Astral

Astral is a mysterious entity in Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL, and one of the main protagonists, along with Yuma Tsukumo. Some people refer to him as the Dueling Ghost or The Original. It is said that Astral is from a parallel universe. He is a clear-minded fellow with a cool personality and a Dueling genius. He often clashes and fights with his partner, and later became a friend of Yuma.

It is said that his memories are scattered in the form of the 99 "Numbers", and so far 12 numbers have been collected. Furthermore, these "Numbers" are Special Xyz Monsters that cannot be destroyed with cards in this world. When 2 or more "Numbers" confront in a Duel, they will fight each other to consume one another. When their owners are defeated in a Duel, the cards are absorbed into Astral.

Personality
His personality is rather ambiguous, though he is very intelligent and level-headed when it comes to Duels. Even in disastrous situations (often caused by Yuma's mistakes) he does not seem to lose his cool and can think of a strategy. Outside this he is, arguably because of his memory loss and sudden arrival to another world, curious to the point of naivety, for matters as simple as eating, going to the bathroom, or believing that TV shows are real. His naivety would go to such extent so as to ask Yuma why "he needs to be alone" when Yuma's in the bathroom, to which he replies by saying that he would "die" otherwise, a thing that Astral took literally. However, this is more likely because Astral doesn't know anything about Yuma's world. When he "discovers" things, he has an habit of saying "observation number one, two, three" and then speak the result of his analysis, the fact that he can successfully continue the counting throughout the series, implies he has great memory.

He has also ambiguous thoughts regarding Yuma Tsukumo; for the most part he thinks of him and his Dueling skills as unrefined and unskilled (a fact that annoys Yuma). However, when Yuma uses an unthinkable but effective strategy, such as in his Duel with Ryoga Kamishiro, his thoughts change to think of Yuma as an interesting Duelist. Astral even learns to use Yuma's lack of skill and obedience, as seen in Yuma's Duel with Mr. Kay when he tells Yuma what to do the opposite of what he should do so that Yuma disobeys him and makes the correct moves.

Astral has a fear of cats, which he defended by claiming that he hadn't done any observations about them. This is evident when Yuma duels Cathy, even mistakenly believing her to have one of the Numbers in her Deck. After episode 14, he developed a strong fear towards Kaito Tenjo, so he always tries to tell Yuma to run from Kaito instead of fighting him, to the point of telling Yuma to forget his friends. He first denied this, but admitted it in episode 17.

Later during the Duel with Jin, Astral overcame his fear and decided to actually fight. After he and Yuma thought about their previous duels, stating they came too far to lose now, Yuma called Astral his friend, restoring his fighting spirit.

Astral doesn't smile much, but he smiled for Yuma recognizing him as his comrade and smiled often at Yuma throughout episode 19 and even cheered him on with his friends and family when he was trying to do his 20-stack challenge.

Pre-World Duel Carnival
A new legend began when Astral appeared before Yuma Tsukumo and Ryoga Kamishiro. He comes from a different dimension and he ended up in Yuma's dimension. He lost his memories but all he remembers is that he was looking for a talented Duelist. In episode 2 it is revealed that only Yuma can see Astral, which makes everyone believe he is a ghost. At the end of Episode 8, it is mentioned of Astral's birth, and that he may have had a mother. And also he was given the mission to protect his world, possibly meaning he was created solely for this task. In episode 10, Astral surmises from within The Emperor's Key that it might have been made intentional by someone to scatter his memories.

As Astral absorbs the power of the "Numbers", bits and pieces of his memories start to return, most of them incomplete. Upon absorbing "Number 83: Galaxy Queen", he sees a vision of his birth. Recently, when he absorbed "Number 61: Volcasaurus" and "Number 19: Freezerdon", he had a small glimpse of his world, which was apparently being bombarded by explosive energy. Dr. Faker stated that a messenger from the Astral world would appear together with the Numbers, obviously referring to Astral.

During the Duel with Kaito Tenjo, he found it very suspicious that someone besides him and Yuma are looking for the Numbers. He also was surprised that Kaito's Dueling skills were even superior than his, when he was sure Yuma lost and he would disappear, Kaito cancelled the Duel. He was left shocked at what happened next to Yuma whose pride was severely hurt and even questioned about his Kattobing spirit.

Later during climaxes in the Duel with Jin, Astral overcame his fear and decided to actually fight. After he and Yuma thought about their previous duels, stating they came too far to lose now, Yuma called Astral his friend, and The Emperor's Key started to shine. It resulted in granting him and Yuma a new power, the "Chaos Number", "Number C39: Utopia Ray" as well as making Astral appear and Yuma's friends able to see him for a moment. Using it, they defeat Jin and take the 2 Numbers cards he was using.

Yuma's friends who were freed in the process, all went to thank Astral instead of Yuma, running right past him, still unable to see him, and thus were shouting at nothing, and Astral didn't pay much attention to it, keeping his cool.

During the next episode, Astral assists Yuma in trying to locate The Emperor's Key after discovering it missing. He learns much about the origin of the Key and Yuma's father, who had a vision of the Astral World being attacked and the sound of its inhabitants screaming. A strange figure, much like Astral, gave him the key. Astral is much kinder to Yuma, smiling warmly at him and encouraging him to tackle the high jump he attempted at the start of the series.

After safely recovering "Number 96: Dark Mist" from a stranger, Bronk and Yuma start to fight. When Bronk knocks off The Emperor's Key from Yuma, a Black Ooze comes out of Yuma's Deck Case which grabs Yuma and starts taking control of Astral. Before Astral gets completely taken over, he tells Yuma to give "Utopia" to Bronk. Afterwards he gets completely possessed and changes from white to pitch-black. Number 96 (In Astral's body) tries to take "Utopia" from Bronk, but The Emperor's Key protected him. Bronk then challenged Number 96 to a duel for the Number. Number 96 accepts and takes control of Yuma's movements to duel. In his first turn, he Xyz Summons Number 96: Dark Mist and starts inflicting huge damage to Bronk. Bronk however Summons "Utopia" and tries to make a counterattack, but fails in doing so and "Utopia" is destroyed. Yuma then pretends to be under Number 96's control and tells him to destroy Clockwork Explosive while explaining its effect. Number 96 listens to Yuma and destroys Clockwork Explosive. This however was a trick as it allowed Bronk to summon "Clockwork Shikigami" as well as resurrect "Utopia" to win. Bronk then throws the Emperor's Key back to Yuma and Astral is freed from its control. Astral then absorbs Number 96 again, while Bronk returns "Utopia" to Yuma and they both apologize to each other.

When Kaito manages to steal the Emperor's Key, Astral was trapped inside it. The key was then deactivated and the set "Numbers" became cards again, and some voice told Astral to obtain the ZEXAL power. Kaito tries to figure out the Emperor's Key and manages to make a portal using a mysterious rock inside Orbital 7. When Kaito manages to go inside the Emperor's Key, he finds Astral. Kaito and Astral had a small talk and the two Engaged in a duel. Astral is able to make a duel disk of its own as shown in this duel. In this duel, Astral uses Yuma's deck to duel Kaito. Astral started playing defensively, using Gogogo Golem but was easily countered by Kaito's Reverse Buster. As Reverse Buster increased its attack making it 2000, Astral was scared as it may be the start of Galaxy-Eyes Summon. Astral summoned Gogogo Giant and using its effect, summon Gogogo Golem back. He thought of Xyz Summoning Utopia but was afraid of Kaito's facedown card and so, chose to use Double Defender. Kaito then used his facedown Photon Hurricane to return Astral's Spell and trap Cards to his hand, making Kaito realize there was no reason to be afraid. Kaito then tributed Reverse Buster to summon Photon Leo and returned Astral's hand back to the deck and draws the same number of cards. Then he equips "Leo" with Photon Spear and inflicted Piercing damage to Astral when Kaito attacked and destroyed "Giant". During the duel, Astral is shrouded with fear towards Kaito.

Astral manages to fight back with "Number C39: Utopia Ray" and reduce Kaito's life to 1300, but Kaito takes the upper hand again and reduces Astral's life to 400. Yuma manages to recover the Emperor's Key, which takes him to "The Door" again, the Door opens again and tells Yuma to use the ZEXAL power, but repeats Yuma's previous warning. Yuma convinces Astral to not give up, and crosses the door, landing in the dimension inside the Key. Astral and Yuma receive the ZEXAL power, fusing themselves in the process. Using this new power, Astral and Yuma created a card that allowed "Utopia Ray" to defeat "Galaxy-Eyes". Kaito, in a pinch for the first time, managed to end the duel in a draw and escaped again.

The day after that a wave of energy from the Astral World and another world passed through Earth causing time to temporally stop and allow Kaito to invade his memories. Astral also told Yuma that he fears that something bad might happen if they find all the "Numbers".

World Duel Carnival
During the first day of the World Duel Carnival, Astral helps Yuma defeat his first few opponents, but none of them had any "Numbers". The first Number holder Yuma and Astral duel against in the Carnival is Charlie McCoy, who uses Number 7: Lucky Stripe's power to always roll 6 during his duel. Yuma defeated Charlie, but he allows Charlie to give Number 7 to his niece, which made Astral worry if they would get it back.

Dr. Faker stated that if Astral obtains all the "Numbers", he will recovers his powers and use them against Dr. Faker.

During the second day of the WDC, Yuma and Astral watch IV use his "Number" to defeat Bronk and Caswell. When III dueled Ryoga he watched how he resisted Number 32: Marine Biting Dragon - Shark Drake 's influence and defeated III.

Astral discovers that Syuta Hayami's power see the future in his photos is not completely accurate, as the photos only show what Syuta pictures as the future and his opponents obey the photos. He told Yuma to disobey the prediction, that way his predictions didn't occur and Yuma easily defeats Syuta afterwards. With Syuta's defeat Astral now has obtained 12 "Numbers".

When Yuma Duels against Gauche and Droite, Astral tries to go help him, but is stopped by Number 96: Dark Mist in the The Emperor's Key who attacks Astral using it's true form but Utopia saves him. After sensing Yuma in trouble, Astral sends Utopia off. Meanwhile, Astral tried to out run Dark Mist character, but was caught. Just before he was infected entirely, a mysterious light hit him, and he broke free, leaving to go help Yuma win against Gauche and Droite. During the Duel, both Gauche and Droite state he is the "Original Number".

Later night Yuma, Astral and Tori finally meets Kaito's younger brother Haruto who's able to communicate with him, later they formed a friendship, as Haruto on the search of Kaito when he couldn't find him he went berserk. Yuma calmed him down with caramel. V comes out of a helicopter to take Haruto with him using his Crest. Before he leaves with V, Haruto reveals his mission to destroy the Astral World, which horrified Astral.

After Haruto's kidnapping, Astral reminded Yuma of his previous duel with Kaito in that he mentioned he sold his soul to a devil to save his brother. Astral thinks he is referring to Mr. Heartland and solidified his theory of the carnival being used to hunt Numbers. As he, Yuma, and Tori searched for Haruto with Kaito and Orbital 7, he found the location through the description Haruto projected in his mind. Once they arrived there III and IV challenge Yuma and Kaito to a tag duel.

After Yuma and Kaito´s Tag-Team Duel ends with them defeating III and IV, Kaito tries to steal IV´s soul with his Photon hand technique just for it to be nullified by IV´s crest. Seeing this, Astral tries to absorb III's number, however is repelled by the latter's own crest. Furthermore Astral himself became visible for III at that moment. This will be a major problem because it means that IV and III will have to give their Numbers up willingly even if they lose a duel against Yuma and Astral.

Manga
Tori Meadows considered that he is a ghost. Right when Yuma is about to give up hope against Shark, Astral appears and says to Yuma "Stand up and win!".

Abilities
Astral is a Duelist of another universe, and has only been seen alongside Yuma. Others besides Yuma cannot see or hear him, which often leads to others think Yuma is talking alone. Yuma cannot touch him physically, yet, he is shown to be able to hold Duel Monster cards, but it is unknown if it's only the Numbers or any cards. However, even with his loss of memory it has been shown that Astral is indeed a very skilled Duelist, a fact he himself recognizes despite his amnesia, and further demonstrated in how he has advised Yuma on his play, only for him to play the opposite of what Astral dictates and end with rather disastrous results.

He shares his information on the "Numbers" with Yuma. He is capable of somehow manipulating the "Numbers" cards, this is seen in two ways, one is that without Astral present Yuma is unable to play any "Numbers" for they do not appear on his Extra Deck. The second is that as so far seen, Astral can pull a "Numbers" card out of a defeated opponent without direct contact, although it is unknown if this is also linked to a rather psychokinetic ability. Furthermore unlike those who use Photon Hand, Astral seems to be the only who can extract the card itself without taking a possessed's Duelist's soul, however he was unable to take III's Number due to the Crest protecting him.

He can take all "Numbers" a defeated opponent has in their Deck, ones that were presented but not in their Deck, are not taken, as shown when defeating Jin, as Jin used 2 "Numbers" which were taken and Jin's third was still left with him, kept in a box outside of his deck. He also has some sort of control over how Numbers behave in battle or can gain access to new Number cards at certain times. For example; after Yuma refuses to sacrifice him during the battle against Jin, Astral received a jolt of power from The Emperor's Key and was able to provide Yuma with a new Numbers card. This also made him visible to the others only during Yuma's duel against Jin, but only visible enough for Yuma's friends to believe Astral is real. In Episode 36, it is shown that Astral can be seen through photographs, although he only appears as a light blue haze.

He's also capable of flight as he is always seen floating, and seems to not rely on things such as food to live, however he needs his current partner to have "Numbers" and will start dying if those "Numbers" are forcefully taken away as seen in episode 6 or when Yuma is losing life points in a duel with an opponent that has a Number.

In episode 23, it has also been shown that Astral is able to make a Duel Disk appear around his arm, coming from the blue aura around him. It was shown multiple times that Astral is able to talk with Yuma telepathically.

In episode 24, after the demonic door opened for Yuma, he and Astral gained the ZEXAL (power) which causes Yuma and Astral to merge their souls (similar to Yugi and Yami Yugi or Yubel and Jaden Yuki) but leaving Yuma with most of the body's control. With this, Yuma/Astral wears a white spandex suit with red armor plating, his right eye becomes golden like Astral's left one, his hair turns gold and he gains a golden aura. Also, in this state, they earned the card "ZW - Unicorn Spear" through an ability called Shining Draw.

Astral showed good math skills during Charlie McCoy's duels being able to constantly calculate what were Charlie's chances of rolling 6 again whenever he rolled a dice.

Astral is shown to be able to see people's memories, as seen when he touched Haruto Tenjo's head to access his past memory. However, this only seems to apply when he touched the person's head.

Astral also has incredibly good hearing, as shown when Haruto was kidnapped by the Tron Family. He can hear Haruto's cry that is several kilometers away.

Deck
Astral uses Yuma's Deck, but Yuma uses his Deck with an offensive strategy, while Astral uses a more defensive strategy using "Gogogo" monsters. However, like Yuma, he utilizes various Spell Card and Trap Cards and focuses on Summoning "Utopia", and eventually its upgraded version.

Trivia

 * Astral's relation with Yuma mirrors Yugi Muto and Yami Yugi's relation in many ways. Like the second series protagonist, Astral is a spiritual being Summoned forth from an ancient artifact that only his partner can see and a quest to regain his lost memories. In contrast, the two do not get along very well, and Astral cannot use Yuma's body, instead, he just floats near Yuma. However, their relationship improves throughout the series, and eventually Astral learns to combine himself with Yuma when needed.
 * Astral's name possibly comes from the term astral projection, the ability to send one's soul to a location somewhere away from the body, similar to Astral's spirit-like form.
 * Astral bears a resemblance to the spiritual entity on the card "Astral Barrier" and "Neo-Spacian Twinkle Moss".
 * Astral's observations stopped after their Duel with Kaito which left him quiet and depressed. However, after their Duel with Jin, which restored his and Yuma's confidence, his observations returned.
 * Astral's eyes have a similar color scheme to Dartz's eyes while possessed by the Orichalcos Stone and Yubel. The left eye has a yellow/gold hue, and the right bears a blueish eye.
 * Astral may be a reference of Sai from the "Hikaru no Go" manga series. They are both referred to as "ghost" or "spirit" and help a first weak but potentially powerful protagonist in their respective games (Go or Yu-Gi-Oh). Astral and Sai also share an initially rocky relationship with the host, although Yuma more openly opposes Astral than Hikaru does to Sai when in a game.