In a place no mortal has ever seen, three beings conferred. A great serpent with two mouths, colored a deep red. A tremendous mountain-sized humanoid, whose blue body held power far beyond any other. And a magnificent dragon, seemingly made of solid gold. The three were also, it would appear, disagreeing rather violently.
"We must destroy it!" the blue titan roared. The gold dragon nodded. "If we allow the mortal world to continue... Look at this. One boy has just stolen the Pharaoh's deck. We can hardly ignore this." The red serpent sighed sadly out of both its' mouths. "We cannot just up and destroy everything so easily." The blue one interrupted. "We must! If we don't, those humans will destroy themselves in a far worse way than we ever could!"
The gold one nodded. "Since they learned to harness the power of the atom, they have certainly become infinitely more dangerous... to themselves, and to the world, and even to our world. If they were to simply throw an atomic bomb through a Dimension hole, there's every chance all of the monsters would die."
The red dragon nodded. "However, isn't destroying everything too much? What about these duelists? They're the next form of those who worshipped us, revered us, and gave us alms and tributes. Do you not feel the slightest debt?"
The blue one roared. "NONE!" But the gold dragon simply looked at it, and the blue being calmed itself. "You raise a good point. They, at least, should be preserved..." the gold one acknowledged.
The red serpent paused. "Perhaps... we preserve the duelists. We will take on mortal shells. We will walk the Earth with them. We duel them as mortals, not gods. We will use the duels to judge them. If they are a worthy duelist and person, they are allowed into our afterlife, without having to bother with the tests, the weighing of the heart, or any such details."
"A bold plan..." the gold one paused in thought. The blue one growled. "I don't like it. To do away with the tests that have held since ancient times? What would she think?"
Both other beings looked at the blue figure. "The Creator of Light knows that with creation, destruction must come. Things must change." The red one said. The gold bird-dragon nodded. "Then we will go with your plan. We shall harvest the duelists as soon as our new bodies are ready."
Two years passed...
Judai dropped off his bag in his room. It felt so great to be back in his dorm room! Summer vacation? Who needed it when you went to Duel Academy? After the threat from the Wave of Light had passed, they had had a relatively quiet semester. Nothing too exciting, but who needed that, after all that happened first semester of second year?
Answer: Juudai did. It was his third year, the first day, and orientation was going to start in five minutes. Could he get there in time? Probably, if he ran, and didn't pause to help Tome with her truck. He ran faster than most people would think possible.
"Just in time!" he said to himself, taking a seat. Shou smiled at his aniki, while Manjoume, who sat behind the two, rolled his eyes and sighed.
He, for one, had enjoyed his departure from Duel Academy, and from Juudai. Or so he claimed. Everyone knew he really missed Juudai, and their duels. Though whenever someone said this, it appeared Manjoume had to use most of his self-control to not simply punch them in the face.
Most people took that to mean that the theory was, indeed, true.
"Aniki! There you are-saurus!" A deep voice shouted. Manjoume immediately pushed back, wanting to keep his precious sanity as far away from this new arrival as possible.
Tyranno Kenzan (Most people wonder what his real name is. Those who ask him usually come back with large scratches that one would guess came from a pissy T-Rex.) arrived, and plopped down in the chair on the other side of Juudai. Shou immediately leaned over and glared at the dino-boy, and Kenzan returned the look. Juudai tried to calm them down, with no luck.
Fortunately, the situation was defused when someone sat next to Manjoume. "Are they fighting again?" Manjoume looked up. THIS was why he returned to the Academy, rather than returning to the North School as King. "Of course, Tenjoin-kun." He replied, trying to sound cool and indifferent. "When are they not?"
"Yet you haven't tried to stop them? Why not, Manjoume-kun?" Manjoume almost fell over. "W-Well, you see, the thing of it is..." "He was obviously preoccupied waiting for you."
There was silence. All five seated slowly, slowly turned around to face the newest voice. "Fubuki!" "Fubuki-saurus!" "Fubuki-san!" "Niisan!" "Shishou!" came five very, very surprised voices. It was, indeed, Fubuki. However, rather than his Obelisk uniform, he was in his strange Hawaiian shirt, strumming his ukulele.
Then, in unison: "What are YOU doing here!" "Are you not happy to see me?" Fubuki pouted. "But you graduated!" Shou exclaimed. Fubuki smiled. "And they kindly offered me a teacher's position until I can find a sponsor for my idol show... And until Asuka kindly decides to join m-" His sentence was interrupted by a very loud slap.
"I told you, I'm not going!" Asuka told him. "What are you teaching, anyway?" A new voice asked. Juudai turned around. "Misa-" And stopped dead.
It was indeed Misawa. The genius of Ra Yellow could not be mistaken. Except for one detail. "That's an Obelisk uniform!" Juudai practically yelled, eyes bugging out.
Misawa nodded. "I said I wasn't going to go to Blue until I beat you... I figured a tie was close enough." Juudai nodded. Manjoume shook his head. "I still can't believe you did that... Why do you even HAVE that card, Juudai? Fissure of all things?"
Last year, due to the Genex tournament, the annual North School duel was pushed back to the second semester. Surprisingly, the first candidate for the duel was Manjoume. Manjoume took one look at the opponent's name, turned away, and said, "I've already destroyed him. If you pick me, the boy would never make it to the stage without chickening out. Find someone else." So they came up again, with Juudai or Misawa. Top of the practical exams, or top of the written exams?
The duel lasted several hours. Both students had nearly decked themselves, then refreshed at the last second. It was the longest duel the Academy had seen. Finally, it seemed Juudai had regained the upper hand. A Shining Flare Wingman with well over 7000 attack points. Both players had less than 1000 Life Points left.
Then Juudai slipped up. Rather than attacking his monster and letting Shining Flare Wingman's effect finish off Misawa, he used a Fissure to send it to the graveyard to win with a Direct Attack. Misawa then activated Contagion of Madness, meaning it ended in a draw.
So, after a long, long duel that lasted until well after dark... The representative of Duel Academy was decided by rock-paper-scissors.
Misawa felt that Juudai should go, but Ra Yellow told him to defend their pride. So Misawa took up the task, and won in a total lockdown. That was one of the most one-sided duels in Duel Academy's history, or so people said.
"Well, I was caught up in the heat of the moment..." Juudai grinned sheepishly. Fubuki grinned widely. "That was still one of the greatest duels ever seen! Misawa-kun's pride was completely restored!" Misawa smiled, obviously embarrassed. "W-Well, anyways, Fubuki-san- Fubuki-sensei." Fubuki smiled.
"I teach a class on Yami no Games."
Understandably, there was a stunned silence. Fubuki, with an apparent inability to take ANYTHING seriously, teaching a class on the Yami no Games? Well, not to say he didn't have experience. He was possessed by one of the Seven Stars, Darkness, for something of the sort. He probably never really forgave Daitokuji for it, either.
Before anyone could regain their powers of speech (Even Manjoume and Asuka couldn't think of anything to say), a new boy sat down behind them. Long grey hair, piercing blue eyes, and a very fancy suit. "Edo!" Juudai exclaimed, surprised. Fubuki moved away, pouting that the new arrival could get their attention away from him of all people so quickly.
Edo looked over. "Is it surprising? I did enroll here." Juudai grinned sheepishly. "I assumed it was only for that semester..." He recalled that, after Saiou's plans failed and the Wave of Light expelled, Saiou decided it would be best to finish off the third year he had enrolled for. Edo also joined the school to keep his friend's spirits up.
Since Saiou had been a third year, he had graduated. Edo, though, apparently had to stay for one more year. He sighed. "Principal Samejima hasn't started yet?" The group looked up. They had forgotten about the assembly...
What a group this was. Two Yellows. Two Blues. A Red. And whatever Manjoume and Edo were. With a teacher in Hawaiian garb behind them. All chatting amicably, showing no sign of the rivalry between dorms. Samejima looked down from his office at this group, hanging up his phone. No other students were quite like these... The principal sighed. Could this really be happening? The island was safe, most likely...
Samejima looked at the papers on his desk. Two Osiris students. A Ra. And four Obelisks. They wouldn't be coming back this year... The Ra would have been a first year. But all of them were found, duel disks attached, dead on the ground... There had been rumors of a previous threat that required the combined might of the Duel King Mutou Yuugi, Kaiba Seto, and Jonouchi Katsuya to defeat... A soul-stealing threat. Most people dismissed it as false, of course, but this made Samejima begin to wonder...
He sighed. No point in delaying it any longer. He had to tell the students. He stepped out of his office to deliver the news in person.
He cleared his throat. The entire assembly silenced. Samejima looked terribly solemn... Different from his normal appearance. "Students, staff, and spirits..." The entire student body looked at each other, while Juudai turned to look at Hane Kuribo. "No doubt you've heard of the recent deaths. Seven students won't return to us this year... People who are killing through duels is unheard of. Yet it is obviously what's happening."
The students began muttering to each other. What did this mean? Did this mean they were going to be sent home? Was Duel Academy shutting down? Samejima raised his hands to quiet them. "However."
"I do not believe such a threat could come to this island. There is nothing to worry about. Classes will proceed as normal. I repeat, there is nothing at all to worry about."
The entire school immediately knew he was lying. The school was being used as a fortress. The threat, hopefully, wouldn't get there, so the kids would be safe.
Unfortunately for them, the threats had already arrived. Three new students were all thinking the same. "Let the games... begin."