Chapter 1: Curtain Rise

Dimension hopping was no longer as destructive as it was in the beginning. He could still remember Shou's surprised face when he emerged from the crater he created. It took a little bit of explanation to Chancellor that the crater was not a sign of danger – at least not directly. The fact that he had return at all meant that something dangerous was happening to his home dimension, but at the time, he didn't want to worry anyone.

Nowadays, it was a matter of ensuring the place he was popping in was in a relatively desolate area. It was a lot of hassle trying to calm any spectators, and in some cases, trying to communicate after a long jump could be very difficult. It was a blessing that Yubel had the ability to scout out locations beforehand.

"This place – it feels familiar," Yubel mentioned as Judai packed.

"We've been to a lot of places through out the years. Are you sure that this is even a new dimension?" Judai asked.

"Yes. There is not a doubt that this dimension is new: the duel energy in this place is unfamiliar to me," Yubel explained. "However, the location that we are being drawn to reminds me of your home."

Judai laughed. "I haven't had a place to call home for a long time Yubel." If Yubel hadn't known better, they would have said that he sounded bitter.

"That town you lived in when you were young I mean. The buildings are large and there are many children in the area," they paused, "It is a very different environment from the kingdoms we have visited."

"Is that so? Maybe we can finally use some of that money I saved up from the last tournament," Judai joked and he tightened the drawstring on his bag. "Finished packing."

"It has been a long time since we've traveled to a new dimension, especially one as far as this one." Yubel commented, a concerned expression crossing their face. "Are you sure you are ready to leave?"

Judai stood up and turned to face Yubel. He was about to tease them that they were uselessly worrying again when he caught himself in the mirror. The robes he was wearing featuring garish colors and tassels of all types of material would probably more suspicion that he would like in this new dimension. His hair was in need of a cut, and he could probably do with a quick shave before they left. He could hear Yubel sigh as he walked over to the mirror to examine himself more closely.

"Living so far away from your friends has made you nervous to go back to the realms that have raised you," they gathered. Judai ignored them and scrutinized his face even further. He pulled at his clothes and wondered what his mother would have to say if she saw him in this. He tried to shake out the echoing silence inside his head.

"I'm not nervous. We go back every year to see Sho and the others," he tried arguing, ignoring the fact that time works very differently between dimensions and to him. It has been years since he returned home. "It just has been a long time since I had to be in a place with a lot of new people. I'm more worried looking like a sore thumb than having to talk to anyone." Yubel tilted their head, but chose not to comment on the last part.

"The clothes Rei gave you at your last reunion is in the blue bag," they suggested.

Judai didn't acknowledge their comment with a response but still walked over to the bag. He whispered a small prayer of thanks to Rei.

"I will go out and inform the magistrate of our leave then. We'll leave at sundown," Yubel informed and closed the door firmly behind them. Judai sighed as he was left alone and continued digging through the bag.

His choice to become a defender of the countless dimensions that exist in this universe was a choice he had never regretted. However, his journey to that decision continues to plague him. Even though his friends have told him that they forgave him for what happened when he became the Supreme King, he has never forgotten the pain he brought them. Not to mention, his sudden disappearance after Darkness was defeated brought back a few bitter emotions when he attended one of their reunions. It probably didn't help that it was the first time they heard of him in four of their years after his left them. They were even angrier when they found out that he came back every so often to hang out with Johan.

Luckily, his friends didn't expect too much from him and forgave him easily. Judai found himself to be a more frequent guest at their annual meet-ups, but he never stayed too long. He stayed long enough for his friends to believe that he was actually still alive, and that was it. It made him anxious being in a place he loved with friends he cherished knowing that danger was constantly following him.

He thought he'd be okay after Paradox. He was fine with Yusei and Yugi, but that was because the duel spirits also chose them. They were strong to begin with, and then they went through challenges and came out stronger. They had to or else face the destruction of their world. His friends, at least he hoped, never went through that. They were weak, and Judai couldn't bear the thought of putting everyone under that kind of stress again, even if he was forgiven.

Deep down, Judai still thought they all hated him. After all, who wouldn't hate someone like him? It was too easy, and he welcomed all of it. He wasn't the best of friends and would rather abandon them than face them and fix their relationships. He was good at fixing dimensional problems, but his friends didn't want Haou Judai to fix things. They wanted the Judai who would laugh and smile and was the good guy even though that Judai was never really a good guy either and-

Taking a deep breath, Judai cleared his mind and walked over to the window. Right now, there weren't multiple Judai's running around. He was Yuki Judai, just like he was Haou Judai, and he accepted that title with all the good and bad and that was okay. He can never change who he is, or how people think of him, but he can change how he acts, and that is the important thing. Looking over to the vast desert kingdom, he calmed himself and focused on his thoughts on his newest mission.

Days ago, just when he had finished stabilizing the new government over these lands, the Neo Spacians sensed a shift in power. Energy flowed randomly in ways Judai had no hope in understanding, but what he did understand was that this flow was unnatural that made the Neo Spacians nervous. It seemed to be grouping around one dimension in particular. The mission as of now is to just investigate and move from there.

Judai frowned at the thought of his plan. It was more vague than he would like it to be, but seeing how he is an army of one with a legion of heroes behind him, he was going to have to take the risk. From Yubel's vision, at least he knew he wasn't jumping heard first into some horrible wasteland. Judai didn't even try to hide the slight grimace as he recalled that horrible swamp dimension.

"One of these days, I'm going to retire and have an entire beach house to myself," Judai resolved as he leaned against the window frame.

"Kuri kuuri!" a friend chirped beside him. Judai almost laughed.

"Thanks buddy. One day, when you figure out how to fight the darkness on your own, I'll retire," Judai smiled as Winged Kuriboh rested on his head. He laughed his friend continued on its speech on how its training has been going and that Judai should really try fishing again when he retires.

Judai nodded as his friend continued, and walked over to the forgotten clothes. With his head in a better place, Judai began to dig through his wardrobe for more suitable clothes.

"Are you really going to wear that?" Burst Lady asked as Judai pulled out a jacket and a pair of jeans.

"Surely the green jacket will go better with those jeans," Sparkman inputted and Judai inwardly sighed.

"Are you joking? He wore that to the last reunion, and you all saw Fubuki's sigh. Rei also spent all that money on those new clothes. You should wear that instead," Clayman argued. Judai rolled his eyes and laid the clothes flat against himself as he looked at himself in the mirror.

"But I like these clothes," Judai retorted, a little annoyed that they were having this argument in the first place. "They're comfortable."

"New clothes! New clothes!" the remaining monsters in his deck chanted, and Judai wondered if Johan faced the same challenges from his deck. Even as king, he couldn't refuse their demands. Putting down his old jacket, Judai pulled out the neatly wrapped package from the bag. It had been months when he first received it, but with all the political relations he was helping out with, he hardly had time to look at it.

The clothes were a good fit, as if Rei somehow knew that Judai doesn't really grow like a normal person anymore. He began to question if he even aged. Japanese people aged very well, but he saw the odd looks his friends gave him at the last reunion. Normal people don't keep their boyish charm forever. To his amusement, he could still probably pass from anywhere from 15 to 20 years old despite being however old he was.

His duel monsters gave out a murmur of approval as Judai moved to look in the mirror. It had been a long time since he wore red, mostly because working as an advocate of the Gentle Darkness meant black was your designated color. Judai looked at his traditional robes and decided that black wasn't the worst color in the world. Rei had given him a very comfortable plain black shirt with a red jean vest to cover over it. It was simple, but it looked timeless enough to blend in if this new dimension really was like home.

There was still the matter of hair, but he would adjust afterwards. He looked well kept enough for people to immediately not to assume he finally returned from a stranded island.

"You seem happier. Those clothes look nice," someone complimented from the doorway.

"Well, it's nice to be in jeans again," Judai responded, and motioned for his visitor to enter. He didn't need to check to know that it was Yubel: he was always sure where the other half of him was.

"You never did like your formal ware when you were a child," Yubel reminisced as they walked in and sat down at the table. Judai paused for a moment. His mind flashed two different sets of memories: one where his mother was trying to put him in a suit and another where his wet nurse was trying to get him in his royal clothing. Judai tried to shake away the dual memories, but there was now tension in the air, and the small curses from Yubel were not helping.

"I apologize. I know that this next mission might be difficult for you to adjust and I didn't mean to bring up-"

"Yubel," Judai interrupted and walked over to sit across from them. "Tell me another story about us back then." Yubel's eyes soften in thankfulness, and smiled.

"Have I told you about the time about the 243rd annual games your family hosted?"

"Is this the one with the elephants?"

"This is the one after the elephants."

Judai smiled as he could tell this was going.

"We have a little time before we will need to leave," Yubel informed and sat back. "It was during the harvest, as the games normally are, and you were in a particularly bad mood that day." Yubel told, and Judai sat back in fondness for their stories.

Time passed quickly as the story was told, questions were answered, and laughs were shared. It wasn't long before the sun had fallen, and the time to leave was upon them. Pharaoh who was sleeping peacefully in the sun, stretched himself before climbing into his carrying bag for the trip. Judai scratched the top of his head and proceeded to head out.

His farewell was a quiet one. One a few members of the royal cabinet knew about his absence, and the rest of the kingdom will be alerted once he was gone. A few words were exchanged, and those who would see him off bowed their heads in respect.

Years ago, Judai might have thought that this was a little depressing for a hero who had just saved the world again. However, now that he was older and mature, he figured it was suitable for a figure meant to reside in darkness. He nodded and closed his eyes. He pretended not to notice how some of the cabinet seemed to already be gossiping about loopholes in their constitution. He tried not to think about the corruption already growing in these citizens. He tried not to think about that their farewells might be a little too short lived.

What he did have to think about was not landing in a sea of water again.

Focus Judai! Yubel yelled at him. Judai opened his eyes again and saw that he was no longer seamlessly flying through dimensions like normal but instead somehow stuck in the space between. Surrounding him were endless visions of different areas for this new dimension. He saw images of skyscrapers, dueling arenas, circuses, and schools. Had this not have been a potentially lethal situation, Judai might have taken the time to agree with Yubel about the similarities to his own dimension.

As Judai tried to figure out what was happening, something began pulling him. Behind him was some kind of void that was growing larger by the second. It seemed to have developed its own form of gravity and slowly dragging Judai towards it. Judai looked around for his original destination, but each portal was fading out as the void grew.

Judai! This one! Hurry! Judai didn't second-guess Yubel and used all of his strength to pull himself out of from the darkness's gravity.

Throwing himself into a vision of an alleyway, Judai closed his eyes and braced himself for landing. As if he was crashing through a glass window, he could feel the barrier between dimensions shatter before him. Inhaling a breath he didn't realized he was withholding, Judai wasted no time checking his surroundings and then immediately repairing the hole he made.

"I thought you said you were getting better at this," Yubel commented snidely as the barrier slowly repaired itself.

"At least we didn't arrive with a crater beneath us," Judai bit back, and sighed as the barrier disappeared from human sight. He was tired, but his judgment told him that it wasn't a good idea to just sleep in some strange alleyway.

"You think they take Yen here?" Judai asked, his hand on a wallet full of cards and cash he gathered through the years.

"Only one way to find out," Yubel motioned toward a main road, and Judai nodded.

There was nothing to worry about, right? It was just a main road with strangers that probably didn't care about him. It was going to be okay. He could be normal. He could be normal for just a few hours, right? Making a few steps forward, he prepared for the worst.

Judai almost forgot how much he loved the city. The scene in front of him almost took his breath away. As he walked out the alleyway, he was immediately greeted with the sight of skyscrapers and cars with sidewalks bustling with hundred of people, adults and children alike. Following the crowd, Judai examined every sign he passed along the way.

"Miami City," he repeated to himself, trying to keep down a childish glee in his stomach. He couldn't really help it though. It has been years since he was able to go to a game shop, and in this city, there was one for every three shops he passed. This was a duelist paradise.

"Judai, look. It seems that our technology is out of date," Yubel pointed as an ad played on a huge screen on a building. It showed the latest model of a duel disk that seemed to cross function as an array of different devices. Curiously enough, the ad didn't seem to feature any sponsorship from Kaiba Corp.

"Leo Corporation," Judai said and then suddenly aware that he was talking to himself again. To avoid stares, he kept moving.

"At least it's an upgrade from those horrendous D-Gazers from that one dimension," Yubel commented.

"You just didn't like them because it messed with your style," Judai teased, but Yubel didn't gratify it was a response.

"It seems this place runs in a parallel dimension," a voice commented from his side.

"A parallel dimension?" Judai asked as the form of Daitokuji-sensei became more visible.

"Yes. Many physicians from where we come from had theories about them, but none could prove their existence. It is a dimension that runs with our universe, but exists in a completely different universe all together. Perhaps that is why you were being dragged so much before, Judai. Our dimension was trying to drag you back," Daitokuji explained.

"Is that so," Judai asked, but nodded as Daitokuji continued to explain the theory of parallel dimensions. If that was the case, he was going to need to get himself situated if he was going to be able to do anything here. In the back of his mind, he began to wonder that if his decks were going to even hold up here.

Many dimensions, he found, specialized in different types of dueling. While fusion has always been his favorite, he will admit that XYZ summoning and Synchro had their uses. He kept a hand on his standard deck, and prayed for the best. He would probably need to visit one of those games shops in the near future.

"It's time for our spectacular RECAP special!" an announcer screamed over a few speakers, and Judai saw a crowd had gathered around a television screen on top of a skyscraper.

"Well, if there was ever a better opportunity to gather information," Judai muttered and walked over to join them.

"In today's legendary match between Pro Duelist Strong Ishijima and You Show Dueling School's Yuya Sakaki, we saw the true power of Sakaki's Entertainment Dueling! At first, it had seemed that today's match was in Ishijima's favor. However, out of nowhere, Sakaki performed a never before seen summoning type he has called PENDULUM Summoning!" the announcer explained as a graphic of the summoning played on screen.

In an array of light, two magician monsters were summoned as a large crystal swung between them. After a moment, three monsters emerged from the light in a dazzling array. The crowd was going mad about it.

"To get that many monsters on the field at once is certainly very powerful," Yubel noted.

"But he loses an advantage by playing too many cards at once. For novice players, it would act more like a double edged blade," Daitokuji commented.

"We are turning toward the battle stadium to get some more information on the summoning!"

The screen shifted at a boy with a bright smile with green and red hair played on the screen. Judai noted the jacket as probably a uniform as he saw other children wearing it. He also liked those goggles on the kid's head.

"Stop dodging the bullet and give us some details!" a man, who reminded Judai a little bit of Professor Chronus asked, but the boy deflected and tried to move away from the reporters. Judai pitied the poor kid. He heard from his friends the pains they have from fleeing reporters, and Johan was not above using Judai's power move quickly between tournaments just to avoid the crowds.

Moving away from the crowd, Judai moved to see a group of kids flocking together in one direction.

"Aren't we supposed to be investigating suspicious reports within this dimension?" Yubel asked.

"A new summoning technique came up that not even the creators of these duel disks were aware of. If that isn't suspicious, well, why don't you guide me to where I'm supposed to be going," Judai smirked as he followed the kids. He bit back a laugh as Yubel sighed in frustration.

The children he were following all ranged from ages 13-19 years old. For once, Judai was glad that he still looked young. They all were gossiping about this pendulum summoning and discussing useful combos with it. Daitokuji was beside himself with excitement.

"Ah, if only all of my students were like this," he smiled, his eyes glaring at Judai who shrugged.

"Were you this excited when you joined that dueling school?" Yubel asked, and Judai thought back all those years ago. He wasn't really all that excited to go to a dueling school as he was to duel new people. All of these kids has various reasons why they loved the card game so much, but Judai just really liked to win and being the best.

Of course, he moved one from that mindset.

"For the most part," Yubel commented.

"Winning is still pretty fun," Judai finished and didn't hide the smile that came with it.

The group stopped in front of a small building. On top was a signed with the words "You Show Duel School" in large font. The school reminded Judai of some of the smaller duel schools in his own town. There weren't many duelists where he was from, so the classes were often small and filled with hobbyists. It was a nice sight to see these kids so determined.

"Attention everyone! If we could just get everyone in a nice line, I'll hand out flyers to sign up for our duel school and then we'll take you in to our duel arena!" a young voice called out. Her pink hair made her hard to miss; however, it seemed that everyone was ignoring her. Judai frowned, and made his way to the front of the line.

"Hey you can't cut! Wait in line buster!" one boy called out to him.

Grabbing a chair from the table, Judai yelled from the top of his lungs, "HEY EVERYONE!"

The road was silenced.

"And people wonder about your ability to lead," Yubel commented with a fond smile.

"Thank you," he smiled to the crowd and looked over to the pink haired girl. "That should help get things in order."

"Uh, yes, thank you," she stuttered, but Judai reasoned that he had screamed pretty loudly. It probably wasn't the best first impression he could make, but at least it got the job done.

She looked over to the crowd and instructed how to fill out the form. Before long, three other kids joined in while telling the pink haired girl to go prepare. They were all yelling about something and giving a show to put their money where their mouths were. Judai's eye widen in understanding that she was probably the opponent for that Yuya kid. He frowned – the school was definitely in need of some staff if they got kids doing all the administration work.

"Why are you still standing here?" Yubel asked.

"Well, it's not like I can just go back to my old spot. Besides, standing here seems to keep the kids in line," Judai explained quietly as the line grew smaller and smaller. A half an hour must have passed before the line was finally gone, and piles of forms were being transported from the table to folders.

"Thanks mister! That might have been a lot worse if you weren't here to help out!" a small girl called out as the boys carried the stacks to an office nearby.

"Oh, it's no problem!" Judai dismissed, his smile nervous. Suddenly, being alone with a small girl felt harder than fighting against the forces of darkness. He tried to block out Yubel's laughs.

"I know!" she snapped, "As thanks, why don't you come and see Yuya and Yuzu's duel together. You're a duelist right?" she asked, pointing to the deck on his belt.

Before Judai had a chance to answer, the girl was pulling him to a hidden room upstairs. The room was filled with large machines whirling but was overall very quiet. He was pulled over to toward a wall with a window with a large device in front.

"Ayu! How come you didn't help out with those forms? They were heavy!" the boy cried out as he came through the door.

"Really? I thought that since you were with Gongenzaka, it wouldn't be that bad. Besides, someone needed to start up the new Solid Vision System!" Ayu said as she played around with the large computer in front of her.

"Hey now, let's wait until Yuya and Yuzu are ready," the larger kid warned as he walked up and then suddenly took notice of Judai.

"Hello!" he greeted with a big smile. On instinct, Judai reached for the deck as the other boy reached out the grab his hand. "My name is Gongenzaka Noboru! It's a pleasure to meet you. Thank you for that help earlier."

"Yuki Judai," he replied, "and it's no problem. Just thought I would do something to help out that girl. She seems like she has more things to worry about than she should."

"Yuzu is like the best student in our school. I think she even outranks Yuya here!" the other boy commented. "It gives me shivers just thinking about it!"

Putting names to faces, Judai felt as if he was beginning to draw a good picture of the crew here. Now it was time to gather some more information.

"So what's this machine here?" he asked.

"You don't know? Are you new around here or something?" Ayu asked as if he just asked what a car was.

"Well, kind of," Judai answered, his eyes shifting around for some help.

"Gongenzaka! The duel is starting!" the boy urged. Gongenzaka muttered something under his breath and pressed a button. On the screen showed a graphic of a field spell Judai didn't recognize.

"I guess the best way to show you what's an action duel is through a duel itself!" Ayu said as the dueling ground in front of Judai shifted into a beautiful grassland. In his time, Judai often found himself a little underwhelmed during his friends' dueling tournaments featuring the latest technology. It was hard to be amazed when the holograms were as realistic as the duel spirits that were constantly following him.

The holograms here made Judai think that the device had the ability to shift dimensions itself.

In a glow of light, the very minimal room in front of him shifted into a luscious meadow with a bubbling creek. Wind gently blew around, and for a second, Judai honestly thought that the machine transported them into a separate dimension. Had Judai not seen the machine turn on, he probably would have summoned Neos then and there and prepare for an attack.

As the two duelists below him readied their duel disks, the two of them began saying some kind of pre-rehearsed chant. With a snap of Yuya's fingers, a glass holding a variety of cards shattered above them and dropped the cards within. There was a moment of silence before the duelists called out "Duel" and the game had begun.

The first turn was simple enough. A small monster, Enter-Mate Discover Hippo, was played and the turn was over. It was a little premature to end the turn in Judai's eyes, but he didn't expect much from this duel. However, it was the fact that Yuya had actually gotten on the hippo and then began moving around the field.

"That's," he gasped out, "so cool!" He tried to ignore Yubel's quiet groan and comment that this was their daily life.

"This is what Action Dueling is about. With the technology of Solid Vision, duelists are able to travel around the field with their duel monsters," Ayu explained. Judai smiled and thought about dragging Johan over here. The two of them would have a blast in this dimension.

The second turn was even more interesting as Yuzu tried attacking Yuya. But with one of those action cards, the attack was avoided. Judai couldn't even hold down his excitement when Yuzu still managed to inflict battle damage directly. If this was the types of duels this dimension held, he was definitely going to need to update his decks a little bit to accommodate the area.

For the most part, the duel seemed to stay to rules that Judai was used to. Action spells were limited to one in a duelist's hand at any time, and there was a time limit until a duelist had to play a card before their turn was immediately ended. It was fast paced and exciting, and Judai could see where the kid's desire for "entertainment dueling" came from.

It was definitely funny to also watch Yuya attempt a couple of failed Pendulum summonings. Judai was definitely not a studious one, but years of experience told even him how to perform a summoning like that.

"You make it sound like you were some kind of child prodigy at dueling," Yubel commented.

You make it sound like I wasn't. Judai shot back, and Yubel remained silent at that.

"Still, this Pendulum summoning, it's very odd. Why has no one seen it before?"

It might be our lead to solving the instability problem.

"Pendulum summon!" Yuya screamed, and Judai flinched at the sight of the poor kid flying against the wall. It was a very short duel to say the least.

"It's over?" the boy asked.

"Seems like it," Judai commented and frowned. He wanted to watch more dueling, but he supposed that it couldn't be helped.

"What about the pendulum summon?" Ayu asked, and Judai looked over to the crowd in the lower hallway. A lot of them were wearing the same expression as these kids.

"Let's go meet them downstairs," Judai motioned and allowed the kids to guide him through.

"I can't believe that Yuzu-nee-chan beat Yuya!" the boy sighed.

"She did beat him those other times Futoshi," Ayu commented, though she looked as down as the other boy.

"Yuya must just be tired from having to duel twice in a day!" Gongezaka inputted, "Dueling so much must have put a strain on him." Judai tried not to comment that when he was in school, ten to fifteen duels a day were not uncommon for him.

Whispers about the duel could be heard all through the corridor. Some of them were accusing Yuya of faking his duel while others were wondering if this was just some big corporate scheme to try and get them to buy more cards. Judai didn't need to be there to see the confused look on that Yuya kid's face.

"Uh, I have a question," a boy raised his hand.

"Y-yes?"

"Before you mentioned that you had Pendulum cards. What did you mean?"

"So they are cards that are new to even this dimension. I wonder who they are," Yubel inquired, curiously peering of Yuya's shoulder.

Judai watched as Yuya opened his deck to reveal these new Pendulum cards, and was thoroughly impressed with how quickly the crowd turned against him. Show some kids something they don't have, and immediately they'll turn against their idol. Yuzu was looking lost again before she established eye contact with him. Shaking his head, he gave out a silent apology. If these kids only wanted to be here for the Pendulum summoning, they weren't going to be very good students in the long run.

As the crowds of children rushed out, Judai noticed that the Yuya kid had put on his goggles.

"He reminds me of you when you were younger," Yubel noted, but Judai didn't need an explanation for that one. He walked over, and placed a hand on the kid's shoulder.

"Hold on for a second kid," he order, and Yuya was just about to brush him off when a voice echoed through the hallway.

"Yuya-nii-chan is not a cheater!" the blue haired kid cried out, and the rest from there was history. Turns out, the kid, Tatsuya, was a big fan from the get-go, and found his courage to stand up for his hero. It seemed enough to bring Yuya back to his normal self; however, Judai knew that look Yuya was wearing. Tapping his shoulder, he tried to bring back Yuya's attention onto himself.

"Judai-kun, you really must allow the student to discover his own powers," Daitokuji-sensei pleaded.

The last time that happened, a kid sacrificed all of his friends and became a dark overlord, Judai tried to hold back a bitter laugh. He failed. If a little personal growth is what it costs to prevent a lot of grief, then so be it.

"Could I see your deck for a second?" Judai asked.

"Uh, sure?" Yuya answered, and pulled out his cards. Had this been a more dangerous dimension, Judai would have begun yelling at the kid: you shouldn't hand something as valuable as your deck to total strangers.

Digging through the cards, Judai noted that there were a lot of monsters with a few spells and trap cards. It was an elementary deck that made up for the few spells and traps with the abundance of effect monsters. It was also handy for a deck that seemed to rely on Pendulum summoning to have an abundance of monsters. However, it lacked a layer of complexity with a small Extra Deck.

Pulling out two cards, Judai gave the deck back to Yuya.

"See these cards? These are you Pendulum cards, right?" Judai explained and waited for a nod. "See this number? Let's call them the Pendulum scale then. When you set the scale, these numbers dictate the levels of monsters you are able to summon. These two cards are very good to have because it has a larger scale and thus more monsters you can summon at once in any instance, does that make sense?" Yuya's eyes widen as if Judai had just explained the theory of the universe to him.

"Very good Judai-kun. I praise you on your use of common words and friendly tone!" Daitokuji praised.

"That makes sense! So when I tried summoning Sword Fish and Whip Viper earlier, it was because Odd-Eyes was set in the scale that I couldn't summon them!" Yuya concluded, and Judai nodded.

"Wait, how did you know about that?" Yuzu asked, her eyes suspicious. "Are you from LDS or something?"

"Yuzu-nee-chan! It's okay! He didn't even know about action duels before coming here," Ayu explained.

"What?" At that point, Hiragi-san, the only adult in the room at the moment, interrupted the conversation with a certain gleam in his eyes.

"Does that mean you are interested in being a student then?"

"Uh, well," Judai stammered, uncomfortable with now being in the center of attention. He wished for the floor below him to swallow him, but unfortunately for him, that would make quite a scene.

"Of course, of course," Hiragi-san interrupted again. "We'll throw you in a placement duel to see where you fit. You don't have to be nervous. Yuzu and Yuya are two of my very best duelists, so it's understandable if you lose. This is more of a test to see where we will need to place you in our classes."

Yubel, help! Judai begged.

"I say go for it," Yubel suggested.

That is not help.

"You were the one who wanted information about this Pendulum summoning. Why not just stay with this kid until something more interesting happens. He is our only lead so far. Plus, if you don't duel him now, he's going to want to duel you later," Yubel reasoned, and then gestured to Yuya's determined face. Of course this all happened right after his pep talk.

"I don't really have a duel disk on me right now," Judai tried to back out.

"Don't worry! The You Show Duel School supplies a free one with every application!" Hiragi-san answered and tossed a small, red device toward him.

Looking between the device and the group that had somehow circled around him without his notice, Judai could only sigh and give his brightest smile.

"Let's duel then," Judai agreed, and was cheered on by the group around him.

This was certainly not how he expected his day to go, but Judai wasn't exactly complaining.


A/N: This is one of the longest stories I have ever written for anything.

Basically, the idea for this story is a what-if Judai was involved in the story of Arc-V in a more involved fashion. While the story is going to relate back to the show, it's going to be a more involved version. I hope that it provides a little more insight into everyone.

Some background on Judai if you would like: Judai has been through the Zexal, 5D's and original dimension. He had only lived through Zexal's events though, and we will be seeing some background from that. I have not written anything about Judai and Zexal besides a few mental musings. About 10-ish years have passed since Judai left from GX.

About the dueling: for anyone die-hard about the dueling, I will say that I will be following a few of the anime rules. 1) We are doing 4000 LP. I cannot plan these duels for any longer. 2) We can summon monsters in defense position. I know, I'm a sham, but for the sake of Judai, I'm going to allow Clayman (and other monsters) be summoned in defense position.

I hope to make these updates a frequent as possible, but if you know from my other stories, I can be very slow at updating (Engineering Major \o/) so please be patient, and thank you for reading!