Benjamin collapsed through the entrance of his bedroom door.

As a Ra yellow he was living in a nice looking apartment which had a small kitchen, a bathroom with a medium-sized bath and shower, a closet, a bookshelf, two beds one of them which was meant for his roommate who hadn't arrived yet because of personal reasons.

The room also had two desks, one of which was currently adorned with Benjamin's personal belongings such as reference books and a small laptop he used for schoolwork.

Stumbling off to the bathroom, he felt happy his roommate hadn't arrived yet. The last thing he wanted now was someone asking questions about where he got his injuries.

Looking through his bathroom cabinet he grabbed some disinfectant and cotton. Stripping down to his shirt and boxers he swiftly cleaned the cuts and bruises, winching only slightly from the pain.

It wasn't his first time getting beaten up by bullies. His scrawny build, bookworm attitude and lack-luster dueling skills made him an easy target.

If one gets beaten up on a weekly basis it's only a matter of time before one learns to take care of their own injuries so as not to bother others with it.

His wounds cleaned, Benjamin exited the bathroom and stumbled over to his laptop, taking a pain-killer from a bottle he kept on his desk.

He booted up the computer and opened up the Duel Academy website. Clicking the link that said Slifer Red Students.

Looking through the list he realized the error of the website. For some reason the list contained ALL the Slifer Red students, meaning even those who had changed dorms, dropped out or graduated.

Leaving him with roughly thirty-five years worth of students to go through.

Benjamin groaned. Why wasn't anyone updating the site! This was just dumb!

Clutching his head he tried to think back to the cliffs. What did he say his name was again? He remembered it started with Yu-something, Yulien? Yujien? He remembered it sounded asian.

He moved the cursor over to the Search tab, typing in familiar sounding asian names.

Yuma. No matches.

Yukari. Two matches. None left at Duel Academy.

Yujiro. Four matches. Three already gone but one left. However it was not his guy.

Feeling desperate he entered just Yu as his search terms.

Eighty-four matches. Benjamin groaned but out of options he nevertheless started running through the list of students. Yukari Aguma, Thomas Hammerfield-Yukimi, Jaden Yuki, Benjamin flinched at the familiar name but scrolled on. Yugumo Mashiro, Yujiro Hagoromo, Yuuren Yamada.

Benjamin almost jumped out of his chair! That was the name! He could remember the guy in question saying it when they started the duel and hearing one of the goons say it once he had left the cliffs.

Clicking the profile pic opened up a whole new page containing more detailed information about him. Such a privilege however was something only Ra Yellow students was allowed. Due to them being considered a more studious dorm they were given access to more detailed records than the other dorms.

Benjamin looked through the page, trying to find out more about this incredible duelist.

It was not merely to thank him Benjamin wanted to find him, If possible he wanted to either ask him to mentor him as a duelist or befriend him.

Preferably both.

Yuuren Yamada

Age: 16

Height: 178 Cm

Weight: 58 Kg

Duel Record: Three victories, Zero Draws, Zero Losses.

Dorm: Slifer Red

Living Quarters: Slifer Red Dorm, Room 114

Deck Type: Undefined.

Deck Tactics: Undefined.

Background: Oldest Son of the CEO of the Yamada Corporation. Four time winner of the National Junior Championship Ages 10-14. Brown Belt in Tae-Kwon-Do. Diagnosed with Clinical depression at age fourteen but has since been deemed treated.

Benjamin smiled to himself. All this information was practically useless to him, except one part.

Living Quarters: Slifer Red Dorm Room 114.

Now he knew what he was doing tomorrow after class.

With that he felt how the numbing effect of the painkillers began to kick in and he realized it was already 00:30.

Changing into his pajamas, A sky blue onesie. He turned off his computer and went to bed.

Next day he woke up in time, ate breakfast at the dorm cafeteria and headed to class, five minutes early. Not wanting to make Professor Horace angry again.

During the lesson Horace was enraged as he realized he didn't have a reason to give any of the Ra or Slifer students detention. However he was able to give a Slifer red who didn't show up to class a mark on his track record.

All throughout the day Benjamin was constantly looking over his shoulder, trying to protect himself from ending up like yesterday.

In the end he was fine and was able to make through the day without getting into any trouble.

The second class ended Benjamin headed off towards the Slifer Red dorm to find Yuuren. He was stopped at one point by a group of Slifer Red seniors who kindly asked if he was lost and needed help getting back to his dorm.

Benjamin appreciated the kind action of the older students but assured them he knew the way and was merely on his way to visit a "friend" over at the Red dorm.

The seniors seemed satisfied with that and wished him a good day before heading off towards campus.

A five-minute walk later Benjamin reached the Slifer Red dorm.

The Slifer Red dorm had apparently changed a lot since the Golden Age. With more and more students applying to the school, two or three more dorm buildings had been added to the original dorms.

The older buildings had also been polished up and no longer hosted any roaches or other undesirable critters.

With slightly shaky knees Benjamin made his way up to the second floor, walking past several other rooms before reaching room 114.

Straightening his back out he knocked on the door twice, hearing the noise of something stumbling and banging against a wall before the door opened.

Benjamin gasped at the sight. It was the same duelist as yesterday but he couldn't have been more different.

The man in front of him was clearly right of bed. His eyes were drowsy barely open, he was wearing only a cotton tank-top and boxers, his hair was messy and behind him Benjamin could see piles of empty cup noodles.

"Yeah?" The man asked, pulling Benjamin out of his thoughts.

"Oh! Yes! Err umm." He stuttered trying to find his words. "M-my name is Benjamin! I was the guy you helped out yesterday?"

Yuuren seemed to be thinking, as if trying to recall. "Oh! You were the guy getting the snot beaten out of you right? Because there's no way you're the guy I dueled. You're waaay too small for that!" He said smirking.

"I've been drinking milk..." Benjamin grumbled to himself. "Yes. I-i just wanted to come over here and thank you for helping me out!"

"Don't bother." Yuuren replied. "I wasn't doing it to be thanked. I wanted to take a walk in peace. You getting beaten up was distracting me from doing so. I merely took out two flies in one go. Besides..." He muttered, a frown building up on his face "It wasn't as if that guy was any good. Just another boring duel in my book."

"Oh..." Benjamin said, looking down to his feet. Not knowing what to say.

Yuuren observed the kid for a moment. "Well. You came all this way so I guess I should at least serve you a cup of tea. It's only good manners." He said, walking back into his room, signaling for Benjamin to join him.

Yuuren's room was spartan to say at least. The only real furniture was a bed which looked sinfully comfortable, a desk with a duel disk and some other junk on it, a completely unused kitchenette and a closet.

"Take a seat." Yuuren gestured pointing to a set of pillows lying on the floor. "I have Earl Gray, Lemon flavor, not-really-iced iced tea or instant coffeé. Take your pick."

"O-oh! Earl Gray would be lovely!" Benjamin stuttered quickly taking a seat on the floor as Yuuren boiled some water in a electric heater before making Benjamin his tea while pouring himself a cup of instant coffeé.

"Here." Yuuren said placing a cup in front of Benjamin before sitting down in front of him, sipping his coffeé. "Now tell me why you came here. Because there's no way you did it just to 'say thanks'. People usually don't do that unless they want something in return."

Benjamin almost spilled his tea. He'd never have thought he'd be discovered that easily.

"Your reaction tells me i'm right. I think I know what you want but I need to hear it from you." Yuuren continued smirking while keeping a serious face.

"Well..." Benjamin said deciding truth was best here. "I actually came here hoping to maybe befriend you and/or asking you to coach me in dueling. I've never seen someone with your skills in real life before and I need to be stronger if the bullies decide to target me again."

Yuuren nodded, taking a sip of his coffeé before replying. "Yeah that's not going to happen."

Benjamin was thrown back by the direct response and was about to say something before Yuuren stopped him.

"Listen kid. If you want to be friends. I'm fine with that. We can be all buddy-buddy, hang out, sit together in class, study when i'm about to get failing grades. All that stuff. The bullies know i'm a total badass so they'll stay away from you." He said smiling. "However." He said sounding more stern. "Let me make one thing clear. I have absolutely no interest whatsoever in dueling. It's a bother I only do in order to keep my parents off my back or when I have no other choice."

Benjamin was confused at his words. How could he be so good at dueling but dislike it so much?

"Why?" He asked. "If you're good enough to win the Junior Nationals four times over why haven't you tried going pro already?!"

Yuuren gave a sad smile. "See that's my burden. It's also why I'm just a Slifer Red." He took a deep breath and another sip of coffeé before continuing. "I started dueling when I was seven years old. At first I loved it. It was my favorite thing to do when I had finished homework. Within a year I had already dueled every other kid in my hometown." Yuuren sighed. "Not once did I lose nor get in a pinch. So I started dueling two, three or even four of them at once just to keep things interesting, that lasted half a year at best. After that I started challenging the adults. Same story there. Dueled all of them, got bored, took on several of them at once, got bored."

Benjamin was shocked at his story. He felt like he could understand where he came from now.

"So then when I was nine I had completely run out of people to duel with. After all who would want to duel just to lose. So instead I started doing other stuff. I learned to play the guitar, began practicing Taekwondo, model trains, math challenges, model cars. If it didn't involve dueling i would try it out." Yuuren laughed at the memories but it wasn't a laugh of joy but of sadness.

"And it worked! For about three months at least until I was back to doing mock duels with myself. But then I turned ten. And when I learned about the National Junior Cup and thought that surely the best duelists in the country would be able to compete with me! Even back then I had begun getting tired of winning all the time."

"So I fought my way through the District qualifiers with ease, all the way up to the main tournament."

Yuuren smiled apparently having fond memories of his first time at the Nationals.

"When I arrived on the playing the first time... I was in awe! There was so many people all around me! The stands was packed to the brim with other humans who wanted to see me duel. And duel I did. Only this time instead of fighting for the fun of dueling I did it to hear people cheer for me!"

"And so I ended up winning my way up through the entire championship without any major difficulties. Even in the final the guy was only able to put me in some minor issues before losing like the rest of them. I didn't care however. Because I had a whole stadium full of people cheering for me! Who were happy that I won!"

Yuuren stopped to take a sip of his coffeé realizing how dry his mouth had become from talking constantly.

"And just like that my life returned to normal. To doing other things than dueling and having mock battles with myself in the mirror until the next championship came around."

"And so it went on the next two years. I dueled, got praised as a prodigy and went back to mock battles and Taekwondo... until I turned fourteen and went back for my fourth straight tournament."

Yuuren suddenly turned grim, his eyes gloomed over and turned to the floor in front of him.

"It was the worst experience of my life... It was then I learned a horrible truth... Prodigies who win without batting an eye can only keep the masses happy for so long... Rather than cheers I got boos... Instead of being interviewed at winning the finals they interviewed my opponent about how he felt facing me! I had to stand basically alone on the podium, be asked a few half-hearted questions by a bored commentator and get a sloppy handshake and a trophy from some Dueling Corporation big-shot!"

"After that... I completely gave up on dueling. I basically became a shut-in, only leaving my room for my Taekwondo lessons. The only thing left which gave me any kind of joy."

Yuuren stopped to take another sip of coffeé realizing he was out.

As he poured himself another cup he continued his story.

"And so it went until this year when I turned sixteen. Until a few months ago I didn't even do mock duels with myself because it felt so pointless. Then my father, a hardcore businessman who was away for most my childhood starts nagging about how I should go back to school and then join him at his company once I graduate."

"Turns out I hated that idea even more than going back to dueling. So I made up some bullshit about having been in training with a fictional dueling coach who had recommended I enter Duel Academy before going pro."

"Anyway. He accepted because apparently My son is a sucessful Pro Duelist is a dealbreaker when doing business deals, I signed all the paper works, took all the boring test, pretty much quitting halfway through the practical exam and here I am. A former Junior Champion with too much talent for his own good and no ambition for his future."

Benjamin sat in awe at his story. He now fully realized how much of a burden this man was carrying on his shoulders.

He had been tasting the flavor of success all his life until he finally tired of the taste and now avoided it at all costs.

But still...

"I... cannot imagine how you feel. But!" Benjamin exclaimed cutting Yuuren off before he could say anything. "I still need your help! Even if you protect me from harm by being friends with me! It still won't mean anything unless I can do it myself!"

"Kid..." Yuuren said, impressed by his determination. He had misjudged him entirely it would seem.

"So that's why!" Benjamin exclaimed "I challenge you to a duel! Right here and now! If I beat you then you'll train me! If I lose i'll leave and not bother you anymore! Do you accept!?"

And for the first time Yuuren actually smiled an honest to god smile.

"Sure kid. I accept your challenge. But I won't go easy on you!"

"OF COURSE!" Benjamin roared "LET'S GO OUTSIDE RIGHT NOW!"

"Okay... but maybe let me get dressed first?"

Benjamin suddenly turned silent as he realized that Yuuren indeed was still in his sleep-attire.

"O-Of course..."

So almost a year later I finally update this story!

For whoever cares I'm sorry for the long wait. First semester in uni, my beta pretty much ditching me and a hard fought battle with writer's block has caused me to fail to update this story despite it being finished for months!

Chapter three is as good as finished so once I finish correcting it I'll hopefully post it.