Black and Red
Hello again and welcome to another chapter of Black and Red! This episode follows a lot of things at once right now, but trust me, it'll calm down after a little while. Yeah. I hope so anyway...
This is the translation of the Japanese title for Episode 1. The English-dub instead uses "Welcome to Duel Academy".
Dialogue from this chapter comes from Hidden Eyes Telling Lies by Queen of Briannia. Once again, I took it out of a desire to avoid transcribing for as long as possible, not because I have a desire to steal someone's idea.
And, last but not least, I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! GX. If I did, Chazz would have been the main character, not Jaden.
Chapter Two: Flame Wingman
Sora knew Chazz was mad at him, could see it in the set of those slender shoulders underneath that blue blazer. That was why he instead approached the pair of Slifer students leaning against a rock, only one of whom he had formally met. "Hello again," he greeted, giving the small boy a gentle smile. "I'm guessing you two are in Slifer red."
"Yeah!" the brunet boy chirped, a smile on his face. "Hey, you in red too?" he asked, but a voice from behind him managed to answer the question before the redhead could.
"Well now, let's see here: yellow sleeves, yellow buttons, I don't think so," a British accent said sarcastically.
"Oh I get it! So that's why Sy and I are in red," he muttered, looking down at his jacket.
"Please don't tell me that you just figured that out now?" The black-haired boy muttered.
"So what? Ever think I'm colorblind?" Jaden retorted with a twisted look on his face.
"Well no, actually, I didn't, are you colorblind?" Bastion responded in an honest manner.
"From what I've heard, I'd say it's likely," Sora quipped with a smile.
"No, but I could've been," Jaden replied with a laugh. "And who are you?"
"Sora Samatoko." Seeing Bastion starting to walk off, Sora decided to follow him, hands in the pocket of his pale yellow jacket open over another white-and-black concert shirt.
"See you at the dorms," Jaden called after them.
"I doubt that, your dorm is over there." Here Bastion turned, pointing over his shoulder and nearly knocking Sora in the head with his arm. "Sorry."
He chuckled. "No worries, you didn't hit me." Suddenly, the redhead remembered something he'd forgotten to say. "Anyway, nice duel Jaden! It was really cool to watch!"
The brunet grinned back. "You kidding? I can't wait to see your deck! We gotta duel sometime!"
Sora nodded, his lips falling. "Sure thing," he replied, causing Bastion to look at him oddly. If the boy didn't want to duel so badly, why had he enrolled at a dueling school rather than a normal high school?
"You all right?" he asked cordially, but Sora remained firmly tight-lipped.
Or at least, until he was certain the two of them were out of Jaden's earshot. "I just don't like dueling so much," he answered. "I only came here because my family wanted me to." He chuckled wryly. "They were so pissed to learn I got Ra Yellow rather than Obelisk Blue, but there wasn't anything they could do about it, especially since I almost lost my practical exam."
Bastion frowned at that. "Ra's better than Slifer, shouldn't they be happy that you managed to get into the middle of the road?"
"Not when I already have a brother who's in Obelisk Blue."
"Still, they should be proud of you for who you are," the Brit grumbled, holding the door for his companion as they strode into the dorms.
Sora shrugged. "My family's ambitious, what can I say?" He pulled his jacket around him as they walked underneath an overhead fan, but he wasn't quick enough to entirely hide the pink line of healing skin on his wrist. Bastion's brow furrowed at the knowledge that the other boy cut himself but refrained from commenting, judging that the conversation wouldn't be welcomed by the way Sora hurriedly yanked his sleeve back up. He stopped before door 13, pulling a key out of his pocket and stepping inside. "Well, this is my room. I'll see you around, Bastion."
The mathematician blinked, surprised that Sora had remembered his name. He found himself… fond of the other male. Sora had defied expectations… and that was not good. He frowned, figuring the boy's deck was likely the same way. "I must find out how he duels," he muttered to himself, "otherwise my formulas may prove useless." He got to his room, the walls already half-covered in black marker, and decided to allot the entire space above his headboard to this new conundrum. Uncapping a new color, he unconsciously chose red when he wrote the word Sora Samatoko in block letters up by the ceiling, the letters bleeding slightly from the pressure. Somehow, he thought it appropriate. A bleeding name for a bleeding soul.
Next, he had to figure out what he wanted to write underneath. The first step towards beating someone was to determine the cards of their decks, so Bastion hurriedly ran through his memory, searching for clues and finding none. He couldn't even recall a single card in the redhead's deck from the practical exam! Then a single comment came to mind, one that had him pausing, one he hadn't even realized he'd heard during Jaden's duel. "Meh, not nearly as impressive as my Silent Swordsman."
His pen squeaked protestingly as he wrote the name on the wall, then paused. There were three Silent Swordsman cards—a level 3, a level 5, and a level 7—and Sora hadn't specified which ones were in his deck, which meant he had to use logic to get there. Sora had implied that his Swordsman could defeat the Ancient Gear Golem, which meant that he likely used Silent Swordsman Level 7, but that card couldn't be summoned other than by the effect of Silent Swordsman Level 5, and even then it was still 200 attack points below the Golem, which meant he'd augment it in some way. Since Swordsman's ability prevented spells from being of any use, the boy had to use an effect monster or a trap to benefit his card. For some reason, the card Command Knight came to mind, and he realized that it fit with what he knew of Sora. The other Ra seemed like the type to prefer a card that would benefit his entire deck instead of a single monster, and it was with that in mind that he wrote, above the three monster cards, 'Warrior Deck'.
"I'm sorry, Sora," Chazz apologized to the Ra, who had come to talk to him. "I shouldn't have snapped at you. I mean, everyone draws a bad hand every once in a while, right? That doesn't mean you'll stay in Ra Yellow for long!"
Sora smiled and rolled his eyes, figuring it was better than actually correcting his twin on the matter. "So has anyone here caught your eye yet?" he asked, honestly curious. He knew Chazz liked guys, just as he himself did, and the pair would often go to the mall at home to 'guy watch' even if it was Sora who would be the most obvious about it and Chazz would grumpily sit on a bench and firmly ignore the antics of his twin. Of course, Slade and Jagger didn't know, mainly because the elder Princetons were homophobes, so they had to pretend they liked girls.
"Well, there is this one…" he admitted, blushing slightly. "And if he really is up to par, I might ask him out." Sora rolled his eyes, the ravenet had never dated because he had this ridiculous notion that he had to be equally matched against his boyfriend.
"Chazz! That applicant who beat Doctor Crowler is here, check it out!" one of the two lackeys yelled up at them, causing Sora to stiffen. Chazz strode forward a few steps, straightening his posture and subtly nodding at Sora to sidle away. They would continue their conversation later.
To Sora's surprise, it was Jaden and Syrus who had come, and he somehow completely missed Sora. "Oh hey what's up? My name's Jaden." The brunet waved, then turned to the two minions. "And he's Chazz was it?"
Chazz stiffened, though part of it was to provide a distraction for his brother to sneak away. He didn't want anyone to know he was related to a Ra. "His name's Chazz Princeton and he was the number one duelist back at Duel Prep school, so you make sure and pay the proper respects, got it?" the blue-haired crony snapped, hands on his hips.
"Yeah, he's gonna be the future King of Games, the best duelist in the world!" the other continued, standing right in Jaden's face.
"Impossible," Jaden grouched, crossing his arms.
"Say what?"
Sora snickered at the face on the guy. Priceless. Thank you Jaden.
"You see, it's impossible for him to be the future King of Games because that's exactly what I'm gonna be."
Sora rolled his eyes at Jaden's bold words and the oohs of the morons before they burst out laughing. "A Slifer slacker is the next King of Games? That'll be the day!"
"Can it you two!" Chazz growled, once again redirecting attention and allowing Sora a chance to sneak around to the tunnel. "Maybe the new kid's right."
"Uh, what do you mean there, Chazz?"
Sora snorted, which caused Syrus to give him a weird look, though the little Slifer didn't say anything when he held his hand up in the universal 'shh' gesture. If there was a prize for stupidity, these two would have it in the bag.
"He did beat Crowler, after all, and that legendary rare monster of his. I suppose it takes some skill to pull that off."
"Got that right," Jaden said, and the temptation Sora had to push the brunet over was great. Sure, it would have completely ruined the moment with its hilarity, but he restrained himself, curious as to what Chazz would say next. If his suspicions were right, this was the one who had caught his brother's eye, and he had to say that he approved.
"Or was it luck? I say we find out now." The ravenet smirked, finding it returned by the Slifer, and Sora shivered as he retreated. There was no doubt about it. Chazz liked Jaden, and from what he'd seen, his brother did not want to be interrupted. Oh well. At least the welcome dinner was there to look forward to.
Sora growled when his PDA went off in the middle of the night, fumbling around his empty room (he knew he had a roommate, judging by all the card lists taped over half the walls) for the damn thing and dropping a few choice curses when he saw the name. "Why the fuck are you calling me this late, Chazz?" he spat, giving his twin the best glare he could while looking like he'd rather fall over and sleep.
The ravenet smirked. "I dueled Jaden tonight," he said, silver eyes gleaming. "We were interrupted before we reached the conclusion, but it was obvious how it would have ended."
Dammit, I was rather hoping he'd found someone to open up to instead of me. He hid his disappointment behind another growl. "And you woke me up at the asscrack of the night to tell me this because?"
"… Um…" Chazz had lived with Sora long enough to know when the redhead was angry enough to attempt murder. "Gotta go!" he cried, hastily shutting the PDA off. So long as Sora didn't have eye contact with him, he was safe.
True to form, the PDA found its way into the nearest wall by the time Sora curled up under the blankets again, fast asleep in a matter of moments. He'd deal with it, and Chazz, in the morning.
Chazz: Oh god why did you write this up so fast?
Bastion: And put it up too?
I was home sick.
Jaden: ... You haven't been coughing all day... You've been fine, actually.
... Trust me Jaden, you don't wanna know what my problem is.
Jaden: Okay!
Bastion: If you would like her to actually do something PRODUCTIVE, don't review.
Chazz: Yeah, she'll leave us alone and torture some poor other saps instead!
... HEY! IT'S NOT TORTURE! *attempts to murder Chazz*
Bastion: You know, I'm beginning to see why she's a Chazz fangirl...
Last edited: 9/25/2011