Notes: For the gx_100. Set pre-GX, during Ryo's first few months at the academia. Could be set in anime, manga or Tag Force, not too specific - though I'm leaning towards the manga personally.
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Respect for your opponent was an art that took some effort to learn. It was viewed that Ryo was probably respectful by nature, but trained over time by Samejima until this respect hardened into an almost unbreakable resolve.
He didn't particularly care about winning or losing in duels as long as he knew there was respect between the opponents. But regardless winning seemed to come naturally to him as well. He never, to his memory, lost a match.
And victory bred arrogance, the enemy of respect.
As much as he tried to fight off the arrogance, he was young, and thus it was hard to stop a bit of smugness leaking through. He knew all of the opponents in the academia, he had analysed their deck styles and could know what they were going to do almost play for play. He still respected them but he didn't get a challenge from them anymore.
Samejima had been aware of this for quite sometime. It concerned him. He had to admit that due to being a student of his prior to the academia Ryo was a bit higher on his priority list than most. And though he tried to avoid having favourites this was not helped by Ryo ascending through the ranks to become the top duellist in the space of a few months.
He knew Ryo was not the best duellist in the world, but none of the students that were here were better than him.
Ryo needed competition. He needed a rival.
And Samejima had looked through the records of the academia to find during in the hours when he should have been working. He'd got to the point where he was even looking through the reject list.
He found what he was looking for on the reject list.
A student who had done well in the entrance exam, who'd showed a high level of competence in the test duel, but had somehow been rejected without much explanation. Samejima's eyes trailed onto the teacher who had overseen the entrance exams. Chronos. Now that made sense. As much as Samejima thought Chronos was a suitable judge of students he was aware that the teacher sometimes turned away students who seemed to insult him. That must have been the cause in this case.
Fubuki Tenjoin.
He put the file on his desk and made a note to contact the boy's family later.
A week moved on.
Ryo sat in one of the numerous study halls going through his deck and a collection of cards that were interchangeable. He had a notebook and was scribbling down pros and cons as he went. Deck improvement was one of the few things at the moment that seemed to be putting his mind to work.
He leaned back and sighed. It may have been melodramatic but there was no one in the room to hear him at this time. Perhaps he had received too much of a good thing here. Perhaps it would be challenging to lose once in a while. It would certainly help to dispel the arrogance that was blocking out the respect he had for the students.
There were footsteps from further up the room. Ryo's eyes widened slightly as he thought that someone may have heard him acting a bit over the top a few seconds ago.
As he looked around he saw another student putting some books down at the desk - one he did not recognise. Ryo's mind started to race at this. He was analytical and tended to remember people based on the deck they used, but here was someone who he couldn't place a deck to his name.
The student looked up from the books and met his gaze before Ryo could look away and pretend he hadn't been paying attention.
"Are you, um, Marufuji?" the boy asked uncertainly.
A nod.
"I am Ryo Marufuji, yes," he replied, having not yet picked up the title of Kaiser, "Why would you want to speak with me?"
"Samejima told me to see you," the boy shrugged, as if it didn't make much difference to him either way, "Name's Fubuki by the way."
In his own mind Ryo frowned slightly. Samejima did something concerning him without discussing it with him first? This was unusual and uncalled for.
"For what reason?" he responded shortly.
"He wanted me to deal with your respect," Fubuki told him.
"There's nothing wrong with my respect," informed Ryo, feeling stung further that Samejima would talk about a subject so close to them both with another.
The boy frowned and said, "You know I really think there is. You haven't shown me any respect since I walked in, and you don't even know me." A pang of guilt ran down Ryo as he saw the truth in this, "He told me that I should duel you, and then everything would sort itself out."
He'd never turned down a challenge for a duel yet and he didn't intend to start. He had a rough idea what Samejima wanted from this so he decided to go through with it.
For the first time since a few weeks after he enrolled Ryo found that he was having to ithink/i during a duel. He genuinely didn't know what Fubuki was going to do, and he knew instantly that this boy was as good as he.
The only way for Ryo to break out of his slump was for him not to win, Samejima knew. He was getting it too easy in the academia. And yet… he couldn't bring himself to put his favoured student in a situation where he would lose.
For the first time Ryo did not win a duel. For the first time it ended in a draw.
The two boys looked at each other, and now they were equals. Respect had been earned.