A/N :This chapter features Asuka's 2nd Heart Event.

Chapter 2

Among the Paths

It was 12.27 on her clock when Asuka found herself lying in her bed. The sun was already high, and its light was blocked by the curtains, a signal that she had clearly missed breakfast. Or even lunch. She didn't remember what had happened at first, but when she saw the calendar hanging on the wall against her bed, she quickly got up and took a shower while cursing her own idiocy.

Osamu was right: she had overslept due to exhaustion.

Quickly slipping into her usual attire of an Obelisk student—minus her gloves, since it was Sunday—Asuka raced to the gates of her dorm, only to find her partner leaning against the metal bars. His cap covered most of his face, but she could still see clearly that a playful smirk was playing across his lips when she approached him.

"Had a nice sleep?"

"I'm sorry I'm late," she breathed once she had reached him. "I forgot to turn my alarm on."

Osamu waved his hand casually while beckoning her to follow him. "I don't mind; you needed it anyway. Any plans for today?"

She thought for a moment then nodded. "Maybe we can go to the cafetaria first? I haven't had any breakfast." Stupid. How could she prioritize her stomach when their graduation duel was drawing near? She was quick to amend. "Then, we can go to the Duel Field to collect some points for more cards."

"Fine by me. And about yesterday's afternoon... Have you made up your mind to talk about it?"

She smiled. He must have guessed that she hadn't been ready to talk about whatever things that had bothered her, and so he waited up until now. That was very thoughtful of him, a trait that almost no one would expect out of his looks.

"I have. But it's not a matter of importance, so I figure it can wait until our graduation is over." Right, she thought, whatever's bothering me should be just a concern to myself. "You see, I don't want to distract our focus from the upcoming graduation test," she added lightly, forcing a smile.

"If you say so." Osamu shrugged.

They walked to the cafetaria which was already half empty by the time they'd arrived. Well, lunch time had already over for most of the students, and many were going to the Duel Field to train or simply lurking about in the other regions of the island to enjoy their day off. They discussed some possibilities with their respective decks while enjoying their meal, pointing out their analysis of each other's strategy and battle tactics.

After they had finished, Asuka suggested that they went to the Cliff for some training. It was quite a popular training ground beside the Duel Field, and it usually was not as crowded as it was in school days, which made it a perfect spot to train without attracting unnecessary attention.

Just when they were about to go off from the School Zone, two familiar figures clothed in Obelisk attire approached Asuka.

"Asuka-san, do you have a minute?" one of them called.

"Momoe and Junko?" Asuka recognized her two dormmates right away. They were amongst many Obelisk girls who always cheered for her whenever she dueled, and it was them too who had always asked Asuka for advice for their decks and tactics, and much too often, also of her brother. It could be said that they were some sort of Fubuki's fangirls in the Academy, to which Asuka hadn't stopped pondering on how her stupid brother could draw these so called 'fans' to him in the first place.

"What is it?"

"Are you two going somewhere?" Momoe, the black-haired one, asked, as if as she had just realized that Osamu was there.

"Yes," Asuka replied, " we are about to go to the Cliff for some training. Are you to going to train, too?"

This time, Junko spoke up. "Of course! But we actually have a special menu today, if you approved of it."

Asuka raised an eyebrow to her friend's suspicious smile. "'Approve'? What does your training have to do with me?"

"It means," Osamu cut in, "they want to duel you."

She blinked. "Do you? What is it all of a sudden?"

"Well, you see, we want to duel you at least once before we all graduate," Momoe explained blatantly. "There were not so much of a chance going against you in a duel eversince our last semester started, so we figure that now would be a best time to ask you for a last duel before we all separate our ways."

Asuka flinched a bit at Momoe's last words, but still nodded in understanding. "So, is it a Tag Duel then?"

Momoe and Junko glanced at each other, looking unsure all of a sudden. "Um, actually, we were planning on asking you to duel us one on one," the brown haired girl said. "We can take turn against you and see how much we have improved during all these three years. That was the plan."

"But why don't we just Tag Duel?" she pressed in. "It'd be much more convenient since there are four of us."

"But he's a Silfer!" Junko argued.

When Asuka was about to object, Momoe cut in to explain her friend's brash wordings. "It's not that we doubt his skills or anything, but if it's a last duel with you before we graduate, we want it to be fair and square: Obelisk against Obelisk." Junko nodded at her her friend's words, while Osamu simply shrugged his reply while Asuka darted her eyes to him from the challangers.

She was unsure on how to handle things, but before she could speak, Osamu said, "I don't mind being a watcher. We can still train afterwards. There's plenty of time before the sun sets."

This again. A few mentions of his different uniform and his casual replies...

"No," she said without looking at him. Her tone was firm, leaving no room for arguments. "I won't take you gals on a duel unless it's a Tag Duel."

Junko hesitated. "But he's—"

"As I said, my decision is firm. It's a Tag Duel or not at all."

At that, even Osamu's eyes widened. "Hey, are you sure? They want to duel you, not me—"

"You're my partner," she interrupted sharply in a low voice. "We duel together unless you don't feel like one."

Alhtough Asuka was still smiling, the three knew that it was not a gesture of assurance. One should never mess up with her mood, people who had dueled her said once. There was a pause: the two girls were exchanging a worried glance before finally nodded in defeat. "Fine, then" Junko huffed. "It will be a Tag Duel. Now, let's get it on!"

For Duel Disks activated in a symphony. "Duel!"

~ xx 0 xx ~

"Trap Card: Mirror Force!" said Osamu while activating his downfaced card.

Momoe attempted to negate his trap by activating one of her monster's effect, but before its effect could snatch the momentum, Osamu played yet a quick-spell to counter it. Within mere seconds, harpies on the field were destroyed and sent to Graveyard, a move which made Junko yelled out in annoyance and anger.

It had been quite a while since Asuka and Osamu had Tag Dueled together. The last time they had done it was a month ago, during Sunday Tag. The last period of their semester was closing in fast: the Academy was more focused on their individual performance on tests and duels rather than their Tag Dueling skills, so it was to be expected that each of them had trained on their own during the past weeks.

That was, until the Chancellor announced the term of their soon-to-be-graduation-test that students should pair up with partner of their choice for the last time, something that annoyed people who had long targeted Asuka to be their partner. She, on the other hand, mistook not of his abilities: Osamu was a great duelist and also an adept tactician. He changed his dueling style often, switching elements and types of monsters in almost every duel, which undoubtedly confused many of his opponents as he pulled his tricks by moving silently within the Trap Zone.

And this time, he played a Red-Eyes deck which he had learned to construct on his own after his battle against Fubuki's dark persona several months ago.

Almost all the slots on field had been occupied by the time Osamu activated his trap card. They had been dueling for a full twenty minutes beforehand. Asuka was playing along with Osamu's strategy on reviving Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon on their sixth turn after setting up some Cyber monsters, but soon they were pressed against the wall by some of their opponents' spell cards which decreased their attacking monsters down to zero, forcing them to once again switch the high levelled Red-Eyes into a defense position.

She noted how troublesome the two girls' spell cards and average monsters could be after their highest level monster on field was locked down. Osamu had countered some of them using Dark Bribe and fortunately, negating a disastrous effect during their defensive period.

But after some rounds of defending their field and LP, Osamu's strategy finally kicked in: it appeared that he had set Mirror Force from the very beginning, and Asuka knew that he meant it for a tough time—a time when their opponents felt like they finally broke through their defenses and assaulted with a handful of monsters. Their speculation had been right; the two Obelisk girls were soon gathering up four monsters on field after eliminating Asuka and Osamu's reamaining monsters except for the locked down Red-Eyes.

And it was the chance that he appearantly had been waiting for.

All of their attacking monsters were now long gone, leaving only a 4-star level harpy on a precautious defense mode.

"Heh, so what," Junko spat, forcing a sneer. "You and us still have a defense here, and we will break through yours with our next phrase!"

"Unfortunately, I don't plan on letting you advance to the next phrase," replied the capped duelist. Asuka smiled inwardly at the remark. She could guess her partner's next move.

"What—don't mock us, Silfer!" beamed the high-tempered Obelisk.

"Junko," Asuka said simply, "don't you see how we have been waiting for all these rounds? It was not the field monsters that we were gathering up."

"Now, activate from my hand," Osamu interjected, "Dragon Mirror!"

Three cards from Graveyard and two from Osamu's hand were fusing together, creating then a giant, malicious monster feared as F.G.D, a dragon with ferocious 5,000 attack point. Junko and Momoe gasped in disbelief as they saw a monster possibly only would have showed itself during a high-ranked championship duel digging its clawed feet to the ground.

But an attacking F.G.D wasn't enough to deplete their LP, and so, Osamu activated his Red-Eyes' effect to revive one remaining Wyvern from his Graveyard.

It's complete, then, Asuka thought while smiling to herself. She had willingly played in the back as a supporter for Osamu's patient tactics until this very turn, and now it finally bore the fruit they had been waiting for.

One remaining card from Osamu's hand then got activated, sealing all of both Trap Zones, ensuring that the last two cards facing down on their Trap Zone were not going to interfere with his last attack. And with the Wyvern and F.G.D's powerful combo, the duel finally ended.

"Whoah!" Junko screamed as the impact from F.G.D's attack pushed her and her partner a few steps back. "I can't believe it... We lost! To a Silfer!"

Momoe, who was quicker to regain her balance and composure, added after seing the two champions, "Yeah, a Silfer with an F.G.D, you mean. And also to be noted, a Silfer teamed up with Asuka-san."

"Indeed," said she while getting up on her feet with her friend's help.

Asuka, already deactivating her Duel Disk, walked to where they stood and offerd a hand. "Nice duel, you two."

Osamu followed suit, and his was returned with hesitation by the two. Noticing their reluctant gaze and uncomfortable body languages around him, Osamu glanced at Asuka and said, "I'll go and see if I can gather up some spare cards for our evening training session."

Asuka smiled to show her gratitude for being able to talk in private with her friends, in which Junko and Momoe were also took a part in. He nodded to them both and left the main ground, going to the direction of his own dorm.

"I—eh, we apologize, Asuka-san," said Junko anxiously upon the brown haired Silfer's leave. "I guess he really is a duelist of your own choosing and caliber."

"Yeah," said Momoe, "even I've never seen an Obelisk summoning the legendary F.G.D before, spare for those who have been sent abroad for some world championship events."

"He is," said Asuka as she watched his back dissapearing from sight. She turned to them and shrugged. "So, satisfied with our 'last' duel?"

Junko grinned. "I had been rather optimistic there for a second, y'know... But I guess beating you is close to impossible."

"I won't label it as 'impossible'," she gave a wry laugh, "but you know you're more than welcomed to try another time."

"Actually, we wanted to tell you something," Momoe began. "Well, we've made up our minds that we are to be kindergarden teachers!"

Now this was unexpected. "Teachers?" Asuka blinked. "Why the profession?"

"You see, we both like children," explained Junko, "and we want to nurture them to be great duelists someday. Have you ever heard that 'behind every successful duelist resides great teachers'—well, I guess not, since I was the one who made it up—but that's what we after: We want to instill the joy of dueling even before they go and study here."

"I see. But I think it suits you two," she added, smiling broadly. She knew how they were easily amongst people who had bright and friendy nature, and she was sure that they would suit the profession perfectly.

Momoe nodded. "Yup. And that's why we hoped to create memories here for the last time before graduation. Say, what will you do, Asuka-san? Have you any plans for your future?"

Crap. She'd forgotten all about it because of their duel. "I—uh—"

"Momoe, you fool!" Junko cut in. "Everyone knows how skillful Asuka-san is, and she surely has a bright future and, who knows, maybe hundreds of invitations, waiting for her! You talk as if she's some laid-back student who has no direction in life!"

"Umm, it's fine, really," Asuka quickly tried to calm Junko, who was glaring at her less impulsive friend. "I was not offended in any means, and she was just asking. It was just..." she trailed off, her eyes dismissively moved to the path leading to where her companion had just left. "I mean, I have thought about it, but I guess I haven't really made up my mind, that's all."

"You must be really confused with all of golden opportunities demanding your answer, huh?" Momoe said apologetically. "But, well, we've gotten what we wanted, now. Say, would you mind going with us for some training for graduation test?"

"No, I'm sorry, I've promised him that we'd be training together for the day."

"Ah, it's fine, Asuka-san," Junko quickly said. "It was a nice duel, and thank you for accepting our blatant challange."

Asuka nodded and they parted their ways. "Give my regards to the Silfer," shouted Momoe with a wink while they were walking away.

Walking slowly in a darkened mood, Asuka made a way to the Silfer dorm, heavy clouds hanging over her mind. Future, huh, she mused darkly. She knew what she wanted, was sure what she should do, but still... She couldn't help but feeling uneasy whenever her thought was brought back to Osamu. How should she start it? What would his reactions be if he learned that she was going to leave?

Was he even concerned of her in the first place? Or was she only troubling herself over her own senselesness?

After walking a few minutes, she could finally spotted a familiar figure sitting under the shades of a tree with cards scattered around him. The capped young man noticed her presence right away and looked up, meeting her gaze and made a gesture of acknowledgement with a slight inclination of his head.

Asuka smiled almost bitterly at herself. Future and him. Why should the two be such a riddle?