Chapter 28: Arrival of North Academy
"I believe that we may have been compromised." Banner stated. He was talking to a man via voice call on his computer. It was well past midnight, and his cat Pharaoh was sleeping on the floor.
"Why do you suspect that Banner?" The man on the monitor asked.
"Today after classes ended, Zane requested to speak with me about a rumor he heard regarding the disappearance of the students."
"You believe he heard that you were responsible?"
"I do. And I also believe that it was those three boys who told him that."
The man on the monitor said nothing for a little while. "Why would they tell Zane that information if they intend to join The Shadow Riders."
"As I said, those three boys can't be trusted. I suggest we eliminate them as soon as possible."
"Perhaps we should. But we don't know if they were the ones who told Zane that information. Along with that, we can still use them to hasten the awakening of the Sacred Beasts. We'll eliminate them when they fufilled their purpose. If they ever show future signs of betrayal however, that's when you'll eliminate them. However, we can't let Zane Truesdale live. Eliminate him after the School Duel, Banner."
Banner sighed. He opened up his drawer, and took a look at the book inside. His Shadow Charm, which allowed him to to keep the souls and bodies of others within it. "Very well. Jinzo isn't a skilled enough duelist to defeat somebody like Zane however. I suppose I'll be the one dueling him then Kagemaru?" Within the Shadow Charm was the spirit of Jinzo. As Jinzo didn't have a body in this plane, and the Invader of Darkness was hunting Jinzo down in his home dimension, keeping him inside the book allowed Jinzo to be safe for the time being.
"Unfortunately so. This will hasten the destruction of your body, but it might be necessary."
Banner thought for a little while before smiling. "I just thought of an idea Kagemaru. A way to eliminate Zane, and possibly even those boys. We'll give the two who want to become Shadow Riders a test."
"You mean send the boys to duel Zane Truesdale?"
"Correct. Zane's a dueling genius, but Scott and Damian are very skilled as well. If they team up against Zane, even if they can't defeat him, Zane will at the very least have trouble."
"But Zane's somebody we need to eliminate as soon as possible Banner." Kagemaru pointed out.
Banner smiled. "Don't worry Kagemaru, I assure you that it'll work out."
Chazz was on the skydeck of the North Academy submarine, looking towards the sea. It was a dark, cold night, clouds completely obscuring the sky. 'It's time. Soon, Duel Academy will regret mocking me.'
A transparent image of a small yellow creature with eyestalks and a red bikini bottom popped up next to Chazz. "Gee boss, you've been deep in thought for a long time. Whatcha thinking about?"
Chazz groaned. "None of your business." Ever since he met this Ojama Yellow thing near North Academy, it wouldn't piss off. Apparently, some Duel Monsters cards had spirits inside them. Unfortunately for Chazz, rather than having something badass like a giant dragon for a spirit monster, he had this annoying pipsqueak with no attack points and no effect.
"Come on boss, we're partners right? And partners need to be open with each other?"
"You want me to be open? Alright, how's this? You're an obnoxious twerp whose only use is death bait, and not a single day goes by without me wishing that I never met you! If you at least had a decent effect like Jaden's Winged Kuriboh card maybe tolerating you would be easier, but you don't even have that going for you. What purpose is there to a having a weakling like you as my partner?"
"Come on boss! I know that I'm weak, but I can be really useful! If we just find my brothers, you'll see!"
"Chazz, is something wrong? It's odd to be up on the skydeck so late." Chazz turned around and saw a half bald middle aged man with spiky black hair on the back of his head walk up to him. He was wearing an orange and brown sweater, and a white headband.
"It's nothing Chancellor Foster." Chazz replied. "Just preparing myself for when I crush Jaden in the School Duel."
Foster nodded. "That's the kind of confidence I like to see in you Chazz. Shame that you couldn't get your revenge on that Damian fellow though."
Chazz looked back at the sea. "I can live with it for now. Damian was the straw that broke the camel's back, but Jaden is what led the school to start disrespecting me." Chazz clenched his fist.
Foster nodded, and turned back. "Bring pride to North Academy Chazz." Foster headed back to the inside of the submarine.
"Pride to North Academy huh..." Chazz took out the deck in his pocket. The deck Foster gave him for the School Duel. In all honesty, Chazz was fairly indifferent to his current school. It was great to be treated with respect of course. But North Academy didn't really have anything that made him want to stay around. Other than Czar, and apparently some student studying overseas named Jesse, every duelist at the Academy was a pushover. It was fun to steamroll everybody for a little while, but it would be pretty boring after the School Duel. The school being in the Arctic as opposed to a tropical island didn't exactly help. If it weren't for the fact that North Academy allowed him to get revenge on Central Duel Academy, Chazz would probably be looking to transfer to one of the other Duel Academies.
But at the same time, he was grateful to North Academy. It's unorthodox method of enrollment allowed him to prove himself, both as a person, and a duelist. He lost his pride and his deck, and had to battle polar bears, sharks and bats to acquire scattered cards around North Academy to make a new deck. And the monsters in said constructed deck were weaklings, with no monsters having more than 1500 attack points. But despite the odds, he climbed to the top of North Academy, and was rewarded a prized deck. He truly climbed out of the depths of hell.
"Gee boss, you look like you're trying to go for the world record for staring."
Chazz ignored Ojama Yellow, and put the deck back in his pocket. "Just you wait Duel Academy. Soon it'll be time...time to Chazz it up!" Chazz raised his fist in the air.
"...You know boss, I gotta be honest with you, that chant really isn't that good."
"Get lost already."
"Seto, you can't be serious!" Mokuba yelled.
Kaiba ignored his younger brother, and walked inside the elevator, holding a cellphone in his ear. "I'm on my way."
Mokuba followed his brother inside. "Look, Pegasus told us he confiscated that one guy's Blue-Eyes deck. There's no need to go this far!"
Kaiba hung up hsi cell phone. "That student believes he has the right to negotiate with me about keeping his deck. He has to learn his place Mokuba." The elevator doors closed and started to head down.
"But to take that out on countless students too? Besides, you know that those two can't be trusted!"
"Of course I know that. But I can get some use out of those wannabe rulers."
Soon, the elevator doors opened. Waiting at the lobby were two young men dressed in black suits. One with short brown hair and the other with long black hair and a beard. They both had a smile on their face that oozed a false sense of politeness. "Seto Kaiba. Glad that you decided to reach out to me and Jagger." The man with long black hair stated.
"Let's continue discussions on our way to Duel Academy Princeton."
Damian stood at the harbor, looking out to the sea. He was currently the only student there. Not too surprising since North Academy wouldn't arrive for almost half an hour. "Today's the day Chazz will be arriving." Damian took a breath. He was wondering whether or not Chazz would be willing to be friends with him again all week. 'I really messed up. Because of me, Chazz felt like he would never be respected even if he avoided demotion...damnit...'
Damian picked up a rock and tossed it into the sea. 'I didn't even try to protest Ghassan's plan on getting him and Bastion brainwashed. I'm not comfortable with sabotaging this world, but I don't do anything to try and save it either. I'm such a coward.'
"Alea ickta ist...no that's not right. Alea iata est?" Damian turned around and saw Bastion walk toward the harbor. He was closing his eyes, and holding a book in hand, probably trying to test himself on the book's contents.
"Hey Bastion, what's up?"
Bastion's eyes shot open. "Cogito ergo sum!" Bastion snapped his fingers in frustration. "Blast it, that's a different phrase entirely!"
"Umm...what are you doing?" Damian asked.
"Oh, hello Damian. I'm currently trying to teach myself Latin."
"Oh. Any reason for it, or do you just want to learn it for the heck of it?"
Bastion sighed. "I wish I could say the latter. But in truth, ever since Adrian Gecko arrived at Duel Academy, I felt as if my position of most academically talented first year was at risk."
"Don't you and Adrian both get perfect scores for written assignments and tests?" Damian asked.
"True. But, who knows how long that will last? I recently found out that Adrian is fluent in six languages. Six! And he even knows morse code! Meanwhile, I only know English and Japanese." Bastion took a look at the book he was reading from. "Right, it's alea iacta est. How could I forget? At this rate, Adrian will leave me in the dust in regards to academics."
"Umm...dude? I really doubt Duel Academy is gonna have you do tests about morse code, or latin, or stuff like that. There aren't any language courses at this academy."
"It's the principle of the thing! Besides, as much as I hate to admit it, he's proven to be superior to me in dueling. The least I can do is try to best him in academics."
"You dueled Adrian?"
Bastion shool his head. "No, but I can't calculate a strategy to overcome him. From what I saw, no matter how I try to counter his deck, it's as if he has three more contingiencies in play. He almost always outmanuevers strategies for how to beat him with that Cloudian deck."
Adrian was facing an Obelisk Blue with wavy black hair inside the Obelisk Blue boy's dorm. On Adrian's side of the field was a facedown card and a humanoid shaped cloud monster with four Fog counters on it. On the other Obelisk's side was the activated trap Light of Intervention and a muscular yellow monster with cybernetics. Bastion was watching while sitting on a couch.
"Adrian seems prepared for any lock." Bastion narrated to Damian.
"Now that I summoned The Last Warrior from Another Planet (2350/2350) all other monsters on the field are destroyed! And due to Last Warrior's effectr, you can't normal, flip, or special summon monsters while Light of Intervention prevents you from even setting any! That means you won't be able to put ANY monsters on the field on your turn!" The obelisk bragged.
"Before that happens, I activate my trap card, Rainstorm to reduce Nimbusman's attack by 2000 to destroy two cards on the field! And guess which ones I'm picking" Adrian stated.
Adrian's opponent gasped in disbelief. An aura surronded Nimbusman before a storm of water blew towards his opponent's cards (Cloudian-Nimbusman 3000-1000/1000) before a storm of water destroyed both of the Obelisk's cards.
Adrian was dueling an Obelisk Blue girl with glasses and long orange hair in front of the girls dorm. On Adrian's side of the field was four Cloudian Sheep tokens, a facedown card, an activated Natural Disaster and an activated Fiendish Chain. On the girl's side of the field was two facedown cards, the spell card Swords of Revealing Light, a woman with a red robe and long white hair that was wrapped in chains, Fire Princess (1300/1500) and a mermaid with long blonde hair and a tiara, Cure Mermaid (1500/800). Once again, Bastion was watching from the sidelines.
"Able to counter any burn deck."
"I activate both of my trap cards, Just Deserts! You remember when you used this card against that Damian guy right? You take 500 damage for each monster you control! Since you control four, and I activated two of them, you're taking 4000 damage all at once!" The girl stated.
"Sorry. I activate my trap card, Nature's Reflection. This turn, any effect damage that would have been dealt to me is redirected at you instead." Adrian replied.
"No way!" Two streams of purple energy headed towards Adrian, but a large stone wall appeared in the way. The energy was reflected off the wall, and headed back towards Adrian's opponent. (1200-0)
Adrian was facing agaisnt Alexis in the Obelisk Blue Duel Arena. Bastion, along with Jasmine, Mindy, and multiple other Obelisks were all watching from the bleachers. On Alexis' side of the field was Cyber Angel Dakini (2700) and Cyber Blader (2100/800). On Adrian's side of the field was Cloudian-Poison Cloud (0/1000) in defense mode, a facedown card, and the activated Natural Disaster. (Adrian 900/Alexis 1000)
"Even if you take his spells and traps into account, he'll seem to be prepared."
'The combination of Poison Cloud and Natural Disaster would wipe out the rest of my life points if I attack it. I need to get rid of that trap card before I attack.' Alexis drew a card, looked at it, and smiled. "I activate Twin Twisters. By discarding a card in my hand, I can destroy up to two spell or trap cards on the field." Alexis stated. She discarded a copy of Blade Skater before two twisters headed towards Adrian's cards."
"Alright! With Natural Diaster gone, Alexis will have enough life points to take out Adrian, even with that Poison Cloud monster of his!" Jasmine cheered.
"I activate my counter trap, Judgment of Anubis. By discarding a card, I can negate the effect of a spell or trap card you activated that would destroy a spell or trap I control. Then I can destroy one of your monsters, and inflict damage to you equal to it's attack points! I destroy Dakini!" Adrian declared.
Jasmine and Mindy gasped. Alexis just sighed in disappointment. A sinister violent energy surrounded the Cyber Angel before it exploded. (Alexis 1000-0)
"I hate to admit it, but he's above my league at the moment."
"Ok, but if you never even dueled him, you can't tell for sure that he's better than you." Damian pointed out.
"I also never dueled Yugi Muto, but I think it's clear who would win in a duel." Bastion replied.
Damian sighed. "Ok, so Adrian might be better than you at dueling, something that you can't be certain about might I add. So what? Didn't Scott tell you about how you shouldn't worry too much about being the top freshman?"
Bastion sat down next to Damian. "Well...I suppose. It's just that I don't feel like I truly earned my way into Obelisk Blue."
"You're kidding right?"
"No, I'm not. Chazz forfeited the duel against me, so I was promoted without having to go through any test. I took the triangle duel as a way to prove that I truly earned my position, but I end up in last place." Bastion clenched his fist. "Prodigies such as Jaden and Zane make names for themselves, yet I never truly shined at this academy."
Damian raised an eyebrow. Even during the first year of Duel Academy, Bastion felt like he wasn't truly respected. "Dude, you're a genius both academically and dueling wise. You beat me, and you had Scott and Jaden on the ropes in the triangle duel plenty of times. You earned your spot in Obelisk Blue more than the majority of the students who were in it before you."
"Thank you Damian." Bastion said. Though Damian could tell that Bastion wasn't completely convinced.
"Still, if you did win you'd be able to get that duel with Chazz that you missed."
"Huh? How are you sure that Chazz is the representative? North Academy only revealted that it would be a first year student."
Damian widened his eyes, resisting the urge to smack himself. How many times would his big mouth get him into trouble? "I heard it from a cousin of mine, Ahmed, who left North Academy a couple weeks ago. The school was too tough for Ahmed, being in the Arctic and all."
Bastion was stunned. "So, Chazz will be dueling Jaden in the-"
Damian heard a vibration in his pocket. "Oh, sorry man. Gotta check my PDA." Damian got it out and checked his messages, relieved to get out of the conversation. 'It's from Professor Banner.' Damian noticed.
"'Duel Zane Truesdale tomorrow.'" Scott read. "'If you boys are able to make him struggle enough, you'll pass your extra credit assignment.' Huh. Looks like he wants us to eliminate Zane." He and Ghassan were walking from the Slifer Red dorm to the harbor. They were busy discussing in Ghassan's dorm room, so they were late.
"And he worded it as if it was an assignment so that even if we show it to others, it wouldn't really harm him." Ghassan stated. "Ugh, I was hoping we could have just sent the screenshots to Sheppard and get Banner fired and arrested by now."
"Remember what Adrian said." Scott replied. After getting the emails that proved Banner was part of the Shadow Riders and responsible for the disappearance of the missing students, Ghassan wanted to send them to Sheppard right away. However, Adrian told him to wait until after Scott and Damian got in the Shadow Riders as Banner was their only way to get in the group. So they just saved a few emails as screenshots, and sent a screenshot to Zane that shown that Banner knew more info about the missing students, but the screenshot wasn't quite incriminating enough to show that Banner was responsible for it. "We need Banner at the moment. Then when we get in the Shadow Riders, we drop him."
Ghassan nodded. "And it looks like to get in the Shadow Riders, you and Damian will be facing off against Zane."
Scott thought for a little bit. "Odds are, he thinks Zane knows too much. Zane must have questioned him about the students after we sent the screenshot to him."
"And if that's the case, that means Banner doesn't want you to just BEAT Zane."
Scott sighed. "Looks like I'll be intentionally killing somebody this time. But what about Damian? He's trying to be a Shadow Rider too."
"Banner probably wants you two to gang up on Zane. Still...I don't think I can trust him with this." Ghassan replied.
"He didn't accept my powers anyway like you two did, so he wouldn't be able to absorb his soul anyway." The Light's voice said in the heads of Ghassan and Scott.
The two walked in silence for a few more minutes before coming to the harbor. There, they saw Chancellor Sheppard, Dr Crowler, and countless Duel Academy students, including Jaden, Syrus, Bastion, Alexis, Zane, Adrian, and Damian. They also saw a submarine by a harbor which several young men exited from along with a nearly bald old man standing by Sheppard. The North Academy students and their headmaster. There didn't seem to be any real dress code as they were wearing jackets in different shades of various colors of brown, black, grey. And in the center was a familiar face. Wearing a black jacket was Chazz Princeton. "Looks like they came." Ghassan stated as they reached the harbor.
Damian noticed the two arrive. "Geez, you guys are even later than Jaden" Damian whispered.
"It's you? YOU'RE North Academy's duel rep?!" Jaden asked Chazz in shock. "Since when did you transfer?!"
"Since I stopped getting the respect I deserved here." Chazz replied.
"That's right!" Two North Academy students said at the same time.
"Yea. Now iz payback. You won't give him respect so he'll take it." A tall muscular student with a goatee and Russian accent stated.
"He'll Chazz you up."
"Big time." Chazz stated.
"Looks like Chazz replaced you, Topher, and Conklin with new flunkies." Scott whispered to Damian.
Chazz turned to Damian and gave him a silent glare. Damian caught this, and looked away in shame before Chazz turned back to Jaden. "Time for some payback."
Adrian felt a prickle of annoyance seeing Chazz. Back before Adrian dueled Yubel, he faced against Chazz when he was invited to Central Academy. Throughout the whole duel, Chazz was on his high horse about how Adrian never had to struggle while Chazz fell to the bottom and climbed his way back to the top. Of course, Chazz knew nothing about Adrian and just assumed he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. 'Figures it wouldn't be long before I had to see that egotistical brat again. I know that this duel has no impact on our plans, but I really hope Jaden crushes him.'
"So, when will his brothers be arriving?" Ghassan whispered to Damian.
As if on cue, everybody started to hear the sound of helicopter blades as a gust of wind was being picked up. "There's your answer!" Damian replied.
Chazz looked up in the air and saw two helicopters. In one of them were two men that were all too familiar to him.
"What's going on little brother?!" Slade asked from the air.
"Slade?! Jagger?! What are you doing here?!"
"To wish our little brother good luck in his duel of course!" Jagger replied. The two helicopters touched down and the men got out of their helicopter. "And to deliver some pretty important news to your schools."
'Wait, important news? Is he talking about how the duel's gonna be broadcasted live?' Damian thought.
A yellow crane was moved in front of the helicopter the brother's exited from, a cameraman filming them. "Alright, we're in perfect position for you!"
"About time." A voice from the helicopter said. From deeper inside the helicopter, a man that was all too familiar exited, to the shock of everybody at the harbor.
"Is that...Seto Kaiba?!" Adrian asked in shock.
Damian, Ghassan, and Scott were stunned. For the second time this school year, Kaiba appeared at Duel Academy.
Kaiba smirked at the camera. "Central and North Duel Academy. This will probably come off as sudden to you but I have a few announcements to make. For starters, this duel will be broadcasted live throughout all of Japan."
"WHAAATTT?!" Jaden reacted. "You mean...my face is gonna be shown throughout the whole country?!"
"But that's not all. See, a future project of mine is costing me far more than expected. As a result, I'm going to have to make some extra cash. That's why I made a deal with the Princeton brothers."
Jagger decided it was time for him and Slade to speak up. "See, this duel isn't just gonna end with some prize to the headmaster."
"The school that loses will be bought by the Princeton Corporation!" Slade declared.
Sorry for the wait. Summer course and preparing for senior year of college really limited freetime.
Looks like out of spite towards Scott, Kaiba decided to show that he controls the fate of Duel Academy. The pressure is on Chazz and Jaden far more than they initially thought. Hope you guys enjoyed the chapter and are looking forward to the next one!
