Oji looked up as the teachers surrounded him all looking at him with the utmost disapproval. Ryou, Jono and Rose all stood by the sidelines as the obelisk blue got up and looked around at the three professors. He looked towards professor Tsuki with a slight ray of hope in his eye. "Please Professor I only did this to uphold the obelisk name." but the professor shook his head and looked down at the once proud student. "No you did this with the guise of upholding our honour but you've had something else in mind and you're coming with us to talk to the chancellor about it." But when he reached to grip him by the shoulder Oji shrugged him off quickly and ran up pushing professor Belowski down with one shove and rushing towards the exit. Ryou made to block him while Jono and Rose backed away in sheer terror. Oji pushed down Ryou and ran up the stairs as the professor Princeton ran over to help him. "Quick we have to stop him you two go after him while I take these guys back to their rooms."

Professor Tsuki ran up the stairs after Oji and through the room at the top of the staircase followed by professor Belowski. "Belowski you try and find his room and I'll run after him." meanwhile in the chamber professor Princeton had helped Ryou to his feet and was escorting the three students back up the stairs. "Professor what is this place?" said Jono looking back at the giant obelisk statue. "This is the secret obelisk blue arena it's one of the three secret arenas that were built when doctor Crowler became chancellor. He had them built for a big duel tournament he's planning between the three houses. The arenas were supposed to be kept a secret until the tournament was announced but I guess these scrubs found it first."

"So when's the tournament professor?" asked Ryou as they reached the top of the staircase. "The tournament is going to take place after the January exams. The heads of house are going to pick the best student in their dorm to represent the house as the house champion. The special arenas were built for the champion to watch these matches."

"Wow that's awesome professor Princeton is Ryou the slifer champion?" asked rose trying to keep up with Jono. "No I already picked a champion but I'd like to see you duel him Ryou. But first we have to get you back to your dorms." At that moment rose walked quickly up to the professor's side. "Actually professor Princeton I was wondering if I could join up with the slifers." Professor Princeton looked at the plucky blonde obelisk blue girl with a confused look frozen on his face. "Why would you want to do that?"

"I only got into obelisk blue because they expected I would be as good as my big sister but I've failed every practical exam and I want to work my way up on my own." Professor Princeton smiled at her and led the students to the staircase to the bottom of the dorm. "Well Miss Romero I appreciate what you're trying to do because I myself chose to become a slifer even though I started off as an obelisk blue. And your very welcome to the slifer dorm we don't have a separate dorm for girls like the obelisks do but we can have you share a room with two other girls if you don't mind."

Rose smiled cheerfully. "Oh I don't mind at all professor (as long as I'm closer to Jono I'd live in a pigsty)"

They made their way back to the slifer red dorm where Ryou and Jono left for bed and professor Princeton took Rose to find some girls who didn't mind sharing a room for a night. "Remember Ryou I want to see you early tomorrow morning you're excused from classes for the day."

Professor Princeton left the dorm later that night and went into the forest to look for professor Belowski who still hadn't come back yet. He brought a torch looking around in the mist and darkness for his colleague. A few minutes passed before professor Belowski returned accompanied by professor Tsuki. "Did you find that blue brat?"

"No and when we got to his room he had cleared everything out somehow." Replied Belowski. "I wonder what your little detective will make of this Princeton." Smirked professor Tsuki. "Listen Tsuki that boy is our one hope of figuring out what your rogue students are up to. I'm going to meet with him tomorrow and tell him what we know but also I want to see how he duels against Mr Banner…"

In the morning Ryou was still asleep but Jono had already gotten up and was wandering around the dorms little courtyard around the Jaden Yuki statue. "Oh Jono!" he spun around to see rose giving him a flirtatious wink from behind the statue. She stepped out in her all new slifer red uniform. "What do you think Jono?" Jono was stunned turning red and checking his hair was alright. "It looks great rose you've really settled in well."

"thanks I'm really enjoying this so far I'm going to try my best and make my way to the top." at that moment professor Princeton strolled over to the pair. "Hey kids have either of you seen Ryou?"

Jono frowned slightly and looked a little embarrassed when he said. "Um sir I think he's still in bed."

Seconds later the professor kicked in Ryou's door waking him up with a start. "Ryou wake up I need you to come with me to meet the duellist I told you about." Chazz led Ryou accompanied by Jono and rose to the ra dorm. The ra dorm was slightly bigger than the slifer dorm but was the same as it formed a wall of dormitories around a courtyard which was also bigger than the slifer dorm garden. Ryou wanted to see the student statue in the courtyard but the professor bypassed it and led him to what seemed like a small café on the other side of the dorm. Sat at a table outside of the café typing busily away on a laptop was a slightly older slifer red student in a long tailed version of the slifer red blazer. He had short scruffy white hair and a permanently confused yet polite look on his face. He stopped to take a small sip from a cup of tea next to him before turning to Ryou and the professor. "Good day professor and who is your friend?"

The professor pushed Ryou towards the boy with a look of pride on his face. "Oh this is Ryou banner the student I told you about." The other boy stood at the table and Ryou noticed the strange red duel disk on his arm. "Ah you mean the only other slifer student in terra firma rank." It was then that Jono tried to get into the conversation. "Well I'm in the terra firma rank too." The older boy gave him a condescending look and shrugged before saying. "Of course you are." Professor Princeton tried to steer the conversation back to normal. "Well as I was about to say Ryou, this is Tantei Aomori the representative of slifer house in the next big tournament." It was then that Ryou realised why the duel disk on Tantei's arm looked strange it was sculpted to look like it was made up of the coils of slifer the sky dragon and all the card slots had pictures of him on them. "Tantei is also slifer house's resident detective I put him in charge of finding out what those obelisks were up to. I brought you here to help him with the case." Ryou adopted a more serious tone and looked up at the white haired detective. "Well I don't see what I can tell you that professor Princeton can't tell you." Tantei smiled and activated his duel disk. "Simple I know you've defeated a lot of them and a duel against you should tell me everything I need to know about their playing style." Ryou activated his disk stepping forward. "If you think it'll help I'd be more than happy to give you a duel but I can't see how that can help."

-DUEL START- life points 4000

"I've not had the pleasure of duelling one of these students so playing you should give me a good idea of what kind of duellist can beat them. Now you start us off…"

"alright Tantei I'll begin by summoning elemental hero stratos (wind/warrior/effect/4 star/atk1900) then I'll use his secondary effect to move one elemental hero from my deck to my hand and I choose elemental hero steel king (earth/warrior/effect/4 star/atk1900) now I'll use polymerization fuse stratos and steel to summon the elemental hero iron hawk (wind/warrior/fusion/effect/7 star/atk2000)." The iron hawk wore a silver skin-tight suit with a red helmet and lining and had two massive metal bird wings mounted on his back. "iron hawk has a very special superpower when he's the only monster on the field all life point damage taken by both players is doubled when it comes from a magic, trap or effect monster I'll take advantage of that by playing the magic card Hinotama which with the effect of the iron hawk causes you 1000 points of direct damage." Tantei looked skyward as a ball of fire came barrelling down towards him striking him head on. "And then I'll end my turn by laying a card face down."

-Tantei's life points 3000-

"That's a very clever trick Mr. Banner you use the Hinotama to convince me that you're done using iron hawk's effect while in fact you have a ring of destruction hidden on your side of the field." Ryou gasped at this incredible deduction while Jono and rose looked on in surprise. "What's he talking about professor," said Jono, "there's no way he could have known about that is there?" professor Princeton observed as Ryou's strategy fell down around him. "This is why we call Tantei the duelling detective he can interpret an enemy strategy better than anyone. Though against Ryou I'm not sure how this will end. But one thing's for sure that was a good strategy by Ryou using iron hawk in conjunction with ring of destruction makes him the only monster on the field and doubles the effect of the card when used on the enemy and with Hinotama Ryou would only need to destroy one monster with 1500 attack points or more to end the duel in seconds."

Meanwhile Tantei had begun his turn. "I summon copycat (light/spellcaster/effect/1 star/atk0) and if I use his effect to copy your monsters attack then you can't use ring of destruction without causing yourself 4000 points of damage." The copycat appeared in a flash of smoke aiming his mirror at iron hawk creating a perfect reflection of him. "Now I'll lay two cards face down and end my turn."

"That's a clever one you've nullified my entire strategy but I've still got a few aces up my sleeve. I summon elemental hero black lightning (wind/warrior/effect/4 stars/atk2000)." The black and gold elemental hero flashed onto the field matching his iron winged partner in terms of attack. "Alright now to cause some major damage I'll use black lightning to attack your copycat and take them both out. Black lightning attack with darkness dual strike!" the hero charged up a huge bolt of electricity that consumed his entire body before darting towards copycat taking him out by blowing himself up in a small electric storm. "Hold that thought I activate my trap card the enchanted javelin to raise my life points by the total attack of black lightning a full 2000 points." The enchanted javelin sprung upon the field acting as a lightning rod drawing the electric residue of the darkness dual strike and converting it into life points for Tantei. "Good move but iron hawk will put you back on the bottom with sword wing slash!"

The second hero charged at Tantei spreading its wings as it charged ready to use the razor sharp edges to cut his life points down. "Not so fast I activate my second trap card a hero emerges now you have to choose one out of the three cards in my hand and if you choose a monster then I can summon it." There were three cards in Tantei's hand this was indeed a risky decision for Ryou who was still looking for an opportunity to use ring of destruction so he couldn't pick a monster of equal or greater strength or using it may not yield him much. "I pick the middle card…"

"You chose the humanoid slime (water/aqua/4 star/atk800/def2000) which I can now summon in defence mode." the hideous amorphous blob sheathed in golden armour sprung onto the field using its defence to completely block iron hawk's attack. "Of course being in defence mode saves him from destruction but unfortunately doesn't cost you any life points but with such a low attack he makes your ring quite useless still."

Ryou gritted his teeth and ended his turn.

-Tantei's life points 5000-

"alright now here's a classic manoeuvre I play pot of greed, draw two cards and then I sacrifice a worm drake(earth/reptile/4 star/atk1400) in my hand and my humanoid slime to summon the humanoid worm drake(water/aqua/fusion/7 star/atk2200)."

A horrible shiny skinned creature slithered onto the field in a cloud of icy smoke. Its features were sharp and shimmered in the light of the morning. "Now I think it would be opportune if I were to get rid of that glorified hang glider you call a hero. Worm drake attack with gel talon!" The creature rushed at iron hawk crystallizing one of its arms into a sword and slashing him in half. "That'll end my turn…"

-Ryou's life points 3800-

Ryou looked at his hand and drew a card he had a ring of destruction on the field but now was definitely not the time to use it. He needed a strong monster and fast so he reached into his hand and made his move. "Alright time to go back to basics I lay three cards face down and summon the elemental hero scarlet typhoon (wind/warrior/effect/4 star/def1200) in defence mode. And then I'll end my turn." Ryou now had four cards face down backing up the mighty red clad hero shielding himself with his immense blue bat wings.

Tantei stepped back to take a look at the three cards he had in his hand and his monster on the field he had a powerful monster in his hand but it was no use while he had Ryou cornered with no cards in his hand but he still had to be wary of the cards he had face down. As long as he had a backup he would be fine. "Alright Ryou it's time for a head on challenge I lay two cards face down and then I'll attack full force with my slime beast." The slime sharpened one of its liquid appendages into a sharp spear and took aim at the elemental hero's heart before flying towards him with the intention of spearing him directly through the chest. "Hold it right there I activate call of the haunted to revive my elemental hero iron hawk." The iron winged fusion of stratos and steel swooped out of the sky and swept scarlet typhoon away causing the slime creature to miss but he was quick to gear up for a second attack. He carved a chunk of his body out and flung it upwards at his primary target. "But that's not all I activate the magic card de-fusion to separate iron hawk into stratos and steel again. The hero split bringing two old heroes back in its place but it looked too late to stop the slime destroy scarlet. "You're too late all you've done is prolonged my attack by bringing back more monsters for me to destroy next turn."

"wrong I still have a few face downs left I activate the trap card alternate fusion!" the three elemental hero monsters began to glow brightly shooting towards each other and erupting in an explosion of light that culminated in the appearance of something else. "what is that professor?" asked Jono as the three spectators watched as the brightly shining monster descended to the ground deflecting the blob of slime and knocking the slime monster back to his side of the field. "This is the ultimate fusion monster Tantei the elemental hero crystal wings (light/warrior/fusion/effect/9 star/atk2800)." The hero descended to the ground he was clad in red and black armour and clothing and a helmet similar to that of iron hawk's but his most outstanding feature were the massive crystal wings that sparkled in the sunlight. "That's no ultimate fusion monster you could have summoned a much stronger monster (evil hero red general) with just two of those cards."

"Its super powers make it the ultimate fusion monster Tantei and they all have some affect on fusion monsters." It was then that Tantei noticed that something was happening to the humanoid worm drake. A large crack had begun to appear at the spot where the elemental hero had knocked it away. "The first advantage this monster has over other fusion monsters is that you can use any three elemental heroes to summons it. Also when it leaves the field by the effect of my alternate fusion trap I can pay 1000 life points to put back all of its fusion monsters but it's most interesting effect comes from that little love tap it gave your monster."

The winged hero drew his shining jewel wings behind its back as it prepared a special attack. "When it comes onto the field all other fusion monsters leave and take an attack point sized chunk of your life points with them. The only downside is that when they leave they give you back your fusion material monsters. But enough explanation I destroy your slime beast with the attack of cutting crystal!"

The jewel winged hero flew at high speed towards the slime beast cutting it down with the sharp edge of its wing and then flying back to its side of the field. The slime fell into two pieces turning back to the humanoid slime and the worm drake. Tantei knew that Ryou couldn't attack with it yet but he had still managed to take a reasonable chunk out of both of their life points. "An excellent plan but you just gave me two monsters with which to bring in a higher level monster."

"No problem it may still be your turn but by summoning him you end the battle phase." Said Ryou "Mr. Banner as you have shown me with your winged heroes the ability to attack isn't everything. On that note may I introduce you to my most powerful monster I sacrifice my two monsters to summon the invulnerable barrel dragon (dark/machine/effect/7 star/atk2600)." The dragon fell onto the field crashing down on its huge iron feet perching itself so its three revolver cannons pointed toward the elemental hero that dominated Ryou's field. "Of course you have nothing to fear from his attack but those three cannons on his head each have six slots loaded with three bullets each. Now I use the dragon's effect to play Russian roulette if two of those chambers spins onto a slot with a bullet inside your hero is destroyed automatically." Ryou watched as the loaded chambers began to spin the odds of his safety were about one in a million. The first chamber clicked into place but the barrel was empty the next chamber slowly revolved into place and Ryou watched as the hammer of the gun fell. Suddenly a mighty bang rang through the air as a silver bullet shot from the cannon knocking crystal wings off his feet weakening him. "one more should kill him!" again the cylinder spun Ryou shut his eyes tight as he listened for the big bang but suddenly the click of the hammer falling on nothing came and he opened his eyes to see the barrel dragon stood with an empty chamber. "You survived this round Mr. Banner but next turn will be your end."

"Oh that reminds me," said Ryou regaining his confidence. "At the end of this turn alternate fusion wears off and crystal wing is sent to the graveyard but I can pay 1000 life pints to summon his fusion material via his special effect." The duellists watched as the three elemental heroes fell to the field stratos, scarlet and steel. "And because of stratos's effect I can destroy as many magic and trap cards as I have elemental heroes (not including stratos) which obliterates both of your face downs..."

The rotors in the heroes giant machine wings blew away the two face downs as Tantei ended his turn.

-Tantei's life points 2800-

-Ryou's life points 2800-

"Alright now I have three monsters but your barrel dragon poses a problem but there's only one thing I can do about that I put my three heroes into defence mode. That'll end my turn but I can recover after this."

Tantei had but one card in his hand and he knew that there would be no grand come backs after this. "I play pot of greed and draw two more cards." He knew that it would be hard to build up to his master plan but he didn't have much to knock down anyway just a wall of three monsters and two face downs. "Alright I activate my barrel dragon again to decide your fate." The three cylinders spun again but only one was loaded so the effect was useless. "Oh well that bullet can still be used for an actual attack." The gun shot the silver bullet at the defence mode scarlet typhoon blowing him up in a massive eruption of smoke. Ryou gritted his teeth as his turn began. He had but two cards he laid one face down a trap useless right now but just in case and the other he summoned. "I summon a monster in face down defence mode." he could do nothing against the barrel dragon and time was running out. "Alright Mr. Banner you put up a good fight I would expect nothing less from a fellow tera firma student but it's time to show you why I'm house champion. I have three cards in my hand I activate a third pot of greed to make my hand four and now I begin my offensive. I activate polymerization to fuse the barrel dragon on my field with another dragon cannon in my hand. I sacrifice barrel dragon and blowback dragon(dark/machine/effect/6 star/atk2300) to summon the almighty Gatling dragon(dark/machine/fusion/effect/8 star/atk2600)!" the barrel dragon ducked down as a dragon with a machine magnum head descended and the two amalgamated themselves into an armoured tank dragon with three mighty machine guns on its triple heads. "Terrified Mr. Banner well it's not over yet I like to have insurance that you will lose I activate a magic card in my hand. Mercy of the time wizard I first send a time wizard (light/spellcaster/effect/2star/atk500) from my hand to the out of play and then I play time roulette if it goes wrong you gain half my life points if it works then I can bring back two monsters that were destroyed this turn that suffered at the hands of a magic or trap card."

Ryou's eyes widened in horror at what he was planning to do. A time wizard appeared on Tantei's field and its time wand began the roulette. If it went wrong then Ryou could still win this but if it worked he was almost certainly doomed.

DONG!

The sound rang out as the roulette stopped both duellists were frozen as they waited for it to go into effect.

"TIME MAGIC!"

Suddenly a massive vortex of time energy erupted behind Tantei before the two massive dragon cannons leapt from the past to crash down on Tantei's field standing shoulder to shoulder with the Gatling dragon. "This is terrible." Ryou was truly amazed at his opponent's strength as the three mighty dragons prepared to attack. "All three of my dragons can destroy your monsters with their special effects we'll start with the barrel dragon."

The barrels in the three mighty cannons began to spin for once all three had bullets loaded. The dragon shot down Ryou's face down before the magnum headed blowback dragon stepped up. "Its effect works the same as barrel dragons but I doubt you're unlucky enough for this to work." The dragon took aim and pulled its head back once another step back and it would fire. The dragon pulled back its head one further for a second it looked like Ryou was safe but then he heard a click and knew that the dragon was loaded it blew Ryou's stratos totally away with its effect as the third dragon took aim. "You are doomed Mr. Banner the Gatling dragon works differently to the barrel dragon if even one bullet is loaded then you are doomed."

The three Gatling guns on the dragon spun quickly Ryou knew that only three out of the six chambers had bullets in but it was then that he realised that it was truly over. All three guns were fully loaded but Ryou was prepared for this. All three heads fired away at steel king filling him full of holes before he departed to the graveyard. Ryou was so full of disappointment at himself not for losing but for not setting himself up to lose against the best student slifer red had to offer. "Hey Ryou!"

Ryou looked over at Tantei who was frowning at him. "I won by luck you could have won a few turns ago." What was he talking about? "I was lucky that you forgot about the ring of destruction." Suddenly Ryou remembered he had completely forgotten he even had it still face down on the field. "If you had used that on me a couple of turns ago you could have emptied my field and attacked me directly. But I got lucky and you forgot about it." Ryou couldn't have been more in despair than now knowing he could have won but lost because of his stupid rookie mistake. But then it hit him he couldn't win

"Now all dragons…"

He just couldn't win…

"Attack together…"

There was no way he could win…

"With seven gun silencer!"

He reached for his other face down as the dragons readied their attack. "Stop I activate my emergency face down Metalmorph I power up Gatling dragon by 300 points!"

Gatling dragon attack 2900. "All that does is make it stronger Ryou what are you doing?"

"The bigger they come the harder they fall. RING OF DESTRUCTION!" the ring flew from under its card and clamped on to Gatling dragons neck the mighty dragon roared in pain as it was consumed by a mass fiery explosion that blew away every monster and both the duellists.

-Tantei's life points 0000-

-Ryou's life points 0000-