Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL - Episode 023

"Hunting Down The Hunter, Part 1", known as "The Destined Duel! Astral VS Kaito" in the Japanese version, is the twenty-third episode of the Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL anime. It first aired in Japan on September 12, 2011 and in the United States on May 12, 2012.

Summary
Yuma yells at Shark to try to wake him up but he can't. Kite returns with the Emperor's Key and wants Orbital 7 to do an analysis. After that he wants him that there's a gravitational force in the key leading to Astral World, then Kite tells him to get the key to respond. Meanwhile at the hospital, Yuma finally tells everyone the truth about who Kite is and that Astral lives inside the key. Caswell thinks they might be researching the key using a computer and has an idea.

Next scene Orbital 7 tells Kite that he can't get the key to respond using equipment from earth, so Kite wants him to give away a material which isn't found in this planet but in the Barian World, however Orbital tells him that it's very rare, which leads Kite to tell him to give up his own one but it's precious to him because he cannot function without one. So Kite says it won't hurt if he gives up a little bit of it much to Orbital 7's dismay and does it anyway. The key is responding to the material.

Yuma and friends ask for Mr. Kay to help track down the key's location, but he thinks it's a bad idea so Caswell talks with him privately and reminds him about the Crashbug incident when Number 34: Terror Byte takes over him so he threatens that if he doesn't help, he will tell everyone he cause the Crashbug incident but Mr. Kay tells him to quiet down and then accepts.

Meanwhile, as Kite experiments on the key, he manages to find a way to enter the realm inside the key where he finds Astral and challenges him to a duel for all his Number cards. As the duel goes on, Astral's fear of facing Galaxy Eyes Photon Dragon again puts him in a dire situation. Yuma and his friends arrives at the hideout but can't open the door, Yuma gives up hope but Tori slapped him and yelled at him for that (in the dub, the slap is cut), as they manage to break into Kite's hideout thanks to Mr. Kay, Astral decides to face his fear and stand up to Kite.

Featured Duel: Astral vs. Kite Tenjo
Turn 1: Astral

Astral Sets "Gogogo Golem" (1800/1500) and "Battle Break".

Turn 2: Kite

Kite Normal Summons "Reverse Buster" (1500/0). It attacks the face-down "Gogogo Golem", which is destroyed via the effect of "Reverse Buster", without applying damage calculation. The other effect of "Reverse Buster" increase its ATK by 500, to 2000. Kite Sets a card.

Turn 3: Astral

Astral Normal Summons "Gogogo Giant" (2000/0). Its effect activates, Special Summoning the "Gogogo Golem" (1800/1500) from his Graveyard in Defense Position and switching itself to Defense Position. Next, he activates the Continuous Spell Card, "Double Defender", allowing him to, once per turn, negate one attack if he controls two monsters in face-up Defense Position. Then, he Sets a card.

Turn 4: Kite

Kite activates his face-down "Photon Hurricane", returning all of Astral's Spell and Trap Cards to his hand as Kite's hand contains more cards than the number of Set cards Astral had. After that, he Tributes "Reverse Buster" to Tribute Summon "Photon Leo" (2100/1100). Its effect activates, forcing Astral to shuffle all the cards in his hand back into his Deck and then draw the same amount of cards. Kite equips "Photon Leo" with "Photon Spear", giving it the piercing effect. It attacks and destroys "Gogogo Giant" (Astral 4000 → 1900).

Duel continues in the next episode.

Featured cards
The following cards appeared in this episode. Cards in italics debuted here.

Differences in Adaptions

 * In the English Version, the scene where Tori slaps Yuma and yelling at him for giving up hope is cut making it look like Tori trying to help him open the door with the others.


 * In the original Japanese version, when Yuma tries to open the door, he said the S word. In the dub, the script changed.