Maisy, stealth operative extraordinaire was taken aback by the fact that the door was completely unlocked and took the opportunity to slip right into the room. And then...problems. There was a dark dorm student digging through stuff. This was bad...if she made any sort of noise, he'd notice her. Taking a quiet breath, Maisy turned on her D-Ciever and TEXTED AT THE SPEED OF WHITE GIRL: "OMGWTFTHERE'S A DARK DOMRIE IN FISH MAN'S ROOM, HAAS PLZ" to the group. With that out of the way, Maisy had to think of a plan of action...and fast. Lest she be discovered. Naturally, she needed to cut off any potential escape routes, so she very quietly clicked the lock closed to keep anyone unwanted out. Next...she needed to cut off the dark dorm student's movement.

Slowly making her way over in her cardboard box of secrecy, Maisy would get as close as she could without noise, before suddenly lifting up the box and pulling the dark dorm student's pants down. 'Yes! Now...for the finishing blow!' she thought before leaning back at an almost impossible angle, grabbing the cardboard box and DUNKING IT on the Dark Dorm Student's head, so that their arms would be stuck. That and, their duel disk would get snagged on the outside. She'd recognize those black and yellow checkered boxers anywhere...

"Lite!" Maisy said as she pushed the dark dorm student onto the bed with all her might in her tiny noodly arms. Lifting her leg up, she brought it down to keep the cardboard pressed onto them, and to keep them from getting up off the bed. "Talk or this is gonna get...weird." Maisy said, giving the most serious kind of glare she could muster. "Are you here for freaky fish man's card? Scream and I'll make sure every one of your buddies knows what color your underwear is. And probably get your butt in the photo."

The morning events had been quite something. Vincent had woken up early for once in his life probably due to whoever occupied the room next to his having no care for other people's sleeping patterns. Tiredness aside he had adjusted well to having a much plainer room then the last time he had woken up. Not like he needed anything fancy to sleep in. Vincent was anything but privileged.

He had kept to himself throughout the morning lessons. It wasn't exactly hard considering his new attire which effectively preceded anything he could say. What was with this school and forcing students to effectively wear an outfit in a bid to segregate them. The strong shouldn't need such labels and neither should the weak.

So what was he doing now? Dueling of course.

"'Chaos Emissary - Umbra' Attack his life points directly!" He yelled as the dark angel lumbered forward on her wings to close out the game. His opponent falling to his knees as the shock went from Vincent's duel chain to his opponents. These duel chains certainly made the duel fun. Vincent detached his chain from his opponents duel disk and began to manually wind it up. All the chains he could have taken he had to take the one you had to wind up afterward. A glance up from his winding and he could see is opponent was being helped to his feet by their friends. It was just a kid from the EARTH dorms. He was talking about how the DARK dorm students were all the bottom of the gutter trash. Vincent quickly put him back in his place.

Still, Why didn't Vincent have any friends around to cheer him on when he had won. Is that the price one has to pay for power? Losing the meaning to even win in the first place. That shouldn't be the way it has to be at all. He took a seat on one of the arena's nearby seats in order to rest his aching joints. His Opponent had got him good with that 'Magic Cylinder' and because duel chains work both ways he had to suffer taking the equivalent of 3000 points of damage as an electric shock. Which wasn't fun at all.

He felt like he should probably move someplace else. He was totally up for another game but he needed to rest just a bit first, he had gone for multiple games in a row and it was beginning to take his toll. He couldn't risk collapsing or developing a heart condition. He wiped his brow, this type of dueling was so much more invigorating to him. Perhaps if action dueling was more solid and it actual risks he would do that instead.

He heaved himself to his feet making sure his deck was firmly equipped with his duel disk, his weapon of which he had developed fluency with and began to make his way toward the card shop, he was less likely to encounter anyone looking to duel there and if he did they were likely to be new clunky decks rather then honed killing machines.



Vincent sat down at one of the tables located around the card shop in the furthest corner from the entrance and leaned against the wall behind him with his chair. Getting as comfortable as he could at his table in order to ease the ache in his muscles. Now he would just have to scan the room for any potential points of interests until he recovered enough.

@1Charak2@Joshua Tamashii

Leander and Amelia made their way back to the card shop as they traveled through the same path they took to get to their room, or at the very least, tried to. A few mistakes were made with the elevator regarding them going on the wrong floor, then somehow managing to push all the buttons by accident, and finally giving up and using the stairs. It took a while, but they eventually managed to reach the card shop. "Man, that was an adventure!" Leander laughed it off. "I don't think I ever managed to do that before." Leander then heaved a sigh of accomplishment and began scanning the room. "Where to go, where to go...." Leander contemplated out loud, before his eyes settled on a certain Dark Dorm student. "Ooo, I recognize him!" Leander said, strolling over to Vincent. "Hey there, how's it been?" Leander greeted him as he waved. "You got a sweet new uniform since the last time I saw you."

---

@vancexentan

Michelle followed Ben as the two made their way through the classrooms. As she began to get lost in thought again, looking through the windows of the various classrooms they were passing, Ben had decided to make some small talk. Michelle blinked in surprise in response to Ben's sudden question. "Mmm... well, Dueling is my hobby, if I had to pick something," Michelle answered, looking to the side instead of directly at Ben. "Other than that, um.... not much, really. Maybe... reading Duel Monster articles?" Michelle added as she placed a hand behind her head, a little embarrassed to admit that.

Looking back at Ben, Michelle decided to change the subject and ask, "Where are we going, anyway? You said you knew where to go, right?"

Joshua couldn't help but give an amused smile at Cream's expression as she complained about his excessively long speech. It was rather cute actually.
"Sorry, sorry, it's a force of habit. I should really try to get better at that." He said, giving her a kind smile. When she mentioned that he didn't have a lot of friends, he just shrugged dismissively. "Sure, they're not the biggest group and more of them are like acquaintances then anything else. Still, I would consider them friends since they are friends of a friend.

Anyway, before I start droning on about that, mind if I ask you a question? If you're the, quote on quote here, 'best of the best', the 'cream of the crop', why aren't you in the light dorm? That's where the best of the best are. Surely someone as strong as you would be in that dorm, not the one just above the bottom. Come on, you can tell me the truth, I won't judge you. I'm in no position to do so."



Amelia followed Leander to the card shop, finding the fact that they got lost on the way a little amusing. This tower was essentially their second home but they had only been here a few days so she guessed that getting lost was only natural. When they finally arrived, she stayed by his side as he headed towards someone he knew. When she saw the uniform the boy was wearing, she instinctively hid behind Leander a bit and, although it was subtle, she began shaking a bit. Apparently the attack she had taken last night had left some sort of trauma on her.

At about the time Maisy entered Meio's dorm room, Camryn found herself in the locker room in front of the pool. She had just signed out a locker and placed her D-Ceiver inside, when said gadget began to buzz. On inspection, it turned out to be a text message from Maisy: "OMGWTFTHERE'S A DARK DOMRIE IN FISH MAN'S ROOM, HAAS PLZ". Camryn shot off a quick message of encouragement ("good luck!! don't get beat up!!!") and stuck her D-Ceiver back in the locker before heading into the pool.

Honestly, Camryn hadn't been sure what to expect when she entered the pool room, but a crowd of students watching a pair of duelists duke it out was definitely not it. Fortunately, she had thought to change into her swimsuit real quick, rather than stay in her uniform and risk it getting soaked. And as the Shark player blew by in pursuit of an Action Card - dousing Camryn with water in the process - she was very glad she had taken that precaution. She shook the water off her glasses before replacing them on her head, walked over to the edge of the crowd, and tapped a nearby young man on the shoulder. " 'Scuse me, but do you happen to know who's dueling?"

Nathaniel had hoped for maybe twenty or so people at most at the arenas. Instead, he got a full house. He could barely pay attention to the duel that was happening as he scanned the crowd, and found absolutely nothing. Considering he had never even seen the guy, any one of these people could be who they were looking for, and he had no clues to go on. As he thought about how to proceed, he felt the D-Ceiver buzz at his side. Checking it, he found a rather distressing message from Maisy. Good news seemed to be that she had actually managed to sneak into his room. Bad news was that someone else beat her to it.

Seeing that Camryn was of no help to the matter, Nathaniel quickly texted a reply "on my way over now". Finding Meio can wait. If this Dark Dormer steals the cards they were looking for, they would be screwed. Navigating his way through the crowd as quickly as possible, Nathaniel shot out of the arena as he made his way to the elevator.

The meek earth dorm student flinched when he heard Andre monologue about how he was going to take on the dark dorm student, who just licked his lips with the smile of a snake. The golden-haired youth tried his best to get up on his feet, weakly staggering and grabbing a hold of Andre's sleeve.

"No! You can't make a bet that dangerous! This guy is..."

Only then did the golden haired boy notice the uniform which he was clutching tightly, letting go and staggering back onto his rear end. He looked up at Andre with an expression of fear, awe and shock.

"...really strong..." the boy muttered. Shortly after, Andre could feel his other arm being yanked forward. As the earth dorm student had been holding Andre in place, the dark dorm took it as an opportunity to attach his Duel Chain tightly to Andre's disk. Another yank forced Andre to come closer again, with the dark dorm's face twisting into an expression of glee.

"Hee hee... what a nice catch. Boss is gonna be happy once 'e hears I put an overconfident light snob in his place. Remember, no takebacks..."

---

Cream crossed her arms and gave another pouty glare.

"A lady never reveals her secrets! Besides..." Cream trailed off, glancing down at the arena. Seems like a dark dorm using Darksworns- a deck that had been growing increasingly popular with a lot of the members there- was stirring up some trouble. Cream's expression became a lot more deadpan and cold, staring down at the Action Duel going on with apathy.

"...A lot of people aren't what they seem to be at first glance. No matter what dorm you belong to..."

After that off-hand comment, she grinned back at Joshua again.

"I like ya! You're not as brash and reckless as lotsa folk here. But we gotta do a lil' give and take here. How 'bout it? If ya tell me what ya been up to, I might just help. Consider it a favor for a favor!"

---

As you would expect from someone getting caught by complete surprise, Lite Sothe got completely overwhelmed by Maisy and easily thrown onto the bed. Before he could recover, a heavy weight pressed against his chest. He didn't even get a chance to pull his pants up, and now he was trying to scramble together what the heck just happened.

"Wait, who're you?! Where'd you come from?! Where are my pa-!"

Lite's eyes went wide once he took a good look at Maisy. That cap... that hair... that weak frame!

"Y-You... you're the pervert! The one who ruffles through people's underwear! McKellen! How did you know I was-"

The dark dorm student cut himself off and fumed underneath Maisy's hold, struggling in vain for a few more moments before finally giving up. The glare he gave Maisy showed that he didn't have any intention of caving in soon, though.

"You... you'll need more than that! I won't talk, not even if one of your friends shows-!"

Right before Lite could finish his sentence, the door flew open again. In the doorway was Nathaniel, faced with the sight of Maisy sitting on top of a Dark Dorm student tied up in a cardboard box with his pants down.

"...up."

---

The student Camryn asked turned his head briefly, just enough to answer her.

"That's the Tsunama brothers dueling. The 'dynamic' WATER duo of Light, Meio and Ryo."

The student turned back to the duel and so did Camryn, just in time to see the Action card one of the two duelists had fetched get activated. Bahamut Shark's attack went up by 500, enough to get over Neo Daedalus. The other surfer didn't have much longer to respond, so he quickly sweeped up an Action card from the water's surface so his own creature's attack went up by 200. They were both at 3100 ATK now, enough to make the battle end in a tie. Now the shoe was on the other foot, as Shark Caesar was still on the Shark duelist's field. The attack was called and the Daedalus player was knocked into the water, the rest of his lifepoints dropping to 0.

"Still can't beat me, huh Meio?"

The purple-haired duelist laughed while still standing on top of his surfboard as Meio climbed out of the water, hair still spiking upwards as if defying the laws of physics. They exhaled heavily and threw a card his brother's way, who deftly caught it. It was too far away to make out the details, but Camryn definitely caught the black border of an Xyz monster.

"I swear, next time. You didn't even give me the chance to use the card you borrowed me!"

Ryo looked over to the crowd, who still didn't get in the pool yet. Colonel was the lifeguard at bay, blew on his whistle and signalled the students. A display curled around the roof of the room switched it's rotating message from 'DUEL TIME' to 'SWIMMING TIME' as the rest of the crowd jumped in again, dousing Camryn with even more water. The waves also knocked Ryo from his surfboard, earning a laugh from his brother.

---

"...Go home?! You don't even have anything to do with this!" Ethel growled. She was shaking with anger after such a brash and rude comment, fist balled up and ready to throw a punch. She barely resisted the urge to throw it at him before turning her head.

"Fine! If you won't help, I'll figure it out on my own!"

Ethel stomped away from Angelo, going into the garage to check out her Duel Runner. Now that Angelo was alone again, he got another message.

"Knew you could do it~! But your threats are a little scary. How about you take a test drive to cool off, hm?"

If Angelo looked up again, he still couldn't find the helmet-wearing figure he saw earlier. Ethel, meanwhile, had already reached her still-busted runner and opened up a small laptop next to it, typing away furiously as it was hooked up to her central terminal. Even if she didn't have as much Duel Runner knowledge as Angelo, the Turbo Duelists had been given a few lessons in how to access and make sense of a runner's database.

---

Haas looked around in the card shop, scanning the stock they currently had. It was still impressive how much this school invested in card packs, especially considering they have a complete card library anyway. A pack caught his eye, but before he could really think about it his window shopping was interrupted.

"Oh, Blue-Eyes? Uhm... I dunno, but couldn't you look it up on your D-Ceiver?"

The question was more for himself than Hayate as he didn't actually know himself. Haas just happened to know what contained the cards he was looking for, so he never really had to check. The earth dorm boy pulled out his little electronic device and swiped away a few times, finding a program called 'Content Checker'. Opening it seemed to reveal exactly what he was expecting: A list of packs, and presumably what's inside once you pressed the button next to them. There's also a search function, presumably to find a specific pack or card.

"Let's see here... seems like Premium Gold: Return of the Bling is your best bet. It looks pretty good, too!"

Haas pocketed his D-Ceiver again, glancing to the side to see Leander entering the room. He paid him no mind for now, since Haas was out to do something else. He went over to the counter and pulled out a stack of cards from the bag he was carrying around. He ordered two packs of Order of Chaos in return. Haas also made sure to buy two booster sets of both Generation Force and Photon Shockwave before leaving the attendant alone, depositing the aluminium wrappings into his bag. He looked up and saw a dark dorm student not sitting far from the counter, leaning up against the wall with his chair. Haas would have flinched if Leander hadn't whipped up a friendly chat, but something told Haas he recognized that particular student.

"Hey, Hayate, is it me or does that student look kinda familiar?"

---

Hayato's search was mostly fruitless, but he decided to give his bookmarks one last skim before getting to his little pet project. Surprisingly, he did actually find something of use- only not related to the gauntlet. An article about a mysterious group called 'Reborn'. They show up at seemingly random duel schools, cause a bit of havoc, and then leave again. They haven't been seen since their last showing at the Duel Tower, and the individuals are highly dangerous. Witnesses and victims claim to have seen their eyes glowing, but most doctors chalked that one up to a stress-induced hallucination. The same people also claim that 'Reborn' can bring it's monsters to life, but no proof of that has ever been presented.

@Scarifar

"Well I wouldn't say that is much of a hobby but if that's what you like then that's what you like. It's not my place to judge. Though if I could be so bold as to say you should consider looking around for more stuff to do. Like I enjoy fitness I got out and run before classes each morning." Ben stated to Michelle as he considered where he was leading her. It wasn't exactly much to go on but he suppose he could plant his cards in any room and then pretend he left them. "Also come on perk up a bit I don't bite...well I bite my food but that's besides the point. I think I may have left dropped my cards somewhere around the halls, or in the gym. If you don't want to look in such a big place that's fine with me too. I mean you don't even know me all too well. I'm also kind of 'that guy' on campus after that big speech I gave at the start of the semester. But if you're willing to cooperate I'll buy you a soft drink after school sound good?" Ben said fully aware the girl had already accepted his request for help earlier. However he felt bad leading her on like this the least he could do was buy her some drinks if she kept chilling with him. At worse he'd be playing hooky in the gym for a few minutes. At best he'd make a new friend. In either occasion he really should make this quick Michelle would get in trouble if he took advantage of her kindness for too long.

@Ammokkx

Angelo sighed a bit when Ethel got angry at him again and then just walked off angry as much as he didn't want to do it he got the reply from him saying good job making him grit his teeth at the message. As if this ass was control telling him to take a ride. Angelo simply wrote back "I will still be angry even if I have a test drive. Don't keep me waiting" he then cracked his knuckles before he walked over to his garage holding his duel runner and he made sure to text Ethel "trust me, watch me" he said simply hoping that for once Ethel would trust him and keep an eye on him. Angelo wasn't stupid enough to fall for a trap but he also knew that if Ethel came to him again he might loose the masked man for good. He needed this lead but he wouldn't deny himself some backup. He then got dressed before he got on his duel runner and got on the track deciding to go for two laps just to show that he was listening...

"Do you honestly believe that a fight with these stakes is considered dangerous? You really are some back alley little kid aren't you? I'll show you how they do things where I learned to duel with actual sadistic duelists. I'll start things off then. And if you want to survive you better give it your all pond scum." Andre growled as he set his duel disk into action. He stood back from the boy from the proper distance then activated his own duel disk. As the machine hummed to life Andre pulled out his deck from his pocket and looked at it. "If you lose me this duel...I'll sell all of you and get a new deck." growled Andre in disgust of his own pathetic cards. Archfiends were such a annoying archetype.

"DUEL!"

"You want to be my student? Kid I'm barely older than you, and I'm no role model. I'm as nice as a bag of broken glass, and as rough as one too. If you want to learn more about dueling then you have to experience real hardship, and or find the right group of people. You want to get better? Don't idol worship people, and furthermore don't back down. Accept your defeat here at this scum's hands as proof that you're weak and need to improve. Study hard, and figure out where you went wrong. That's all I'm going to say on the matter." Andre growled as he walked over to the dark dormie's cards and looked through them. He didn't like stealing people cards but maybe this would hammer the point home to both Genta, and the kid. "I'm taking this allure of darkness punk. Consider it collateral in case you start picking on people again. You better keep your part of the deal or I'll dismantle your friends too. I'm no good guy. I'm the god damn boogeyman. Just because I'm wearing light dorm clothes doesn't mean I'm a good guy." Andre said with a cold tone as he picked up the card and put it in his pocket. "Get to class Earth-Dormie. I don't have time for this." Andre said as he swiftly exited the room. He needed to get to class himself lucky he didn't waste time with trash.

Oh no! Now Maisy had to interrogate someone she knew...and had information on...and who seemed to actually be terrified...

And she had backup.

A chill may have run down Lite's spine as a malicious grin crossed Maisy's lips. "Nate. Lock the door." she said seriously, keeping Lite pinned to the bed. "To answer your question on how I knew...well, frankly, you aren't very inconspicuous. Never even realized I've had you bugged since this lunch." Maisy said in a very bold lie to try and intimidate Lite even more to pump info out of him. For all he knew, she very well could have. Moving on from that, Maisy made sure to lean in close and put her hand over his mouth to keep him from screaming anything, pressing her foot down harder on his chest. "Now, Lite, you're smart...so you'll understand very well that your new gaggle of friends are gonna make you into the punchline of jokes AND bullying if I start spreading all the dirt I could dig up...But hey, you know me, I'm a nice girl." she said, smiling at Lite. "But if you don't tell me exactly what you found looking around in here and who you're looking around for, then I'm gonna dig you in a hole so deep that you'll never see the light of day again. Kay? Oh and don't try anything dumb like attaching that duel-taser or whatever to one of us, since I swiped your deck while we were talking."

Right now...Nathaniel would probably do well to wonder just WHO the bad guy was here as Maisy dangled Lite's deck above him in its full stack. "I won't mess with your deck. That'd be just plain wrong. Buuuut...I'm not above making sure you can't duel-ante your way out of this. Sooooo...we cool? You wanna talk? Or do you wanna wait until Fish-Man gets back and talk to him instead? Oh, or are you going to talk to Nate? He's pretty chill. I'd recommend it. We kinda have the good-cop, Maisy-cop thing going on right now." she said before giving Nate a confident wink...

Maisy was...kind of terrifying. Except when it came to dueling.

Nathaniel cringed slightly at the sight of Maisy's rather rough treatment. Making sure to shut tight the door behind him, he slowly approached his loose-cannon partner and the unfortunate soul she was sitting on.

"I think you're scaring him." And me. "Why don't you let me talk to him?"

Nathaniel squatted down in front of the bed, keeping himself at eye-level with the Dark Dormer.

"Look, sorry about my friend. She's kind of crazy. I don't like to see this any more than you like to feel it. But I'm sure I can convince her to let you go if you just tell us a little bit about yourself. Like why you're here, what you're looking for, and most importantly, do you have the cards?" That last bit came out a little stronger than Nathaniel had intended, but he let it hang in the air due to the magnitude of its importance, maintaining eye contact with Lite all the while. It was a bit of a standard good cop bad cop routine, but Nathaniel was not exactly a veteran at this. Besides, the guy had to crack eventually.

Vincent looked up from his seat at the two people that had walked in. He hadn't been expecting to be called out so soon but at least it was the non-threatening Leander and some girl who if he did know her name, which he doubted he did. He probably forgot it as she had done nothing notable of worth. She seemed quite cowardly, was she hugging to Leander for strength? or was there something more going on that Vincent didn't know about, at the end of the day he kept his mouth shut about it and sighed as he responded to Leander's greetings.

"Its been... Good I guess?" Vincent said as he looked Leander in the eye before continuing to respond to the second bit "yea, the new uniform. Its a long story, mainly to do with the fact that I got bored but what can you do when nobody in your dorm really offers you any considerable challenge, you end up outsourcing and this is the result of that." He stated flatly. "So who's the one having PTSD flashbacks? Something fun happen around the tower while I was busy getting into my own mess?" Vincent questioned as he reached into his own pocket and build out a deck of cards, "If so... wanna talk about it over a simple duel? No disks. Just talk." He offered as he began shuffling his Chaos Emissary deck.

@Scarifar@Joshua Tamashii

Joshua watched Cream as she spoke, noting her change when she looked at the action duel, in particular the Dark dorm student. Her expression became rather emotionless and her tone a lot harsher then it had been before. He glanced at her then back towards the duel then back towards her again as she mentioned how not everyone was how they appeared to be. Just taking that into context with who she was looking at and the change in attitude, he could take a guess at what was going on.

Looking up at the ceiling he sighed and thought about things. He still barely knew anything about this girl and as such he could trust her that much. So... maybe a test was in order. He smiled at the thought as he stood up.
"I'm not going to give you a solid answer yet. I still know barely anything about you. However, I won't mind basing my response off a little action duel. If you pass my evaluation, I'll consider your proposal. But only if you accept and pass." He said, giving her a small smile. "So, up for a little fun?"

Camryn quickly thanked the student she asked before turning her attention to the duel, watching as Ryo quickly managed to turn the duel around and defeat his brother. The skill that both brothers displayed raised some eyebrows - hers, specifically. They must be pretty skilled to pull off stuff like that. She was about to shout something to Meio when everyone in the audience suddenly jumped into the pool! Camryn got utterly soaked, and again thanked her lucky stars that she had remembered to change into her swimsuit. After trying (futilely) to remove the water from her glasses again and spitting out a bunch of pool water, she moved towards Meio, who was now rather close to the edge of the pool. "Hey! You're Meio, right? I need to talk to you!"

@Joshua Tamashii@1Charak2

"Hmm... I can see that happening," Leander said to Vincent, appearing thoughtful as he had his hand on his chin. He could understand looking for new ways to make things interesting. Leander then turned his head back to look at Amelia and continued, "Oh, and this is..." Leander paused as he saw how frightened Amelia looked.

"Amelia? You alright?" Leander asked her, concerned for his friend.

Turning back to Vincent, Leander took a moment to consider the thought of a rematch Duel with Vincent, even if it was only a casual Duel for a chat. While he was still concerned for Amelia, this was too good of a chance to refuse. "Sure, I'll take you up on that offer," Leander said, taking his deck out and taking a seat. After sitting down, Leander looked back at Amelia and flashed her a thumbs up, saying, "Don't worry, Amelia, everything will be a-okay! Nothing to worry about here!"

---

@vancexentan

Michelle remained silent as she listened to Ben ramble on. She was used to remaining silent as others talked, though, so it didn't really bother her. In fact, she found herself starting to enjoy being in Ben's company as they headed towards their destination. "Yeah, sounds good," Michelle accepted, though she briefly wondered why he offered her a drink when he had already made a similar offer to her before chalking it up as simply passing the time as they walked. Thinking about time, though, she did still wonder where they were going, as her earlier remained unanswered.

"So.... where are we going?" Michelle asked again. The thought that perhaps he was lost or something came to mind, but she doubted that it was the case. Ben looked too capable for that. Probably.

"H-Huh?"

Genta was dumbstruck when Andre flat-out rejected his request to teach him, falling to his knees in despair. The earth dorm clutched up his fist, golden locks falling in front of his eyes. After a few seconds of self-pity, his open mouth closed and his eyebrows tightened downwards, the boy picking himself up from the floor and looking at Andre with determination. Andre himself had just gotten done picking up the Allure of Darkness from the unconscious dark dorm student. When Andre turned around and walked past Genta, the earth dorm turned as well.

"Well, then I won't back down!"

The earth dorm student, who'm had been a meek and cowardly mouse up until now, yelled this with steadfast determination. If Andre turned his head, he could see the boy swallowing his saliva and a droplet of sweat starting to trickle down his cheek.

"I don't care if you're as rough as broken glass, or you're only slightly older! You're the best duelist I've seen in the academy! I'm not going to let this chance slip me by! Even if you refuse and leave, I'll follow you!"

After staggering a bit from shouting so much, Genta regained his composure. His expression shifted from a determined stare to the meek mouse he'd been before.

---

Standing up, Joshua could see just how much taller he was that Cream- she barely reached chest height! Still, she didn't look the least bit phased as the boy began his own proposal. Cream's expression turned from amusement to a neutral boredom, as did her body language. She pulled one arm over her chest and let the other support on it, allowing her to rest her head in the palm of her hand. Her now half-closed eyes scanned Joshua up and down, as if evaluating him.

"...Really now. A duel. Originality galore!"

She sighed and used her supporting arm to pull out her hot-pink D-Ceiver, furiously typing away on the thing while her other arm just fell to her side. Curiously, her head remained tilted.

"I mean, I could duel ya right this moment buuut... 's a bit boring, don'tcha think? Hey, I got an idea!"

Her eyes brightened up as she showed Joshua her D-Ceiver, showing a small poll. There wasn't a question, but there were three choices: Spicy, Sweet and Salty.

"Pick a flavor! Once ya do, I'll see ya back here in like... Iunno, thirty minutes? I'll duel ya differently based on yer choice. Cool idea, huh?"

---

Lite was terrified. The box was violently shaking underneath Maisy's knee, and not even because the former wind-dorm student was trying to pull free. The shaking was entirely out of the fear-induced shivering Lite was performing. Sweat drops formed on his forehead as his deck was flashed in front of him, and all that kept him from screaming were Maisy's threats.

"Oh, I botched it up, oh man... I didn't sign up for this, oh please someone help me...!"

Lite was mumbling and closed his eyes, honestly expecting her to have already sent the picture and his entire dorm knocking on the door to laugh at him. Luckily for the dark dorm student, his saving grace was on the opposite end of the room. When Nathan had come down to squat next to the bed the nerves were starting to calm down ever so slightly. That's not to say he wasn't still terrified, as the box shook ever so violently.

"H-Honest, I wasn't up to anything b-bad! E-Exec just wanted me to scout this guy's room and look at his deck, see what cards he h-had! I swear, I wasn't going to steal them! I-I couldn't even find the cards! P-Please let me go, I don't want to get beat up agaaaain...!"

The boy was blubbering now, about to break down crying. Maisy really cut deep with her interrogation there.

---

Meio was about to jump back into the pool right as Camryn addressed him. The boy tried to stop his momentum as he was already preparing for the jump, but all that did was cause him to stumble right in and make a huge splash, covering the poor girl again. The water bubbled for a bit before Meio arose again, gasping for air. He shook the water out of his eyes and looked up to Camryn, a tad annoyed.

"H-Hey, what gives?! Don't scare me like that..."

The boy grabbed onto the pool's edge and climbed out, shaking his head so the water didn't drop out of his hair and into his eyes. He turned back to face Camryn, still having a slightly annoyed expression. When he got a good look at her though, his face twisted into a confident grin. Meio's fist rose up from next to him and proudly smashed against his chest.

"Yeah, I'm Meio! Gwahaha, I must have quite the reputation for the ladies to come and search me out all on their own!"

At that moment, it almost looked like the spiky-haired boy's nose grew a bit longer. After that little display of confidence, his expression mellowed out a bit as he lowered his head to look Camryn straight into the eyes.

"What'cha need? For you, I'll gladly be of service!"

Best to reel this fish in while it's not resisting...

---

Ethel's fury was still going strong when Angelo had sent her his message, and the effect he was going for with it was more than likely lost on her as she checked it. The only thing she got from his short message was more anger, figuring this jerk was telling her that she just sit back and watch him solve this mystery all on his own. Who did he think he was, Yugi Muto? Or no, better yet, Yuya Sakaki. A showboat who tried to impress people, only he didn't have any of the talent. Well, she wasn't going to ask for this braggart's help ever again! If he thought he was so much better than her at this, then let him think that. She'll figure it out on her own...

Meanwhile, Angelo didn't find any difficulty to get on the track. Strangely nobody was using it at this time, even though the thing would be filled with people trying to practice their steering at this hour. Angelo received some strange looks as he got onto the track and started to drive around. For a while, the only sound he could hear was his own engine's soft humming as he drove around. Then, in the distance, the roaring of another engine could be faintly heard. Before Angelo had any time to react, a road of light suddenly appeared in front of him that extended to the sky. Even though he tried to avoid it, his Duel Runner suddenly switched to Autopilot and forcibly took control away from Angelo, driving straight up the road.

To Angelo's left was the source of the distant engine. A long, purple runner had been revving up it's engines in the middle of the spectator area and launched itself from in between the audience seats, creating a bit of property damage. It landed on the road next to Angel as both runners drove up to the finish line, coming to a halt right in front of it. Behind Angelo, the road leading down had vanished. Surrounding him was a black-and-green dome, signifying the activation of a certain newly developed Speed World. The figure on the runner next to him was familiar- after all, he'd been searching for it not too long ago.

"Oh but you are such an obedient little puppy, it's adorable~!" a mocking, female voice spoke. Their gloved hand came up to their helmet, covering it's lower part as if it were a mouth while a giggle escaped the figure.

"Hey, it's me... the one you're looking for! I didn't quite expect the pieces to fall together quite this nicely, but while we're here... why don't we treat ourselves to a little turbo duel?"

Angelo had little choice, being up high in the air with little room for escape. Dismounting the runner and grabbing the woman would be equally futile, as she could just drive away.

"You're at a Duel Acedemy. What do you expect people to propose when it comes to settling an argument? A shokugeki?" Joshua said, shrugging in exasperation at the girl's reaction. Sides, with a duel, both sides at least got something out of it in terms of points and lord knows he could definitely use some for his next purchase. He didn't even recall how many points were needed for a box anyway, so saving up as much as possible seemed like a good idea. Snapping out of his thoughts once Cream started talking again, he listened to her proposal. He then glanced at his options before gaining a smile of his own. "I choose... D, all of the above."



Amelia just remained silent and nodded, sitting next to Leander as he took his seat. She watched as he and the Dark Dorm student. So far, he seemed friendly but appearances could be deceiving so she wasn't entirely sure she trusted him yet. But maybe the duel between him and Leander would tell her more about him and if he was at least friendlier then the other Dark Dorm members she had seen thus far.

Maisy had to feel bad...I mean, she meant for him to spill everything, but he looked ready to piss his pants. Like, literally, he probably hadn't used the bathroom and was doing his hardest. Taking a deep breath for a moment, Maisy looked down at Lite with an appraising stare, still having to maintain her psycho stalker image in order to keep up images...buuuuut...being a little nice couldn't hurt.

"Lite," Maisy started, reaching down and patting him on the top of his head. "I've seen you around with the dark dormies. I've seen the swirlies, the wedgies, the charlie horses...oh god have I seen the charlie horses...but I don't get it. I still want to know who exactly you're doing this for, but really, more important for you..." she said, before surprisingly relieving her pressure on the box on his chest, still maintaining her hold on his deck. If he tried anything funny...she hoped Nate had her back. "Why are you doing ANYTHING for losers like them who're too stuck-up or too scared of consequences to do their own dirty work? I SAW your entrance exam! You were AMAZING! And I may have even taken a few of your underwear stashed away to remember that you were good. So...why go Dark? Why STAY Dark? I mean, not to sound racist, but black is NOT your color." the girl exasperated, clearly enthusiastic about how HARD she stalked him. "...You're better than this. And we can help you prove it." she said, now sorta encroaching on Nate's Good Cop Territory.

"We're gonna make the Tower awesome again, and make the Dark Dormies pay for it. You're either with us or against us on this...and being against us means I just wasted my speech on how cool you were. And still can be." Maisy said, before grabbing Lite's collar with her free hand, and shaking him around like a goddamn maraca. "NOW TELL US BEFORE I SHOW THE WORLD YOUR ONE-HUNDRED EYED DRAGON!"