Ore-Sama: If I got a cent every time I published a chapter of this, I'd have a quarter. EPIC MAJOR PLOT TWIST! Okay, not really... Well kinda, I dunno. The passive non-aggressive Ore-Sama in its natural habitat!

In other news, I have claimed TheSlackerestSlifer for myself. You can't have her. She's mine.

Chapter 25- Forgiveness and Retribution

"You understand what needs to be done..."

"Judai, wake up..." Manjyome yawned and shook Judai in a vain attempt to awaken the slacker.

"Elemental Hero Shrimp Man... So much shrimp... Heheheheh..." Judai chuckled and drooled on Manjyome's arm as he slumbered.

"Well, so much for that..." Manjyome sighed and yanked the blankets off of Judai.

"Gyaah! Manjyome, I was having such a good dream... And now I'm cold..." Judai whined melodramatically and rubbed his eyes.

"Well that's what you get for not waking up the first few times I tried. And drooling all over me," Manjyome added as he wiped off his arm on the blankets.

"Meanie," Judai stuck his tongue out as he crawled out of their bed.

"Uh-huh, that's nice. I'm gonna go grab my clothes from the wash," Manjyome rolled his eyes and pulled on Judai's sports uniform.

"Alright. I'll head down and grab some breakfast. I'll wait at the arena, okay?" Judai gave Manjyome a quick peck on the cheek and got dressed.

"Mmm... Love you," Manjyome grinned and straightened out Judai's jacket.

"Love you too, Jun!" Judai smiled softly and left.

"No matter what..."

"Alright, let's duel!" Manjyome smirked and activated his duel disk

"Wait, we're not going to use lame recycled catchphrases that we stole from abridged series' or awesome video games?" Johan gave Manjyome a funny look, mildly weirded out by the lack of references.

"I just want to get this over with," Manjyome rolled his eyes, "So I'll go first. My turn! Draw! I'll summon Armed Dragon Level 3 and I'll set three cards. Turn end."

"My turn! Draw! I summon Caterpie in defense mode and-"

"Wait, that's a Pokemon card!" Manjyome protested.

"No, no, no, while it IS a pokemon, it is a special Yug- I mean Duel Monsters edition. Otherwise I wouldn't use it, considering the difference in damage scales, y'know?" Johanesse grinned, "Anyways, I'll set one card and end my turn."

"My turn! Draw! At this moment, I sacrifice Armed Dragon Level 3 to summon Armed Dragon Level 5 from my deck! Show yourself, Armed Dragon Level 5!" Manjyome cried as the field was showered in bright rainbow-colored sparks of light that quickly dissipated to reveal the second stage of the dragon card's evolution, "And then I activate the trap card Jar of Greed which allows me to draw one card-"

"Wait, what? Is that even a real thing?" Johan cocked his head and gave Manjyome a confused look.

"Yeah. It's like the Pot of Greed only not as good. Anyways, I draw one card, then I activate my other set card, Heavy Storm! It destroys all spell and trap cards on the field, and to finish you off, I sacrifice Hell Bastard to activate Armed Dragon Level 5's effect which allows me to-"

"Oh get on with it already!" Jesse groaned in an effort to save the author from typing the entire effect out which is good because it gets really tedious.

"It's like two jokers trying to play the straight man..." Shou grinned at Judai and Kenzan and stifled his laughter.

"It really is..." Kenzan nodded in agreement.

"Still, Manjyome's pretty serious about this. He's even using a deck made entirely of cards that actually exist!" Shou observed.

"It's one of the disadvantages he took to pay off his gravity advantage. If you look at his character sheet, it'll say right in the list of disadvantages '-15 points, Takes Things Too Seriously'." Judai explained.

"And again with the tabletop homage! Seriously, I wonder about this series..." Shou sighed melodramatically and the three turned back to observing the duel which had conveniently paused while they dialogued.

"Alright then, I'll draw a card now!" Johan grinned and drew a card, and his grin darkened into a smirk as he inserted a card into the trap/magic zone, "I activate the permanent magic Digivice! This allows me to summon Digital Monsters and Digitally Evolve-"

"They're called Digimon and Digivolving dammit!" Manjyome snarled, annoyed at Johan's attempt to be creative.

"Yes dear. Anyways, I summon Tentomon in attack mode! But that's not all! I now sacrifice Tentomon to special summon Kuwagumon!" Jesse cried and slapped the card down in attack mode, "Now, attack his Armed Dragon!"

"Not so fast! I activate the trap card Negate Attack! This card nullifies your attack and forces the battle phase to end," Manjyome explained, despite the fact that everyone knows what it does.

"You didn't really need to explain-" Jesse started, but was promptly cut off by Manjyome "Whyyyy, yes I did."

"But-"

"No."

"But I-"

"No!"

"But Man-"

"Johan, shut up and play the freaking card game!" Manjyome snapped.

"Yes dear..." Jesse rolled his eyes and set one facedown, "I set one card and end my turn."

"Alright, my turn!" Manjyome drew one card and smirked, "First I'll sacrifice Armed Dragon level 5 to special summon Armed Dragon level 7, and then I activate the spell card Enchanting Fitting Room! I'll pay 800 life points to flip over four cards from my deck and special summon any level 3 or lower monsters among those four. The rest return to my deck," He grunted in pain as his life points were drained, then pulled out four cards, "I special summon Ojama Yellow, Ojama Black, and Ojama Green and Thunder Crash returns to my deck,"

"Oh shit, I bet I know what he's gonna pull now!" Judai grinned and leaned back.

"I just want this to be over already. It's already been like 10 whole minutes..." Shou groaned.

"Next I activate the spell card Ojama Delta Hurricane! I'm assuming you remember this card's effect?" Manjyome gestured towards Johan's Kuwagumon.

"Yeah, yeah..." Jesse sighed and discarded it.

"And now, I activate the trap card Pride Shout! With this card's effect, any 0-ATK monster can deal its defense as damage whenever it attacks the opponent directly. Now, get out there you runts!" Manjyome smirked as Johan's life points were reduced to zero.

"No, I can't lose... Not now..." Jesse murmured and collapsed.

"Hey, something's weird..." Judai observed in one of his rare moments of clarity.

"Hey, get back up!" Manjyome held his hand out to the collapsed bug fanatic, but he received no response.

"Here, let me see him," Professor Ayukawa climbed up onto the stage and examined the boy.

"Well?" Manjyome asked.

"He's passed out from exhaustion. He should be fine, but we should get him to the infirmary," She said, then picked Johan up and carried him off.

Manjyome sighed and shook his head, knowing all too well what was happening.

"You must..."

"Hey, how's he doing?" Manjyome asked when Judai returned to the dorm.

"He still hasn't woken up... They can't figure out what happened to him..." Judai sighed and sat down next to Manjyome.

"Well, for starters I was right when I said this was all a trap. But this isn't the time for that, is it?" Manjyome wrapped his arm around the depressed brunette, "You know what this calls for, right?"

"Uh... No?" Judai looked up at him questioningly, his sadness temporarily forgotten.

"Don't tell me you've forgotten about the great detective Kindai-I mean Manjyome Thunder?" Manjyome smirked and touched his forehead to Judai's.

"Oh great..." Judai sighed.

"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing, dear."

Ore-Sama: I finished this ten minutes before my physics midterm. There are some guys at the table trading cheat sheet stickers to stick inside their calculators. Can't blame them really, this shit is a bitch to remember. By the way, the Kindai- thing is a reference to Kindaichi Case Files, in which the voice actor for Manjyome voiced the main character who is a genius detective. It is amazing and you should all watch it. Happy Valentines. I have a Valentine this year and she is amazing~ Of course I am speaking of TheSlackerestSlifer 3