Going Pro
Chapter 14: Amazing Opportunity
After finals ended for the school term, the students got a break from classes to relax, vacation, take up hobbies, work, or whatever else. Jesse took this opportunity to hunt down those spirit hunters that had been snatching up spirits. He searched on foot every day and even met a couple spirits he could talk to, but it appeared there weren't any spirit trappers around. It was like they moved on. He was out of luck.
Jesse was kicking himself over not tracking down the right one in time. He couldn't just go chasing either. In fact, he knew his best bet would be to become even more known in the dueling world and tempt the trappers to come after him and the spirits in his care. He didn't like that idea, it put him and his family in a vulnerable position, but he didn't have much else he could do if he intended to keep his promise.
Most every day, he also received phone calls or messages from the same handful of sponsors wanting to convince him to sign a contract with them. Jesse had been able to speak with Pegasus on the matter briefly, and was advised not to sign with anyone else yet, so he continued to ignore the calls. He was no Aster Phoenix, so he could just skip tons of school and go on accelerated learning programs between jobs to earn a PhD as if it's the simplest thing in the world. Jesse was by no means unintelligent, but he wasn't a genius either, so completing his education as he could was important.
Towards the end of his school break, the weekend before it was time to start a new set of classes, Jesse decided to be as lazy as possibly. He lied on his bed with his laptop and a bag of chips while reading dueling articles as the Crystal Beast spirits lied about as well. Some music was playing through the laptop too.
He thought nothing of it when his mother knocked on the door late in the afternoon. "Yeah?" he said and she opened the door.
"Jesse, there's someone here to see you," she said oddly.
Jesse closed his laptop. "Oh no, are the recruits are coming here now?" He did not want to be harassed at home.
"N-no, it's…" she fell silent and just pointed with a look of disbelief.
After moving his bag of chips over and setting his laptop back on his desk, he moved to the hallway and into the front room. It was the last person he expected to be standing in his house.
"Pegasus?" Jesse gawked. "What are you…?" he trailed off. He didn't want to sound rude to one of the most famous people on the planet.
"Jesse-boy, it's a pleasure to see you again, I hope you are taking good care of the Crystal Beasts," he smiled.
"Yes, sir," he said nodded. Ruby Carbuncle ran up to Jesse's shoulder and chirped at Pegasus.
"Splendid!"
"Are you just checking in?" Jesse asked. "Are you here because of the Rainbow Dragon?" Jesse's mother stood in the entry to the hallway as she listened in.
"Unfortunately my team has yet to discover its location, but there are still many places to look," he said. "I happened to be passing through your country during business and now I am on my way to Russia to pay a visit to North Academy."
"It was certainly a surprise for you to visit all of a sudden."
"I must admit this isn't just a casual visit," Pegasus began. "Just hours ago I was on the phone with the chancellor of North Academy and it appears they lost their top student to Duel Academy, not surprising since he originally came from Duel Academy, he was simply returning after the annual school duel."
Jesse nodded in understanding as he tried to remember the name of the North Academy representative he saw while watching that duel online. "Chazz… Princeton?"
"That's the one," Pegasus nodded. "And now North Academy has an opening for a transfer student, of course the chancellor is only willing to replace him with someone of equal or better skill, what do you think?"
"I guess that makes sense," Jesse said, but Pegasus laughed in response.
"About attending, Jesse-boy," Pegasus added. "It's a rare opportunity."
"Wait, me? Transfer to North Academy?" Jesse said as he processed what they were saying.
"Yes, if you want, I personally think it would help your dueling career greatly in the long run, so I, or should I said Industrial Illusions will be providing you with a full scholarship to attend. I may have you participate in some events over the next couple years, but you shouldn't have to go on tour again until extended school breaks or even until you graduate," Pegasus explained.
He could hardly believe this was happening and just about accepted instantly. Jesse looked over at his mother who stood there silently. Part of him hoped she would have some input. He tried to think, but his mind was racing.
"Do you need some time to think about it and talk it over with your family?" Pegasus asked. "If you choose to attend, the semester starts in just a week for them, so your decision would have to be quick."
"Uh…" Jesse wanted to say yes instantly and he didn't know what was holding him back. "Could you give just five minutes?" Jesse asked sheepishly.
"Of course, I'll be waiting in my car," Pegasus said and let himself out. Jesse watched him go towards a limousine that was parking in the driveway.
Jesse took a breath and looked at the spirits around him. They were going to support his decision. Then he looked towards his mother again.
"I'm going to go," he said simply. "I've already made up my mind."
She closed her eyes for a second. "I know," she said. "It sounds like an amazing opportunity, how could you pass it up?"
They were silent for several long seconds. "I know you were planning on selling the house and moving into town," he said.
"Oh," she looked down.
"Don't worry about me though," he said. "Just do what you need to do. I'll make sure my stuff is boxed up and stored myself before I go, since I won't be coming back again for a long time."
"I understand," she said quietly. "My dad always said you were going to follow the wind and go far away someday, I just didn't think it would be so soon, you're only barely sixteen."
Jesse decided he would have to visit his grandfather's grave before he left, and tell him the news. He would not be able to visit him again for a long time either, but apparently his grandfather already knew this would happen.
"I'll go talk to Pegasus now, I shouldn't keep him waiting," Jesse said and headed to the door.
Pegasus got out of the car as Jesse approached. "Judging by the look on your face, you have decided."
Jesse nodded. "Yes, I accept. Is there anything I need to do though?" Jesse wondered about an entrance exam.
"I believe you will take a placement test when you get there, but my scholarship alone means you are qualified and so you don't have any entrance exams or tests to take in get accepted."
"Alright," Jesse nodded in understand.
"So a car will arrive the day after tomorrow to take you to the airport, sorry I can't spare a private plane right now, but once you land a helicopter will take you to the academy." Pegasus turned and reached back into the vehicle. "And here is everything you need," he said as he gave Jesse a folder with the Industrial Illusions logo on it. "As you'll see when you read through it, you'll need to transfer your transcripts yourself, but everything else is taken care of."
"Wow, thanks Mr. Pegasus," Jesse said.
"Not a problem, I expect that you will do quite well there," he said. "Now I apologize my visit has to be so short, but I must be on my way."
"Right, of course," Jesse stepped back as Pegasus sat back down in the vehicle. "Thank you for this," he said. Pegasus just smiled and closed the door before the car started and left.
Jesse went back inside and sat at the kitchen table to look through the folder. It had his plane ticket, a North Academy brochure, a curriculum guide, campus map, and a guide about how to transfer. He didn't know where his mother went to, so he went to his room to start packing up everything like he said he would. He really only had today and tomorrow to take care of it as well as make sure he took care of his transfer.
It looked like there wouldn't be any time for a going away party. This transfer was sudden, but he had a good feeling about it.
The time passed by quickly. He rushed the morning he was set to leave in order to get his things to a storage unit in town. The moving van was a little late getting to his house. Then he went to his school to take care of the transfer. He tried calling during the weekend, but no one answered.
It was weird not going to class after arriving. He told Julia he would say goodbye to her in person during first passing time between classes.
"Good luck at North Academy, and be sure to email me all about it," she smiled.
"Thanks, and I will," he grinned. Before he left, they shared a friendly hug said their goodbyes.
On his way home, he stopped at the cemetery to tell the news and say goodbye to his grandfather. He also promised to come back someday and that he would be good.
By the time he got back home, there wasn't much time before the car was due to pick him up. He went to his room to get his suitcase and duffle bag so he could put them by the door. It was weird seeing his room empty. This room had always been his room, and after today, he was never going to see it again. This would become someone else's home. They might even tear it down and renovate.
"Jesse?" his mother called from the front room. Jesse closed the door of his childhood room and went to the front room.
"Yeah?" he said and put his bags down.
She frowned and held out her arms. "Come here," she said. Jesse smiled and hugged his mother. "Calling won't be enough, come back and see me someday, and don't disappear from my life," she said.
Jesse thought her words were strange. "Are you thinking about Dad?"
His mother nodded as she took a step back. "You're a lot like him too," she said. "I should confess something, about your father, in person before you go for who knows how long."
Jesse tilted his head. "What is it?"
"He talked about… spirits often," she said and Jesse's eyes widened. "Please Jesse, do not go chasing spirits like he did, I don't want you to disappear without a trace too."
Jesse didn't know what to say. "Is that what really happened?"
"It's hard to say, but I remember him saying there was a dark spirit after him for something he did when he was younger, your grandfather thought it got him, this is why you can't get involved with spirits too, you might end up in a situation you can't get out of and there's no telling what could happen to you or what the consequences could be," she said.
"But Mom, I–" he started.
"Promise me," she urged.
Jesse sighed in defeat, he was well aware he couldn't make that promise. "Alright Mom, for your sake, I promise." He hated lying to her face like that.
"Thank you, Jesse," she said and hugged him again. He was sure she knew he lied, but she forced herself to believe it, because she needed to. When she pulled away she wiped a tear from her eye. "Have fun and make lots of friends at the academy, I'm rooting for you," she said.
"Thanks, Mom," he said and heard a car honk outside. "Guess that's my ride," he said.
She nodded. "Okay, bye, and be good," she said and opened the door for him. "Love you."
"Love you too," he said. "Oh, and you be good too," he grinned and she just smiled.
Jesse was greeted by the driver and put his things in the car. As they drove away, he looked back at the house and let his memories stir. His grandfather used to sit on the porch. Jade would mosey about her round pen, the dog would be wagging his tail as he watched the car leave. All those things weren't there anymore. He realized he wasn't as sad to leave as he thought he would be, and it was probably because this hadn't really felt like home anymore. For as long as he lived, he would hold those memories dearly.
North Academy was about nine time-zones away, so Jesse tried to prepare himself for some serious jetlag by trying to sleep as much as he could on the plane. It proved to be impossible. He was too excited and nervous at the same time. To pass the time, he played couple games on his phone. The flight clear across Russia was going to take at least eleven hours, so he had nothing but time to waste while he waited.
After leaving his house, he had been surprised to learn that the airport he needed to go to wasn't as far away as he thought, so the ride wasn't terribly long like he thought it would be. In fact, there were other North Academy passengers who were on a break from school until now and also needed to be on this plane and had to eventually transfer to a helicopter that would take them to the school itself. Jesse didn't find that unusual since Duel Academy was on an island that was only accessible by boat or plane.
"Hi, you're Jesse Anderson, right?" someone started randomly when Jesse has been spacing out while staring out the window.
"Huh?" Jesse looked over to see a boy his age wearing a disarming grin. "I am, and you are?"
"Right sorry, I'm Raymond, but my friends call me Ray," he said.
"Hello, Raymond," Jesse nodded with a smiled.
"Ah, you can just call me Ray," the boy laughed. Ray was just a little taller than him and had a dirty blond hair and bright green eyes.
"Alright, I'll remember that," Jesse said.
"I was talking with some guys over there when we spotted you, sorry that I had to make sure it was you," Ray chuckled.
"Oh, that's fine," Jesse said and looked over where the other boys in question were sitting on the plane.
"Before break, we heard a rumor that the chancellor was going to recruit someone famous to replace The Chazz, who knew it was going to be Jesse Anderson!"
Jesse was taken aback by that statement. "I'm not famous."
"HA! Good one," Ray brushed it off. "I can't wait to see your Crystal Beasts in action, I saw them online when you were in Korea a while back, but I want to see them in person."
Jesse smiled. "I would be happy to duel you sometime," he said. "What kind of deck do you have?"
"I have a fire deck, pretty cool huh?" Ray perked up even more. "But you should come over there and talk with us, this flight is pretty long to just sit here alone," he urged as he stepped away and motioned for Jesse to follow.
Jesse turned off his phone again and put it in his pocket as he followed Ray towards the front of the plane where some other boys were sitting.
"Jesse Anderson, these are the guys, guys, this is Jesse Anderson," Ray started.
"You can just call me Jesse," he said, feeling awkward about being referred to by his full name repeatedly. He guessed it was something he was going to need to get used to.
"Hey," most of the boys said in unison. Only one wasn't really paying attention and Jesse couldn't help but stare at him for a second because the guy seemed really glum.
"Don't mind Kale, he's just bummed because he has to be away from his girlfriend," Ray said simply. "They were the ones smooching it up in the airport."
"Shut up…" Kale pouted.
"Once classes start, he'll be okay again," Ray explained. "He gets like this every time."
After a quick introduction, Jesse learned the three other boys were Daniel, Sean, and Evan. They all started chatting about mostly home and school, and even a bit about girls because Kale was still glum about his girlfriend.
"How about you? Leave a girlfriend back home?" The brown-haired male named Daniel asked Jesse.
Jesse shifted. "Uh, no," he chuckled awkwardly.
"Oh, a boyfriend?" Sean asked. He had brown eyebrows but dyed orange hair.
"No, no significant other whatsoever," Jesse said.
"Really? Figured since you're going pro and all, you'd have plenty of chicks to choose from," Evan said. He was shorter and thinner than Jesse and had black hair.
"Well, there was this one girl that was interested all of a sudden, but that didn't go over well," Jesse shrugged.
"Oh, weird," Evan looked bewildered.
"Not really," Jesse said. "So tell me about North Academy," he requested, changing the subject.
Ray was quick to answer. "Well, we don't have a three house ranking system like Duel Academy does. The top student is based on grades and duel record. Every time we get close to a School Duel, or another competition, everyone that wants to participate competes in a dueling royale and the winner is the North Academy top student for that competition."
"Really the only number ranks our academy cares about is the top ten in the school, sometimes the top five per class," Evan added. "So everyone else doesn't know who the worst is very often. Keeps things running smoother if everyone's goal is to get into the top ten and views everyone else with an equal chance."
"Sounds like a lot of competition," Jesse remarked. Not that he had a problem with that. It seemed fair enough to him. He was sure there were some problems, but nothing that too bad.
"Sometimes," Evan shrugged.
"What's the dorm situation like?" Jesse asked.
"We have a bunch of cabins, and they're divided by class, so they're all the same. Some are bigger, but they just have more rooms. If there's two guys to a room then each get half the room, and the whole cabin shares the bathroom, kitchen, and common area," Sean explained.
"There was talk a while back about building an actual dormitory building, something bigger than what we have, so we can go to all single person rooms, with a bathroom and kitchenette on each floor, and then moving the cafeteria to the ground floor," Ray added.
"Wonder if they'll actually go ahead with that plan?" Evan wondered.
"The chancellor was only just putting the plans up for review by the board, so it might be a while," Daniel said.
"You'll probably get The Chazz's old room, because it's empty right now," Ray said. Jesse nodded and wondered if that was true. If it was, then it sounded like he wouldn't have a roommate unlike at least some others. He was okay either way. It didn't really matter to him.
He hadn't even reached North Academy and he felt like he was already making friends, which made him happy. These guys were friendly and loved Duel Monsters just as much as he did. Jesse hoped the rest of his classmates would be like this.
"OH! Can I see your deck?" Ray exclaimed and got in Jesse's face.
"W-why?" Jesse forced a small smile as he leaned away from the other boy.
"Because it's the Crystal Beasts! Who wouldn't want to see them?" Ray bounced.
Jesse thought and looked at Ruby Carbuncle on his shoulder. She seemed okay it. "Alright, why not?" Jesse took his deck out of its holder on his belt and removed the Crystal Beast cards from it, and then fanned them out in his hand so they were easy to see.
The other boys looked at them closely. "Wow, that's it?" Ray questioned. "That's not very many," he said and Sean punched his arm.
"There doesn't need to be very many, they hardly ever actually leave the field, don't you know anything?" Sean huffed.
"And they get resummoned a lot too, right?" Daniel asked and Jesse nodded.
"They look out for each other," he said and then snapped his mouth shut, knowing how weird that must have sounded to people that only see them as holograms.
"Oh, so they've got spirits attached to them too?" Evan asked and Jesse looked surprised.
"The chancellor is going to love you if you can see spirits, The Chazz was the same way," Sean said. "It was actually kind of funny, he would stand there and yell at nothing in the middle of a duel, he looked like a crazy person before we found out what he was really talking to!"
"And remember the school duel against Duel Academy? That Yuki kid was talking the same way," Ray interjected.
"Oh yeah… what was his name again?" Sean tried to remember. "Jason? Jordan? Joe?"
"It was Jaden, Jaden Yuki," Daniel said. "I still can't believe he beat The Chazz."
"It was an awesome duel though," Ray nodded and the guys agreed.
As Jesse put his cards away, he thought about how there were others like him. The same age even. He wondered if Pegasus knew about them. Chazz Princeton and Jaden Yuki, Jesse would like to meet them just once. He would like to see their spirit companions and see what kind of people they are. They were surely excellent duelists just to be able to represent in the school duel at all.
Jesse decided he would enter to participate in the annual school duel next year for a chance to go to Duel Academy and maybe duel one of them. Standing on that high tech dueling area in Duel Academy would be a dream turned reality. It wouldn't even matter if he won or lost, just to be there would be enough.
There was still hours left in the travel, so eventually Jesse went back to his seat after the conversation died down so he could try to get some shut eye. He was too excited though and moved restlessly. If he wasn't stuck on a plane, he would go for a run at a time like this. He had a big day ahead, so he knew it was natural to feel anxious and excited.
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Author's Note:
Wow, this story has a grand total of 20 reviews since the last chapter update. Thanks for the support and comments.
For this story, I'm putting North Academy on the coast of eastern Russia, above Japan on the map, because Chazz's boat needed to end up near North Academy with just the supplies he had, and the North Academy submarine needs to be able to make to Duel Academy Island, which I'm saying is off the coast of southern Japan, without much hassle. Not sure if I'd place it on the Bering Sea side or the Sea of Okhotsk side, but it doesn't really matter for the context of the story. I also considered putting North Academy on an Alaskan island between the Bering Sea and Pacific Ocean, but decided not to, perhaps in another fic I'll put it there just for fun.
