Yuma's Biography

[kattobingore]

Name: Tsukumo, Yuma
Age: 20 (Birthday: June 19th, 1999*)
Gender: Male
Occupation: Duelist in Super Junior League
Duel Information: Syllable Deck [Ace: Number 39 - Aspiring Emperor Hope]
Family:
Tsukumo, Kazuma (Father)
Tsukumo, Mirai (Mother)
Tsukumo, Akari (Older Sister)
Tsukumo, Haru (Grandmother)
Mizuki, Kotori (Partner)

PERSONALITY

Yuma is a very happy-go-lucky, cheerful boy, who is always willing to accept any challenge and do them to the best of his ability. No matter how much he fails, he refuses to leave things halfway and will see it to the end. He is very competitive, but he is also very hasty and can easily rush into a situation without thinking first. He can be very clumsy and forgetful and will often forget or lose incredibly important things.

He believes very strongly in the bonds of friendship and will often stick up for, protect and defend, his friends, no matter what he has to throw himself into for it. Quite often, he will also help others when he feels they need it, even if they don't want or ask for it. Sadly, his good-nature can make him rather naive and he often trusts people a bit too easily. He doesn't believe that duelists can be bad people.

Even though he has his never-giving-up attitude, Yuma can sometimes get in over his head in things and can be prone to bouts of doubting himself rather heavily. Despite this, he will still see through the challenge that has been set, though it may take someone who cares about him, to snap him out of his self-doubt and remind him about his kattobing.

Yuma can be prone to being short-tempered, head-strong and stubborn which can sometimes make him clash with others.

He can be sensitive on the subject of parents. He struggles with the sadness of losing his own parents and can often feel lonely without them. He, however, hides this under his happy personality as he attempts to live up to what his parents taught him, especially his father and the promise he gave his father that he'd see his dream through to become duel champion.

APPEARANCE
At his current age, Yuma looks quite different to his ZEXAL counterpart. He is much more taller, at a height that is just shorter than his father (Kazuma) but taller than his mother (Mirai) and sister (Akari). Although originally, when puberty first hit him like a train, he was tall but rather awkwardly lanky, at the age he is at now he has finally began to fill out and develop noticeable muscle tone (though he is not as muscular as Kazuma).
Other than his taller, more matured body, the rest of his looks remain the same.
He usually opts to wear hoodies the most, which is his favourite item of clothing. He doesn't have a large range of different clothing, much to Kotori's dismay.

HISTORY

Yuma Tsukumo is the youngest child of the Tsukumo family. Growing up, he lived in his large family home, in Heartland City, with his explorer parents, Kazuma and Mirai, his older sister Akari and grandmother Haru. Yuma's parents would often go away for long periods of time to go exploring, but they would always come back with interesting artefacts that they kept stored in the attic above Yuma's bedroom. Yuma was very close to both his parents, especially his father, who would sometimes take Yuma on camping and rock-climbing trips. On one of these trips, Yuma's dad taught him the importance of having a "never-giving-up" spirit, which he called "Kattobing!". He would also tell Yuma tales of other dimensions and his dream of travelling to the ends of the earth.
One day, while exploring snowy mountains, his parents got caught in an accident and in an effort to save his wife, Kazuma cut the rope which made him plummet down a cliff. When he was found, he was holding a strange artefact, the Emperor's Key. Sometime afterwards, when he witnessed Yuma feeling upset after losing a duel and being mocked by those who won, he gave Yuma the key and reminded him about "Kattobing!". From then on, Yuma has always worn the key around his neck and believes that while he has it, he will always have the ability to take on any challenge, no matter what.

Sadly, while his parents were out on another exploring trip, they mysteriously disappeared and are now believed to be dead (although Yuma, himself, does not believe this to be true). Since then, Yuma has attempted to live up to the promise he made to his dad to never give up on anything, no matter what and that he would one day become a duel champion. He frequently uses his dad's catchphrase in daily life. Since the disappearance of his parents, Yuma had taken to sleeping on a hammock in the attic above his room, where all the artefacts his parents had found still are.

Despite his terrible playing ability in the card game, Yuma wished to continue to challenge himself with the game and further his dream of becoming a duel champion. Although he would be constantly laughed at for his dream, Yuma decided to try and prove that he will, by getting into the duel academy on the island off-shore from Domino City!! His sister was against him going at first, remembering something her dad told her when she was younger, that she was to keep an eye on her younger brother's duels, but Yuma was able to get permission from his grandmother, who was more than happy to allow him to go.

During the summer of 2013, he took the written test for entry into the academy and... bombed it rather badly, but he managed to do well enough to enter into the dueling exam, granted, his participation number was one of the highest there! But it didn't matter, Yuma had Kattobing!! He was gonna kattobing this duel so hard his opponent wouldn't know what hit him!!
Only... he bombed the duel too.
After being laughed out of the arena, a distraught Yuma left for home, sure that his dream of becoming Duel Champion was further away than ever.

A week later, Yuma received a letter from the duel academy. Feeling sure it was a rejection letter, he wasn't sure he wanted to open it, but with encouragement from his grandmother he opened it to find... he was in!! In the letter it was explained that even though he didn't do so well on his exams, the principal was impressed by the spirit he showed during the duel and was willing to give him a chance to prove himself at the academy, entering him into Osiris Red, but that his final exams after a year need to be at a passing grade, or he's out. No second chances.
But of course he can do that right?? KATTOBING DA, ORE!
When Akari found out that Yuma had been placed in the school, she wasn't happy with him or Haru, but realizing nothing could really be done, she accepted it and figured that Yuma couldn't possibly get into any kind of trouble at the school. Right?

At the start of the new school year in October 2013, Yuma started his new life as a Duel Academy student. He moved into his dorm at Osiris Red, bringing with him some of his parents artefacts, his hammock and a picture of his parents turning the room into a miniature version of his attic room. This can make life difficult for whoever is rooming with him as his parents artefacts take up a lot of space in the dorm room.

Despite knowing that he needs to pass this first year with a final good grade, he is nowhere near a model student and will slack off when he sees the chance. He quite often can't wait for normal classes to be over so he can challenge other students to duels, even if he loses miserably every time.

His preferred way of dueling is through the new augmented reality system. Though he will duel the regular way as well, he just finds AR duels much more exciting!!

- Duel Academy -

When meeting people at the Academy, most students found Yuma's endless boundless energy and zest for life a bit strange and annoying, so making good friends at first seemed a little difficult, although Yuma seemed a little oblivious to it. Those he was rooming with in Osiris Red soon moved up to the other dorms, leaving only Yuma and his parents artefacts.

When Shinoko began asking about gaining members for an occult club she was setting up at the Academy, Yuma decided to join based on the fact that he might get to duel something awesome as a member!
Well... that and no other club would let him join (The dueling clubs ignored him and the sports club considered him a "danger to himself and others" with how much he took on incredibly silly challenges which resulted in him hurting himself.) He was made the clubs "first response Duelist" by Shinoko and being oblivious to what it really meant, Yuma was excited!

When Cosmo Queen's influence was still affecting the dreams of people in the city and surrounding area, Yuma had a few people witness his dream of trying to reach his dad by climbing a tall cliff side. One of these people was none other than Number 96, who appeared to Yuma as a darker version of him. The two challenged each other to a race to the top of the cliff, with Yuma wanting to reach the top before Number 96 in case his dad was still up there, but when no sign of his dad was found, Yuma told Number 96 about how his parents disappeared and how he believed them to be still alive.
When Number 96 learned Yuma's name and realized it meant "99" he found it funny and told Yuma it was because he was the "96th out of 99 very bad people" and was amused that he was talking to someone who's name meant "99". He then told the boy that he had no issue with him, but he found him to be a very interesting person, telling Yuma that he didn't think this would be the last time they met.

When mentioning the dream on his journal, this gained Juudai's attention. Realizing that the person in Yuma's dream must of been Number 96, he requested to met up with Yuma to ask him about it, agreeing to a duel in exchange. Yuma agreed, ecstatic that he was going to be meeting and dueling an actual pro-duelist.
When Yuma explained what happened in the dream to Juudai, both Juudai and Hope agreed that it might of not been a mere coincidence that Number 96 and Yuma met, so they decided that Hope should go with Yuma in order to give him some kind of protection in case Number 96 did show up to Yuma again.

When a dragon began appearing on the island, Yuma, along with Shinoko and Ruka, went to find out exactly what it was. They discovered that the dragon was actually Red Daemon's Dragon, which belonged to Shian who had become the dragon's new signer. Yuma quickly learned about the signers from this, which he thought was awesome, even asking if he could be one himself! Though through a conversation with Ruka afterwards, he learned about her recent struggles with being a signer and how her brother and friends, the other signers in her group, had disappeared. Yuma couldn't help but relate to Ruka and her situation, with missing family members of his own. He did not mention his missing parents to Ruka, but offered her words of encouragement, which Ruka was happy to accept. Through this, the two both began to realize that they had both made some good friends within the occult club.

When the summer exams were quickly approaching, Yuma realized that he was in deep trouble, as he'd goofed off a little too much and did not at all feel prepared for them, knowing that if he didn't get a passing grade, he'd lose his chance at staying at the Academy. When she learned of this, Ruka offered to help him study, as long as he took it seriously.

Thankfully, with Ruka's hard work, Yuma managed to get into the second year of the Academy, though he still remains in Osiris Red.

During his second year, Yuma concentrated a lot on dueling and learning the ropes of Xyz summoning. He edited his deck through the year and even managed to add other Xyz monsters to his extra deck other than Hope. Though, with him putting so much concentration into his dueling, he began paying less attention to his other studies.

During the last month of his second year, Yuma met Yuya Sakaki, his new roommate at Osiris Red. The two became close friends quite quickly, a bond which was strengthened further when the two found out that they shared the painful experience of having missing parents.

Only a few weeks after he met Yuya, Yuma was pulled in front of Principal Samejima to be told that he had failed his second year finals. Yuma was almost on the verge of being expelled from the school, but thanks to Yuya's support, he was able to convince the Principal to give him another chance. The only catch was that he would have to repeat his second year again and also attending tutoring (along with Yuya) twice a week.

- Desperado Plot - | Gaining ZEXAL

Soon after the start of the new school year at the academy, Yuma, as well as Yuya, began being targeted by fellow students in duels. Those students seemed to wish to break their spirits and stop them from dueling. Yuma's first opponent was a girl named "Princess Teddirina", who had originally targeted Yuya. When he won, she fled and dropped an orange card with the letter "D" on it.

When Yuya was targeted by Hayate, and the personal details regarding his father were outed to the Academy, Yuya disappeared, so Yuma and Yuzu spent the entire evening/night looking for him around the island. Yuma, who was not pleased with Hayate revealing Yuya's personal history in a duel, vowed that he would not let Yuya experience the pain of everyone knowing about his dad on his own, therefore, Yuma announced that he also had missing parents, and that if anyone had any issue with Yuya and his dad, that they should take it out on him too.
Unknown to Yuma, this act of selflessness and strong bond friendship to Yuya unlocked the beginnings of his power. The very same night that Yuya returned, Yuma had a dream of a chained up door with the face of a demon which told him that the one who opened the door would "obtain a great new power", but that receiving the power would come with a "great risk" and would lead to a path full of hardships.
The dream repeated itself almost every other night for Yuma since then and although he pretended that he was not bothered by it, the more he had it, the more he found it difficult to believe that it meant nothing and the more concerned he began getting with it. When Hope confronted Yuma about it, the Number told Yuma that he believed that one day the boy would have to make the decision on whether he would open the door or not.

When the winter holidays arrived, Kotori, Yuma's close childhood friend from Heartland City, visited him during this time. She stayed in a hotel in Domino City but was able to visit the island and meet Yuma's friends. When Kotori found out that Yuma was still not doing the best he could in his studies, Kotori challenged him about it, resulting in Yuma admitting to her that he was still finding the work difficult and that's why he continued to goof off, but he also admitted that he felt ashamed for failing his second year the first time, feeling like he'd let his family and Kotori down.
After talking with Kotori, she decided to help Bright come up with a better study plan for Yuma, that suited him more, as she had more experience with helping Yuma with his school-work and knew what worked with him.

On the weekend between the Christmas and New Years weeks, Kotori was kidnapped by the group that had been targeting him and Yuya. He was given two choices to get her back; Leave the Academy for good or go to a specified location to duel someone. Yuma chose to duel.
When he arrived at the location, and abandoned steel mill, he was forced to take part in a Dark Game, set up by the chosen Duelist, which was activated by a lantern-looking device. Yuma's opponent, Yumehiro, was revealed to be a masochist who enjoyed painful situations. During the duel, Yuma learned about the prophecy that Desperado believed in, which they believed was referring to Yuma, Yuya and their pendants. That they were dark kings who would discover great power through dueling which would bring about the end of the world.
The Dark Game was tough on Yuma. He wanted to save Kotori, but all his attacks really hurt his opponent, which he didn't want to do. He began getting scared and hesitant with his moves.
Eventually, Yumehiro summoned a giant and dangerous demon, called Beelze which took Yumehiro over. Beelze was able to grab Yuma during the duel and slammed him repeatedly onto the concrete floor. Yuma, at this point, was either dead, or very close to dying.

After the attack, Yuma found himself back at the door from his dream, only this time it was no mere dream.
He had to make his choice.
Yuma decided to take up the door on it's offer of power, knowing that if he didn't, he and Kotori would certainly die. He was willing to take what risks and hardships were attached to it in order to at least save his friend. With that, he used the Emperor's Key to open the door and accept the power, engulfing him in a bright light. As it did the door told him the name of the power.
ZEXAL.

Yuma found that the power had given him a new form. With this power, he continued the duel, being able to preform a "Shining Draw" in order to draw "ZEXAL Weapon - Unicorn Spear" and also finally being able to access the ability to Chaos Xyz summon Hope Ray. Yuma was able to defeat Beelze with his new power. After this, not wishing to harm Yumehiro any further, Yuma offered him the chance to surrender, which he did due to freaking out over the situation. Yuma refused to place a penalty on Yumehiro and allowed him to leave.

With Kotori safe, Yuma reverted back to his usual form, but without the power carrying him, he temporarily collapsed into her in pain and exhaustion. Luckily, the power had healed all the life-threatening internal injuries he had, but had still left the outer of his body looking battered and bruised. Despite still being exhausted and severely injured, he refused to go to the hospital, so Kotori instead took him back to her hotel where she tended to his injuries the best she could.
While there, Yuma came clean to her about everything that had been going on with him and Yuya in regards to Desperado, as well as telling her about the door dream and how that lead to his new ability. He felt guilty that he hadn't told her this and that it had resulted in her being put in danger which he almost failed getting her out of, but Kotori reassured him that no matter what had happened and what may happen, she'd support and follow him no matter what, something that Yuma really appreciated in her, realizing that he'd somewhat taken for granted what a good and supportive friend she'd always been to him.

After returning to the island, Yuma went to the infirmary there as he promised Kotori that he would. The infirmary staff were shocked that with his severe outer injuries, that he had no signs of internal injuries.
For the following week, Yuma had promised to make the rest of Kotori's visit the best he could and thankfully it went without a hitch, other than him not being able to do as much due to his injuries, but he could at least move around with frequent breaks. When the day came for them to part, Yuma didn't really want her to go, becoming a little flustered and hesitant with her, something Kotori had noticed with him over her visit, especially for the second week after their experience with the dark game. He was starting to pick up on and respond to her feelings, and may have develop feelings for her of his own, but his hesitance and awkwardness told her it was something he was not understanding yet, so she decided she'd wait and give him the space to understand them. Yuma, during the parting, admitted to Kotori that he'd missed her the past two years.
With that, the two parted, with Yuma promising that he'd come and visit her and his family when the next chance arose for him, even if it would be the next winter holiday.

After Yuya was targeted by Desperado while he was ill and ended up hospitalized in the infirmary, Yuma contacted Jouji Futaba, a name that had been left with him and Yuzu by Yuya's opponent, mentioning that he was the one jailbreaking duel disks for Desperado. Although Jouji denied such actions at first, he promised Yuma he may tell him something if he won in a duel against him. Yuma took up the offer.
Yuma met Jouji at the harbour, only for Jouji to reveal to Yuma that he and his dorm room, had been bugged by Desperado. After destroying the bugs on Yuma, both boys moved to the roof of the academy for their duel. While Yuma dueled the best he could, he was no match for Jouji's flood of Blackwings/Raid Raptors and lost. Jouji, slightly impressed that Yuma had kept going, despite the hopeless situation, did at least leave a clue for Yuma, which resulted in him and Yuya guessing that Hayate was definitely a high-ranking member of Desperado, if not the leader of the whole thing.

When he and Yuya went to talk to Juudai about their powers, Yuma showed that he still rather traumatised with his experience with the Dark Game over the holidays and that recalling the memories of it are a painful experience for him. He'd been mostly burying the memories to the back of his mind.
In the meeting, Juudai gave him two new Numbers for his deck: Number 50 - Blackship of Corn and Number 16 - Shock Master.

In late February, Yuma, Yuzu and Yuya finally decided to confront Hayate at the main arena late at night. Yuzu was the one to duel against Hayate, showing off the fusion summoning she had learned in order to help protect Yuma and Yuya and she eventually won, as well as being able to gain Bloom Diva from Hayate, who got it, knowing Yuzu was looking for it. After this, Hibiki revealed himself as the true leader of Desperado. He, Yuma and Yuya were going to have a harmless normal duel to sort out their differences, but Hayate managed to activate a dark game, which reacted to the Action Field and made the field overtake the school.
During the duel, Hibiki, Yuma and Yuya attempted to get to the power core of the school in order to try and shut it down to stop the duel, but when they got there, Hibiki was taken over by a demon, a rival to the demon Beelze that Yuma defeated during the winter holidays. Working together, Yuma and Yuya were able to defeat Hibiki and free him from the grip of the demon.
Once the duel ended, they were confronted by Noriko and the island security. It was revealed that their duel had caused the evacuation of the island and all of them were arrested by the island security for that and for dueling after-hours which is not allowed. Noriko fought for their case, but in the end, it was decided that Yuma, Yuzu and Yuya would be put through the expulsion duel process, where they would be pitted against strong duelists. If they lost, they would be expelled. The only way to stay was to win.

After these events, the three friends were understandably upset. Despite the circumstances, Yuma attempted to be strong for his two younger friends. In the days afterwards, Yuma tried his best to talk to Yuya about the situation, but Yuya refused to talk to him. When Yuma found Yuya missing one morning, he went to Yuzu's dorm to ask if she had seen him. This resulted in Yuma talking to Yuzu, who was just as distraught over the recent developments. Thankfully, he had more luck in talking to Yuzu and the two were able to cry out some of their frustrations to each other, realizing that the three of them were best friends and none of them wanted to be forced to part ways.
After reuniting with Yuya, who was talking to Desdemona, the three friends agreed to do their best and win their expulsion duels. During this, Desdemona pulled Yuma to one side to talk to him privately, telling him that his two friends really looked up to him and it was important that he supported them, but gave him her contact details in case it got too much for him and he needed to talk. Yuma was thankful for Desdemona's thoughtfulness towards him and his two friends.

For the expulsion duel, Yuma was pitted against Alexandra Grant, who had been doing well in the American Pro-League. She was able to push Yuma to do his best in the duel and Yuma found that the Action Field that they were dueling on a lot of fun, despite the circumstances, and began seeing the joys of entertaining a crowd during a duel, feeling the influences from watching Yuya and Yuzu's entertainment dueling. Even Hope, who was normally quite quiet and serious, enjoyed the duel.
But when Alexandra summoned Beelze, Yuma froze. Seeing the monster that very nearly killed him in the dark game months before transported him back to that memory and he felt unable to do anything, being completely frozen to the spot. The same was true for Kotori, who was watching in the audience, but she was able to break herself out of that fear and shout encouragement to Yuma, reminding him that the Beelze before him was not the same as before and that he can overcome and beat it. Thanks to Kotori's words, Yuma was able to continue the duel and eventually win.
This duel began Yuma's full interest in Action Dueling and decided he would like to learn more about it, as well as Entertainment Dueling, from Yuya and Yuzu.

After their wins, Yuma and his friends spent time with their family and friends throwing a little celebration. During this, Yuma invited Kotori out on a walk as the sun was setting over the island. He thanked Kotori for bringing him to his senses in the duel when Beelze was summoned and Kotori told him that both of them don't have to be afraid of what happened to them anymore, that the overcame their fear of Beelze together.
After this, Yuma decided to bring up the real reason why he'd asked Kotori to go on a walk with him. Kotori had sent him chocolate cookies she made herself for Valentine's Day, and Akae brought up to Yuma (who was oblivious about the day) that Kotori probably had a crush on him. Yuma had responded to her valentine's gift with a gift to her for White Day, but he was curious about her true feelings for him and wanted to ask her about them directly in the hopes it would also help him understand his own feelings for her better.
Kotori confessed to Yuma that she had always had a little crush on him, but once he left for Duel Academy, she realized how much she missed him and how much she truly loved him. There and then she properly confessed her feelings, that she loved him and his smile. Although tense at first, Yuma decided that he wanted to at least try and answer to Kotori's feelings, so promised her that the next time they met and they had the time, he'd take her on a date, then see where things go from there.

A little bit after this, Yuma, Yuya as well as some other students and their teacher, Sadame, were used as bait by Cairngorgon to open up a portal to Natruia Forest which they were all pulled into.
During their stay in the forest, Yuma's adventurous side completely took over, as he eagerly explored the forest.
Eventually, the group were given the task to pass a test that new hunters go through in order to be able to get home. In this test, Yuma, along with Yuya and Gongenzaka, dueled the Earthen Keeper. When the group won against the Earthen Keeper, they were all given the title of Hunters and were presented with a pearl-like jewel and a card which would allow them to use the gates to travel dimensions with the Earthen Keeper's permission. Using the card, they were all able to return home.

-Barian Arc-

In mid-May, Yuma and Akae decided to break the strict curfew that had been put in place on the island, due to an attack which happened while he was in Naturia Forest. The two had heard rumours about aliens and had decided to search the forest... in cow costumes. Yuma hadn't been taking it seriously and thought the night was just a bit of fun, but the two of them were unexpectedly attacked by the Numeral Hunter who knew both Yuma and Akae held Numbers. He forced them into a duel, so Yuma and Akae worked together to duel against him. They were doing well, that is, until the Numeral Hunter began getting the upper-hand with his 'Galaxy-Eyes' monsters. Thankfully, before he could do any damage, Sadame interrupted the duel, being able to un-do the frozen time effect around them.
The Numeral Hunter fled and Sadame sent Akae and then Yuma back to the dorms. Here, Sadame talked to Yuma and Yuya about the situation, where Yuma was able to give him details about the monsters the Numeral Hunter used. Sadame also told the two boys directly of his own powers and ability to control time.

Yuma accepted that he was wrong to break curfew and apologized to Sadame, as well as Yuya, who had warned him to not go before he left. He accepted that he should be punished and also acknowledged Noriko's warning that if he got in trouble again, he might be out-right expelled. She also warned him that the curfew was put in place to protect students like Yuma, from people like the Numeral Hunter, telling him briefly about some of the past horrors that had occurred on the island years before. She acknowledged that Yuma has supernatural powers, but he was inexperienced and no-one knew nothing about how his powers even work, prompting her to tell him that it's something he needs to look into and find out.
Yuma felt frustrated. His impulsiveness and strong-headed attitude were getting him into big trouble, but he knew he was struggling to not act before he thinks. Ever since the issue with the expulsion duels, Yuma had begun feeling rather stuck between the him who was impulsive and immaturely ran into situations, and the him who wanted to try and be more responsible for the sake of his friends. In a conversation with Kotori, she picked up on this. She told Yuma that growing-up means being more responsible and thinking about actions and how they reflect on him and his friends. She could tell that Yuma really wanted to start being a little more responsible and that he was struggling between the person he was and the person he was growing into. She gave him encouragement, telling him that she believed that he could prove to not only others, but to himself, that he could become the person he wants to become.

Sometime later, Yuma was attacked again, this time by Alexandra Grant, who had also become a Numeral Hunter after bonding with a Galaxy-Eyes. When he was about to lose, Yuya, Yuzu and Gongenzaka stepped in to stop it. While Gongenzaka got Yuma out of the area, Yuzu and Yuya attempted to distract Alex, resulting in them dueling her. Despite their best efforts and their great ability to work together in duels, they both lost, resulting in their life energy being taken from them.
Yuma was distraught that this happened to his two best friends because they were trying to protect him.

Soon after this event, Kotori visited Domino City for a few weeks. After being confronted by Alex when she left the train station, she gave a message to Yuma from her, that she wanted to make a deal with Yuma that if he gave up his Numbers, she'd return Yuya and Yuzu's life energy and leave them all be, but if he chose to duel her, she'd still return their energy but not spare Yuma. Alex gave Yuma the choice to pick a time and a place of his choice and that the deal would be off if he told any of the academy staff or Juudai.
Yuma promised Kotori that he'd take his time in preparing to duel her.

The first weekend of Kotori's visit, Yuma stuck to his promise to her that the next time they got to be together, that he'd take her out on their first date. Their date began well, they visited the Domino City museum together and then decided to have a picnic together in the park, but as they were finishing their picnic, they noticed a strange gathering of people. When they went to check it out, they saw a young woman who was in distress. They assumed that she was overheated from being in the sun for too long, but it became quickly apparent that the woman was suffering from something more than just heat stroke.
Upon the woman's request, Yuma and Kotori attempted to drive the crowd away, but before they could get away themselves, they found themselves trapped in a ring of fire. The only way out was to duel the woman and win.
Yuma stepped up, being the only duelist between the two of them, and began the duel.
During the duel, the woman, Shoushi, used two Numbers and was able to rank them up using the rank-up magic "Barian's Force". The woman told Yuma that the Numbers began playing up when she was given the card to her by a 'blonde woman' and that before that, they were fine.
After Yuma took down her Numbers a second time, the woman collapsed and the duel abruptly ended. Kotori called for an ambulance and the two of them stayed with the woman until the help arrived, making sure to keep her cool in the sun.

After this, Yuma was feeling very down, so they went back to Kotori's hotel room to rest.
While there, Yuma apologized to Kotori for not being able to keep his promise to give her the best date he could, but Kotori told him that it was fine, because he didn't know that event was going to happen. She admitted that she was surprised that Yuma had still wanted to go through with the date, after everything that had happened to him, but reassured him that if things were too difficult right now, she was happy to wait longer.
Yuma told her how much he appreciated her and how she stands by him no matter what. That she was one of his absolute best friends and always would be, but that's why he wanted to try answering to her feelings for him and that he wanted to give a relationship with her a try. He wanted to see where it would lead them.
Kotori agreed that it was the same for her too.
Before they parted ways, Yuma told Kotori that when he visited Heartland for the winter holidays, he'd take her out on their second date.

Later on, Yuma went to face Alexandra, but when he did, the first Numeral Hunter also appeared, resulting in a 3-way duel.
During the duel, a memory was unlocked between Alex's Galaxy-Eyes and Yuma's Hope, showing Galaxy-Eyes Prime Photo Dragon meeting up with Hope in the Numbers dimensional prison and that Prime was the one who imprisoned Hope. She apologized in the flashback, knowing she was wrong to do so, and told Hope that he was free to take retribution on her for what the Astrals did to him and for what she did on their behalf, but Hope's memories of the Astrals had been erased and he didn't understand what Prime meant.
After this, Hope and Prime took over Yuma and Alex's bodies after they passed out, in order to bring down the Numeral Hunter.
Afterwards, Prime gave back the life energy to those she and Alex had taken it from and after exchanging words with Hope, they parted ways.
Before awaking in the hospital, Yuma talked subconsciously with Hope, discussing the duel and the memory. Yuma asked Hope if he knew what the 'Astral's' were, but Hope didn't, only stating that they feel important somehow.
A bit afterwards, Yuma was able to talk to Alex again when she approached him at the summer barbecue at the Academy, telling him that she had decided to stop hunting the Numbers for now and concentrate on getting Galaxy-Eyes' memories back. Yuma asked if Galaxy-Eyes knew anything about the Astral's but Alex told her that she didn't, all she knew was that they feel important somehow, similar to Hope.
Despite being on slightly better terms, Alex still distanced herself from Yuma, as she may have to carry on hunting the Numbers later on, although both he and Hope were no longer going to be targeted.

Just after finals for the year ended, an anonymous message was left warning about demons that were aiming to feed off the planet, which shocked Yuma, knowing these demons would be similar to Beelze and the one who possessed Hibiki. One of the demons Xaphan, decided to attack the Osiris Red dorms, threatening to hit it with a giant fireball, in order to try and kill Yuma, whose power was one of the few things that could kill them. In an attempt to protect him and the others at the dorm, Desdemona faced off against Xaphan, but in the process, became seriously injured. One of the other demons, Demogorgon, showed up and offered to save Desdemona in exchange for Yuma telling him about Dark Mist. Yuma felt like he had no choice and told him what he knew, so Demogorgon healed Desdemona by giving her an organ made from Xaphan.
A few days after the attack, Akae, as a favour to Yuma and Kotori, brought Kotori to the island. Yuma took her to a spot by a waterfall that he hadn't showed her before. While there, Kotori told Yuma that she wanted to learn dueling as a way to help protect him and herself. At first, he was saddened, as he didn't want her to see dueling just as a tool to protect him and that he wanted her to have fun with it too. When she promised that she would, Yuma agreed that he'd teach her during the winter holidays.

While waiting to take on the demon's, Yuma had a strange dream where he was back in Heartland and he had 'shiny guy with orange and green eyes' talk to him through a TV who kept telling him odd things that he didn't understand, such as 'Fulfil your duty before we all vanish when the dreamers awaken.' Although he didn't understand what it meant, Yuma knew this was no ordinary dream.

When he faced the demon's, Yuma got into a bad spot, but was thankfully helped by a woman named 'Labrys' who gave him the Rank-Up card called 'Limited Barian's Force' which he was told was unstable, but it helped Yuma to Chaos XYZ Summon Hope Ray V and he saw no adverse effects using it. After this and also battling Anti-Hope, Yuma left to go back to the Academy, but was exhausted and fell asleep instantly on the train, so Alex called Yuya so he and his friends would know Yuma was there. Yuma slept for 15 hours afterwards.

About a month afterwards, Hope found himself in a strange structure where the card Caduceus gave to them, Number 66 - Master Key Beetle, came to him. 'A Key that can open all doors'. It turned out that this was the key to an airship, the Different Dimension Airship, which had a map inside with several locations marked on it. Hope moved the airship into the Earth Dimension, waking up Yuma and Yuya and alerting a number of other people. Exploring the inside, Yuma and his friends found a message from Yuma's father on it. It turned out that Kazuma had hijacked the airship and sent it to Yuma in order to ask him to locate the 'Legendary Numbers' so they could keep them away from both the Barian's the the Astrals, who Kazuma felt that both parties did not have good plans for them.
With this, Yuma and his friends, as well as Sadame, began their quest to hunt down the remaining Legendary Numbers.

At the beginning of December, Heartland was attacked by an unknown army, using mechanical duel monsters that caused real damage. The city was completely destroyed. The only known survivors of the attack were Yuma's sister and grandmother, as well as Kotori, who were only just able to escape. Although relieved that his family were okay and were able to get to him in Domino City, Yuma was distraught at losing his home, but decided to hold back his despair for his family, wishing to be a source of strength for them and especially for Kotori, who lost absolutely everything she had in the attack, including her family and friends.

Sometime after this, Yuma was challenged to a duel by Caduceus, which Yuma excepted, despite Yuya's protest that he shouldn't. During the duel, Caduceus pushed Yuma into a corner so that he would use the rank-up card that Labrys gave him, but this time, the card back-fired and Yuma, as well as Hope, were engulfed by chaotic energy, corrupting Yuma's powers, creating Dark ZEXAL. As well as this, the chaotic energy made him start acting out all the emotions he'd repressed over Heartland being destroyed, all his pain and anger blinded him. Seeing no other way to help his friend, Yuya dueled Yuma, while Yuma, in his confusion, thought Yuya was someone who was responsible for Heartland's destruction and thus took out all his anger on him.
Yuya was finally able to get through to Yuma when he was able to summon Odd-Eyes Absolute Dragon, the result of Yuya's bond with Yuma.
Yuma went back to normal, but both boys were injured and exhausted, Yuma more-so as he preformed a large amount of 'Dark Draws' during the duel.
When Yuma finally woke in the infirmary, he felt terrible for what happened and finally opened up to his family about how he'd really been feeling over Heartland.

After confronting the Barian, Failnaught, Yuma and Hope learned of Hope's true origin's as an Astral, as well as how the Astrals imprisoned and wipe the memories of anyone who got in their way, even their own people, as well as how anyone who had helped the Barian's had been wiped out. Yuma and Hope talked about this and came to the conclusion that Hope must of realised that what the Astral's were doing were wrong, and that was why he was imprisoned.
During this, Yuya also told Yuma about what Shirou has told him about sensing something similar to the Barian's on the island and how he felt Koyo and Kai were connected, due to how they had been reacting on the missions for the Legendary Numbers.

On the way to the Barian World, to meet with the Barians, Yuma's airshhip is hi-jacked and taken to the Astral World where they are met by Eliphas, the will of the Astral World. Yuma recognised him and his words from the dream he had months before, and Yuma was told that it was his duty, as the 'protector' of the Astral World to follow through his destiny and help to destroy the Barians, which Yuma refused to do.
After Eliphas was destroyed in a duel with Alex and Galaxy-Eyes and began being re-built, Yuma was able to go and see his parents for the first time in six years. They explained to Yuma the situation, that they had learned about how their family, through Mirai, was descended from an Astral that left the Astral World and had gone to Earth and that despite the Astral abilities being dormant in most of their family, Yuma had the potential to unlock his Astral abilities. Eliphas had given the Emperor's Key to Kazuma, to give to Yuma, but also informed him that he did not want him or Mirai to inform Yuma of any of this and that when Yuma came to an age where he might start accessing his power's, Eliphas planned to keep Yuma separate from his parents, so that he could have the chance of influencing Yuma to serve is 'purpose' to the Astral World. So therefore, Yuma's parents were taken by Eliphas to the Astral World, but they believed that Yuma would stick to what he felt was the right path. Since then, Yuma's parents had been trying to build up a relationship with the Astrals and tried to get in Eliphas' way, as well as try and help Yuma where they could, like sending the airship to him.
In their meeting, Yuma's parents also learned about Yuma's relationship with Kotori, as well as what happened to Heartland.
His parents told Yuma that they need to stay in the Astral world for now, so that they can guide the Astrals and Eliphas to a better future.

Upon arriving at the Barian World, Yuma and Kaito faced off against Failnaught and Koyo in the hopes to help move and save the Barian World.

After the Barian World had been moved, Alex, after activating her Dark Signer powers through the help of a Demon, began seeking revenge on the Astrals for what they did to Galaxy-Eyes, Hope and the Barians and aimed to get Yuma's airship to get there. After being contacted by Alex, who bluffed that there was an issue they needed the airship for, Yuma gave the key to the airship and Hope to Yuya and told him to hide while he talked to Alex. Yuma tried confronting her, but his trusting nature made him lose focus and gave Alex the chance to put him in a sleeper hold and knock him unconscious, only to find that the card he was holding was not the key to the airship, but a fake card.
Yuma was later found by Isabel, who he explained the situation to.

He later attended the duel between Alex and Juudai, with Yuya, to stop them dueling so violently, which made Juudai calm down and stop using his Supreme King powers.

-Arc - V Plot-

The Arc V plot ended up being a bit of a disaster, but a few bullet points from this time that I remember:

- Yuma graduated from Duel Academy and moved in permanently with his family in their apartment in Sakana.

- He supported Kotori when her previously unknown powers exploded (accidentally causing damage to the living room in their apartment) and he actually dealt with it somewhat maturely.

- Joined the Super Junior League and actually got into the top tier listing fairly quickly.

- Gained his 3rd ZEXAL form and some new cards (including a new version of Hope.)

- Found Kotori, who'd gone missing (Taken by Mr. Heartland) and was able to bring her back to her senses through a duel to allow her and Yuto to duel against Heartland themselves.

- Forgotten Memories -

[Coming soon]

ABILITIES
ZEXAL - Gives him the ability to change his form upon activating the power. He is able to preform something called a "Shining Draw" where he can create and draw a card that he needs in a desperate situation. Usually these shining draws result in drawing cards called "ZEXAL weapons" which he only has access to when using his power.

Yuma has decent knowledge on parts of ancient history from the things his parents used to tell him about the artefacts they brought home and it's knowledge that's stuck with him. He also has decent survival knowledge in regards to adventuring from things his dad taught him when they would spend time together on little adventuring trips. Although he's not really had the chance to show this, he knows how to tie a perfect knot in a rope, he knows the best way to deal with a maze, ect.
He actually keeps a bag of survival/adventuring stuff in the treasure chest in his dorm room, which has basic things such as a flashlight, compass, rope ect.

*Birthday unoffical.