A/N: I'm excited about writing the Class arc. I finally get to deal with a lot of new plots and ideas that will have a big impact on the rest of the story.

Fun Fact: Rin doesn't believe in skunk apes.

Chapter Summary: The gang have arrived in the Fusion Dimension. But a stern teacher wants to send them back home.

Dear Diary,

Summer vacation's almost here, and I'm really excited! Yuto is working on an entire itinerary for all of summer.

Sawatari has his own plans for the summer: he's going to spend summer at Duel Academia. The school is doing a summer school program to help open up the school to the rest of the world, and to attract possible new students.

Yuzu, Gongenzaka and I are going to accompany him to the school. We're going to spend the day with him, and say hello to all our friends in the Synchro Dimension. I'm really excited to see Sora again.

Not really excited to see Leo again, but maybe I won't have to see him.

Yuya, Yuzu, Gongenzaka and Sawatari gathered together. They stood before the Maiami Central bus station, waiting for the next bus to take them to Akaba-Sakaki Station. Akaba-Sakaki Station, of course, was a station built to carry people through dimensions via the Dimension Highway.

Unfortunately for the trio and Sawatari, the bus was late. Severely late. According to the station manager's announcement, the bus would be about an hour late, thanks to an incident involving two ninjas, an assassin, and some sort of possum-thing. This left them to wait, and wait, and wait.

Sawatari, whose school shirt was replaced with a red blazer, threw himself onto a bench with his luggage. He let out a lound, exaggerated yawn to show his boredom.

Yuzu looked over to him, "You know, an hour's not that long. We could pass the time by dueling."

"No room at the station," Gongenzaka sighed. "Especially for Action Duels."

"Unless you want to be hit by a bus!" Yuri offered. "Hey, Sour-tari, nice shirt."

Sawatari looked to Yuri and gave him a proud egao. "It was Sora's idea!"

"Eh?"

"He said that red is a color of power, passion, and prestige!" Sawatari explained. "So I'm wearing red to show all the other students my place."

Yuri clasped his hands together. "That is a wonderful idea, and I completely agree with it."

Gongenzaka was less impresse with this. "Sora's pulling a prank on you. The students in red are the lower-ranked students."

Sawatari's jaw dropped. He looked to Yuri nervously, then back to Gongenzaka, then back to Yuri.

"You're messing with me, right?" he asked. "I bought all these red clothes with me!"

"Gongy's a buzzkill, but he's right!" Yuri said cheerfully. "You see, at Duel Academia, students are put into three categories, based on their performance; Slifer Red-ranked students are on the bottom rung. Most new students, and students who do poorly, are sorted here. They require the most training and effort. There's a school tradition where we haze the Reds by pushing them down the stairs."

"I'm not a buzzkill," Gongenzaka interrupted. "I just don't want my friend to be bullied."

"Yeah, whatever. Ra Yellow is the second-highest rank. New students who show exceptional skill can skip being a Red, and can go right to being a Yellow. Obelisk Blue-ranked students are the top rank, and the first to be considered for any missions."

Is that all true, Serena? Yuzu thought out.

Serena appeared before her and nodded. Yes. I have to be honest, I pushed a few Reds down the stairs during my time at Academia.

I was wondering about everything else, but... I don't know how to end that sentence.

"I was, of course, an Obelisk," Yuri explained to them. "But I transcended the ranking system soon after becoming the Professor's right-hand man."

Sawatari turned to Yuzu. "What about Serena? Was she a Red? She always wore red."

Yuzu nodded. "Yep! They kept her as a Red, since Reds have less privileges, and gave her an excuse for why she couldn't go out on missions."

Even though I was able to go toe-to-toe with some Blues! Serena said.

"... Even though she was able to go toe-to-toe with some Blues."

"Huh," Sawatari said. "You learn something new every day."

"Tell me about it," Yuri agreed. "This whole time, I thought that girl's name was Sabrina."

Fifty minutes had passed. But the bus did not come. Waiting so long had an effect on them, for the boredom continued to drive them out of their minds.

"Whaaaat's taking so looong?" Sawatari groaned.

He was now laying down on the bench, a suitcase acting as a pillow for his head. He had a book in his hands, and a candy wrapper on his chest.

One of the station's doors swung open. Yuzu stepped out of the doorway and walked herself over to the boys.

"Well, the bus is going to be later than expected," she sighed. "Apparently, the ninjas had to arrest the bus driver, and they're taking the bus over to the Antanolian Embassy."

Sawatari let out a loud, long, frustrated groan.

"Sawatari's going to be really late for class," Yuya said. "Maybe we could hoof it to the A.S. Station?"

Gongenzaka shook his head. "It would take too much time to go on foot."

"I can't be late for my first day!" Sawatari whined. "I'm already wearing red, I can't take any more social outcast-y...ness... traits. Couldn't we just fly there on our Duel Monsters?"

The trio looked at each other, then back to Sawatari. None of them elected to answer Sawatari's question.

But then, Yuya's eyes shifted from red to blue. He eagerly balled his hands into fists and held them up. A large egao grew on his face, and his eyes shimmered. He was looking like an excited child.

"Guys! Guys guys guys!" Yugo said excitedly. "I just had an idea that would fix everything."

"Is that you, Yugo?" Yuzu asked. "What's your idea?"

Yugo held his Duel Disk up, opened up the Extra Deck hatch, and pulled out a card. He held his Clear Wing Synchro Dragon over his head and waved it around.

"Clear Wing can transport us between dimensions. So, ergo, we can thusly teleport to Academia, assumedly."

"Welp, Yugo's a genius!" Sawatari exclaimed. "He even used big words to prove it."

"Thanks!"

"You're welcome!"

"I think hoofing it was a better idea," Gongenzaka answered. "You can't control that card; it could send us straight into the ocean."

"No, that won't happen!" Yugo insisted. "Listen, I can understand Clear Wing now. We talk to each other."

"Really?" Yuzu asked.

"Yeah. Well, it doesn't talk. I could always understand how it felt. But lately, I can understand what it's saying."

"... And Zarc could communicate with Duel Spirits," Yuzu added. "Are you gaining some of Zarc's powers?"

Yugo nodded. "That might be, possimaybe. But whatever the reason, I can communicate a bit with Clear Wing."

"And you're sure we won't crash into the ocean or something?" Gongenzaka asked, skeptical.

"It doesn't matter," Sawatari stated. "Either we get there before we're too late, or we drown and don't have to deal with school."

"That's the spirit!" Yugo shouted. "Clear Wing, take us to the Fusion Dimension!"

The card started to glow white. Green rings flew from the card and circled around all four of the kids. And as the card's light grew, they were absorbed into its brightness.

A teacher was writing on the chalkboard. He spoke to his class of students, explaining the values of resource management. Fusion Summons required a lot of investment, so they would need to try and recover as many resources as they could.

"This is molto importante," he explained his students. "Even Reds should now that Duel Monsters is a resource game, too. I-"

He rose his head to look at the ceiling. To his horror, a green circle appeared over him. the inside of the circle emitted a white light, which shone down on him like some sort of holy spotlight. The teacher simply watched in awe.

And then four children fell from the portal landing on top of him and knocking him to the floor.

A very, very confused class of students watched the scene. Yugo Yuzu, Gongenzaka and Sawatari rose from the ground, rubbing various sore spots on their bodies. They groaned, then took a few steps away from the scene.

"We could have snapped our necks..." said Gongenzaka.

"I'm never doing that again..." Yuzu groaned.

"But we're in a classroom," Sawatari pointed out. "So, that means we probably made it."

Yugo waved to the students. "Oi! What dimension is this?"

"The Fusion Dimension, you idiot!" answered a student in blue.

The teacher rose up from the ground. Now sporting a swollen face, he glared at the trio and Sawatari. The kids turned around to stare at the tall, imposing man.

"Who are you kids?" he said austerely. Notably, he spoke with a thick Italian accent.

Wait. The man's heart dropped. He recognized the tomato-headed one. He looked a bit different, but there was no mistaking this boy. The evil little tyrant that made his life a living hell.

"You," he hissed. "I thought you were gone for good. Have you come back to torment me, bambino?"

I know this teacher! came Yuri's voice. Yugo, this is one of the school's best teachers. By this school's low standards, anyway.

"Well?" the man said. "I'm waiting. ANSWER ME!"

"Hey, Yuya!" Yugo called out. "Someone's here to talk to you! I'm outtie."

The boy's eyes shifted back to red, and a confused Yuya blinked. He looked around the classroom in confusion.

"Eh? We're here already?" he wondered out loud.

"Yes, you're here!" the teacher snapped. "Here at Duel Academia. But if you don't even know where you are, it sounds like you don't belong here!"

Yuya jumped. The teacher's words were harsh and judgmental. He just kept his eyes on the teacher and gave him a very nervous, very unsure egao.

"I'm sorry for interrupting your class, sir!" he said meekly. "... Ma'am? Sir...?"

"Chronos de Medici!" the man answered. "Head professor and Chair of Techniques. The man whose class you callously interrupted!"

"Ooooh, Yuya's in trouble..." Sawatari said under his breath.

Yuzu's face soured. "Sawatari, we're all in trouble."

"But we're not the ones being yelled at; Yuya is."

Chronos's eyes bared down on Yuya, and Yuya just grew more and more nervous. Flop wweat was pouring down his forehead now. And to make it all worse

"It-it was an accident, sir!" Yuya pleaded. "We didn't mean to interrupt your class-"

"Accident or not, you are interfering with my class's education!"

But then the man folded his arms. His glower changed into a smug little egao.

"If you'd like to make it up to me and my class, I know how."

"Yes!" Yuya said quickly. "If there's anything I can do, just say the word!"

"We will duel in front of my class. I will show my students how a proper duelists conducts themselves."

Yuya nodded furiously. "I can duel, sir!"

"And when they see you, they'll see a cautionary tale on how not to act. Your humiliation will serve to show my students how important my lessons are, lest they end up like you."

"Hey, back off!" Yuzu barked. "Yuya's the greatest duelist I know! He could duel circles around your weird face!"

Chronos turned to Yuzu and glared at her. But the girl just stepped up and glared right back at him. The air around them was tense.

"... We'll see," Chronos said finally. "And once he loses the duel, you will all be escorted from the school, never allowed to return."

Sawatari's jaw dropped. "Yuya, my dad payed good money for summer school! Don't waste his money, or else!"

Yuya gulped. Boy, he sure got himself in a mess. With a lot riding on him winning this duel, could he pull it off? Well, obviously he could and would; he was the star of the story. But Yuya didn't know that.

Next time: Yuya squares off against the master of the Ancient Gear archetype. He'll be fighting against some of the most powerful Ancient Gear monsters in a high-stakes duel.