Chapter 5- Him
"Who do you think it is?" asked Drake.
"How would I know? All they did was call him 'him.'" Said Flynn.
"Think we should watch?" Keith asked.
"Of course! Since he will be coming to duel academy, it would be a good idea to watch him duel so we know his deck! That way, when we have to duel him, we'll know his weaknesses!" said Flynn.
"I was just going to suggest that it's fun to watch people duel, but Flynn's reason works, too." Said Drake. They all walked over to the fourth duel arena. The student was already standing in it. He was also drawing a good deal of strange looks.
"That is one of the weirdest-looking kids I have ever seen." Keith said. He was probably right. Even though the baggy, very worn-looking blue jeans and a little too large T-shirt were pretty normal looking, his face threw it all off. He wore a baseball cap, but it was cocked at a funny angle so that it was partially over his left eye. His hair was messy, but it too seemed drawn over his left eye. To top it off, he wore a long, white bandage that was wrapped several times around his head and completely covered (What else? Drake thought vaguely) his left eye. All of his hair stuck out over the bandage, and his right eye looked a little strange. The pupil seemed to be flecked with gray.
"I wonder why he wears that bandage?" Flynn asked. "Did he just have surgery on his eye or something? How does he duel like that?"
"No clue. But the duel's about to start." Drake said. "No way!"
"What?"
"That's the world champion…" And so it was. The current world champion, the one who had taken over after Yugi Motou and Seto Kaiba had left the pro circuit, was walking out of the hallway that the proctors normally came out of. He was smirking.
"Why would they call me here to duel some oddball?" he said. "This guy looks like he would have a hard time stringing two cards together into a coherent combo!" The entrant's one eye fixed the champion (his name was Rhett) with an absolutely chilling stare.
"Nothing is as it seems." He said in a voice that could have been made of ice. "You ready?"
"Always. I didn't become world champ without being always ready!"
"Let's duel!" they both said.
Mystery Student: 4000Rhett: 4000
"I'll go first." Said the mysterious new student. He drew a card and smiled. "I place one card face-down, and summon Mpirian Soldier (Light/Warrior, 1600/800) in defense mode! That's it."
"He summoned a what?" Keith asked.
"Beats me. I've never seen that card before in my life." Said Flynn.
"Neither have I." Said Drake.
"Ha!" laughed Rhett as he drew his card. "I play Pot of Greed in order to draw two card, then play Graceful Charity! Draw three, discard two! Then I play Spell Reproduction! I discard two more cards to return a spell card to my hand! Graceful Charity, which I shall activate again! Draw three more, discard two more!"
"This guy's shuffling through his deck faster than a casino dealer on poker night!" said Drake. "What's he planning?"
"I'm not sure I want to know." Said Flynn. "He has put an equal number of light and dark monsters in his graveyard…"
"I remove a three light, and three dark attribute monsters to summon Chaos Emperor Dragon- Envoy of the End (Dark/Dragon/Effect, 3000/2500), Black Luster Soldier- Envoy of the Beginning(Light/Warrior/Effect, 3000/2500), and Chaos Sorcerer(Dark/Spellcaster/Effect, 2300/2000)! Then I activate Dimension Fusion! I pay 2000 life points to bring back as many monsters from our out of play areas as possible!"
Mystery Student: 4000Rhett: 2000
"I bring back Despair from the Dark (Dark/Zombie/Effect, 2800/3000) and my Blue-Eyes White Dragon (Light/Dragon, 3000/2500)!"
"Now I see how this guy became World Champion!" said Drake. "Look at all the crap he just summoned!"
"Yes. He just summoned five of the most deadly monsters in Duel Monsters history- all in one turn. I think it's over for our little friend down there." Said Flynn, indicating the mystery student, who actually looked completely unfazed.
"Is that your best?" he asked disdainfully.
"No! That comes when I attack you! Chaos Sorcerer! Eliminate his puny weakling of a monster!" The Sorcerer blew the soldier to pieces. "Now! All of you! Finish this!"
"Not quite! I activate the trap card Hallowed Life Barrier! Now I take no damage from you at the cost of discarding one card." A large blue barrier appeared in front of the weird kid and blocked all of the attacks.
"Wait… why didn't he play that before the Sorcerer attacked? Wouldn't that have saved his monster?" asked Keith.
"It would have… I'm at a lose." Said Flynn. "Either he's really bad or he was just distracted."
"I heard that." Said the student, turning to face Flynn. "Your name is Flynn, right? Well, Flynn, watch this." He drew his card. A very evil smile crossed his face. "I activate… MPIRIAN POWER FUSION!"
"You activate WHAT?!?" said Rhett.
"Mpirian Power Fusion! A mighty card, indeed!" said the mystery student. "Here's how it works. In order to activate this card, I must have no other cards on my side of the field. And, as you can probably see, I have no other cards."
"So that's why! He wanted to clean out his field to play that card!" said Drake.
"Yes, but can it win him the game?" asked Flynn. "Granted, he might take down one of Rhett's monsters, but then either Chaos Sorcerer or BLS- Envoy will remove the monster with its special effect if he doesn't win this turn!"
"Mpirian Power Fusion grants me the ability to instantly fuse a Ritual Mpire Monster in my hand to an Mpire Fusion Monster in my Fusion deck. First, I pay half of my life points."
Mystery Student: 2000Rhett: 2000
"Then, I select a fusion monster in my fusion deck to summon. But! I must have the Ritual monster, and its ritual spell card, in my hand. And I have a very special Ritual Monster in store. Thorgricarian King Lv. 16! But he's summoned from Thorgricarian Lv. 12, so I must have him as well. Thankfully, I do!" He showed three cards: a ritual spell and the two ritual monsters. "Then, I'll need a fusion monster from my fusion deck. I think I'll take High King Matt, the Legendary Wizard (Secret Unveiled) and use him!" He pulled the said fusion monster from his pocket. "Now! I am allowed to fuse them to create the most powerful monster to ever grace the duel fields!"
"Wait… what were all those cards? I've never heard of any of them!" said Keith.
"How the heck is that? I haven't either." Said Flynn.
"Neither have I!" said Drake. "And trust me, I've seen a lot of cards!"
"I power fuse Thorgricarian King Lv. 16 and High King Matt the Legendary Wizard in order to form the deadly duo of Matt and Thorgy (Light/Warrior/Fusion/Effect, 12600/12000)!" A massive, six-headed, twelve-winged, six tailed, twelve footed dragon type creature with a man bearing a striking resemblance to the mystery student standing on top of one of its heads appeared behind the mystery student.
"Holy crap!" said Flynn.
"That's a lot of attack points!" said Drake.
"And now to see them in action! Matt and Thorgy! Obliterate his Chaos Dragon and end the duel!"
Mystery Student: 2000Rhett: 0
A stunned silence followed the end of the duel. Small pockets of murmuring broke out.
"Did he just trample the world champ?"
"No way…"
"Where did he get a card with that much power?"
"Where did he get any of those cards?"
"Yeah, I've never heard of most of them."
"I think almost no one has."
The mystery student put his deck back together in an instant, put it in his duel disk, shoved his hands into his pockets, and walked up the stairs leading to the upper level. As he walked, the other entrants parted in front of him, giving him plenty of room. All wore a mixed look of fear and respect. The P.A. came on again.
"With that duel, we have concluded the dueling practical for today. Please line up at the table in the front to receive your ranking." For a while no one moved, then, slowly at first, they began to go outside to the table to get placed in the ranking system.
"How do they rank us again?" said Keith. Though he was older than both Drake and Flynn, he seemed to always be a little less knowledgeable than either.
"We have a similar system to the Academy near Japan." Said Flynn. "Our Academy is situated on a new island in the Pacific, south of Hawaii, I think. They'll separate us into a set of four dorms: one for the weakest students, one for the students who duel great but have lousy grades, one for the ones with great grades but who duel poorly, and one for the best students overall."
"How'd you do on the exam?" Drake asked.
"I got a 93. You?"
"I scraped by with a 70…"
"I beat both of you! I got a 97." Keith said.
"No way!" said Flynn. "Prove it." Keith pulled an official-looking sheet of paper out of his pocket. Sure enough, the number "97" was typed in red inside of a box in the corner. "Wow. Not bad." They had made it to the end of the line. It took nearly half an hour for them to make it to the front of the line.
"Name, please?" said a bored-looking woman behind the table.
"Drake Stizen."
"You will be in… the Red dorm. Your duel scores were high, but your test score was lacking. Here." She handed him a red jacket. "The ship will leave in one hour from the south port. Be prepared. If you are not on when the ship leaves, you will not get another chance to enter the school again this year. Next, please."
"Keith Natran."
"You will be in… the Black dorm. Your test score was great, but your duel score was… lacking." She handed him a black jacket. "The ship will leave in one hour-"
"Yes, I heard."
"Oh. Next."
"Flynn Tager."
"You will be in the Gold dorm. Good test score, and great duel." She handed him a gold jacket. "The ship will-"
"Yes, I know."
"Oh. Next." They all donned their jackets and walked away.
"Wait." Said Flynn. They were walking past the weird kid with the bandage, who was leaning up against the rec. center wall, wearing a gold jacket.
"Oh, please, that guy creeps me out more than you do, let's not talk to him-" said Drake, but Flynn was already walking over to him. Keith looked at Drake. Drake looked back.
"This can't be good." Said Keith. Flynn sat down next to the strange kid. Drake and Keith followed reluctantly.
"Hello." Said Flynn. The strange kid gave Flynn a hard, cold stare, so cold and hard it caused him to shudder, which, Drake thought, probably took a lot.
"What?" said the kid.
"I-I j-just wanted to say hi. You look lonely." Flynn stuttered. The kid's face softened.
"You're that Flynn, aren't you?" he said.
"Yes sir." Drake didn't know why Flynn had called him sir at first, but then he realized that the kid carried a sort of respect-generating aura about him. Despite his odd appearance, Drake felt that this was not someone who could be disrespected without serious repercussions.
"You're a very good duelist. I was watching."
"Thank you. Where'd you get all those cards? I've never seen a lot of them."
"This is a completely unique deck. Outside of it, there are almost no other copies of the cards it contains. Well, expect that Hallowed Life Barrier. But that card will soon be out of this deck, once I get that other card."
"Where did you get them from, though?"
The kid smiled a mysterious smile. "I might tell you later. In the meantime, why don't you introduce me to your friends?"
"Uh, sure. This is Drake, and that is Keith. And, come to think of it, we don't know your name."
"I'm Matt. It was nice meeting you all. I believe that we will meet again. I also believe that each and every one of you have great potential in the world of Duel Monsters. Whatever happens from here on out, all through Duel Academy, never, ever forget your reasons for dueling. They will sustain you through the hard times…" With that cryptic piece of advice, he stood on the spot, and walked off. Flynn stood up as he left.
"I have a strange feeling about that guy…" he said.
"Yeah. So do I. He freaks me out more than you do." Said Keith.
"No… it's not that. He does freak me out-"
"That probably takes a lot." Drake interjected.
Flynn ignored him. "I feel like he knows something. Even though he's half blind, I feel like he sees better than any of us."
"What do you mean by that?" Keith asked.
"No clue… maybe he can see the future. I can think of no other reason for him to give us such an unrelated piece of advice." Flynn said.
"Yeah, it was kind of random. I wonder why he has his left eye all covered up?" Drake asked.
"I should make it a point to find out."
"Don't you think he won't like that?" Keith asked.
"Maybe I should get someone else to do it, then. But I'm curious, so I'll probably find out soon enough."
Just then, the dock's announcement speaker blared to life. "All new Duel Academy students, the ship will be leaving in five minutes. Please embark immediately."
Flynn looked at Drake, who looked at Keith, who looked at Flynn. Then they all looked the other way around, Drake looking at Flynn, etc.
"Shall we?" Flynn asked.
"Sure. Let's go play." Said Keith.
"On to Duel Academy!" said Drake.