Author's Note: Thank you so much for helping me with this chapter, pnccakes~! We enjoyed writing and proofreading this chapter :DDD

Akuhei Amari, Mitsuo Amari, and Haruno Sasaki all belong to pnccakes~!

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"Welcome to this year's Cardfight!! Vanguard High School Tournament!" The announcer spoke through the mic and was heard throughout the entire arena. The event was also being broadcasted on TV and streamed through the internet as well.

"So the tournament is finally here." Eiichi - Kouichi's twin - spoke. He smiled as he fixed his glasses and looked at his laptop, watching the livestream. "You may be a bit cowardly at times but I'm pretty sure you're going to be able to do this."

Eiichi then looked at the scenery of Hong Kong through the window, he just smiled to himself. His eyes glowed blue for a moment but it went back to normal.

Back in Japan, Kouichi was staring at the stadium building, he felt his PSYqualia trying to activate but he was kind of able to refrain himself. His eyes twitched but he was able to keep his composure.

"I'll be cheering you on, my dear brother Kouichi."

=

OP 2 Sequence

=

There were the sounds of people cheering all around the venue; with a lot of people coming in the arena as an audience, it was already expected that the place would be packed. Outside the arena there were tons of students from various schools that were either coming to cheer and the others would be the participating ones.

Of course, some of them are the ones that everyone were all anticipating:

Miyaji Academy, Fukuhara High, and Hitsue High

There were already students from said schools that have arrived at the place as well, anticipating the arrival of the popular cardfighters that attend their schools. And the moment they appeared, they cheered and squealed their names, especially the fans.

Kouichi stood next to his fellow Cardfight Club members, and they gave him a smile. Kouichi smiled back at them. All of a sudden, Kaoru puts his arm over Kouichi's shoulders and chuckles with a visible wide smile.

"We're finally here, Kouichi!!" Kaoru said loudly and gave an ambitious laugh towards the said male. "We're gonna beat up those dudes and we'll win the tournament!"

"Ahaha..." Kouichi only smiled awkwardly as he let out a nervous laugh. 'I'm not sure if I really can do this... but I'll do my best...!'

"Oh? Those are some big words you're spouting out there, Mr. Ishida~" Suddenly there was the voice of someone in a mocking tone. A scoff followed after the statement, and Kouichi immediately realized who that was. The blonde teenager looked back and saw a certain raven haired individual with crimson red eyes, donning the Fukuhara high school uniform.

"Joichi-!" Kouichi spoke in surprise and Joichi gave a smile at them. The other Miyaji Club members that are close to Kouichi gave Joichi a glare.

"Whoa, already giving me those fierce looks~! This makes me fired up to see what's going to happen in the actual tournament~!" Joichi told them and laughed.

"Hey what's your problem, man?!" Kaoru yelled at Joichi. "You wanna start a fight, rich boy? Wanna fight here right now?! Come at me, you coward!"

Despite the threats that Kaoru spouted at the raven haired teenager, Joichi only laughed at this. He was obviously mocking them, thinking of them as just lowlives who can never get up to his level. "Just like your father, you're also that hotheaded, aren't you? I guess it runs in the family, Kaoru Ishida?"

"Shut the hell up, Toujou." Kaoru sneered and gritted his teeth. "I'll crush the heck out of your team in this tournament, so you better watch your mouth!"

"Kaoru, that's enough. You're causing a scene." Ayame told the redhead and grabbed his arm. "We have better things to do than wasting our time with this man." She said, giving a disgusted look at Joichi.

"I guess you really resent me that much, Ayame? Well, I don't mind. You're better off wasting your time with those idiots, anyways." Joichi said, causing Ayame to look at him in anger. "Especially with Kouichi, you're going to waste your time with him and regret it later on."

When Kouichi heard this, he felt the anger rise up inside him quickly and something inside him had turned. His hands quickly turned into fists and both Ayame and Haruka noticed this. Haruka was about to hold Kouichi's hand but Ayame already did first, she just looked at them with worry.

"Just leave us alone, Joichi Toujou!" Haruka spoke. "Or else I'm going to kick your butt off to space with my own foot!"

"Haruka? Haruka Kojima, is that you?" The tension between them broke when someone called onto the auburn haired girl. Haruka glanced and saw someone, it was Tsubasa Tachibana from Hitsue High. "It IS you! Hey, don't you remember me?"

"Yikes-!" Haruka felt a feeling of disgust flow through her spine the moment she saw Tsubasa. The others looked at the two with curiosity. "I-I don't know you!"

"Come on~! It's me, Tsubasa! Tsubasa Tachibana from middle school! Oh, I missed you so much, my darling!" Tsubasa spoke in a very flamboyant and excited way. He was about to embrace her but someone else grabbed him by the collar.

"Mr. Vice President of the Hitsue Club! What are you doing with that poor girl?!" It was Eun-ha, and she was looking at Tsubasa angrily. She appeared from the crowd of Hitsue's Cardfight Club and apparently, the group were looking at them from a distance. Eun-ha then looked around and saw Kouichi, her eyes widened and gasped. "Oh my god, Kouichi-ssi! You're here! You're finally participating!"

Kouichi nodded awkwardly and smiled as he greeted her, "H-Hey, um... Eun-ha."

Eun-ha smiled back and nodded, she was about to speak but Tsubasa went behind her and put his hands on her shoulders. "Eun-ha~! I know you're just jealous because I'm not being lovey-dovey with you during the practice, but don't worry about-" Tsubasa was cut off as Eun-ha hit Tsubasa's abdomen with her elbow. "GAH!!!"

"Joichi, what are you doing here slacking off?" Ryu spoke as he appeared approaching Joichi. Ryu glanced and saw Ritsu looking back at him from a distance with a rather mysterious smile, Ryu smiled back at her in the same way though it was more vague.

"Oh, Ryu. I wanted to talk with Miyaji's members but it seems like they don't like me a single bit." Joichi mocked and scoffed and Ryu just gave a nod at his response. "And these two members of Hitsue suddenly appeared and made a little comedy skit, sounds ridiculous doesn't it?"

"Geh... I don't like the way this man talks..." Eun-ha muttered as she looked at Joichi in a rather confused state and her face recoiled in embarrassment. (note: this is quite the formal way of saying cringing although cringe is an actual word. It's more in the way of explaining it.) While Tsubasa just continued to touch his abdomen, which was in immense pain. Haruka heard this and whispered to her.

"Trust me, no one in Miyaji likes this Gilgamesh ripoff." Haruka spoke and Eun-ha looked back at her with a surprise.

"Oh my god, you can break the fourth wall like I do?" Eun-ha asked softly and Haruka nodded. "I think we're gonna be friends!" With this, the two of them giggled.

Kouichi on the other hand, heard all of the whisperings and sweatdropped. Watanuki walks up to Kouichi and taps his back. "Ah, Watanuki..." He spoke as he looked at Watanuki.

"We need to go in, the President is calling for us." Watanuki said and the four other Miyaji members nodded and were about to leave. Eun-ha and Tsubasa also left the place to go back to their own group.

Joichi though, noticed this and he called out to Kouichi once again. "Kouichi Sendou!"

Kouichi stopped in his tracks as his whole body trembled, though he didn't look back at the raven haired guy. All of a sudden, his trembling stopped and it seemed as if he was just listening.

"Heh, not turning back huh? Well I don't mind that. But remember this, I'm going to defeat you. I will humiliate you the same way that you did to me, don't forget what you did years ago. Plus you're a coward, the moment you do something you run away from it." Joichi scoffed. "I can't believe that someone like you is a son of a Legendary Cardfighter. You're a huge disgrace, Kouichi Sendou!"

As Joichi kept on laughing as he mocked the Sendou kid, the latter wasn't amused at all. Kouichi turned back to Joichi and his face was serious, so serious to the point where it gave out this terrifying aura, his eyes suddenly glowed and he spoke in a low voice, and he only spat out two words.

"Try me," he said. The voice that he had was in a different tone, and overall was out of character from Kouichi himself.

"Wha-" Joichi stopped and felt terrified by Kouichi. It was as if it was like back then, although this one is different, and scarier. It sent chills down his spine, and Joichi couldn't help but for his body to tremble.

Suddenly, a female walked by. Her raven hair and azure eyes was so distinctive that she could be recognized immediately, "Joichi! There you are! I've been looking all over for you--" But before Akuhei could finish her sentence, the raven-haired female could feel an immense amount of pain going all over her head.

"Ah!! It hurts!!" The female could be heard screaming out in pain, falling down onto her knees before finally getting a glimpse of the blonde in front of her; the rainbow hues filled both their eyes, and Akuhei knew this well, "K-Kouichi... Kouichi-kun... You're using PSYQualia?!"

Kouichi looked back at the raven haired girl with a deadpan look as his eyes continued to glow. He recognized her though he didn't react, and he just kept quiet. Joichi approached Akuhei and he put his hand on her shoulder.

"You alright?" Joichi asked her and a hint of worriedness was in his voice. While this was happening, Kouichi just continued to stare at them without any expression.

"Answer me, Kouichi!!" Akuhei yelled out once more, anger filling her veins.

Kouichi's mouth opened and he suddenly spoke, still in his low voice. "Akuhei Amari... you were the one the showed me how PSYQualia works, right?" He said and chuckled. "Thank you for that~" His lips turned up to smile and it wasn't like any other smile that he has, it was a sadistic one.

The female who was beckoned could feel her body shivering in fear, she shook her head in denial, "T-That wasn't... That wasn't me... That was... AH!!" She could feel a sense of her headache getting stronger and stronger, tearings falling down her bright azure eyes before she felt something grabbing her collar, it was Kouichi's hands holding it with a firm grip.

"Really? But it was you, right?" Kouichi said and chuckled. "I'm going to use this PSYqualia with all my power, so just watch me~" He then let go of her.

"Shut up... shut up!!!" Akuhei just shouted out, tears falling down from her eyes once more before feeling more pain flowing through her head.

"Akuhei!!" Joichi held her and he glared at Kouichi. "You bastard!" He stood up and was about to punch Kouichi but the blonde teenager grabbed his arm and just smirked.

Ryu saw this and he pulled Joichi away. "Idiot! Do you want to be disqualified?!" He scolded and Joichi pushed Ryu away from him. The raven haired boy looked back at Kouichi with a glare.

"I'll see you at the tournament, Joichi-kun~" Kouichi mocked and left the area as he continues to laugh at them.

"Joichi... Calm down..." The raven-haired female spoke to the man she beckoned out with a soft voice, "I'm alright..." Despite her reassurance, Akuhei could feel her own legs shaking, her short breaths and pants that came out of her mouth, "I'm alright..."

All of a sudden, Joichi princess-carried her gently and looked at her. "Get some rest for now, we're going to be busy after all."

Akuhei could feel her face warming up but she tried to keep it hidden within her, she only gave a nod before closing her eyes and drifting off to the dreamscape once more.

---

At Miyaji Cardfight Club's room, they saw Kouichi come in and Ayame already noticed that Kouichi was different. She already suspected what happened to him and she was about to speak when Kouichi fell out of balance and Ayame went to catch Kouichi before he hit the ground.

"Kouichi, are you alright?!" She spoke and Kouichi winced, he was helped by Ayame to sit on the couch. "Haruka, can you get a glass of water?"

"O-Okay!" Haruka nodded and went to get a glass of water. After that, she immediately went back and gave it to Kouichi. Kouichi looked at her and smiled, in which she blushed. She just smiled back at him.

"Thanks..." Kouichi said and drank the water. "It was... PSYqualia... again."

"Kouichi... didn't we say to not use it no matter what?" Ayame told him and Kouichi gritted his teeth and suddenly slammed the glass on the table angrily.

"But I can't help it! He's... he's mocking me! I can't help but to use it as always and I-" Kouichi could feel his head aching and he groaned as he felt the overloading pain flowing through his body. "God.. damn it!"

"Kouichi, calm down!" Ayame exclaimed as she put her hands on his shoulders. "Just calm down for now, okay? Take a rest as well, and please... no matter what happens, even if Joichi makes fun of you, don't use it!"

"I-I can't guarantee that, Ayame... But... I'll do my best." Kouichi said and looked down, "I'm... I really am a coward like he said."

Ayame then embraced him, comforting him in the same way that she used to do back when they were children. Kouichi just closed his eyes and hugged her back.

Haruka on the other hand, watched as the scene unfolds. She looked away, feeling jealous about them. She also wanted to embrace and comfort Kouichi just like what Ayame did. But she couldn't do so, so the only thing she could do is to make him feel better. Of course, now is not the right time.

"Haruka," it was Watanuki's voice that got her out of her train of thoughts. Haruka glanced at the white haired guy and saw him smile at her. Watanuki is actually one of the other people other than Ayame that knows about her true feelings for Kouichi, and Watanuki understood. The white haired guy gave a smile at her. "Wanna get some snacks for everyone?"

"S-Sure!" Haruka nodded and both of them left the room. "Thank you, Tanuki-kun..." She said as they walked at the hallways to the cafeteria.

"For what?" Watanuki asked, raising his eyebrow.

"Y'know... since... it was Ayaya and KoKo over there..."

"Ah... yes," Watanuki nodded and fixed his glasses. "Well, you got quite some stuff going on over there for a comedy character like you."

"Oh, come on! It's our appeal, nerd~" Haruka replied boldly and both of them gave a small laugh. Then, Haruka suddenly held the guy's hand and hugged his arm. "But thank you again, Mr. Fox~!"

Watanuki blushed a little and he cleared his throat. "A-Alright! Let's get some food for everyone! I'll give you your favorite chili cheese fries as well!"

"Yay~! You're the best, Tanuki-kun~!"

-

At the other side, there was Hitsue Cardfight Club. They were getting ready for the tournament to begin, and some of them were fixing their decks. Eun-ha and Tsubasa were being loud and making fun of each other.

"Eun-ha, Tsubasa. Tell me what happened outside the stadium with Miyaji." Xiaojian spoke in a serious tone and the two of them looked at the tall guy.

"Ah, Kouichi-ssi was just being himself. No PSYQualia or something problematic. Although this Joichi Toujou guy is arrogant. He's from Fukuhara and-"

"Shush, I know him. That's my childhood friend." Xiaojian said. "Is there anything else?"

"Uh... I met my sweetheart! She's Haruka Kojima and she's so beautiful like an orange marigold~!" Tsubasa said flamboyantly and Eun-ha looked at him in disgust. The name that Tsubasa said caught Ritsu and Xiaojian's attention.

"Kojima?" Xiaojian repeated, and Tsubasa nodded. Xiaojian then smirked and crossed his arms. "Wow, this is really going to turn into something even more... exciting~ There's two PSYqualia users, and the vessel at the same time in the same place and event. This is truly a very entertaining thing~!"

-

Akuhei finally woke up after a while, letting out short breaths as she could feel how tired she was. Her vision around her was still a haze as she was sitting down on a couch. Suddenly, they could hear a knock on the door, "C-Come in..."

The one who stepped in was a brunette with a pair of red eyes, she could quickly realise who it was, "Mitsuo..." Akuhei's soft voice was heard before she could feel a gentle embrace coming to her, "Ah..."

"Are you alright? You seem tired... Did you not get sleep last night?" The little brother asked her firmly, "I told you to get enough sleep last night, didn't I?"

"I'm sorry... I passed out..." The bigger sister muttered before giving a gentle smile, followed by an awkward chuckle, "Wait... why are you here?"

"I came here to cheer you on, nee-chan. Good luck, alright? I'm sure you can do it." The brunette gave a wide smile before patting her head gently, "I'm sure you can--"

Suddenly, the door appeared once again and another man came in. He is another member of Harumi's Cardfight Club, the same school where Mitsuo is in. The said man, who had dark brown hair and green narrow eyes, and the way he smiled was ruthless. He suddenly went behind Akuhei, touched her on her shoulders, and spoke in an alluring way.

"It's nice to see you again, my beautiful Akuhei Amari~" He said and chuckled, causing Akuhei to shiver in fear as she could feel tingles down her spine.

"I-I'm sorry... I should've told you..." Mitsuo muttered with an apologetic tone, gritting his teeth at the tall male in front of him.

The dark brown haired male continues to smile and chuckle, while his hands are still on Akuhei's shoulders. Suddenly, Rika spoke in worry. "Who is he, Akuhei-chan?" She asked, she could already see that this man is up to no good.

Haruno grinned and spoke. "Oh, you didn't tell them about us~? Ah, I'm so disappointed! But don't worry, besides it's our dirty little secret after all~"

"Shut up!!" Mitsuo finally spoke up, slamming his hands on the couch they were near. This, however, scared the female even more and caused her to shiver with fear more.

"What's wrong, Mit-chan~? Don't get angry and cause a scene now~ You're making Aku-chan scared, you know~?" Haruno taunted and kept showing his arrogance. This didn't amuse Joichi though, and although he didn't show his expression. He kept looking at the stage through the window with an annoyed face.

"Get out... Haruno..." That was all Akuhei could say, her voice trembling as tears fell down her bright sky blue eyes, "I said... get out..."

"Why Akuhei~? Didn't you miss me? I missed you a lot, you know? Isn't this a good reunion between us?" Haruno laughed, and was about to touch her face. But the moment he was about to reach her face with his hand, another hand grabbed his wrist tightly and Haruno looked at the man. It was Joichi.

"I don't know who you are, mister...." Joichi said, and looked at Haruno with a serious threatening eyes. "But you're scaring MY queen."

"J-Joichi!!" Akuhei was surprised to see the man in front of her, "Stay away from him, he's dangerous!!" Mitsuo also gave a nod, both of them had fear filling up their faces. The two felt fear if Joichi would be okay, but all they could do was watch the scene.

"Don't worry about this, Akuhei. I'll deal with this. Besides, isn't the king supposed to protect HIS queen?" Joichi said with confidence as he gave a smile at her. Haruno heard this though and he suddenly let out a snicker.

"Who's this man? Your new boyfriend?" Haruno sneered and Joichi looked back at Haruno with a glare.

The female could be seen blushing, her cheeks turning red,"I-I'm not anything of the sort with him!! There's no way I would be--" Yet, Akuhei kept quiet and thoughts flown past her. God, how she actually wanted to...

But suddenly, she could hear a voice; a voice whispering to her ear, "Use it~" It spoke. Akuhei knew well who this was... it wasn't Akari, it was her other self. Akuhei was stuck in this state of confusion and denial, suddenly feeling a headache all over. The pain overflowed her body more and more, "Use it, Amari~ You'll become powerful, no matter in what state you are in at all~ It doesn't matter if you're cardfighting or not, you'll be strong no matter what~ You'll be able to beat everyone!"

Akuhei let out a long scream, feeling her tears flow down her eyes. The raven-haired female could feel herself going down on her knees, screaming with agony more and more. Haruno just let out a smirk, finally seeing his "Aku-chan" finally be under his power and at his mercy while Mitsuo was worried, moving closer towards her.

"Ah, Aku-chan~" Haruno was about to touch her once again but Joichi kept on pushing him away.

"Don't touch her," Joichi said and continues to glare at him.

Suddenly, a small chuckle came from Akuhei. A smirk was formed on the female's mouth, followed by another laugh, "You know what~? With him here, the tournament will be a lot more..." Her smirk was still there as she stood back up on her feet, the rainbow hues were replacing those of her sky blue eyes, "Interesting~"

Haruno saw this and he suddenly felt the chills down his spine, it was PSYqualia and he knew about it ever since middle school. He tried not to look really scared, but his body shivered in fear. He gulped down his own saliva and tried to keep his composure.

"Hm~? What's that, are you scared~?" The taunts never stopped as the female stepped even closer, emitting a scary aura with every single step, "We'll fight at the tournament, isn't that so much better~? So much more fun~? Didn't you like to put pain on me, Haru-chan~?"

"Tch... you're... I-I'll meet you at the tournament, and I will beat you!" Haruno told her and gritted his teeth. He didn't want to be humiliated like this, as it felt like his ego was breaking.

"I'd like to see you even try to beat me, my dear little Haruno Sasaki~" A laugh could be heard, but it was quickly followed by an announcement.

"All teams, please kindly report to the arena for the opening ceremony and for your sortings. All teams please kindly report to the arena for the opening ceremony and for your teams sortings, thank you." The announcer announced with her monotonic tone before Akuhei just let out a smile, yet it still seemed to be scary.

"Ah, so it's time for us to go," Akuhei's smile was still present before she walked closer to hold Joichi's hand tightly, "Shall we go down now, my king?" Despite her smile, despite everything, she was still emitting that same aura that came along with those rainbow-hued eyes present in front of all of them.

Although Joichi was still quite concerned about Akuhei's state, he just didn't know what to do at this point and nodded. "Alright, we're going." Joichi replied and held her hand tightly but not painfully. His touch was gentle, as if trying not to break something.

Everyone else was also concerned about Akuhei, but they couldn't do anything else about it as well. Rei, who was out of the scene earlier, appeared and was about to say something but Rika just shook her head at him, and only told him to get ready for the tournament.

"And so, the High School Tournament has now officially begun!!" The voice of the announcer echoed the areas, the cheers of people clapping with joy and yelling out with excitement.

The true war had finally begun, and nobody intended to hold back from this battlefield. Whoever created the biggest bloodbath wins all, and will definitely be the ultimate victor for the tournament. All we could do was wait and see how much red will be painted in this beautiful battlefield we call the 'High School Tournament'.

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To be continued

[ED 2 Sequence]