A/N: Written for
GX bingo – the non-flash version, #135 - Principal Samejima
Diversity Writing Challenge, b32 – write about a group of at least four people
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Alumni
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He watched many students pass through the halls of Duel Academia. Not all were memorable. He'd see their names on the graduation list and wonder when he'd seen them before. The typical stuff, probably: dorm allocations and promotions and exam results and the occasional detention (because it was rare for someone to get through three years in a boarding school like theirs without a detention – but not a feat that was ever written up if successful).
And then there were the ones who made names for themselves. Stellar students who quickly rose through the ranks and who anyone could see would wind up graduating at the top and enter the Pro League without a hassle. Students like Marufuji Ryou – though he'd had the advantage of being a previous acquaintance as well. People like Manjyoume Jun. People like the Tenjoin siblings. People like Fujiawara Yuusuke (when those memories came flooding back).
And then there were people who made waves for somewhat different reasons, and a stellar example of that was Yuuki Juudai. He knew that boy was going to cause waves before he even passed his entrance exams, before he knew whether he was a good duellist or not, before he knew whether he was a good student or not (and he was the latter but not the former. Knew all that from a phone call from his parents because Duel Academia had a history with duel spirits and a little screening test was part of the interview process that Juudai passed with not quite flying colours (as in he'd turned at the sound and tried to find the speaker, but saw no spirit floating in the air behind the desk).
Those who saw monster spirits always managed to stand out, one way or another. Though sometimes it wasn't in a good way and that was a shame. Like Maeda Hayato, who had the potential but not the academic strength to get him through such a rigorous course and he shouldn't have even needed to because people could become card designers without being stellar duellists but expectations were stacked up against him. He made it through though. Went off to work for Industrial Illusions and that was the best place in the world for a budding card designer.
And then there was Manjyoume Jun again – though he hadn't been flagged as a potential spirit-seer on the offset so he's not quite sure when that popped up. Sometimes, he thought it might be a side-effect from knowing Yuuki Juudai, because he had a way of changing lots of people and most of the time for the better, but it might also have been that he hadn't met the right spirits yet. Juudai had met Yubel long ago in his youth.
And then there was Yuuki Juudai himself, attracting the Seven Stars (or had that been more Daitokuji and Tenjoin Fubuki and a pretty coincidence?), attracting the Light of Destruction, attracting Yubel… But Juudai rose above all of those, him and the friends he'd gathered, and Duel Academia and he as its principal were going to remember them all for a very long time as well.