'Come to the studio before school starts in the morning. Everyone worked together to put together this song, so see if you like it? Oh, and maybe try singing it? -Akira'
'Ummmm sure, but I'll need to come really early. Is 5AM okay?' Yuna closed the cover of her phone as she turned uncomfortably on the bed.
"At least you didn't snap your phone shut this time. Your phone cover is going to break off."
Looking over to her buddy, she gave a long sigh as her phone vibrated once more.
'5 AM? Everyone approved, but why so early? -Daisuke'
Yuna stared at her text for a little while and then decided to answer it. 'Are you guys sharing a phone right now or... Anyways, because Tasuku comes over to pick me up for school at 7:30 AM. Plus, you guys want me to try singing it, right? It might take a while.'
"We're going to wake up early tomorrow, Psy. And I mean really early. We're leaving the house at 4:50 AM."
Psy laid back on the blanket as he mumbled, 'Why so earlyyy....' "Alright. They called you over for a new song, huh? I think they rushed the lyrics again."
Yuna giggled and turned off the lights after reading the last text.
'Yes, we are. Akira hid my phone again. Anyways, good night and sleep early. See you tomorrow. -Daisuke'
"Good night, Psy."
"Night"
Beeping could be heard the next morning at 4:20 AM.
"Ughhh..... So early..... Hey, Psy. Wake up. We need to get ready and leave soon." Psy turned and waved her off.
"5 more minutes, Ma....." he mumbled.
Shaking her head, Yuna decided to get ready first and leave him be for a bit. Pulling on her school blazer, the dragon yawned and sat up from his position.
"Oh, what time is it right now?"
Yuna pointed at the clock that read 4:45 AM as she yawned tiredly. "Let's head out now."
On the way to the studio, Yuna checked her phone for the time as it was 1 minute before 5.
"Looks like we're here at 5 exact."
Yuna walked into the unlocked building, a sign that they were there already.
"Oh, Yuna! You're here right on time! Though I didn't expect you to be," Akira joked.
"Uhuh. Okay, let's hear the song. Anyone here knows how to sing?"
Emiko answered this question for everyone. "Actually, Yuna, you're the only one who knows how to sing.." She gave a nervous smile to the younger girl.
"O-oh.. Okay.."
Daisuke yawned and was about to say something, but Akira butted in first. "Read the lyrics while you listen to the song. If you like it, we'll make this song your very first debut! Oh, and feel free to change anything you don't like~!" he exclaimed in excitement.
Yuna nodded her head with a tired looked in her eyes as Emiko gave her the lyrics sheet. Flipping her side bangs away from her eyes, she turned to Daisuke as she nodded, allowing her brown ponytail to bounce. Daisuke tied up his hair into a tiny ponytail as he got ready to play the music. Eiji came into the studio with a bag in hand, dark blue hair looking like a bird's nest.
"I finished the costume, Yuna! See if you like it after this!"
"Are you still wearing your pajamas?" Akira laughed, bending down as he held his stomach, allowing his hazel hair fall over.
"S-shut up, Akira! I was in a hurry. Besides, I think rainbow pajamas are... cute." Eiji protested, looking away from the group.
"Oh, this turned out to be well, actually. I changed a few words in the lyrics, but yes it sounds better than the last!" Yuna said with satisfaction.
"So are you going to sing it?" Daisuke asked with hope written on his face. Yuna nodded with a smile as she checked the costume Eiji made the day before.
"Are you busy tomorrow?" Akira asked the girl.
"Ummmm... No, I don't think so." Yuna said as she complimented the costume with approval.
Emiko smiled brightly as she exclaimed, "Perfect! I kind of scheduled a concert tomorrow at 2 PM. It's for your debut!"
Yuna froze. "Already..? Ummm... Well, okay then...."
"We'll release your song debut later on today! Like at 12 PM." Akira stated bluntly. Yuna gave a slow nod and waved bye as she headed back home. Checking her phone once again, she realized how long she spent her time at the studio and rushed back home.
"It's already 7:10, Psy. We need to hurry up and get back home."
Upon getting home at 7:20, Yuna brushed her hair again and smoothed down her clothes, adjusting her tie.
"Hey, Psy? Does it look obvious that we went out early this morning?"
Psy looked over to the girl from head to toe and vice versa. "Nope. You look like how you usually do before you leave the house."
Her doorbell went off, signaling that Tasuku was in front of the house waiting for her.
"Coming," Yuna said as Psy turned into a card.
"Hey, Yuna. Whoa, you look really tired. Are you alright?" Tasuku asked with concern.
"Oh. Yes. I'm totally fine. I didn't sleep too well last night, that's all," Yuna said with a yawn.
"Was it because of what I said yesterday?"
Yuna looked over at Tasuku and smiled tiredly. "No, not at all. Don't worry about that."
Tasuku picked the girl up bridal style as he nodded at Jack.
'Buddy skill on!'
"E-eh? T-Tasuku-kun! I-I can walk! It's fine! I'm not too tired!" the girl said as she wrapped her arms around Tasuku's neck, closing her eyes tightly when they left the ground.
"You're not walking to school like this. I can always get you back in bed you know." Tasuku said, giving her a cheeky smile.
"I don't want to stay at home, though. Isn't today's lesson important?" Yuna asked.
"Yep! So try not to fall asleep in class today~ I'm still not going to let you walk though. You might trip at the escalators like hmmm... 3 years ago?"
Yuna shot a glare at Tasuku.
"I didn't trip, back then. Some guy accidentally pushed me."
Tasuku let out his hearty laugh as he said 'right, right.'
"Sorry for not being able to spend lunch or break with you. I'm pretty sure you know how Gao looks like, after all you saw him yesterday, right?" Tasuku asked as he had an apologetic face on.
"The boy with red and black hair correct? And the Banchou looking outfit?"
Tasuku nodded. "That's correct. Well, I have to go now.. I'll see you later and have fun!"
"Okay. Bye. Good luck with work."
"Thanks."
Tasuku hugged the girl and turned around to leave.
'Looks like I should head over to the elementary area now,' she thought as she took off in the opposite direction. Continuing her search for Gao where she left off at break, Yuna decided to head to the top of the building, the very last place she wanted to head to. Seeing the boy and his dragon, Yuna knew she found the right person and headed over to where the boy and his friends were arguing about a card.
"You still can't use that impact card just yet!" a boy with spiky brown hair said.
"Baku's right, Gao. It'll take a few battles for you to get a feel with the Gargantua Punisher," the girl with glasses and two rings beside her head answered.
"Besides, Tasuku-senpai was the only one with that card, thus making him the only one who knows how to use it."
Yuna decided to walk over to the little group, even though it was a very awkward time to do so.
"Hey. You must be Mikado Gao?"
The group looked over to the middle school student with a curious look on their faces.
'His hair makes him resemble a lion now I think about it....' Yuna thought, glancing away for a tiny bit.
"Yeah, that's me. Is there anything I can help you with, Miss?"
Yuna looked directly at the group after hearing his question.
"Hey ,Gao. It's the girl that was with Tasuku yesterday!" Drum Bunker Dragon pointed out.
"Oh, you mean the one that was riding Jack?" the young girl with purple hair tied into twin pigtails asked. Yuna gave a smile to the kids as she nodded.
"Wow, I didn't expect you to come over here to see HIM," the boy, Baku, said.
"I thought I'd come visit, so here I am! Tasuku-kun couldn't come today though," Yuna said rubbing the back of her head nervously. "Oh! How rude of me. I'm Suzuki Yuna, but you can call me Yuna, and my buddy is Psychic Knife Dragon. Nice to meet you all," Yuna introduced herself and her buddy, who was nowhere to be seen.
"You can call me Gao and my buddy is Drum."
"It's Drum Bunker Dragon Fang Slade Terrestial XIII! Quit shortening my name, kid!" the red dragon yelled.
"Hello, Yuna-senpai! I'm Uki Kuguru and the boy next to Gao is-" Kuguru was cut off by the boy.
"Omori Baku. I can introduce myself, Kuguru. You can call us by our first name, Yuna-Senpai."
Throughout lunch, the group talked to the older girl and had another fight over their food, not including Kuguru.
"So, Gao, congratulations with your win yesterday. Did you have fun buddyfighting with Tasuku-kun?"
Gao grinned a wide grin at the older girl. "Thanks and yeah! It was very exciting to have my very first match with an awesome buddy fighter and police officer like Tasuku himself!"
Yuna gave the boy a soft smile and apologized to the group that she wasn't able to make it to the match.
"You and I should have a buddyfight match someday, Yuna-senpai!"
Looking at the boy with a nervous smile she responded truthfully. "I would be happy to, but I'm not very good at buddyfighting to be honest..."
Yuna turned over just to see a girl stuck on a tree, slipping off slowly, while her friend ran off to look for a teacher. Standing up slowly with a serious face, Yuna stuck her hand into her pockets, taking out her core deck case and Psy's card.
"What's wrong?" Kuguru asked with concern filling in her voice.
Taking steps back, she answered the girl, "I think I'll be back in a bit..."
Finally stopping in her tracks, Yuna threw her buddy's card into the air and called out to him. "Psy, there's serious problem right now and we have to get moving. Now."
Her core deck turned into her core gadget around her neck as her buddy skill was activated.
"Yuna, this is quite high. Are you sure you will be okay?" Psy asked, making sure the girl would be fine.
"Wait, what is it? What's going on?" Gao asked.
"Yes, I'll be fine I shouldn't let fear get to me right now."
Dashing to the fence and jumping high enough to pass over it, the group of kids started to panic.
"S-she. SHE JUST JUMPED OFF FROM THE ROOF OF THE SCHOOL BUILDING?!" Baku yelled frantically.
"W-WHAT'S GOING ON?" Drum yelled running around the bench and ran into Kuguru in the process.
"Guys, l-let's follow her and see what's going on." Kuguru said as calm as possible.
"S-she's right. Let's go." Gao said a bit unsteady as the group looked at the falling girl.
'DAMN. DAMN DAMN DAMN DAMN! AM I ALMOST THERE YET?!' Yuna cursed in her thoughts.
Finally landing on the ground, the girl immediately took off to where the little girl was, putting on her goggles in the process to help her locate her.
'She's going to fall in 3... 2... 1... NOW!'
Pushing off once her foot touch the ground, Yuna launched herself directly into the little girl, protecting her as the two violently rolled a few feet away from the tree. Lying in the position they were in for a bit, a teacher came running as several students circled around the two.
'Are they alright?'
'That was so cool!'
'What just happened?'
Yuna finally sat up, still holding the girl, but loosened her grip on her.
"Hey are you alright, kid?" the little girl heard Yuna ask. She looked identical to Gao just that her hair was a slight brown red color.
"Y-you're bleeding!" the little girl managed to sputter out.
Looking over at her left arm, her blue blazer and white dress shirt were ripped horizontally as blood soaked up into the clothing. "O-oh, it looks like I am.." Yuna covered up her wound with her free hand. Blood was oozing and dripping down her arm and right hand.
"Are you two alright? What is a middle school student like you doing here?" the teacher asked, shocked.
"I decided to visit some people until I spotted this girl in trouble."
Psy shrunk back into his mini form as he ran over to his buddy. "Hey are you alright?" Yuna nodded at her buddy as her buddy skill wore off.
"Yuna-senpai!" Gao called. "Whoa. What kind of stunt did you pull jumping off like that? What happened?"
"Gao, slow down.. I did what I had to do. If I was a second later, this girl, I expect to be your sister, would've been hurt badly," Yuna said calmly.
Gao looked over at the little girl as he shook his head. "Hanako, are you alright? What were you doing?"
The little girl looked at her older brother apologetically. "Sorry, Gao.. It's just that a family of birds dropped their nest and I decided to help them out..." Hanako pointed at the tree to see the two birds sitting in the nest.
"You're bleeding Yuna-senpai!" Baku said as he searched for what could've caused such an injury.
"I'm fine, Baku, really."
Baku, with a worried expression, pointed over at the rock to see a bit of blood stains and ripped cloth on it.
"It sure doesn't look fine to me," Drum said in a serious tone.
"Kuguru, take her to the nurse's office to get her bandaged up, Hana, apologize to Yuna-senpai and say thank you to her for helping you."
"O-okay!" Kuguru said as she walked towards Yuna.
Hana got off Yuna as she stood up unbalanced, being helped by Kuguru. "I'm sorry, Yuna-Senpai. Thank you for helping me," Hana said, bowing down.
"I'm sorry for the trouble my little sister caused you and thank you for saving her."
Yuna smiled at the siblings. "It's alright, but Hanako was it? You got lucky that I got here in time. Tell an adult these things first before you take actions in them, okay? You don't want to get serious injuries now."
The little girl gave a bright smile that resembles a lot to Gao's and nodded.
"Suzuki Yuna, correct? I'm glad you came to visit today even though you're supposed to be over at your side of the school. But, you'll be an exception, along with Ryuenji Tasuku, to be over here anytime during school hours."
Grinning a guilty smile at the teacher, Yuna bowed and followed Kuguru to the nurse's office after she said, 'Now that you mention it, I think he's going to go crazy once he finds out what happened..' Psy turned back into a card as Kuguru grabbed Yuna's core deck case to put it back to where it belongs.
On the way to the office, the elementary students glanced at Yuna with either surprise or awe.
"Owww! I didn't expect the cut to be so big and deep... OWW!"
"Sorry, dear, but you have to bear with this until I finish cleaning it."
Finally finished cleaning the wound and washing off the blood from her arm and hands, the nurse bandaged up her arm carefully so that the blood doesn't leak out anymore than it already is.
"There. You're all done! Do you have another school uniform at home?" the nurse asked.
Yuna nodded as she pulled the half of her clothing that was off back on and re-tied her tie. "Yes, I do. But I'll try fixing this one."
The nurse shook her head. "I don't know about that. The rip is pretty big and it's missing part of the fabric. Anyways, you should head back to school now lunch is about to end."
"Thank you very much. You too, Kuguru."
Kuguru smiled a bright smile, happy to help Yuna. "You're welcome! I'm going to head back and find Gao now. Nice meeting you, Senpai."
Heading back into class in time, Yuna spotted Tasuku at his seat waiting for something.
'God. He's back early...'
Yuna hesitated to step into the classroom for a moment, but eventually got to her seat.
"Hey, how was the vi- What happened to your arm!?" Tasuku cut himself off to ask another question.
"The visit was fine, very awkward..... And about my arm..... Can I tell you later when we head to the headquarters afterschool?"
Tasuku frowned a bit, but complied anyways, agreeing with her suggestion.
"I used my buddy skill to save Gao's sister from injuring herself seriously." Yuna said as Tasuku held her.
"Oh? What happened?"
Yuna looked over to where Tasuku was flying and responded to all the questions he threw at her.
"She was climbing a tree to help these two birds get their nests back. She was slipping when I spotted her, so I used my buddy skill to jump off from the top of the school building and dashed over to her area as quick as possible."
"I see.. So, is she alright? And how did you get that wound on your arm?" Yuna looked at Tasuku, worried about what he was going to say.
"Yes, she's perfectly fine and when I caught her, I used myself to shield her as much as possible, so I got this wound when, I believe, we rolled away from the tree. There was a rock in the way and I got cut by its sharp edges."
Tasuku sighed and looked down at the girl. Her thigh length hair being pulled by the wind from underneath her as Tasuku's arm held it against the girl's shoulders. "At least you're okay, Yuna."
Entering headquarter to be greeted by Stella, the teen started bombarding the two questions about Yuna's wound.
"I'm fine, Stella! Ummm.. Do you have any wrapping bandage? I think I should replace them now...." Stella nodded and went off to find the first aid kit.
"We'll be in base!" Tasuku called after her.
"Hello, Yun- woah. What happened here?" Takihara asked as the commander looked over at the two students.
"Some eventful things. Tasuku can explain it later, haha."
Tasuku rolled his eyes as he started explaining about what happened. Stella found the first aid kit and decided to bring Yuna into a different room to change the bandage when she began to explain the event to the older girl.
"So you decided to use your buddy skill to help a little girl?" Stella asked.
"Yeah, that's how I got this wound. The sharp rock gave me quite the wound don't you think?"
Stella smiled and shook her head. "Don't be too reckless.."
Checking her phone, she read her new text message from Akira.
'Your song debut is actually pretty popular. Once school ended, the views started adding up by 10! Looking forward to tomorrow?'
Yuna texted Akira back and told him about her wound.
'Do you think you can get Eiji to make something to cover my left arm? Maybe a short fingerless glove for my right hand and a long fingerless glove that reaches near my shoulders or something for my left? I don't know?'
'Sure. Don't strain yourself too much,' was the reply she got back as Stella finished wrapping up her arm.
"Thanks, Stella. I'll head back to base now."
"Not a problem at all!" Entering the base once again, Tasuku turned over at Yuna and smiled.
"It's been a while since we had a match with each other. Want to buddyfight with me right now?"
Yuna stared at the boy for a bit and flashed a smile, gladly accepting his challenge.
"I buddy call Jackknife Dragon to my left!"
Tasuku's life point was added up by 1, allowing him to have 5 life points.
"I equip Dragonblade, Dragobrave! Systemic Dagger Dragon attack Grave Horn Dragon! Jack and I will create a link attack!"
Grave Horn Dragon was destroyed by Systemic Dagger as Tasuku attacked with Dragobrave, dealing Yuna 3 damage and dropping her life points to 3.
"I cast, Green Dragon Shield!"
Jack retreated after the cast, ending Tasuku's turn.
"Draw. Charge and Draw. I buddy call to my right, Psychic Knife Dragon!"
Yuna earned 1 life point back, adding her life points to 4.
"I cast Dragonic Destroy, paying 2 gauge to destroy Jackknife Dragon! I also cast Dragon Breath to destroy Systemic Dagger Dragon! I summon Double Sword Dragon to my left and I equip Twin Dragonblades, Dragoanthem, paying another 2 gauge! Double Sword, Psy, attack Tasuku and I'll follow up along with my own attack!"
Yuna's turn ended as Tasuku lost 4 life points with the attacks only having 1 life point left ending her turn.
"Hmm you got pretty good you know.., but I still win. I call Jamadhar Dragon to create a link attack! Attack Yuna, Jamadhar!"
Yuna lost her 4 life points, thus having her flag destroyed once again by Tasuku.
"Game over! Winner is, Ryuenji Tasuku!"
"So, how's your wound after using Dragoanthem?"
Yuna's weapon disappeared as she touched her arm. "It just feels.. sore. Don't worry about it. Good match as usual."
Exchanging smiles, the two decided to head back to where the others were, holding a conversation about Gao and his buddy.
"I actually found the two to be quite interesting really.. And they fight quite a bit.."
Tasuku laughed "Yeah, I agree with you on that."