A Day in the Life of Seto or Unexpected Skill

Seto looked up as his alarm sounded. He hadn't slept, once more going over everything that had been in the box he had received about two weeks ago, but turning up almost nothing new. He got ready for school and walked out to the limo with his laptop to await the arrival of the three other passengers.

Sitting in the vehicle made him think of his other problem: that Mutt that had come to the Academy.

He was irritating, at best, or that's what Seto would have liked to think. The Mutt would do something he would usually think idiotic and then Seto would unwillingly find himself smiling at him. Which was highly disconcerting, to say the least.

Finally the other three joined him in the car, and he could tell Atem knew he hadn't slept but neither brought it up. He had always thought that Atem was too caring for others. Nothing would ever get done if he had it his way.

The ride was silent, as usual, and he talked as little as possible as they walked towards their first class. It was a dueling day, meaning all classes were cut down to half an hour long and then the rest of the day would be spent just dueling for improvement.

Not that Seto really needed to improve; only two students had ever beaten him and it was a 50/50 chance for Atem, who had beat Yugi, so the smaller boy had even less of a chance.

As class passed he silently did his work, ignoring how the Mutt would mock Devlin every time he turned around. He did the same in Language arts, managing a snide comment when Wheeler didn't know who Hamlet was.

French was much more entertaining, getting a rise out of Wheeler by saying completely normal things was fun. In the back of his mind, he thought Wheeler looked kind of adorable when he got angry but he instantly shoved that thought away and made a scathing comment about said Mutt anytime it came back.

Science was when things got particularly interesting. Ushio was starting a new unit, Chemistry, and had decided to see if he could embarrass some kids while he was at it.

"Wheeler, list some chemical mixtures and what happens when they're put together." Ushio smirked, thinking that he wouldn't be able to. Honestly, no one thought he'd be able to and Seto was halfway between laughing at Wheeler and glaring at Ushio. He decided to smirk at his paper.

"Ammonia and bleach make poisonous gas, bleach and vinegar makes a different poisonous gas, carbon and sulfur explodes, dat potassium pomegranate powder stuff and glycerin explodes, hydrogen sulfite and nitric acid, chlorine and ammonia, chromic acid and acetic acid, chronic acid and alcohol, all a' those either explode or make more poisonous gas. Uh… Hydrogen peroxide and sulfur acid explodes real quick… Hydrogen peroxide and acetic acid explodes when you heat it up, nitric acid and hydrazine will either catch fire or explode, and sodium phosphide and water make another poisonous gas…" The whole class watched in awe and slight terror as Joey spent half the class rattling off a bunch of chemical mixtures that explode on impact, when heated, when they're put together, after a delayed reaction, ones that catch fire, a ton that produced toxic gasses, and a few that just made really loud noises.

Honestly, Seto hadn't even thought Wheeler knew those words (much less that they did all that) until he said them. But it did bring to question: how exactly did Joey know all that?

"Arson and murder, Mutt?" Seto sneered when he had finally finished.

"I'm more of a Jaywalkin' kinda guy myself," Joey smirked, leaning back smugly.

"Hm." Seto scoffed slightly, returning to his work. Interestingly enough (he hated himself for noticing this), that was the first day that Wheeler looked relaxed in the class. He was sure it had something to do with Yugi and what had happened a few days ago with them showing up to class late and beaten, because it was after that that Wheeler started taking joy in making Seto angry during the classes he didn't have with Yugi as well as the ones he did.

At lunch he was able to think more on this. Looking over at Yugi, it was obvious that he was still shaken up, if not terrified, by the experience as he stuck close to either Wheeler or Atem at all times while at school.

Plus, word of the Phys. Ed. Incident spread quickly, and now most people speculated that Wheeler was like Pegasus (a happy-go-lucky idiot on the outside but secretly unbeatable) except instead of being secretly unbeatable in duel monsters it was in physical fighting. There were also a lot of "origin story" rumors going around, ranging from gang activity to a top-secret job in Gozobura's personal secret service. Seto, personally, was more inclined to think he was in a gang at some point. Not that he stooped to such things as gossip.

After lunch finally finished, they headed off to art. Simply put, Seto didn't do art. Not that he couldn't, he could (thank you very much), he just saw no point in it. Then was the fact he could get away with murder in this class (Mutt better watch his back) because Miho Nosaka, the teacher, seemed to think he was cute.

Which was also disturbing to the highest level, but who was he to judge? It got him out of drawing those… those things Wheeler was drawing. Apparently the Mutt sucked at art as well as French because they were supposed to be drawing a landscape and whatever was happening on Wheeler's paper was not.

Next was History, where the Mutt's friends minus Yugi joined them. Halfway through class he realized it was unusually quiet and looked over to see Wheeler asleep on his desk. Before he gave his lips permission, they had tugged up into a little smile. He quickly looked away, enjoying the silence.

Of course. The silence.

Last class was Physical Education, the only class (other than Chemistry apparently) in which the Mutt had any talent. They were doing Volleyball today and, while Wheeler aced anything to do with mere strength (like American football) and stamina (like track), he didn't seem to get that the point was to make the other team miss. Not to mention he couldn't seem to hit the ball right to save his life.

Seto idly wondered how Joey was at table tennis as he sent another ball into the rafters.

Then it was finally time to duel. Everyone wanted to duel Seto, obviously since he was one of the top duelists at the school. And for that exact reason, he wasn't interested in dueling anyone other than Atem or Yugi. The only two people in the whole school, minus Mr. Crawford, who could beat him in a fair duel. All of the teachers and staff had at least some dueling experience and one of the necessary requirements for graduating was beating them (or at least putting up a good fight depending on the staff member), which Seto had already done. He was really only here for the Academics now.

After he and Atem had yet another duel, (he won this time but, as always, it was very close) he decided to look around for Yugi. Yugi had beaten him, after all, and that needed to be corrected.

He finally found the smaller boy standing next to a duel box with a crowd of other bystanders. The crowd was strangely silent for watching a duel, and when he saw who was dueling he knew why.

The Mutt had accepted a challenge from Hirutani.

"What's going on here?" He asked one of Wheeler's friends, the white-haired Ryo.

"Joey and Hirutani are having a duel, if Joey wins then Hirutani and his gang have to leave us alone…" Ryo trailed off and Seto felt an unwilling pang.

"And what happens if he loses?"

"He has to join, no questions asked," Ryo whispered.

That was why no one was cheering. Everyone wanted Wheeler to win, they all knew of his fighting skills and how devastating it would be for everyone else if the gang got him, but he wouldn't. Everyone had known, since the tournament, that the Mutt didn't have a lick of skill when it came to the card game. They all wanted Joey to win, for their sake, but knew that if they cheered for Joey then they would be the gang's next target.

Not cowardice, common sense.

The Mutt's friends didn't seem to get this concept.

"Go Joey!"

"Don't worry, you have this in the bag!"

"He doesn't have this, does he." It was phrased as a question, but sounded more like a statement coming from the Egyptian who had a name eerily similar to Marik's. It was also whispered to Yugi, but Seto was close enough to hear.

"Actually, he's doing a really good job. He's improved a lot since he first started playing, but sometimes he has these bad luck streaks… But it looks like that's not gonna happen this time. See?" Yugi gestured up to the box, where Joey currently had only his Baby Dragon (1200/700) against Hirutani's Karbonala Battle Ox (3200/2200; a fusion between Karbonala Warrior and Battle Ox).

"Yugi, I might be watching a different duel, because I don't see how Joey could win at all." Malik stated, Seto agreeing fully. Sure, the Mutt was looking all cocky as his turn finally started, but that could just be stupidity. Especially because his life points had just dropped to 1200 while Hirutani's was still at 2200.

"Look at him. I think I know what he's doing, and if it works he should have just enough attack power to finish Hirutani off in one hit." Now that was an intriguing theory. Seto wondered if Wheeler really did have some secret move or if Yugi was merely being idealistic.

Probably the latter.

"Now I play my Time Wizard (500/400) in attack mode! Time Wizard, activate Time Roulette!" A few mutters spread through the crowd as Wheeler tried to stare the Wizard into landing on the one he wanted. And then, finally, it did. "YEAH!" Wind seemed to swirl around the box and turned into a hurricane, blocking the board from view.

"What did Joey do?" Ryo asked as the air started clearing, peering up at the box. The near-albino gasped as he took in the sight.

"And now, thanks ta Time Roulette, Baby Dragon is now, Thousand Dragon (2400/2000)!" Wheeler yelled, looking positively ecstatic.

"Ha! Pathetic. My Karbonala Battle Ox still has 3200 attack! I'm still going to win." Hirutani smirked, but the Mutt just smirked right back.

"That right? Why don't we test that out, huh? Thousand Dragon, attack Karbonala Battle Ox!" The whole crowd groaned, other than Yugi and Seto who just watched. Yugi looking proud and Seto feeling a grudging respect for the fleabag. There might have been a bit of pride at some point, but Seto quickly smashed that by thinking it was only due to the lucky spin on Time Roulette that the "plan" even worked.

The attack went straight through the Karbonala Battle Ox and dropped Hirutani's life points to zero as his monster simply disintegrated.

"I didn't just age my Baby Dragon; I aged your monsters too. And a thousand years makes my Baby Dragon powerful, but it turns your Karbonala Battle Ox to dust!" Joey cheered.

Finally, everyone else joined in, shocked as they were about Wheeler's battle strategy. But he wasn't done yet, he suddenly got serious and glared across the box at Hirutani.

"Now you gotta leave my friends and me alone, got it?" Hirutani smirked and nodded.

"Of course… Joey."


"What was with the way he said your name, Joey? You looked like you saw a ghost…" Ryo asked as they headed off to see Ishizu once more. Joey was beginning to think this whole thing wasn't worth having to visit Ishizu every other day, and then she had to go to work afterwards a lot of the time. It was almost funny how much better she got paid now that she was a Yami.

"Nothin' Ryo. Man, today was a bust. Not to mention embarrassing." She muttered, rubbing her wrist. Seto had challenged Yugi to a duel and then lost again but just by a little bit. He then made a scathing remark and Joey may or may not have overreacted a little bit and grabbed the front of his jacket. Of course, then money-bags floored her by grabbing her wrist and pulling while stepping off to the side. And she couldn't even attack him back or else he would inevitably hit somewhere she really would rather he not even knew she had.

And on top of that Joey was pretty sure Hirutani both knew exactly who she was and wasn't going to stick by their agreement.

Not that it was any sort of big surprise.


Factoid #12: Joey, being a girl now, has to rely slightly more on her whits than normal guy Joey. She's about up to normal fighting skill now, but it was slower to pick up so in the meantime she actually helped the gang's resident pyro. Hence the chemistry. I also had her mispronounce some of the words because she really didn't care as long as it worked.

Interesting thing: Kaiba's table tennis comment- have you seen the Fruits Basket anime? Imagine Kyo.