Author's Note-I was originally just going to upload more to catch up on my late chapters, but I think I'm just going publish a chapter every week now until this book is finished. I don't want to spend forever on finishing this book, so I'm going to try and speed up. My estimate for the amount of chapters this story will have when it's finished is 30, so I'm about 40% finished. Also, thank you so much to the people who have been reading the chapters so far. I appreciate all the support!

When Monday finally arrived, Jasmine didn't want to attend school since she felt the need to avoid Callum at all costs, but she didn't really have a good excuse not to go. As soon as she arrived, she saw Callum in the distance and she instantly turned around and walked as far away from him as possible. Jasmine stopped to rest for a moment before somebody she wasn't expecting to talk to at all that day showed up.

"Jasmine? Is that you?" Lucy asked, a hint of despair in her voice.

"Yeah, what do you want? Are you going to brag about defeating me in that duel? Just go away, there's no point."

"No, that's not it at all. I'm so sorry about being such a jerk. Even if I didn't have any friends, I was still respected in the school for being undefeated in duels, but as soon as I lost that duel in the tournament, nobody even respected me for that anymore. I have nothing left."

"It's a little too late to be apologising, isn't it? Why did you come to me? What do you want me to do about it?"

"I thought that respect was the only thing I needed, but after I finally lost for the first time in ages, I realised how fragile and artificial that respect was. Please, give me a chance to start over. I just want a friend. Nobody else even wants to talk to me."

Jasmine sighed. "Alright, I give you a chance. I'll see you at lunch."

Lucy's face brightened up immediately. "Thank you so much! I won't let you down!"

Jasmine couldn't help but smile. She hadn't like Lucy at all before, but Jasmine wasn't the type to hold grudges if the person promised to change.

At lunchtime, Lucy chatted with Jasmine, and Jasmine found her to be a lot nicer than she expected. She couldn't understand how a person could change so quickly, but she was glad.

"I used to play using my Traptrix deck and I loved it, but I changed to a Chain Burn deck because I wanted to win more, no matter the cost. I think I'm going to go back to the deck I used to play with all the time."

"That's a great idea. You could say that I'm quite a competitive duelist, but if I love a deck, I won't abandon it just for the sake of winning. I'll just keep working hard to improve it. Of course, I see no problem in experimenting with other decks as long as you're enjoying yourself."

"Wow, you're so wise!" Lucy exclaimed.

"Oh, thank you. I still can't get over how much you've changed."

"Yeah, I know what you mean. I've always been like this, to tell you the truth. I just put on a facade because I wanted to be the popular one for once. Looking back, I never really enjoyed doing that, but I kept going anyway because I was afraid of what would happen if I stopped."

"I see. Well, I like you Lucy. We should exchange phone numbers so we can hang out more!"

"Great idea!" Lucy grinned. "By the way, what happened to Callum? You two seemed quite close but you aren't talking to him anymore."

"I... I guess I just need some more time before I'm ready to talk to him again. I know I'm being stupid, but I don't really know what to say to him."

"That's fine, but you don't have to say anything fancy. I think a simple apology would be fine. The longer you leave it, the further apart you two will grow."

"You're right... wait a second, now you're the one being wise!"

Lucy laughed. "Yeah, I guess I am."

Jasmine was about to leave the Art classroom after staying behind late to do some extra work when she received an unexpected phone call.

"Jasmine! You have to come to the English classrooms! I stayed behind to finish up some work, and Mr. Richmond suddenly turned into a monster! I don't understand what's going on! I can't get out either because the door and windows have somehow been barricaded with a ridiculous amount of books!"

"Hang on! I'm coming to help!" Jasmine tried to reassure her. It looks like it really wasn't a dream. These monsters are starting to get dangerous. If I don't help Lucy, her body could be taken over!

Jasmine rushed to the door, only to find that she couldn't grab the handle. Wait, what? Where's the handle? She backed away only to see that the door looked like a painting. In fact, the walls, floor, and roof had all turned into some kind of painting.

"I'm sorry, but there's no way out. You'll have to defeat me first."

Jasmine turned around slowly, confused. The only one who was left in the room was her Art teacher, Mrs. Hanafuda, but she didn't look like herself anymore.

She smiled at Jasmine, enjoying her shocked expression. "There's no time to worry about your friend now. You should probably focus on saving yourself first. This isn't just one or two small attacks anymore. Our numbers are growing, and you humans don't even fully understand the threat yet. This is a full-on invasion!"