Chapter 2 of Coinciding Light and Darkness is here my readers! Sorry for the wait as I'm sure you were starting to get impatient and I don't blame you. Worry not, for the chapter is now here and I hope you all enjoy reading it. I would say more, but I think I kept you all waiting long enough, so let the curtain rise and let the chapter begin!

Chapter Two: Lost Hope?! Enter Antitopian!

"Ryu, what kind of monster is that?" I asked, a bead of nervous sweat trailing down my face as I stared down the xyz monster I've never seen before.

"I activate Tri-Head Dust Dragon's special ability!" Ryu declared, completely ignoring my question, as his new dragon's heads lunged towards my Gogogo Goram before each head bit my monster's arms and head respectively. "When Tri-Head Dust Dragon makes its appearance, it gains the attack points of one of your monsters."

"It what?!" I watched in shock as my struggling Gogogo Goram fell limp as Dust Dragon's body glowed bright red for a moment before retracting back to Ryu's side of the field. (100→2400)

"I'm not done, Yusa!" Ryu yelled as one of the red orbs orbiting around Dust Dragon got absorbed into the gem in its dust cloud body. "Since you have more cards on the field than I do, I can use an overlay unit to render one of your zones useless!" One of its heads detached itself before it flew over to my side of the field and sat itself next to Gogogo Goram. "Now smash that pile of rubble!" The gem within the dust cloud created a large orb of energy as a new head grew to replace the one that was detached. The energy then went up the dragon's three throats and into their mouths.

"I activate my trap, Gogogo Fightback!" I countered as one of my face-downs stood itself up to reveal Gogogo Goram absorbing the crumbling pieces of Aristera & Dexia. "By banishing a Gogogo monster in my graveyard, Gogogo Goram gains that banished monster's defense points as attack points." A graveyard portal opened as Aristera & Dexia came out before crumbling to and Goram absorbed the fallen pieces. (2300→4500)

"4500 attack points?!" Ryu exclaimed in shock and was too late to cease his attack as his monster's three heads fired white beams at Goram who used its mace like a baseball bat and batted the attack back. The returned attack slammed into Dust Dragon which resulted in an explosion that clouded my vision of Ryu's monster.

"In your face!" I shouted excitedly, a fist raised and a grin on my face as the cloud of debris slowly dispersed. "Not so tough now, huh?" My excitement came to an abrupt end, however, and became horror when the last of the debris cloud dispersed to show that Dust Dragon was still there and it didn't have so much as a scratch on it. "No way, how?"

"Tri-Head Dust Dragon is a Number monster, Yusa." Ryu explained as he had a maniacal look in his eyes. "Only a Number can destroy another Number!"

"But, I don't have a Number." I could feel my body quiver in fear as I slowly turned my head to look at my empty extra deck. 'And I don't have anything to destroy it with an effect, what do I do?'

"And soon you won't have any monsters!" Ryu's declaration got my attention as his remaining face-down stood itself up. The artwork showed a dragon whose entire body was made up of wind seemed to destroy a monster made entirely of stone with horns on its head and glowing red eyes. "Since my dragon is still on the field after doing battle, my Pressuring Roar trap card destroys your Gogogo Goram!" I was still in shock that I couldn't destroy Ryu's monster. I didn't even register the fact that the three headed dragon let out a powerful roar that shattered my Goram and caused it to explode. "That's not all, you take damage equal to half the destroyed monster's original attack points."

"Gogogo Goram originally had 2300 attack points." I muttered softly as I got over my shock before the force of the explosion knocked me off my feet and sent me flying onto my back. I weakly pushed myself up with my arms before reaching for my deck as a card popped out and sent it to the graveyard. "Since Goram was destroyed, I send a Gogogo monster from my deck to the graveyard."

"That'll do for now." Ryu said as Dust Dragon's three heads hovered protectively over the gem in the center of its body. "Maybe this'll teach you not to make a fool of me, Yusa."

Yusa: 50

Ryu: 1100

'How can such a monster exist?' I thought as I struggled to get back on my feet before drawing my card and gave it a glance. 'It's a long shot, but hopefully this will buy me some time.' I took the card I drew and played it revealing it was a spell with a picture of a magician wrapped in chains standing beside a large golem and they were both punching the air. "I activate the spell Onomatopaira!"

"You must be desperate if you're using that spell, Yusa." Ryu said with a smile that was far from sympathetic. "Didn't get the hand you wanted?"

"By sending a card from my hand to the graveyard, I can add two of four monsters from my deck to my hand." I chose to ignore Ryu's taunt as I looked over the last two cards in my hand to decide which one to discard. I reached for the only monster in my hand as I might need the other card, which was a trap card, later.

"Not that one."

"Huh?" I looked behind me but saw no one was there much to my confusion. 'I thought I just heard someone.' I looked around the area for a moment before turning my attention to my hand again. 'Why keep this monster?'

"You gonna ditch a card or what?" Ryu asked as he impatiently tapped his foot and crossed his arms.

'I hope I don't regret this.' I thought as I took the trap card and sent it to the graveyard before two cards popped out of my deck and added them to my hand. I took one of newly added monsters and placed it face-down on my field. "Your move, Ryu."

Yusa: 50

Ryu:1100

"I draw!" Ryu drew his card and I grew nervous when I saw a smirk on his face when he revealed the card he drew which was a spell. The artwork showed a green dragon with pinkish webbed wings latched onto a panicking knight as a larger dragon stood over them. "I activate the Forced Movement spell card!"

"Not that!" I exclaimed in shock and fear as I knew exactly what that spell does and let's just say that it's not a good thing for me.

"Yes that." Ryu's smirk grew when he saw my fear as chains came out of the card and wrapped around my face-down monster. "This spell allows me to force one of your monsters to switch from defense to offense!" I gritted my teeth in frustration when the chains forced my face-down card face-up and a muscled humanoid monster with a coat over its shoulders like a cape holding a sword that had three spikes on the blade and back came out. "Ah, Zubababancho Gagagacoat, I thought that might've been one of the cards you added."

Zubababancho Gagagacoat/EARTH/Level 4/Warrior/ATK:1800/DEF: 100

"I forgot he had that card." I said softly through gritted teeth as the chains then turned into a green dragon with pinkish webbed wings and wrapped itself around my monster.

"This is the end, Yusa!" Ryu let out another maniacal laugh as he pointed up his Tri-Head Dust Dragon. "Tri-Head Dust Dragon, wipe both Yusa and his monster off the map!" Once again the gem within the dust cloud created a large orb of energy that went up the dragon's three throats and into their mouths.

'I lost, I can't do anything!' I could do nothing but watch with wide eyes as the three headed dragon seemingly prolonged its attack just to be cruel. 'If only I kept that trap card, maybe I would've had a chance.'

"You still do."

'No, I don't.' I shut my eyes tightly, waiting for the inevitable attack that will destroy my monster and wipe out the rest of my life points. 'I've got nothing to protect me and my trap card's in the graveyard!'

"I never thought I'd hear you of all people admit defeat." A bright light pierced through the veil of darkness that my eyelids created when I closed them. When I opened my eyes, I found that the light was coming from my lock and particles were coming out of the green gem in its center. "That kind of attitude doesn't suit you, Yusa."

The particles that left my lock soon began to gather in one spot and seemed to be forming something. I could see that they were forming what looked like feet before legs slowly followed along with the upper torso and I was in shock at what I was seeing. Standing, or is it floating, next to me was a guy who looked like he was around the same age as Kari with one hand resting on his hip. He had a transparent white body with black swirling markings all over his body. He would have messy black and white hair that would sway in nonexistent wind and wore earrings, one shaped like the sun on his left ear and a crescent moon on his right. The stranger also has heterochromic eyes, the left eye being purple and the right a clear white.

"What the?!" I exclaimed in surprise and shock at the sudden appearance of… whatever this guy was and could only point at the stranger who never took his eyes off me. "Who are you?!"

"Introductions can wait." The stranger said dismissively, much to my annoyance, and turned his attention to the three headed dragon that stopped its attack to stare curiously at the new arrival. "Right now, I believe you are in the middle of a duel."

"Don't ignore my question!" I shouted in irritation, waving my hand that was still pointing at the stanger. "Who the heck are you?!"

"Here it comes." The stranger calmly said, ignoring my question again as he pointed to Tri-Head Dust Dragon who once again charged up its attack. "Now would be a good time to defend yourself."

"With what?" I demanded, looking to my field and back to the stranger who never took his eyes off the dragon. "In case you haven't noticed, I don't have anything that can protect me!"

"There is that other face-down you have." The stranger pointed out, having seen the card I have yet to activate.

"That one's a bluff!" I yelled, looking at the face-down on my field before turning back to the stranger. "I can't even activate it this turn even if I wanted to!"

"If you're done talking to yourself, Yusa." Ryu said, getting my attention as he dragged a thumb across his neck. "Time to blast you to pieces!"

"He sounds serious." The stranger commented before turning his attention to me. "Now, about defending yourself."

"Are you blind?!" I looked at the stranger in disbelief that he was still on about me defending myself. "I don't have anything to defend myself with!"

"I believe there is a certain trap card you discarded earlier." The stranger raised an eyebrow when he said that as if I should already know what to do. "It was called Gagaga Protection if I recall."

"Yeah, a trap I could have used to switch Zubababancho to defense mode and prevent him from being destroyed this turn." I replied, my eyebrow twitching as my patience was slowly dwindling away with each second I spent talking to this stranger. "But now it's in my graveyard."

"Exactly." The stranger suddenly said, catching me off guard and I gave him a confused look as I was lost at what he meant by that. "Gagaga Protection has another effect you can use right now."

"Another effect?" I fiddled with my duel disk to find my graveyard until I found it and searched for Gagaga Protection. When I found the trap card and read its effects, my eyes widened in both realization and relief. "I didn't know it had this effect."

"It does." The stranger nodded his head in satisfaction and turned his attention to Tri-Head Dust Dragon who finally released its attack at my Zubababancho. "Activating it now would be nice."

"Alright, I get it!" I said with a panicky tone in my voice as I took the card out of my graveyard. "I activate Gagaga Protection's effect from my graveyard!" A graveyard portal opened and the card came out to show Zubababancho standing over a duelist with his back turned to a sword slashing at them. "By banishing it, I take no damage from your attack!"

"What?!" Ryu exclaimed in shock as Zubababancho tossed his sword to the side before standing in front of me and turned his back to the three headed dragon's attack with his arms stretched out. The attack struck Zubababancho in the back causing the monster to shout out in pain before being destroyed and I noticed that the stranger closed his eyes and lowered his head as if mourning the loss of my monster.

"A noble sacrifice, rest in peace, Zubababancho." I heard the stranger muttered softly before opening his eyes to stare down the dragon that destroyed my monster. "You will be avenged."

"Tch, I end my turn." Ryu begrudgingly declared and I couldn't help the sigh of relief I let out that I survived by the skin of my teeth.

Yusa: 50

Ryu: 1100

"Everything is in place now." The stranger said as I drew my card and he pointed forward confidently. "Now, summon Gagaga Head."

"Hey, no backseat dueling!" I shouted in protest as I looked over my hand and saw the monster he wanted me to summon. "I don't even have a monster to tribute to summon it."

"You won't be needing one." The stranger said and I looked at him in confusion at the smirk on his face. "If your opponent is the only one with monsters, you can summon Gagaga Head without a tribute and its level becomes four."

"Really?" My eyes widened in surprise at that as I read over the monster's effect. 'He's right, and there's more.' Knowing I was going to regret this, I took the card and played it. "Since you're the only one with monsters, I can summon Gagaga Head as a level four monster!"

Out of the card came a man with long blond hair that went out as three spikes on the back of his head. He wore a black cape over his shoulders with yellow trimming, chains around his waist and floating around his shoulders and connected to the clips on the cape, Black fingerless gloves, and matching boots.

Gagaga Head/DARK/Level 6→4/Spellcaster/ATK: 2100/DEF: 2000

"Is this your last ditch effort in beating me, Yusa?" Ryu let out a crazed laugh when he saw my monster's attack points. "My Tri-Head Dust Dragon has 300 more attack points than that sorry excuse of a monster!"

"We'll see if you're still laughing when I activate Gagaga Head's special ability!" I declared as a graveyard portal opened and Gagaga Head reached a hand inside. "When he's summoned, I'm able to summon a Gagaga monster from my graveyard." When Gagaga Head pulled out Zubababancho, my eyes widened in realization when I paid close attention to their levels. "I have two level fours."

"Too bad you don't have any xyz monsters, Yusa." Ryu mocked with a wry smile on his face and had to resist the urge to facepalm as I knew he was right. "All you did was give my monster targets to practice its aim on."

"Don't have any xyz monsters?" The stranger chuckled when he repeated Ryu's words and I could stare at him in confusion as I didn't see how this situation was funny. Having seen my confused look, the stranger pointed to my extra deck which started to glow. "Why not look in your extra deck and see what is inside?"

"I already know what's inside, nothing." I gave the stranger a deadpanned look but he just nodded his head to my extra deck as it flipped open. Just to humor him, I reached into my extra deck expecting to feel nothing. My eyes widened in surprise when I did feel something and pulled it out to see it was a card. "What the?"

"I believe that is an xyz monster in your hand." The stranger commented, an amused grin on his face when he saw my shock. Problem is that it was blurry for some reason and I couldn't tell what was on the card. "Why not play it and see what it can do?"

"But, I can't see what it is." I muttered, squinting my eyes as if it would help me see the card better.

"I can, it is Number 98..." The moment the stranger said "Number" the card became easier to see and I saw that it was a human-looking monster with grey skin wearing mostly black armor with a green upside down triangle on its chest, wings on its back, and holding a broadsword in its right hand. On its right shoulder guard was a red 98. "Antitopian."

"Wait, did you say Number?" I looked at the stranger in shock then back to the xyz monster and my eyes widened in realization when I saw its rank. "Is that why you wanted me to summon Gagaga Head?"

"Happy to hear you are catching on." The stranger nodded in satisfaction that I was finally able to piece together everything. "Now build the overlay network with Gagaga Head and Zubababancho!"

"What did I say about backseat dueling?!" I shouted at the stranger before turning my attention back to the duel. "I was going to do that anyway." I raised my right hand into the air as Gagaga Head and Zubababancho became purple and orange lights respectively. "I overlay level 4 Gagaga Head and Zubababancho!" The lights shot into the air as a galaxy-like overlay network formed in front of me. "With these two monsters I build the overlay network and xyz summon Number 98: Antitopian!"

The lights dove into the network causing it to explode before the number 98 appeared and flashed red. What came out of the network was an object that had a pair of wings wrapped around a sword with a green upside down triangle in the center. The object then began to rearrange itself until it was now the monster that was on the card art that swung his broadsword a couple times before holding it with both hands in front of him.

Number 98: Antitopian/DARK/Rank 4/Warrior/Xyz/ATK: 2000/DEF: 2500/OLU: 2

"So what if you have an xyz monster out?" Ryu scoffed at the sight of my new xyz monster as I tried to contain my excitement about xyz summoning for the first time. "It's still not strong enough to defeat mine."

"It takes more than strength to win a duel." The stranger said confidently, confidence I didn't share when I realized the difference between the two xyz monsters. He then faced me and pointed at my deck much to my confusion. "Because you used Gagaga Head to xyz summon, you are now able to draw one card from your deck."

"I can?" I blinked a couple times at that revelation before a card popped out of my deck and I drew it to see what it was. I let out a groan when I saw what that card I drew was. "Come on, a trap card? And it's not even something I can use!"

"I wouldn't be so sure about that." I just gave the floating stranger a momentary glance before looking back at the card I drew. Even if it was for a moment, I could've sworn I saw what looked like a sad nostalgic smile on his face. "That card will be our key to victory, so I suggest you place it down and end your turn."

"And why should I listen to you?" I gave the stranger a skeptical look and he just crossed his arms and gave me his full attention. "You just showed up out of nowhere and started giving me orders."

"Not orders, friendly advice." The stranger calmly corrected with a slight shrug of his shoulders before he turned his attention back to the duel. "Advice that has kept you in this duel."

"I don't need your advice!" I shouted, running my hands through my hair and grinding my teeth in frustration before pointing at the stranger. "Yuma and I can handle a duel on our own!"

"Oh, really?" The stranger gave me a look that was far from impressed at what I just said. "Enlighten me, if I hadn't showed up, how would you have handled his Number?"

"Uh, well…" I knew I lost that argument as I didn't have a plan to deal with Ryu's monster and I would have lost if it weren't for the floating stranger next to me.

"I rest my case." The stranger nodded in satisfaction when I couldn't give him an answer to his question. He floated closer to me and leaned forward so that we were looking each other in the eyes. "I need you to trust me on this, Yusa."

'Can I really trust him?' I couldn't help but think about everything he told me to do ever since he appeared. 'His advice did help me out of a pinch a couple times.' I turned my eyes to the trap card that he wanted me to play. 'But how is this the key to victory?'

"Still talking to yourself?" I looked up from the card to look over to Ryu whose eye was twitching impatiently. "Come on, Yusa, make your move so I can finish you!"

'No choice.' I gave the card one last look before I placed it face-down before I gave the stranger a look that pretty much said 'Happy now?' and he nodded. "Your move, Ryu."

Yusa: 50

Ryu: 1100

"You wasted all that time talking to yourself just to do that?" Ryu growled out as he drew his card before pointing at Antitopian. "Tri-Head Dust Dragon, obliterate that Antitopian!"

"I knew he would do that." The stranger said as Tri-Head Dust Dragon powered up its attack before looking towards me. "Will you please use an overlay unit to activate Antitopian's ability?"

"Well, since you asked." I begrudgingly did as I was told and removed a card from under Antitopian and sent it to the graveyard. "Don't know what it does, but I activate Antitopian's special ability!"

"By using an overlay unit, Antitopian can force an attacking monster to defense mode." The stranger explained as one of Antitopian's overlay units entered the triangle on his chest armor before his wings extended and wrapped themselves around Tri-Head Dust Dragon restricting its movements. "Detainment Wing!"

"My dragon!" Ryu shouted in shock as his monster struggled to free itself from Antitopian's wings before it finally gave up and had its heads hover protectively around its gem. Ryu growled in frustration as Antitopian's wings retracted themselves from around his monster. "My turn's done."

Yusa: 50

Ryu: 1100

"I draw!" I drew my card and looked at it before letting out a groan when I saw that it was a monster. 'Of all times to draw a monster when I needed something else.'

"Don't be discouraged." The stranger said as he looked at the card I drew before turning his attention back to the duel. "We already have everything we need to win this duel."

'What is he talking about?' I thought in confusion as I looked over the cards on the field with my duel disk. 'Tri-Head Dust Dragon has 2600 defense points and Anritopian has 2000 attack points.' I looked up to my field to my two face-down cards that lay innocently in front of me. 'I have two face-downs which I can't even use, even the one the floating guy claims is the key to victory.'

"You still have an overlay unit to use." The stranger pointed out and I looked up to him in confusion as to why he would point that out now of all times. He looked as if he just remembered something and just sighed before slightly floating away from me. "I forgot, you said you didn't need my advice, so I'll just observe from here."

'Why did he mention the overlay unit before shutting up?' I thought as I looked up towards Antitopian and his last overlay unit that orbited around him. 'How can that help when all it can do is-' I halted that thought when my eyes widened in realization when my attention shot down to the card the stranger had me place down. 'That's it!' I looked at the stranger who just floated in a laid back manner with his hands behind his head and looked back at me with expecting eyes. I turned my attention back to the field and pointed at Tri-Head Dust Dragon. "Antitopian, attack Tri-Head Dust Dragon!"

"You're a fool, Yusa!" Ryu yelled, letting out a hysteric laugh as Antitopian readied his sword before charging towards Tri-Head Dust Dragon. "My monster has way more defense points than that pathetic monster's attack points!"

"Which is why I'm using Antitopian's special ability to switch him to defense mode!" I declared as Antitopian's last overlay unit entered the green triangle on his chest armor making his sword vanish and returned to my side of the field. When he returned, Antitopian got on one knee and crossed his arms in front of him.

"You must be the biggest fool on earth, Yusa!" Ryu's laugh got louder and more hysterical when he saw me force my only monster to defense mode. "Why cancel an attack you just ordered?!"

"So I can activate my trap card, Xyz Face-off!" I replied as the trap flipped itself face-up to reveal a reddish-orange dragon facing off against an electric blue dragon with a pair of horns that sparked with electricity. "This trap forces all xyz monsters in defense mode to attack mode and negate their special abilities for the turn!"

"It does what?!" Ryu exclaimed in shock as his dragon's heads raised and roared and Antitopian got his feet and his sword materialized in his hands. (2400→100)

"That's not all this trap does." I felt a confident smirk grow on my face when I saw Tri-Head Dust Dragon's attack points dropped to their original value. "This trap also enables xyz monsters to attack another xyz monster twice!"

"You lie!" Ryu's eyes widened when Antitopian swung his sword a couple times before jumping into the air over Tri-Head Dust Dragon. "I can't believe I'm going to lose to you of all people!"

"Well, believe it!" I said as I formed a fist and raised it over my head. "Go, Antitopian!" As Antitopian began his descent towards Tri-Head Dust Dragon, he raised his sword over his head while the three headed dragon launched an attack to try and stop the other number from getting closer. "Despair Sword Slash!"

Antitopian brought his sword down on the dragon's attack and sliced it in half as he continued down towards the three headed number. The sword slashed through the three headed dragon's middle head and proceeded to cut it down the middle while using his wings to hold back the other two heads. When the blade had cut through the gem, the remaining two heads let out a pain filled roar before exploding while the force of the blast knocked Ryu off his feet and onto his back as his life points plummeted. (Ryu: 1100→0)

"Did I just win?" I asked myself softly, still processing what just happened as a window appeared with my picture declaring me the winner. Antitopian vanished along with all the damage that would have happened to our surroundings if this was real.

"You did." I turned to face the stranger as he held his hand out to Ryu and I watched in shock as a glowing card came out of his chest and flew to the stranger's hand which he caught. After staring at the card for a moment, he turned his attention to me and smiled. "You did well, well done."

"Uh, thanks?" I know I phrased it more like a question than gratitude, but can you blame me? I heard someone groaning and I immediately remembered that there was someone else here. "Ryu!"

"He'll be fine." The stranger said reassuringly as I ran over to Ryu who was pushing himself to a sitting position while rubbing the back of his head. "Now that I extracted the number, he should return to normal."

"Did anyone get the license plate on that triceratops?" Ryu groaned out and I resisted the urge to chuckle as I held out a hand to him when he looked up at me in confusion. "Yusa?"

"You alright, Ryu?" I asked in concern and I was relieved to see him nod his head as he took my hand before I pulled him up to his feet.

"Just a light headache." Ryu said, placing a hand on his head to ease said headache before he noticed that we both had our duel disks. "Oh yeah, we were dueling and you managed to damage me when…" He shut his eyes tightly and his grip on his head tightened as if he was straining to remember what happened after. "What happened after that?"

"That's not important right now." I said quickly, hoping to avoid explaining he was pretty much possessed by a card, and got behind him before lightly pushing him forward. "You should head home and sleep that headache off."

"Yeah, you're probably right." Ryu nodded, still confused about what happened to him and didn't protest when I gave him another push. He began to walk on his own and gave me a backhanded wave. "See ya, Yusa."

"You didn't tell him about the Number." The stranger commented and I turned to face him to see that he was confused. "Why didn't you?"

"I didn't want him to worry about it." I replied, taking off my duel disk and duel gazer before putting them away. "If I was in his shoes, I know I wouldn't want to have anything to do with these Number cards again."

"And am I correct in assuming you'll give up the ones in your possession?" The stranger asked and was surprised when I shook my head and pulled out Antitopian's card to stare at it. "Care to explain?"

"I don't know to be honest." I gave a small shrug of my shoulders as I looked up from the card to the stranger who decided to float in front of me. "I know that these cards are dangerous, but I can't bring myself to just throw them away."

"Which is a wise decision." The stranger turned the card he was holding to reveal that it was Ryu's monster that he used earlier. "These Numbers have the ability to, for a lack of a better word, possess any human that comes into contact with them." He then pointed at my lock which glinted a little in the sunlight. "You are an exception because of that lock around your neck."

"What's the point of these Numbers?" I looked between the two Number cards in confusion as it made no sense why these things are here in the first place. "Why do they exist?"

"That I can't tell you much of." The stranger replied, tossing the Number he was holding to me and I clumsily caught it. "What I can tell you is that there are 100 of these Numbers in total and each one represents the memories of a certain individual."

"A certain individual?" I repeated in confusion before the rest of what he said processed as I stared at the cards in my hands. "Wait, you're telling me that there are still 98 of these things out there?!"

"Yes." The stranger nodded his head before he looked in the direction that I knew the station courtyard was. "Make that 96, I sense two other Numbers heading this way."

"Two?!" I shouted in shock at what I just heard and wanted to deny they ever reached my ears. "I barely defeated one, there's no way I can handle two at once!"

"Relax." The stranger said, not the least bit worried that there were TWO Numbers heading our way! "I know who has them and they are no threat to us."

"How can you be so sure of that?" I asked, raising a doubtful eyebrow at the certainty that was in the stranger's voice. I placed the Number cards in my extra deck before I began to walk back home and gave the stranger a side glance when he started to float beside me. "Why are you following me?"

"Because you have the Numbers." The stranger replied, positioning himself so it looked like he was leaning back on a chair with one leg over the other and his hands behind his head. "That, and I am bound to the lock around your neck"

"Bound to it?" I blinked in surprise at that and looked down at my lock that hung innocently against my chest. My eyes widened in realization as I stopped walking and looked up to the stranger who looked back curiously. "Wait, are you the voice I've been hearing?"

"I might be, I might not." The stranger shrugged his shoulders as he changed his position in the air so his legs were now crossed with his hands gripping his ankles. "Does my voice sound familiar to you in any way?"

"A little." I reached up to my lock and lifted it so I can stare at the green gem in the center of it. "Whenever I stare at my lock, I always hear this muffled voice." Twisting the cord slightly, I watched as the light from the setting sun gleamed on my locks gold surface. "I couldn't make out what the voice was saying, but I always thought it was my imagination and shrugged it off."

"I see." I looked up in confusion at the contemplative tone in the stranger's voice. I could tell he was deep in thought before looking down to me. "That can be no one else but me, I am the only one that resides in your lock."

'I guess that makes sense.' I thought back to when my lock was shining brightly as particles left its gem and formed the floating guy beside me. I blinked when I had a sudden thought and went back to staring at my lock. 'Wait, Yuma's key is the same as my lock, does that mean…' I let out an amused chuckle and released my hold on my locks cord to let it hang again as I continued my trek home. 'Nah, there's no way, otherwise Yuma would've told me he was hearing voices too.'

The walk home was somewhat peaceful, if you exclude the floating transparent person next to me and nearly getting run over by a crazy truck driver. I contemplated going to the station courtyard to see how Yuma's duel with Shark was going but decided against that as I knew Yuma had things under control. We considered it was because of our connection as twins, but Yuma and I always seem to know when the other was in trouble and know exactly where we are. It's because of this connection that I feel that Yuma can handle Shark just fine and that I was being an idiot for trying to fight my brother's battle for him.

I soon saw my house and began to climb up the steps to see grandma sweeping the front porch as she always does. Having seen me wearing my lock, she knew who I was immediately and smiled. "Welcome home, Yusa, I take it Yuma caught up to you?"

"Yeah, I kinda had a bit of delay." I rubbed the back of my head when I thought back to what happened not long ago. When I saw the inquiring look on her face, I just said one word that pretty much sums everything up. "Ryu."

"Ah, I see." Grandma nodded her head in understanding as she continued with her sweeping. "Did he win again?"

"Nope." I couldn't help the pride that built up inside me when I remembered all the duels I had with Ryu. Naturally I lost them all, so it's a bit refreshing to beat him for once even if the circumstances weren't exactly desirable. "I actually won for once."

"That's great, dear." Grandma had a proud smile on her face that turned into a frown and I started to sweat nervously at her stare and knew what she was going to say next. "Yusa, I know you care about your brother, but you need to let Yuma fight his own battles."

"I know, grandma." I scratched my cheek with a finger, knowing that I deserve the lecture that grandma was about to give me. "But he's my only brother and I don't want to see him hurt."

"I know, Yusa." She gave another understanding nod of her head before lightly tapping me on the head with her broom. I winced at the tap and brought a hand up to rub the red spot on my forehead. "Just remember that as much you want to protect Yuma, there will be times where your brother must fend for himself." I opened my mouth to protest but shut it when she held up her broom menacingly meaning she wasn't done talking yet. "Instead of trying to do things on your own, why not the both of you do it together?" I blinked in surprise when the menacing aura she was exuding was gone and her sweet smile was back. "That way, you will have each other's backs no matter how difficult the task may be."

'I forgot how wise grandma could be.' I gave her a smile and nodded my head before opening the front door and stepped inside our house to take off my shoes. 'I guess I should apologize to Yuma when he gets home.'

After taking off my shoes and setting them neatly, I walked down the hall and up the stairs to get to the second floor. I opened the door to my room and went over to my closet to change out of the clothes I was wearing. I remember that Yuma and I decided to have a few pairs of the other's clothes in case we wanted to prank our friends and pretended to be each other. It was funny for a while, but after it soon got boring when Tori and Sora were still able to tell us apart and we still don't know how they do it. But I digress, after I took off Yuma's outfit, I began to put on my own regular attire which was a dark red shirt under a black sleeveless vest with a white hood and a pair of dark blue pants with a black belt. I also completed the outfit by putting on a pair of purple fingerless gloves that had a green stripe around the wrist. After I finished changing, I heard my door open and I knew it was Yuma because only he and I enter our room without knocking.

"Hey, Yuma." I greeted with my back facing my brother as I made sure my gloves were on securely before turning to face Yuma. "Listen, I'm sorry about-"

I stopped myself mid-sentence when my eyes widened in shock when I saw that my brother was not alone. Floating next to Yuma was a very thin transparent blue body with green markings and blue gems all over his, because they're obviously not female, body. He has blue hair that curls up in a Mohawk and pointed ears, which are pierced with dangling earrings. He also has heterochromic eyes, the left eye being luminous gold and the right a clear white.

"You have one too?!" Yuma and I shouted at the same time as we pointed at the people floating next to us. We then looked at each other with identical shocked faces as the person floating next to Yuma looked between us with a perplexed look on his face and the one next to me looked like he was trying to suppress a chuckle as we pointed at each other. "You can see him?!"

"Yuma, who is this boy?" The person next to Yuma inquired curiously as continued to look between my brother and I. "And why do the two of you look identical to each other?"

"That's because we're twins." I sweat dropped when I heard Yuma say that through clenched teeth and that his eyebrow was twitching erratically. Being his twin and being together all our lives, I knew that Yuma was close to losing his top. "And before you even ask, twins are two siblings who were born on the same day."

"You forgot to mention that you are identical twins." The stranger added, still looking like he was trying not to laugh with a hand over his mouth. "It means that they have identical appearances and of the same gender."

"Observation #2: It is possible for humans to be identical in appearance." The person floating next to Yuma said, much to my confusion and the annoyance of my brother.

"Would you knock it off with the observations!" Yup, mount Yuma blew his top, I knew it was going to happen when I saw him giving his tagalong a side glare while his eyebrow twitched.

'Speaking of tagalongs.' I thought as I looked to the person who gave the observation then to my brother who was trying to rein in his frustration. "Uh, Yuma, who's your friend?"

"He's not my friend, Yusa!" Yuma yelled in denial before crossing his arms and turned his head away from his tagalong with a small hmph.

"Interesting, even your names sound similar." Yuma's tagalong commented when he heard my name and Yuma started to have a tick mark on his forehead. "I am called Astral and I am here to collect the Number cards that hold pieces of my memories." He then turned his attention to my tagalong and stared curiously at him. "You seem to be similar to me, are we related in some way?"

"You could say that." The stranger replied with a small shrug before he looked over his body with an expression I can't place. "We are both energy beings, but we are not related like these two."

"Wait, did he mention Number cards earlier?" I looked to my brother who managed to calm down a little. I reached into my extra deck and pulled out my Number cards to show Yuma. "Yuma, do you have these?"

"You too, Yusa?" Yuma's eyes widened in shock as he also pulled out two cards from his extra deck to show me.

One of them looked similar to my Antitopian, except it had white and yellow armor holding a sword with a hole near where the blade and hilt meet. It also had a red 39 on its left shoulder guard. The other card Yuma had was a serpentine dragon with three pairs of winged arms and five horns with a yellow 17 on the right horn.

"How did you get yours?" We ended up asking at the same time before gesturing to the other. "You first, no you!"

It went on like this trying to get the other to go first for ten minutes before we decided that Yuma would go first. He explained how he dueled Shark and was getting beat badly before Shark xyz summoned the Number card in Yuma's possession which was Number 17: Leviathan Dragon. He also told me how Astral showed up and how he got his other Number which was Number 39: Utopia and how he used a combo of both its special ability to negate an attack and his spell Double or Nothing to allow Utopia to attack again with double its attack points. Then it was my turn to explain how I got my Numbers, which we realized were pretty similar situations when we thought about it. I told my brother how I used Antitopian's special ability to force both mine and Ryu's Numbers to defense mode before using Xyz Face-Off to force them into attack mode reduced Tri-Head Dust Dragon's attack points back to it regular 100 before allowing Antitopian to attack again winning me the duel.

"Well, I think it's safe to say we had a long day." I said after Yuma and I finished our tales of how we got our Number cards and Yuma nodded in agreement. "Should we just call it a day?"

"Yeah, especially with how late it is." Yuma looked out my window and I followed his gaze to see that it was starting to get dark out. The both of us let out a loud yawn only just now realizing how tired we were. "I can't believe I'm about to say this, but let's skip dinner and just go to bed."

"I can't believe I heard you say that." I joked, getting a laugh out of my brother before I nodded in agreement. "But yeah, sleep sounds nice right about now."

"I'll see you in the morning, then, Yusa." Yuma said as he climbed up to the attic as I went to my closet to change into my sleeping clothes which were just a white tank top and a pair of blue sweatpants.

"You seem close." I looked over my shoulder to look at the stranger in confusion. "You and your brother I mean."

"Of course we're close, because we're family." I replied as I took off my clothes except my boxers and started to put on my sweatpants before moving on to the tank top. I paused putting the tank top on for a moment to look at the stranger curiously. "Do you have a family?"

"I did." The stranger let out a sad and longing sigh as he turned his head to look out the window. "But I cannot be with them at the moment."

'I think I just asked something taboo.' I thought, feeling a little guilty that I touched an obviously sensitive topic. As I put on my tank top and turned off my room's lights, I tried to think of something to get the stranger's mind off the family topic. 'Oh yeah.' As I walked over to my bed and climbed under the sheets, I looked to the stranger who took his eyes off the window to stare back at me. "You never answered my question earlier."

"What question would that be?" The stranger asked, floating closer to me to see he was confused. "You will have to be more specific."

"The question I first asked you." I clarified, my eyes starting to feel heavy as they slowly begin to close and letting out a yawn. "Who are you?"

"Ah, that question." The stranger nodded in understanding before he positioned himself so it looked like he was sitting on the edge of my bed. "I'll tell you in due time, but for now, you can call me Kazu."

"Kazu." I repeated softly, trying and failing to keep my eyes open, but Eventually lost the struggle and let my eyes fully close as sleep took hold of me.

Hope you enjoyed it, my beloved readers. Now onto replying to your reviews that you took the time to leave behind.

Karsap: Very good start indeed.

HunterHQ: Indeed, that's one of the best ways to start an isekai. Happy to hear you approve of what I had in the previous chapter. I hope this chapter cleared any confusion you had as to why I decided to use Tri-Head Dust Dragon as the first Number Yusa faces. That's a secret, you will have to continue reading to find out the significance of Aria and Zolmar. Maybe, maybe not, but if I ever run into a dead end I will come to you for advice.

IWriteDumbStuff: Yup, happy to hear you were excited to see the rewrite and I hope you enjoyed it.

Ethan Kironus: You hit the nail right on the head.

Zeromk7: Glad to hear you liked both of them. I was tempted to use Super Quantal, but thought against it because of how good it was. I'll keep that in mind when I write the next chapter, thanks for bringing it to my attention.

Veta Takomoro: Yup, I'm back and I'm happy to hear that it was missed and I hope you enjoyed reading this new and improved version of Kazuki's Grand Adventure. Fear not, I'm not abandoning the Malicevorous archtype and they will appear again in the near future.

Cyberbee15: Thank you for your kind words. That's great, I hope to see it soon. I hope you enjoyed reading this chapter.

Now that the reviews are out of the way, I will see you all again next chapter!