"If I was a ghost, where would I hide?" Jaden muttered to himself as he walked down the empty halls and passed by empty classrooms, his only company being a blue-haired boy that was cowering behind Jaden's back, and a mildly-irritable Obelisk Blue student who was letting out his own mutterings of this being a 'waste of the Chazz's time'. Truly this was a group fit to inspire the heart against threats of otherworldly origins.

Well, as long as that Jinzo ghost is down to duel, then I'm sure it will all work out in the end. He must have a bunch of sweet cards too, with him being a ghost and all! Jaden's thoughts, despite the slightly spooky atmosphere, were as optimistic as ever. Plus, if I get lucky I can try out some new strategies, too! Yes, Jaden couldn't believe his own luck that such a crazy event would happen this early in the school year.

"H-hey bro, what's that?" Syrus yelped from where he hid behind Jaden while pointing towards a classroom door that was unexpectedly open.

Jaden tilted his head sideways in confusion. "An… open door? Sy, I'm not sure if that means the ghost is in there."

"But I saw something in there!" Syrus cried out, reaching into his back pocket to produce a small paper bag and breathed rapidly into it to steady himself. Jaden could only pat the kid's back consolingly while he turned to Chazz to get the stoic teenager's opinion on the situation. However, Jaden's question died in his mouth as Chazz simply pushed past the hyperventilating Syrus to the classroom door that was half open.

"Classroom three…" Chazz finally looked back to the other boys before pushing the door fully open. "Don't be a fool, Syrus. You probably just saw a professor getting ready for tomorrow's classes. Follow me and I'll finish dispelling your foolish beliefs."

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

"You found what?" Alexis turned towards Syrus in disbelief as the boy flopped on a nearby seat in sheer exhaustion.

"Blood! In Classroom three!" Syrus wailed in between gasping breaths. "We thought we saw something moving in there, so Jaden, Chazz, and I went in and checked it out. There's bloodstains all over the carpet! I ran here as fast as I could to come and get you guys as soon as we realized what it was!"

Classroom three? Phil pondered to himself, watching Bastion force Syrus to slowly drink some water before the four students began to make their way over to the classroom. Did Jinzo fucking kill some dude, or was… His face blanched slightly before Phil forced his expression to go back to the neutral, albeit curious one that it was before. Damn. I bet that was the classroom I fought Titan in. What to do… what to do… Shit. I can't let them find out about Titan. If that happens, at best they shun me for killing a dude, at worse they turn me in and I get twenty-five to life in the slammer, ignoring the fact that he was out for Jaden's blood to start with. Shit. Why does all this crap have to happen now? They're good kids. They should be doing homework, maybe having an adventure with that Jinzo dude, and going back to class on Monday after his victims wake up. Hell, I don't even think Jinzo's killed anyone yet, at all. But they just have to find a pool of blood that the unfortunate janitor hasn't gotten time to take care of yet. Phil's thoughts spun over and over in a vicious circle that saw no end until classroom three was finally in sight.

"See?" Syrus said as soon as they entered the classroom to stand next to Jaden and Chazz. "Blood! Just as I said!"

Bastion crouched down in front of the pool with his brows furrowed in deep thought. "So it seems." He muttered and leaned even closer to the substance to smell it. "Iron, rusty iron. Definitely blood." Then, Bastion stood up and cast a worried gaze towards the rest of the group. "With that much blood on the ground, whoever lost it is either heavily injured or…" He hesitated, and then continued his train of thought. "Or they're dead. But, there's no body in this room, right?"

Chazz, Jaden, and Syrus all nodded to answer Bastion's question.

"I can't see any trails of blood either." Bastion stroked his chin in thought. "That means there was a third party that found this room before we did, but after the incident occurred. That third party must have either found a way to remove the person, alive or dead, from the classroom without leaving a trail of blood."

"Did the professors find this before we did then?" Alexis piped up, her face looking slightly green as her eyes darted between the pool of blood and the rest of the group.

Phil stepped forward and shook his head while Bastion attempted to think of an answer. "Naw. If anyone official would've found this place before us, the room would be closed up. Or…" Phil's face scrunched up as a particularly unwelcome thought flitted through his head, a thought seemingly shared with Bastion as the latter moved to finish Phil's sentence.

"Or the room was closed up, but someone else, a fourth party, found out before we found the room but after the teachers did. That would explain the movement Syrus saw in the room. But if there was a fourth party, they're long gone if none of you three saw anyone else in the room when you entered." Bastion theorized while pointing towards Jaden, Chazz, and Syrus.

"Could Jinzo be involved in all of this, then?" Jaden asked, trying to make sense of what Bastion and Phil were saying. "We know he's probably the one behind those Obelisk Blue students being hospitalized.

"Mabye… but even if he isn't, we need to keep our guards up. I don't want to see any of you adding to that puddle."

At that declaration, five pairs of surprised eyes fell on Phil, who seemed to actually be taking something seriously for once.

"What?" Phil rolled his eyes at their surprise. "Am I not allowed to be the cautious one here?"

"No… you have a point with being careful…" Alexis began, and when Phil turned towards Jaden and Chazz to start thinking up a plan, she once again locked eyes with Bastion. "Hey Bastion, not that I don't mind this slightly more serious version of him, but don't you think that this is a bit… out of character?" She muttered towards Bastion, whom she had long since judged as the only other responsible person in the group.

Instantly Bastion nodded in agreement, drawing closer to Alexis to make sure their conversation remained as secret as they could make it. "Definitely. Something is up. If this was yesterday morning, Phil would have grabbed a baseball bat or something to start charging around the school with Jaden. Something is on his mind, and it's serious enough for Phil of all people to start preaching caution."

"Do you have any ideas?" Asked Alexis. She had one or two herself, but none of them were particularly complete, and if the number two of Ra Yellow (who was, in all honesty, still number one if one focused on grades alone) couldn't think of anything concrete, then her ideas probably weren't worth mentioning.

Bastion hummed to himself in thought, working the words through in his mind before he answered. "Well, I did swing by Phil's room last night since he was acting weird yesterday. He said nothing was wrong, but it kind of felt like he was stonewalling me."

"Nothing wrong indeed…" Alexis echoed Bastion. "You're around him more than I am, so keep trying, Bastion. Maybe Phil saw something that freaked him out."

Bastion's eyes sharpened at that. "You think that he might know something about classroom three? Or about Jinzo?"

"He didn't seem too afraid of Jinzo when I brought him up yesterday. Well, maybe we're overreacting and its just that one of the teachers is angry at him for pulling another crazy stunt."

Both Alexis and Bastion fell silent, their thoughts whirring through their brains as they tried to process the veritable storm of events that had popped up one by one on that weekend alone.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

The rest of the day passed by as quickly as ever, but with the possibility of a malevolent spirit and an unknown assailant hanging over their heads, the looming inevitability of Monday classes just being around the corner was the last thing on minds of the odd collection of students Phil's friends made. Only the announcement that a substitute teacher had been hired to take over Professor Sartyr's position while he was on administrative leave was enough to shake, though not completely dispel the gloom that hung over the heads of the student body. Indeed, for even though the matter of the blood found in classroom three was spread neither by Phil's group nor by the teachers, nearly every student seemed to be aware of Jinzo's rampage.

All of that, of course, led to the rather odd situation Jaden found himself in that evening while he sat in the commons room of the Ra Yellow dorm with Syrus and Bastion, waiting for Phil to come back from the restroom.

"Oooooooohhhhhh yyyyeeeeaaaaaahhhhh, it's about to get real!" A tall, pink-skinned man wearing a green cloak with a mask covering the bottom of his face posed dramatically in front of where the trio sat. Yet, upon seeing the stunned silence from the boys, the tall man pointed menacingly at Jaden before continuing. "The Jinzo's too hot to handle, too cold to hold! Yeaaaahhhhh! Which one of you sucka's have the balls, the kahunas, the utter cajones needed to sack up and duel the big man himself, Jinzo 'The Man' Shocker!"

"What?" Bastion finally managed to spit out from his armchair. "You're Jinzo?"

"Yeah brotha', in the flesh! I'll snap you like a damn Slim Jim if you forget! Yeah!"

Bastion's mouth opened and closed like a fish as he tried to process the sheer insanity that was happening in front of him. This is the duel spirit that's going around beating what seems like half the school unconscious into the infirmary?

But, before Bastion and Syrus could respond, Jaden excitedly shot up out of his seat. "Count me in! I bet you use a totally sweet deck!"

"Fiiiiiiiinnnnnneeeeee by me boy! But, my deck ain't sweet, it's so sour that it'll sock you in the jaw!"

Then, to the sound of two voices shouting 'Duel start!', Jinzo and Jaden got into position, not even paying attention to the slight dimming of the lights overhead.

"I take the first turn, boy!" Jinzo dramatically bellowed, posing once more with his hand in front of his face. "Ah summon to my field the Malice Doll of Demise (1600/1700)! Then, I activate mah continuous spell card, Ectoplasmer! Ah'll set one card face-down, and end my turn!" Even though Jinzo had taken his turn quickly in a flurry of actions, Jaden and his two observers could clearly see a terrifying wooden doll clutching an axe in two hands. Then, as Jinzo ended his turn, the doll let out a horrifying keeing sound as a strange white substance slipped out of its back to slam into Jaden's face, dropping the brown-haired boy's life points from 4000 to 3200 as the doll itself disappeared into a mess of wooden splinters.

Bastion's face immediately took on an ugly grimace. "A burn deck. Jaden! Watch out, he probably has some way to bring his monsters back from the grave! Don't let him drag the duel out!"

"Yup!" Jaden nodded, his carefree action an immediate contrast to Bastion's. "I draw! Wow Jinzo, I can't say I've played much against strategies like yours, so I'm hyped to see what else you've got! However," A hard look flashed across Jaden's face before his usual carefree smile came back. "However, it's not cool what you're doing to those students, Jinzo! I'll defeat you so your victims can wake up again! I summon Elemental Hero Woodsman (1000/2000) in defense position!"

In between the two duelists, an angry green man with a wooden arm and leg sprouted up out of a single seedling to crouch defensively in front of Jaden, who then continued his play. "Now, I activate the spell card! Polymerization! Fusing my Elemental Hero Avian with my Elemental Hero Burstinatrix, I summon my favorite hero, the greatest defender in red and green! Elemental Hero Flame Wingman (2100/1200)! Flame Wingman, show your stuff and attack Jinzo directly!"

With a fierce battle cry, the green monster with a fiery-red dragon head for an arm sprung forth from Jaden's side of the field, bringing forwards the scarlet appendage to brutally strike Jinzo in head head. Only, as the jaws of Flame Wingman's arm closed around Jinzo, the duel spirit's overdramatic voice rang out in a commanding tone.

"So you'd think, but ah've been in the danger zone before, and this ain't it! Reverse card, activate! Magic Cylinder!"

Bastion and Syrus gasped in horror as they watched Flame Wingman's attack disappear into the intricately-designed jars, only for it to close around Jaden's waist to make the boy shout in pain and surprise, his life points dropping all the way down to 1100. Soon the attack faded away to nothing, but Jaden was still left gasping, his free hand gingerly touching the flesh around his stomach that burned bright red with heat.

"Hahaha! Boy, ah suppose I should mention, this here is a shadow game! To be more specific, in this shadow game a portion all damage dealt by monsters is felt by the one who receives it." Then, Jinzo bowed mockingly, with even Bastion and Syrus being able to almost see the smug grin under his mask. "Ah do apologize, laddie, but this here is all ah I can do with my current power. Once I drain you too, I won't have to stop at a portion!"

Jaden's eyes narrowed at Jinzo's words, but he gritted his teeth and ended his turn, only to gasp in surprise as the same strange substance that had exited Jinzo's Malice Doll came out of Flame Wingman's back as well, rushing forwards to strike Jinzo straight in the chest as Flame Wingman crumbled into nothing.

"Isn't it a rush, boy?" Jinzo screamed with his arms held out in ecstasy while his own life points dropped from 4000 to 2950. "The best part about Ectoplasmer, is it ain't optional! Your friends cried about me dragging the duel out, but it truly ain't so! This is a race to death, brotha! I draw!"

For a moment Jinzo fell silent as he considered his cards, until he sprang into action, flexing his muscles in yet another over dramatic pose. "Standby phase! I activate my Malice Doll of Demise's effect! Since it was sent to the grave off the effect of my Ectoplasmer, my pretty doll comes back to life! Rise, mah fiendish creation! Show that brotha' over there that dolls ain't to be trifled with!"

Once more the menacing, axe-wielding wooden doll shuddered to life on Jinzo's field, and once more Jinzo placed a face down card and moved to the end of his turn, allowing his doll to be turned into fuel for Ectoplasmer to drop Jaden's life points down to 300.

"S-shit!" Bastion muttered, the slip from his normally polite language surprising Syrus. "If Jaden doesn't win this turn… Syrus, stand back! If Jaden falls, I will face Jinzo next with my Bonding deck! If I can't do it, run and get Phil, Chazz, or Alexis! We can't allow Jinzo to stay undefeated to hurt even more students!"

"Haha!" Jaden laughed from where he stood, causing Bastion, Syrus, and even Jinzo to jump in surprise. "Hold on a mo, Bastion! Because I'm not done quite yet! Jinzo, I admit your burn strat is pretty sweet, and maybe if you woulda found me last week, I might have lost! But, somehow good ol' Phil's got my back even though he isn't here! I draw! During the standby phase, I activate an effect of my own! During each of my standby phases, Elemental Hero Woodsman can add a poly from my deck or graveyard to my hand! I'll take one from my deck, in the interest of thinning it out a little bit. Next, I summon my new hero. Elemental Hero Stratos (1800/300)! On his summon, I activate his effect, which allows me to destroy spells and traps on the field equal to the number of heroes I control, so that means I can get rid of two! Good-bye Ectoplasmer, good-bye face down!"

Jinzo's pink face took on a shade of purple as Jaden's new white and blue hero shook the fans on his back to blow his Ectoplasmer and his set Magic Cylinder off the field into his graveyard, while Jaden made a show of wiping his face upon seeing the Magic Cylinder being destroyed.

"Phil, I really do owe you one! Now, time to finish things off! Jinzo, I'm sorry that we can't make this go longer, but I activate my spell card, Polymerization! Fusing my Stratos with my Woodsman, I summon the hero that gives Earth's judgment, Elemental Hero Gaia (2200/2600)!

The ground shook as a black, lumbering colossus strode into the room, giving out a large roar to assert its dominance. Meanwhile, Jinzo's face crinkled as he began to roar with laughter. "Boy! You truly miscalculated! Ah got enough life points to live to next turn, ahn then ah'll return that damage with interest, brotha!"

Jaden nodded in agreement. "Yup. But, as Yugi Muto always says, believe in the heart of the cards! And the heart of the cards has believed in me! I activate the card I drew this turn, Monster Reborn! Annihilate all evil! Subdue all villains! Show your power in front of the moonlit night! Elemental Hero Flame Wingman, be reborn from death to bring order to the world once more!"

Where the ground had trembled from Elemental Hero Gaia's approach, this time there was only a tiny 'cracking' sound as a gap split in the earth. For a moment all was silent, until with a triumphant, heroic roar, the green and red form of Elemental Hero Flame Wingman burst from the earth, using the dragon fire from his red arm to light the room so brightly that not even a single shadow could exist.

"Jinzo, if you ever want a rematch, you know who to come to! Only, next time you'd better not hurt anyone! Gaia, Wingman, finish him!"

The combined attacks of the Elemental Hero fusion monsters struck hard enough to completely erase half of Jinzo's body from existence, with the other half of him swiftly beginning to fade as his life point counter raced down to zero. The pink duel spirit heaved a great sigh, and then looked Jaden solidly in the eye.

"Boy, maybe… maybe we shall duel aga-" Was all the duel spirit could choke out until someone screamed "BITCH!" and a chair clocked him straight in the head, dissipating his form for good from the force.

Jaden, stunned from the suddenness of it all, could only stare as Phil rushed into view, grabbed the same chair he had thrown from the doorway into the commons room, and slammed it hard enough into the ground where Jinzo had stood that the wooden object cracked.

"Yo what the fuck, was that dude in the gimp suit Jinzo? He didn't hurt any of you, right?" Phil questioned Jaden as he rushed over and began patting the Slifer Red down for injuries, only stopping once Jaden let out a hiss of pain from his burns.

"We're all good!" Jaden waved Phil off and let a radiant smile steal back across his face. "Thanks for the new Hero card, Phil! Stratos really saved my bacon there!"

Phil could only scratch his head in embarrassment, keeping his own thoughts on the matter quiet in favor of rushing Jaden towards the door and to the infirmary (those thoughts being that he knew it was inevitable for something stupid like that to go down and Jaden would definitely be better off with the three copies of Stratos Phil had picked up one night at locals).

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

The room became rather quiet once Phil and Jaden had left for the infirmary (and likely also for the scolding of Nurse Fontaine while she patched Jaden up). Bastion and Syrus could only sit back and heave sighs of relief. Bastion was certainly glad that he wouldn't have to duel with his friend's safety on his shoulders, and Syrus was just relieved that his bro pulled out yet another miraculous win from certain defeat.

"Still, when did bro get that new Hero?" Syrus questioned. "I've never seen that card before, and I've watched Jaden duel a bunch by now."

Even though Syrus was worried, Bastion soothed him with an immediate answer. "He probably got it from Phil. He said that he had a few cards for us yesterday, but I think he forgot about it for the most part. Maybe Phil slipped Jaden the Stratos after we found classroom three? He did seem a little bit spooked after that."

Syrus sat back in his chair, appearing to be somewhat more relaxed after Bastion's answer. "What luck, then." Syrus mumbled to himself.

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