Chapter 21: The rise of the Gravekeeper's

Only a few days have gone by but in that short amount of time with Chief David's leadership the Gravekeeper's became completely organized to the far corners of the globe; but because of the large increase in members and locations, many other Chiefs are stationed in each area.

But focusing on Duel Academy, it seems that everything from the Card Shop to the Patrol was replaced by members of the Gravekeeper's.

Yet as the Gravekeeper's where increasing, Jaden's popularity was in an all time low. Every time he walked through the hallways he would either get the cold shoulder or just completely ignored him. Even Syrus joined the Gravekeeper's in the Curse Division and transferred to the Gravekeeper's Dorm, just to get out of Jaden's dorm.

But the only person that would give him the time of day, Alexis Rhoades, he couldn't approach her. For some reason every time he saw her, his body felt hotter, his heart raced so fast he could barely breathe he couldn't help but run away; wondering what was wrong with him for doing so.

Jaden was asleep during the last period of school, wearing his trademark glasses and snoring; this being the first day of sleep he has gotten since that match against Sword Hunter; this class lecture being just the sleeping pill needed.

But he woke up just as the bell rung. There he stretched his arms and let out a big yawn as he rubbed his eyes. "Is class over, Sy?" he asked then looked over at the seat next to him to see it empty, just to remember his good pal was no longer by his side, "oh yeah," he said to himself in a depressed tone, "I forgot."

"Hello egger young students," Sheppard's voice boomed over the speaker system, "it is time for the second match of the third round. And the duelists picked today will be, Chazz from our own Duel Academy."

"Oh yeah!" Chazz praised himself as usual, "Let's hear it for the Chazz!"

"Chazz it up!" a small group of fans cheered.

"VS," Sheppard added, "Duel City Academy's David Sepulcher!"

Chazz's face went from certain victory to complete and utter shock at the sound of that name. "Go our Chief!" one student yelled out as the rest of the classroom agreed.

"But because some routine maintenance is needed to be done on the platform, the next match won't start till after dinner tonight. So please prepare for a great match."

Sheppard signed off as Jaden looked around him; every seat for five seats in all directions was empty, as if he was a plague to anyone that got near him.

"Hey Jaden," Alexis's caring voice spoke out, causing Jaden to look up at the tall girl standing in front of him, "how have you been doing?"

For some reason, as he looked at Alexis his mouth became dry and his hands became soaked in sweat. Any words he wanted to say to her kept escaping him as his heart almost felt as it was going to explode in his chest.

She looked even more concerned as his face started to turn a shade of red. "Are you feeling alright, Jaden?" she asked, placing her hand to his forehead, "you are feeling a bit warm."

He backed out of his chair so quickly he nearly fell over, if it wasn't for the short wall behind him. His entire body shaking uncontrollably as without saying a word he just ran up the steps and out of the classroom; leaving a worried Obelisk Blue where she stood.

But Sword Hunter was watching this from the other side of the classroom, wiping a few tears away from her eyes with a smile on her face. "Isn't it sweet to see someone with a crush?" she giggled, "and to think, if it wasn't for little young me he would still be completely ignorant of his own feelings."

"And in the process we destroyed what little of a life he had," Bloodlust chuckled.

"Now that's what I call a good days worth of work," Shadow added.

"But something tells me we won't be able to have as much fun for a while," Virus added, typing on the laptop that seemed to be handcuffed to her arm.

Sword Hunter looked at her female friend with an innocent curiosity. "Oh, why not?"

Without looking up from the screen; she pointed across the room, right above them, and at each exit was a Spy, a Watcher or a Guard. "That's why."

"Virus has a point," Shadow concurred, "right now there is too much going on and going against the Gravekeeper's would be suicide."

"So at the moment its best to keep a low key," TNT thought aloud.

Bloodlust stood up. "Or, this is just a challenge for us," he cracked his knuckles, "to try to be more, underhanded."

Jaden ran into his room and slammed the door, where he rested his back against it until he stopped at the floor. Breathing heavily as he still felt his heart racing, wondering what the heck was going on with his body, never feeling anything like this before.

"What is going on with me," Jaden thought aloud as he looked at his shaking hands, "why can't I talk to Alexis? Why does my body keep acting like this?" he cursed himself.

"It is because this feeling is completely new to you," he heard the voice of Aquos coming from his deck.

So Jaden reached into his deck protector and pulled out the dolphin Neo-Spacian. "What do you mean new feelings?"

"You have never experienced these emotions before," Aquos replied, "so they are pretty intense inside of you right now. But after you are able to control the new emotion and use inside of you, we will able to save all of existence."

"But Aquos," Jaden replied in a confused tone, "the Society of Light has already been defeated by David and the Gravekeeper's."

Aquos was taken by complete surprise. "Are you sure about this, Jaden?"

Jaden nodded. "I swear, it happened a few days ago. The Society of Light is no more."

Aquos put his hand to his chin. "I don't get it," he thought aloud, "then why do I still sense a disturbance in the universe."

"Well maybe the universe hasn't overcome it yet," Jaden commented, "maybe the effects will disappear in a few days."

Aquos didn't seem to be sure. "I hope you're right Jaden; for the sake of everything that exists I hope you're right."

David looked over his deck as Edgar was laughing his head off. "No... way," he stated to his roommate, "you're telling me that you planned to take control of the Society of Light since tall, white and insane showed up."

David only focused on his cards spread out on his bed. "It was simple, as soon as he mentioned that his Society already spread to the far corners of the world I made him make that deal to get rid of his main competition and gaining my resources so I then lost the match on purpose," he then looked through some extra cards, "it was a bonus that I was put as second in command."

He stretched out his arms and rubbed his eyes. "Then from there, I had my gang infiltrate it and break the members out of their spell. Where I would either have them join or return them back to their normal lives."

Edgar was wiping the tears of laughter from his eyes. "Good to see that jerk got what was coming; so how did that part turn out?"

"Well out of the 84 percent that were willing to join, only 76 percent were capable of being members. But I still see that as a great bonus to the Gravekeeper's."

"Well let's see, your gang now rules the world of business and dueling. Just get into politics and you can rule the world," Edgar replied in a relaxed town.

Just then, David's cell phone rung; he answered it, saying yes a few times then ended with. "Thanks Spy 1 I will be there shortly, keep her busy till I arrive."

"Thank you, my Chief," she replied as the phone disconnected.

"I have something to get to," David stated to Edgar as he got up from his bed, "look after my deck, this won't take long."

"Will do, Chief," Edgar replied with a two finger salute just as David left the room.

Edgar then walked over to David's deck then was completely shocked to what he saw. "T-There is only, 45 cards in his deck. How can that be?"

Alexis and Mindy were heading back to the Obelisk Girl's Dorm from the beach as the sun was just setting on another day. "Ah, wasn't that just the way to spend an evening," Mindy stated, using the towel on her shoulders to dry her moist hair.

But all Alexis did was exhale in depression. "Yeah... sure."

Mindy looked at her sadden friend. "Come on, Alexis; cheer up. You've been depressed since class ended."

She exhaled again. "Well every time I try to talk or get near Jaden, he just runs off."

"Why would you want to talk to him anyway?" Mindy asked. "He showed his true colors during that duel, he is nothing but a jerk."

"Well, that's what I want to talk about," Alexis replied in a quiet tone, looking down at the grass, "he would never say something like that on his own free will; I want to get the bottom of this."

Mindy shook her head. "Well, if you insist."

But, just as she looked forward, she saw her chief walking towards them. She smiled. "Shoot!" Spy 1 blurted out, "I completely forgot about the Quick-play Trap paper due tomorrow!"

"You mean, Quick-play Spell... right?" Alexis asked.

Mindy gave back a dumbfounded smile. "Dang, I better get to that paper ASAP then, see you at dinner!"

She then ran off as Alexis shook her head, wondering what she is going to do with the friends she has.

"Hello once again, Miss. Rhodes," a familiar voice called out to her, already grinding her teeth to the sound, "I'm glad we can finally meet on more, friendly terms."

She looked across to see David Sepulcher. "Hello David," she said through grinding teeth, "I see you have your gang back."

"Yes, and that is why I wanted to talk to you..."

But he was quickly cut off by her yelling. "I already told you David, I will never become a member of your gang! I bet it was you and your gang that made Jaden say those horrible things!"

David only chuckled. "No, the Gravekeeper's weren't back till after that little match; so I had nothing to do with action, it was all him."

"Well still," Alexis said in defense, "there is nothing you can say that will make me even consider becoming a Chief of this Branch of the Gravekeeper's."

A sadistic grin came on his face. "Oh I doubt that; especially now that my gang spreads out to the far corners of the world. I see that your heart still belongs to that idiot."

She stepped back from that remark as he continued. "Now I don't really care if you are just smitten with him or it is true love, but I also know the only reason you aren't advancing with these feelings is because that your relationship will only last a short time."

"What does that have to do with becoming a Chief?" she asked angrily.

"Well now think about it," David instructed, "because my gang is now growing at an incredible rate all over the world, after you graduate here you can relocate to any area the gang has reached and by then, I bet one will be where ever Jaden lives."

Her eyes went wide from shock to hearing that. "Or if one hasn't reached there you can request that one is set up there. Not to mention if you become a Chief here you can immediately become a Chief there, living comfortably with the one in your heart. Not to mention how you can help him through this ordeal he is going through as we speak."

He actually hit a string in her heart with that speech; the only thing that was stopping her from admitting her feelings to Jaden was the fear of separation. "So, your saying after I graduate from Duel Academy," she asked nervously, "I can live anywhere I want as long as I stay with the Gravekeeper's?"

"Correct, Miss. Rhodes. As long as you stand by the rules of the Gravekeeper's," he then turned back towards the Obelisk Dorm, "by now you have a present from me waiting in your room; I hope it's your size."

Alexis then ran back into her room, and just like his words there was a Gravekeeper's Chief uniform lying on her bed.

Picking it up, she saw it was her size and probably fit her perfectly. But on the outfit an envelope was taped to it.

She pulled it off and opened it; seeing inside was a Gravekeeper's Chief card and a note which read, You have until 10pm tonight to make up your mind, there will be a meeting at the new Gravekeeper's Dorm then, at the once abandoned Obelisk Blue Dorm. Present the card at the door to be allowed in. I hope you make the right decisions, Chief David.

She looked at the card in one hand and at the outfit in the other, not truly sure of what to do next.

After dinner it went straight to the tournament match between David and Chazz. So far it has been a fierce match with both doing some pretty good damage.

At the moment, it is Chazz's turn, having 1200 life points left and his three Ojama's in defense on his side of the field to David who also has 1200 life points, Necrovalley, a Curse, three Ojama Tokens, a face down card in the spell/trap zone, and no cards in his hand.

"One of you Duel City students might have gotten lucky last time, but I am the Chazz!" he drew his card, "now I play Polymerization, fusing my three Ojama Brothers on the field to create the Ojama King!"

The giant monster was summoned to the field with 0 attack points. "But now I play, Ojamuscle, destroying your three Ojamas to give my monster 3000 attack points, but since they were tokens you take 900 direct damage!"

The Chief grinded his teeth after that attack dropped him to 300 life points. "Now, destroy his Curse with Skydive Belly-flop!"

The large king jumped high into the air and landed right onto the Curse, destroying the monster but saving the Chief's remaining life points. "Also, the ability of my King comes in, making three of your monster summoning zones useless!"

David watched as three of his summoning zones on his disk went dim, looking to be put into a really tight spot by this. "I will end my turn, now let's if your Gravekeeper's are capable of beating the Chazz!"

"Go our Chief!" the Gravekeeper's called out repeatedly in the stands, encouraging the defeat of his opponent.

"It looks like you still haven't learned anything from your match from, Edgar," David called out.

"And what lesson would that be?!" Chazz yelled.

David put his fingers on his deck, "To never underestimate a gang leader of Duel City."

He drew his card and grin, seeing that the Gravekeeper's never failed to be by his side in his time of need. "I summon, Gravekeeper's Cannonholder!"

The monster was summoned to the field with only 1400 attack points, but because of Necrovalley it went up to 1900. Chazz could only laugh. "Wow, and I thought you had something there. Even if you had another Gravekeeper to use its effect you would still only do 700 direct damage, it looks like your Gravekeeper's failed you."

David glared with only pure hatred at Chazz with that remark. "Never insult my gang with such slander!" this caused Chazz to step back, "Now, I will show you once and for all the true power of the Gravekeeper's because I activate, Rite of Spirits to bring back Gravekeeper's Curse!"

Chazz was shocked. "Hold on, you have Necrovalley on the field, how can you get into your Graveyard?"

"You dare insult the Gravekeeper's without knowing their true power?!" he said with pure hatred, "because they protect the grave the grave helps them, letting their call reach past the beyond."

Then the Curse was summoned back to the field. "Now that Gravekeeper's Curse is on the field, you take 500 life points!"

Chazz watched as his life points went down to 700, then went into a complete state of fear as he realized what was about to happen next. "Now Gravekeeper's Cannonholder, show this inferior the true power the Gravekeeper's possess!"

Curse then turned into a yellow ball of energy and loaded into the cannon, where it fired right through the Ojama King and right at Chazz's life points, dropping it to 0. "Winner of the second match in the third round, David Sepulcher from Duel City Academy!" Crowler announced.

"All hail our Chief!" the Gravekeeper's cheered as David waved to them.

The clock just struck 10pm in the Gravekeeper's Dorm, this Dorm being beyond that of the tents they used to use in the past.

David stared at the empty seat across the table in the meeting room as everyone of the 1's were sitting at the table and the other Gravekeeper's Divisions were on the large screen in front of the room, feeling a bit depressed that such a capable candidate turned down his offer.

"My Chief, we should get started with the meeting," Vassal 1 Bastian stated as the others agreed with him.

The clock struck 10:01pm and he exhaled. "Yes, it would be rude of me to hold this meeting any longer," he then fixed the papers in front of him and said, "well I'm glad you all could make it tonight, I think we should start off this meeting by..."

But before he could add anything else, he heard the door up and a voice quickly following. "I'm sorry I'm late, the Guards at the entrance were a bit defensive."

A smile graced his face as he turned around to see Alexis standing at the entrance, wearing the Chief uniform that fitted her perfectly. "Not at all, Miss. Rhodes; you are right on time," he then moved his hand out to point at the empty seat, "please take your seat and let us start with the meeting."

She bowed. "Yes, my Chief."

Then as she sat down at the table, David said. "Well I'm glad we could get together for this meeting; because the Gravekeeper's are no longer just a Gang. From now on, it's an Organization."

To Be Continued

Now even Alexis has joined the ranks of the Gravekeeper's while Jaden is too nervous to even approach her. Now, what do I have planned for the students of Duel Academy after this? Read and Review.