Lars had finally arrived at the stadium where the tournament would be held, the time of travel from his part of the Obsidian District taking shorter than he had expected. That was okay though, as now Lars could easily watch for potential opponents as he observed those who rushed to get into the stadium.

*Hey look! A cat!*

Lars looked in the direction where Scout was currently pointing towards, just enough to see what appeared to be a real life version of a Ruby Carbuncle monster walking through the crowds alongside someone else. 

"A spirit partner eh? Obviously I knew I wasn't the only one. The fact that there is someone here who also has a spirit monster means this will be a more interesting and possibly tougher tournament than I thought!"

That was okay though, Lars needed to test his skills and luck anyway. Hopefully he'd be good enough to last for a few duels and not be booted so quickly from the tournament. It would be a really crappy way of honoring his friends if the tournament they had wanted to go to was lost by him in like... one duel. Afterall, they were the main reason Lars was doing this tournament. He sighed as he remembered them.

*No worries, we'll be fine....*

Lars nodded. Of course they would. They would definitely not go down without showing whomever they fought the ferocity of the Steelswarms! 

He began to think about some of the rumors that circled the man, Gero Anima. Lars and the person he just saw both had a spirit partner, and it was commonly known by everyone that Anima had a fascination with the phenomenon. The tournament could easily be a means for him to study those duelists who experienced the phenomenon, but to what end? Lars shrugged simply, and walked around slowly as he watched for potential opponents. 

*Another one, this one bright and shiny... and sizzling...*

A red haired girl with a hat and an eager expression stood before the stadium with another monster by her side. He'd never seen that monster before though, but it was amazing to see another person with a spirit partner nonetheless. 

"Three of us already...."