Hello! I hope you guys are all doing alright during these crazy times, although I still have things to do, I have found a lot more time to write, and I finally got done with chapter 9! This is actually one of my favorite ones, so I hope you really like it! This chapter I had a new member join the Beta Reading team, Time Theif! She does a long-running fiction called Acid Rain which is really great! She was a massive help with this chapter! I also, of course, need to thank Eli and And Then the Sky, they did some great work in this chapter as well. We all worked really hard on this chapter, so I really hope It shows! As always please leave a review on your opinion as any form of criticism helps greatly! Enjoy chapter 9!


Neo sat on the hard, shiny wooden bench, placed to the left of a crimson red door in a series of deep blue doors. The hallway sat on the edge of the building, with a massive glass window being on the other side of the doors. The sunlight seeped into the hallway, blinding Neo's eyes anytime he tried to look up, it made him keep his head down, staring aimlessly at the teal tiled-flooring, the sound of chatter and printers filling his ears.

He turned his eyes to look at the door beside him, a golden plaque placed on the top of it read "Principal of Duel Academy, Alexis Rhodes-Yuki". Neo sighed as he turned back to his original position.

How long had he been here now? Three hours? Four? Doing nothing but sitting at this bench waiting to be called in. They had brought him back to his dorm room for him to sleep, only to wake him up six hours later and drag him over to the administrative building. Ruby told him that she had to do the same thing over text, but his phone had died a long time ago.

The last person who went in had yet to come out, it was some Slifer red guy he had seen around. However, like most students, he didn't dare talk to Neo.

Despite having the past three hours to think, Neo's heart was still pounding out of anticipation. His mind abuzz with thoughts about ways to escape; maybe he could beat up some janitor and steal his uniform, maybe he could make a break for it, or maybe he could break the massive glass window in front of him and escape into the woods, but this was an island. Even if he could escape temporarily, there were only so many places he could go. This stupid prison island. If only he could go back in time and tell himself to rip up those acceptance papers before Dad saw it.

There was no escape from this. Not anymore. He had to face the consequences.

The sound of footsteps on the hard white tile approached, the footfalls ringing out like the beating of a drum. Neo looked to the right as Ace walked solemnly toward the bench. He must've been called in as well. His face gave off a serious expression with his eyes staring straight, but the lines beneath his eyes was clear evidence of his exhaustion.

"Hey," Neo quietly said as Ace closed in on the bench.

"Hi," Ace said as he approached the opposite side of the bench and sat down. Shortly after, he took out his phone to kill time. Neo stared at Ace, with nothing better to do than watch him look at articles which he couldn't read from that distance.

Neo paused, letting silence fill the room, as he stared intently at Ace. Ace continued to look at the phone, until he peered towards Neo, to see him watching.

"Do you mind?" Ace snapped.

Neo snapped out of the trance "Oh, uh," he turned the opposite direction. "Yeah, sorry."

Seeing Neo turn around, Ace lowered his head back down to his phone, the tapping of his finger being the only sound. Neo sighed as he looked at the window, viewing the autumn leaves falling from the trees. Fall was coming.

This, however, could only entertain him for so long, as he turned to Ace once more after pausing for only a few seconds. "They, uh, bring you in here too?" Neo inquired.

"Mhm," Ace duly noted, not even giving Neo eye contact.

"Yeah, it seems like they're bringing in everyone involved." Neo continued.

"Mhm,"Ace repeated once again, not paying attention.

Neo paused to see if Ace had anything to say, but after a few seconds of silence, Neo sighed and turned back. He was terrible at small talk; no wonder he really didn't have any friends.

Ace peered at Neo. Seeing him intentionally avoiding eye contact, he sighed, slipped his phone into his pocket, and turned to Neo.

"You've been here awhile, huh?" Ace said.

"Yeah.."

"Your phone dead?"

A nod once again.

"What's the point of us even coming?" Ace questioned. "I'm sure they have plenty of other students they can receive witnesses from."

"I dunno," Neo responded. "At this point, I'm sure a lot of the reports sound pretty familiar." He turned to Ace quickly. "Should I mention it?"

"Mention what? The eye?"

Neo nodded.

Ace turned back straight and pondered it, "Probably not worth it," he finally answered. "They probably wouldn't believe us anyways."

"Guess so," Neo said, thinking about the eye, the image of it still bright in his mind. "It's weird, isn't it?"

"Obviously," Ace said. "No normal being has glowing golden eyes."

"Well I don't know," Neo replied. "Maybe it's a rare trait or something."

"Don't act stupid. There's no way something like that would be natural," Ace turned back to his phone.

"Yeah, I guess you're right," Neo conceded. "It was way too weird. We gotta tell someone about it though, there's no way we can just keep this to ourselves." He continued.

Ace turned back up, seemingly more annoyed now that Neo had decided to continue talking. "Sorry, can we just, like, not talk for a bit?"

Neo moved his head back a bit, finding such a statement odd. "I'm sorry?" Neo said, confused about why Ace was so insistent on not talking to him. "Should I not be talking about this?"

"Honestly," Ace looked at Neo "I'd rather you not talk, period."

"The hell's your problem?" Neo said, annoyed by Ace's rude statement. "I was just trying to talk to you. Is that so wrong?"

"Yes, it is,'' Ace said, raising his voice a little. "It's rude because I, frankly, don't want to talk to you, and yet, you're annoying me by trying to talk to me with this pointless back chat all because you can't entertain yourself."

Neo raised his voice to match Ace's "What do you have against me?"

Ace turned off his phone and slipped it into his pocket. "You know Neo, before yesterday, I thought of you just like everyone here thinks of you," he lectured. "I thought that you were just some idiot who thought he could get through this school off of just name recognition alone. Trying to just use that last name of yours to glide through life, and that's probably what you wanted others to believe." Ace then turned to him, his piercing eyes staring straight into Neo's. "But yesterday, you slipped up. The way you acted during that duel proved to me that you're not an idiot. You saw everything, didn't you? Every move Gregory was planning, every mistake that girl would fall into. You spoke out, told her to take such an unbelievable gamble, and you were 100% correct."

"So what if I did?" Neo slowly murmured, attempting to defend himself. "It's not like something like that was hard to see. You probably could've deduced it as well."

"Perhaps," Ace conceded "But the fact that you agreed proves to me you're not an idiot. Now idiots are fine, I can simply ignore them, but you're something else, something that I can't ignore. You, Neo Yuki, are a coward." Ace pulled back out his phone, flicking it on. "And I hate cowards, so do me a favor and go back to wallowing on how hard you have it".

Neo twitched, his legs shaking. Neo muttered, "Me… A coward?" He shot out of his seat. "You think I'm a coward?!" Neo yelled.

Ace slammed his phone onto the chair and stood up, facing Neo. The two sized each other up. "I do, and you know why? It's because you're not hopeless! The fact that you have at least some dueling skill proves to me you aren't! You could be dueling, you could probably beat a good majority of those people ranked the same, hell, you could probably even reach Obelisk level if you tried hard enough! And yet you sit there with your talent and doing nothing with it! You act like you're absolutely hopeless, like your sad state is because of some unfortunate chain of events, but it's because of your own doing. You choose to sit there. That pisses me off more than anything!"

"Scared? I'm not the one who's scared here!" Neo defended. "If anything I should be brave for what I'm doing. Do you know what kind of shit I go through all because I'm not like my parents? That I'm not a Duelist? It's honestly a miracle that I didn't cave in to my family's expectations, unlike you! You duel all for the sake of that last name! Because you're a Princeton. Following your family's beliefs instead of following your own - that's being scared!"

"You little-," Ace's left arm shot up to grab Neo's shirt, he then lifted his right hand in the shape of a fist. "Don't go acting like you know about my family life!" He shouted. "It's none of your business telling me what I should do with my life!"

Neo took his two hands and grabbed Ace's dark blue vest firmly. "Don't you go acting like you know my family either! You have absolutely no right to tell me about what to do with my family!"

The door to the principal's office shot open behind them…

Neo and Ace paused as another boy walked out. A Slifer red with messy but short brown hair strolled out as he stared at the two, their hands still grabbing each other's shirts.

Ace and Neo simultaneously let go. The boy slowly walked past, his old black sneakers squealed as he walked past the two, staring wide-eyed at both of them.

Wearing a brown button up shirt with an orange tie, the auburn-haired staff member walked out from the hallway and turned to Neo.

"Mr. Yuki," she calmly stated. "The principal will see you now."

"Oh uh, yeah," Neo said as he calmed himself down. He looked back briefly.

Ace stood there, his face stern with hints of anger still as he crossed his arms and sat back down. Neo sighed. He let him rile him up. He was usually able to remain calm, but he wasn't exactly in the best mood at the moment.

The door closed as Neo entered the small carpeted hallway full of important admin members in offices connected to it. The woman walked to the left of Neo and approached an open door leading to an office. "The principal is at the end of the hall," she stated. Neo nodded as the woman walked into the office, the carpet muffling her steps.

Each step he took felt small. The thought of talking to his mother after so long and under these circumstances was nerve wracking. Maybe he was instinctively slowing himself down, trying to prolong the inevitable.

He looked up and saw the gold plaque, the guard staring at him menacingly as though laughing at him for what was about to occur.

He sighed as he slowly opened the door, it creaked as it revealed a massive office. It was bold and big with pure, white tile floors and a massive glass wall behind the small mahogany desk. Behind the desk sat the principal herself.

Clad in a maroon uniform, her short golden hair remained still as she looked solemnly at her computer monitor, typing away. Neo stood there as the door closed shut, ringing out into Alexis's ear. She glanced up briefly, her hazel eyes staring intently at Neo, but then quickly looking back at her computer as she continued to type. "Sit down Neo, just give me a minute."

Not making a single sound or motion, Neo obeyed, walking across the tile floor and slipping into the wooden chair placed right in front of her desk. It had been roughly 3 years since he'd seen her in person. Nothing looked different except for her clothing.

She had always been working, even before they left. She kept herself to a home office most hours with the exception of the early morning and late night.

He would come into her office often either to just say hi or because Jaden had sent him in there to solve his issues with any homework, as he himself didn't have the answer anytime past fourth grade. She would sit there, just as she sat now, working away typing at a document that never seemed satisfactory. Besides her hardworking nature, he knew little of his mother.

Neo remained silent as the sound of rapid typing echoed.

Neo's hand began to twitch from underneath the desk, still anxious and angry. He probably should be the one to talk first, but he didn't want to.

He really didn't want to.

She continued to type as she glanced at Neo. His face was stern but restless. She turned back and slowed down her typing. "So… Are you going to tell me what happened?" She said casually, as if she already knew what he was going to say.

Neo sighed. "I mean, I can," Neo said, avoiding the topic. "But I doubt it will be anything new," He avoided eye contact and added, "Three years, and that's what you first say to me?"

"In other circumstances it wouldn't be," she replied. "But you're not here to say hi."

Neo looked back at her "You're not happy to see me?"

"Not like this," she said. "Would you rather me pat you on the back for getting arrested for roaming during after school hours?"

"I would, actually," Neo muttered, slouching on the chair.

More typing rang out as the two ceased to talk. The tension kept Neo shut for a while. The work Alexis had seemed to be more pressing than a conversation with her son.

"Look, this is getting nowhere," Neo said as he stood up from the chair. "I'm sure you've heard the same thing several times now. So, I'm gonna get out of your busy schedule".

Alexis sighed as she suddenly stopped typing and turned directly to face Neo. "Sit back down Neo," she said sternly. "You're not getting out of this that easy."

Neo sighed as he sat back down quickly. "I assume Ruby already told you," he began. "We walked into it midway and tried to get out. I didn't do anything."

"That's not what I called you in here for," Alexis said as she pressed a button on her computer. In an instant, the printer on a small table across the room began to whirl. She got up and walked towards it, her maroon heels clicking as she grabbed a small set of papers the printer had shot out.

She walked back to her desk and sat down, sliding a paper over to Neo. "Explain this to me."

It was a copy of Neo's profile online, his student ID, ranking, and grades. A's and B's all around English, Math, History, PE were fine, but the two outliers were the two D's in Dueling 101 and Deckbuilding 101. "What, the D's?" Neo looked back up at the Principal, despite knowing clearly that such was her topic of discussion.

"What else?" She said clearly, aware that Neo already knew what she was referring to.

"I don't know what to tell you," Neo said as he slouched back in the chair. "I've turned in everything, but the tests are hard for me, I'm not good at those topics".

Alexis frowned, "Neo, I know it's been awhile, but I'm sure you know: what's my number one rule?"

"Don't lie…" Neo muttered. "I'm not lying. It's not like those preliminary dueling classes you made me take. It's a lot harder".

"It's not that it's harder. You're not trying," Alexis replied, absolutely sure that was what was going on.

"Our entrance exam is an extremely hard true or false based test. Our best score this year was an 82%," Alexis explained. "If someone were to guess blindly at such a test, do you know what score that person would get?"

"A fifty," Neo responded.

"So explain to me why you got a perfect 0%," she questioned as she slid him a copy of his test results. It was like she had said: a 0/436. "The preliminary questions are basically free ones as well," she continued. "The admission board spent a while talking about it, and they concluded that the only way a perfect 0% was possible was if that person knew exactly what each answer was and intentionally picked the wrong one,"

"So you got me in through your influence?" Neo said, giving a weirded-out look.

"I didn't," she replied. "The admission committee is a completely separate branch kept in the Synchro Dimension far from here to prevent bias. They discuss these things separately. I simply confirm their choices."

"The point is, Neo, that you're better than this. I know you are. You need to go talk to Professor Misawa and see if you can retake those tests."

"What? No," Neo said, offended. "My grade is what it is. I don't wanna beg for extra credit."

"Neo, if you don't, you could get kicked out," Alexis said. "You're going to have to if you want to stay in."

"Yeah, I know!" Neo got out of the chair and slammed the desk. "Have you ever thought that I want to get kicked out?! I hate this stupid school! I have no friends, no common interests with anyone, no nothing! I want to get out of here!"

"Neo, that's not true," Alexis cut him off "You-"

"You should've just let me fail! I never cared to go here! I only chose to on some stupid thought that it'd make Dad happy, but it doesn't make me happy! Nothing you guys do to try to better my life makes me happy! I don't like dueling, I want nothing to do with it! It's my life, stop trying to make it yours!"

Neo's cries resounded in the room, bringing the conversation to a halt as both Alexis and Neo took in what had just been said.

Neo's face of anger quickly switched to sincere regret as he slumped back down into his seat. He looked down at the ground astonished at what he had just said. "Sorry…"

No one spoke a word for what seemed like an hour. No motion, no typing, no talking, no clicking - all that was left to fill the void was the faint whirl of the computer. He kept his head down, ashamed. He didn't want to say anything.

What else was he supposed to say?

"Can-Can I go now?" Neo quietly asked the figure holding him here.

Alexis sighed, "Okay… just make sure to ask Professor Misawa about some extra credit".

Neo nodded as he finally stood. He reached for his pocket, fishing for a bit before taking out a card. The card drifted down the smooth wood desk until it stopped by Alexis's left arm. Neos, now that was an old card.

"You can give that to Allie or something. I don't want it…" Neo said quietly as he turned around and headed for the door. He grabbed the handle of the wood door and proceeded to pull it open. Neo stepped into the hall.

"Neo," Alexis called. He turned around slowly, his face of an embarrassed, broken teen.

"I love you."

"Yeah... Okay."

He closed the door shut saying only those words before leaving his mother yet again. Alexis sighed. Was it truly right to push him on this path? Sure, she had not been the one to make the decision to admit him, but she still could have refused to. She didn't know who he was, nor did it seem that Neo knew who he was either. He was lost. She could try all she wanted to push him down a certain path, but ultimately he would have to be the one to find his way.

She stared at the card and it stared back.

Neos, the guardian that Jaden had entrusted to protect his son, asked if she was okay with this, with him being alone with no protector.

"So," Alexis asked the spirit. "You're just going to stay here?"

A knock on the door rang out, "Ms. Yuki,"

"Yes?"

"Ace Princeton is waiting outside," the office worker stated.

"Send him in," she said.

Her work was never finished.

She turned back to see the card's response. The wood of her desk was clean, the card gone. She has had some strange experiences in her life. This was the first in a very long time, and yet after experiencing such a strange chain of events, all she could do was smile at the sight of the card's answer.

"I didn't think so."