"Duel!" - Regular Speech
'Tricky…' - Thoughts
Chapter Three: Letters, Exams and Mercenary Duellists
Evening
Yuri's Room, Slifer Red Dorm
The next few days of Duel Academy were the standard adjustment period that you would expect for a new term at any school. Yuri noted that the elitist attitude seemed to be wholly or at least mostly focussed in Obelisk Blue Dorm's students and the staff who ran it, especially Vellian Crowler.
In the first class they had, he had asked Syrus what the effect of the Magic Card [Dangerous Machine Type-6] was, and then asked Alexis Rhodes, the Obelisk Blue girl Yuri had met before, what the effect of [Pot of Greed] was. The difficulty level of the questions was too different, as [Pot of Greed] only had a single effect, while [Dangerous Machine Type-6] had several.
Jaden, she noted with a bit of a grin, had dozed off in the middle of the lecture. There was something about him that Yuri found refreshing. He had no interest in anything except Duelling and was a bit dim, but there was no deception in him, no trickery or falseness. He was a genuinely nice person, evidenced by his taking Syrus under his wing.
He also attracted the ire of the biggest bigot in the Freshman class, a boy called Chazz Princeton. Yuri recognised him as the youngest of the three Princeton Brothers, who had been angling to take over Duel Academy for the last few years. Sending the youngest brother here must be an attempt to show the world their power or some such nonsense.
Yuri was unsurprised to learn that the cause of Chazz's animosity sprang from Jaden's defeat of Crowler. What did surprise her was that the arrogant boy didn't lump her in as well as she had defeated Crowler as well. She supposed that it was because the shock factor had worn off slightly when she beat him after Jaden.
The two had even had an against-the-rules after school Duel in the school's duelling arena. Chazz, using a Chthonian-themed Fiend deck, had actually managed to drive Jaden into a corner, from what Syrus said. She had been busy writing up her first report for Seto Kaiba so hadn't gone a long with the two. When the Duel had been interrupted, it had been the draw phase of Jaden's turn and he had been about to draw [Monster Reborn], which would have turned the duel around in Jaden's favour.
Yuri, seated in her room, shook her head in amusement. She had never met anyone with the luck-of-the-draw ability that Jaden seemed to possess.
Days later, Syrus received a 'love letter' from Alexis inviting him to the Girl's dorm that turned out to be false and would have earned him an expulsion had Jaden not charged in and accepted Alexis' challenge of a Duel for Syrus' fate.
Alexis' deck had female warrior monsters, her most powerful being the Fusion Monster [Cyber Blader] that gained special effects depending on how many monsters her opponent had out on their field. Yuri, who watched from the side-lines, had to admit that the blond girl knew her stuff when it came to controlling the flow of the duel and keeping her opponents off balance, but Jaden had pulled another victory from nowhere yet again.
"That idiot's gained the Queen of Obelisk Blue's attention and he doesn't even realise it." The platinum-blond chuckled as she shuffled her deck. She had just adjusted it after the recent promotion tests, and hadn't that been amusing?
Someone, Crowler she presumed, had slipped a wrath-filled Chazz a whole lot of rare and powerful cards to increase the power of his deck. It had changed into a Machine-type deck filled with the VWXYZ monsters, ones that Seto Kaiba was fond of using in his own duelling deck, especially the powerful five monster Fusion Monster, [VWXYZ Dragon Catapult Cannon]. Before promotion tests, all students were given some card packs and some time to add any cards that they found useful into their decks. Crowler must have stripped dozens of packs in order to get those monster, magic and trap cards for Chazz, as there were only enough (barely) for everyone, minus Jaden.
Fortunately for the exuberant boy, he had helped Dorothy, the person who ran both the cafeteria and the card shop, push a heavy cart up the hill. As thanks, she had given him some new packs she had just gotten in. Somehow, Jaden's luck with cards translated into being able to get just the right card from a pack as well, as he had gotten his hands on the Magic Card [Transcendent Wings].
That card evolved his [Winged Kuriboh] into [Winged Kuriboh LV10] at just the right moment, winning the duel against Chazz. Yuri had also won her duel against one of Chazz's flunkeys and had had the chance to promote to Ra Yellow. Like Jaden, she had refused.
Now she was getting ready to go to a meeting of their year mates in Slifer Red. Well, 'meeting' was a bit formal. The others just wanted to tell ghost stories. Still, Yuri decided that getting to know those in her year and dorm couldn't be a bad thing, so here she was off to get spooked.
She carefully placed her deck inside of the case on her belt and stood up, grabbing her uniform top as she went. She hated the thing because it was too damn formfitting and showed off her breasts to all and sundry. She was a large C-cup and it showed.
"Yo Jaden, Syrus, Chumley." She greeted the three who had invited her as she walked into the dorm cafeteria, leaving it open as the rules required.
"Hey." Jaden waved enthusiastically, "Nice to see ya, Yuri."
"Oh, the new girl." Chumley sighed, "Nice to see you."
The repeat-year boy sat next to Syrus on one side of the table, while Jaden sat opposite him. The blue-haired boy nodded shyly at her as Yuri sat down at the last free seat.
After lighting a candle to set the mood, Chumley turned the lights off and the stories began. Syrus drew a card from a deck of spare cards and drew [Earthbound Spirit], so had to tell a level 4 scary story; not too scary but scary enough. He told a story about a cave in a cliff on the island that had an inlet that, at night, showed a reflection of a card that you wanted. If you reached for it, a dark hand would drag you into the sea!
Yuri personally ascribed that to some sort of strong current or riptide, but it was a good spooky story.
It freaked Chumley out enough to run into the corner, but Jaden looked excited instead.
"Jeez, big bro." Syrus sighed in mild exasperation, "It was a scary story I just told you, ya know?"
"Sorry." The brown-haired boy said sheepishly, "My turn. Hmm…[Sinister Serpent]."
"Tch, lucky you to have to make up an easy story." Syrus sighed.
"Maa, making up stories isn't easy, Syrus." Yuri reminded him.
Jaden's story was about how he had heard the voices of his Duel Monsters cards at night as a kid. Nothing ever came of it though. Though he had been able to hear them again lately.
"That was a flop, big bro." Syrus commented.
"Yeah, not 'licious at all." Chumley added.
"Well, level one is level one after all." The only girl amongst them pointed out reasonably, "My turn….oh-ho. [Sword Hunter], a level seven monster."
"Ooh, a level-seven scary story!" Jaden said enthusiastically. Syrus and Chumley looked nervous.
Pausing to think, a smirk crossed Yuri's face for a moment. "Have you ever heard of the Cursed Cards?"
"""Cursed Cards?""" the three other chorused.
"They're cards that have always caused the owners to lose." Yuri explained, "You can tell which are cursed by the eight-digit number on the bottom left of the cards. The first one was [Reaper of the Cards], with the number 13131313. Whenever the owner plated that card, he always lost, so he took it out of his deck…but it kept mysteriously reappearing in his deck whenever he duelled, and then mysteriously disappearing when he lost the duel."
Syrus looked petrified, as did Chumley. Jaden looked fascinated.
"After over a hundred consecutive losses like this, the owner decided to quit playing Duel Monsters and threw all his cards into the ocean, including [Reaper of the Cards]. But the next day, he woke up…and his cards were all there in their deck box, with [Reaper of the Cards] at the top." Yuri finished.
"GYAAAAHHHH!" Chumley and Syrus shrieked as they scrambled back in fear.
'Heh. Still got it.' Yuri thought smugly. She had always been good at storytelling.
"That was a sweet story!" Jaden said, "How can you tell if a card's a Cursed Card?"
"Hmm? Oh it has to be a number that's one number all the way through." She explained, "Like 77777777 or 66666666. Especially bad ones are with four 13's though, like the [Reaper of the Cards]. Well, the odds of getting a card with that combination of numbers is incredibly low."
"Wh-What do we do if we get a card like that?" Syrus asked in a trembling voice.
"Get rid of it." Yuri told him, "Never use it in a duel, because the curse doesn't activate until you do."
"Sensible advice." A voice said from behind her, making everyone jump.
"Professor Banner! Please don't sneak up on people when they're telling ghost stories!" Yuri said after she calmed down, "You scared the life out of us!"
Lyman Banner was a genial man, with long black hair and glasses. He was almost perpetually smiling, as well as carrying the dorm's mascot cat, Pharaoh, around with him.
"We're playing a game where, depending on the level of the card you draw, you have to tell a scary story." Syrus explained.
"Is that what you were doing? Do you mind if I have a go?" the professor asked. Receiving nods, he drew out…
"[Five-Headed Dragon], a level twelve monster." Yuri said with a shiver. Seto Kaiba hated that card due to the fact it had been used extensively by his former Board of Directors, the Big Five, who had tried to wrest control of Kaiba Corp from him multiple times.
"Give it your best, Prof!" Jaden encouraged.
"That I will do Jaden." Banner assured him, "Let's see…are you three aware of the abandoned dorm on this island?"
"An abandoned dorm?" Yuri and Jaden chorused.
"Never heard of it." Chumley shook his head with Syrus echoing him.
"A long time ago, it was used for the honour students of the Academy, regardless of which dorm they came from." Banner explained, "However…every single student from that dorm mysteriously vanished."
"R-r-r-really?" Syrus squeaked.
"Rumour has it that they were researching the Shadow Games in that dorm." The Alchemy Professor added.
"Sh-Shadow Games?!" Chumley asked as he cowered behind a chair.
"Frightful games activated using legendary items-" Banner explained, but Jaden interrupted him.
"-the Millennium Items, right? But that's just superstition."
"Yugi Moto wore a golden upside-down pyramid around his neck during Duellist Kingdom and Battle City." Yuri put in, "He was known to refer to it as his Millennium Puzzle on several occasions, according to scuttlebutt."
"You are quite correct." Banner nodded, "I do not know the truth of these rumours, however, as by the time I became a teacher here at Duel Academy, the Abandoned Dorm had been made off limits to all personnel, students and staff alike. Now, I think it's about time that everyone headed off to bed. You have classes tomorrow, after all."
With that, Banner took Pharaoh and left the cafeteria.
"Do you think that a place like that really exists on this island?" Syrus asked timorously.
"Sounds fun! Let's go looking tomorrow!" Jaden proposed with a grin.
"Eh?!" Even Yuri let out an exclamation of surprise at that.
"No way!" Syrus whined.
"S-sounds scary…but I still wanna go!" Chumley chimed in.
"I'd better go along with you guys to make sure you don't fall in a lake or something." Yuri mused.
"EH!? Yuri, not you too!?" Syrus wailed.
"Then it's settled!" Jaden declared.
There was much complaining from Syrus as the three boys headed back to their room. Yuri frowned as she wished she had access to the Kaiba Corp database so she could find out what the company investigation team had on this dorm. Somehow, she doubted an entire dorm full of prodigies vanishing into the wind would have gone without investigation.
Sadly, she was in the cold, meaning that she couldn't risk using her own account to access the Kaiba Corp servers and Chancellor Shepard couldn't be counted on to help as he disproved of her mission her, for whatever bizarre reason.
'So I'm going into this blind. Perfect.' She sighed as she entered her room again.
A purring sound struck her as the spirit of Rinyan appeared and rubbed its face on her leg.
"Rinyan…" she said softly as the white and gold monster scampered up her body to curl over her shoulders like a scarf, still purring.
She chuckled. "Yes, I suppose you're right. Things will be fine tomorrow night."
She couldn't really communicate with Rinyan. All she had were flashes of emotions and the occasional picture. What she had felt just now was a wave of comfort and support coming from her Spirit Partner. It (He? She?) seemed to be telling her not to worry.
Well, if her new partner was going that far, Yuri supposed she should take the advice.
The Next Day
Vellian Crowler's Office, Duel Academy
With a smirk, Crowler put a phone safely away in his desk drawer. He had hired the Dark Duellist, Titan, last night and he had just confirmed he was only a few miles away from Academy Island and wished to meet up at the Lighthouse to confirm both his payment and his targets. Crowler would make that Slifer Slacker and arrogant girl regret crossing him! He'd use the old legend of students disappearing to get rid of those pests once and for all.
And, if Titan was unable to complete his end of the deal for any reason, he'd just expel the brats for being out of bounds. Plus he wouldn't have to pay Titan if he failed.
Win-Win, as far as the pale professor was concerned.
That Night
Forest, Academy Island
"Man, the island at night's pretty creepy." Yuri said as she and Jaden lead Syrus and Chumley along a small trail. All of them had torches lit and she noticed Syrus' flickered all over the place as he trembled.
"Yeah, but this is kinda cool though." Jaden replied with a grin.
As they walked through the woods, the three boys argued quietly about studying and duelling, although how the subject came up was quite beyond her. Yuri paused as she spotted a building ahead.
"I think we've found it." She said to the others. As they peered at it, she frowned. The abandoned dorm was about the same size as the Ra Yellow Dorm, with a central round building with a wing on either side. All the windows were smashed and the front doors were hanging on only thanks to rust and a lack of wind. Seriously, the place looked like it wouldn't be out of place in Resident Evil.
"Wh-why's there a flower in front of the gate?" Syrus asked when they had trooped up to the empty gateway. Indeed, there was a single rose placed purposefully in front of one of the stone gateposts.
"Why do people usually leave flowers in front of places there have been tragedies in?" Yuri rolled her eyes, "It's a memorial flower, silly."
"Isn't that usually a wreath?" Chumley pointed out.
"Do you see a flower shop on this island?" the blond asked irately, "Whoever put this flower here probably cut it from a rosebush, which are only in the Obelisk Blue and Blue Female Dorms. Only they can get away with vandalism of school property without as much as a word."
A [Snap!] noise from behind them made the group of Slifer Red jump in fright, but it turned out to only be Alexis, who narrowed her eyes at the group.
"Alexis? What're you doing here?" Jaden asked, struggling to throw off Chumley and Syrus, who were cowering behind him.
"She's the one who left the flower." Yuri answered before the other blond could reply.
"How'd you know that?" Alexis asked in surprise.
"The rose is freshly cut, with no signs of wilting of the petals or discolouration on the cut portion of the stem." Yuri rattled off, "As only Blues have access to the right rose bushes and you're the only Blue here, it doesn't take Sherlock Holmes to join the dots here."
The Queen of Obelisk Blue frowned at the shortening of the Dorm name. She had always disliked the friction between Obelisk Blue and Slifer Red and had hoped that this new class would be free of such a thing. She couldn't really blame them though. Crowler was far too biased against Slifer Red students that even she could see it.
"That's beside the point. What are you guys doing here?" she asked.
"We came to check out this dorm. A test of courage!" Jaden said.
"I came along to make sure they didn't hurt themselves." Yuri added.
"Don't you know how many students have gone missing in this building?" the taller blond asked tensely.
"I don't believe in that kinda thing." Jaden replied with a slight shrug.
"It's true you know…students have vanished from here." Alexis told them earnestly, "This isn't some place to come for easy-going fun! Besides, it's off-limits. If the Academy staff find out you guys were here, you wouldn't get off with a slap on the wrists, you know."
"We wouldn't be here if we were scared of something like that." Jaden replied confidently.
"Be serious for just a moment, Jaden!" Alexis snapped at him irritably.
"Jeez, lighten up already." The jokester was getting fed up at this point, "So why are you here anyway?"
'Didn't he hear me say why she was here earlier?' Yuri sweatdropped as she eyed Jaden.
"Grrr…do as you wish!" the other girl growled as she turned away, "My brother was one of the students who vanished. I don't want you guys to vanish like he did."
With that, she walked off.
"Jaden, at some point you are going to apologise to her." Yuri said flatly.
"I…oh." Jaden said when he looked at the rose and put it together with what Alexis had said as she left. "Damn. You're right."
"I'm a girl; I'm always right." The only female of the group replied faux-snootily before grinning to show she was kidding, earning chuckles from her friends.
"Jaden, I thought all the stuff about this dorm was made up." Syrus said in concern, "You sure it's safe?"
"It'll be fine." Jaden asserted, "And we'll find out if it's true or not when we go in. Let's go."
As the small group advanced to the entrance of the dorm building Alexis looked on from the treeline. She didn't know what to make of Jaden. He was serious one minute and a jokester the next.
'I hope nothing happens…' she thought worriedly a she started to turn away. She stopped when a large man wearing a black trench coat of some kind appeared before her. She opened her mouth, to scream or yell she didn't know which, and then everything went black.
Inside the Abandoned Dorm
The interior of the dorm matched the outside. That is to say, run down weather worn and broken. You could still see that it had once been modestly opulent, what with the huge chandelier in the entrance hall, but it felt off. At least, that's how Yuri felt about it.
"Dusty it may be, but it's a step up from the Red Dorm." Jaden said, "Wanna move in here?"
"Not for every rare card on the planet." Yuri replied with a shudder. She paused as she spotted some stone carvings on the wall.
"What's with all these things?" Chumley asked.
"They're the seven Millennium Items." Yuri answered. She pointed at the right-hand tablet and said, "The Millennium Rod, Millennium Necklace, Millennium Eye and Millennium Scales."
Pointing to the left, she continued, "The Millennium Key, Millennium Ring and finally, the Millennium Puzzle. This confirms it; the people here were really either practicing Shadow Games or researching them."
"How do you know so much about this stuff?" Syrus asked in astonishment.
"Eh, there are rumours about Shadow Games and the Millennium Items anywhere that there are Duellists." Yuri shrugged, "It was my hobby to collect those rumours when I was a kid."
It hadn't been, but she couldn't exactly say, 'Oh, I used Kaiba Corp's investigative services to collate any and all information about the Millennium Items because I knew it would piss off Seto Kaiba, who despises and disbelieves any kind of supernatural stuff, especially when it has to do with Duel Monsters' could she?
"Hey guys, check this out!" Jaden pointed his torch at a picture that was hanging on the wall. The picture was of a handsome boy wearing the uniform of a second year Obelisk Blue student. His hair was long and brown, but the set of the face was more than familiar. The signature 'Atticus Rhodes' on the bottom right of the picture confirmed his identity.
"No…no way…" Syrus whispered.
"Alexis' brother…he really did come here!" Chumley said.
"Did you expect her to be lying about that?" Yuri wanted to know, "Her voice was full of pain when she spoke about him."
Suddenly, a shriek echoed through the building, making everyone jump in fright.
"That scream…Alexis!" Yuri cursed, "Jaden!"
"Right! Let's go."
The four freshmen ran down the hall to where the scream had seemed to come from, an old common room by the looks of it.
Jaden knelt down on the floor where the dust had been disturbed and picked up a Duel Monster's card. "This is Alexis' [Etoile Cyber] card!"
"It must have fallen from her deck when she was dragged across the floor." Yuri nodded at the disturbed dust marking a trail on the floor.
"It's heading into this passage." Chumley pointed at a doorway that led into a stone passageway that was radically different from the rest of the building.
The four ran down the passage, calling Alexis' name, but there was no reply. Yuri had a bad feeling about all this. Alexis was a sensible girl who had obviously had no intention of entering the dorms, so why was she here?
At the end of the passage, they entered a large domed chamber. The floor had strange symbols carved into it that looked vaguely alchemical in nature, but the whole place just felt wrong.
Lying in a coffin opposite from them was Alexis, who was clearly unconscious, as she wasn't bound in any form.
"What the hell is going on here?" Yuri muttered as she looked around. This situation felt entirely too contrived to be real and she was waiting for the other boot to fall.
"Alexis!" Jaden shouted and took a step forward. Before he could go any further, mist billowed out of nowhere and a dark and forbidding laugh echoed throughout the cave.
"This one's soul has already sunk into deep darkness." The owner of the voice clearly enjoyed theatrics. Yuri also considered that he might suffer from Chūnibyō, but that was confirmed when he actually appeared, rising out of the mist like a skeleton in a fantasy work would.
He was a tall man, wearing what she recognised as a heavily-modified Duelling Jacket, with a matching hat and a silver half-face mask. He looked very intimidating, she had to give him credit.
"Welcome, Jaden Yuuki and Yuri Yamayuri." The man said solemnly, "I am Titan, the Dark Duellist…and I am here to send you into the Shadows!"
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Next Chapter: Enter the Shadows
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