Part Two: The Card
By: SilvorMoon
Misawa's classmates found him the next morning looking sleepy and somewhat grouchy, but Asuka told them that he hadn't been feeling well yesterday, and that perhaps he was sick, so they all left him alone. He was glad of it. It wasn't that he was feeling sick, though he was tired. He was also uneasy in his mind, and in no particular mood to socialize with his peers. He had stayed up most of the night, attempting to trace some kind of information on this mysterious Jade Serpent card, and he had come up with absolutely nothing. A generic websearch had given him articles about jade, serpents, and Shangri-La, but nothing that combined the three in any relevant fashion. Undaunted, he had tried a variety of other sources: gaming websites, message boards and mailing lists revolving around rare cards, the Industrial Illusions website, everything he could think of. Nothing had given him any clues.
So much for my first hypthesis, he thought gloomily. He was actually a little bit ashamed of himself. His first thought was that the card had been stolen, and Hatori had come here not to hide from thieves, but to hide a thief - namely himself. However, if he had stolen the Jade Serpent card, he had done it so well that he had wiped out all traces of its existence. It was as if the card had never been made at all, as far as he could tell.
So maybe that's it. Maybe there's nothing in that locket at all. Maybe he's just faking it. That would explain why he refuses to show it to anyone... but that doesn't seem quite right, either, somehow. When he was in the ocean, he was holding the locket out of the water the whole time when his energy would have been better spent holding on to the rock. Why would he risk his life for an empty locket? Unless there's something else in there? But what could he keep in such a small space besides a card? Unanswered questions plagued him; there was nothing he hated more than a riddle he couldn't solve. He wondered what it would take to get a look inside that locket...
He got his first real breakthrough on his way to lunch. On his way back to the Ra Yellow dorm (he did eat with Juudai and the rest of the group on occasion, but there were only so many days in a row he could bring himself to subsist on dried sardines) he passed by Hatori and a knot of interested students. Hatori had his arms full of books; he looked as if he'd been carrying something for one of the other teachers when he'd been accosted by interested passers-by.
"C'mon, please?" a boy begged. "I just want one little look!"
"I really don't think so," said Hatori. "I wish I could, but I have to get these books back to Professor Chronos. He'll be displeased with me if I'm late."
"Chronos is always mad about something," said one of the other boys. "Please, Hatori, show us the card! It will only take a second!"
"Now, you know why I can't be showing it off..."
"But you're always talking about it!" said a boy in a blue jacket. "You know you can trust us! Hey, I'll give you a thousand yen if you'll show it to me!"
Hatori laughed. "Well, if you're really that desperate..."
He led the boy into a nearby empty classroom, deftly shutting all the other students out. They gave a collective groan of disappointment as the door closed. One of them tired the doorknob, but found it locked. However, it was only a few seconds before the door opened again, and both parties to the deal stepped back out again, Hatori appearing far more interested in getting his books back to Professor Chronos, and the delighted boy eager to tell his schoolmates all about what he'd seen. Misawa, who had stopped to watch the whole spectacle, edged closer to hear what was being said.
"So he really let you see it?" one boy in the crowd asked.
"He sure did!" the lucky boy answered proudly. "It's a totally wicked card! Four thousand attack points and a special effect. No wonder it never got released; there wouldn't be any stopping a card like that..."
So it is real, Misawa mused. He felt oddly disappointed that his elaborate theories held no weight. After all that thinking, the man really was just protecting a rare card! Still... I wouldn't mind having a look at that card myself!
There were some pros and cons to this idea. As the day went on, several more students gained the privilege of looking at the mysterious card, and soon everyone seemed to know the secret knack of getting Hatori to open up. The trick, it appeared, was to collar him at a moment when there weren't many other people around or where there was a safe hiding spot nearby (asking him during classes was a sure failure) and offer him some incentive. Money seemed to work best - it didn't have to be much - but cards would work too if they were sufficiently rare. He never showed it to more than one person at a time, though there had been at least three students who had persuaded him to give them more than one look.
"Looks like I'm gonna hafta scrounge up some cash," said Juudai. "Too bad I spent most of mine on egg-bread already. Maybe there's some change under the sofa..."
"That's why I always keep some spare change on hand, just in case," Shou answered primly.
Kenzan began going through some pockets. "I have some moneysaurus. Hey, Aniki, do you want me to loan you some?"
Misawa listened without comment. He and the rest of his friends were relaxing outside of the school building, leaning against the stones that lined the front walk. He noticed that Manjoume was being equally silent, making a visible effort to look like he was not listening.
"What about you, Manjoume?" he asked. "Aren't you curious about this rare card?"
"No," said Manjoume sullenly. "I've said it before, and I'll say it again - I don't care about that stupid card and I don't care about him. So there!"
"Easy, boy, easy!" said Juudai, laughing. "Nobody's making you look at it if you don't want to."
"What about you, Asuka?" Misawa persisted. "Are you going to pony up the cash and have a look at the mystery card?"
"I don't need to," she answered quietly. "He's already shown it to me."
Everyone was instantly interested.
"When?" Shou asked. "What did you give him?"
"I didn't give him anything," said Asuka, her voice still soft and steady. "He showed it to me yesterday while we were going over my deck."
"He did what?" Manjoume exclaimed bristling. "You didn't say anything about that!"
"You said you weren't interested," she replied.
"Well, I'm interested now!" he said. "He's been telling everyone in the school he can't show that card to anyone without a good reason! Why would he just show it to you without you even asking?"
Asuka colored a little. "He just thought I would be interested, that's all! It's not like he was - was coming on to me or anything. He was just helping me with my deck. I learned a lot from him!"
"Yeah, I'll just bet you did," Manjoume muttered. "I'll bet he told you all kinds of things."
"You stop talking like that right now," said Asuka sharply. "I can't believe you're acting this way. I find it very offensive, and I'm not going to listen to it!"
She got up and stalked away, radiating righteous indignation. Manjoume stared at her retreating form with a look of disbelief.
"What's her problem?" he exclaimed.
"No idea," said Juudai, mercifully oblivious. "Anyway, I'm gonna go see about finding some cash. Anyone want to come help?"
"Count me out," said Manjoume. "I'm not giving anything to that son-of-a..."
"Why don't you walk with me for a while?" Misawa interjected. "I think we have some things to talk about."
"Well, you two have fun," said Juudai cheerfully. He and his two sidekicks headed off in the direction of the Osiris Red dorm. Misawa and Manjoume got up and walked off in the other direction, heading for the relative secrecy of the forest.
"So what did you want to talk about?" said Manjoume, in a "let's get this over with" tone of voice.
"I wanted to talk to you," Misawa replied, "because I'm getting the feeling that you and I are the only people on this island who haven't been completely duped by this Hatori Uono - if that's even his real name."
Manjoume's sullen expression took on a spark of interest. "You think he's up to something?"
"I am almost one hundred percent positive he's up to something," said Misawa. "The problem is, I'm not entirely sure what yet. I'm still trying to dredge up information on that card of his, and so far I've found nothing, which is suspicious in itself. And you notice how he's so secretive about that card when he first shows up, and suddenly he's not worried at all once a bit of money crosses his palm?"
"Yeah, he got over his worries real fast, didn't he?" Manjoume agreed, looking interested. "So you think the card is a fake?"
"I haven't ruled out the possibility yet," answered Misawa. "Or it could be stolen. It could be a pre-release that hasn't hit the shelves yet. It could be exactly what he says it is for all I know. I'm not ready to jump to any conclusions. I am, however, convinced that he is up to something, and I'd like your help figuring out what it is."
"I'm on it," said Manjoume. "You can count on me! Detective Manjoume Thunder has his ways of finding things out!"
"Excellent. I knew you were the right man for the job," said Misawa. "As for me, I've got a few ideas where I want to start investigating next. You do your thing and I'll do mine, and we'll meet in my room tonight and compare notes. How does that sound?"
Manjoume nodded. "No problem. Don't you worry - whatever this faker is up to, he can't hide it from me!"
The two of them shook hands and parted company. Misawa felt pleased with himself. He still didn't know what he was up against, or what he'd do when he found out about it, but it was nice to know he had an ally in his endeavors.
Meanwhile, Manjoume was doing some serious thinking. It was one thing to say he had his ways of finding out things, but another to put them into practice. The fact was, his gift of hearing and seeing monster spirits was useful when he wanted to spy on someone, but only if he could get the cards within close enough range to whoever he wanted them to watch. His Ojamas had developed a pretty fair range during the course of their acquaintance, much more than any of his other monsters seemed to have, on the occasions when they manifested. He didn't really want to speculate why, though a part of him had to admit it probably had to do with their bond with him that let them follow him over long distances even when he left their cards behind, but it made them useful as spies or burglar alarms when the occasion arose. Unfortunately, he couldn't send them out to look for someone; he had to put their cards near the target and let the Ojamas come to him when they saw something. That would be easy if only Manjoume dared to set foot inside the Obelisk dorm...
Good thing I know somebody who can, he thought. There was only one person he knew who had the nerve to break into a teacher's room in the most hallowed of dormitories and had the charm to get away with it, and who also liked Manjoume enough to try it. Manjoume set out to see if he could find Fubuki.
The beach was usually a good spot to go looking for Duel Academia's favorite surfer boy, so Manjoume turned his footsteps in the direction of the ocean and began inspecting the waves. Eventually he heard the sound of a motor and looked up to see Fubuki cruising along on a jetski. He waved as he went by, and Manjoume waved back, beckoning him to come closer. Fubuki obediently turned around and pulled his jetski up onto the beach.
"Hey, Manjoume, what's up?" he said cheerfully.
"I need your help for something," Manjoume replied. "Could you do me a little favor, with no questions asked?"
"I guess so," said Fubuki. "What have you got in mind?"
"All I need is for you to take these," Manjoume replied, holding up the three Ojama cards, "and hide them somewhere in Hatori's room where he won't find them. Can you do that for me?"
"I guess so... but why would you want to do that? Aren't those kind of your best cards? How are you going to duel without them?"
"I'll figure something out," Manjoume replied. "It's only for a day or two. Then I'll need to get them back again. Just trust me on this one, okay?"
"So you need me to get them in and get them out again, too," said Fubuki. "I guess I can do that. Why do you want to put them in there, though? Like, for safekeeping or something?"
"Yeah, that's exactly it," said Manjoume, seizing the excuse. "I want to put them there for safekeeping."
"Why don't you just ask Hatori if he'll put them there for you?"
"Because the fewer people who know where they are, the safer they'll be," Manjoume pointed out reasonably. "I mean, I know I can trust you totally. We're practically brothers, right?"
"Absolutely!" Fubuki agreed. "All right, I understand now! Leave it to me!"
"Good," said Manjoume. He held the cards close to his mouth long enough to whisper, "Watch that guy like a hawk and tell me anything that looks suspicious!" before handing them over to Fubuki.
The cards changed hands with suitable solemnity, and Fubuki carried them over to where he'd stashed his things and tucked them safely into his bag so they would be protected until he could get them back to the Blue dorm. To his way of thinking, it was generally a waste of time to go back inside as long as the weather was fair and the waves were favorable, but when a friend came to you for a favor, you did what you could. He changed swiftly out of his wetsuit, shouldered his bag, and made his way towards the Obelisk Blue dorm.
It occurred to Fubuki that perhaps the best way to accomplish his mission was to go for the direct approach: just knock on Hatori's door and ask to be let in under the pretense of wanting help with his homework or some such thing. This would have been a good and highly effective plan, had it not been for the fact that Hatori himself seemed to be elsewhere. After knocking on the door a few times with no success, he gave up and went back outside again.
This calls for some strategy, he thought to himself. He began walking around the dorm, sizing the matter up. He managed to pick out the window that marked Hatori's room and began trying to figure the best way to get into it. It was on the top floor of the building, on the side that faced the volcano rather than the lake. There were lots of trees over there. Fubuki was almost as good with trees as he was with waves. He picked out a nice tall one with thick branches and began his attempt to scale it. The tree's trunk was so thick that he couldn't even get his arms around it, but he persevered, and finally was able to find enough bumps and grooves in its bark that he managed the slow climb at last, though not without getting a certain amount of sap and grit on his uniform. Ah, well, it wouldn't be the first time.
Once he had climbed sufficiently high enough, he leaped down onto the building, landing carefully to avoid slipping off the steep roof. He teetered a little, found his balance, and began inching, spiderlike, across the tiles, until he was close enough to Hatori's room that he could swing down from the gutter and land on the balcony.
"I could have been a gymnast," said Fubuki, pleased with himself. He dusted off his clothes and straightened his hair (for reasons best known to himself, since there was no one around to see him) and let himself into the room. It didn't take Fubuki long to size the place up. After all, it was just another dorm room, and therefore looked exactly like Fubuki's own room, minus all his personal belongings. The room was, in fact, painfully bare to Fubuki's way of thinking.
"You can't hide anything in here," he muttered.
Nevertheless, he had promised he'd try, so he searched the room and finally found a crevasse between the television screen and the wall that didn't look like it was likely to be bothered. Hiding anything under the furniture was just asking to have it vacuumed up by the cleaning staff, and Manjoume would never forgive Fubuki if he let anything happen to those Ojama cards. Manjoume might occasionally let things happen to them himself, but that was another story. Pleased with his work, Fubuki let himself out of the room, made sure the door was locked behind him, and went on about his day without a further thought as to why his friend would want to hide his favorite cards in someone else's room.
Manjoume went back to his dorm. He felt oddly unprotected, knowing that his Ojamas were know longer tucked safely in his pocket to pop up and annoy him whenever an opportunity presented itself, and told himself that he was being silly feeling that he was unguarded without the protection of a pack of no-attack-point monsters. They would do more good where they were. In the meantime, he had work of his own to do. He picked out all the Ojama support cards from his deck and put them away with his other spare cards. Then he put his deck, now much thinner, back in his pocket and went off looking for Hatori.
A brief search turned up the man hanging around the card shop, where a gaggle of eager admirers were listening to him recounting more of his famous duels. Manjoume couldn't help but notice that Asuka was there as well, though she didn't seem to be hanging on to his every word as some of the other students were - she just stood there, a little to the side, listening with the same sort of businesslike expression she wore during school lectures.
Might as well make this look good, said Manjoume. He composed his face into what he hoped was a pleasant and eager expression and went bounding up to join the rest of the group.
"Hatori!" he called. "I've been looking for you!"
"Oh, have you?" Hatori replied, breaking off from his story. "Let's see... Manjoume, was it? What can I do for you?"
Manjoume, aware that everyone's eyes were on him, remained determined to forge ahead. "I just wanted to tell you that I thought it over, and I realized, hey, you're right. I really don't need those Ojamas and they're just cluttering up my deck, so I took the worthless things out and put them away."
"Well! That's good to hear," said Hatori, looking pleased. "I'm glad you're taking a step in the right direction."
Manjoume nodded agreeably. "Never let it be said that Manjoume Thunder doesn't know good advice when he hears it! I'm willing to listen to whatever advice you have to give me."
"Then I'll be more than happy to sit down with you and give you a few pointers," Hatori replied. "Just let me finish my story, and I'll be right with you. Now, where was I..."
Hatori went back to his tale-telling, but a few people appeared to have lost interest in him, looking vaguely troubled and watching Manjoume doubtfully. Manjoume pretended not to notice as he wandered to the back of the shop to wait for Hatori. Asuka followed him.
"What was that all about?" she asked him.
He shrugged. "Maybe I just decided to give the guy a chance."
"Please don't say you're doing this because of me," said Asuka. "When I said to stop being jealous of him, I didn't mean you should give up your prize cards just because he told you to!"
"Relax. It's not like I threw them away or anything," Manjoume told her. "I just thought I'd do something a little different for a while, that's all."
Asuka gave him a very hard look.
"Come off it," she said. "Everyone knows those Ojamas are your trump cards. You hardly ever lose with them. You honestly can't believe you're better off without them in your deck, so don't even try to convince me of it."
"It never hurts to learn some new tricks," said Manjoume. "It's all about being open- minded and learning new things, right? That's why you started hanging out with this joker, right?" He turned to meet her gaze. "Look, it's not about you, okay? I just have something I want to find out, so I've gotta play along for a while. That's all it is."
"You're sure you know what you're doing?" asked Asuka skeptically.
"It's no big deal," he told her. "And anyway, if you think it's a bad idea, maybe you should think about who came up with it first, huh?"
"Manjoume..."
"Look, I've got to go - he's calling for me. Later." He waved and walked off, rather enjoying the shocked expression on her face and wondering if this would wake her up and make her realize the mistake she was making in preferring a not-even-really-a-teacher over him. He did his best to make his expression innocent and agreeable as he approached Hatori.
"So what do you think I ought to use to fill in my deck?" he asked brightly.
"I don't know yet. Let's spread everything out somewhere and I'll see what we can come up with," said Hatori.
Manjoume smiled and nodded, thinking to himself that if the whole dueling bit didn't pan out for him, he really could become a detective.
That evening, Misawa was still hunched over his computer, staring at the results of his searches. It would be hard to say he'd found what he'd wanted to find, but he'd found what he'd expected to find, and was in the middle of trying to figure out what to do about it when he heard a tapping at his window. He turned to see a pebble bounce off his windowpane. He got up to open the window, and flinched as yet another pebble bounced off his forehead.
"Are you trying to put someone's eye out?" he snapped.
"No," said Manjoume. "I'm trying to get you to open the door. For some reason," he continued, his voice dripping sarcasm, "the people down here have this weird thing about not letting people from other dorms inside."
Misawa sighed. "I'll take care of it."
He went downstairs and opened the door for Manjoume, who walked into the dorm with his usual air of confidence, looking at the other Ra Yellow students as if wondering why the cleaning staff hadn't swept them up by now.
"You know, I've actually never been in here before," he commented as he followed Misawa up the stairs.
"It's a nice place," said Misawa absently, "and the food is about as good as it is in the Obelisk dorm. They just don't make such a big production out of it."
"Is that so? Maybe I should start looking into being promoted."
"You'd look awful in yellow," said Misawa as he unlocked his door. "Come inside and lock the door behind you, and we'll talk."
Manjoume did as he was told, made unusually compliant by the serious of the situation. He noticed as he came in that the area was strewn with papers, printouts, and sketches.
"Are you allowed to write on the walls like this?" he asked.
"They gave up on trying to make me stop. That's the same thing, I suppose," said Misawa.
"Gotcha," said Manjoume. He flopped onto the bed and made himself comfortable. "So I guess you'd like to know how my talk with Mister I've-got-a-rare-card went."
"If he said anything interesting, I would," Misawa replied. He'd sat back down at his desk and was busily putting all his papers back in order.
"Well, he didn't," said Manjoume flatly. "He should have, but he didn't."
Misawa turned to give him a puzzled look. "What do you mean, he should have?"
"I mean, he would have said something interesting if he could have, but he didn't," said Manjoume. "That's the point. He was giving me a hard time yesterday about those Ojamas, telling me to throw them out of my deck. So today I took them out and put them away, and I went back to the guy to see what other brilliant advice he had for me. You want a look? It might be good for a laugh."
Intrigued, Misawa got up and took the deck that Manjoume was offering him. He riffled quickly through the cards before looking sharply back at Manjoume.
"This isn't your deck," he said.
"No duh, genius," said Manjoume. "This is what it looked like after the hack job that guy put it through. I feel like apologizing to my cards for this."
Misawa shook his head incredulously. "This... is the kind of deck the ten-year-old neighborhood champion uses to win against other ten-year-olds."
"Tell me about it," said Manjoume. "You know... there are people who know how to duel, and then there are people who can duel."
"Hm?" Misawa responded, momentarily thrown. "Oh, I see - you mean there are people who know the rules and people who actually have experience. Yes. That's exactly what this looks like." He looked over the cards again, still marveling that anyone would expect Manjoume to work with a deck like this. Someone had weeded out not only the Ojamas that had been the aces of Manjoume's deck, but the Armed Dragons and the VtoZ cards as well. It looked, in fact, a lot like the deck he'd been doing so well with, and a lot more like the one he'd been using, only worse. It was the deck created by someone who thought that more attack points always meant a better monster, and that trap and spell cards were superfluous because obviously it was the monsters who did all the work. It was, in short, the deck of someone who knew the general theory but had not had a lot of experience putting it into practice.
"Kinda makes you wonder where he's getting all these stories about winning duels, doesn't it?" said Manjoume, taking his deck back - or rather, his cards, since the collection could hardly be called a proper deck.
"I think it would be easier to memorize someone else's moves and claim you made them yourself, than to actually win that many duels in that many different playing styles," Misawa replied. "Especially since I did a very thorough Internet search and could find no listings of anyone bearing his name, in or out of the dueling circuit."
"So we've got him nailed!" said Manjoume triumphantly. "All we have to do is tell the teachers he's a big fat faker and then-"
"Not so fast," Misawa interrupted. "We haven't proven anything yet. If we move too quickly, we'll lose all credibility. Think for a minute. What has his story been so far? That he's carrying a card so rare that nobody has ever heard of it, and that he's been keeping a low profile to keep anyone from finding out about it. We'd just look like he was confirming his story."
Manjoume looked disappointed. He held up the handful of cards. "But this..."
"Prove to me he did it and not you," said Misawa. He crossed his arms and looked thoughtful. "We still need something more to make our case airtight - something more than just circumstantial evidence."
"Well, I've still got a watch posted on the guy," Manjoume said. He sounded disappointed that he hadn't gotten more of a reaction. "Sooner or later, he'll say or do something stupid, and then we'll have him."
"Right. We're still in the process of collecting evidence," Misawa replied. "Hopefully we can do it before he's swindled half the school out of all their best cards. There must be something we can do to prove he's a fake... Hmm..."
"Too bad we can't steal that card of his," said Manjoume. "Bet if we could get our hands on that, we could find a mistake or something."
"Maybe we don't have to steal it," Misawa replied. "I'm starting to get an idea."
Manjoume raised an eyebrow. "Feel like cluing me in?"
"Well, think for a minute," answered Misawa. "Maybe we can't prove the card is a fake... but we do know people who can."
Misawa's plan was simple. The next day he made it a point to arrive early for class, something he often did anyway so he could review his notes and ready himself for the next lesson, so no one saw anything about him showing up ahead of schedule. However, his motive today was not to get a jump on his schoolwork, but to catch up with Hatori if he could. Luck was with him: the so-called teacher's aide had taken to arriving a few minutes early, himself, to help the other professors set up their materials for the classes. He was already there when Misawa arrived, setting up a video projector. There was no one else in the room.
"Good morning, Hatori," he said politely. "How are you today?"
"Just fine, thank you... Misawa, isn't it? Everything is just fine," Hatori replied. "Just trying to get this projector working. I swear it was made back in the stone ages. How are you?"
"Well enough, thank you," Misawa answered. "I just came early to do a little studying. Though... since I'm here..." He made a show of looking around to make sure there was no one else around, as if he thought there might be someone hiding under the desks. "I was wondering... it seems I'm the only one left in school who hasn't seen that legendary card of yours. Do you think it would be all right if you let me have a quick look?"
"Right before class? Not a good idea," said Hatori. "Someone could just walk through the door any minute, and I can't really lock the door. Professor Chronos wouldn't like that at all."
"Bring it over here," Misawa suggested. "You can show it to me under the desk. Pretend you're going over my homework with me." He didn't bother to mention that anyone would be suspicious if they saw Miswa accepting help with his homework.
Hatori took the bait. He ambled over to Misawa's side and bent over the desktop as if interested in what was written in Misawa's notebook (which wasn't even the actual homework assignment, not that it mattered). To Misawa, he said almost inaudibly, "You realize that I don't show this to people for free, yes?"
In reply, Misawa fished out a few bills that he had made sure to have with him for just such an occasion, and proffered them silently to Hatori.
"That should do it." He opened the lid of his locket, and despite Misawa's conviction that the card had to be a fake, he still felt a flicker of anticipation. The locket came open, and a card fell into Hatori's hand. He held it out so Misawa could get a good look at it.
So this is what everyone in the school is going so crazy to see, Misawa thought, leaning forward to get a better look. The scene showed a temple of golden-colored stone, with a large green serpent with wicked emerald eyes crawling over its front, weaving in and out of columns. As far as the art went, he couldn't see any reason to imagine it was not an Industrial Illusions production - indeed, he'd seen some official cards that didn't have art so detailed.
"Do you think it would be all right if I held it for a moment?" Misawa asked.
"Well..."
"I'll pay extra!"
"Hm. Well, I guess you can't take it anywhere. Just don't damage it, all right?"
He handed the card over to Misawa, who thought, That was easy.
Misawa turned the card over in his hands a few times, studying it closely from all angles. He took particular care to memorize the statistics and effects of the card before handing it back to its owner.
"A beautiful card," said Misawa. "You're lucky to have it."
"Indeed," Hitori replied, slipping it back into its locket. "I've gone through a lot of trouble to get it, but it's always been worth it."
Misawa nodded and smiled agreeably. Now that he had seen the card for himself (and, he thought a bit sadly, given up most of his pocket money to do it) he wanted Hitori to go away so he could get to work making notes. Misawa had a good memory, but he couldn't trust himself not to forget a crucial detail in a situation like this. Fortunately, a few girls in blue uniforms chose that moment to arrive, and Hatori turned his attention to greeting them. Misawa took out a sheet of paper and began jotting down all the details of the mystery card. He even made a quick sketch of the picture, as well as he could reproduce it. Once again he was frustrated by his general lack of artistic skills, but he managed to recreate it well enough to keep his memory fresh. He chewed the end of his pencil, trying to remember if there was anything else he might have missed. As he raised his eyes to stare at the ceiling in thought, he noticed Hatori looking at him speculatively.
Uh-oh. Does he suspect something?
Misawa immediately brushed the thought off as paranoid, and then changed his mind and decided he couldn't be too paranoid when dealing with a suspected con-man. He did his best to keep his expression thoughtful and slightly puzzled.
"Something on your mind, Mr. Misawa?" Hatori asked.
"Yes, I was just trying to remember, when you flip-summon a monster, do you have to summon it in defense or attack mode? Or does it matter?"
It was a foolish question, he knew, and anyone who had passed the school entry exams should have known the answer, but it seemed to appease Hatori, who rattled off an answer without seeming to realize that Misawa wasn't paying attention to him.
That was a close one, Misawa thought. He flipped his notebook to another page, just in case, one with an innocuous list of trap cards on it that he'd been using for a previous lesson. It would be useless today, but he doubted anyone was going to pay attention to that. He stared at it as if attempting to memorize it, but really he was thinking about much more interesting things. It was unusual for Misawa to be anxious for class to be over, but today was proving the exception to the rule.
He had meant to wait until the evening to put the second part of his plan into effect, but two things changed his mind. One was that he was simply impatient to have his hunch confirmed. The other was that he'd decided that it would be easier to get the answers he wanted if he made the call during the midday hours. As soon as his morning classes were over, he pretended to follow his fellow students back to the lunch hall, but instead changed direction at the last minute and retreated to his room. He fished out his notebook and opened it to his page of notes. Then he turned on his computerized address book and retrieved a phone number.
"I hope he doesn't get in trouble over this," he murmured as he placed the call.
The phone rang a few times, and then was answered by a familiar voice, saying, "Hello?"
"Hello, Hayato. This is Misawa."
"Hey! I haven't heard from you in forever!" said Hayato. "Listen, it's great to hear from you, but I'm kind of at work right now..."
"This is a work-related issue," Misawa replied. "I need to know about a card called The Jade Serpent of Shangri-La."
"Sorry. Never heard of that one," Hayato replied.
"I thought so," Misawa replied. "There's a man on this island who washed up out of nowhere, claiming to have a rare card called The Jade Serpent of Shangri-La, and I can't find any information on it anywhere. He claims it's an early prototype card that was rejected. I have a strong feeling it's a forgery. Meanwhile he's charging everyone in the Academy a small fortune just for a quick look at it."
"Yeah, that's suspicious, all right," Hayato agreed. "Well, I bet I could check the company records for you. I'm allowed to do that so I don't make a card that's already been made before by accident."
"That's exactly what I was hoping you'd do," Misawa replied. "Let me give you the stats for it. It's The Jade Serpent of Shangri-La, effect monster, level ten, Earth attribute, Reptile type, 4000 attack points..."
He finished reading off all the information he'd taken down, and then had Hayato read it all back to him to make certain all of it was correct.
"That sounds like you've got it," said Misawa. "Just get back to me as soon as you can, all right?"
"Don't worry," said Hayato. "You can count on me! I'll get to the bottom of this if I have to take it to Mr. Pegasus himself."
"I trust you," Misawa replied. "And it was very good to hear your voice again. Next time I'll have to remember to call you when you're not at work, and we have time to talk properly... but now I need to get going, or I'll miss lunch entirely."
"Well, I wouldn't want to make you do that! I'll catch you later. Say hi to the whole gang for me!"
Misawa promised he would do so and thanked Hayato for his help before hanging up. He smiled as he hung up the phone, feeling pleased with himself. It was nice to have friends in high places. Soon he'd have the truth, straight from the most reliable source there was. Misawa liked having the truth about things; it made life so much easier. Privately, he also liked the idea that it would be he who would reveal the truth to the masses and become a hero thereby. It wasn't every day he got to play the hero, and he was definitely looking forward to it.
"This is boring!"
"You said it. I want to go home."
Ojama Yellow fixed his brothers with a disapproving glare. "You can't give up yet! Our big brother is counting on us!"
"But there's nothing to watch," Ojama Green complained. He waved around at the room, which was still both painfully bare and totally empty of human life. There wasn't so much as a housefly to distract them.
"But he could come home any minute! We've got to pay attention!" Yellow insisted.
"Why bother?" Black retorted. "Even when he comes in, he just does his school papers and goes to bed. I don't even know why we're supposed to be-"
He stopped talking as the door suddenly swung open and Hatori walked in. All three Ojamas dove for cover, forgetting for the moment that Hatori couldn't see them anyway. The young man walked right past them and sat down at his desk, looking thoughtful. After a moment, he opened up the drawer and pulled out a plastic bag stuffed with an assortment of coins, bills, and cards, and then fished out a calculator and a sheet of paper. He began counting up his earnings and listing all the cards he'd collected. Since he didn't seem to be paying attention to anything else, the Ojamas moved in closer to hover over his shoulders.
"Not a bad haul at all, considering it's just kids," Hatori muttered, looking over his figures. "Maybe I should take a break from working the arenas and start working the school system instead. Kids are so gullible."
"That doesn't sound good," Ojama Green said.
"See? What did I tell you!" Yellow replied. "This is why we have to pay attention!"
"Should we go tell Big Brother about this?" asked Black.
"Not yet. Wait until he's done," said Yellow.
Hatori finished sorting his loot and stuffed it all back in the bag again. Then he leaned back in his chair, looking up at the ceiling and running the chain of his locket through his fingers. At length, he seemed to come to a decision, and sat up straight again. He opened his locket and took out the card.
"Well, old buddy," he said to the card, "you've served me well, but I think now that everyone has seen you and paid for the privilege, I've gotten all the use I can out of you. Won't do for you to get too much time in the spotlight. People are already starting to get suspicious of you. So, my friend, we're going to have to part. Goodbye."
And with that, he ripped the card in half.
The Ojamas stared in horror. With their lives tied to their cards, seeing something like that felt like witnessing a murder. Oblivious to their shock, Hatori continued shredding the card until it was nothing more than a pile of confetti. It was difficult to tell it had ever been a card at all. He swept all the pieces up in his hand and opened the window. A breeze was blowing by, tossing the branches of the trees outside. The paper Hatori was writing on fluttered to the floor. Hatori reached out the window and let the handful of shredded paper flutter away on the wind.
"That's that," he said, when the last scrap had drifted off into the forest. "No more evidence. Now to shift the blame."
With that, he put all his things away again and wandered out of the room.
To Be Continued...