Technically speaking, Halloween wasn't a particularly impressive holiday in Japan. It didn't have the necessary background of black magic and cackling witches sitting around a cauldron to make it popular.

At Duel Academia, however, it was a slightly different story.

"Geez, you'd think we were at an anime convention," Shou sighed.

"Don't pretend like you're not enjoying it, senpai," Kenzan teased him, noting the way Shou blushed and watched a girl dressed as the Dark Magician Girl scurry past to join her friends.

Shou glowered at him.

It was a cold evening, the sun setting even as they walked among the trees. Shou could see the glimmer of bonfires somewhere off in the forest. He was under the impression that a few large groups were having scary story marathons. There was another group that was hosting a special Fiend and Zombie only tournament, and he could hear the whirr of Solid Vision and some shouting and cheering.

Kenzan himself was enjoying the holiday far too much, in Shou's opinion. He had somehow found a Tyrannosaurus rex costume and had spent much of the morning running around with the big hood over his face, jumping out and roaring at people as they passed. He had even gotten Professor Chronos to run screaming for the teacher's lounge – something that seemed to have gotten to Kenzan's head, as he had been bragging about it for the last few hours.

It's not that hard to freak out Chronos-sensei, Shou thought with a roll of his eyes.

"This is a bad idea," Shou said. "I hate this holiday."

"Oh come off it, senpai," Kenzan said. "It's not like I'm asking ya to do a séance with me."

"Although I'm sure you considered it," Shou said.

Kenzan's grin was the only thing he needed to confirm that.

"Still, why can't we play the game back at the dorm?" Shou said. He was not liking the look of the shadows growing and deepening in the woods, and he was already on edge from that scary movie Kenzan and Rei had strongarmed him into watching earlier. "We can even go back and watch more scary movies, Kenzan. Please?"

"Are you chicken?" Kenzan said, grinning.

Shou felt his face flush.

"I'm not – I just don't think the old dorm is really a good place to be hanging out! Especially on a night like this!"

"We're just gonna play a simple board game," Kenzan said, bonking him on the head with the game he had been carrying under his arm. "Geez, you're such a scaredy cat! What's gonna happen, huh?"

Shou could think of a large number of things that could happen at the old abandoned dorm, but there were so many of them that he wasn't sure which to bring up first. How about the guy that had gotten eaten by shadows there during his first year? Or the fact that all the students had just disappeared without a trace and there didn't seem to be even the slightest interest in finding them? What about the strange noises that he kept hearing every time he walked past it lately, the windy sounds that sounded vaguely like someone whispering "darkness" over and over again? The bad feeling that came with it? Where did he begin with that old place?

"It's Halloween! We gotta do something just a little spooky," Kenzan said, adjusting his dinosaur hood. "So don't chicken out on me!"

Shou groaned, and kept walking with Kenzan. If only to make sure nothing happened to him, he said to himself. He was supposed to be the senpai, anyway.

The trees thinned slightly, and the old dorm loomed up above them. The dark windows, partially boarded up, seemed to yawn at them like eye sockets. By now the sun had completely disappeared behind the tree line and the only light came from the stars and the now faraway group bonfires. Shou was starting to wish he had agreed to go listen to scary stories instead. Shou felt a deep shudder run through him.

This is a terrible, terrible idea, he thought. Haven't we gotten ourselves in enough trouble this year? It's only been a few months since we got back from the other dimension...

"Let's go! I bet Rei's already waiting," Kenzan said, clapping Shou on the back.

"You invited Rei, too?"

Now this would be worse – Rei had evidently found that she loved this holiday after it was explained to her by Kenzan, and had started off a long chain of spooky pranks all month that Shou had ended up as the butt of about sixty percent of the time. He still had not figured out how to dismantle the Solid Vision projector she had rigged to his mirror that made it look like a bloody woman was trying to claw her way out of it. He had had to resort to just putting a cloth over it until he could get someone to help him get rid of it.

He sighed, by now resigned to his fate of getting pranked all night.

"Okay, fine," he said. "Who else did you invite?"

"Um...Asuka-senpai, Fubuki-san, and Manjoume," Kenzan said. "I'm not sure if they're gonna come though..."

He trailed off.

"Ah!" he said, eyes widened. "Aniki? What are you doing here?"

Shou jumped and did a double-take.

Judai had just appeared through the trees, his bright red jacket unmistakable. He blinked with surprise at their greeting.

"Kenzan? Shou?" he said. "I should be asking you that."

Judai hadn't left his dorm in weeks. He had one or two scattered appearances in classes, but always snuck in late, sat in the very back, and seemed to disappear before class was over. He never answered when Shou knocked. Shou couldn't remember the last time they had been standing like this face to face.

They stood in a rather awkward silence for a few moments.

"Um..." Kenzan said. "So...what's up?"

Judai seemed to come out of a daze.

"Ah, sorry," he said, rubbing the back of his neck. "Just went for a walk. What about you guys?"

"We were gonna play a game," Kenzan said, holding up the game.

"Out here?" Judai said.

He squinted at it in the dark.

"Kenzan...that's not a ouija board, is it?"

"I wish," Kenzan said. "Asuka-senpai said no way."

Judai half smiled at that.

"Good for her. Don't mess with those things. Especially not around here," he said.

He glanced up at the dorm and the tiny smile disappeared. He looked so much older, and Shou wasn't sure if it was a good thing yet.

"This isn't really a good place to hang out at night, you know," he said.

"It's just an old dorm building," Kenzan said. "What, are there ghosts or something?"

Judai seemed to bite his lip for a moment, as though he were listening to something.

"...don't think so. At least, I don't sense anything. Still, why out here?"

"It's Halloween," Shou said. "Kenzan really wants to do something spooky."

"Oh. Right. Halloween," Judai said, nodding vaguely.

Something told Shou that Judai had forgotten what day it was – he wondered if Judai had looked at a calendar at all in the last few weeks.

"Um, did you want to play too?" he asked impulsively.

Judai blinked in surprise.

"I mean, we haven't hung out in a while," Shou said quickly. "Um...never mind, I mean, if you don't want to, that's okay...just...I mean we really haven't seen much of you..."

Kenzan and Judai were both looking down at him with a bit of surprise, and Shou looked down at the ground quickly. A cold wind blew between them.

"...sure. Okay."

Shou snapped his head back up. Judai had a hesitant smile.

"You're...you're right, I really haven't..." he said. "Yeah. Okay. Sounds like fun."

Shou felt a warmth flush through his chest. A broad smile grew across his face before he realized he was doing it.

"Awesome!" Kenzan said. "This'll be great! Let's go!"

They began the walk up to the dorm doors.

"What's the game, anyway?" Judai asked.

"Dunno, never played it before. Board looks pretty cool though. I found it in the basement of the school when I got that detention cleaning up down there. Chronos-sensei didn't know what it was, said I could borrow it."

He handed it off to Judai, who glanced at the cover.

"'Zathura'," he read. "'A space adventure.' Huh."

The door to the dorm snapped open.

"Boo!"

Something huge and white jumped through the door. Shou squeaked and fell over. He flushed with embarrassment when he heard Rei's shrieking giggle.

"Geez, Rei-chan," he heard Asuka say somewhere above him. "You're impossible."

"You okay?" Kenzan asked Shou, grinning like a maniac.

Shou glowered at him and ignored the hand he extended to him, standing up by himself. Rei pulled her veil down, smiling hugely.

"You are so easy to scare, Shou-kun!" she said.

"Shut up," Shou muttered. "What are you even supposed to be?"

Rei was dressed in a long white dress and veil, which she had pulled down from her face.

"Duh, I'm an onryo," she said, twirling. "Careful, or I'll exact my vengeance on you!"

She wiggled her fingers at Shou. Shou just rolled his eyes. Asuka, who was standing next to Rei, copied the gesture. It was at that moment Rei noticed Judai standing there. She squealed and practically threw herself at him.

"Judai-kun! I didn't know you were going to be here!"

Judai almost flinched at her sudden hug, and didn't seem to know whether to return the gesture.

"Uh, yeah..." he said, kind of smiling and grimacing at the same time awkwardly. "Nice to see you, Rei-chan."

Asuka blinked with surprise. Then a smile grew across her face.

"Oh, Judai, hello," she said.

Judai's awkward smile turned a little more real, but it was still incredibly awkward.

"This is going to be great!" Rei squealed. "You brought the game?"

"Yep," Kenzan said, holding it up. "Is Manjoume and Fubuki here?"

"Nii-san's not going to come," Asuka said. "I saw him at one of the bonfires with his ukele and an extraordinary number of girls. Besides, I don't want him coming here anyway. The last thing he needs is another panic attack. You should have thought about that, Kenzan – you know what this dorm is like for him."

Kenzan winced.

"I...forgot. I'm sorry."

Asuka sighed.

"Well, you weren't here the first year of classes, so...whatever," she said, waving her hand. "Yeah, Manjoume's inside. Ed's here too."

"Ed? Really?" Shou said.

As though he had heard them, Ed's distinctive suited figure appeared behind the two girls.

"Why do you sound so surprised?" he said.

"This just doesn't seem like the kind of thing you'd be interested in," Shou said.

Ed shrugged.

"Well, I'm not going to be able to sleep what with everyone having their little illegal drinking party on the docks," he said, irritation spiking his voice, "and I'm bored. Talked to Asuka and thought I'd tag along."

He glanced up to see Judai.

"Oh, hello there. Long time no see."

Judai nodded, but didn't say anything.

"Is everyone just going to leave me? I see how it is!"

Manjoume appeared in the doorway, face flushed.

"What, were you scared by yourself?" Ed asked, with a grin.

"Shut up, Ed," Manjoume said. "I'm not afraid of the dark! Black is my color, remember?"

His red face was telling a different story, and Shou had to smother a giggle.

"Are we going to do this, or what?" Manjoume asked.

"Yeah, let's get this started," Kenzan said. "We can set up in the front community room."

They started trickling in through the door. Shou somehow got to the back of the group and ended up walking in next to Judai. That little half smile of his seemed kind of plastered on, and he was looking a bit uncertain. Hesitant and nervous. It was so different from the Judai that Shou remembered. The old Judai would have been charging in, taking command of the group, probably dragging people around to explore the spooky dorm in the middle of the night. He would have been so vibrant before. Now he was just so hesitant, as though he weren't sure he was allowed to be a part of the group.

"Um...aniki...thanks," he said. "I know you...um...just thanks. For hanging out with us again."

Judai looked down at him, blinking a few times. Then he smiled – it was a small smile, but it was perhaps the most real one Shou had seen out of him all evening.

"Hey, you, don't give me a sad face," he said, punching him lightly on the shoulder. "It doesn't suit you, Obelisk's ace student."

Shou blushed.

"I'm not their ace student..."

Judai laughed very softly. Shou felt his own smile coming on. Maybe this wasn't such a bad idea after all.