This was bad, this was very bad. This wasn't what was supposed to happen. This wasn't what was agreed upon at all!
"Titan you say he called himself?" Sheppard asked, a frown on his face.
"Yeah," Yarden, his newest rising star nodded, arms crossed, "Absolute weirdo. Kept talking about duels of darkness, shadow games and crap and then said something about me being his target because I have brown hair and wear a slifer jacket."
Crowler resisted the urge to shout out his plans for vengeance on that utter buffoon! He'd described Jaden to Titan and even gave him a damn picture, how the hell could he mistake Yarden for him!?
Not only that, the fool had the audacity to assault dear Alexis and attempt to steal her deck!
"And that's quite the duel disk he had," Sheppard stapled his fingers together as his eyes went to the gauntlet around young Yarden's arm. Jolly good show on his part Crowler praised him inwardly. Punishing that fool in his place and giving him his just desserts! "State of the art, and the modifications needed to turn it into a gauntlet with storage space must have cost a pretty penny. This man, he must have been a professional. And he was obviously targeting you, or at least a Slifer with a red jacket."
"It's mine now, along with his deck," Yarden smirked, "It's what he deserves for hurting Alexis like that."
Yes, so he did. Poor Alexis was in the infirmary, her back too sore to stand up straight and her legs being wrapped in bandages.
"Ante rules are illegal on this island," Sheppard mused and Crowler was just about to tell the windbag to shove it up his- "But I suppose, there are technically no rules about criminals of assault leaving their possessions behind and them falling into the hands of a student." he smirked a bit.
Ah, well then. Good, good. And young Yarden definitely deserved his bounty after heroically coming to the rescue of his fellow Obelisk Blue against such a brute!
"Though, if you want to use the duel disk in official duels here and earn DP, it will have to be fitted with a monitoring device like the school sanctioned duel disks." the chancellor added.
"How long will that take?" Yarden asked, shooting a glance at the metallic gauntlet on his right arm.
"Oh don't worry, it will merely take a few moments, it is just a small device added to one of the standard USB ports within every duel disk." Sheppard chuckled lightly.
A cough from the fourth occupant of the room drew all of their eyes to her. A tall, hard eyed woman dressed in a green uniform, "I hate to break up this little powow, but we have learned all we need to know about this Titan already, we will search the island for him and keep a look out, " the head of the island security and disciplinary force cut in, voice even. She, and her subordinates were highly trained soldiers installed as part of the institution by none other than Seto Kaiba himself, "What we must discuss now, is Miss Rhodes, and her punishment for going to the Abandoned Dorm when it is against the rules of the academy."
No! This damn cold woman! "Is there any need to punish her though?" Crowler asked, smiling sweetly at the woman, "Miss Rhodes did not enter the dormitory, she merely stood outside it a few times."
"And how do we know that?" the head of security scoffed, "We know she has made her way there multiples times now, and proof that she lingered there for quite some time. We do not have proof that says her curiosity did not get the better of her and she did not enter. I am of the opinion she has."
He'd only wanted to scare Jaden, not hurt the boy or anything, just scare him enough to leave the island! And now one of his star pupils was going to be punished! But he couldn't come out and say what he did, his entire career would go down the drain!
"What do you suggest?" Sheppard sighed and asked the woman, while young Yarden's eyes narrowed at her.
"What else? Expulsion," she snorted, "We must make an example out of her. Show that not even a top Obelisk Blue student can break the rules and get away with it."
Noooooooooooooooo! This was the worst case scenario.
"Isn't that too harsh? Think of what the girl has gone through." Crowler hurriedly cut in and gave a subtle nod to Yarden when she looked at him. They couldn't speak about what happened at the Abandoned Dorm last year and the missing students with him here.
But the woman merely scoffed, "Rule breakers, regardless of their tragedies, are not exempt from them." she retorted without missing a beat.
This bitch!
Sheppard gave a grimace, closing his eyes and nodding lightly, "Very well, I suppose-"
"A duel!" Crowler blurted on instinct, "Why not make her duel for her place here? This is Duel Academy after all, in the end, a proper duel is what should decide it in the end."
She glared at him, but Sheppard grasped the lifeline quickly, "I see, that would be appropriate," Sheppard nodded, "I'd much prefer that, to give the girl a chance to earn her place back here."
And it was something Seto Kaiba would most likely endorse himself.
"Very well," she bit out, eyes narrowing into an even deeper glare at Crowler himself, only to then lessen as she suddenly smirked at him. The head of Obelisk Blue shivered slightly at the look, "Let's make it actually challenging on the girl. Doctor Crowler, you were in contact with the Paradox Brothers not long ago were you not, wanting them to come here?"
..How did she know!? Was she monitoring his emails!? If Jaden didn't bow out of the Academy willingly, he was going to propose a duel for Jaden's own place at the academy, before Sheppard could give him a more lenient punishment for entering the Abandoned Dorm himself.
Only it seemed young Alexis had come across him and his slacker friends and sent them off and got caught up in his plans instead.
Sheppard gave him a curious look, "I had wanted to invite them to give the students the chance to see top of the line tag team duelists at work!" he lied, "That's a bit much, she's only a first year, and two on one wouldn't be fair, and they only tag duel."
"Shall we take this up with Mr. Kaiba?" she raised an eyebrow at him, "I'm very sure he will agree to my stipulations."
'Gah, she's right!' Crowler had to fight the urge to bite on has handkerchief. "What about allowing her a partner?"
"That's fine," she shrugged and Crowler was about to breathe a sigh of reli-"But whoever her tag partner is, they must also take her punishment should they lose. Aiding and abetting rule breaking is against the rules of this academy after all."
'I will have you fired bitch!' Crowler vowed to make this woman rue the day she crossed him. You spill coffee on a woman once and she never forgives you! This was far too petty! She was obviously taking her anger out on him because Alexis was one of his favored students.
"B-but!" he sputtered, "Nobody will want to help her then, who would risk their own position at this glorious academy, especially against legendary professionals like the Pa-"
"I'll do it." three sets of eyes shot to Yarden as he spoke up.
----------------------------------------
As he left the Chancellor's office behind, Yarden's mind was racing. He had honestly forgot all about Titan. The guy was just that lame and forgettable. He'd been expecting tonight to be a nice, lazy relaxing one.
Instead, things had gone from zero to eleven right quick. Titan had appeared, he'd assaulted Alexis and Yarden hadn't felt that angry in a long time when he came across them. Thank fuck for Hoshiningen coming to find him and direct him there.
A grin split his face as he remembered kicking that shitheads face in. He wasn't expecting his fake millennium puzzle to be able to shoot out mist as well, if it hadn't, he would have taken pleasure punting that fuckhead around. Who the fuck did he think he was?
He was lucky Alexis could see what was going on, or he would have summoned one of his monster, maybe Lesser Dragon in physical form as his Ba and rip him apart. He'd show him a real fucking duel of darkness.
'Well at least he didn't get out of it without losing something.' he chuckled, eyes going to the gauntlet on his arm. This, was a sweet ass Duel Disk. It actually stored the deck within it safely and automatically slotted the cards out of an opening slot.
He thought it had to be connected to that chest plate thing he wore. But no, apparently it could function with just the gauntlet as well. And the duel disk section it fanned out into, while supposed to look like a demon wing, was reptilian in design, so passed for a dragon wing as well.
This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.
Way better than the school issued duel disk. And the fact it compressed into a gauntlet made it much less un-wieldly.
And even better, the deck Titan had within it? Was quite incredible and full of rare cards.
Literal Summoned Skull was the first card at the front of the deck. The one headliner of Yugi's deck, and a twenty five hundred attack beat stick that could be brought out with a single summon. Because of its strength and fame, even one in the card shop here at Duel Academy was worth a good twenty five thousand DP. Duel Academy got cards much cheaper than other places and let students here buy them much cheaper as well, with DP they could earn from dueling, outside Duel Academy, it would be worth twice that, if not triple.
Not only that, the guy had freaking King of Skull Servant and other overpowered anime fiends only that were never released back home. Seriously, one that was only a level three could be summoned to the field and instantly destroy any card on the field.
And the cream of the crop of the deck, which was impressive considering there were really expensive cards like Heavy Storm in there, was fucking Mirror Force of all things. The only ones he'd saw in the card shop, were expensive to the extreme. Worth over fifty thousand DP.
He'd just outright nabbed a fortune from Titan.
And now, he was on his way to see Alexis and see how she was doing. He was gonna break the news to her about what was going on now gently before anyone else.
He hadn't expected that security bitch to pin blame on Alexis and try and punish her. But then, this was the chick that was all for expelling Jaden just because she got a letter telling her that he had entered the Abandoned Dorm. No proof or anything. And as much as he'd have liked to run his mouth at her, he kept his mouth shut when she brought up Seto Kaiba. With the kind of guy Kaiba was, he'd have it put to a duel whatever the gripes were and have it settled that way. Dueling ran the world Seto Kaiba built after all.
All in all though, tonight had been a pretty good night all things considered. And he wasn't too worried. The Paradox brothers had the badass Gate Guardian, but in the end, they weren't all that threatening. If he could beat Zane, he could squash those two.
He paused as he felt a familiar presence approaching him. A second later, Serpent Night Dragon rose up out of the floor, and he wasn't alone. Floating up into the air beside Yarden's ace monster, was a beautiful, voluptuous blonde clad in a skimpy blue cleavage bearing leotard and tiny pink skirt with no front, leaving practically everything in view, a blue cone shaped hat on her head and a scepter in hand.
"I have returned master, and I have finally accomplished the task you set for me." Serpent Night Dragon dipped his head in greeting.
"Hiya!" Dark Magician girl gave you a cheery wave and perky smile, "So, you're the one that ol' grumpy here actually teamed up with?"
Make that ramped up to fifteen now.
His lips twitched up into a smile. Dark Magician girl, here in the flesh, huh? She was one of his favorite cards, and a staple in his Red-Eyes Darkness dragon deck before he ended up here. She fit the bill for Dragon Revival Rhapsody, and it was so easy to fusion summon Dark Magician Girl The Dragon Knight. With an effect that let him both power up Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon, and destroy one card on an opponents field once per turn at the same time.
Was it a good meta play? Well, it wasn't the best, that was for sure. But it wasn't bad either.
"That's me," Yarden nodded, and flashed a thumbs up at Serpent Night Dragon, "Well done mate, knew I could count on you."
Serpent Night Dragon merely huffed, "Your praise is welcomed, my master, but I am ashamed of how long it took me to accomplish this simple task."
"I didn't give you a time limit mate, and wasn't even expecting you to get it done, not any time soon at least," Yarden rolled his eyes at the overly proud dragon, "You finding her was only a vague hope, and you went above and beyond and got it done. You're awesome, just accept that fact."
"Well..I suppose truth is truth, is it not?" his ace monster puffed up his narrow chest with pride.
"You two sure get along well," Dark Magician Girl cut in with a musical giggle, "I'm surprised, Serpent Night Dragon has always been a testy fellow and looked down on most humans."
Oh? Yarden raised an eyebrow in interest.
"Hmph," Serpent Night Dragon snorted, "It just goes to show how far above the masses Yarden truly stands in comparison to other humans."
She giggled again at his words, "High praise from you," she mused, before turning her attention fully to Yarden, "So, I hear you wanted to recruit me to become one of your spirits and join your deck?" she asked.
"Yep." Yarden nodded.
"Interesting, I've never had a duelist outright seek me out and ask me to become their Ba before," Dark Magician Girl hummed, looking him over with interest, "I've had masters before, two in fact, and one who a very long time ago I was the Ba of."
Yarden opened his mouth to reply, but she blonde haired spirit floated over to him and began circling him, "You know, I was really curious when Serpent Night Dragon told me he'd met a human he'd taken a liking to, and that he, along with a bunch of other rejected spirits were becoming his Ba," she mused, emerald green eyes narrowing lightly, "Especially when I heard how quickly you were adapting to the bonding process, even for weak spirits, it should be nowhere near this speed. But I see, I get it now that I've got a close up look of you."
Yarden blinked, "It isn't supposed to be this fast?" he asked.
"Definitely not. Don't get me wrong though, it is well within possibility for a human to have multiple Ba, but even for weak spirits, it should take weeks for just one of them, not the absurd speed that you're going through the process," she explained, circling around to float in the air in front of him, "But I see now. Your soul, it's a bit special. Not particularly powerful to be honest, compared to some I've seen over the years. But, it's..bigger is not the word. It's almost like you've got two souls that have fused together, but, the second soul that joined with the first, wasn't a complete soul. Just the dregs of one? Perhaps the lingering remains of a dead soul that has already passed on?"
Yarden paused for a moment as he tried to process her words. Before it clicked and his eyes widened. The previous owner of this body, he was dead? "So what does that mean?" he asked.
"To be honest, I'm not sure, I'm not exactly an expert on this kind of thing I've just noticed it because I've seen something similar, but unlike them it doesn't look like you have two people inside one body," she shrugged, "If I had to make a guess though? I'd say your soul absorbed the dregs of that other soul and got in a word, stronger, or adapted to that process. And because of that, your soul has learned to adapt to this kind of thing, which is what is letting you take monsters as Ba much quicker. Really, it's just letting you do what you'd be able to do anyway, just at a faster pace."
So it wasn't going to grant him some special protagonist power, huh? Well, not that he minded. Adapting to the bonding process quicker was amazing in of itself.
"Good to know," he hummed, and looked the spirit in the eyes, "Putting that on the back burner though. What do you think then? Will you join me?"
She stared back into his eyes, "I don't really have any duties that need me anymore. And you're kind of interesting. A bit violent, but then in response to protecting a friend, that is understandable," she idly spoke. Huh, so, she was around to see him deal with Titan? "Let me ask you one question. My own answer will depend on your what yours is."
Yarden steeled himself, "Alright, ask away." as much as he wanted her, if she refused, it wouldn't be the end of the world.
It would totally suck though.
"Why are you going to such lengths? Why do you want the power of all these spirits to call upon?" Dark Magician Girl's gaze was serious as she asked her question, her stare pinning him in place.
So that was what she wanted to know.
Yarden sighed, closing his eyes,"There's two reasons I'm doing it."
"Oh?" she leaned forward in the air in interest.
He opened his eyes again and a smirk spread across his face, "The first, is because it's power. I'm a greedy person at heart. I want fame, I want riches, I want women and I want power." he revealed truthfully, shamelessly. At heart, that was who he was. He was the kind of person who embraced both his own strengths and his own faults. He was no good guy shonen hero, and he didn't want to be.
Take Alexis for example. Did he like her? Yes actually, he did. Quite a bit. He wouldn't have been so angry with Titan if he didn't. She was easy to get along with and meshed well with him. But, his reasons for helping her out and approaching her before taking a liking to her as a person weren't so genial. His main reason for helping her and such initially, was because he wanted to fuck her cross eyed.
Dark Magician Girls eyebrows rose at his answer, "And the second reason?" she asked.
"Because I'm afraid." Yarden admitted. He was in truth, absolutely terrified of the things out there awaiting him, things that could destroy this world and him along with it. The Light of Destruction, Yubel, Nightshroud or Darkness or whatever he called himself. The Earthbound Immortals and the King of the Netherworld. Z-One and his time warping nonsense. All that and more, and no doubt there was other things out there. After all, before he ended up here, a new series of Yu-Gi-Oh had been announced, alongside a new summoning method. Yu-Gi-Oh Zexal and Xyz summoning.
To survive all that. He needed power. And duel spirits were the only avenue he could chase to get that power as of this moment.
Her eyes softened, "Afraid of what?" Dark Magician Girl asked gently, floating over to gently cup his cheek. He could only feel a phantom sensation of warmth, but it was a comforting touch.
"If I said I'd seen some of the future and things approaching that would make the stuff Yugi Moto dealt with look tame?" he asked. If his suspicions were right about what she mentioned earlier about two masters, then this would get his point across without revealing too much.
Her eyes widened, "You're not lying, I'd be able to tell if you were," she mused in realization moment later, "So beyond your desires, you want the power to stop those threats as well?"
"If it comes down to it, yeah." Yarden nodded seriously. He'd much rather leave the true big threats to Jaden. But, Jaden almost broke under that stress before. If he had the strength to support Jaden and let him win more easily later and keep the world safe, then that would be the perfect route.
..And, he'd taken a liking to Jaden. He was a good friend. He didn't want him to end up crushed under the weight of the world like he did in the anime he saw, to the point where he'd forget the very thing that defined him, his love for dueling above all else and begin seeing it as no more than tool or weapon.
"I see," Dark Magican Girl pulled back, examining Yarden keenly for a few moments before smiling at him, "Alright, I'll join you, but only on one condition."
"And what's that?" Yarden asked, curious. That, and doing his very best to smother the excitement beginning to build in his veins and the wild smile that threatened to burst out onto his face.
'Score!' he still couldn't help but cheer inwardly though.
"You have to show me you have what it takes to defeat those kind of threats," Dark Magician Girl grinned at him, twirling her scepter in hand. It glowed and changed shape. A moment later, a daihank was strapped to her wrist, the ancient form of duel disks used back in Ancient Egypt during Atem's time, "You have to beat me in a duel."
He felt as Serpent Night Dragon shot over and coiled around him, his huge serpentine body almost dwarfing Yarden completely, "That is all?" the serpent dragon drawled, "Then you shall be a servant of my master like myself in a short while."
Yarden grinned widely, unable to contain it now, "What he said." He clenched his right fist together, pressing the inner button within the gauntlet and it folded out into the dragon winged duel disk form.
"Let's see you prove it~" Dark Magician Girl giggled.