Disclaimer: see chapter one

Chapter 14: First Day Returning to School

Yusuke's eyes opened at the sound of his alarm. He turned over and shut it off, then rubbed his head and eyed Syrus, who was sleeping in his red sleeping bag, by his bed. Yusuke sighed and walked over to the sleeping blunette and shook, "Hey Syrus, wake up," he said, "Sy, wake up!"

Syrus moaned, "Oh come on, Mom, just two more minutes," he said and turning away from Yusuke, who was getting annoyed with this and got a better idea, "Hey Sy, the Dark Magician Girl is here and wants to give you a kiss," he said, which got the blunette haired shot up, "Where!" he said, with a grin and saw nothing, but a laughing Yusuke

"Yusuke!" Syrus yelled, glaring at the former spirit detective, who was laughing his ass off, "Oh man, I can't believe you actually fell for it," Yusuke laughed

Later, Syrus got out of Yusuke's room, wearing a yellow shirt and gray pants and spotted both Yusuke and Atsuko hiding by the hallways, "Good morning, Mrs. Ura…"

Both Yusuke and Atsuko 'shh!' Syrus, "We're hiding," Yusuke whispered

"From who?"

"From Kari," Atsuko replied in a low tone, "She's cooking breakfast, now."

"She couldn't cook to save her live," Yusuke added

"How bad could it be?" Syrus asked, walked out to the living room, "Sy, don't do it!" Atsuko said

"He's dead," Yusuke said

Syrus walked into the kitchen and saw Kari in an apron, cooking eggs, "Good morning, Kari," he said

"Good morning, Sy, are both Yusuke and my mom up, yet?"

Syrus thought of a great way of paying Yusuke back for that Dark-Magician-Girl-wants-to-give-you-a-kiss stunt, "Your mom is still sleeping, but Yusuke's right in the hallway," he replied

Yusuke was freaked, "Syrus!" he snapped as his mother left to her room, "Good luck, son."

Atsuko was about to get to her room, except her son grabbed her wrist, preventing her to move, "Oh no! Mother, if I have to suffer with Kari's cooking, you might as well suffer with me," Yusuke said as he dragged his mother with him into the living room and to the dining room and watched a grinning Syrus sitting by Yusuke, "Welcome to the corner of pay and back," Syrus said

Yusuke laughed angrily, "Very funny!" he said, with sarcasm

Kari came into the dining room, with two plates and placed them on the table, "Hey Kari, you need any help with anything?" Syrus asked

"No that's okay," Kari said

A moment later……

"Hey Syrus," Yusuke said, as he was putting hair gel on his hair and pushed it back, "You brought your deck with you, right?"

"Yeah," Syrus said taking it out of his pocket and gave it to Yusuke. The black haired teen searched through it, "You still have this card in your deck," Yusuke said

"You mean Power Bond, yeah."

Yusuke sighed, "I remember the time that Zane stopped you from playing it,"

"Yeah and never played it since."

Yusuke gave Syrus's deck back to the blunette, "Hey Sy," Yusuke said as he was walking towards his bedroom door, "You know where's the school is right?"

"Yeah,"

Yusuke slyly got to the door, with his knapsack in his hand, "And you remember the race game that we played as kids, right?"

Syrus's eyes widened, "Hey!"

"Bye-Bye!" Yusuke waved and dashed off

Syrus growled, picked up his backpack and picked up the pace out of the room. Yusuke chuckled as he ran out the door, "Bye Kari!" he said dashing out the door, with Syrus following, "Wait up!" he called out and closing the door from behind.

The boys dashed through the halls, "It's Urameshi, in the lead, with Truesdale dragging behind!" Yusuke announced as he eyed Syrus, who was chasing him, "Yusuke!" he called

Yusuke snickered and slid down the railing of the stairs, with Syrus following his example, "Huh?" Yusuke noticed someone coming, "Kuwabara, heads up!"

Kuwabara noticed Yusuke coming down real fast, "Whoa! Urameshi, what's…." he didn't finish when Yusuke crashed into him. Syrus smirked, "Good he's distracted!" he said as he jumped off the railing at the bottom, "See ya, Yusuke!" he announced as he ran off, leaving his childhood friend, trying to get Kuwabara off of him. Yusuke managed to get on his feet and dashing off, with Kuwabara following, "Hey Urameshi, why are we running?" he asked

"So, Syrus won't win the race," Yusuke replied

Syrus had made it to the bottom floor and ran towards the door, "It's a good thing that Yusuke crashed into that guy otherwise I'd be in big trouble," he said to himself

"Syrus!"

The blunette noticed that Yusuke wasn't far behind, anymore as he ran outside, "See ya at school, Yusuke!" Syrus said and stuck out his tongue

Yusuke growled and decided to pick up the pace and in a blur ran past Syrus, "Meet ya at school, Sy!" Yusuke said

Syrus growled, "Oh no, you don't!"

"Hey Urameshi, wait up!" Kuwabara demanded running past Syrus

Yusuke chuckled and ignoring Kuwabara's plea, knowing it's a trick, "Yep, there's nothing can stop me now!" he declared as he looked up front to see someone up front walking around the corner, which freaked him out, "Look out!"

The person looked up to see Yusuke dragging his feet to a stop, and then followed both Syrus and Kuwabara bumping into Yusuke's back and falling on their backsides, "Ouch!" Syrus wailed

"Keiko, what are you doing here?" Yusuke asked, "Shouldn't you be at school by now."

"I came to get you and to apologize for my actions, yesterday," Keiko replied, "Sorry; I guess I got jealous when you said that……"

Yusuke held his hand out to interrupt the brunette, "It's alright, and you're already forgiven." He said, with a sincere smile

Syrus and Kuwabara got on the feet, while Syrus was rubbing his behind, "Ouch, that smarts," he complained

Keiko eyed Syrus for a bit, "No way……" she said, in disbelief, "Syrus……"

Syrus looked at Keiko and tilted his head as she ran towards him and wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him into a hug, "Syrus!" Keiko laughed, "It's been five years!"

Syrus's face turned slightly red, "Excuse me, but have we met before?" he asked

Keiko made Syrus face her, "Come on, Sy, you remember me, right?" she asked

Syrus examined Keiko's face and his eyes widened, "Keiko!" he said, with a smile, "Sorry I didn't recognize you without the pigtails!"

"Could someone please explain what's going on here?" Kuwabara asked, "And why are you hanging with someone who's even shorter than Hiei?"

"Right," Yusuke said, with a lopsided grin, "Syrus is a childhood friend of ours, Kari, Keiko and I met him when we were five years old. When we were nine years old, he and his family had to move to Kyoto."

"Wait!" Kuwabara said, "Are you sayin' that this little guy is the same age as us? He's even shorter than Hiei!"

"Yeah, plus his brother Zane is the top student in Duel Academy and Zane's dueling record remains unbeatable."

Kuwabara's eyes widened, "You mean that he's hasn't lost a duel in his life?"

Yusuke nodded, "Oh yeah," Yusuke searched though his knapsack and gave Kuwabara a duel monsters card, "Here you go, Kuwabara, an autographed duel monsters card from the King of Games, himself."

Kuwabara beamed, "Wow, Yugi's autograph, thanks!" he snatched the card away from Yusuke's hand

"Uh! Guys, we better get to school, we're late!" Keiko declared

Yusuke groaned at the thought of Kaiba's proposal, but it was the only way for him to get to Duel Academy, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know!" he complained

Later the four teens walked into the courtyards of Sarayashiki Junior High, with Keiko leaving the boys for her friends and the boys walking to inside the building.

"So, how are the teachers here?" Syrus asked

"Horrible!" both Yusuke and Kuwabara in unison, "They all have very big mouths, which they don't keep shut!" Yusuke said, which earned him a hit on the head, which angered him, "Okay, somebody's dead……" he swirled to see Mr. Takanaka, "Oh! Hello old man" he said

"Glad that you showed up, Yusuke," Mr. Takanaka said, "After hearing the proposal that Seto Kaiba had given you, I'd thought that you wouldn't take it seriously, glad to see I was wrong."

Yusuke snorted, "Well, that doesn't mean I'll like being forced into going to school, to be the next King of Games you know!" he said

"I hope that you'll behave yourself, because hate to give Mr. Kaiba a call about your rebellious attitude!" Takanaka's glaze turned to Syrus, "Oh you must be Syrus Truesdale."

"That's right's, sir," Syrus replied

"Welcome to Sarayashiki Junior High," Takanaka gave Syrus his schedule, which both Yusuke and Kuwabara looked at, "Hey Sy, looks like we'll be in the same classes in the same period together!" Yusuke said

Yusuke, Syrus and Kuwabara walked into their first class, "Hey Syrus, how about we duel to past the time?" Yusuke asked

"Sure," Syrus said, "But I must warn ya, I've been improving."

Later……

"Ore No Time, Draw!" Yusuke called out pulled a card from his deck and eyed it and Syrus, with mischievous grin on his face, "Okay Syrus, I'm going to summon my Gearfried the Iron Knight in attack mode!" he places the card on the table

"Hate to break it to you, Yusuke, but it's weaker than my Steam Gyroid's 2200 attack points," Syrus said

"Yeah, I know," Yusuke said, "That's because I'll activate the spell card Release Restraint to search through my deck for Gearfried the Swordsmaster!" Yusuke pulls out a card from his deck and place it on the table

"No way!" Syrus screamed

"I'm afraid the worst has come you, Sy," Yusuke said, "Next, I'll do a combo attack with the equip card Blackout!"

"What no way!" Syrus said

"Now Gearfried's attack increase by 200 and his special ability activates sending your Steam Gyroid to the grave and direct attack I win!" Yusuke declared

Syrus cried in defeat, "See, I stink in Duel Monsters!" he cried, "Why did I even agree to enroll for Duel Academy? I'm going to fail as well!"

"Come on, Sy, don't say that," Yusuke told him, comforting the small blunette

"Yeah, besides it's just practice, it's not like the actual dueling exam," Kuwabara added

"I get test anxiety!" Syrus cried, "I'm not going to get admission for the school!"

Yusuke and Kuwabara sighed, hopelessly, "This is going to be a long day!" they said in unison