Dr. Crowler was going over his lesson plans for his first lecture of the new school year, though he was not happy about having to continue teaching the Slifers for the enth year in a row. Especially one of the newest Slifer students.

"Curse that Jaden Yuki…" He growled while grinding his teeth. "I'll teach him to make a fool out of-" Crowler was cut off when he heard a knock at the door. "Ah, yes come in."

Crowlers office door opened, revealing Kai was on the other side. "Excuse me Dr."

"Kai, what brings you here?" Crowler asked, his fingers lacing together underneath his pointed chin. "Classes don't start for another few hours."

"I wanted to talk to you about one of the new students." Kai explained, as he approached Crowler, closing the door behind him. "His name is Yuki Hyodou, he's in the Slifer dorm."

Crowler's eyes narrowed, and he uttered an unmistakable growl of annoyance. As the headmaster of the Obelisk Blue dorms, Crowler hated everything to do with the Slifers. "What about him?"

"I don't think he should be in the Slifer dorms." Kai said, getting straight to his point.

Crowler narrowed his eyes curiously. "You have my attention Kai, continue."

"I dueled him yesterday before the welcome dinner for the new students. He has a really strong deck, and knows how to play it." Kai said, before continuing. "I was at the practical exams the same as you Dr. We both saw how skilled he is."

"Yes, I know the young man you're talking about." Crowler said. He had stopped grinding his teeth, and the irritated growl had ceased as well. "But I sense there's more to this story…"

"There is." Kai took a breath before continuing. "Like I said, we dueled yesterday as I wanted to test out my new deck. Yuki beat me soundly without losing a single point. He's got a lot of skill, far too much skill to be placed in the Slifer dorms."

"Are you telling me, you lost to a Slif-" Crowler began, before Kai cut him off.

"We both know that's not the point Dr." Kai slightly raised his voice, cutting Crowler off. "Yuki's incredibly skilled, his only problem is crowds. He gets nervous around large crowds."

Crowler sighed, rubbing his eyelids with his fingertips. "Alright Kai, I'll look into why this Yuki was place into Slifer. In the meantime, if you want to take him under your wing and help him get over his phobia of crowds be my guest. Just don't be late for the first lesson of the year."

Yuki had gotten to class early, along with a handful of several others. He was currently looking over the deck of another Slifer, who liked to play an insect deck. "Okay, this is a good strategy here. Needle Worm will force your opponent to mil 5 of their cards, and your Man-Eater Bug will destroy any monster on your opponent's field. But, you do need some added protection to bring out your bigger monsters."

"Well what do you reccomend?" The Slfer asked. He was slightly shorter than Yuki, and had dark hair that fell in front of his eyes.

Yuki thought for a moment. "Try DNA Surgery, that will switch all monsters summoned to insects, and play Insect Barrier which will prevent you from being attacked by insect monsters. That should give you enough time to bring out one of your stronger monsters, like your Insect Queen or either of your Greath Moth cards."

"A good strategy." Bastion supplied from the seat next to Yuki. "And your Insect Queen will grow stronger each time she inflicts damage, due to her effect of becoming stronger with each insect monster on the field, and supplying you with insect tokens."

"And." Alexis supplied from the seat just behind Yuki. "You can use Pinch Hopper and Eradicating Erisol to bring out Insect Queen faster."

"Oh by the way Yuki." Bastion began, giving the Slifer a curious look. "Where are Jaden and Cyrus?"

Yuki tilted his head. "I'm not sure. I knocked on their door, but there was no response. My guess is they're still asleep."

"Well they'll be late if they don't hurry." Alexis said, looking disapproving at this news.

"Yeah, tell me about it…" Yuki sighed. "It wouldn't be good for them, if they ended up getting detention on their first-oh never mind."

As if on cue, Jaden, Cyrus, and Chumley ran into the classroom. All three looked rather winded, especially Chumley who looked like he had just run a marathon. Though with his body type, a little exercise may be good for him.

Classes on the first day consisted of dueling history and philosophy, which was taught by the head of Slifer, Professor Lymen Banner. He explained to the class that the game of Duel Monsters was originally played in ancient Egypt with stone tablets instead of cards.

'Only half true Professor.' Yuki thought to himself as Professor Banner continued his lecture on the ancient games. Having bared witness to Pharoah Atem's memories, Yuki knew something else about the game of Duel Monsters. That there were creatures that were not summoned by the stone tablets, but by the person's own life force. However, thinking it would be incredibly rude to interrupt Professor Banner's lecure, especially on the first day, Yuki did not speak up about his point.

Then there was Dr. Crowler's class. The head of Obelisk taught the finer points of the modern game of Duel Monsters: Attributes, monster types, the difference between normal and flip-effects, dueling strategies ect…

"Now then." Crowler began, glancing at Jaden who like in every class that day, had fallen asleep, and giving the Slifer a disgusted and offended look. "Who can tell me what O.T.K stands for, and what it consists of?"

Crowler cast a look around the class, a smile formed on his face when he saw all of his Obelisk students had their hands raised. He gave a nod of approval to several of the Ra's, and a shocked expression formed on his face when he saw one of the Slifer's had their hand in the air. "Oh, very well. Please answer Mr…?"

"Hyoudou Sir." Yuki said getting to his feet. "Yuki Hyoudou."

'Interesting … so this is the Slifer student Kai mentioned earlier this morning. The circumstances of his chosen dorm are interesting, but let's see how well he answers this question.' Crowler thought before speaking again. "Very well, continue Mr. Hyoudou."

"O.T.K stands for; one turn kill. It's a strategy for winning the duel in one decisive turn." Yuki paused for a moment, before continuing his explenation. "The most common way is to reduce your opponent's points to zero with a powerful monster. Say someone uses … I don't know … Power Bond in conjunction with three Cyber Dragons. But that strategy comes with a risk. Someone could activate Threatening Roar, or use Mirror Force, Magic Cyllinder, Draining Shield, or Negate Attack."

There was a lot of soft murmuring around the class, most notably coming from the Obelisk section of the classroom, before Yuki continued. "Exodia is another way, but that's really more of an instant win rather than a one turn kill. Last Turn is a decent way to score a one turn kill, especially if you back your own monster up with quick play attack boosts like Battle Fusion."

"Alright Mr. Hyoudou, you've made your point." Crowler said, though he was trying his hardest to not sound impressed. 'Kai was right. This boy should certainly not be a Slifer. I'll have to talk with him after class and ask him why for myself.'

Unbeknownst to Dr. Crowler and the rest of the class, they were being watched by two other students both dressed in Obelisk Blue uniforms. One male and one female.

"Okay, so this kid knows what he's talking about." The female Obelisk said. She had dark purple eyes, and her hair which matched the color of her eyes fell almost to the middle of her back. "I don't see the trouble with crowds you mentioned earlier."

"It's when he duels." Kai said, as Crowler angrily woke up Jaden and Cyrus. Beginning to berate them for sleeping in his class. "I saw it at the practical exam, and he kinda froze up after our duel the other day."

"So what do you want me to do about it?" The female asked, looking slightly annoyed. "I don't think I'll be of any help here."

"What I want you to do, is duel him after classes let out for the day." Kai said simply, making his friend look at him like he was crazy.

"Are you kidding me? With the deck I play, I'll crush him."

"Look, I just want to help him get over his phobia of crowds when he duels. I doubt it would matter to Yuki weather he won or lost against you, so long as this worked." Kai said, making the female Obelisk sigh.

"Fine Kai, but if this backfires, don't blame me."

"Mr. Hyoudou, I'd like a word with you in private." Crowler said so only Yuki would hear, as the rest of the class got up to leave the rather large classroom.

Yuki gulped nervously. His first day here, and already a teacher was holding him behind. Was this because of his answer about one turn kills?

"It's been brought to my attention that even though you're in Slifer, you clearly shouldn't be." Dr. Crowler began, his fingers lacing together under his chin. "Care to explain why that is?"

Yuki breathed a sigh of relief. So he wasn't in trouble about his answer after all. "It's because of my twin sister Yumei. We planned on entering Duel Academy together … but she was involved in that bullet train accident in Domino City."

Dr. Crowler visibly winced. "Yes I heard about that. Thankfully there were no fatalities, though there were plenty of injuries. And your twin sister was one of them?"

"Yes sir." Yuki answered and continued. "You see, I requested to be in Slifer because Yumei couldn't make it to the practical exams. Allow me to explain a further Sir. Chancellor Sheppard agreed to let Yumei attend the academy, as she's scheduled to be released from the hospital by the end of the week. However since she couldn't make it to the practicals, I felt it wouldn't be fair if I was placed in Ra, as that's only one promotion duel away from becoming an Obelisk. And I do know how things work on the island, that all new students have to be placed into Slifer and work their way up."

Crowler's eyes widened in realization. "You asked to be put in Slifer for the sake of your sister?"

"Yes Sir." Yuki answered. "I didn't want her to feel like I was already ahead of her by being a Ra. So until after Yumei get's here, I'm not taking a promotion to Ra or Obelisk."

Crowler gave Yuki a very rare smile. "You have a good heart Mr. Hyoudou. I expect great things from you."

"Yuki." Hearing his name as he exited the class, made Yuki start in surprise. He whirled to his right to see Kai approaching him. "There you are, come with me."

"H-hey wait, where are we going Kai?" Yuki asked, as Kai grabbed his arm and pulled him off somewhere.

"We're gonna work on that problem with crowds you seem to have." Kai said, causing Yuki's face to blanch.

"Oh no… Kai you aren't thinking what I think you are…"

To Yuki's horror, Kai was thinking exactly what Yuki was afraid Kai was thinking. The older Obelisk had led him to the academy's dueling arena, which was currently packed with people. And standing in the middle of the arena, on a slightly raised platform was the same Obelisk female Kai had been speaking with about dueling Yuki earlier.

"Kai…" Yuki moaned, his face now drained of most of its color.

"Relax Yuki." There was a smile on Kai's face as he spoke, and led him onto the platform in the middle of the arena.

"Yeah… easy for you to say. You don't have a phobia of large crowds." Yuki said, feeling like the best thing to do would be to tuck tail and run.

"Kai, this is a bad idea. He looks like he's about to pass out." There was a note of sympathy in the female Obelisk's voice.

Kai sighed. "Yuki, right now I want you focus on one thing only."

"What's that…?" Yuki asked, as his legs began to shake.

"Just focus on this duel." Kai said, giving Yuki an encouraging smile. "It's not about beating her today, as she's not your true opponent."

"Oh jeez, thanks Kai." The female Obelisk scowled playfully at Kai.

"Look." Kai said, waving away her words. "Just focus on dueling her and that alone. Think you can do that?"

"I guess we'll find out…" Yuki replied shakily.

Kai chuckled lightly clapping Yuki on the shoulder. "Tell you what, I'll throw in one of by Blue-Eyes if you can get through this."

Yuki looked at Kai like he was crazy. "Are you-?"

"Oh yeah." Kai smiled.

"Hey, you two done talking? Because I'm getting bored over here."

"Y-yeah…" Yuki said, taking a deep breath and slipping his duel disk on. "Whenever you are… I'm sorry, I didn't get your name."

"It's Fujin Hibiki." She replied activating her duel disk. "Now are you ready or not?"

"Yeah. I'm ready."

"Duel!"

Yuki-LP 4000

Fujin-LP 4000

"Alright, since I was forced into this duel, I'll draw first." Yuki said, his hand shaking as he drew his sixth card. 'Okay Yuki, just listen to what Kai said. It's not about winning, it's just about focusing on this duel.' "I'll summon Horus Level 4 in attack mode!"

A small metallic looking phoenix appeared in front of Yuki. Atk-1600 Def-1000. "Then I'll set a card face down, and call it a turn.

"Alright, well then it's my draw. And I'll start off by summoning this! My Element Valkyrie in attack mode!" A woman with pale skin, red and blue colored armor and a staff that looked as if it was both burning and freezing materialized in front of Fujin. Atk-1500 Def-1200. "And that's not all, because thanks to one of her effects, if there's a fire monster on the field like say… your Horus, then my Valkyrie gets an additional 500 attack!"

"Not good." Bastion said from up in the crowd, seated next to Alexis. "Now that Valkyrie has 2000 attack."

"No kidding." Alexis said. "And now Yuki's gonna be unable to capitalize on Horus' effect."

Fujin smirked. "Now go Valkyrie! Destroy Horus!"

The Valkyrie shot a stream of fire at Horus, but when the flames cleared Horus was still standing, which shocked not only Fujin but the rest of the crowd. "What just happened? My Valkyrie has more attack points than your Horus."

"It did." Yuki said, a touch of a nervous edge in his voice. "But then I played this: the quick play card Shrink."

Fujin looked shocked. "B-but that will cut my monster's attack by half…"

Element Valkyrie Atk-2000-1000

"Which is means this can happen. Horus, destroy Element Valkyrie!" Yuki ordered his dragon, who blasted the Valkyrie into pieces with a stream of black fire.

Fujin-LP 3400

"And since Horus inflicted battle damage to you, I can special summon a stronger version. Rise, Horus Level 6!" At Yuki's words, a larger version of the metallic phoenix rose where the smaller one had been moments before. Atk-2600 Def-1600.

"Not bad, looks like Kai's advice is already taking effect." Fujin said with a smile. "Okay then, I'll set two cards face down, and end my turn." Two other cards appeared face down in front of Fujin as her turn ended.

"Alright, my draw."

"And you triggered my trap! Threatening Roar!" One of Fujin's face down cards was revealed, causing a loud roar to eminate from the card. "And now you're unable to attack me this turn!"

"Smart play." Bastion said, nodding in his approval. "Now she'll have another turn to put something together."

"Alright… So then I'll do this." Yuki revealed a card to Fujin. "By sending this Thunder Dragon I have in my hand, I can get two more Thunder Dragons in my hand. Then, I'll play Pollymariation, and merge the two Thunder Dragons together and fusion summon my Twin-Headed Thunder Dragon!"

A rumble of thunder echoed around the arena, dark cloud formed above Yuki which unleashed a large bolt of lightning. It struck the ground in front of the Slifer student, and when the lightning had vanished, a large orange scaled dragon with identical heads was standing next to Horus. Atk-2800 Def-2100.

"And to end my turn, I'll set another card face down."

"Okay then." Fujin said, drawing her next card. "I'll play Pot of Greed allowing me to draw two cards." Fujin drew two more cards from her deck and smirked. "Okay, first I'll play the spell card Nightmare Steel Cage!"

A large domed cage surrounded Yuki and his monsters, causing the Slifer's eyes widen in shock

"Now unfortunately, this means neither of us get to attack until the end of your second turn, but I can still do this. I'll play the spell card Double Summon, allowing me to normal summon twice this turn, so I'll summon Queens Knight, and my Kings Knight!"

Two formidable looking monsters appeared on Fujin's side of the field. A female and a fierce looking male both clad in regal looking armor.

Queens Knight Atk-1500 Def-1600

King's Knight Atk-1500 Def-1400

"And since my two monsters are on my field, I can summon Jack's Knight!" At Fujin's call a third monster, the youngest of the royal knight trio appeared between the two other warriors. Atk-1900 Def-1000. "That'll end my turn."

'This is weird. I get the feeling she's just toying with me. Like she's setting me up for something really big. I'm gonna have to be really careful about how I do things now. Okay for now, let's just focus on getting Horus Level 8 out on the field.' Yuki thought to himself as he drew his next card. "Okay, first I'm gonna set another card face down, and then I'll attack your King's Knight with Horus!"

"Hold on, you can't attack! Nightmare Steel Cage is still up!" Fujin said shocked at Yuki's decision to attack, and the knowing looks on both his and Kai's face.

"Sorry, but thanks to Horus' effect, he's immune to the effects of my opponent's spell cards." Yuki explained. "Now Horus, destroy King's Knight!"

Horus roared, and blasted the monster away with its black fire.

Fujin-LP 2300

"And now, horus becomes stronger! Rise, Horus Level 8!" As Horus Level 6 vanished, its strongest version appeared. It roared, and took flight around the ring to land behind Yuki. Atk-3000 Def-1800

"Amazing, he had that card in his deck?" Bastion asked in astonishment.

"Woah, that's a sweet card!" Jaden said, as he and Cyrus had just joined Bastion and Alexis. Having arrived late, since they had fallen asleep almost as soon as Crowler had finished yelling at them for sleeping in his class.

"Yeah, and the best part is that Yuki doesn't look as nervous as he was when this duel started." Alexis said, as she was joined by her two friends Jasmine, who was an Obelisk female with dark hair, and Mindy who was an Obelisk with brown hair.

Jasmine let out an unamused huff. "Well he's gonna be in for it."

"Yeah." Mindy supplied. "Especially if Fu can pull off her one turn kill move."

"Not bad, but unfortunately for you my trap activates." Fujin said, revealing one of her face down cards. "Call Of The Haunted, now my King's Knight comes back to my field, and it's my turn so I draw." Fujin smiled at the card she had just drawn. "You played well Yuki, I'll give you that, but this duel is over. I activate the spell card Ride Of the Valkyries!"

"That's it!" Mindy exclaimed in excitement. "She drew her one turn kill card!"

"Now I'm immune to damage until the start of my next battle phase, and I can attack you with all the Valkyrie cards in my deck!" Fujin smiled, as she inserted the card into her duel disk making all the students present gasp in shock.

"Sorry Fujin, but that's not happening!" Yuki said, which puzzled Fujin.

"What do you mean?" She asked tilting her head.

"Horus' effect allows me to negate and destroy one of your spell cards during either player's turn. So tell Heimdall to hold off on summoning the Bifrost, because your spell card is going straight to Valhalla!"

Horus roared, and destroyed Fujin's card with a burst of it's black fire.

"Hey, that's unfair!" Mindy huffed angrily, which only made Alexis shake her head.

"This guy is good. Way too good to only be a Slifer."

"Okay, well then if I can summon my Valkyries, I'll go to Plan B. I sacrifice all three monsters on my field, and summon Gilford The Lightning!"

"Oh crap…" Yuki groaned, as the three knights dissolved, and a heavily muscled warrior with a large blade took their place. Atk-2800 Def-1400

"Oh, and did I mention his special effect?" Fujin asked, though her question was rather rhetorical. "When he's summoned he destroys all monsters my opponent has."

"Oh no…" Both Horus and Twin-Headed Thunder Dragon let out anguished cries as they were destroyed. "Okay… okay, that was a pretty good Plan B, but two can play at this game. I have my own Call Of The Haunted trap card, so my Thunder Dragon is coming right back."

As if on cue, the large orange scaled dragon came back onto Yuki's side of the field. "And until the end of my next turn, your monster can't attack. And with no other cards in your hand, you've really got nothing left. So It's my turn now, and I'll play the Pot Of Greed I just drew."

Yuki smirked, as he saw the cards he had drawn. "Okay, first I'll play my Mystical Space Typhoon and destroy your Steel Cage, and I chain that with my next face down card. DNA Surgery! With this, all monsters summoned to the field are now dragon monsters!"

At Yuki's words, Fujin's Nightmare Steel Cage vanished, and her Gilford had taken on a more draconic appearance. "Now I'll activate both cards I drew with Pot Of Greed! First off, is the spell card; Emblem Of A Legendary Warrior! Now I can add a Buster Blader from my deck to my hand. So I bring Buster Blader The Legendary Warrior into my hand since he's treated as Buster Blader. Next I'll play the field spell card Fusion Gate, now there's no need for my Pollymarization spell card. Finally I'll fuse my Buster Blader with my Thunder Dragon, and I'll bring out Buster Blader The Dragon Slayer Swordsman!"

Everyone in the crowd gasped when Yuki summoned his monster. It looked similar to a normal Buster Blader, but with silver colored armor and golden trimmings. Atk-2800 Def-2500.

"And there's more." Yuki explained. "While my monster can't attack you directly, he does gain an additional 1000 attack points for each dragon monster you control."

Fujin gasped in shock. "And with your DNA Surgery on the field…"

Buster Blader Atk-3800 "Also Fujin, my monster also forces yours to enter into defense mode. And unfortunately for you, you will take damage due to Buster Blader's piercing effect."

Kai couldn't help the smile that was forming on his face. Even though he had told Yuki he didn't have to win, he was proud that he was about to. "Do it Yuki."

"Buster Blader, attack Gilford!" Yuki ordered his monster, who cleaved the now draconic warrior in half with its blade, with the attack following through and hitting Fujin.

Fujin-LP 0000

The crowd gathered, exploded into cheers and applause as the holograms faded. And Yuki felt Kai's arm wrap around his shoulders. "See? What did I tell you, just focus on the duel and the crowd is no problem!"

"Y-yeah…" Yuki chuckled nervously, especially when Kai discretely slipped a card into his hand, which was undoubtedly The Blue-Eyes he had promised Yuki.

"Not bad Yuki." Fujin said, applauding the Slifer along with everyone else in the arena as she approached both him and Kai. "Looks like Kai was right, about you being an incredibly strong duelist."

"Told you." Kai laughed, ruffling Yuki's hair.

Up in one of the open entrances to the arena, Dr. Crowler stood slightly out of sight, having been watching since the start of the duel. 'Yes, I see why Kai lost yesterday even if he was just using a newly constructed deck. Under normal circumstances, Yuki should be recommended for a promotion, however I know he'll refuse. At least until his sister arrives. I expect great things from you Mr. Hyoudou.'

"Great duel Yuki!" Jaden high-fived his friend, as he had rushed the stage along with Cyrus and Chumley. Alexis, and Bastion however were taking a far calmer approach.

"Good show indeed." Bastion said, shaking Yuki's hand in congratulations when he'd reached him.

"There is one thing I want to know though." Alexis mused. "You don't duel like someone who should be placed in Slifer Red. So why are you in that dorm?"

"Now it all makes sense." Bastion said. The large group was just outside the main building of the academy, having listened to Yuki explain exactly why he was in Slifer.

"Yeah… it does…" Yuki wheezed due to the rib cracking hug Fujin had him in. "Someone help… lungs… collapsing."

"Fu, let him go." Kai said trying not to laugh.

Yuki let out a grateful gasp of air when Fujin finally released him from her iron grip. "Doctors say she'll be safe to travel by the end of this week, so she'll be here either on one of our days off, or by the end of the school day on Monday."

"Well." Kai began. "If she duels like you, the competition is gonna be intense this year.