Daitokuji was a simple man.

He lived in a humble excuse for a shack located in the Osiris dorms and wore a plain white shirt and black pants with a tie to match. He liked cats and teaching and mori-soba and disliked carrots and milk and fermented soybeans. He had hobbies that included fishing, reading, and taking care of his cat. He also practiced alchemy but if we went into that you would start thinking Daitokuji was no longer a simple man but actually a clever and devious scientist working on a complicated project fueled by determination and a fiery will to live.

Today was a warm and sunny Tuesday morning, albeit windy perhaps but allergy season had come and passed and most of the students no longer suffered from invariable sneezing and stuffy noses. The sun shone mildly overhead and the breeze wafted the scent of freshly cut grass throughout the campus, making it into a calm and refreshing atmosphere. The grass was dry and the earth was relatively easy to walk on and there was no worry about ruining your boots (if you were a girl) or having to wash mud off your uniform trousers (if you were a guy) when strolling through the campus. In all, it was a good afternoon to be outside.

However, Daitokuji would have given detention to anyone who was outside this fine fall morning. After all, had a student been outside, it would have meant they weren't inside and if they weren't inside, they were most certainly not in his class and skipping class automatically meant detention. (He didn't teach for nothing, you know.) Anyway, Daitokuji was teaching his class when he noticed that his handwriting was too small to read. He tried his hardest not to lean forward and squint at his lesson plan as he taught the class.

"Which brings me to my second point in dueling alchemy," he said pleasantly. "Despite what science experts may say about atoms and their firm withstanding arrangement, the alchemy of Duel Monsters cards doesn't quite follow that rule. As a matter of fact, if you would like me to take water attribute monsters for example—"

Daitokuji stopped as he heard a few irritated cries come from the back of the enormous classroom. He looked up to see what the problem was. A young boy of fifteen was stumbling down the stairs of the room and bumped into seated students in the process. He was already half an hour late to class.

"Juudai-kun."

Daitokuji watched as the boy named Juudai visibly gulped. He merely smiled.

"It seems that Shou's leg no longer suits Pharaoh's requirements, nya," he said amusedly, catching Ryou's younger brother off guard with the mention of his name. Juudai blinked before glancing down to see said Pharaoh enlacing his feet with its tail.

He motioned towards his beloved cat. "Bring him down to me, will you?"

Juudai bent down and scooped up the fur-ball in his arms and carefully carried him down to his teacher. "Here you go." He handed Pharaoh over to the older man. The brunette paused. "And you look very spiffy today, Daitokuji-sensei. I like your shirt," he said sheepishly, trying for redemption from being late.

A slim brow went up at the rather unusual comment from the young teen, but he remained smiling nonetheless. "Thank you Juudai-kun. And you have a little bit of sauce on yours. Nothing like fish with ketchup for lunch, nya?"

Juudai laughed awkwardly. Daitokuji looked humored and handed him a tissue.

Unexpectedly, a voice came from the back of the room. "Hey, don't bother wiping it off—it matches with your uniform, anyway!"

The comment was followed by bursts of obnoxious laughter, the majority of it coming from the Obelisks and even some high-ranked Ra students. The ones from the two higher dorms who weren't laughing were either shaking their heads or staring at the red-clad boy standing in the front of the class with pity in their eyes. The Osiris students looked thoroughly humiliated and whispers had now spread throughout the room, but nobody, nobody at all noticed that their teacher was frowning—and expression that was not often seen on his face.

"Cut it out!" a voice suddenly yelled. A pretty blonde-haired girl was standing up, towering over the section from which the comment originated from. "You guys are being such jerks!"

"Calm yourself, Tenjoin-kun," one boy chuckled. He wore a blue blazer and his jagged black hair fell over his forehead, shadowing parts of his face. His eyes were slanted and narrowed, giving him a sinister impression. "It's all good and fun."

Her whole body was shaking and her fists were balled tightly at her sides. "Maybe for you, Manjy—"

"—really, Asuka, it's ok," Juudai's voice broke in from the lowest part of the classroom.

Asuka spun around, looking down at the brown-eyed boy, a mixture of confusion and anger confronting her face. "But Juudai…"

He shook his head. "No worries. They're right—it's just for fun."

Daitokuji watched gravely as Juudai brushed the whole situation off with a goofy smile. He attempted to wipe the ketchup off his blazer but only succeeded in smearing it even more. The laughter grew louder.

Asuka looked humiliated, her cheeks turning a nice shade of red. She sat down in her seat and refused to look at Juudai anymore.

"…" Gently placing Pharaoh on the floor, Daitokuji glanced over to the area from which the voice came from and spotted that same Obelisk boy now giving high-fives to the classmates next to him. He beamed a smile and waved at him freely.

"And it seems that you prefer mustard with your fish, nya," he called out cheerfully. His words had a major impact on the crowd. The laughter died down instantly and all eyes turned to the upper-left corner of the room where the Obelisks sat. Silence. The boy startled and turned away from his friends, gawking at the huge amount of people staring at him.

"However, I do recommend that you wipe your uniform yours off—yellow stains blue, you know," Daitokuji continued, cupping his hand around his mouth to amplify his voice so everybody could hear his words. "Just feel lucky it wasn't ketchup. Then your blazer would be purple and we would have to kick you out of the academia for lack of proper uniforms, nya!"

This time, laughter arose from every part of the room from all three dorms. The students who were laughing at Juudai were currently joining in the mocking of the black-haired Obelisk boy. Hayato was clutching his stomach while Shou was leaned on his shoulders for support, his face confronted with gleefulness. But Asuka's hearty laughter was by far the loudest of them all. No longer miserable, she was nearly doubling over in her seat as tears leaked from her closed eyes.

The boy who was so arrogant a minute ago now sunk his head into his arms. He muttered a string of incoherent words under his breath, but one phrase was clearly heard by everyone. "Damn Osiris students…"

Daitokuji cocked his head innocently. "No, I believe that Juudai wears red. You must be referring to the mustard on your coat which is yellow. Shouldn't you be cursing the Ra dorm instead, nya?"

The boy immediately shut up.

The majority of the class was in a good mood upon leaving the room after the session was over. Daitokuji himself felt a tinge of delight in his heart as he packed up his books and began walking out of the room. He was walking down the hallway when a soft voice suddenly pleaded him to stop walking.

"Hold on, Daitokuji-sensei, wait up, please…"

He halted in his tracks and glanced behind his shoulder to see who was calling his name. It was Asuka. "Ah, what is it?" he asked her, surprised.

"I just wanted to thank you for before," she replied, a slight tint of pink on her cheeks. "I appreciate how you stuck up for him…"

His eyebrows bent in confusion. "Hmm? I don't understand what you mean, nya. I didn't do anything…"

"HEY, hey you!"

Daitokuji stopped short his words and the two of them turned around to see that same black-haired boy from before rushing towards them, his face confronted with anger. "You're that guy who made me look like a fool—" He stopped when he noticed Asuka standing beside him. His eyes narrowed in suspicion. "What are you doing with her?" he demanded, his voice thick with jealousy.

Daitokuji looked thoughtful and held up his index finger to his lip. "Well, my mouth is moving up and down and she's nodding her head as she is listening to my words," he explained in a tone that suggested Manjyome was incapable of understanding human speech. "We call that communication, nya."

A few people snickered in the background. Manjyome's eyes narrowed and his fists clenched together with anger. "I'll rip you into shreds…"

Just before he was about to pounce and beat the lights of his teacher, Asuka stepped in front of Daitokuji, shielding him with one out-stretched arm.

Manjyome immediately stepped back, looking dumbfounded. "What the hell do you think you're doing, Tenjoin-kun? Move out of the way!"

But she refused to budge. "Manjyome-kun, this is ridiculous," she stated firmly. "I was just thanking Daitokuji-sensei for defending Juudai after you so rudely insulted him."

Upon hearing this, Manjyome regained some of his composure. He snorted derisively and crossed his arms. "Hmph. What a waste of breath," he scoffed, turning up his nose. "What do you see in that Osiris anyway? He's short…ugly…"

Asuka's eyes flashed at those words. "Something you don't and never will have. Dignity."

"What?"

"You heard me!" She glared and stepped forward, her stature bold and gallant. "You humiliate random people just for the fun of it, calling them losers and lowlifes. But when they actually play seriously and show you who's better—you just pretend none of it happened, continuing to treat them like dirt before scampering away to lick your wounds."

Her accusation rung throughout the hallway, piercingly, as if somebody had held a megaphone to her mouth so that each word was amplified tenfold the standard sound level. The entire hallway was silent at her outburst.

Asuka swiftly looked away from Manjyome's stunned face. "Now if you will excuse me, I have my next class to attend," she finished off briskly and turned around, leaving the rest of the people in dumbfounded shock. The blond-haired girl barely walked a few steps before locking eye contact with Daitokuji and nodding. "Thank you again, sensei."

And with that Asuka left.

"How dare she…" His narrowed eyes angrily followed her slim figure until she finally disappeared around the corner. Then Manjyome spun around and pointed an accusing finger at Daitokuji's face. "…this is all of YOUR fault!"

Daitokuji gaped sheepishly and his forehead creased with lines of discomfort. "Ah…what? Me? But I didn't, nya…"

"Don't give me that crap, you old geezer."

Sweatdrops appeared on the back of his head. "Actually, I'm only…"

"You turned her against me!"

"…nya…"

"Don't you play innocent!" Manjyome shouted so loudly that quite a few students stopped their private conversations to listen to the mostly one-sided argument an Obelisk and the head of the Osiris dorm was having. Daitokuji winced at tone of his student's voice.

Manjyome sneered. "So you think you're the hotshot because you're some professor who won fifty duels, huh?" He held up his arm and automatically unlocked the duel disk attached to his arm. "Shuffle your deck, you old fool! I'm going to prove that you're nothing but some cheapskate second-rate duelist not worthy of teaching at this academia!"

Some students gasped at this candid insult. A bespectacled Obelisk boy with curly blue hair appeared next to Manjyome and grasped on to his arm, panic written all over his face. "Hold it, Manjyome-san! You can't just challenge a professor…"

Manjyome ignored him and wrenched his arm out of Wakame's grasp. He continued to glare at his teacher who held up his hands feebly in an attempt to seem guiltless. Manjyome's frown deepened. There was no way he was falling for that.

"You may be a professor here, but you still duel in the lowest dorm," he spat. "As an Obelisk elite, I'll beat you easily. After all, I was trained under the best teacher this academia has to offer!"

Daitokuji raised both eyebrows in surprise. "And that would be, nya?"

"Chronos, of course!" Manjyome shouted.

"Chronos de Medici is no longer your teacher, nya."

"He was my teacher in the past!"

"I am your teacher in the present," he pointed out quietly. "And I still remain to be, nya."

People around him nodded in silent agreement. Manjyome growled his breath. This man was making a fool out of him. "Enough talk, get out your deck. It's time to—"

He froze as Daitokuji's hand suddenly rested on top of his head.

"…detention," the black-haired man said mildly. "I win.