Title: Rune Duelists
Genre: romance, general
Rating: M for language, slight violence, and lemon in further chapters
Pairing: JohanXJudai (some side pairings)
Summary: Johan is the newest student at Duel Academy, and he seems to think it's a fairly normal school. Boy, is he dead wrong! Sorcerers, healers, alter-egos, giant fighting ships that fly through the air, and much more is waiting for Johan in his new adventures! To make things worse, Johan has a crush on a brunette named Judai, who also feels the same, but they're too shy to admit it, so Judai's alter-ego tries to play matchmaker with them! Not to mention a childish healer, a sword fighter with a bad attitude, and a fangirl who's obsessed with yaoi! How will Johan survive?!
Me: All right, guys! Next chapter of "Rune Duelists"!!
Lucy: So far, Johan has met Judai Yuki and Rei Saotome of the Rune Duelist Troupe! Now, all he has to do is meet his "three" other members of the Rune Duelist Troupe.
Me: The reason "three" is in quotations will be discovered by the end of this chapter!
Lucy: So please enjoy!
Chapter Two: The Trouble With Black Magic
"All right!" Rei giggled as she dragged Johan down the hallway. So far, she had shown him the cafeteria, a few of the classrooms, and what she told Johan was the laboratory for the study of alchemy, a class that was run by Professor Daitokuji, the man who had chosen Johan to be the leader of the Rune Duelists.
"These are the dorms," the ravenette pointed towards the doors along the long hallway. There was a lounge in a huge room between every several doors, leading into another hallway, where more dorms were.
Johan glanced around and noticed that some of the doors were either red, blue, or yellow. Each hallway was different, going in a pattern. The first hallway held red doors, then there was the lounge, then the next hallway had yellow doors, then a huge lounge, then a hallway with blue doors, a lounge, and then the pattern began again.
"Um... Saotome-san?" Johan began.
"Please," Rei turned and flashed Johan a bit grin. "Just call me Rei. Here at Duel Academy, we usually call each other by first name. It establishes some sort of trusted connection between the students."
Johan laughed nervously, rubbing the back of his head. "O-okay then, Rei-san, um, who exactly is in the Rune Duelist Troupe?" he asked.
He at least wanted to know what the names of the people in his Troupe before he met them. So far, all he knew were that Judai and Rei were two members of his Troupe.
Rei smiled. "Well, you'll only get to meet the two others today, I'm afraid," she said.
"Why?" Johan asked.
"Oh, one of our me members comes from a planet of swordsmen. You know of it, right? Anyway, he's on a mission there, and can't be here at the moment," she explained to the bluenette.
"I see..." Johan murmured to himself. "Hey, Rei-san, who's Ryo?"
Rei stopped walking and turned to Johan.
"Huh?" she asked.
"Ryo," Johan repeated the name, motioning in the direction of the Principal's office. "Samejima was asking about a guy named Ryo, and Edo was talking about him. Who is he?"
Rei giggled and covered her mouth with her hand.
"Oh, you must mean Kaiser-san, then!" she chuckled. At Johan's confused face, she continued. "Kaiser-san is the nickname that Ryo Marufuji has. He is the leader of the Shale Duelist Troupe, and he's-"
"He's the best Duelist ever to step out of here!"
Johan stopped cold at the sound of another voice. He didn't recognize it.
He whirled around and saw that there was a young man standing some-what close behind him, grey eyes hidden behind a small pair of round spectacles.
The boy was rather short, about 4'10", and he had cyan-colored hair that stuck out at the sides of his head. He wore a yellow jacket similar to what Johan had seen Judai wearing, and he wore a pair of black jeans underneath. He had on a pair of white boots with yellow toes. But there was something else strange about him.
On the side of his head, covering his left ear, like a mecha horn, was a mechancial device. Johan imagined it was for picking up signals, but it looked a bit like a horn, just one, sticking slightly over his head. It rested down the side of his cheek and curled under his eye, so that it wasn't in the way.
Rei smiled. "Johan, this is Fourth Lieutenant Shou Marufuji!" she pointed down to him. "He's a member of the Rune Duelist Troupe!"
"He is?" Johan glanced down at the mini bluenette.
"Yeah," Rei giggled. "This boy comes from the planet Cybron, and he's the little brother of our dear Kaiser-san."
Johan's green eyes widened. "H-his older brother is the leader of the Shale Duelist Troupe!?" he shrieked. Shou smiled, taking Johan's surprise as a compliment.
"Indeed he is," he said with a small, nervous, shy laugh.
Rei flung her arm around his shoulders. "Shou is actually a healer, just like Kaiser-san is!" she giggled.
Johan's green eyes widened slightly. "Ryo-san is a healer?" he asked. He had heard that Cybron was a planet of technicians. They there the ones who had created the Runners, as well as most of the ships. It was even rumored that the people on Cybron had created Duel Academy.
"Yeah. Cybron has a few healers on its planet. My family, the Marufuji's, just happen to be some of them," Shou said, matter-of-factly.
"I-I see," Johan laughed nervously.
The miniature bluenette smiled and stuck his hand to Johan. "Nice to meet you, First Lieutenant Johan Andersen-san," he said. Johan shook his hand and smiled.
"Thanks. Nice to meet you, too," he murmured.
Rei grinned.
"Well, now that you have met one of the members, perhaps you would like to meet-"
"WAAAAAAH!!! SOMEONE HELP ME KURI!!"
--
"Eh? Hane Kuriboh?" Shou asked, glancing over his shoulder.
The little winged, brown fluff ball flew up to the gang, panting for breath. The little fluff ball gasped, trying to catch his breath once again before speaking in a sped-up, chipmunked voice.
"Please! My master is in danger kuri!!" Hane Kuriboh chirped, squealing in terror as he flew in circles around the group.
Rei gasped while Johan's eyes widened in terror. Something really bad had just happened, he could tell even without the fluff ball flying in circles and chirping about it.
"What's wrong, Kuriboh? Is Judai-sama all right?!" Rei yelled, grabbing onto Hane Kuriboh to keep him still, demanding an answer from the little ball of brown fuzz.
Johan gasped as he remembered the brunette he had met when he arrived. He remembered how nice and kind Judai had been to him, how much Johan had seemed to instantly like him.. He spun around, afraid to hear what had happened.
'Is Judai okay!?' the bluenette thought.
Kuriboh escaped Rei's iron grip and circled around Johan's head this time. He was squealing high pitched, loud enough to shatter the bluenette's ear drums.
"Master was trying out a new spell to show Johan-kun, and now he can't move!!" Kuriboh yelped.
Johan staring in confusion at the gang, who all seemed to know what Winged Kuriboh was talking about. The bluenette turned and looked down to Rei with confused eyes.
"Spell?" he asked.
Rei glanced in shock at Johan. "You didn't kno-" Her eyes widened in realization. "Oh, that's right! You're new here! You don't know about this school yet!" she said.
Johan nodded quickly as if demanding Rei to continue speaking. Rei, Shou, and Johan took off after Hane Kuriboh as they headed for Judai's room near the back of the dorm area of the ship.
"Yeah! Judai-kun is a sorcerer, but we call him a warlock! He's always experimenting and it almost alwaysbackfires!" Rei explained.
"He's not a sorcerer! And he's not a warlock, either!" Shou spat angrily at her. He folded his arms across his chest and narrowed his eyes. "Aniki is a witch! He told me so himself!"
"He is not!" Rei turned to Shou as they continued to run. "He's a warlock! That's a male witch!"
"Witch!"
"Warlock!"
"Witch!"
"Warlock!"
"Warlock!"
"Witch!"
"Ha!"
"Grr! Shou, you're gonna pay for that!"
Johan just chose to ignore the two arguing Rune Duelists. 'Please! Please let Judai be all right!' he yelled in his mind. He honestly had no idea why he was so concerned.
Sure, Judai was one of his friends, one of the firsts he had met when he arrived. But Johan strangely felt a connection to Judai. He felt as if he would be totally depressed if he lost Judai, so for some reason, he felt more concerned for the brunette than most people feel when they first meet someone.
Finally, the gang stopped at Judai's door. Rei fumbled with the door handle, unable to open it. Johan growled angrily and then threw the door open by kicking it.
"Judai-!" Johan yelled, racing into the room with Rei, Hane Kuriboh, and Shou following him.
When they were all inside, their jaws dropped open and their eyes widened in shock at what awaited them. No one could find the voice to call out or even speak at the moment.
"Oh dear..." Judai's voice said as the gang came in.
Standing in the center of the room was Judai. Nothing was abnormal out him in general. He was still wearing his red Duel Academy jacket, the white jeans, and the white and red toed boots.
But the strangest thing of all was the see through, purple slime ball that was wrapped around Judai's entire body except for his head.
--
"Oh dear..." Judai said as he saw everyone staring at him.
Johan gaped at the brunette while Judai just laughed nervously at the gang's shocked stares. Shou stared with wide eyes, lip quivering, and then suddenly hollered.
"A-ANIKI!? W-WHAT HAPPENED!?" he hollered, gripping the hair on the sides of his head.
Rei pointed and burst out laughing so hard that her eyes started watering. She fell to the ground and pounded the floor. "O-OH MY GOD, JUDAI-SAMA!! YOU LOOK SO FUNNY WITH THAT SLIME BALL OVER YOU!! HA HA HA!!" she howled with laughter, rolling around on the floor.
Judai shook his head before speaking.
"This is so embarrassing! I hate to be seen when an experiment backfires like this," he whispered, a pink blush appearing on his face, similar to the one that Johan must have been wearing earlier when he first spotted Judai.
Johan almost lost full control right then and there and was about to jump the small boy, but controlled himself. Finally, a short silence came and stayed for a short while.
The silence was broken by Kuriboh.
"WAAAH!! MASTER!! I'LL SAVE YOU KURI!!" he yelled. He went fluttering at the slime with the force of a jack hammer, ready to destroy it, but was thrown back by the purple jiggling substance.
Judai sighed deeply before sniffing the air, becoming interested in the scent.
"Hm? Alcohol?" the brunette asked, glancing up at Johan.
The purple slime shot a slimy tentacle forward and grabbed Johan's wrist, sucking him into the slime-ball with Judai, so he was basically pressed against the brunette's body.
Johan blushed. 'I-I can see right through this blob. Damn, Judai looks really good up close... W-wait! Why am I thinking that!?' the bluenette yelled in his mind. He felt the blush darken.
Judai stared at Johan and reached forward, clasping the bluenette's cheek in his hand.
"You smell like alchohol..." Judai murmured to himself.
Johan gasped and thought about why he would smell like alcohol. He then remembered. "Oh, that's right! I had a taste of the brandy cake that Mom made before I left," the bluenette said.
He suddenly gasped as Judai leaned forward. He pressed his lips against Johan's in a 3 second peck, licking Johan's lips as he did so.
Rei squealed when she saw this, and Shou's eyes nearly popped out his head. Johan was in too much shock to even speak at this point, when suddenly, his vision was blocked by a blast of purple smoke.
The blob suddenly exploded, sending Johan crashing painfully to the ground, covered from head to toe in liquid that he assumed had once been the purple blob. He sat up and rubbed his head, wondering what had just happened.
"Hey there..." a new voice suddenly said. It sounded like Judai's, only with a very slight echo to it.
The purple smoke vanished, revealing Judai, only he was very different.
His hair was darker, the orange mop on top a deep shade of brown, and his eyes were bright yellow and filled with mischief. The jacket that he wore around his body seemed to pop open, revealing the black T shirt that he wore underneath. He seemed slightly curviver and muscular than he had been before, and Johan noticed that his hair was slightly longer.
He pushed his hair out of his eyes and smiled a mischievous smile when he spotted Johan staring at him with shock.
"The name's Haou Yuki! Nice to meet ya, rookie!" the boy, Haou, said, the smirk still remaining on his lips.
Johan gasped and stared at Judai's alter-ego, wondering where the Hell his whole world went upside down and when he stepped into crazy town!
---
Me: Ha! Poor Johan! He's already been kissed by Judai, whom he might be starting to develop a crush on, and now, Judai's crazy alter-ego comes springing out of nowhere!
Lucy: Warning, Haou is very OOC in this story, but there are times when he keeps his character!
Me: What will happen to poor Johan now that Haou has arrived?
Lucy: Please review if you wanna find out! We shall update as soon as we are able to!