Italics indicate thinking

Yuki's POV

"Alright." I checked myself in the mirror and pulled my hair out from my jacket "Ready?"

"Don't forget your rings." Cleopatra told me.

"Oh right, silly me." I looked down and slipped the five rings one, one for each finger on my left hand. The Gods gave Cleo and I these rings as a sign of their trust in us, Pink for Kindness, Blue for Sadness, Red for Anger, Dark Purple for Fear and White for Apathy.

I had changed my outfit too, no more business suit, instead I was doing a long dress like bottom and a golden jacket.

"Say Yuki I was thinking something." Cleopatra hummed in my head as we walked down the lobby "How many years has it been now since Battle City?"

"Oh I don't know…at least a dozen or so." I shrugged "Why?"

"Well it's just that after Yugi defeated Marik and freed us, the Gods' sent us on our next mission and told us to wait for a hero." She said.

"That's right."

"So then…WHY THE HELL HAVE WE BEEN WAITING FOR OVER FIVE YEARS AND NOT SEEN A SINGLE DAMN HERO?!" she snapped "I hate this new job they made us get for this mission."

"Heh…" I sighed and scratched my head "Working at Duel Academy isn't so bad, it's way less dangerous than the God Card mission."

"Ungrateful kids never taking your lessons seriously and calling us the weird teacher who talks to herself." She mumbled.

"Yeah I have no idea why they'd call us that." I rolled my eyes "Look I like this job a lot more than my old middle management job so let's just keep teaching, I'm sure we'll meet that hero soon enough."

After everything with the Pharaoh moving on was taken care of the Gods warned us that an evil was coming, of course ten plus years has passed by now and there hasn't been a drop of evil around. The first thing they had us do was get a job at the newly opened Duel Academy which was easy enough given how much I've improved at Dueling over the years. One thing is still super weird and is taking some getting used to…since Cleopatra and I are soul bound together and share a body, and since she's immortal, I haven't aged a day. It's weird I'm forty something now but I still look like I'm in my mid-thirties, on the brightside I don't have any wrinkles!

"Entrance exams are today." I reached for the door "Huh?!"

Suddenly I was in an empty blackness.

"Look for a HERO." The voice off all five gods boomed.

"ugh." I was suddenly back in the real world

"A Vision from the Gods?" Cleopatra asked.

"Yeah, same as always." I sighed heading in and walking towards the teachers' section.

Today was entrance exam for Duel Academy, all the prospective students had already taken the written test, today we were observing their duel demonstrations.

"Oh, good morning Professor Crowler." I smiled.

Crowler…technically he's my superior. He's an ugly man in body and spirit, he's got an elitist attitude but he's a good teacher, a good duelist too, took us a while to figure out if he was a guy or a girl though.

"Professor Shinonome." He looked at me.

We don't get along.

The exam started and a lot of the kids showed good promise…and a lot failed miserably. I try and give my passing vote to as many people as possible but some just aren't cut out for dueling. The day was long and there was a lot of dueling to watch. Winning doesn't get you in and losing doesn't mean you're out you just gotta look good.

"I play the Trap Card Ring of Destruction!" one of the examinees attached the trap to Vorse Raider and won the duel.

"That's a combo that takes me back." I smiled a bit "Well we don't need to deliberate on Bastion Misawa, he's in."

"Excuse me." One of the men working the entrance came up to us.

"Yes?" I smiled.

"There's one more examinee that made registration at the last moment." He explained.

"Okay, that's-." I started.

"What's his test ranking?" Crowler asked.

"Umm…110."

"No sense of timeliness, coming at the last minute, I think not." Crowler said.

"Don't be such a jerk." I rolled my eyes "Just let the kid try, we've got time and he made it in time for registration so he's earned his test. What if there was traffic, or a family emergency that wouldn't be fair."

"No! No! No!" he shook his head.

"What an annoyance." Cleopatra sighed.

"Your phone is ringing." I said.

"GAH!" he answered it "Chancellor Shepard! Yes…yes sir…okay. I will be dueling the examinee."

"Oh this will go great." Cleopatra and I laughed "Are you gonna take an examination deck or are you gonna be a jerk and do it the hard way?"

"I'll be using my own deck." He stomped off.

"Examinee Number 110: Jaden Yuki please report to the main field." The PA spoke.

"He has a name like you." Cleopatra laughed.

"Haha." I scoffed.

A kid walked onto the field, he was young like all the prospective students, he had short yet thick brown hair and a good determination on his face.

"Good luck kid…try not to get stomped out on turn one." I blinked "You're up against a department head, and the practical application department no less…"

The duel started, as is tradition the examinee gets to go first.

"I summon Elemental HERO Avian!" the boy said "And set a card."

"…" I watched Crowler "What is he doing?"

"I play Confiscation!" Crowler gave up 1000 life points to make Jaden discard a card, then I play two face downs and activate Heavy Storm!"

"He's not…" my eyes went wide.

"You destroyed your own cards?" Jaden asked.

"They were Statue of Wicked which means I get two Wicked Tokens!" Crowler told him "I'll sacrifice both of them to summon Ancient Gear Golem and have it attack your monster!"

"Tsk!" Jaden hissed a bit.

"Gear Golem deals piercing damage." I noted as Jaden lost half his life points "Crowler…what do you think you're doing?"

"I draw!" Jaden looked at his hand and made a weird face "Okay! Winged Kuriboh in Defense mode and a face down card then I end my turn."

"This is the end for you and that small fry of a monster." Crowler said "Ancient Gear Golem attack!"

Winged Kuriboh was destroyed but its effect meant Jaden took no damage this turn.

"I'll make you pay for calling my monster a small fry." Jaden glared "I activate my face down card Hero Signal and use it to summon Elemental HERO Burstinatrix from my deck!"

Since Crowler attacked and was so confident he ended his turn.

"I activate the spell Warrior Returning Alive!" Jaden said "I bring Avian back to my hand from the grave and then summon him right away! Next I'll play Polymerization to fuse Avian and Burstinatrix into my favorite card Elemental HERO Flame Wingman!"

"A fusion monster…" I observed.

"Yes quite something, but it's still too weak." Cleopatra noted.

"If Heroes are gonna battle they need a proper battle field." Jaden said "The Field Spell Skyscraper!"

A metro city was erected around the area with the solid vision projector.

"Now Go Flame Wingman, attack Ancient Gear Golem!"

The effect of Skyscraper is to increase the attack of an attacking Elemental HERO monster by 1000 during damage calculation with a monster that's stronger than it, meaning Flame Wingman was stronger than Ancient Gear Golem by 100 attack.

"Now Flame Wingman's attack activates and you take damage equal to that of your destroyed monster!" Jaden smiled.

"He's going to take 3000 damage!" Cleopatra gasped.

"Crowler lost." I smirked "To a deck of Elemental…"

"Heroes…" Cleopatra said as we looked at each other.

"He's the one." We both said as I stamped a pass on his application.

AN

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