-1Chapter 12: Puppet goes Boom.

A/N: Ah, my loyal and dear Katreal. It's nice someone catches the humor. Glad to see you are actually reading the fic.

Class with Dr. Crowler was, as always, a drone. Izual merely doodled on his paper. He never enjoyed his new seat. Though he and Jasmine were never quite the same incident, he still enjoyed her company. Upfront there wasn't much room to talk or anything. He started doodling on his paper, and ignore Dr. Crowler's lecture. It didn't seem to be interesting anyways, but eventually Dr. Crowler caught up with him.

"…Of course, we can all see the importance of this, isn't this right, Izual?" asked Dr. Crowler as he snatched the paper he was doodling on and crumbled.

"Of course, Dr. Crowler." said Izual as he looked up at the blond man. He wasn't about to get detention for doodling.

"Then could you give us a summary of this important aspect of the game?" asked Crowler, chuckling. A daring move which would knock most people into detention, but Izual was ready for it.

"I would, but you took my notes." said Izual, pointing to the crumbled paper. Crowler grew a bit annoyed.

"Do you call these doodling 'notes'?" asked Crowler as he opened the paper and showed the doodles.

"No, I call the words written on the back of the paper 'notes'" said Izual, smirking. Dr. Crowler looked at the back of the paper and, indeed, there were notes. His was angered. There was no way he could have been taking notes, Crowler knew this. However, at amidst the confusion and anger, he didn't notice the girl next to Izual biting her lip. He hadn't realized that Izual had snatched her notes and doodle on the back of them. "So, can I have my notes back?" asked Izual, chuckling. Crowler looked as if he was to go crazy but sighed. He handed the paper to Izual

"Yes, my apologies." said Dr. Crowler as he let the class take five to calm down. Izual sighed as he turned to side and looked at the girl.

"Sorry about that, May." said Izual as he flattened the paper and handed it to her. She stop biting her lip and picked up her notes and sighed.

"It's okay, I guess." said May, not enthusiasms in her voice. Izual felt somewhat bad for he had done, so he decided he should try to find a way to make up for that.

"I'll make up for it, I promise." said Izual, as he gave her a smile. She smiled a bit and placed her paper under a book, to get flattened. "I saw your duel. Very explosive."
"You did? I was pretty reckless most through it, but when a good amount of your card explode when played…hard not being." said May, smiling.

"Must be, still, it be nice to duel you one of these days." said Izual. "Just to play against that crazy deck." said Izual as he looked at her. She sure had innocent look. Crowler made an announcement, and told the class to leave a few minutes early, but Izual to stay for a moment.

"I'll see you later." said Izual as he walked to Crowler and May left with the rest of the people. "Yes, Dr. Crowler?"

"You are sneaky one, I'll give you that much. Don't doodle in my class. Understood?" asked Crowler. Izual smirk.

"Alright. No doodling." said Izual and with that he started walking outside the classroom, worked on some homework. When he finished, he noticed there were people crowding a certain area. He walked towards it and notice a duel, or actually the end of a duel.

"That guy is crazy good." said someone in the crowd. He looked at the person in the duel with a smirk. He had dark long hair, with a smirk that showed amusement from defeat of the other.

"C'mon! Who's next?" asked the person to the crowd, then May stepped up.
"I'll play, Culex." said May, smiling. Izual's eye widened as he recalled the name, then matched it with the person. They seemed very similar. It had to be. Culex smiled at the challenge.
"Alright, what's your name?" asked Culex. It was obvious that she had obtained his name from the crowd .

"May, do you mind if I start first?" asked May, as he set her duel disk ready and so did Culex.

"Go ahead." said Culex

Culex: 4000

May: 4000

(A/N: I'll try not to use fake cards, however if the need rises, the card itself shall be specified what it does, as well as everything else to avoid any kind of "secret" effects. Lucky for you guys, no fake cards in this duel)

May summoned Gearfried, the Iron Knight and the knight rose. "Now, I play Smoke Grenade of the Thief!" said May as she played it and a bag of grenades appeared on Gearfried's back. "Due to Gearfried's effect, the grenades are destroyed and I can see your hand and remove a card from it." Culex chuckled as he saw the grenades explode into a wide smokescreen. Meanwhile, Gearfried stole Culex's hand and showed her his hand. It consisted of Mysterious Puppeteer, Magician's Circle, Magical Marionette, Old Vindictive Magician, and Pot of Greed. "I'll destroy your Pot of Greed." And with that he discarded it and gave Culex back his hand. May set a face-down card and ended her turn.

"Very nice, but it's my turn." said Culex as he drew a card. He played a purple cloaked puppeteer, who had his entire face covered, except for his glowing eyes. He seemed to be holding a doll. "I'm a puppeteer, just like this guy. Let me tell you, he's no pushover." said Culex, as his Mysterious Puppeteer readied for action. "I play Magical Dimension!" With a giant coffin rose ground. The puppeteer faded away and from the Coffin, a card from Culex's hand appeared. It looked like a metallic being, wearing a red cloak. He had many strange wires glowing an eerie green from his hands that went to the doll that the wires were holding. The doll itself had pretty big daggers.

"Magical Marionette?" asked May as he noticed the monster coming out. Culex nodded.

"But that's not all! Magical Dimension allows me to kill one monster on the field, in this case, your Gearfried." From the coffin, chains appeared and headed straight for Gearfried.
"Chains, eh? Let me chain to your chains with my own chain, Blast With Chain, that is." said May, smiling at the amount of times she used the word "chain". Chains wrapped around Gearfried, as well as explosives. Due to Gearfried's effect, however, the chains broke and the explosives were sent straight at the Marionette, destroying it. The coffin, however, remained it's chain and pulled Gearfried into it, thus killing. Culex looked in disbelief. She had countered his move. He was angered. He set a face-down magic or trap and ended his turn. May smiled as he knew that had to be Magician's Circle. "I pay Reinforcement of the Army! This card allows me to fetch a level 4 Warrior type monster from my deck and add it to my hand." said May as she searched through her deck for gearfried and summoned it. "Now, Gearfried, attack!" The big iron knight ran straight for Culex and smacked him with his big sword. Culex groaned.

Culex: 2200

May: 4000

May ended her turn. Culex drew. Craptastic hand, he thought, as he looked over it. He summoned a strange monster to the field. It had a purple cloak on it however, the face was at the middle of the cloak was the face. Above, was a circle, with two small eyes, barely counting as a face. Arms did stick out, with hands. One was holding a staff. "Rogue Doll, attack!" said Culex as Rogue Doll went for the attack. May wondered why. Rogue Doll only had 1600 attack, compared to Gearfried's 1800. As the Rogue Doll went for Gearfried, he triggered the face-down Magician's Circle. "Since I attacked with Spellcaster, we both get to summon any spell caster, 2000 attack or lower from our decks into the field." Culex summoned another Magical Marionette, and May looked through deck frantically, but only found one. She sighed as she summoned her weak Magician of Faith in attack-mode.

"Ha, that's gotta suck. Due to the number of monsters on your side of the field changed, I get a replay. So, Magical Marionette attacks Gearfried, and Rogue Doll attack Magician of Faith." The marionette moved the string and the puppet ran into gearfried and pierced his heavy armor. Meanwhile, Rogue Doll launched a purple spell straight at weak magician and obliterated her, causing a big dent in May's life points.

Culex: 2200

May: 2500

Culex gleamed at his comeback and ended his turn.
"Very nice move, but it's time I turned it around." said May as she played Premature Burial, and a hand dug deep into the ground and pulled Gearfried. However, as it as equipped, the hand was destroyed, and it's effect negated. Culex looked confused.

"You do realize by playing that spell, my Marionette gets a boost of 200 attack points?" asked Culex, as Marionette did in fact grown stronger. "For every spell played, it gets a counter. For every counter added, it gets 200 attack points." May smiled.

"I know. I play Fusion Sword Murasame Blade." said May as Gearfried obtained a mystic sword that was glowing. "It's a nifty equip card that raises my monster's attack by 800" And indeed, Gearfried was 2300. Culex was confused again.
"First, wouldn't Gearfried kill that equip? Secondly, my Marionette is now 2400, too strong for you to stop, then why use it?" asked Culex.
"Fusion Sword Murasame Blade's effect prevents it from destroyed by cards that destroy spell cards, such as Gearfried's. I know of your Marionette's effect, which is why I play Riryoku!" said May, as a strange glow appeared on the marionette and gearfried. The Marionette gained 200 attack from the counter, but then lost half it's attack, and ended with 1300 attack, and Gearfried's attack rose 1300 more, with ended up being 3600 attack.

"Thirty-six hundred!?" shouted Culex as he noticed Gearfried's attack power. May grinned.

"Yeah, Gearfried, attack for the win!" shouted May as the gearfried ran towards the Marionette, and slashed it, inflicting enough damage for you game.

Culex: -100

May: 2500

Culex looked surprised. "I lost…" said Culex, angered as the monsters disappeared. May walked to Culex offered a handshake.

"Good game." she said. Culex looked at her, looked into her eyes, and smiled a bit. It was if her warm hazel eyes had a calming effect on him. He was still displeased with the lost, but he'll get his revenge.

"Good game." he said as he shook her hand and started walking away. It was obvious to the crowd he loved winning, and losing like that just cut his pride. Izual watched. That was pretty good duel, for someone who's not an expert on the game thought Izual as he watched the duel. As he realized it was over he decided to go duel May but then realized he didn't bring his deck. Darn it. He sighed as he looked down and started walking away. Bummer, I had really wanted to get a duel there. Then, without realizing he stumbled against someone. They both fell backwards, away from each other. He fell on the floor. He looked at who he had stumbled upon, about to say "watch where you are walking" when he realized who it was. It was the red-headed duelist from the all-girl school. She scratched the back of her head, and looked at Izual, and both of them got caught looking into each other's eyes. There was an awkward silence. Izual was the first to break the ice. "Sorry." said Izual as he stood up offered a hand. He looked at her. She had a beautiful figure, with loving face. She just looked up at him, and took his hand, and stood up.

"It's okay." she said as she stood up and looked at him. Izual felt a strangle, familiar feeling, as if he had met her before, but where? It wasn't just a familiar feeling either, he felt warmth and coziness. His mind couldn't go very far without thinking of Shade's death, which made him stop those thoughts. Whoever she was, if he had met her before, then the thoughts of Shade would cloud them.
"Have we met before?" asked Izual to the girl. She showed a face of confusion, however, it was somewhat odd, as if hiding a sign of disappointment.
"I don't think so. Name's Suri. Yours?" asked Suri to Izual. The name sounded unfamiliar.

"I'm Izual, nice deck, by the way." said Izual, recalling the duel.
"Thanks, I put effort into it." said Suri. "I…gotta go, I'll catch you around?" she asked as she ran away.

"Around it is." said Izual, not being able to shake off the familiar feeling. Meanwhile, Chancellor Shepard was in room, discussing certain things with the head of the other school.
"…so I think we should do this, to find who wants the Sacred Beast." said Chancellor Shepard. The opposing lady had red outfit with long curly hair.

"I'm not a fan of risking my students, but if we must, then we shall." said the lady.