"From time to time…"

Uno

It was late in the afternoon on a beautiful April Friday; the scenery surrounding the Ra Yellow Dorm building was full of life with the recent blooming of spring flowers and the overabundance of fresh water flowing over the rocky rapids around the yellow painted building. The Ra Yellow Dorms came equipped not only with very comfy beds, nice furniture, electronic equipment and lots of space, but being a Ra also meant you got to come home from classes to find room service till midnight, clean bed sheets, and even little mints placed so quaintly upon the soft pillows of each room.

With all these wonderful accommodations, it was a never-ending amazement to the Ra Dorm Headmaster that not one of his students was ever around…

Don Kabayama, (as he was known by the very few who ever even remembered his name), was the only person present in the Ra Yellow Dorm on that lovely late afternoon; leaning casually against the fancy iron railings surrounding the outside patios which jutted from the sides of the dormitory, the short and rather thin man sipped tasty Spanish fruit juice from a mug bearing the Flag of Spain as he pondered his own forlorn existence.

As the wind blew cold salty air around him, Kabayama took a moment to switch off his mug to his left hand while bringing up his right, and gently running his fingers through his straight, glossy raven hair which normally hung down to his shoulders in length; Kabayama's façade proudly advertised his rich Hispanic heritage, with a hard-chiseled manly jaw and cheekbones, sun-tanned oily skin, sharp black eyebrows and two sharp mustache ends which were handsomely and meticulously shaved and separated by a long space above his mouth. Being a little older then most of the other teachers, Kabayama possessed some faint wrinkles under his eyes and above his eyebrows, as well as crows' feet and slightly sunken in jaw. But coinciding with all his signs of old age (albeit slightly old), Kabayama had some nice redeeming youthful qualities of his physical makeup: a strong chin, a full head of healthy glossy black hair that was streaked back, sideburns, his mustache of course, and twinkling big brown eyes which were radiant whenever the sweet natured man smiled.

Sigh… I don't think I shall ever know. Why has everyone abandoned me like this again? Do they not like me? Has my cooking gone bad?

At that moment of panic, Kabayama left his spot momentarily to peek his head through the sliding panel door to check the timer on his kitchen stove; his curry still had a few minutes to go…

With that bit of reassurance that his cooking was fine, Kabayama came back to his spot overlooking the Ra territory of the island; he pondered for a moment whether cooking a whole pot of curry had been a necessity task for that night; it wasn't like he was expecting any company or anything…

Kabayama had found himself in a particularly depressed mood today, and with some good reason: he had made plans to have a special Colombian-style breakfast this morning with a lunchroom freebies (no one came); during the day, he had offered to take some of his art class students to a section of the beaches to do some watercolor paints (no one was interested); and even earlier this afternoon he announced that he'd be serving his special Curry at the monthly Dorm Meeting today (which only two Yellows showed up to… and one of them was high). And Kabayama's sadness over this bad day was further brought on as he took the time to wander aimlessly through the long, quiet hallways of the Yellow Dorm. The small Hispanic man would open the doors leading into each of the dorm rooms, hoping, praying, that he would find another living soul to talk to…

But he never found anyone. Nope, not one of his few Ra Yellow students could be found that day, and this certainly was not the first time the Dorm Headmaster Kabayama found himself alone and deserted in his own Dorm building. He had lost count how many times his dorms, and he, have been subsequently abandoned; and it seemed no matter what he tried to do to keep them here, his Ra Yellows seemed to be more interested in either living the high life with Dr. Crowler's snooty rich Obelisk Blue students, or running around with Prof. Banner's Slifer Red riff-raffs.

However, with as of his plans that failed, there was always one that seemed to do a good job with luring his students back: food. Yes, as grossly ignored as he was, Kabayama's cooking was absolutely phenomenal, especially for a school cook; it was oft' pondered by the student body as well as the rest of the teacher staff where Kabayama got his excellent culinary skills from. Perhaps his pure Hispanic heritage had something to do with it?

And if not his talents in the kitchen, Senior Kabayama was also an accomplished artist, having painted many portraits and landscapes, as well as even creating his own comic about Dueling; Kabayama was also a very organized man, which eagerly earned him the job as Duel Academy Librarian; and lest we forget his occupations in the world of Duel Monsters: an Academy Card Designer as well as a highly skilled Duelist, as one would have to be in this line of work*.

(* "Work": saving the world with a mere game of cards.)

Of course, this did not mean that he was not proud of himself: Don was very proud of his many talents and accomplishments, and he certainly has a lot to brag about. But that was just it: Kabayama was a soft-spoken and sensitive man, one with very broken English to boot. The Ra Yellow Headmaster was not a tall, loud, boastful, and colorfully egotistical man like Dr. Vellian Crowler.

And sure, The Good Doctor had his own many accomplishments, besides his obvious PhD in Dueling and being the highest-ranking professor at the highest-ranking school in the world. But did he have to brag so damned much? No wonder his Obelisk Blue boys were just as rude and brash against Kabayama's Ra Yellows.

And then there was the other dorm, and the other teacher: Lyman Banner. What did this guy ever do with his life that was so great, Kabayama had to ask himself. What did this nerdy, cat-loving and lanky German man do that kept his Slifer Red students from leaving his dorm? Slifer was the worst dorm, right? And yet the Reds' seemed to love it there, in those scummy, cockroach-infested Red Dorms, and there was no doubt in Kabayama's mind that not one of those students were doing any of their homework; why, it was mostly that very moment they were all enjoying yet another video game/karaoke tournament night alongside their beloved Slifer Dorm Leader, Banner.

Why, Banner was just as big a slacker as his own students! Despite being close to the same age as Dr. Crowler (mid 30's respectably), Banner still insisted on acting like a geeky 17-year-old who loves alchemy, making LOLCAT pictures with Pharaoh, and MMORPG-ing on the Academy's server…

… Sigh.

Kabayama had sighed. He took a sip of his Spanish juice drink and gazed at the sunset, the beach breeze blowing through his silky, shoulder-length hair and tickling the tiny whiskers of his small dark mustache. He took a moment to reach into the pocket of his workpants, pulling out a watch with a broken strap to catch a quick glance at the time before he slipped it back into his pocket.

My curry iz' just about done, but I'll give it another minute since my stove is running a little 'zlow tonight… but of course itz not like it will matter how long it takes. No one is coming to visit me…

It was at that moment that Kabayama realized his vision of the ending sunset was being obstructed by the tears of sadness that were welling up in his big, brown eyes. Before he could allow those tears to flood down his cheeks like so many times before, the Spanish man reached up his bare arm and caught them before they could escape. But he could not stop the squeaky sob and sniffle from escaping his soul.

It took a few good minutes for the Hispanic male to regain his composure and dry his eyes, but he eventually did. Just like he had to as long as he was a (albeit gravely ignored) figure of authority; this tradition of never showing your weak points was something that was driven into Kabayama's mind by none other then the stern and incredibly foppish Dr. Crowler. Even as he finished up his fruit juice and headed inside his living quarters, the Headmaster of Ra could still hear Crowler's slightly scratchy but extremely feminine voice in his head, saying what has always been repeated to him and the other lower teachers:

"These children will never respect you if they see that you are weak in your emotional control, na no nae! If you ever expect the little brats to do as you say, then say it with air and grace, power and intellectual prowess, with no flexibility or acceptance of their laxness!"

As convincing an argument and as graceful and pretty as Dr. Crowler's singsong words were, Kabayama never fully understood The Good Doctor's belief in total detachment to his own students. Was it so wrong for a teacher to just be honest with his students?

That was the question that Senior Kabayama was left with as he finished stirring his finished curry and adding a few more spices to the grilled chicken before he was to pour some of the curry into a bowl before he would store all the rest of it away until he could eventually finish it and his chicken over time. Of course, he would be more then happy to reheat them and share them with any visitors who might drop by… but that, given the past, highly unlikely.

But then something amazing happened. As he had finished cleaning up his little Spanish-style kitchen and had just sat down at his quaint little dining table and took up a spoon to enjoy his own culinary artwork, Kabayama received something wonderful at his door, something so truly precious to him, that it would stop him in mid slurp.

It was a knock at his door.