As always, classes with Crowler were a complete and utter slog. It took literally all of Yarden's will power not to fall asleep. Admittedly, the trio of eye candy sitting beside him made for a decent distraction, but even then, it was quite hard.
He would honestly rather be spending his time in classes, doing actual class work, even with how hard the proper schooling curriculum for Duel Academy was, rather than listen to Crowler drone on and on, repeating himself over and over again the different types of spell cards and trap cards and shit.
And the worst of it was. Half the idiots in this class didn't even manage to pick that up.
Yarden would be one of the first to admit, that the attitude given to the Slifer's for being 'drop outs' was seriously over the top. But, for the most part, there really was a reason for it.
Crowler had called on quite a few of them to answer during this class. And every time, not one of them had answered correctly. And the stupidest of all, was the questions were literally along the lines of, 'describe the function of a field spell'.
The sheer stupidity of it all, actually gave him a headache. Forget the Obelisks, Yarden wanted to mock them himself.
And the worst of it was, just how long Crowler's class was. It lasted right up until lunch, no breaks until then.
As class ended, Yarden was the only one not to get up to leave the class. Instead, he stayed in his seat and let everyone vacate the class. Jasmine pointed her tongue out at him as she passed, while Alexis gave him a nod.
"Sucks to be you bro!" Jaden laughed patting him on the shoulder as he happily skipped out of class, chanting, "Golden eggwich! Golden eggwich!"
No doubt, by time Yarden got out of here, the golden eggwich would be gone. Which, was lame. After all, the golden eggwich generally had pretty useful cards in them, and there was only one per day.
Seiyaru and Dragon's Mirror could attest to that.
Once everyone was gone, he got up and made his way down to the bottom and center of the classroom where Crowler was sitting behind his deck.
"You wanted to see me after class Doctor Crowler?" Yarden asked, stopping in front of the desk. He really hoped this wasn't some scheme the odd looking blonde haired man had set up to get back at Jaden.
"Why yes I did, good of you to remember my boy," Crowler outright beamed at him and Yarden had to resist the urge to flinch back. This was totally weird, he only gave beaming smiles like that to Alexis and the other blues, "I just wanted to congratulate you on your accomplishments last Friday, you performed marvelously."
"Thanks..?" Yarden replied, confused.
"No need for your thanks my boy, your results speak for themselves, you completely crushed your opponent in the practical, and you scored one hundred percent on the theoretical test, beyond even with your marvelous reply to the extra credit question," Crowler chuckled lightly, he then leaned forward, threading his fingers together and placing his chin on them as he stared into his eyes, "It is odd though. On the entrance exams, you scored a fifty one percent, one of the lowest passing scores, and on your practical duel. you just barely scraped by against the examination proctor."
This time, Yarden did flinch back, his face screwing up in disbelief. 'How...how the fuck?' he gaped inwardly.
"Now now, I'm not saying you're cheating or anything, that would be impossible on the practical duel at the very least," Crowler for some reason rushed to reassure him, "It's just odd you would be playing so much better with a deck you picked up after your own was stolen so dreadfully by some hooligan. A water themed deck with your ace monster being Levia Dragon - Daedalus was it not?"
So that was the deck that the guy who had this body before ran. Not bad taste at all really, especially with A Legendary Ocean, making Daedalus only a one tribute summon and with the ability destroy every other card on the field just for tributing Umi to activate the effect. And with how many damn cards could function as 'Umi', it was an easy effect to spam.
God damn, the guy who had this body before really was trash if he could barely beat an exam proctor with cards like that.
Yarden's mind raced as he searched for an excuse.
"Ah, sorry to say Doctor Crowler, but I've not really changed all that much," he gave the blue clad professor a grimacing smile as he lied, "I just got unlucky and had a fever, and I couldn't just not show up to the exams to get into a school like this right? I just had to suck it up and do it regardless."
Crowler blinked, "I see, that does make sense," he nodded, before giving the teenager a sympathetic look, "Your luck wasn't quite so good at all, was it? From a fever that made you nearly lose out on actually managing to attain a position here and then having your very deck stolen, simply dreadful. Why, you should never have ended up with those vagabonds in Slifer at all, you should have been in Ra Yellow at the very least from the get go."
"Thanks for the kind words professor," Yarden smiled back at him, relief sweeping through him at how easily his lie was bought, "..Is that all, or is there something else?"
Crowler nodded, "Why yes there is," the man grinned, purple lipstick clad lips stretching wide open, "I'm glad to inform you young Yarden, that you won't be joining Ra Yellow today, and instead you will be getting promoted straight to Obelisk Blue."
...Come again?
"Doctor Crowler...?" Yarden gave the man an odd look. This, he was not expecting.
Crowler chuckled, "Come now Yarden, do you believe the staff at this academy do not keep an eye on what our students get up to?" he said, giving Yarden a coy look, "The duel disks handed out by this academy are used for monitoring our students to a degree, to keep track of how they duel and how they can best be helped to improve. This also keeps track of other student opponents who also have a monitored duel disk, such as the dozens of Obelisk Blue students you have easily defeated one after another in the last week."
Actually, Yarden figured there was some way for them to keep track of duels between students. There were student duelist rankings that were dependent on how many times a student dueled and just who they had beaten. He just wasn't sure exactly how that happened. Now he did though.
Which probably meant, the reason for this promotion was because of his second duel on last Friday.
"And one very special Obelisk was noted to have been defeated by you on Friday night, I was quite shocked when I got the alert," Crowler shook his head, before beaming at Yarden once more, "I thought it a glitch of some kind to be honest at first. But imagine my shock when I call my very top student and find out that no, it was the truth of things and you had actually amanged to defeat Zane Truesdale."
'Called it.' Yarden resisted the urge to snort. Really, for everyone else it was some big world shaking revelation and event. But for him? It was Tuesday. Or rather, Friday, but the point stood.
"I must say young Yarden, you are the type of student this academy needs above all others, and there's no way you could be left to just toil in Ra Yellow until the next promotional exams after an accomplishment such as that," Crowler added. He sat back in his chair then and reached under his desk, pulling out a large blue folded jacket covered in plastic, a key sitting on top of it, "This will be your new Obelisk Blue blazer, and the key to your new dorm room at the Obelisk Blue dorms."
Well, it meant that the amount of DP he got per month would go up, even if his winnings would go down. A passive thousand pounds more or less a month wasn't anything to sneeze at anyway. And it wasn't like he'd be able to keep up his pace of trashing Obelisk's like he was doing would keep up forever.
Plus, the amazing dorm room of the Blue's? Sign him the fuck up. He'd get his own personal bathroom and not need to go shit in an outhouse.
A thought occurred to Yarden as he accepted the jacket and key, "Does that mean I'll get the monthly DP allowance for an Obelisk Blue right now?" he asked.
"Indeed you will, it's customary for a ranking up student to be gifted it, even if not at the start of the month," Crowler chuckled lightly, "Your promotion was finalized this morning, so the DP should already be in your account."
That was perfect! Now he would have enough to purchase the Five Headed Dragon from the card shop for a second copy. That meant, with Future Fusion and Dragon's Mirror, he could get two of them on the field within two turns.
Then he could really go crazy just for the sheer fuckery of it. Like say, Gift of the Martyr to sacrifice one of the Five Headed Dragon's to give its attack points to the other bringing it up to ten thousand. Then hitting it with Megamorph, since the version here didn't specify only doubling original attack points. Which would get him a twenty thousand attack point monster.
He almost laughed aloud at the thought! Truly, there was no kill quite like overkill!
"Now, your belongings will be picked up and moved to your new dorm room, actually they have already been so," Crowler continued, "I will meet you at the Obelisk Blue dorm at five pm, and help you get settled in Yarden, is that fine with you?"
"That's perfect Doctor Crowler." Yarden grinned at him.
"Splendid!" Crowler stood up and leaned over, patting him on the shoulder, "Let me be the first to welcome you to the Obelisk Blue dormitory and congratulate you on escaping those Slifer-Sludge vagabonds. Though, if you'll excuse me, I have some papers to grade."
Yarden bid the professor goodbye, a massive smile on his face as he made his way up the stairs of the classroom. It was so good to be him.
----------------------------------------
When he left the classroom behind, Yarden was rather surprised to find a familiar beautiful blonde waiting for him outside it leaning against the wall of the empty hallway.
"You sure took your time talking to Crowler," Alexis mused as she pushed herself off of the wall. Her eyes went to the long blue jacket you were carrying, "Though definitely not when it came to ranking up, huh?"
A pleasant surprise. Yarden shrugged, "Apparently Crowler and the other professors know about my duel with Zane and the results and thought it only fitting I get jumped up to Obelisk," he replied, before giving her a curious look, "So what has you waiting out here for me?"
"Well you definitely deserve it, you've been beating the pants off of Obelisk's by the truck load since classes started last week," Alexis snorted, before crossing her arms under her bust and giving him a raised eyebrow stare, "As for why I was waiting for you. You've still not told me what you wanted to do on our date, or even when."
Yarden blinked and clicked his fingers as he remembered about that, "Oh yeah!" he'd totally forgotten about that over the weekend with how busy he'd been with making his new deck and all. "To be honest, I'm fine for whenever, but there's nothing really good for doing on a date here. I mean there's the recreational facility, but from what I know it's only good like a place to eat, an arcade and a hot spring, and I don't think you'd be up for hitting up a hot spring with me." no matter how amazing that would be.
"No that seems more like a fifth or sixth date type of activity," Alexis snorted, drawing one from Yarden as well, "Well, just let me know when you eventually do decide what you want to do about it."
"Oh, I'll be sure to," Yarden chuckled, "No way I'd let a date with you slip through my fingers."
it wasn't like hanging around with Yarden was a waste of time for her anyway, and he was much easier to deal with than most others for the simple reason that while yes, he definitely wanting something 'more' with her, he was up front about it and blunt enough to get it out the way. And she could definitely use time around him to her own benefit by studying and taking in the way he used his cards. He had quite the broad knowledge on card and how to combine them together to make powerful combo's that made even the weakest cards devastating.
This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
Speaking of which, "How about we have a little mini date right now?" Alexis asked.
Yarden gave her an odd look. The heck was a mini date? "What, like eat lunch together or something?" he asked.
"Something like that," Alexis replied, she reached down to blue belt around her waist, unlocking the blue deck box hanging from it and bringing out her deck, holding it up for him to see, "I was wondering if I could pick your brain a bit in regards to my deck. I'm wanting to upgrade it, but I'm having trouble tracking down cards that will work well with it." there was only so far card databases went. There were so, so many cards and going through them all, even just narrowing them down to the types that fit her monster wise, took an absurd amount of time. And nobody sane would be leaving out card combinations for others to take online or something crazy like that. Duel Monsters was a competitor sport after all, and making combinations just to gift them to others was the height of foolishness. You wouldn't want to give your competitors ways to get better than you after all or use your own hard work against you. That was why it was the most common that everyone was tight lipped about combinations and what cards worked best together.
"A deck building date?" Yarden gave her an amused look, and Alexis held back a grimace, she didn't mean to come across as trying to steal his own hard work and combo's, she just wanted to know if he knew any good monsters that would fit her deck, she'd just make the combo's hersel-" Sure, why not? It won't be the weirdest date I've been on."
Alexis blinked. 'What?' she thought, a bit of a daze hitting her at his fast and casual acceptance.
She gaped as he outright plucked the deck from her fingers and began looking it over, "H-hey!" she halfheartedly protested. What kind of person just casually grabbed another's deck and started looking through them, even if asked for help about it.
That just wasn't done these days, not when keeping the exact build of your deck was the difference between winning and losing a lot of the time.
Alexis found herself falling in line with him though as he started walking while flipping through her cards, "Yeah I heard you used the cyber dancer cards," he mused, "Looks like you're using machine angels as well huh? Not bad cards if you know how to play them together." Yarden of course knew she already played these cards, but he couldn't just admit to knowledge like that he shouldn't have, right?
But eesh, he winced as he looked through the cards. He could see what she was going for, but the synergy was totally off because of a few lacking cards. Though he had to give her props for good taste with the Machine Angel cards. The Machine Angel Ritual when it was in the graveyard, had a grave effect where it could banish itself from the graveyard to negate the destruction of a light attribute monster by either battle or card effect.
Cards with secondary effects from the graveyard were some of his favorite. If there was an archetype that ever came out that played to that route, he'd be all over it. It was why he wasted no time in throwing Return Of The Dragon Lords into his dragon deck.
"They always appealed to me," Alexis replied as she rolled her eyes and shook her head. She did ask for his help after all she supposed, "All beautiful graceful female monsters, yet strong and proud."
"So basically you as a duel monster?" Yarden looked up from the cards to grin at her. That was right wasn't it? Duel Monsters wasn't just about optimal strategies either here. It was a sport, with custom mad decks made as an expression of the duelist. Their 'soul' as a duelist.
At his words, Alexis felt her lips twitch up into a small smile, "What I'm aiming to be at least." she admitted. So he had that opinion of her? Well, she already knew he thought she was hot, but he thought her strong and graceful as well?
Well, that was to good not to follow up on. He flipped back through her cards a bit to a specific one, "I don't suppose you have a little tutu like this then do you?" he grinned and teasingly waved the monster card Cyber Tutu at her as he came to a stop.
'This guy doesn't miss a beat huh?' Alexis thought, amused. "Wouldn't you like to know?" the blonde replied with a light laugh, and didn't slow down herself. "Besides, it's not like it would be any shorter than the skirt I'm already wearing." she said and put a strut in her hips. She never really cared one way or another about how short the Obelisk uniform skirt was, but at least she could get some amusement out of it here and now as she let Yarden get a good look.
He wanted to flirt? Well, she wasn't one to back down when challenged.
Alexis could play the femme fatale really well, Yarden could attest to that. Really, it honestly was no wonder the girl had practically every guy who saw her drooling and crushing on her.
A face a model would envy. A pair of large, round and perfectly shaped knockers that stretched out her uniform top deliciously. Thick, curvy hips. Long, lusciously toned legs and full thighs. And the current target of his gaze, her thick, heart-shaped shelf like arse.
Alexis Rhodes, was literally sex on legs. Pornstars could only dream of having a body as insane as hers. And it did not belong on a girl his age.
It wasn't like Yarden was a virgin. By time he got to high school back home, everyone his age practically was fucking. And in Scotland, you started High School at twelve. But Alexis made it incredibly hard to control himself.
"Well," Alexis looked over her shoulder at him, an impish grin on her face as she caught where his eyes were glued to, "Where are we heading?"
----------------------------------------
Ironically for Alexis, it seemed Yarden's destination was in fact the card shop. He handed her the deck back as they entered it and made his way over to the counter while she picked out one of the tables in the shop to sit at.
Well, Alexis couldn't fight the smirk off her face as she sat down. Yarden could barely keep his eyes from dropping to her lower back or slowing his walking to be slightly behind her. That, was completely her win.
She was however forced into shock out of pride from winning, she Yarden outright bought one single card, for thirty thousand DP. Which would be nearly five hundred thousand yen back home! It was an absurd amount of DP to drop for one single card! She didn't even have half of that. And it was Five-Headed Dragon at that. Alexis almost shuddered at the thought of Yarden using it. He was the type of guy who loved getting around typical summoning methods. It was unlikely he would be satisfied with just summoning it using monsters from the hand and field for a fusion. It just didn't fit the way he liked to do things.
"Right, I've got what I needed," Yarden sat down across from her with a smile on his face, mighty pleased with his purchase, "Let's get this little deck building date started then, shall we?" He already had quite a few ideas on monsters that would suit Alexis well.
Alexis shook her head, forcing her shock away, "Alright, lay it on me," she smiled at the boy, then paused as she remembered something, "Oh, and thanks for this." she was truly grateful he was willing to help her with this. She'd been having a lot of trouble lately trying to think of ways to improve her deck, she felt like she'd been approaching her limits with her current deck. No way she could compare to either Zane or Yarden as she was now.
"Don't worry about it, this is as good a date with you as anything else," he laughed lightly, once he regained his breath Yarden pointed at her, "Right, first things first, Mind on Air, why is it in your deck? It's not really that useful and most of the time will end up just a dead draw for you."
Mind on Air. A level 6 dark spellcaster monster. It had one thousand attack points and sixteen hundred defense points and it had the ability to make her opponent play with their card revealed as long as it was on the field. "I use it for mostly ritual fodder, it can let me get my Cyber Angel Idaten or Benten out on the field with it alone." she replied. It wasn't the best card out there, from there if she used monster reborn or call of the haunted, she could get it back on the field and keep track of her opponents cards and get a good guess at what they could and would do.
Yarden nodded, "I expected as much," he mused, "It's a decent idea, especially if you get it back on the field by resurrecting it, but honestly, there's much more useful monsters to use."
"Like?" Alexis asked, curious.
Oddly, the first card he recommended, seemed very odd for her deck. White Night Dragon. According to him, it was a level eight water attribute dragon monster, and with the same attack and defense points as the legendary Blue-Eyes White Dragon. With the ability to negate the activation of a spell or trap that targeted once per turn and destroy them. And on top of that, if an opponent attacked another monster she had on the field, she could discard one trap or spell card to make the target be changed to White Night Dragon itself. A tactic that would allow her to even discard any extra Machine Angel Ritual card's to the graveyard so she could abuse its effects. And furthermore, it could be tribute summoned using her Stray Lamb card in one turn or be used for ritual fodder for even her Cyber Angel Idaten, her current strongest monster, with the side effect of White Night Dragon being in the graveyard and easy to resurrect onto the field.
It was honestly a very powerful sounding card. But she didn't think it really suited her or her deck. Yarden did for some reason, though he admitted to being biased about it, biased in what way, she didn't know, he just gave her a little wink when she asked. Either way, she was definitely going to look into it if he recommended it so much.
The second and third cards he recommended were Majestic Mech - Ohka and Metamorphosis. Majestic Mech - Ohka was a level six light type fairy monster apparently with with twenty four hundred attack points. And it had the ability to be normal summoned without tributes, but would be destroyed at the end of the turn. Where as Metamorphosis was a fusion card, that let the user turn any monster they had on their field into any fusion monster from their extra deck as long as they had the same level. She could attack with Ohka, then before it was destroyed, combo it with Metamorphosis to fusion summon her Cyber Blader to the field.
She'd never even heard of either card before. But, Yarden had Metamorphosis in his own deck apparently and Sadie, the lady behind the counter confirmed that she did have a few in stock of both cards, alongside White Night Dragon.
Though Ohka was apparently three thousand DP while White Night Dragon was seven thousand. Just getting them both would leave her with only four thousand or so DP left.
From there, he brought up her liking of her sheep token spell cards, and recommended she get Cannon Soldier, a relatively cheap and unremarkable card. But when paired with Scapegoat, could actually deal two thousand points of damage to her opponent by using all four of the sheep tokens and Cannon Soldier's effect.
Then they finally got to the warriors he recommended. Four of them specifically. All with amazing effects that would really suit her deck well. Warrior Lady Of The Wasteland, D.D Warrior Lady, Command Knight and Marauding Captain.
Marauding Captain definitely threw the theme of her deck off. At least with the other non humanoid monsters, they weren't males, or really had no gender. But, the effect it had made Marauding Captain worth it, especially if she thought of it as paying tribute to the person who was actively giving her all these ideas to use. Like using Double Summon with Marauding Captain itself, with two of them, to get her two special summons and fill her field with level one to four warrior monsters. Four monsters that couldn't be attacked because of Marauding Captain's other effect that made it so the opponent couldn't target any of her other monsters but it, and with two of them blocking the opponent from attacking at all.
----------------------------------------
Time flew by in a blur for Alexis as she took in everything Yarden was saying and wrote it down to review it all later. Listing monsters, effects, attack points, combo's he casually rattled off like no big deal. The boy really was a fountain of information when it came to duel monsters, and the sheer amount he knew of, not even for use of his own deck, just cards he was recommending to Alexis herself, even left her a bit awed.
She found, that she was really enjoying herself actually. She didn't have to tip toe around Yarden at all like basically every other guy. Even Zane wasn't quit as subtle as he liked to think he was when he was checking her out. He was upfront and blunt about his attraction to her, and despite that, she didn't feel pressured like when all the other guys rushed to hit on her. It was probably why she didn't mind actively flirting back with him here and there. He was interesting, and fun, and it felt like, he just kind of got her a bit?
The blonde actually found herself really disappointed when the bell rang signifying the end of lunch. If that was what dates with Yarden were like, then she definitely wouldn't mind going on more.
'Atticus would probably really like him.' Alexis mused. Yarden reminded her a lot of her older brother actually, just more blunt and crude while her brother loved to ham things up.
Melancholy hit her at the thought of her brother.
"Hey, there's one more thing I want to show you." Yarden placed a hand on her shoulder, breaking her from her dwelling, and she looked to see him smiling at cheerfully, genuinely.
She smothered any lingering melancholy, this wasn't the time for it, and it would ruin the good mood going on between them, "I hope you're not gonna drop your pants or something," Alexis smirked at him, "I don't really wanna see that."
Yarden chuckled, "Oh, you'll make me sad, hitting me right here, in the feels babe," he tapped a closed fist against his chest and Alexis had to smother her own chuckle at how easily he took it, "But, as much as I'd love to prove you wrong about how much you would love it, the thing I want to show you is a card, a very special card."
He really didn't lack for confidence huh? And her interest was definitely piqued.
About the card that was.
"What kind of card?" Alexis asked.
He slipped his fingers into his back pocket, and slipped a card out, showing it to her. It displayed the image of a monster, with the body of a golden yellow star and a smirking face.
Hoshiningen. A level two light attribute fairy monster, with five hundred attack points and seven hundred defense points. And as long as it was up on the field, all light attribute monsters would gain five hundred attack points, while all dark attribute monsters would lose four hundred.
'That's a pretty good effect that would help out my cyber angels, but I don't see why it would be incredibly special?' Alexis mused as she looked the card over.
"So what's so special about it and why do you want to show me it?" Alexis wondered, giving the boy an odd look.
"Well I want to give it to you," Yarden replied, but weirdly, his gaze was incredibly serious, "But I'm only going to give you it, if you make me a promise. To treat this little guy well and use him in your deck."
"A gift?" Alexis blinked, before smiling at him, "You don't need to do that. But, of course I'm gonna treat any card you give me well. I wouldn't treat a gift from my friends badly. It looks pretty useful, but why do you want me to use it?"
"Well, you're not the type to lie about something like this," Yarden sighed and gently grasped her hand before placing the card in her palm. Alexis blinked as she felt a jolt run up her spine, "As for why? Well, let me just say this. In the future, this card will go a long way to making sure you don't get run over by bullshit and let you go further than you ever could without it."
Alexis was so lost. "Okay?" she wasn't sure at all what he meant. But it felt important, and he happily helped her out and gave her more than she could have imaged when she asked for a few little tips to use with her deck and cards to get. But, if he said it was really that important, she'd take his word for it until proven otherwise.
"Great, I'll leave him in your care then," he squeezed her shoulder gently, fondly before letting go and turning on his heel, "Now let's hurry up before we're late for class."
Alexis gave one last look at the monster card in her hand, and then blinked, when she was sure for a split moment, the art on the card shifted and winked at her.
'I must be seeing things.' she assured herself, before placing the card in her deck box and catching up to Yarden to head to class.