Part I

A boy lives

There is a knock at the door. Ten year old Judai tilts his chair forward and tries very hard to pretend interest in the textbooks piled up on his desk. "Enter."

Quietly, the door opens, revealing a man in prime and proper black, back straight. Judai knows the man is capable of smiling, but it takes a lot of effort on his part and lately whenever he tries to get the wizened face to move into something that isn't stern, he gets told that it isn't proper, that Judai is too old for childish antics, that he has to keep up appearance, that Judai has more important things to do.

Judai doesn't think there are many things more important than making a man who he has seen more of in his life than both his parents combined smile, but no one ever listens to him.

"Young Master, the Master and the Mistress expect your presence for tea," he says, bowing and holding the door open in a way that makes it clear Judai is to go now.

Judai is already out his chair and past the door before Kageyama stopped speaking. A hand lands on his shoulder before he can go running through the mansion.

The old butler gives Judai an expressionless look that nonetheless says a lot.

Judai wants to sigh and groan, but knows it would only gain him more disapproval. Instead he straightens his shirt, imagines his head is tied to the ceiling by a string and that he has a board stuck to his spine. The butler lets go of him and Judai likes to imagine a glimmer of approval in the gray eyes as Judai strides through the mansion in his best imitation of dignity and nobility.

His parents await him in the lounge, his mother in a white blouse and an elegant skirt, his father in what Judai deems a stiff suit. Both smile when they see him and Judai is far too elated at their presence and their attention on him to care about the rarity of both. His mother invites him to the seat next to her and puts an arm around his shoulder, a gesture that is the closest to a hug in their family.

Judai tries very hard to sit straight and serious and proper as his teacher has taught him and to not wrap both his arms around his mother's warm body. But no, he is grown up, he is an adult soon and is beyond stuff like hugs, stuffing his face with cookies and the like no matter how much he wants to.

"Toru tells me you have not been taking your studies seriously," his father begins.

The butterflies in his belly become colder. It is childish to throw a look of betrayal at their butler, so to not disappoint his parents, he doesn't. But he really wants to.

"I'll do better," Judai promises, smiling widely, but his father is not amused, eyes unimpressed by Judai's sincerity.

"So you say every time."

A cookie is stolen from the coffee table for comfort and to hide a childish pout. "I always try, but it just doesn't get better. And it's just – economy's not very interesting."

"I don't want to hear your excuses," Father says shortly, putting his cup of tea down with a click. Judai winches. "Your brother -"

Mother cuts in with a "Dear" and the painful lecture Judai wants to hide from never comes. Rather, his father smooths his expression down into something less reflexively scolding, sighing in a way that seems constructed like the art hanging on the wall.

"The material in your studies does not capture your attention," his father surmises what various assessments from various experts concluded. "Perhaps that cannot be helped. Your talents lie elsewhere and it is those talents that ought to be furthered."

Judai blinks. It's the first time anyone other than his brother and Yubel have said he has talent and mean it – that it comes from his father… even more so, with pride, for him, only him, and just huh?

His mother smiles down at him and squeezes him to her. Her smile always has fewer sharp edges than his father's and right now it's warm and relieved. "Do you remember the gentleman that has recently been our guest and the subject he tested you on?"

His parents are always busy around the world and since last year his brother is included in that too (even though they're the same age), so Judai lives alone in the mansion most of the time. He doesn't go to school, doesn't have friends, and is too young (useless) to be involved in their family business. The man that stayed in the mansion had been introduced over distant and impersonal notifications and Judai had been told that the man was important and searched for people who had the potential to go to an elite school and that his parents had inquired if he may test Judai.

"The man who gave me duel monster cards? And that duel?" Judai hadn't known it was a test until after the fact, though.

His mother nods, her smile becoming brighter. "Two days ago, an invitation and recommendation arrived at your father's office." She puts both her hands on Judai's face, runs one through his hair. His mother is being more affectionate than in all but his foggiest memories, ever since the time that it became clear that Judai doesn't share his brother's talents (or conscientious work ethic)."You have scored the highest results recorded and Duel Academia would be honored to have you."

The world flips. "...What?"

"'Pardon me'," his mother corrects mildly, before expanding: "Duel Academia is a school of highest education. You know that it is the most influential organization the world, specializing in duelling and spatial investments. It's education in duelling is top class, its ideal sophisticated and with your enrolment, your advancements and talent will represent our Eriksen family. There can be no greater honour." She glows, proud and happy in a way Judai has never ever been able to make her before.

She is praising him. She is saying there is something Judai can do. That Judai isn't a disappointment and burden. Even though Judai doesn't understand much more, he hears that. He wonders if this is what flying feels like.

Father won't lecture him, his parents are proud. "When is it starting? Do I leave or is a teacher coming here? Johan is coming tomorrow! Can I surprise him with this?"

"Your plane is going this evening," his father says promptly, and Judai deflates. But only a little. "Toru will see to it that you are ready and accompany you to the flight. Upon arrival, there will be someone waiting for you." Straightening imaginary crinkles out of his clothes, his father gets up. "Your brother has already been informed." An expressive stare is levelled at Judai. "Academia is a different place from your private education. There will be children of other families. Do not forget that outsides of these walls, life is a competition. Do not lose and embarrass yourself and us."

Judai stands as well, hearing the usually both dreaded and longed for dismissal, lowering his head. He's still smiling widely though. "Yes, Father."

"See to it. My flight goes in an hour, so I will be leaving now. It goes without mentioning, but I expect only the best of reports, son."

Judai's excitement doesn't ebb away. "Yes, Father."

With a nod, the patriarch turns his back to his wife and son, the door being held open for him and closing smoothly behind his back.

Judai's mother empties her cup of tea, putting the fine tableware to the side with a soft click before she rises as well. Judai fights off long expected disappointment. She too straightens her clothes with practised motions before she presses a formal kiss to Judai's cheek. "Your father is a busy man. Forgive him that he can not stay to see you off."

"Does that mean you will stay?" Judai asks despite knowing better.

"I'm expected for dinner. I'm afraid I don't have the time either."

There is nothing to do against the disappointment he feels, but it isn't as bad as usual, even when he can't see his brother tomorrow.

Judai's going to leave the mansion for the first time in months, for the first time in years for more than just a vacation or public appearance. It would take a lot more to break his mood.

Yubel doesn't share his excitement. In fact, she looks angry as she stares at the door where his mother is leaving through and where Kageyama is no longer waiting, doubtlessly to see Judai's father off.

Judai skips through the hallways, making a detour past the kitchen to tell his friends on the staff, and tilts his head at her. "What's wrong?"

One more impressive glare in the vague direction of Judai's parents later, Yubel offers her hand. Judai takes it. Yubel smiles, making Judai smile as well, but it doesn't hold long, because she soon frowns again and only at Judai's poking does she admit that she wishes Judai would not leave the mansion yet.

Judai is very glad that the matter seems to be set already and that there is nothing Yubel can do about it anymore – because she would. She does a lot of things – things that go by unnoticed simply because in all of Judai's life, only one person other than himself has ever seen her.

Of course his relief at her being unable to do her job properly doesn't go by her and she is snappish for the rest of the day. Judai calls it sulking. Yubel says she wishes Judai would make her job a bit easier by having some concern for his own safety.

"I don't know what your problem is," Judai tells her on the plane to his new life. "I'm just going to school. Everyone does that, right? Now I'm too."

"It's a Duel Academia," she says in the way that she sometimes does, like it's perfectly obvious what she doesn't like and could explain why that is if Judai wants to listen to his and her history. (Judai never does. He has dreams of other Judais sometimes without them being triggered by stories and he always wakes up scared even though he can't remember.)

Judai's excitement is joined by anticipation and both last upon arrival not over two weeks.

There is a variety of lessons he has to attend, the majority focusing on the basics of duelling and polymerization. About half the lessons are practical, but with everyone having the same deck, it is only slightly more simulating than the dry lessons, where Judai gathered very quickly that they don't have anything to teach him – not after he looked over the material and course books and knew all the material as though he had only had to be reminded of it.

(Yubel says that isn't accurate, since Judai hadn't known the material, thus it was not something to remember in the strict sense of the term, but that his instincts and instinctual habits cultivated over more than one lifetime cover said material with room to spare. It is very unlikely, Judai is told drily, that the teachers can teach him anything about fusing.)

Another good part of his time is taken by physical activity. Having never gone much out of the mansion, and definitely not for jogging or swimming in the ocean or climbing cliffs or fighting-according-to-rules-with-others-and-a-jury-which-apparently-is-called-sparring, Judai finds himself at the bottom of the class and the last to cross the finishing line.

It is interesting at first, a challenge and fun and new and exciting in a way that only things that aren't what Kageyama and his parents call dignified are. It takes some time to get used to being sweaty and feeling sick from the effort, but soon the novelty wears off, his body adapts to the demanding practice, and those lessons too become boring. It's always the same. Nothing new. The same exercises, the same shouting of the instructor, the same courses.

What Judai had thought to be the saving grace at first, one lesson a week each on XYZ and Synchro Summoning methods that Judai had only ever heard of before are theory only. The lessons don't go beyond the basics, focus not on the mastery of the summoning, but on breaking it. Judai prefers Fusion, but the other two interest him and if only for that he'd have liked to try them. He can't even get any cards for them anywhere on the campus, so he can't sneakily duel Yubel either.

All that vicious arrogance by his peers starts to get annoying quickly too.

(That's conceited, Yubel teaches with a sneer at his fellow students. Baseless and useless. Fusion is only superior if its wielder is and while Judai is, he is the exception not the rule. Anyone who wants true mastery must earn it and cannot demand it.)

Every student is given a standard deck and they are allowed to make small adjustments to it and it's those decks they have to use in most of the school's duels, but everyone is also encouraged to build their own decks from scratch. Most base theirs still on the Academia provided arch-types and strategies.

Judai trades for rarely used HERO cards, sometimes writes to his parents for a special one. It's those personal decks that are used in the ranking duels and the duels that count for most. Those duels are held with a regularity for the entire Academia, once a week after assembly and speeches. Judai hasn't lost a single one.

He is proud of that and hopes it is that that reaches his parents instead of the many times instructors have caught him sleeping in their lessons. Two months in, not even the thoughts of his parents hearing about it is enough incentive to stay awake through them.

The other students don't have it as easy as him and have to work day and night to get better results. (Understandable since those who don't pass the tests face...punishment/make up lessons. Judai heard they are hell.) He is still alone. No one has time to lie in the sun with him, no one wants to duel just for fun with him without any grades on the line. No one can see spirits. No one even cares about their cards.

Academia isn't all that nice at all, but it is still better than being locked up in the mansion day in any out with stacks of material to study. Academia gives him more freedom and more independence than Judai ever had before. He even got his first sunburn!

It's not paradise, but Judai can see what his parents like about it. Academia is just as busy as they are. Two peas in a pod, he grouches one day, kicking a stone on the hard 'beach' as he skips classes for the first time.

...he misses Johan. He misses Kageyama. He misses seeing his parents, even rarely as he used to. He can't go see them, they can't (don't) come see him….he is lonely. He doesn't want to go back home either, though, not really.

In the beginning he shared a dorm with two other people, but Judai was quickly promoted to Obelisk Blue where no one has time for talking and the air is so filled with tension it's stifling. There's nothing wrong about being driven and Judai is almost envious that everyone else has a goal to strive for, united for an ideal. But it just isn't him. To his credit, he tried to get caught up in the enthusiasm and determination but it didn't stick.

Wanting to unite the worlds, creating an ideal state of reality is nice and all, but he just can't understand why they are all stressing out about it.

Judai just doesn't get it.

(Yubel is mostly silent when they talk about that, her gaze sharp as she takes everything in, and pensive. Only in hindsight will Judai notice her behaviour as odd.)

Half a year in, Judai has his classes adjusted to advanced courses, finds an Elemental HERO Prisma washed up on the beach and, on Yubels suggestion (another thing he will only notice later) sends the monster to all but the most complex lessons in his stead.

His days of skipping class and lazing days away under the gray sky have begun.

TBC