Iroha felt her cheeks flush up when she remembered the dance between her and Astral, every movement between felt like he knew the dances well enough as she walked over to her bathroom and tucked a piece of long pink hair behind her ear as she pulled off her shirt and looked in the mirror to see the beautiful mark of a flower over her heart and the vines extending to her back.

She traced the vines as she stepped out of her pajama pants and stepped into the shower and feeling the hot water spray over her as she heard some knocking and believed it to be Felicia as she unlocked the door to let them in as she saw a dove with a note in the beak before leaving it for her as it flew out the window.

Iroha finished her shower and wrapped the towel around her body before picking up the note and read it to herself, she sighed in annoyance, it was from Vector...again.

Iroha-chan~! Stop ignoring me~! I miss you~!

I know you blocked my number and deleted my phone number~!

Please give me a chance~!

:'(

-Vector

She growled before picking up her phone and texting him a message and turned her phone off.

{Take a Hint, Vector}

She wore her usual school uniform and a light blue ribbon tied into her hair as she smiled at her look before receiving a text from Vector that didn't sound nice at all.

{Just you wait...}

She placed her phone in her pocket and placed her school shoes on and walked to school upon reaching the gates somewhere from the corner of her eye, she could've swore she saw someone looking at her but she shook the feeling off and went to her class and saw a girl with long blue hair and purple bangs talking to Tori as she greeted the day.

"You're Shark's twin sister?" She asked as the girl, Rio Kastle, who introduced herself as she nodded before they began talking about the crazy adventures they've been having before she told her about her and Astral's relationship and Rio congratulated her before the bell rang for classes.

Iroha couldn't help but feel like two pairs of eyes were staring at her the entire class.

~~~~~~Mokyu~~~~~

During lunch, Iroha met the others up on top of a tower in which she had someone help her up, namely Shark who was now a friend to her before Astral began to explain the map he found and a hologram of a map before Iroha found her phone ringing as she ignored the call knowing it could be Vector as the others noticed much she is trying to forget him.

"Iroha..." Rio started to talk as Iroha gave a small smile to them as the air grew dense and sad for them knowing how heartbroken Iroha was but she was happy with Astral and they were both happy with each other.

"Anyways, I'm just going for a walk around, it'll be quick." She said with a small sad smile imprinted on her face as Astral nodded as she walked down the tower and walked around the school and the sidewalk before wiping a small tear off her cheek before playing some music on her headphones before walking back and listening to the song.

Why am I always hit on by the boys i never like
I can always see them coming from the left and from the right

I don't want to be a priss
I'm just trying to be polite

But it always seems to bite me in the-
Ask me for my number

Yeah, you put me on the spot
You think that we should hook-up

But I think that we should not
You had me at hello

Then you opened up your mouth
And that is when it started going south

Oh!

Get your hands off my hips
'Fore I punch you in the lips
Stop your staring at my-

Hey!

Take a hint take a hint
No, you can't buy me a drink
Let me tell you what I think

I think you could use a mint
Take a hint take a hint
T-take a hint take a hint

I guess you still don't get it
So let's take it from the top
You asked me what my sign is

And I told you it was stop
And if I had a dime for every name that you just dropped

You'd be here
And I'd be on a yacht

Oh!

Get your hands off my hips
'Fore I punch you in the lips

Stop your staring at my-

Hey!

Take a hint take a hint
No, you can't buy me a drink

Let me tell you what I think

I think you could use a mint
Take a hint take a hint

T-take a hint take a hint

What about "No"
Don't you get

So go and tell your friends
I'm not really interested

It's about time that you're leavin'
I'm gonna count to three and
Open my eyes

And you'll be gone

One

Get your hands off my-

Two

Or I'll punch you in the-

Three

Stop your staring at my-

Hey!

Take a hint take a hint
I am not your missing link
Let me tell you what I think

I think you could use a mint
Take a hint take a hint
Take a hit take a hint

Whoa...

Get your hands off my hips
'Fore I punch you in the lips
Stop your staring at my-

Hey!

Take a hint take a hint
T-take a hint take a hint

She felt like this song was for Vector as she shared the song to him and shut off her phone completely before seeing Astral smile as she smiled as well before she entered the ship and sat down on one of the chairs and listened to Yuma's dad talking about the Mythyrian Numbers and Iroha felt bad for Yuma hearing how his father knew about Astral World before placing a comforting hand on his shoulder as she smiled.

Felicia smiled and chuckled at the heartwarming scene.

"Let's find that number." She said with confidence as he smiled back, for once, Iroha felt like she wasn't afraid to face whatever came to her, let it be Vector or any kind of danger, any tear she would shed wouldn't matter.

The seven of them monitor the screens, but the space-hole they're in seems even more volatile than the last one. Just as Iroha starts to question her decision to do this right now, a streak of light comes flying towards them, and Yuma zooms a camera on it to see the face of a Barian.

Everyone screams. The Barian collides with the ship, and they all go flying.

Iroha felt her head hit something hard as her vision blacked out, the last thing she heard and saw before blacking out was Astral calling out her name and reaching for her.

~~~Mokyu~~~

Iroha woke to the sun in her face and the feeling of her arm broken as she pushed up only to cry in pain and laid back down in the soft moss against the tree before pushing up on her good arm and using the tree for leverage.

"Ah...ow..." She winced before putting her good arm over her broken one before she bumped into an unknown boy with silver hair and lavender eyes staring into her own as he walked over to her before she got a similar feeling of Vector before backing up into a tree and growled in pain by gritting her teeth.

"You're a Barian aren't you?" She asked gritting her teeth trying not to shout in pain before she felt her body stiff up and the boy was looming over her body before he grabbed her arm gently as she winced in pain and shut her eyes before he held up a cloth and tied it around her mouth.

"This might hurt, bite down on the gag or scream through it." He said as he held her shoulder and her arm before a sickening pop was heard and she screamed through the gag that muffled her screams as the tears rushed down her cheeks before he pulled off the scarf she wore and tied it like a sling for her before taking the gag off.

The boy loomed over her laid down body before he stared into her own eyes, he opened his mouth to speak to her as she had no choice but to listen. "I am Dumon, one of the Seven Barian Emperors. You girl, are somehow familiar to me." He said as Iroha felt like every single blood cell in her body freeze up as she felt him grab both of her cheeks in one hand and stared deeply into his eyes before helping her up to her feet.

Iroha felt like she was held hostage by him, she thought of a plan to escape him but it takes some time to perfect it but she didn't need time, she freed her good arm and elbowed him in the gut before rushing off from him as he growled and ran after her before she was cornered by a bear as it roared at her as she pressed against the tree before hearing a voice she never thought to hear.

"KATTOBINGU!!"

A flash of purple shot up and slammed a hammer down onto the bear as it roared and ran away as the flash of purple revealed to be Felicia holding the hammer over her shoulder as Astral floated to her and hugged her as she hugged back with tears in her eyes.

"Astral..." She cried as she tried to speak about the Barian with them but she couldn't find the words to speak about it as the lump in her throat grew as she cried into his chest before he noticed her injured shoulder.

The markings on her gleam as the injury became less painful and almost vanishing enough to be gone from her but not enough.

Dumon came out of the bushes and Iroha felt like she had gotten her heart torn out of her chest before he "introduced" himself as Nash but Iroha didn't buy anything he said as she got closer to Astral, his embrace made her feel almost safe but not completely safe.

'Iroha...she knows something is wrong with him...but...something tells me she couldn't tell me why...' Astral thought as he grabbed her hand into his.

Iroha smiled a little as his attempt of comfort before squeezing gently sending comfort back to him. They walked up to the entrance of old ruins as Iroha felt a shiver up her spine, somehow, this place was familiar to her in a somewhat almost warm feeling.

She walked inside and placed her hand on a wall and felt around, making sure that there were no traps from where she was standing before she heard a rock scraping another as she gasped as Dumon lets out a shout, "Watch out!" He crashes into Shark and knocks him to the wall opposite where Yuma, Astral, Felicia, Iroha, Tori and Rio are, and then a great stone slab slams to the floor, right where Shark was not a second before.

The four girls scream and Yuma rushes the slab, pushing with all his might, but the ages in ruin have not weakened the stone.

"I'm okay," Shark calls. "The dead end opened up over here."

Felicia looks over, so has the end over by them—now there's a long stone corridor before them. "Same," she says, trying to calm her racing heart. "Okay, I guess we start walking, but find stones or something to toss in front of you. Have you got a light?"

"Got my phone," Shark affirms.

Felicia sighs in relief, then screams, "WHEN WE GET OUT OF HERE I'LL KILL YOU!" Before stalking down the new path.

Rio and Tori jog after her, Yuma, Astral and Iroha.

"So, Nash, huh?" Rio asks.

Iroha flinched at the fake name before feeling the pain in her arm as she grasped it before Astral went down and rubbed her arm with whispers of comfort as the pain dissolves before her marking gleamed giving little light for them to see but barely look around as she had a small idea but it would cost some pain and embarrassment.

She slipped her top off only showing her tank top with thin spaghetti straps but it didn't droop down too much to show her bra but it did give some more light from her mark to shine around in the dark hallway.

Then the pain came back hard like she was shot twice in the same spot as she dropped to her knees and curled up in pain as she held her shoulder as Astral went down to her level and held two hands over her shoulder as he focused on her injury, healing her with a little of his energy that he didn't want to risk for any reason or purpose but Iroha was his reason and purpose.

The pain was gone completely but her wound was almost healed, almost.

The six of them exit the tunnel and end up in a large chamber, where a statue of a horse stands front and center, and floating over the nose of the horse is a card-shaped bright light.

Yuma steps into the room and the light grows to the point that she has to close his eyes or risk being blinded. When he senses the light fade she opened his eyes and sees someone who looks like a medieval knight standing in front of him.

He gulps. "Wh-who are you?" He asks.

"I am Mach," the person says. "I am the guardian of this ruin and its Number."

"Yuma, be careful," Rio says. "He's a very powerful spirit."

The guardian—Mach—raises his arm and a duel disk materializes. "If you want the Number, you must duel me for it and prove that you are worthy of it."

Felicia transformed and held her hammer in both hands before Yuma summoned his duel disk.

Iroha stood back with her duel gazer on that somehow survived the crash as she carefully studied the person dueling Yuma, something about him seemed odd.

It was almost like he didn't trust anyone else but the moment he saw Iroha, it was almost as if he knew her but then heard the legend of Pegasus and thought for a moment of Mach appearing in front of them as she finally figured it out.

"It's you, isn't it?" She asks. "You're the Pegasus in the legend."

Above Mach, Number 44, Sky Pegasus, tosses its head. Mach closes his eyes and bows his head. "You have seen me for what I am, girl." He says. "Now Yuma, will you pay life points to protect your Hope, or sacrifice it?"

Astral puts his hand on his shoulder. "Yuma, trust your heart," he says.

He smiles. "I pay my life points." Iroha smiled then saw some rocks dropping nearly onto Yuma as she transformed and shot an arrow at the rock as it went all over the place before pain came shooting back into her shoulder before she held it.

"W-Worth it." She mumbled as Astral gave her a look of concern.

~~~Mokyu~~~

The Barian—Dumon, the one Shark dueled in Sargasso—hauls Shark up, and as soon as he's on solid ground, Shark smacks the Barian's hand away. He's terrifying, and Shark shudders. It's the lack of the mouth that throws him off.

"I knew Yuma shouldn't have trusted you," Shark spits. "Why reveal yourself now? Why did you save me?"

Dumon looks at his wrist. "On this planet I can only access my powers with the help of Baria crystal. It is a living entity, not a mere rock as you might think. My crystal was damaged when I collided with your ship, and it needed time to heal, which it has now done. As for why I saved you, it was to repay Yuma for saving me when I was hurt."

"But now you're even," Shark says. "So what, you'll attack her as soon as we're out of here?"

Dumon turns away. "I don't know."

~~~Mokyu~~~

Iroha cheered when they had won the duel and Mach's life points fell to zero and she watched as Yuma took the card before she saw Dumon as he said nothing but disappeared before Iroha then felt a hand on her bad shoulder which made her yelp before turning to Shark as she looked down to noticed she still had her shirt off before he began tending to her injured arm in the ship where they had found it before they reached home and Iroha went to her house and gently laying down in bed after changing into her pajamas.

She felt her eyes drifting off to sleep as she closed her eyes and snuggling into the comfort of her bed before feeling Cloud Kitten and Ponta cuddle with her as she held them in her arms, as they slept, they never knew that Dumon watched her from outside as he finally had the chance to look at her closely again.

Vector was right, she was beautiful but she already had a bonding mark on her so he would never have the chance to implant a bonding mark on her delicate skin. Dumon shook his feelings away before leaving her be and disappearing into a portal he made and returning to Vector.

He wouldn't be happy for this report of the bonding mark.