Over the next few days since Iroha had beaten Shark in the duel for Bronk's deck and meeting Astral, things have been going okay for Iroha except the fact that Astral had been doting on her like she really was his wife but Iroha was too young to be married as she sighed and walked back to her home with her friends as she tried not to talk to Astral which people will think that she's talking to herself.

"You've been quiet lately." Astral noted as she flinched to the sudden sound of his voice before bumping to the light pole which earned some winces from Tori and Bronk before getting up and rubbing the side of her face while the sounds of busy traffic filled her ears as she looked to see the traffic. "How long was traffic going to be?" Iroha asked as Bronk pointed to the monorail that was stuck before something hit her in the back of the head.

She looked to the juice vender as one hit her face and Astral tried to will it to stop from hitting Iroha as it stopped as a trashbot tugged at her shirt and tried to take it off as her friends stopped it and rushed to her home.

They parted ways before Iroha heard Ui scream, acting up to her big sister instincts, she dropped her bag and rushed to see her sister at the computer with a huge error sign on it as she trembled as Iroha saw books on a project she was doing.

"My...My research...why?" Ui said before Iroha saw that she was about to cry as she grabbed her favorite blanket and a cup of her favorite tea and wrapped her sister in a blanket like a burrito and gave her some tea.

Ui calmed down before the error went away and she saw her research saved and she cheered happily before Iroha went down to cook dinner for the both of them as Astral admired how delicious the food smelled as he floated over to the kitchen and tried to snatch one of the tomatoes to eat but it floated through and Iroha giggled when she saw him trying to take a tomato before she made an extra serving as usual and sighed before taking the bowl to Ui and saw how hard she worked on her research before stopping to eat her dinner, Iroha went to her room with the two servings and sat at her desk and began eating before Astral tried to reach for the bowl but failed as Iroha giggled again as he made a note.

"So this is how humans replenish your energy." Astral said as Iroha nodded before finishing her dinner and heading to the bathroom to take a bath, she stripped her clothing, undid her hair and turned on the warm water before adding in the bath salt and turning the faucet off and stepping inside of the tub.

Iroha let out an amused sigh at the feeling of hot water relaxing her tense muscles as she let herself relax into the comforting hot water.

Before being interrupted by someone...

"Interesting, so this is a way to relax after replenishing your ener-." Astral stopped when he saw Iroha blushing a deep red that would make a tomato jealous as she held her arms close to her chest which made him curious. "Is something the matter?" Astral was starting to regret asking as Iroha grabbed a bar of soap and looked ready to throw it at him with a red face.

Astral was curious as to why she covered her body and he floated closely to her as she fell back into the tub as the water splashed onto her face.

"Wh-What are you doing?!" She squeaked as Astral back away from her as she emptied the tub and grabbed a towel to wrap around her as she turned on the heater for her room as she grabbed her pajamas before Astral noticed the privacy she wanted and turned away before Iroha told him it was okay to look.

"L-Look, you can't just look at me when I'm naked or partially naked, i-it seems wrong to." She blushed as Astral nodded before Iroha tried to get some sleep but failed because of the honking of horns and traffic going, it kept her up all night.

Then, finally at around 3:30 am, she was able to go to sleep after the constant honking and arguments from the people below as she closed her eyes and let her body rest for the last remaining time she has to rest...

Before her alarm went off and it showed the time on it as she jumped out of bed and got dressed quickly as she packed her lunch quickly before tying her hair up and heading out to school as she waved to Tori and Bronk who were at the school as she caught her breath before entering the classroom as the bell rung for the students to come inside as Mr. Kay, her teacher told everyone the digital textbooks aren't working due to the system offline because of the virus that occured.

Iroha wasn't good with technology but she did write on a notebook full of paper which made her a bit strange to write it down but she did hand it in on time.

Then a boy with blue hair, Caswell Francis, stepped up and began talking so much that made Iroha hit her head on her desk as she rubbed her temples to ease the pain before Mr. Kay told everyone that they could duel since the system was offline.

Then Caswell came up to Iroha with a determined face and a blush on his face as he tapped her shoulder. "I..challenge you to a da--DUEL! I CHALLENGE YOU TO A DUEL!!" Caswell said with a red face as Iroha got ready before seeing that her number card wasn't there except Black Rose Dragon.

Iroha took a breath and began the duel as she inserted her deck into the deck slot of her duel disk and both of them dueled until Iroha synchro summoned Black Rose Dragon to win the duel as Caswell stared at the legendary dragon before him and lost the duel.

"That was impressive Iroha, and with a deck with that, you prove everyone of what perfection looked like but Caswell showed us about mistakes, and it's okay to look at mistakes. Like cooking, the hamburger steak was a little greasy but you did okay on cooking." Mr. Kay said as Iroha nodded before Tori and Bronk talked with her at lunch before they walked home but a car honked at them and Tori recognized her to be Akari Tsukumo.

"Hey Tori, you and your friend get inside." She said as they did what the girl said as Iroha buckled in. "It's a good thing that the virus spread to a few remote servers." Akari said as Iroha asked about the remote servers.

"What would happen to the remote servers if it had spread to more?" Iroha regretted asking that question before Akari looked at her. "The entire city would've been thrown into entire chaos! Bank data would be gone, people would lose their money, hospitals would've lost medical records and the ability to help people like your little sister Ui!" Iroha teared up, her little sister, Nemu and Touka dying on their beds.

"Who would do such a thing?" Tori asked as Akari shrugged before speaking up. "Well, whoever it is, the virus seems to originate at your school library." She said as she stopped the car and the two went inside of the library before Akari told Iroha that she would watch Ui.

Iroha smiled at Akari before entering the library and kept an eye out for anyone suspicious before a book hit her head, Iroha saw the book and it had no library tag but it looked interesting as she took it to the librarian, the librarian never saw the book before the librarian let her keep the book.

It was getting late for them as the students left before Iroha and Tori saw Caswell heading over to the computers with a flash drive acting strange as they went up to him and Iroha was mad. "Tell us what you know Caswell Francis, or else I will expose the one secret you hid from us." Iroha said as Caswell knew what she was talking about, Caswell had gotten a B- on one test and Iroha helped him and never told anyone about it.

"P-Please! I'm just being used!" Caswell begged as Tori glared at the boy as he told the truth before explaining why he did it before typing on the computer and a bunch of numbers showed up like a location as they followed it to the tall tower and it got dark by the time that they arrived and entered.

It looked dark and empty, Iroha thought that Caswell was wrong but then the door slammed shut and it locked behind them as the lights turned on showing the entire room to them as Iroha heard a familiar voice from somewhere before she saw her teacher Mr. Kay.

"M-Mr. Kay?! What're you doing here?!" Iroha asked as Caswell began to explain why Mr. Kay would lead them there and then Iroha placed the pieces together, Mr. Kay was the one to use Caswell to plant the virus, then something was glowing on his neck, it looked like a number.

"That man is under the influence of a number, the only way to free him is to duel him and win." Astral said making Iroha flinch before grabbing her duel disk and inserting her deck into it and placing her duel gazer on.

"DUEL!" They both shouted as they both drew five cards, Mr. Kay went first and set a monster facedown while Iroha did her turn and summoned Rose Paladin in attack mode and setting two facedowns before attacking Mr. Kay's facedown card only to receive damage from the defense position monster, Crashbug X.

"How come her monster is alright since she took damage?" Tori asked Caswell as he began to explain. "If you attack a monster in defense position, the attacking monster isn't destroyed, even if the defending monster has more defense points. Thus, in the end, you subtract the attack points from the defense points, Iroha takes 200 points of damage!" Caswell explained as Mr. Kay began his turn.

"I draw!" He said as he smiled when he saw the card he drew. "I summon Crashbug Y! And with that, I activate the spell card Crashbug Road from my hand! Now, we each choose a level 4 or below monster on our fields, then we summon the same level monster from our hands and I choose, Crashbug Z!" Mr. Kay summoned his monster as Iroha looked over to her hand and saw Rose Paladin as a level 4.

"I choose my Rose Paladin and I choose..." She stopped when she saw the two level 4 monsters in her hand, Rose Warrior of Revenge and Aromage Rosemary, a tuner monster and a normal monster.

One to Synchro Summon and the other to XYZ summon.

'What do I choose? Synchro or XYZ?' She thought as she bit down on the inside of her cheek before Astral floated over her shoulder and whispered in her ear which monster she should use.

"Use Rose Warrior of Revenge, Synchro Summon Black Rose Dragon and then destroy all monsters, use Monster Reborn to bring back Black Rose Dragon." Astral said as Iroha nodded and summoned Rose Warrior of Revenge before Synchro Summoning Black Rose Dragon to the field as it roared loudly enough to break someone's eardrums before Mr. Kay XYZ summoned his number monster.

"It appears to be some sort of data chip, capable of taking the form of a member of the Rhinoceratidae family! But what's the significance of the Number?" Caswell asked as Iroha looked at it and noticed that it had no attack points.

"That's not all, I activate Terror-Byte's special ability! Like a denominator absorbs a numerator in a perfect fractional ratio, by using one overlay unit, I take control of your Black Rose Dragon!" Mr. Kay said as Black Rose Dragon roared when it was taken by Mr. Kay.

"No!" Iroha shouted as Mr. Kay smirked as Astral was shocked at her sudden expression before Mr. Kay ordered Black Rose Dragon to attack her but Astral got in front of her and they both took the hit from the dragon before her life points went down to nearly halfway as Astral faded in and out but Iroha didn't look to Astral, she wiped the blood leaking from her lip she bit down as Caswell called out to her.

He explained why he always said 'In the End' before Mr. Kay used it and told them that they would be the first ones to witness the beginning of the virus spreading chaos.

"Your defeat is coming Iroha, I can assure you! But for now, I set one card facedown and end my turn!" Mr. Kay said to Iroha as the duel continued.

"Okay, since Black Rose Dragon is back on my field...I could activate her ability...or..." Iroha said as she thought back to what Astral said. 'Destroy all monsters, then use Monster Reborn to bring back Black Rose Dragon.'

Iroha activated Black Rose Dragon's effect to destroy all monsters on each side of the field as all shattered except for the number. "What?!" She exclaimed as Astral looked shocked at what happened in front of him. "If you forgotten, only NUMBER cards can destroy other monster cards.

Iroha summoned a level 4 Plant Type Monster and used her Monster Reborn to bring Rose Paladin back before XYZ summoning Number 39: Utopia as she attacked Terror-Byte and lowered Mr.Kay's life points but he activated a trap and regained his life points as Iroha ended her turn with two facedown cards.

Then Mr. Kay used his Monster Reborn to bring back Terror-Byte as Iroha activated her trap, Magic Jammer as his spell card shattered and then activated her Monster Reincarnation as she discarded a card and brought back her Fallen Angel of Roses.

The duel raged on until Caswell nearly confessed his feelings to her when he made a speech about her passion and potential. "Wh-What I'm trying to say, in the end, I...I...I LOVE YOU IROHA TAMAKI!!" Iroha blushed at the sudden confession from a classmate so suddenly but Iroha smiled at him.

"Caswell...I can't return the feelings but I wanna be friends, I'm not ready for a relationship." She said as Caswell understood and Astral felt somewhat relieved of the affection rejected from her before she continued the duel by summoning Revival Rose and using it to Special Summon her Fallen Angel of Roses and Mr. Kay looked like he was scared and Astral was impressed that Iroha turned the duel around so quickly as the number card lost its grip and Astral absorbed the number and Iroha panted as she fell to her knees and her friends rushed to her.

Mr. Kay woke and explained that the virus wasn't meant to plunge the city into chaos, then he told everyone to place their duel gazers on as they looked up to the sky and Iroha was shocked at the sight of the hologram.

"It's...It's...It's Crashbug! Oh! Caswell, read the description of your Crashbug!" Iroha said as Caswell dug through his cards and found it before he began to read it.

"Crashbug is an electric spirit that eats the bugs in our lives. Sadness, doubt, frustration--no bug is too big for Crashbug. If you see Crashbug on the night of a full moon, it brings you good luck!" Caswell read as finally knew what he was talking about.

"In the end, Mr. Kay wanted us to have good luck!" Caswell said as Iroha stared at the hologram and fireworks before Astral smiled at her before making an observation while looking at Iroha.

"Observation #7: Numbers can affect people; they change them. They seem to amplify their needs and desires, almost to the point of taking over...I'll have to remember that." Astral said as he tried to place his arm over Iroha's shoulder but he could only place his hand on her shoulder as she turned to see him looking at the fireworks.

'This night isn't so bad...what else could happen?' Iroha thought of the gentle warm breeze drafted by.