"

"Oh, no! My perfect plan ruined!" Sawatari shouted with an exaggerated look of despair. "If only I had my own action card - like, say, the No Action card!" Sawatari's face turned into a huge smirk. "Your card is negated and destroyed!"

"Wait, wait, no!" Yuzu stammered, now starting to really panic. Comic Relief span out of his Pendulum Zone and took Sassy Rookie's hand, twirling him through the air like they were dancing. He took in his other hand Elegy's and spun both monsters around, flinging them each to the opposite field from where they'd started. Elegy looked around in surprise at where she'd ended up, while Sassy Rookie turned and bowed to Yuzu with a cheeky giggle. Comic Relief threw his hands up in a 'ta-da!' style pose and vanished in a puff of smoke.

"After switching the monsters, Comic Relief destroys himself and goes to my extra deck," Sawatari grinned. "Now your monster has joined my troupe! Oh, yes!" Yuzu gaped at what had happened.

"I guess stealing monsters is what you're best at."

"It's just for the duel, Yuzu! Calm down!" Sawatari gritted his teeth at the comment. He tsk'd his tongue. "All that preparation and caution and it's blown up in your face. It would have been harder for me if your Aria had been in attack mode... so thanks."

Yuzu growled and started her turn.

"I Normal Summon Crystal Rose!"

"Hey, that's the card you gave her," Yaiba remarked to Masumi up in the stands.

"Yes, after our rematch we both realized that... eh." Masumi trailed off, bored of her own explanation, as Yaiba and Hokuto stared at her in confusion.

" I send Mozarta the Melodious Maestra from my deck to the graveyard to turn Crystal Rose's name into hers! I use the effect of Sonata the Melodious Diva! Since I now technically control a Melodious monster, I can Special Summon her from my hand! Then I activate Transmodify and send my level 3 Sonata to the graveyard to special summon level 4 Tamtam the Melodious Diva from my deck! Her effect lets me search my deck for Polymerization! I can now fuse Aria with my Rose, which has become a Melodious Maestra monster, to Fusion Summon a Melodious Choir monster!

"Beautiful songstresses, gather your power with the guidance of the baton! Fusion Summon! Come to the stage and sing the song of victory, Bloom Diva the Melodious Choir!"

Bloom Diva appeared to a chorus of cheers and settled into her standard pose.

"Battle phase!" Yuzu shouted. "When Bloom Diva battles a Special Summoned monster, she negates battle destruction and damage - then, she destroys the opposing monster and inflicts damage to its controller equal to the difference in attack points! Go, Bloom Diva! Attack Leading Lady!"

Leading Lady was blown away and, since she'd had 1500 ATK, Sawatari's life points dropped to 2800. He stumbled backwards and grabbed onto a gutter where he spied an action card.

"When Leading Lady is destroyed, I can set an Abyss Script spell directly from my deck," Sawatari said. "I choose Abyss Script - Romantic Terror!"

Yuzu paused. She knew the obvious next move would to be attack Elegy with Rookie; he could defeat her DEF and battle was the easiest way to get around her protection. Yuzu could feel her counterparts agreeing. Yet, attacking her own monster seemed so... heartless. Would she let the duel turn into a grudge match? It wasn't the entertainment duelist's way.

"I..." she thought more about the dilemma until in her hesitation the decision was made for her. A spotlight appeared with Sawatari standing underneath it.

"Action spell: Great Escape! Your battle phase ends!"

Yuzu paused, staring down at her duel disk. The irony was not lost on her that she'd just considered destroying her own monster and Sawatari had saved her.

"What?" Sawatari asked.

"I set one more card and end my turn," Yuzu said.

"I activate Pot of Desires - I banish the top 10 cards of my deck and draw two cards! Now, the second act begins!" Sawatari shouted. "I set in my Pendulum Zone, the Scale 2 Abyss Actor - Wild Hope! His effect allows me to change my other zone's Pendulum Scale to 9! I can now Special Summon monsters between level 3 and 8 simultaneously! Pendulum Summon! Returning to the stage are the Abyss Actors, Leading Lady and Comic Relief - now joined by the level 8 Abyss Actor - Evil Heel!"

Perfect, he thought while grinning. One more turn and I've got her. But first...

"I change Elegy to attack mode! Now I enter the battle phase!"

He leaped to a roof above Yuzu with his monsters in tow.

"And tragically, Elegy must battle Tamtam!"

"I activate Waboku!" Yuzu shouted. Three priestesses appeared and Sawatari's monsters all slowed to a halt. "For the rest of this turn, none of my monsters can be destroyed by battle and no battle damage is dealt!"

"Okay... not bad," Sawatari sneered. "You've brought out a side of me I'd prefer not to show, Yuzu." A freakish grin appeared on his face. "I activate... Wavering Eyes!" A purple vortex surrounded the field, red eyes blinking open in the darkness as Sawatari's Pendulums were swept away.

"All cards in the Pendulum Zones are destroyed!" Sawatari cackled. "Then, I activate a number of effects based on the number of cards destroyed! From the first card destroyed, you take 500 damage!" A purple whirlwind whipped around Yuzu and her life points dropped to 3500.

"From the second card destroyed, I add a new Pendulum Monster from my deck to my hand!" Sawatari called. "I add Abyss Actor - Superstar!"

Yuzu grunted as she considered Sawatari having a card that gave him more advantages the more Pendulums were on the field.

"You put that card in your deck to use against Yuya, didn't you?"

"Worry about yourself," Sawatari chuckled. "I set my Superstar in my Pendulum Zone. I activate his effect and tribute my Leading Lady to add Abyss Script - Fantasy Magic back from my graveyard to my hand! And I'll set a card." Now all I have to do is keep Comic Relief alive until my next standby phase. Then he'll shift control to Yuzu and destroy one of my set cards. Romantic Terror will let me set as many Abyss Scripts as I need from my deck - and even if that is stopped, I can destroy Fantasy Magic instead and send Bloom Diva back to Yuzu's extra deck! "Your turn."

"Alright, as long as I can draw another card I still have a chance!" Yuzu drew her new card and prepared her turn. As she looked at her cards, a calmness came over her mind as she knew what to do.

"Are you ready, Yuzu?" Ruri spoke in her mind. Yuzu smiled and nodded, reassured, and rose to her feet again.

"Get ready! I summon a new monster!"

"That's my girl!" Shuzo cheered. "Never letting anything keep her down!"

"Well, of course," Sora remarked, leaning back and smirking. "That'll be from my teaching. I taught her practically everything she knows about advanced dueling, you know."

"I build the overlay network!" Yuzu shouted. Sora shot forward, his lollipop dropping out of his mouth. He paused and looked back at the rest of the group - particularly Kaito, who'd leaned out and was looking at him with a raised eyebrow.

"Something the matter?"

"No, of course not!" Sora said quickly, waving hands. "Anyway, every teacher wishes to see his student surpass him!"

"... Of course," Kaito replied, and Sora thought (or at least, hoped) he heard a trace of amusement in his voice.

"I overlay two level four monsters - my Tamtam and the Sassy Rookie you gave me!" Yuzu continued. "Xyz Summon! Now rise to battle, rank 4 Starliege Paladynamo!"

Sawatrai gaped. Of all the monsters he'd expected Yuzu could summon next, a shining space knight pointing a sword at him was certainly not one of them.

"Impressive," he said, struggling to regain his composure, "but even so, the field I've built is-"

"I now also activate Celestial Transformation!" Yuzu cut him off. "I can Special Summon a Fairy from my hand, though its attack points will be halved and it'll be destroyed in the end phase." Shopina the Melodious Maestra rose into the air from a flash of light, her ATK decreasing from 2300 to 1150.

"A weakened monster and one card left in your hand..." Sawatari noted.

Yuzu took a breath, as Ruri spoke up in her mind.

"Yuzu, it's time."

Yuzu took the last card from her hand and called, "I summon Buten!" A small, cartoonish pig with angel wings appeared. A series of 'aww's came from the younger girls in the crowd.

"Your big comeback is a... pig?" Sawatari asked incredulously. "How's that supposed to help you?"

"Because Buten," Yuzu replied with a smile, "is a tuner monster!"

Sawatari's eyes grew wide.

"...Tuner..?"

"I now tune level 1 Buten with level 7 Shopina! Synchro Summon! Appear, level 8 Avenging Knight Parshath!"

From the tuning rings emerged an angelic knight, shining in blue and golden armor. Sawatari fought down a wave of panic.

"I activate my set quick-play, Abyss Script - Romantic Terror! I return my Comic Relief to my hand, and Special Summon Mellow Madonna from my extra deck! My Evil Heel's 3000 attack points and Madonna's 2500 defense points will keep me safe!

"I activate my monsters' effects!" Yuzu called. "By detaching both Xyz materials from Paladynamo, I target your Evil Heel, negating his effects and reducing his attack points to zero!" She watched as Paladynamo's two overlay units were absorbed into his sword as he pointed it at Evil Heel and the light from his sword washed over him. Evil Heel's colors faded to a dull gray. Sawatari stumbled backwards in shock.

"I activate Parshaths's effect! Once per turn, I can change an opponent's monster's battle position!"

Mellow Madonna stood form her defensive position, switching to her ATK of 1800.

"Well done," Serena spoke up. "A Fusion Monster, a Synchro Monstetr and an Xyz Monster all standing side by side. You've been working on your messages... now go kick the crap out of him!"

"Everyone," Yuzu called out, "Sawatari has 2800 life points remaining. I will deal 2000 damage with Paladynamo's attack and 800 with Parshath's. So how many life points will he have left?"

"Zero!" the crowd cheered. Both of her knights charged forwards and cut apart Sawatari's monsters. He staggered back with... 200 life points left.

"Huh?" Yuzu gasped.

"Mellow Madonna gains 100 attack points for every Abyss Script spell in my graveyard," Sawatari panted. "So her attack was 2000, not 1800." Yuzu's face brightened again.

"I can still attack with Bloom Diva! And Elegy won't be destroyed..."

"But she was Special Summoned, so she still triggers the rest of the effect," Sawatari realized.

"Which means..." Yuzu began.

"He still takes the damage!" The crowd chorused.

"Wait, wait wait!" Sawatari shouted. "There's got to be another action card around here somewhere..." He frantically looked around , jumping to another rooftop, but was too late.

Sawatari was flung through the air, landing in one of the pools around the field.

"Bluh! How do I get wet from holographic water anyway?!" he spluttered. He shook his head as climbed back up, provoking some laughs. He called to Yuzu over the crowd's cheers.

"Well? respond to them!"

Yuzu waved to the crowd, her counterparts basking in the glory with her, and her face burned as she saw Yuya cheering, with Yuto and Yugo equally rapt, and even Yuri seemed to have a trace of a smile. Sawatari waved as well, but Yuzu looked at him out of the corner of her eye. She could have sworn that behind his smile, he was not as cheery as he was trying to look, and her own smile faltered slightly.


Sora hopped down from a rooftop, darting across the park. He was sure that he could answer his suspicions soon. He ducked out of sight as he heard someone coming, but it turned out to just be Allen and Sayaka.

"You know, you've never talked about your sister much," Sayaka said as they passed.

"Well to be honest, we don't talk that much ever since I stared using rank 4's..."

Sora hopped back out and made his way downtown, to the abandoned warehouse district. He could have sworn that...

He pressed himself up against a wall as he became sure that he could hear voices. He edged his way around the corner, trying to make out the conversation on the other side of the wall.

"Hello, Sora."

He whirled around as the figure who'd addressed him stepped out of the shadows.

"You really, really shouldn't be here... but since you are, how about we have a bit of a, let's say, exhibition match?" The figure activated their duel disk and grinned.


Okay, finally got the duel to a state I'm reasonably happy with! It was already clear to me that Yuzu should duel Sawatari; the process was more putting together the duel to get to the ending I envisioned. This is a major step in Yuzu's character arc. As you might have guessed I'm sticking to real-life TCG/OCG cards, and that means she doesn't have a huge amount of options for the extra deck. So, as I touched on in chapter 1, she'll be making the most of what she has access to.