Turn 1: Mysterious Turbo Duelist
Angelo: 4000 LP, 5 cards in hand, 1 Speed Counter
Mysterious Turbo Duelist: 4000 LP, 5 cards in hand, 1 Speed Counter

The woman swiftly drew five cards and fanned them out in her wrist dealer, giving only a cursory glance at them.

"It seems I'll have to start off by going easy on you... what a shame! I'll set a monster, and that's all from me!"

A reversed card appeared next to the lady's Duel Runner, with the monster beneath being unknown.

Turn 2: Angelo
Angelo: 4000 LP, 6 cards in hand, 2 Speed Counters
Mysterious Turbo Duelist: 4000 LP, 4 cards in hand, 1 monster, 2 Speed Counters

Angelo growled as she took the first turn. Angelo trained like crazy to be able to get the first turn. This just meant that she had something extra in her duel runner to speed it up indefinetly. Angelo could only go so far with the parts allowed by the academy and this was a perfect example of how limited he was in terms of tech. He knew he had the talent to take her down if he had the right tools.

Angelo took his 5 cards from his deck and checked to see what he had available. Angelo gritted his teeth seeing that he didn't have much to work with considering the situation. Still, if nothing else he wouldn't be the one taken by surprise.

He then reached into his deck and said "My draw!" He said and drew another card which helped eleviate his stress a bit. He was seriously going to consider going to pool after this to relax.

"Let's get started! I summon Spear Dragon!" Angelo called out as he placed the card on his disk and the rainbow orb appeared before a loud screech was heard and the dragon was flying with a large head that pointed forward. Much like his name suggested, it was in the shape of a spear.

Spear Dragon: 1900 ATK 0 DEF Level 4 WIND Dragon

"Let's see whats your card is, Spear Dragon attack!" Angelo said and the dragon flew up before making a dive towards the card with great speed to literally pierce through the card. Spear Dragon's spear-like mouth struck true, with the monster revealed to be a small, cream-coloured insect with clear wings twice the size of it's body. It easily shattered, and 700 points of damage was dealt to it's controller.

Mysterious Turbo Duelist LP: 4000 > 3300

The woman in the front looked back at Angelo, and even though he couldn't see her face the boy could still sense that mocking smile underneath her helmet.

"Thank you, because when Pahrasy Harrissio is destroyed by battle, I can add my Pahrasy Wespe from my deck to my hand!"

A single card jutted out of the woman's deck, which she quickly flashed for Angelo to see. It pictured a small, winged creature not unlike a bee or wasp.

Angelo groaned and shook his head as he said "I knew you creeped the hell out of me for some reason," he said more annoyed than afraid. He hated bugs and he would enjoy crushing hers under the power of his dragons.

Once she finished with her card's ability, Angelo saw his dragon cover himself with his wings trying to defend itself. That was the downside of Spear dragon although he was powerful he had no defense to speak of. Angelo then said "Alright from, there I set two cards face down and end my turn!" Angelo said, placing the two cards down hidden from his opponent knowing that they would help in the end.

Turn 3: Mysterious Turbo Duelist
Angelo: 4000 LP, 3 cards in hand, 1 monster, 2 S/T, 3 Speed Counters
Mysterious Turbo Duelist: 3300 LP, 6 cards in hand, 3 Speed Counters

"Hm hm~! Then it's my turn to draw!" the woman sang, swiping the next card from the top of her deck. She took it and Wespe from her hand and flashed them to Angelo again.

"Aren't you lucky! With Pahrasy Cimicae's special ability, I can Special Summon it and Wespe from my hand!"

Two more bugs appeared on the woman's field, flying out of ranbow coloured vortexes. One was the wasp-ish creature Angelo saw before, barely the size of his wheels. It's black body contrasted with the brown, beetle-like appearance of Cimicae as it only let Angelo see it's glowing, teal eyes and hard shell.

Pahrasy Cimicae: 200 ATK 700 DEF Level 2 EARTH Insect Tuner
Pahrasy Wespe: 500 ATK 500 DEF Level 2 EARTH Insect

"Hey, you loooove Turbo Duels right? You absolutely must know how they came to be... during a time when Ener-D was the newest invention. People rode along with their monsters, and you know what kind of monsters those were, don't you? In fact... I can sense some of them from your deck." the woman teased Angelo.

"Don't lecture me on Turbo duels, you maggot. I know how Turbo duels came to be and I think about it every time I Turbo duel. The monsters you are referring to are Synchro monsters. They are the monsters that created a new way to summon powerful monsters by using special monsters called tuners and regular monsters. I am guessing it's because you are planning to tune and you wanted to feel superior about it, right?" He asked knowing it was obvious. He was getting tired of this cocky bitch talking down to him like this.

The woman laughed in response, letting go of her controls for just a moment to do a little clap for Angelo. "Wonderful! A passing grade! As I thought, you really love your Synchro monsters... but I'm afraid your conclusions on why I asked are a little off. Not that it matters... you'll do nicely as you are. But first, I tune my Level two Cimicae to my level two Wespe!"

Cimicae crawled forward on the track and burst into two futuristic green rings, which Wespe did a small loop around before flying in. The black bug turned into two glowing stars, causing a pillar of light to strike through the rings next to the woman's Runner.

"Using the clustering stars as nutrition, make them afraid of their own body. Synchro Summon, Level 4! Pahrasy Lynde!"

From the beam of light appeared a huge, grotesque worm. It was stark white in colour and didn't seem to have a mouth or even eyes, but the green slime oozing from the side of it's body implied there was more to this monster than met the eye.

Pahrasy Lynde: 1500 ATK 2000 DEF Level 4 EARTH Synchro Insect

"Lynde really never lets me down~! But her little friends help her out today, as Pahrasy Wespe gives 500 ATK to the Synchro Monster it is used as a material for!"

The black insect from before suddenly buzzed onto the track again, flying around Lynde. It rested atop the giant and bit into their flesh. If Lynde wasn't large enough already, this act only made it bigger.

Pahrasy Lynde: 1500 ATK > 2000 ATK

"Oh Lyyynde? Won't you crush that annoying little dragon?" the woman sweetly asked her monster, which floated over to Spear Dragon and let itself drop onto the poor thing. Unable to handle the weight, Angelo's monster shattered underneath Pahrasy Lynde.

"I think this is enough for now. I'll end my turn, but before I do, here's a little warning: A parasite attaches itself to a host and feeds off of them. Now have fun~!"

Turn 4: Angelo
Angelo: 4000 LP, 4 cards in hand, 2 S/T, 4 Speed Counters
Mysterious Turbo Duelist: 3300 LP, 4 cards in hand, 1 monster, 4 Speed Counters

Angelo watched through the situation as if he was not impressed. "Congrats, you got to summon a giant worm. I'm so scared. Just because you got that oversized maggot onto the field doesn't mean you won't go down the same way!" Angelo said before he drew from his deck and said "I Draw!" before he looked at the card he drew.

Angelo then smiled when he saw a perfect combo just waiting to start. "Time to show you what happens when you piss off a dragon! From my hand I summon Dragunity Militum," Angelo called out as he placed the card down on the field and from the orb came out an armored female in white and gold armor with what looked like metalic butterfly wings and two short swords in hand. When it came out it gave a spin before striking a battle pose.

Dragunity Militum: ATK 1700 DEF 1200 Level 4 WIND Winged beast

"Now she is a beautiful and strong monster but don't get used to her, the best thing about my deck is working the combo move. I sacrifice Militum to special summon one of the true dragons of my deck! From my hand I special summon Dragunity Arma Mystletainn, Take flight and soar to battle!" Angelo called out as Militum spun around once again and became a blue vortex and a large yellow armored dragon with a sword as big as its body but it seemed as if it was weightless. The large dragon was bigger then Angelo's duel runner and flew by his side.

Dragunity Arma Mystletainn: 2100 ATK 1500 DEF Level 6 WIND Dragon

"Now he has a special abilty as well, so let me show you. Now Mystletainn show her the power of dragons, attack her worm!" Angelo said as Arma Mystletainn flew forward and slashed the worm in half with its sword almost at lightning speed...

The Turbo Duelist in front reached out her hand to her dashboard, but then retracted it again. Because of this, Mystletainn was able to slice through Lynde without any worries whatsoever. The worm exploded after being cut in half, coating Mystletainn with some of it's green goo.

Mysterious Turbo Duelist LP: 3300 > 3200

"Well done! You brought out such a strong monster..."

Angelo smirked knowing that few things were stronger than his Arma types. The only things that were stronger were his knights. Her little parasites weren't going to take down his monster anytime soon and if she did, then he knew how to take her down still. "From there I end my turn."

Turn 5: Mysterious Turbo Duelist
Angelo: 4000 LP, 2 cards in hand, 1 monster, 2 S/T, 5 Speed Counters
Mysterious Turbo Duelist: 3200 LP, 5 cards in hand, 5 Speed Counters

"Then don't mind if I take mine! Draw!"

The turbo duelist gave a brief glance at the card she drew and calmly placed it in her wrist dealer.

"You're a lucky one, you know? My deck is kind enough to let you see another turn. As for this one... I summon Pahrasy Epipyro from my hand!"

Another insect came on the woman's field, brown and purple in colour with wings larger than it's body. It fluttered like a butterfly, but looked much more like a moth. It had a large sucker sticking out of it's face and their beady red eyes stared right through Angelo's monster.

Pahrasy Epipyro: 1500 ATK 0 DEF Level 3 EARTH Insect Tuner

"Epipyro likes company. Their species thrives on it. As such, I'll bring back my Wespe from the Graveyard!"

Epipyro whipped out it's sucker and stabbed into a vortex that opened up in the ground. It fluttered as hard as it could with it's wings to pull up the weight of Pahrasy Wespe, which buzzed next to the slightly larger bug.

Pahrasy Wespe: 500 ATK 500 DEF Level 2 EARTH Insect

With a snap of her fingers, the woman looked back at Angelo. She still had a sizeable lead, despite them having passed the finish multiple times already. "You know... I was expecting more of you. The last girl was boring, and you're so much more fun to tease! However... you clearly aren't even close to talented with Synchro monsters. It's a real shame, you know..."

He gritted his teeth as he watched the duelist bring out more bugs to annoy him and she started to say that he wasn't talented with synchros but, could anyone blame him? He only had two synchros in his deck! He really needed to go to the shop and specifically buy those synchro monsters he needed. He then said "Piss off, you masked maggot. Last time I checked I am the one who has the upper hand, all you have are a few bugs that need to be crushed!" He told her, waiting for her to end her turn so he could be done.

The woman waggled her finger back at Angelo, tutting underneath her helmet. "Is that so? Because last time I checked, there's a bug on your field too..."

Just as the woman said, a small red bug had planted itself in Mystletainn's neck.

"Surprised? Because when I banished Cimicae from my graveyard, a Pahrasy Counter was placed on your monster! Now... I tune my Level three Epipyro to my Level two Wespe!"

This time it was Epipyro's turn to burst into three neon green rings, taking their place next to the purple runner. Wespe dashed through and became the bright stars that got consumed by even brighter light.

"Using the clustering stars as nutrition, make them your eternal servant. Synchro Summon, Level 5! Pahrasy Slavante!"

From the bright light emerged another insect, this time with six legs. Its body was made up of three orbs, with the middle being the smallest one and the one in the back being more drawn out and with a stinger on the end. Their head was pointed and with small mandibles for a mouth. Two large antenna stuck out right above their bright green eyes, and the entire insect was coloured a brownish yellow.

Pahrasy Slavante: 2100 ATK 1800 DEF Level 5 EARTH Synchro Insect

Suddenly, Slavante's eyes glowed a bright red. The bug in Mystletainn's neck violently reacted to this act, biting in hard on the monster. Mystletainn tried to grab for it's neck and pull the damn thing off, but it was too small to effectively get rid of. Eventually, the struglling became weaker and weaker until the creature voluntarily joined the enemy's side of the field.

"Surprised? Slavante makes any monster she desires into her servant, as long as they have a Pahrasy counter of course~! Unfortunately, this comes with a price. The monster is severely weakened... but my Wespe makes sure my Slavante more than makes up for that!"

As Mystletainn shrunk and their muscles start to weaken, so did Wespe come back to mount Slavante and give them a small juice-up.

Pahrasy Slavante: 2100 ATK > 2600 ATK
Dragunity Arma Mystletainn: 2100 ATK > 1000 ATK / 1500 DEF > 1000 DEF

The turbo duelist forced their runner to turn around, suddenly driving backwards. The voice that Angelo hated so much started to speak again. "Now, let me show you the true terror of parasites... Slavante, attack together with your newfound toy!"

The insect had Mystletainn carry it on its back, making the monster suffer underneath the heavy weight. Slowly but surely they flew forward and slashed weakly at Angelo with its sword, letting the boy feel an actual sting that wasn't supposed to be there. Before he could recover from the pain, however, Slavante let out an ear-piercing screech. It visibly messed with Angelo's runner as it started to bug out and lose control, but not enough to make him go off track.

Angelo LP: 4000 > 400

The woman turned her Duel Runner around again, not looking back as she drove in front of Angelo. "Now... this is your last turn. Make it count."

Turn 6: Angelo
Angelo: 400 LP, 3 cards in hand, 2 S/T, 6 Speed Counters
Mysterious Turbo Duelist: 3200 LP, 4 cards in hand, 2 monsters, 6 Speed Counters

Angelo growled loudly and his skills saved him as he was able to stay on the track. He couldn't believe he was dealing with this BS! The stupid maggot was able to take over one of his most powerful monsters like it was nothing! He took a deep breath and calmed down as he looked at her and said "Don't...get...cocky! We arent Done!" Angelo said taking a deep breath before he drew the card and looked at it hoping he found the card that will save him...

Angelo sighed loudly seeing that the monster he drew wasnt one that would help. At least not at this point. However Angelo did have another chance "I play the spell card Angel baton!" Angelo said placing the card down as it appeared in front of him and his speed counters went down considerably but he needed one more draw.

Angelo Speed Counters: 6 > 2

Angelo drew two more cards from his deck and prayed to the gods of turbo dueling for help. Angelo then smiled hearing his prayers were answered and if this worked just right he would have his chance to win again. He removed one of the cards and sent it to the graveyard as it was meant to work.

He then said "From my hand I summon Twin-headed Behemoth!" Angelo told him as he placed the monster on the field as it appeared roaring loudly with both heads growling at the bug. Deep black and purple with both its arms acting as its heads.

Twin-Headed Behemoth: 1500 ATK 1200 DEF Level 3 WIND Dragon

"I activate another speed spell known as Silver Contrails!" Angelo said as twin headed behmoth's attack skyrocketed.

Angelo's Speed Counters: 2 > 1
Twin-headed Behemoth: 1500 > 2500 ATK

Angelo then said "Now Behemoth, go attack the traitor!" Angelo said, pointing at Arma as it charged forward and used both its head to grab the wing and the head and tear off viciously.

The woman, much like when Lynde attacked, reached out for her dashboard. Even more like back then, she also retracted her hand and let the monster on her side be destroyed. The head and wings were torn off, followed by an explosion as the woman's Duel Runner wobbled a bit, giving Angelo a bit of room to catch up. Unfortunately, the woman recovered in time to still drive in front of them.

Mysterious Turbo Duelist LP: 3200 > 1700

"Confident, aren't you? But my Slavante is still on the field, and your Behemoth won't continue to be this pumped up..."

"I know that, what's your point? he asked, knowing that if he could get another turn he knew he would win. However it seemed that he wouldn't get it.

"Hm... is that really all you can do, then? I'd hoped for more..."

"Consider yourself lucky, if I could draw once more I would win. Still, enjoy your victory now cause next time I will win, period." Angelo said with a sigh before he ended his turn and closed his eyes ready to accept his defeat.

Twin-headed Behemoth: 2500 > 1500 ATK

Turn 7: Mysterious Turbo Duelist
Angelo: 400 LP, 1 card in hand, 2 S/T, 2 Speed Counters
Mysterious Turbo Duelist: 1700 LP, 5 cards in hand, 1 monster, 7 Speed Counters

"Oooh? Is that a fact now? Well then, if you don't mind losing... Slavante!"

The brownish yellow insect let out that horrifying screech again, this time completely frying Angelo's controls. His Duel Runner couldn't eject in time and started to violently spin, threatening to fall off the light road. In a strange turn of events however, the female runner caught Angelo as his Runner was about to fall, though making sure to let him dangle off the side so he wouldn't try anything funny to her. Even though his runner crashed down below, he himself was safe.

Angelo LP: 400 > 0

The woman kept a tight grip on the boy as she drove down the holographic highway, making sure to give him a good view of the smoking and battered mess that was his Duel Runner down below. The road faded as she drove back to the floor, but she didn't go straight to the arena. The light road lead right into the desert, where the woman threw Angelo on a small hill of sand. She drove a bit further away to make sure he wouldn't try anything funny.

"As I thought, you student types are really weak... but I don't mind that. We were all weak once... but then we unlocked our true potential."

The masked figure looked up to the sun, darkened visor shielding them from the harsh light. Their words would have sounded nostalgic, if it weren't for that mocking undertone of hers. She then looked back at Angelo, face still hidden underneath their helmet.

"Yes, weak... but your soul cries out. Not only yours, many of the students here also cry out... but yours is one of the loudest. Unlike that girl's, who was as silent as a mouse..."

The woman tapped a button on her Duel Runner and a small container opened up. She took out a single card, with a border of white. A Synchro monster. She threw it to Angelo, who caught it right before it could hit his face. The card in question was named Phonon Pulse Dragon.

"Will this card make you louder or more silent? Who knows... but it's a perfect fit for a dragon tamer like you! Now... find what lies beyond Synchro. If you don't, you'll never be able to beat me!"

With a cackle, the woman revved up her engines again. Angelo had to shield himself from the sand thrown his way, causing the female to become cloaked. When the sand dissipated, the female Turbo Duelist was gone as well.

Turn 1: Joshua
Cream: 4000 LP, 5 cards in hand
Joshua: 4000 LP, 5 cards in hand

"Guess I'm going first." Joshua said, drawing and looking at his hand. Not a bad start he guessed. "I summon Fluffal Dog to my field."

Joshua's ever faithful companion appeared on the field, giving a few cute barks and wagging his taill happily while looking cheerfully at cream.

Fluffal Dog: 1700 ATK 100 DEF Level 4 EARTH Fairy

"Aah, Fluffals! I love these little things!" Cream yelled excitedly, crouching down to get on the same level as the plushy.

"My little buddy here must be a golden retriever, since he lets me fetch one Fluffal Monster or an Edge Imp Sabres from my deck to my hand." Joshua said, as his duel disk jutted out a card, which he grabbed before his deck got shuffled again. "I'm adding Edge Imp Sabres. I set one card face-down and my turn is over. You may kill me for the horrible dog puns now."

With that, Joshua jumped onto Fluffal Dog, who took off running.

Turn 2: Cream
Cream: 4000 LP, 6 cards in hand
Joshua: 4000 LP, 4 cards in hand, 1 monster, 1 Set card

"Is that it? Boo. Then it's my turn, I guess, so draw!" Cream rambled. As she looked at thecard she drew a smile came across her lips. The girl then took off running, trying to keep pace with Joshua.

"Time to start us off with a bang! I activate muh Brilliant Fusion!" Cream shouted, a contonuous Spell Card appearing next to her as she ran. Two cards jut out of her deck as she flashed them to Joshua, right before depositing them into her graveyard.

"By sending Gem-Knight Garnet and Performage Trick Clown from my deck to my graveyard, I can Fusion Summon! Beatiful garnet, become one with the trickster in this whirlpool of radiance! Fusion summon! Come forth, Gem-Knight Seraphnitite!"

"This might be a bit early, but I ain't letting you swarm me with her effect that easily. Trap Card open! Bottomless Trap Hole!" Joshua declared as his face-down turned face-up, revealing an image that many a duelist probably hated and loved in equal measure.

"Nice try plush-man, but for a Fusion student you're awfully out of date! Brilliant Fusion turns the monster's Attack and Defense to 0, so your Trap Hole's innefective!" Cream retorted with a wink as the brilliance of her Gem-Knight appeared from behind her. The girl's hair went in all kinds of directions as a powerful wind roared in the arena, making way for a beatiful lady in silver armor who pierced through the whrilpool of Fusion with her rapier. The Gem-Knight picked up cream and lifted her up on their shoulder, the girl crossing her legs as she looked down at Joshua.

Gem-Knight Seraphnitite: 2300 ATK 1400 DEF Level 5 EARTH Fairy
Gem-Knight Seraphnitite ATK: 2300 > 0 & DEF: 1400 > 0

"Well, I'm right fucked now." Joshua muttered as his trap went back face-down. Well, least it was still available unless she destroyed it. He gave her high odds of doing so though.

"However, the fun's only starting! I activate my Trick Clown's effect, as when he's sent to the Graveyard I can pay a small fee to bring him right back where he belongs!" Cream explained with a wink as her lifepoints took a small hit. From a bright hole in the ground a single ball bounced up, before bursting open to reveal a confused little clown with swirly eyes.

Cream: 4000 > 3000 LP
Performage Trick Clown: 1600 ATK 1200 DEF Level 4 LIGHT Spellcaster
Performage Trick Clown ATK: 1600 > 0 & DEF: 1200 > 0

Cream waved over to the crowd and gave them a wink, glancing downwards briefly to spot a stray action card on the gingerbread house's rooftop. Gem-knight Seraphnitite lowered it's shoudler to let her pick it up, but she deposited it right into her graveyard.

"Aren't I lucky! I mean, of course I am, but Brilliant Fusion allows me to send a Spell card to my graveyard to return Seraphnitite back to how she used to be, and I just got the Action Spell High Dive! So Seraphnitite's Attack becomes 2300 once again, y'know?"

"Yes, actually i do." Joshua shouted back.

Gem-Knight Seraphnitite ATK: 0 > 2300 & DEF: 0 > 1400

"Good, 'cause y'know I'm not done yet, right? I summon my Madolche Hootcake!" Cream continued on without a care, a small owl made of chocolate cake appearing on her field. It let out a joyous laugh, clearly enjoying itself.

Madolche Hootcake: 1500 ATK 1100 DEF Level 3 EARTH Beast

"And now, I banish the one and only Gem-Knight Garnet from my Graveyard to activate my owl's effect! I can Special Summon another tasty treat to the field, and what a treat it is! Come on my sweet kitty, Madolche Mewfuille!"

Hootcake began to sing a small song, with several small chocolate owl chicks starting to circle around it. In the middle of it's cacophony the owl suddenly choked and coughed. It coughed up a small, pink kitten. It's stubby legs and arms made it look somewhat like a stuffed animal. The creature looked around left to right before an orange, white-feathered hat suddenly dropped on it's head. It still looked a bit worried, but the hat calmed it down a little.

Madolche Mefuille: 500 ATK 300 DEF Level 3 EARTH Beast

Cream looked back over the crowd and waved at everyone, grinning from ear to ear. Some of the students began chanting 'Xyz! Xyz!' which caught her off-guard a little. "U-Uhm! Anyway, my turn's not over yet! Fusion isn't the only thing I can do! I now Overlay my Level 3 Mewfuille with my Level 3 Hootcake!"

The Overlay Network opened up in the middle of Sweets Island, turning both Hootcake as well as Mewfuille into two bright, orange and unstable bundles of light. They swirled around each other for a bit before converging in the middle and creating a huge explosion.

"Unmoving Mountain! Take the souls of stray wanderers and fulfill their grudge! Xyz Summon, Rank 3! Rampage, Soul of Silvermountain!"

Soul of Silvermountain: 1800 ATK 2200 DEF Rank 3 EARTH Rock

"I might as well. Do I even need to declare this? You know what's coming." Joshua said, stifling a yawn as he opened his trap again, hopefully to some effect this time.

"Aww, you're no fun!" Cream pouted. She rested her head in her palm as the Soul of Silvermountain ascended on the field from a brilliant explosion, but a crater opened up beneath it to swallow it up as soon as it took ground. The behemoth that was the literal size of a mountain sank away into nothing mere moments after its descent.

"To be fair, you knew it was there and you either baited that out or you simply got too excited and forgot." Joshua said, mimicking Cream and putting his head in his palm.

Cream giggled and winked at Joshua. "Would I really do that to you, Mr. Fluffal?"

"Yes you would. Trickster and liar. Never giving a direct answer. Untrustworthy. Shall I continue?" Joshua said, his tone nonchalant.

Cream pretended to bewounded, theatrically falling backwards from Seraphnitite, who caught her before she did anything crazy. The girl was lowered onto the floor, picking up another card from her hand.

"Well, since you know all my tricks, you know Seraphnitite allows me to summon another monster from my hand! I summon the Tuner monster, Ghost Ogre and Snow Rabbit!

From a small ball of light emerged a tired girl, wearing traditional Japanese garments and who's white hair, tied up in twin tails, reaches all the way down to her waist. She had small, red horns on the top of her head. A serpent-like creature with red eyes and a marking between them nestled itself comfortably on her shoulder.

Ghost Ogre and Snow Rabbit: 0 ATK 1800 DEF Level 3 LIGHT Psychic Tuner

"Wow, there is a cute girl in the school. Shame she's a monster card." Joshua said, a hint of a smile on his face.

Cream visibly flinched for a second before regaining her composure, shaking her head. "Wow, you're a bit of a trickster yourself, aren't you? But you see, Tuners are used for one thing... and that's a Synchro Summon! I tune my Level three Ghost Ogre to my Level four Clown!"

"I think you need a dictionary." Was Joshua's simply response. "And synchro summoning after summoning a Tuner. Such a revolutionary concept. Please, teach us these ways we lesser mortal can't ever comprehend."

Cream and her monsters ignored Joshua as Ghost Ogre burst into three green rings, lining up in the sky. The clown looked panicked, but he balanced on his staff and took a leap of faith to get into the three rings. When he did, the small monster panicked a little as nothing happened for a little bit, flailing their arms before turning into four bright stars. A giant pillar of light soon envoloped the three rings.

"Connect with the minds of the gifted, use your powers as they were meant to! Synchro Summon, level 7! Come, Psychic Lifetrancer!"

A green-skinned, black-haired woman appeared from the glowing pillar of light. She would have looked relatively normal even in her blue, skin-tight suit if it hadn't been for the fact that her left arm and leg were completely cybernetic. There was a device that covered her head who's red lamp flickered a little, keeping her psychic powers in check.

Psychic Lifetrancer: 2400 ATK 2000 DEF Level 7 EARTH Psychic

The crowd suddenly roared to life with Cream's Synchro Summon, bursting with excitement over her using all three summoning methods. The girl herself looks a little less confident compared to before, awkwardly waving before turning back to her opponent.

"I'll never get used to this... anyway, time to keep going! Lifetrancer's got an effect, y'know? I banish a Psychic monster from my Graveyard and recover some life, so I think I'll do just that! I banish my Ghost Ogre and Snow Rabbit!"

The metal device on Lifetrancer's head flashed to life as she reached out her still-organic hand. Her eyes started to glow as a brightly coloured vortex opened up to release Ghost Ogre from. She floated up onto the field before becoming nothing but a soft orange aura which enveloped and refreshed Cream.

Cream LP: 3000 > 4200

"And with all that out of the way, let's get back into the action! Lessee... Lifetrancer! Attack the cute plush-doggy!"

This time, Lifetrancer raised up it's cybernetic arm. A black, crackling ball of energy formed in front of it and it took a little bit to become large enough. Once it was, Lifetrancer sent it hurling right at Joshua.

"Shit." Joshua muttered, as Fluffal Dog proceeded to book it. He looked around for an Action Card and quickly found one on top of the gingerbread house. He stood up on dog and waited for the house to be close enough before jumping off his monster and grabbing the ledge of the roof. He kicked off the wall and flipped over and onto the roof before dashing and grabbing the card. A trap. Cursing to himself, the card left his hand and played itself, revealing it to be 'Tummy Ache'. His Fluffal Dog suddenly stopped in it's tracked and rolled over, looking like it was in pain.

Fluffal Dog ATK: 1700 > 1200

The black ball of energy connected and a huge amount of force was released, making the rooftop and ground shake as well as the chocolate lake ripple. Some of the lollipops even fell over, of which one crushed the already beaten dog into nothing but small shards of light.

Joshua LP: 4000 > 2800

"Ouch! That's gotta sting, huh? But sorry to say, I'm not going to go easy on your for it! Seraphnitite, show 'im what you're made of!" Cream excitedly commanded. Seraphnitite unsheathed the rapier hanging from her waist and dashed forward, striking the walls of the gingerbread house Joshua was standing on. With just a few stabs the foundation became too unstable to support its own weight and it collapsed in on itself.

Joshua wasn't going to take being hit lying down. The damage had yet to hit him before it was dealt, but he had very few escape routes. Glancing around, he decided to have some fun. He jumped off the gingerbread house, but rather than away from the rapier, he jumped on it and used it as a springboard to launch himself away into a giant chocolate cake near the house, crashing into the treat and vanishing within. Luckily, there was an action card inside and he grabbed it. He frowned at the sight of it but kept it anyway. It might prove useful later.

Joshua LP: 2800 > 500

Seraphnitite returned to Cream's field and lifted her up to their shoulders again. The girl cheerfully waved with both hands at the crowd and grinned from ear-to-ear.

"Did you like my show, everyone? But the duel's not over yet! My opponent still has some life left, so don't go anywhere, okay~?"

The girl's attitude was strikingly different every time she interacted with the crowd, because her playful face from before returned as soon as she glanced back at Joshua.

"And all that on the second turn! Didya like it? Because with one set card, it's over now. Show me whatchu got!"

Turn 3: Joshua
Cream: 4200 LP, 2 cards in hand, 2 monsters, 1 S/T
Joshua: 500 LP, 6 cards in hand

"The deal is off by the way." Joshua's voice said from within the cake. He walked out and looked down at Cream, his expression unamused. He had already drawn his card but felt no need to annouce it.

Cream raised an eyebrow and rested her head in the palm of her right hand again. She began to speak with much less enthousiasm all of a sudden. "Go figure. He starts losing and he can't take it. What gives?"

"Losing is all fine and good. It's the way the game goes. The problem is you yourself. You seem too unpredictable, too two-faced. Give me one reason to trust you?" Joshua said.

Cream sighed and jumped off of Seraphnitite with a little flip, landing on the ground without issue. She brushed her long hair from her shoulder to show the emblem on her coat, a symbol of the sun. A symbol of the sun deity Ra, a circle with two wings alongside it. Her face was now dead serious, lacking any playfulness from before.

"Because I cared about this school enough to make it to the top," she flatly stated.

"I'm many a person can claim that. Doesn't mean it's true." Joshua said. "From my hand, I summon Fluffal Dog. With his effect, I add Fluffal Cat to my hand."

Once again, the cute plushie dog appeared on his field and Joshua retrieved a card from his deck.
"Next, I use Polymerization to fuse together my Edge Imp Sabres and Fluffal Cat. Claws of the demon, fangs of the beast. Come together to form a demonic hunter. Fusion Summon! Frightfur Wolf!" Joshua said. As he chanted, the monsters he was fusing appeared behind him. Edge Imp Sabres turned into a red ball and Fluffal Cat into a purple ball before becoming a swirling mass behind him. From that, a plushie wolf jumped out before something within began moving around and ripping it apart, extening it's legs with sciccor blades and forcing its mouth open, revealing a pair of demonic red eyes within.

Frightfur Wolf: 2000 ATK 1500 DEF Level 6 DARK Fiend

"Next, with Fluffal Cat's effect, I get Polymerization back to my hand. Then, I return on card to the top of my deck to special summon Edge Imp Sabres from my grave in defense mode." Joshua said, as the row of sciccors appeared on his field.

Edge Imp Sabres: 1200 ATK 800 DEF Level 3 DARK Fiend

"And once again, Polymerization! I use my Fluffal Dog and Edge Imp Sabres. With these two, I'll give you at least a consolation prize. Fusion Summon, Adreneline Rusher!" Joshua said. From the swirling mass behind him, a tall, lean, dark-skinned humanoid jumped out and landed on the field. He was wearing a pair of tight red shorts with a jersey covering his upper torso. Attatched to his back was some kind of mechanical device with several tubes filled with some sort of chemical substence. His head was covered by a futuristic visor that covered his eyes but kept his cocky grin in full view as he stood up and looked over at Cream's monsters, his arms folded across his chest.

Adreneline Rusher: 2500 ATK 2000 DEF Level 8 EARTH Warrior

"...Dual Fusion Summoning. I wasn't wrong with thinking you were a Fusion student." Cream commented, taking a step back to lean against the leg of Seraphnitite. Her face betrayed she wasn't worried in the slghtest, though.

"Remind me... that disk wasn't your only prize, was it? 'cause I've never seen this monster before." Cream inquired, lazily pointing at Adrenaline Rusher.

Joshua shrugged. "Seems the wind has been taken from your sails due to what I said earlier. Where did all that energy go? Aren't you going to put on a show for this audience? Or are you just shallow and only willing to do so when there's something in it for you?" He inquired.

"No. Because the duel's already been decided," Cream responded, pushing herself off of Seraphnitite. A beaming smile crept up on her face again as she place her right hand on her hip.

"But, hey, y'know, I can always be like this. No problem! Thought ya wanted me to be serious and not ''''two-faced'''' but, hey, your call!"

"Not serious. Honest. I can't tell when you're wearing a mask and when you're not. Sides, I might have said the deal was off the table. But I never said I wasn't willing to give you other chances." Joshua said. "You're strong, there is no denying that. But I value trust over strength. I'm not sure I can trust you. So, let me see what you're truly like, on and off the dueling field, and maybe I'll give you the thumbs-up. How does that sound?"

Cream used her finger to pull down her eyelid and stuck out her tongue to Joshua, before bursting out in laughter.

"No way! You think you're testing me? Oh, that's great. But, y'know, I don't think you get why I was posin' as an Earthy in the first place, ya know?"

"Trying to be a super spy? I mean, you're no SPYRAL but still, very sneaky and tricksty of you." Joshua said, an slightly amused smile on his face now. He kinda liked this back and forth.

"How about we finish it up here, first, Joshy? Wouldn't want to keep our audience waiting." Cream replied again, smiling.

"As the goddess of thieves demands." Joshua said with a mock bow. "I activate Adreneline Rusher's skill. I increase his attack points by 500 and destroy one monster of my choice that's face-up on the field. Seraphanitite seems like a good target to me."

The device on Rusher's back whirled to life as the substance was injected into him, causing him to gain more muscle. He let out a roar as he slammed his fist into the ground, causing a shockwave to head towards the Gem-knight monster. Cream didn't even flinch as it hit right behind her, causing Seraphnitite to explode and her hair to agressively fly forwards.

Adreneline Rusher ATK: 2500 > 3000

"Magical Cylinder? Possible. More likely to be one of the Mirror Force cards though." Joshua muttered, looking at the field then at his hand "Turn end."

Cream blinked once. Then twice. Then three times. For the first time in the duel, she seemed to be seriously caught off-guard. "Wait, honest? Really? Just like that? Uhm... alright! I guess I'll finish it right here, then!"

"Attacking seemed reckless. The duel is already over, you said. So, what difference does it make?" Joshua said with a shrug.

Turn 4: Cream
Cream: 4200 LP, 3 cards in hand, 1 monster, 1 S/T
Joshua: 500 LP, 2 cards in hand, 2 monsters

"Alright, everyone! Watch as I finish this off with my own Fusion Summon! It's my turn to draw!" Cream excitedly shouted at the crowd, doing a little twirl as she drew her card. She quickly exchanged what she drew for another card in her hand. Flashing it to Joshua, it looked to be another Brilliant Fusion.

"Really, though, I thought you'd at least *try* to finish me off that turn... I coulda finished it earlier, but that was no fun! Ah, well, with my second Brilliant Fusion I fuse two Gem-Knight Lapis from my deck!" Cream shouted again. The two identical girls jumped out from behind her, coloured a soft, grayish brown and having sparkling violet eyes.

"Lapis Lazuli." Joshua said suddenly. "EARTH attribute monster, with the fusion requirement of Gem-knight Lapis and one other Gem-Knight monster, that'll let you burn me for 500 or more damage and thus ending the duel. All you need to do is send on monster from your Deck or Extra Deck with Gem-Knight in it's name to the grave. So yes, the duel is over."

Cream stomped her foot in frustration and a pout crept over her face. Angrily, she said "Hey! No explaining my effects before I do! Ghuu, you make me not even want to chant anymore..."

"I'm not apologizing for you using the monsters who's effect I memorized since I used them back home." Joshua said, placing his hand on top of his deck, causing his monsters to slowly fade away.

As the Action field started to vanish, so did the mood. The previously excited crowd suddenly fell silent for a few moments. Then, suddenly, booing came. Cream looked extremely worried as several students started to throw their trash into the arena. It seems this crowd didn't take surrendering lightly, and neither did Cream.

"Oooh, now look at what you've done! This duel's completely ruined now... C'mon, let's get out of here!"

WINNER: CREAM!

Whether or not Joshua agreed to it didn't matter to Cream, since she had grabbed his arm and bolted out before the rotten tomato's were thrown. Despite here petite body she had a bit of muscle in her pull. Once they were far away enough from the Action arena, on the road to the academy, Cream turned around with a huff. She did not look amused.

"Oooh, you're the worst! I mean, c'mon! Surrendering? Right before your opponent could finish? When you were the challenger!? Do you have like, no respect? For either the crowd or your opponent?"

Cream sighed and ran her head through her hair, turning around and taking a few more steps away from Joshua. Then she turned around again, a stupefied look on her face and with one hand opened.

"Urgh, whatever, I don't want your stinkin' info anyway! You're the kinda first year I! Can't! Stand! They come here, act like a freakin' hotshot and duel erryone as long as they think they can win! Then, when they don't, they continue to act arrogant and refuse to admit their own faults! Hell, I didn't even want to duel, but I at least wanted to show you to not judge on first look! But you can't even do that! Aaaargh, everything's awful now!"

Frustrated, Cream turned around again and ruffled her hair some more, before taking out a hairband from her coat. She tied up her loosened hair again, returning the ponytail she had before. Turning her head back, she glared at Joshua.

"Just... just go. You're awful."

Turn 1: Leander
Leander: 4000 LP, 5 cards, 0 Mon, 0 S/T
Vincent: 4000 LP, 5 cards, 0 Mon, 0 S/T

"Alrighty then, here we go!" Leander said before examining his hand. "First, I'll place these two cards face-down, then I'll set a monster too. Turn End!"

Turn 2: Vincent
Leander: 4000 LP, 2 cards, 1 Mon, 2 S/T
Vincent: 4000 LP, 6 cards, 0 Mon, 0 S/T

"I draw." Vincent began as he added the card from his deck to his hand. eyeing his options he looked towards his opponents somewhat defensive board. "I activate my Spell card, Allure of Darkness" He said as he drew two cards. It was a risky move as he didn't have any DARK monsters in his hand to start with. He sighed as he banished his Chaos Sorceror. "Next I activate my Mystical Space Typhoon, targeting the first card you set." He said tapping it lightly with his fingers.

Leander frowned sadly as he placed his now-destroyed Negate Attack into the Graveyard pile. "Aww, I needed that," Leander said.

"Negate Attack? Interesting," Vincent said as he conintued his turn. "Next I'll activate Foolish Burial, sending my 'Chaos Emissary - Split Persona' from my Deck to my Graveyard." Vincent continued. "This allows me to Special Summon 1 Chaos Emissary Gateway."

Chaos Emissary - Different Dimension Gateway
Level 6 DARK Effect Monster
ATK/DEF: 0/2100

"The effect of my Split Persona activates, allowing me to send one Chaos Emissary Lux from my Deck to my graveyard." Vincent said as he placed the monster from the deck into the graveyard. "Now the effect of my Gateway activates, Special Summoning Split Persona from the Graveyard in Attack Position."

Chaos Emissary - Split Persona
Level 4 LIGHT Effect Monster
ATK/DEF: 1600/1000

"Battle phase, I attack your face down monster with Chaos Emissary Split Persona." Vincent said as he motioned to what he was attacking.

Leander's face-down monster was revealed to be Nova Summoner, and then it was promptly destroyed. "I activate the effect of Nova Summoner!" Leander began. "When it's destroyed by battle and sent to the Graveyard, I can Special Summon a Level 4 or lower LIGHT Fairy-type monster from my Deck." He picked up his deck and began searching through it, muttering, "Hmm what should I Summon...." Fortunately, Leander was quick to make his decision, exclaiming, "I'll Summon you!" as he pulled out a card and placing it on the field. "Freya, Spirit of Victory, in Defense Position! Also, Freya gives 400 ATK and DEF to all Fairy-type monsters I control."

Freya, Spirit of Victory
Level 1 LIGHT Effect Monster
ATK/DEF: 100/100 -> 500/500

"Annoying, but what can you do." Vincent said as he hung his head in slightly annoyance. "I set two cards and pass my turn to you." He said finishing off his turn with what could only be described as a slight loathing.

Turn 3: Leander
Leander: 4000 LP, 3 cards, 1 Mon, 1 S/T
Vincent: 4000 LP, 1 cards, 2 Mon, 2 S/T

"My turn!" Leander said, drawing his next card. As he glanced at his drawn card, Leander's eyes lit up. "There you are," Leander said as he returned his attention to the board. "I activate the Spell card: Court of Justice! This allows me to Special Summon one Fairy-type monster from my hand as long as I control a Level 1 Fairy-type monster. Using this effect, I Special Summon Airknight Parshath!"

Airknight Parshath
Level 5 LIGHT Effect Monster
ATK/DEF: 1900/1400 -> 2300/1800

Leander grinned with delight as he placed down his cards. Things were going alright so far. "Battle Phase! My Airknight Parshath attacks your Chaos Emissary - Split Persona!" Leander declared, pointing at Vincent's card.

Vincent frowned again as his monster was destroyed, resulting in the depletion of his Life Points. Simple enough, but he had just lost the monster he wanted to attack with, nevertheless.

Vincent 4000 -> 3300

"And now that Airknight Parshath dealt some battle damage, his effect allows me to draw 1 card," Leander explained, drawing another card from his deck. "I'll just place this card face-down and end my turn."

Turn 4: Vincent
Leander: 4000 LP, 1 cards, 2 Mon, 3 S/T
Vincent: 3300 LP, 2 cards, 1 Mon, 2 S/T

Vincent looked at his hand then back to the field. This was gonna be completely fun and fair right? Right? Well, at least he had set a useful card. "Trap Activate, Trap Stun!" Vincent said smiling as he flipped the card over.

Leander got a sense of foreboding when Trap Stun was activated. Perhaps it was the fact that Trap Stun was activated without Leander activating something first, or perhaps it was just simply panic at seeing it. Either way, Leander reacted quickly. "I activate Lightforce Sword!" Leander countered. "The card in your hand, not the one you drew this turn, is now banished face-down until your 4th Standby Phase."

"The card you banished" Vincent said with a sort of show mans flair as he twirled it in his fingers placing it down. "Mystery Shell Dragon." He said with a smirk."You missed." he said with a menacing tone.

"Agghhh," Leander yelled out in dismay, placing a hand on his eyes as he threw his head back. "Oh well, it happens."

"Next I'll banish my Chaos Emissary Lux and My Chaos Emissary Split Persona to Special Summon one of my two ace monsters. You may have seen him before." Vincent said as he placed his card down on the table. "I Special Summon Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning," Vincent said as he placed the card face up in ATK position on the table.

"Effect of Chaos Emissary Lux occurs, negating the effect of one monster you control, I negate the effect of 'Freya, Spirit of Victory'," Vincent said as he continued "Next, Chaos Emissary - Split Persona. Using its effect, I send one Electromagnetic Turtle from my deck to the graveyard.

"Battle Phase!" Vincent declared as he motioned to the two targets. "First my Envoy shall attack Freya." Vincent said imaginging the sword of the sword against the fairy. Then Envoy triggers again attacking, your Parshath." He said with a slight flourish.

"That hurts, man," Leander said, placing his now-destroyed monsters into the Graveyard pile. "Just you wait, though, I'll get you back, or at least I'll try."

Leander 4000 -> 2900

Turn 5: Leander
Leander: 2900 LP, 2 cards, 0 Mon, 2 S/T
Vincent: 3300 LP, 0 cards, 2 Mon, 1 S/T

"My turn! Draw!" Leander said, drawing with a flourish of his own. "Hmm.... I'll set this monster and end my turn," Leander said.

Turn 6: Vincent
Leander: 2900 LP, 1 cards, 1 Mon, 2 S/T
Vincent: 3300 LP, 1 cards, 2 Mon, 1 S/T

"Draw." Vincent said as he drew his next card. "Battle Phase, attacking again with the Envoy," Vincent Said as he pointed at the face down.

Leander flipped up his card, revealing it to be a Counselor Lily before sending it to the Graveyard. "Well, that's the last bit of defense I got," Leander said, sad to see his card destroyed so mercilessly.

"B.L.S, rise again, strike while the iron is hot. Direct Attack!" Vincent declared.

Leander: 2900 LP -> 0 LP

"Noooo!" Leander cried out as his Life Points were sent to zero, leaving back heavily against the chair he was sitting on. Sighing, Leander straightened back up and said, "Thanks for the match, man. Looks like my deck and I got a lot of work ahead of us."

"Yea yea yea, I get it. People need work, not everyone is strong enough. Thats how I even ended up in the DARK Dorm in the first place." Vincent said almost sounding like he was loathing himself. "It's fine though. So... The question is: what now?"

"I dunno about you, but I gotta get to work on improving my deck, figure out what went wrong and how to improve from there, and all sorts of other stuff," Leander answered, moving a finger in a circle absentmindedly.

"Well, It obviously needs a better way to handle attrition based decks. Maybe focus on monsters with a bit more ATK and you'll be okay. Otherwise focus on beefing the spell and trap cards you already have." Vincent said with a slight wave off as if to act as if he had just given a gospel truth.

"Yeah, maybe you're right," Leander said. Getting up from his chair, he announced, "Well, time to go find some new cards! I'm coming for you, new friends!" Leander then began marching off towards the shelves of card packs, humming a tune he had just made up.

Cream had her back turned to Joshua when he had started to ramble on. She was already a few steps further away from the boy before freezing in place as he kept talking. Slowly, the small girl turned her head. Her eyes stood wide and her grin was noticeably faked. She looked about ready to snap at him, pacing back towards Joshua again.

"You're serious?" she replied, still keeping up that grin. There was only about a step or two between them now as she looked up at Joshua. When she did, Cream's forced grin turned into a scowl, with her knuckles going white from tightening up too much.

"I... can't believe you. How did you ever get into Wind Dorm? No, why were you even allowed into this academy?" she asked him, putting forth her left foot.

"You clearly have no faith in your deck. You don't even try to win. You actually do things you don't feel comfortable with in duels. For what? Isn't there even an inkling of a duelist in you? Aren't you anything like our heroes past? With a heart which never gives up, who believes in their deck, who faces challenges without fear? A heart that enjoys dueling, a heart that wants to win? A heart that believes no deck is useless?"

Cream's voice shook with anger as she stepped back again, taking a deep breath to calm herself. Then, she continued her own little tirade.

"I've done nothing but work hard, trying to surpass myself. I have struggled from Earth, all the way up to Divine. I couldn't ever give up, not in a duel, not in my studies. And here you are... giving this school, me and all other students a bad name because you don't want to put even the tiniest amount of effort into anything! You just want the strongest cards in the world and be on top of everything, without having to put any actual work into it. You know how Dark Dorm students are looked down upon? Well, at least they're not you. At least that dorm's filled with real duelists. You may be a duelist, but not a true one. You're just a coward!"

And with that, Cream bolted away from Joshua. Her face was completely red from the fury she'd just unleashed onto the boy. She sprinted faster than before, leaving no time for the black-haired boy to catch up to her at all. All he was left with was a small breeze that whisked away some sand from the spot she stood.

As Nathan crouched down to the fearful boy, Lite violently shook his head.

"I-I can't, honest! E-Exec's just Exec, he didn't give any of us a name!"

Lite cowered and clearly expected something to happen to him as he shrunk into himself, but then felt a wave of confusion and relief wash over him as Maisy's fist slammed down next to his head. He was still in shock when Maisy fixed him up nice and proper, releasing him from his cardboard tomb. His already wet eyes broke down into even more tears as she lectured him on how the dark dorm was just using him, the guy burying his head in his hands.

"I...! I...! I just wanted it all to stooop... E-Even if they used me, I just wanted it to stooop...!!"

Blubbering incoherently, Lite was completely broken. Even after Maisy and Nathan left the room, he was still crying and holding himself. There might have been some trouble if the boy hadn't recovered by the time Meio was back, but that wasn't their problem anymore.

"S-Self centered? Why you...!"

Ethel snapped back at Angelo as he tried to talk things over again, but her anger didn't last long. She listened to the rest of his story, albeit begrudgingly and softened up the longer he talked. When he finally got around to saying he 'wanted to be with her,' she flinched and took a step back instinctively.

"Don't get full of yourself! I'm perfectly fine on my own!"

Her face was a mixture of confusion, anger and embarrassment as she blurted that out, loud enough to gather a few stares from the crowd. For once, Ethel's serious persona was broken as her face became redder by the second. She didn't even register the part where he said to find what lies beyond synchro as she was too focused on her current predicament.

"G-Get out of here! Now!! Or I'll move you out!" she barked back at Angelo, before forcefully shoving him out and turning back to her own Duel Runner. He left her alone, as asked, but she didn't get any progress in with her own investigation. She was dying inside a little bit too much for that.

Hayato easily found his way to the Ritual classroom as many of the students brushed up on Ritual 101 here. It was one of the few classrooms with a sliding door that didn't automatically open, so when Hayato knocked he only got a single eye staring back at him through a small opening.

"W-Welcome... are you here to join o-our occult club?" a voice asked from the other side. Hayato replied saying he did, which was of course a bold lie to get into the classroom. The shy kid slid open the door to reveal a pretty sloppy appearance, despite wearing a light dorm jacket. Said jacket was a size too large as the boy's hands were hidden inside of the sleeves. His eyes had bags under them and part of his face was covered by his black, medium length, unkempt hair. Hayato was also a good 10 cm taller, giving off a pretty imposing impression. The boy lead Hayato inside of the classroom, which was illuminated only by candle light. The classroom's cool blue paint job was more of a shadowy purple in the dim light, with the ritual props that were normally scattered about being neatly assembled around a chalk circle in the middle.

Hayato talked to the boy, who had introduced himself as Ivan Nosferatu and his equally unhealthy looking club members for a little while. Eventually, the conversation got around to rumors of monsters coming alive courtesy of Hayato. Ivan explained that they believed it was possible to summon a Duel Monster into the human world by using very specific rituals, but in order for it to be permanent they'd need a magical artifact of some kind to bind them to this realm. Unfortunately, they're still doing research into the exact workings of such a ritual. The occult club was slightly curious about summoning monsters into the world, but wouldn't dare make it permanent. Hayato continued to spend some time digging into the activities the club was researching, but didn't find much more for the day.

"H-Hey! Wait just a-!"

Meio shouted after Camryn, but she had already gone off and decided things on her own. The boy sighed and resigned himself to his fate, jumping straight back into the pool to get things off of his mind. The day quickly came to an end after that, with the three who set out to find those cards coming together to discuss what they found out. Saturday rolled around soon enough and Camryn dueled against Meio, but was unable to secure a victory against him. Meio explained to her afterwards that he wasn't going to give it up in a duel either, but he played along because she wasn't going to let it go that easily. They eventually settled on having Camryn tutor him a little for his algebra classes, because the guy wasn't exactly a genius on that front.

Having successfully gathered both cards, the group met up again to discuss the next plan of action. Haas decided against going to Steel himself, as he didn't really know who he was. Nathan wound up getting the short end of the stick again, because he was the one who struck the deal to begin with. Maisy tagged along so Nathan wasn't alone and because she just felt like it. The two of them managed to secure a meeting with Steel after some digging around the Dark Dorm, with the meeting being right inside the academy's Gym.

Steel had happily accepted the cards, keeping his word on explaining the Ante dueling thing and the real damage, but nothing more. The first thing he talked about was the real damage, a cocky smirk plastered on his face as he explained what happened in the duel. Steel proudly slammed his fist against his chest as he explained that the strongest duelists can 'see' the real potential of the monsters they use to duel. After honing your skills for a while, you get a stronger connection to your cards compared to any other, although, Steel cheats a bit. All the older boy gave as explanation was a brief glimpse at his Infestation Symbiosis field spell, but refused to comment further.

The more amusing answer, to Steel at least, was explaining why the Ante duels were happening. The exact words he spoke were; "'Cause of what you suckers gave me! Rare cards!" and he howled in laughter afterwards. Steel and his cronies were only interested in hauling all the rare cards to themselves, but he wasn't silly enough to explain why he needed them so much. After all, he answered the question. As soon as he did, dark dorm students grabbed Maisy and Nathan by the arms to drag them out.

"Oh, n'd a fair word of warning? I like ya, but yer not safe either." Steel had told them with a smirk, right before they were thrown out. When Maisy and Nathan rushed back to the gym, Steel and most of his crew had already vanished.

After the second run-in with Steel, time passed by quickly in the academy. Despite the best efforts of the investigation group, the trail had gotten cold again on both Steel and Exec. In all the time that passed, the Dark Dorm's growth had slowed down... but unfortunately, there were also some drop outs from the academy which lowered the student count over all. The staff seemed to be worried, but even trhough various detentions and punishments, the gigantic mass of dark dorm students didn't seem to shrink even the tiniest bit.

It was about a month or two later after the last time the group saw some big brass from the Dark Dorm, a solid four months into the year over all. Winter had come for most of the world, but the desert was still as blazing hot as ever. Studies have been going good for most students, but some people struggled to keep up. The investigation group hung out with each other regularly and while most of them weren't really major friends, everyone had come to accept everyone else as 'part of the gang' more or less. They even set up a little group chat on their D-Ceivers.

A while ago the academy announced that people would already be placed into different dorms based on performance. It turned out to not be at the time it was announced, but Melchior wrote up the script and some clarity was clearly lost in translation. The real first big shift in dorms was going to happen in this month, where other schools would be having their first major exam period. Each year of students had one week dedicated to them, in which those students were encouraged to duel once every day in one of the arenas. Each floor was being governed by a teacher who watched over the duels. Judging from people's performance in those, they would either advance or demote. It was now the last day, with every first year having to play out their final duel. A majority of them had already gone off to duel as they had no classes for the entire day.

Some rumors hung about in the academy, rumors of a party. Some students say they saw Transformer carry a whole truck's load of something up the stairs, past the point where students would be allowed. Nobody questioned this as Transformer has been shown to carry larger amounts than what the students tended to describe. Some of the second years decided to join in on the rumor spreading for fun, trying to sabotage the excitement at such a possible event by saying that they pick out the worst performing students and put them in a personalized training camp. The boxes people saw Transformer carry up were nothing more than torturous training tools, made to drag everyone through hell. The academy didn't confirm or deny any of these rumors, they only said that something special would be happening at the end of the day.

Haas was lying on his bed with a sense of dread, realizing that today was his last shot at impressing the teachers. It was still morning and he didn't want to get breakfast just yet. He pulled out his D-Ceiver and scrolled through to the group chat. There was some discourse among the members as to what it should have been called, so Haas settled on something alliterative and witty. 'Dark Dorm Dealings' was that name, which caused some discourse in its own right. He quickly shot a message to all members of the group.

"final day. i'm dying of nerves over here! u guys worried??"

After typing out the message he put the device on the small bedside table next to him and jumped out of bed, quickly changing so he didn't go to the showers in his underwear. After freshening up the guy made his way to the cafeteria, bummed out and nearly face planting into his bowl of cereal. No matter how much sleep he got,
he just couldn't be his usual, energetic self.

Andre's morning had started earlier than most people in the academy, because he had a score to settle. After beating up that dark dorm student two months ago he kept repeatedly running into them, with the duels escalating in intensity. Of course, someone of Andre's caliber could easily deal with the lowest of the Acedemy's ranks. Genta had a bit less luck with the duels, but Andre continuously pushed the timid boy to take on more and more of the dark dorm students by himself. The boy was clearly improving by being put up against tougher opponents than him but he was still too timid to brutally duel the way Andre did.

Now, of course, it comes as no surprise that the dark dorm who challenged Andre the day before this day was positively smoking on the floor, deep fried by their own duel chain.

"Wow, teach... you're really amazing! I still got a long way to go..."

Genta spoke with awe, completely unconcerned by the wounded student on the floor. Just as the duo was about to head out of the vacant art gallery as the sliding doors behind them opened up. Suddenly, just around ten dark dorm students of various sizes, gender and builds stormed into the room. They surrounded Genta and Andre, but left the space in front of them open so they could get a good look at the older boy stepping through the door. Spiky brown hair, jacket worn like a cape, messy clothes and a silver eye; It was none other than Steel, but the both of them couldn't have known that.

"Ah, so yer the ones puttin' me boys in danger, eh?"

The guy spoke in a very confident tone, chuckling straight after. Genta nervously glanced at Andre and muttered "This is bad..." to himself. Steel cracked his knuckles and neck, giving off a feint of wanting to get into a fistfight. He then pointed to his unconscious, smoking goon.

"Didn't know ya'd finish up this quick, woulda come here sooner and saved 'im the barbecue! Now, I don't like you beatin' up my boys like you have... Got somethin' to say for yourself?"

The past two months Angelo's been hard at work fine-tuning his Duel Runner. He was currently in the garage again, casing completely thrown open as he's fiddling with the engine. Despite his best efforts it was pretty hard to get a hold of really high-end parts, with the guy not exactly being rich enough to order everything he wanted online. He's done his best with what the school offered and the little he could buy out of his own pockets, but most of his time was spent optimizing what he already had.

"You're really going to bust that thing at the rate you're going," a voice called out to Angelo from behind. Turning around it revealed to be Jacklyn, staring over his work like a hawk. Jacklyn sometimes helped Angelo out, but she's a nocturnal creature. The girl would often be in bed by the time Angelo reached the garage. She was still dressed in her riding suit and had one hand behind her back.

"You're going to bend something at this rate, and that'll cost ya. Your parts won't get much better, I keep tellin' you to crack the coding of your piloting chip and remove the limiter if you want to go faster."

Jacklyn pulled out a small laptop from behind her back, placing it on the floor and hooking up a USB port to Angelo's terminal. The Duel Runner was already plugged in to a socket to recharge, luckily, so it didn't take long for Jacklyn to pull up the source code on her screen.

"Normally you can't edit it, but I've got an override I use for my own Runner. Check this out," she bragged and pressed a button. Suddenly, numbers started flashing up on the screen in rapid succession before a big 'CLEAR' appeared on screen. From there, the code popped back up again as Jacklyn pressed in a letter to show Angelo it functioned. She quickly deleted it again, though.

Maisy had hurriedly downed her breakfast after arriving in the cafeteria, penning something down on a paper next to her. She hogged an entire table to herself as papers were haphazardly strewn out, names of students turned dark dorm written on all of them. Some were even in-depth resumes, handled through hours of careful undergarment research. Most of the students that joined that dorm were either placed in their automatically or came of the lower dorms: Earth, Wind and Fire. There was the odd Water student in there, but they didn't pick fights with the Light or Divine dorm strangely enough.

Some of the students placed in were clearly on their worst behavior and there were a good few who's grades have dropped significantly since the start of the year, or who were friends with some dark dorms to begin with. The others, however, didn't make much sense. Good grades, not particularly offensive and generally quiet and meek people. Most of them also adjusted their fashion once they got inside Dark, choosing to wear more piercings or mascara for the females. Speaking of which, the dorm was populated predominantly by men. It's noticeable in how the affected dorms, except for Water, the gender ratio has started skewing to female students.

Ben found himself trying to encourage the Wind dorm students to not pay any mind to the dark dorm, and it might have been a blessing that the majority of his dorm was now female. In fact, he often found the conversations steering away from said dorm and more towards him, as he's become the most popular boy in the wind dorm, earning him the ire of some of his dorm-mates. Strangely enough, he hadn't heard of his older crew in a while. The only one that still kept up with him somewhat was Marie Ann, and even she's pretty scared now that her friends have all but disappeared.

Ben's posse was, predictably, part of the Dark dorm now. Despite Ben's best efforts, he saw them getting recruited into their ranks one by one. While aggravating, he couldn't do a lot about it. The most he could do was to guide the shy and timid Marie Ann, not letting her be pressured into joining as well... however, that became increasingly hard as more and more girls of the academy struck up conversation with him on a regular basis wherever he went, not strictly from the wind dorm either. Some weren't even first years.

Right now he was in the arenas Q-S, coaching some Earth dorm students who had come to him for help. He wasn't dueling himself, merely giving tips to the girls and guys that were a year or two younger than him on how to get the most out of their deck. He was smiling as it seemed to pay off, the younger kids putting up more of a fight against their opponents compared to a few practice matches he had with them earlier in the week.

"And then they say hard work hardly works, the liars."

Before he had realized it himself, a small girl wearing a Wind dorm jacket was sitting next to him. She looked a bit young compared to everyone else and had long, soft hairs. Cream showed up in the most random of places, but Ben couldn't know who she was. She was staring at him with a goofy grin.

"Hope ya don't mind me taking this seat. Don't take ya as one of the shy ones, tho."

Camryn was watching the first year duels unfold. There had been a rainbow's worth of colors passing by in the arenas despite only a few duels actually happening, but none of the duels made an impact on the girl. A splash, however, it did make. Solid Vision made for some pretty convincing water as Camryn found out, being splashed by a wave of Meio's Neo Daedalus. The boy already left the arena again, making her watch a boring duel between two Earth dorm students that didn't really go anywhere, as one of them was playing Barrier statues.

"Aaah, my brother's homeroom teach!"

A voice spoke up from behind Camryn. Turning around revealed an individual with medium length, purple hair who was wearing a Light dorm uniform, his emerald eyes hidden behind his closed eyelids. He was leaning over the back seat of Camryn's chair with his hand folded into the peace sign and a grin plastered across his face. It was none other than Meio's carefree older brother, Ryo.

"'sup, Camryn?"

"That all you're capable of, punk?!"

A dark dorm student with a face full of piercings, hazel eyes and a purple tomahawk snapped at his opponent, another dark dorm duelist. The sneering one had a jury rigged solid vision disk who's blade was unstably wobbling, but managed to keep straight. The one he called a 'punk' was a short kid with a black fringe in front of his right eye, looking fearfully at the opponent. The duel chain attached to his standard academy-licensed disk made it so there wasn't any escape and the shaking of their legs showed that a couple of shocks had already been sent their way.

"You're not even worth bein' in this dorm! You couldn't duel your way out of a wet paper bag! Now remember the name 'a Vairen Sköll! Elemental HERO Escuridao, show this punk why he's worse than earthies!"

The black-armored 'hero' did just as it asked, slicing clean through the other kid's shirt with their blade. It actually created a rip in the uniform, where shortly after the Duel Chain finished off the job. Vairen howled with laughter as the field dissipated, walking over and grabbing the short kid by the collar. The boy had no trouble at all raising them up with just one hand, the struggling of the victim being too weak to squirm themselves free.

"Get out of this academy, you low-life-!"

As Vairen was about to punch the kid in the face, he felt his arm being grabbed by someone. Instinctively they dropped the kid and yanked himself free, taking a step back. Vairen's confident face faltered for a moment when he saw just who interrupted his punch, with the victim crawling back against the wall. It was none other than Vincent Gulfus, having one eye lazily closed and not being surprised in the slightest.

"Oh hey, look, it's Mr. untouchable! The heck do you want, huh?! A piece of me?!" Vairen yelled out, readying his fists again.

Ethel's day had started as it usually would; Sit in her room for about an hour to get away from the commotion outside and freshen herself up for the day. While she wasn't really into make-up as much as some other girls, she still applied a bit of it. Once she had gotten ready, Ethel stepped out into the hallways of the Light dorm. When she passed the Wind dorm hallways and waited on Ignia for a bit, she didn't show up. It was strange, since Ethel usually ate breakfast along with Ignia but she shrugged it off and didn't feel like letting herself starve because the other girl is late.

In reality, Ignia was already awake and hiding from Ethel's sight. Not because she wanted to avoid the girl, of course. Ignia would never want to hide from Ethel. No, she was carefully watching her leave and looking out for a specific yellow jacket that seemed to tail her as of late. They were quick and slippery, no doubt. Ignia could never catch more than a brief glimpse or two, but the other person probably knew Ignia was watching her. It was a game of predator and prey, with both of them being the predator and Ethel being the unfortunate prey. Even as Ignia kept out of sight while eating breakfast she scouted around the cafeteria, but the crowds made it hard to identify the other follower. They were good. Really good.

Ethel continued on with her day, looking increasingly annoyed as she did. The girl made her way into the library, grabbing some textbooks from the shelves and sprawling them out over one of the many tables. It looked like some books on Xyz summoning, Ethel taking notes and starting to study up. Ignia casually, yet carefully paced around the library, looking out for the other person as they did the same. She could briefly see a yellow sleeve vanish behind one of the shelves, a bit further away from Ethel. She was now faced with a choice; Follow this mysterious person or go and rejoin the studying Ethel.