The Headmaster turned to Michelle and told her: "I'll explain when we get there! Now we have to hurry!" Speeding through the campus grounds, they reached the clearing behind the Slifer Red dormitory. In a corner, a boy was lying unconscious, his deck scattered on the ground and his Duel Disk apparently fried. Pointing to the bird on his shoulder with one hand and pulling a card out of his pocket with the other hand, the headmaster said "Captain found this boy like this, and led me to him. I can't say for sure what caused this, but I'm not about to let something like this continue on this campus." Revealing the card to the group with him - Fabled Lurrie - Kolman continued "This card was on the boy when I found him. Since the lot of you with Spirit Partners are among the best we've got, I'd like for most of you kids to look into this elsewhere while I investigate here. Mr. Franklin, you'll be joining them for safety's sake; a bunch of students walking around in this situation sounds a bit risky, given this boy's state." Handing the card to Akio, he finished explaining the situation with "The children have Spirit Partners; they should be able to track this card back to its original owner. That's why I called them here."
Akio was taken aback: "I... understand, Mr. Kolman... but may I ask... why me, specifically? I mean... if it's really what it looks like, wouldn't it be better if you sent an actual professor with them? I'm sure many of the teachers are better duelists than I am".
"For a couple of reasons," Headmaster Kolman answered, lifting up the boy and slinging him over the shoulder that wasn't currently occupied by a well-behaved bird of prey. "First and foremost, I have a hunch that your deck would be effective against the culprit, based on the card. Secondly, you happened to be the first staff member I spotted, and the professors are all busy at present regardless. And finally, you seem to be a very intelligent young man; that's always a good thing to have when investigating something." Starting back toward the main building, Kolman concluded "For now, take Kine and Black with you. I'll keep MacBeth and Yamaguchi here with me in case this happens again while you three are away."
Being saddled with that kind of responsibility was definitely what Akio didn't want, but he couldn't say no to the Headmaster. Still, he was right. His deck would probably be really useful against a Fabled deck. They WERE, after all, LIGHT monsters. "Well... okay", Akio answered, "I'll start looking for the criminal at once, Mr. Headmaster. You two", he told Kim and Michelle, "Spirit Partners can trace images from the past of an object or something like that, right? Yours can do it?"
A high-pitched screech-like roar from Falco answered Akio. And to translate, Kim. "Falco says that it's something like that. If they hold the card, they can track down the spirit it belongs to; holding this card would at least get us in the right direction. Only, he doesn't have hands..." Looking at Michelle and her Spirit Partner, Kim said "Freya will have to do the tracking."