Although he enjoyed spending time with Tea, he wished there were girls like that in his classroom, he had to continue collecting the stars to advance to the next round, luckily or unfortunately his next opponent would not take long to arrive.

“Weevil Underwood! I've been looking for you!" A tanned teenager with red hair ran towards him.

“Do I know you or are you one of those who want to face the champion?” He hadn't strayed too far from the forest so he would keep the lead on him.

“I knew you wouldn't remember me! I'm Vash Canic! You eliminated me in the first round of the regional tournament!” It was the biggest humiliation of his life, he couldn't do anything before his opponent's bugs overpowered him.

“Were you the guy who wet his pants?”

"What?! No!" He started stomping on the ground.

“Wait, are you the one who threw his cards on the ground in the middle of the game?” He didn't remember him because that happened more often than you would imagine at the beginner level.

"Yes! And this time I have prepared a special deck against you! I'm going to burn your bugs to ashes!” Vash's look was beginning to worry Tea.

“If you say so” Thanks to his not at all discreet way of expressing himself, the insect boy made some modifications to his deck (Time to use mom's construction)

They walked to the nearest cabin and began the duel, the board had mountains and forests, both had a field advantage so their effects would not be as noticeable in this match.

“I bet my 2 stars and this time I won't let you respond to my plays! You begin!" The redhead seemed to have a speech prepared in case he refused.

“Okay.” They shuffled the decks and drew the five cards. “I summon Paras in defense mode” An insect with a pair of mushrooms on its back appeared on the field, it was 2 stars, having 700 attack points and 400 defense.

“I won't let you build your army! I summon the flame champion in attack mode!” He was a warrior in armor and weapons wrapped in fire, he had 5 stars, 1900 attack and 1300 defense “Cut that bug in half before you cook it!” His warrior charged towards Paras who could only make a sad look before being destroyed “Yes! I win!" He acted like his duel was over.

Tea, who was watching the game next to her, did not know if she should cheer for Weevil or not, he had treated her respectfully as he promised, but he was still a rival of Yugi.

“Good for you, I see it's my turn, I summon Beedrill in attack mode” A kind of bee with spears in its arms was flying over the field, it was 4 stars, having 1900 attack and 400 defense.

“Tch, they have the same attack, but my monster's swords are covered in flames, your bugs won't be able to get close, even if he can fly.”

“I wouldn't be so sure, why don't you look at that sword?” He confidently commanded Beedrill to attack.

Vash didn't want to do what his enemy told him, but he had no choice and immediately started ranting.

“Why is he holding a shield!?” His monster had gone on defense and now carried a heavy flaming shield.

"Remember when you cut my Paras, well it is an insect that tends to release different types of spores when it is in danger, in this case, they are paralyzing" Weevil smiles seeing the lack of movement of the warrior

“You and your crawling bugs, it doesn't matter! The shield is also on fire! You won’t be able to penetrate it!” He seemed to be foaming at the mouth.

"Who needs to penetrate it? You underestimate the ability of a bee in full flight." Responding to his confidence, Beedrill maneuvered over the head of the Flame Champion and with a sniper's aim his spear pierced his neck from the back.

“Miserable… Why did my life points decrease?! He was on defense!” His points dropped to 1400.

“The spears of this insect are so sharp that they can cause damage even to monsters in defense.” He kept his other effect to himself, because of the way the duel was going there would be no need to use it.

“Grr, it's my turn!” The redhead took out a card from his deck and his face broke into a huge smile. “This duel is over! I want to see one of your skilled insects overcome this!” In the middle of the forest area, a fireball appeared with a creepy face. “Soul of Hinotama consumes the forest to strengthen you!” The 2-star monster, which originally had 600 attack points and 500 defense points, expanded into a forest fire that increased its attack and defense by 2000 points.

“Why is everyone burning the forest?” Weevil wasn't shaking in fear like Vash expected.

“You will understand your situation when your little bee is fried!” He ordered his wall of flames to set Beedrill on fire, who could only fall to the ground and disappear, leaving his owner with 1300 life points “Ha, ha, I'm invincible now!, no stupid bug can resist this scorching heat, Burn! Burn everything!”

Seeing Vash act like an arsonist lunatic makes Tea feel, in a way, lucky to be with Weevil.

“I guess it's my turn” His next card was good, but he wouldn't need it, his victory cards against fire were in his hand from the beginning of the game. “I summon Poliwhirl in attack mode” The monster similar to some amphibian or tadpole, but with limbs and a spiral-shaped design on its chest, appeared, it had 4 stars, 1600 attack and 1600 defense

“That's not a bug!” It almost seemed like he was going to shout that Weevil was cheating “Never mind that…thing, it doesn't seem to hold up to the flames either!”

“I like to have variety for people who attack me specifically with obvious elements like this, also, I haven't finished and I activate my continuous spell card: Rain Dance” The spell card featured a kind of toad raising its arms towards a cloudy sky. In the field the same black clouds formed above the burning forest, when the water drops began to fall, it seemed that you could hear cries from the fire "This will refresh the atmosphere" This card increased the statistics of water type monsters and/or Aqua species, Sea Serpent Fish by 50%, in addition to also halving the statistics of fire type monsters and/or Pyro species.

"No! Not again!" Vash could only see how the attack and defense points of Hinotama's Soul fell to 0, given the situation the magic affected him excessively, and Poliwhirl's rose to 2400

“I'm afraid so, it's over, finish him off with a water gun!” The amphibian shot a stream of water from his chest at the small fathoms that still remained in the forest, completely eliminating them as well as the rival's life points. "You must have improved if you got this far, but you shouldn't get so excited, any information you give to your rival can lead to your loss, if you hadn't told me that you specialize in fire, this would have been more difficult"

The red-haired man wasn't listening to him, he seemed to be stiff as a statue, he didn't react even when Weevil took the star from him and walked away with Tea.

“Will it be okay?” She didn't know if she was more worried about Vash or some participant than finding him when he woke up. “By the way, congratulations on your victory.” She could be happy for him.

“T-Thank you, but you made it easy for me by telling me her strategy…” He cleaned his glasses so as not to be embarrassed by the smile she gave him.

"...I guess some worker will come to pick him up, don't worry, Pegasus wouldn't leave people who play his game lying around." When he put his glasses back on he saw Tea with a strange expression, imagine she was worried about Vash. "Let's continue our talk, tell me a little about your group of friends, you all seemed really sad when I was going to eliminate Yugi"

Tea wondered if Weevil would believe the whole Pegasus stealing souls thing, she didn't lose anything by saying it and she believed they might have someone else to defeat him, after all she had already demonstrated hia skill in this game, although first she would tell him how they all met.

………………………………………………………………………………………………

Weevil now understood Yugi's group better... they were really crazy, that explained the matter of Joey jumping into the sea; He wasn't surprised that he turned out to be a delinquent from his school, the strange thing was how he ended up befriending Yugi for a puzzle piece; how strangely friendly Tea was and Yugi on the verge of having an emotional outburst upon losing the duel.

(They believe that Pegasus has a magical eye that he used to steal the soul of Yugi's grandfather and they will only get it back if they defeat him in a Duel Monsters... defeat the one created in his own game) Leaving aside how stupid it sounded to him to decide this matter with a board game; He liked it, yes, but there were limits, just because he liked insects, he wasn't going to discover which insect produced the fountain of youth or a space insect would come to destroy the Earth. (Why would someone so rich and famous do this to a random student?) He thought it was too strange and ridiculous (Well, it could be worse...) They didn't seem to be hurting anyone, although they had no shortage of motivation, and Weevil was too desperate for friends to let this madness pass.

“I'm sorry to hear it, if I can help with anything I will.” In the end none of this mattered, it was just a card game for him.

Tea was honestly surprised that she accepted it so quickly, but she gave him a smile for that.

“Thank you and don't worry, I don't think it will be difficult for others to accept you”

“No problem,” he preferred not to think about what it meant to know that it would be easy to join a group of crazy people.