(3rd Person PoV)

Outside the building of LID where Yuya and crew were at a while ago, people were walking by, not paying any mind to a cloaked figure wearing a mask that covered their entire face.

They were holding onto a badge with the words, LID, on it. They were staring at the building of LID.

Inside, Shingo had just finished a duel against one of his goons.

"Those cards for yours are ridiculously strong!" Kakimoto, the goon, exclaimed.

"Ah ah, I'm the one who's ridiculously strong," Shingo corrected with the other goons nodding.

"Oh yes! The importance of a Duelist is the skill to calculate tactics, precise decision making, a tough spirit, gifted looks and a perfect combination of these is...," Shingo trailed off.

"Shingo Sawatari!" His goons cheered.

"Yes yes! Simply put it those who deserve a win will. A perfect duelist and that is...," he trailed off again.

"Shingo Sawatari!" His goons cheered again.

"No...call me Neo Shingo with my new cards!" He boasted.

"Alright," his goons agreed.

"Okay! Ladies and Gentlemen!" Shingo did a bow.

"Huh, that's almost like what she said," Ootomo noted.

"You mean that Yuya Sakaki?" Yamabe asked.

"Don't mention her name around here!" Shingo shouted in anger.

He made a fist and it shook as he remembered his oh so humiliating defeat.

"The only reason why I lost was because of the cards. I wasn't so lucky to have Pendulum cards," he explained while nervously chewing on his thumbnail.

"Uhhh but that just contradicts what you just said," Ootomo pointed out.

"And you actually did have Pendulum cards. You tricked her into giving them to you," Kakimoto pointed out.

"Well no matter! Yuya better watch out because I will beat her!" Shingo vowed.

(Meanwhile)

"Achoo!"

"Bless you, Yuya!" Sora told her.

"Thanks. Maybe I placed the water too cold," Yuya admitted.

She, Sora, Tatsuya and Futoshi were washing their faces while Yuichi stood by with towels, with his face already washed before them.

"But still, it felt great!" Yuya cheered.

"It gave me the shivers," Futoshi said and demonstrated just that.

"Yep! After sweating in a duel, one has to do it right," Sora agreed.

"Yeah...Yuya, you do realize that you have some dirt on your neck right? What's the point of washing if you're not going to do it properly?" Yuichi pointed out.

"Yep Yep! I got it. I got it," Yuya assured him.

"No need to say it twice," Yuichi sweatdropped.

(Later)

He and Ayu were walking home while carrying bags of ice cream.

"Sheesh, if they wanted ice cream, couldn't they have gotten it themselves," he muttered.

He still remembers how the four of them all were jumping in the air while cheering out for ice cream.

"But you still got them ice cream anyway because Big Bro Yuichi is so nice," Ayu pointed out.

Yuichi gave her a small smile before bending down quickly and lifted a finger to his lips to tell Ayu to be quiet.

Ayu bend down next to him as two boys were walking by above them. They were Shingo's goons, Ootomo and Yamabe!

"Shingo supposedly has new tactics to beat Yuya. I'll believe it when I see it," Ootomo said.

Both Yuichi and Ayu quietly gasped in shock when he said this.

"Heh but from what I'm hearing, it sounds like a good plan. Striking her down by targeting her weakness will end in such a devastating loss...for Yuya at least," Ootomo laughed.

Yuichi made a fist at this and had a determined look on his face.

"Come on, we better hurry. Shingo gets more selfish when he gets hungry," Yamabe told him and they ran off.

Ayu and Yuichi followed them.

They arrived at a harbor warehouse and hid to see where the two boys would go to, not noticing the cloaked figure standing on the roof.

When they saw Yuichi, behind the mask, their eyes widen.

It can't be...

The two boys entered one of the warehouses. Inside looked like a cool hangout room with a dartboard and everything.

"Sorry we're late," both Yamabe and Ootomo apologized.

"As you should! Do you know how long I've been waiting?" Shingo asked. He was sitting on a couch with Kakimoto.

"Sorry sorry. We got you your Sweet Milk Apple Berry Pie with Honey though," Yamabe apologized.

Outside the warehouse, Yuichi and Ayu were looking in.

"We need to let Big Sis Yuya know," Ayu said.

Yuya...you desperately tried your hardest to save me and the kids. Now it's my turn to return the favor, Yuichi thought.

"Go. Head towards You Show now," he told Ayu, firmly while giving her the bags.

She nodded and ran off. Yuichi got closer to the warehouse. He was about to open it normally because thinking, 'screw it,' and kicked it open.

"You coward!" He shouted after he did this. Shingo had taken a bite of his food and when Yuichi kicked the door open, he began to choke on it.

"Quick, drink this!" Ootomo handed Shingo a water bottle which he frantically began to drink from it.

"I know of your plans to defeat Yuya and I won't allow you to go through with it!" Yuichi continued.

"Why the hell are you here?" Shingo asked, gasping for air.

"I don't need to explain myself. By the way, you have pie crumbs on your mouth," Yuichi explained.

"Ah!" Shingo yelped and one of his goons handed him a napkin which he took and quickly wiped his mouth with it.

"Well well well, looks like you have fallen right into my tr-," he began but Yuichi interrupted him with, "Duel me."

"Huh? Now hold one a sec-," Shingo tried but Yuichi kept interrupting him.

"I will win this, no matter the cost!" He declared.

"Now if you'll just let me talk!" Shingo snapped.

"Now I know I will win because you're just a coward! A sore-loser and a second rate duelist," Yuichi stated.

"S-second rate! How dare you!" Shingo shouted and got up from his couch.

"Yeah, I said it! Second rate. No, third rate. Hell even a hundred rate duelist!" Yuichi pointed out.

"You have gone too far!" Shingo shook with anger.

Kakimoto got up and shut the warehouse door, making Yuichi turn around while holding onto his Duel disk.

No escape huh? He thought.

Shingo walked closer but still across from him and said, "take back your insult."

"No. In fact, I'll say it again, second rate," Yuichi stated.

"You'll regret that. I'll put you in your place," Shing strapped in his duel disk.

Then Kakimoto screamed, making the two of them face him.

He was thrown across the room with the warehouse door opened. The cloaked figure from before walked in.

The other goons ran behind Shingo and he asked, "who are you?"

The figure didn't say anything but turned to Yuichi and said, "stand down. I'll take it from here." Their voice seemed to be faux deep.

"What are you doing?" Yuichi asked but the figure merely stared at the LID badge that was on Shingo's collar.

Kakimoto got up and raced towards Shingo and hid behind him.

"Geez, aren't you the knight in shining armor?" Shingo asked, trying to sound brave.

The figure lifted their arm and a duel disk appeared but it seemed very different from the others that were seen. It looked almost like a sword if anything.

"You're not going to answer my question?" Shingo asked.

"Again, what are you doing? This is my fight, don't interfere!" Yuichi protested.

"You didn't need to do this for me," the figure stated.

"...what?" Yuichi asked.

"Aww, how admirable," Shingo said, sarcastically before adding on, more seriously, "you should leave it at that as to not embarrass yourself."

"..." the figure didn't say anything.

"Alright. Guess I can test out my new deck. Heh, this will be a piece of pie," Shingo smirked.

"Let's Duel!"

Shingo - 4000 LPS

V.S

Unknown - 4000 LPS

"I'll go first," the figure said.

"Go right ahead," Shingo said while narrowing his eyes, wondering what they're going to do.

"I'll set all five cards in my hand onto my field, face down. I end my turn," the figure stated, much to everyone's surprise.

"Pffft, haha! How pitiful! After such a gallant display!" Shingo laughed.

"End him!" Yamabe shouted.

"You bet I will because it's my turn! I will show you my perfect dueling," Shingo shouted as he drew card.

"When you control two or more set cards in your spell or trap zones, I am able to special summon Escher the Vassal of the Ice Monarch (ATK: 800. DF: 1000)," he started.

A humanoid figure with a hat and ice appeared.

"And then I tribute it to Advance Summon, Mobius the Ice Monarch (ATK: 2400. DF: 1000)!" He added on.

"Alright! He summoned a monster with 2400 attack points!" Kakimoto cheered.

"I activate Mobius' effect. When it was Advanced summoned, I can destroy two of your spell or trap cards!" Shingo stated.

His monster formed a sphere of ice and shot it at two of the set cards of the figure, destroying them.

"Next I activate the spell, Advance Carnival. This allows me to Advance summon again after doing so successfully!" Shingo added on.

"What? He's going to tribute the 2400 attack points monster for another?" Yuichi asked, shocked.

"You're right. I tribute my monster to Advance Summon, Möbius the Frigid Ice Monarch (ATK: 2800. DF: 1000)!" Shingo shouted.

A humanoid with metal armor and icicles coming out of it appeared.

"And now, it's effect activates. When it was Advanced summoned, I can destroy three of my opponents' spell or trap cards," Shingo explained.

His monster began to form ice tornadoes from its fists.

"But why doesn't he activate his cards before they're destroyed?" Kakimoto asked.

"Pointless because when a water monster is used for the summoning of Möbius, targeted cards can't be activated in response. But enough chitchat! Freeze and shatter those cards! Blizzard Destruction!" Shingo shouted.

A cold, flurry blizzard formed up and destroyed the remaining cards that the figure had set down.

The weirdest thing was that they and Yuichi could feel the blizzard despite this not being an Action Field.

Why are we feeling the cold? What is this? Yuichi thought.

"Now now. Lookie what we have here. Your field is empty and you have no cards in your hand. Looks like your gallant display was for nothing," Shingo mocked.

"I hate to agree with him but he's right. It would have been better if I was the one dueling," Yuichi told the figure who quickly turned their head towards him to seemingly glare at him.

"This is just the reality of the situation, don't you think?" Shingo asked.

The figure said nothing.

"Oh well then, I guess I'll just end this duel. Direct attack, Möbius!" Shingo yelled.

The icicles from the armor popped off and another blizzard began to form, this time much more powerful than the last one.

The cloak was flapping off the figure as they stood their ground and Yuichi noticed something flying behind the figure.

A hair braid with a bow at the end of it.

He even heard a small noise coming from the figure's arm. A small ting noise like the one Yuya's bracelet makes whenever the pendulum hits the bracelet.

And their voice. It was like they were intentionally trying to make it sound deeper to conceal their identity.

Wait...? Yuichi thought before the figure said something.

"I activate the spell card, Phantom Knights Shadow Veil from my graveyard!" The figure stated.

"What you can do that?" Shingo asked and his goons gasped.

"When a direct attack is declared, I can special summon as many monsters as I can from the graveyard and special summon them from the graveyard," the figure explained.

"But you don't have many monsters," Shingo pointed out.

"That's where you're wrong because that's the effect of my spell card. It can be used a normal monster and I have three of them," the figure explained.

Three monster appeared on their field in defense mode.

(ATK: 0. DF: 300)

The blizzard went away and the cloak looked crooked on the figure. The braid fell over their shoulder and they flicked it over it, which didn't go unnoticed by Shingo.

"Hold on. Not to assume but are you a girl?" Shingo asked.

"..." the figure took off her cloak to reveal a girl with dark clothing and a bracelet that reminded Yuichi a lot like Yuya's.

"Looks like you are a girl and you're an interesting duelist. Did you set your cards like that with the intention of special summoning those monsters?" Yuichi asked.

The girl didn't respond.

"Well girl or not, your monsters are just walls for me to tear down. I'll take down one of them. Go! Sleet Strike Smash!" Shingo shouted and one of those monsters got destroyed.

"When one of them get destroyed and sent to the graveyard, it gets banished," the girl explained in what seemed like her regular voice.

"Heh, that's no concern of mine. I set this card down and end my turn. I'll be sure to crush you when my turns comes around," Shingo explained.

"Go Neo Shingo!" His goons cheered.

"Fool. There will be no next turn for you," the girl said as she drew a card.

"Huh?" Shingo asked.

"Admittedly I'd thought you would actually put up a good enough fight but I don't feel the sharpness of a blade or the power of a bullet in your dueling," the girl explained before adding on, "not even a fragment!"

"What is this? Poetry class?" One of Shingo's goons asked.

"The conditions are met. I have two monster with the same level of level 4 on my field. I overlay my two level 4 Shadow Veils and conduct the Overlay Network!" The girl shouted.

Her two monsters disappeared into two purple swirls and went into a galaxy portal which beamed up a column of blue lightning.

Yuichi took a step back in surprise and the girl began to chant.

"Formed from pitch black darkness, to fight those foolish enough to oppose its treacherous fangs! XYZ Summon! Rank 4, Dark Rebellion XYZ Dragon(ATK: 2500. DF: 2000)!" The girl shouted.

A large black and violet dragon appeared and roared loudly.

"N-no way. That's an XYZ summon! Only top duelists at LID can master such a technique," Kakimoto stated.

Shingo, instead, claps at this.

"Well would you look at that? I'll admit, I am surprised that you were able to pull off a summon like that but one thing. Your dragon is falls short of it's attack points," he said.

"XYZ monsters show their true power by using the souls of their Overlay Units to annihilate their foes," the girl explained.

"Uh huh...ok, edge lord," Shingo rolled his eyes.

"Fine then. Guess I'll have you bear witness to their power. I activate Dark Rebellion's effect! By using one Overlay Unit, I can halve the attack of a level 5 or higher monster and increase its own attack points by that amount until the end of this turn," the girl explained.

Dark Rebellion's wings unfolded and purple lightning came out of it.

"Treason Discharge!" The girl shouted and the purple lightning binded Möbius.

2800 —> 1400 ATK

2500 —> 3900 ATK

"Oh no!" Ootomo cried out.

"This can't be!" Yamabe cried.

"But what is done can be done again. I use the last Overlay Unit to do what I just did again!" The girl shouted.

1400 —> 900 ATK

3900 —> 4600 ATK

"And now I'll attack! Dark Rebellion, crush that glacier with your fangs!" The girl commanded.

The dragon's wings sparked and flew forward with its fangs glowing.

It stabbed Möbius which destroyed it and caused Shingo to fly backwards thanks to the impact.

4000 —> 100 LPS

Debris began to fall and the girl rushed over to shield Yuichi from it. A stone fell and made a crack on the girl's goggles that she had with her mask.

Shingo unsteadily, rose to his feet and was huffing with sudden exhaustion.

What is this? He thought.

"What was that?" Kakimoto asked.

"It was like that attack was real," Ootomo noted.

"Th-that monster...it was that monster's attack!" Yamabe cried in fear.

The girl then stepped forward and had an aura of intimidation.

"I'm only going to ask you this once and you better answer me properly," she said and held up the LID badge.

"Is this from LID and what do you know about Duel Academy?" She asked.

"What? What do you mean?" Shingo asked.

"Don't play dumb with me!" The girl shouted and Yuichi could hear a tint of fear in her voice.

"It's true! All students enrolled in LID have that badge! I know nothing of this Duel Academy," Shingo told her.

She made a frustrated noise before turning away, saying, "we no longer have business."

She was about to leave before Shingo called out, "Now hold just a minute! This duel isn't over yet! I activate the trap, Ice Rage Shot! Since an Aqua monster was destroyed, I can target the monster that destroyed it and destroyed it which in turn will inflict you damage equal to that monster's attack points. Your Dark Rebellion has 4600 attack points which is enough to win me the duel!"

He added on, "I have thought of an income like this and have prepared. Which is why I will win this!"

The girl just sighed heavily at this.

"Don't ignore me!" Shing shouted.

The girl still didn't turn around as she said, "I activate the continuous spell, Phantom Death Spear. By banishing it, I target an opponent's trap card and negate it and destroy it."

A spear appeared on her side of the field.

"Also it can inflict 100 points of damage," the girl added on.

"This attack will be real. Oh no! Wait! Wait! Wait! Wait!" Shing cried out.

"Experience the rage and sorrow of the battlefield," the girl turned around and pointed as the spear shot itself at Shingo.

He got thrown at the wall which thankfully, while the spear did pin him to it, it only pierced his jacket.

100 —> 0 LPS

WINNER: Unknown

The holograms disappeared.

As the flames of the previous attack died down, the girl finally removed her mask and her grey piercing eyes glared at Shingo.

Her face seemed familiar though as both Yuichi and Shingo gasped.

"No...way...Yuya?" Shingo asked. Then he passed out.

His goons took his unconscious body and ran out.

Yuichi got closer to the girl.

"Yuya...why do you look like that?" He asked.

Before the girl could respond, her bracelet began to glow. It blinded Yuichi who shielded his eyes with his arms.

In his mind, he began to see flashes of a duel. He couldn't tell what kind of a duel it was as it was blurry. He could only make out the deafening roar of a dragon.

When the glowing stopped, Yuichi saw that he was no longer in the warehouse but falling straight out onto a hallway.

"Ah!" He fell face front on the cool ground. He turned his head slightly to see someone walking towards him.

"Yuichi? How did you get here?" Yuya asked.

"Yuya...wait are we at the warehouse right now?" Yuichi asked, getting up.

"The warehouse? No, we're here in You Show. The others were waiting for the ice cream," Yuya explained.

"Ice cream...oh! Has Ayu shown up?" Yuichi asked.

Yuya was about to answer when suddenly Ayu bursted into the hallway.

"Big Bro Yuichi is in danger!" She called out.

"Silly Ayu. Yuichi is right here," Yuya tried to assure her.

"Huh? Did you finish giving Shingo his just desserts? And if you did, how did you get here before me?" Ayu asked.

"What's this about Shingo?" Yuya asked.

"I...I don't know myself," Yuichi said, rather distractedly.

Yuya then sniffed the air and got close to Yuichi.

"You smell like smoke, what happened?" She asked.

Yuichi didn't respond as his eyes looked over at Yuya's bracelet and the face of the girl flashed in his mind.

Why do they look similar? He thought.

A/N: I changed some things especially the ending. Heads up, for later chapters I may skip around duels especially most of the ones that Yuya did to get into the League Championship Tournament. I will not be skipping most character interactions though.

Also, did the Melodious archetype finally got new support? I think I saw some things about it while I was googling the archetype for future duels. If so, that makes my job more easier. For Yuichi that is.

Yuzu deserve better as a character. Name one female lead that hasn't gotten poor treatment as characters.

Cya in the next one -Flare