Chapter II: Duel Academy, Day I
"Over the sea, lies the truth..."
The gloriously shining sun beamed down upon the Duel Academy Island. The sky was clear and the ocean was as warm and bright blue as ever.
Jaden slowly blinked open his cerulean eyes and sat up, beginning to visually comb the area about him. Content that he was still safe on the beach, with no one in his field of vision, he gave a mighty yawn and laid back down to return into dreamland.
As his head lay back down on the sand, cupped by his hands, he noticed that the sky above him was no longer blue with wispy clouds rolling along, but that his view was blocked by a head of long honey hair and two grey eyes. Two beautiful grey eyes. Surprised, Jaden jumped to his feet.
Alexis, content with having surprised Jaden, giggled and smiled at him. Jaden groaned and leaned back on the sand. Jaden felt, oddly, happy and warm at her giggle. He ignored the feeling for now.
"Gimme a break, Alexis!"
Alexis plopped her petite frame down next to him. "Jaden, you lazy slifer slacker!" she said, using her favorite nickname for him. "I knew that I'd find you snoozing down here!"
"No! This huge, black THING swallowed me up!" Jaden suddenly said, bits and pieces of his dream floating back to him. Jaden saw Alexis roll her eyes at him, but he had to come up with a reason why he wasn't helping the raft. He pressed on. "I couldn't breathe...I couldn't—OW!" Jaden yelped as Alexis's hand connected playfully with his skull.
"Are you still dreaming?" Alexis asked, obviously seeing through what she though was an excuse.
"It wasn't a dream!" Jaden said emphatically. Then less so. "Or was it? I-I dunno..."
Jaden continued to mumble to himself. What had that dream been about? That..was it a voice? And those shadows? What did it all mean?
"What was that place? So bizzare..." Jaden looked out at the ocean. He had begun to fancy that it would be a good idea to think on this some more. Perhaps even sleep on it. That would be great-
Alexis looked at her friend wryly and shook her head knowingly. "Yeah, sure Jaden. If you say so." she looked out at the ocean with him. A screeching seagull flew overhead.
Jaaden knew that he couldn't go to sleep now, not with Alexis right there. So he scrambled to continue the conversation. "Say Alexis, what was your hometown like? You know, where you grew up?" Jaden already knew the answer, but he had said the first, well, actually, the second thing that had come to his head.
"I told you before, I don't remember." she replied.
"Nothing...at all?" Jaden prodded.
"Nothing."
Jaden, being her one of her best friends, could only just detect the smallest tinge of regret evident in her reply of 'Nothing'.
"You ever want to go back?"
"Hmmm..." Alexis contemplated. "Well, I'm happy here"
"Really..." was Jaden's only reply.
"But you know," Alexis volunteered with just the slightest bit of wistfulness, "I wouldn't mind going to see it."
"I'd like to see it too!" Jaden agreed with Alexis, "Along with any other dimensions out there! I wan to see 'em all!"
Alexis looked at him, "So what are we waiting for?"
Jaden groaned as she realized she was referencing the raft again. They'd been working on it all summer! Couldn't he just get a little rest?
"Hey, aren't you kids forgetting about me?" A new voice intoned, feigning hurt.
Jaden knew before turning that this new voice belonged to his rival Zane. The older brother of Syrus Truesdale.
And sure enough, he turned to find Zane, dark blue hair and shaded-turquoise eyes, log slung over his arm, walking towards them.
"So, I guess I'm the only one working on the raft." he continued as he sat down next to Alexis, throwing the log he had been carrying in Zane's general direction.
"Oof!" was the only sound Jaden made as the log crashed into him and knocked him back onto the sand. He groaned and Alexis giggled.
"And you're just as lazy as he is!" Zane sighed.
"Heh, so you noticed..." Alexis allowed, slightly embarrassed. "Okay! We'll finish it together!" she continued excitedly. "I'll race you!"
"Huh?" Jaden asked tiredly, knowing that if Alexis pushed on with wanting to race, he would have no choice but to get up and do so.
Zane, getting the message as well, agreed, "What, are you kidding?"
Alexis, knowing the competitive nature of her two best friends, ignored them."Ready? Go!"
Jaden and Zane stared at each other for a few moments, mutually agreeing to just sit and be lazy. That lasted a whole five seconds.
Jaden and Zane both jumped to their feet and took off toward the other side of the Duel Academy, dead set on reaching it before the other. Alexis began to follow along behind, chuckling about the competitive nature of her two dear friends.
Alexis, being slower than both Zane and Jaden, fell to a wallas they raced on ahead. Her mind drifted back to her conversation with Jaden. She had no memory of her home. She'd arrived at the City of Domino at the age of seven, remembering nothing of her home. She had become fast friends with Jaden, Zane and many others. They had made this her home, welcoming her with open arms.
And even though no one knew where she was from, this was now her home. Here, with Jaden, her mind lingered briefly on his face, smiling that goofy smile of his, and Zane. With Hassleberry, and Syrus and Chazz. The races, the raft, the water, the beaches, the sun...all of this was her home. This world.
Duel Academy.
Jaden and Zane eventually turned, jogging backwards now, and yelled questions to Alexis about what supplies they would need to gather for the raft. She WAS the academic one, after all. She'd know what they needed.
"Hey Alexis? What was it we need for the raft again?" Jaden inquired for them both.
Alexis rolled her eyes at her friends' forgetfulness, and began to tick off items in her head, "Four logs, Two pieces of cloth, and two ropes. That's what we need to get first."
"Hmmm, okay." Both Jaden and Zane turned back and put on an extra burst of speed to beat each other to where the raft was beached.
Alexis sped up in surprise and yelled after them, "Well? Aren't either of you going to get that stuff?"
"I haven't beaten him yet!" came Zane's reply.
"Hey! You're not going to beat me!" Jaden retorted.
Alexis sighed. She knew what was coming. And, just as she'd predicted, a soft thunk was heard. As she rounded the bend, she found Jaden and Zane both rolling around in the sand, trying to force the other to submit.
Alexis knew well enough that there was only one way to end this. She simply walked past them, leaned up against the door and cleared her throat.
Both boys looked up in surprise to see that Alexis had beaten them both to the other side. They slowly looked back at each other and shrugged, standing up and dusting off.
"Now," Alexis said, "Will you two go and find those supplies we need?"
"Half and half?" Jaden asked Zane.
Zane nodded, "Race?"
"Of course"
And before Alexis could say anything more, they were gone again. Well, except for Jaden, who Zane had playfully shoved into the water. He stood back up, water dripping off him, gave Alexis a small smile and took off like a shot to find all the items before Zane.
Alexis sighed and shook her head at her two friends antics, then sat down to await their return.
She might as well begin working on that Thessalia Shell charm...
Jaden knew Duel Academy like the back of his hand, so he didn't dawdle at all while searching for the
needed supplies for the Raft.
Zane had told him and Alexis that this raft could take them to other worlds. It had been their summer-long project. School was scheduled to start in two weeks, and Zane said that he wanted to be able to sail away before "that day," as he called it.
Jaden knew that while he had a want to see many other dimensions, mostly from Zane's boundless enthusiasm of such an idea, he was quite content to lay on his beach and just live. Alexis was just fine with where she was as well, which had always been a point of wonderment for Jaden and Zane. Alexis knew that she came from a place other than Duel Academy, yet she was perfectly content in her adopted home. She had said she wouldn't mind going to see her home, but Jaden still knew that she was almost perfectly content on the Island.
He grinned wider as he took a cloth off the wall of the Seaside Shack, remembering that from that night on he had felt this odd need to protect Alexis. Perhaps it came from originally rescuing her from the drowning? It was this really bizarre feeling in the pit of his stomach whenever she was around, this warmth that made him feel on top of the world. He didn't understand what it meant at all. Recently, he had been feeling this more and more. He had no idea what was happening to him.
He sighed and, seeing that he had found his half of the supplies, began to make his way back to where Alexis was waiting.
Jaden was close to where the Raft was beached when he caught sight of Zane sitting on the Paopu Tree, out on the small islet just off Duel Academy. It was then that he remembered he was supposed to be in a race with Zane.
He placed his small stack of items beside him and made his way over to where Zane sat
"Heh, took you long enough to get all the stuff." Zane pointed out, smirking.
"Yeah, I know...I had some stuff I was thinking about...I got distracted" Jaden mumbled.
Alexis' smiled widened.
"And I know exactly what YOU were thinking about!" He chuckled.
"Oh yeah? Well why don't you tell me?" Jaden challenged.
"Maybe...if you can beat me..." Zane challenged right back.
Jaden puffed out his chest." At what? I could beat you at anything"
"Except, apparently, a race."
"Uh, yeah...well..." Jaden rubbed the back of his of his neck, "What am I going to beat you at now?"
"What do you think? We're going to fight, of course." Zane said as he tossed Jaden one of the wooden swords they played with.
"You're on!" Jaden said, already planning Zane's defeat.
Zane just smiled and jumped at him. Jaden brought up his sword and successfully blocked Zane's assault, he spun out of the way and made to attack Zane's side. Zane saw this coming, and expertly blocked it. Jaden then moved to attack from behind, and Zane turned to block this as well, but Jaden, at the last moment, turned his sword to attack from above. Not expecting this, Zane had to sacrifice his footing to block Jaden's blow, or risk getting a rather nasty bump on his head.
Not that he couldn't take it, they had sustained much worse damages then that from their past duels.
Jaden, seeing Zane's lax footing, took advantage of it and swept Zane to the ground. Jaden pointed his sword down at Zane's chest.
"I win!"
Zane humphed rolled back, and performed an expert kick-up, his signature move, into Jaden's gut.
Jaden stumbled backwards onto his hands and knees, attempting to catch his breath. He held his hand up, signaling that Zane had gotten him.
"Man, that's..." he wheezed, "Such a...cheap move..." Jaden continued to breathe deeply, "Gah, now the score...is...42 to 41!"
"Wow, we've dueled that much just this summer?" Zane's eyebrows rose.
Jaden just nodded, unable to summon enough breath to affirm it.
Zane pulled Jaden to his feet and, patting him on the back, reminded him that he still had to take his supplies to the still-waiting Alexis.
"Well, Jaden, it's almost dinner time and I think it goes without saying that Zane won that race..." Alexis teased as Jaden and Zane approached.
"Only...because... Zane pushed me..." Jaden continued to wheeze.
Alexis looked concernedly at Jaden and turned to Zane,
"Okay, what you do?" she asked him, finger pointed at Zane's face menacingly.
"Me? Alexis, we just had a friendly duel!" he raised his hands in defense. "And...Jaden lost..." he lamely finished.
Alexis looked back and forth at her two best friends and sighed.
The three friends were sitting on the Paopu Tree, their favorite place to hang out, watching the sun set before they went home to dinner. The colors of the sunset reflected in the water, giving it a reddish hue. The clouds glowed orange and yellow with the sun's final rays.
Jaden and Alexis were sitting up on the tree's trunk, which grew horizontally across the small islet, and Zane, by the very nature of being Zane, was leaning cooly up against the side of the trunk.
"So...Alexis' home is out there somewhere, right?" Jaden questioned Zane.
"Could be," Zane answered, "We'll never know by staying here."
"But how far could a raft take us?" Jaden questioned, having become unsure of how well a raft could handle interstellar travel.
"Who knows? If we have to, we'll think of something else." Zane reassured.
"So, suppose you get to another world...what would you do there?" Alexis asked.
"Well...I...haven't really thought about it..." Zane replied, "It's just...I've always wondered why we're here, on this planet. If there are any other worlds out there, why'd we end up on this one?" Zane continued with his deep thoughts, "And suppose there are other worlds...then ours is just a little piece of something much greater." Now Zane posed his main question, "So we could have just as easily ended up somewhere else, right?"
Jaden, feeling a bit put to shame by Zane's spiel, flipped one leg over the trunk and leaned against a curve in the tree.
"I dunno" he shrugged.
"Exactly, That why we need to go out there and find out." Zane pushed himself off the tree and walked close to the water's edge, "Just sitting here won't change a thing."
Jaden and Alexis looked at each other and nodded, both knowing quite well what was coming.
"It's just the same old stuff." Zane complained, "So let's go."
"You've been thinking a lot lately, haven't you?" Alexis noted.
Alexis turned around, "Thanks to you."
At that, Jaden, who had been dozing off, perked back up and listened closely to what Alexis was going to say.
"If you hadn't come here, I probably would've never thought of any of this." Zane paused, "Alexis. Thanks.".
"Heh, you're welcome." she smiled.
Unsure of why Zane's words were making him nervous, Jaden shifted uncomfortably and leaned back again, looking out over the ocean.
Soon enough, Alexis announced that they had to return for dinner, and jumped down from the trunk. She walked across the bridge that led back to Duel Academy where there dorms waiting back home; where dinner awaited.
Jaden and Zane groaned at the prospect of having to move, but soon followed.
"Jaden!" Zane slyly called out, the last to leave the islet.
Jaden turned just in time to catch something yellow and star-shaped that Zane had thrown at him.
A Paopu Fruit.
Jaden sighed, knowing what was coming.
Since Alexis was already down at the beach, Zane spoke freely.
"You wanted one, didn't you?" Zane said with a knowing smile.
jaden feigned ignorance."A...paopu fruit...?"
Zane began to walk past him, face solemn. "If two people share one, their destinies become intertwined. They'll remain a part of each others' lives no matter what." his serious facade broke and he chuckled, "C'mon, I know you want to try it."
"What are you talking about-" Jaden began nervously.
Zane laughed fully and ran off, Jaden looked once at the paopu, wondering if Zane had a point-
-before tossing it over the side of the bridge, and proceeding to run after his friend.
Looney Castle was a majestic structure, with towering, bright blue pinnacles that reached high into the clear, morning sky. The walls of the towers and castle were pure white, not a discoloration to be seen.
Inside the Castle, a Duck mage was walking through it's grand halls, making his way to the Throne Room as was his morning custom.
You see, Daffy Duck was going to visit his best friend, who just so happened to be the King of this castle. With a nod, he acknowledged the the passing birds carrying buckets of water. He guessed they were going to clean the Kitchen again.
He soon reached the massive doors to the throne room. The handles of the doors stood at least seven times as high as the mage, but Daffy simply cleared his throat and knocked on the door. In front of where he was standing, a door-sized opening appeared and he walked through and began to make his way across the mammoth Throne Room.
"Wake up, Rabbit, it's nice to see-" his greeting cut itself short when he found the King's throne empty. The King was never NOT here this early! It had been their morning ritual for years to meet and go over the State of the Realm.
That was when the King's loyal friend, Scooby-Doo, popped it's head out from behind the golden throne. It looked like it had a note in it's mouth.
Daffy waddled over and reached down, taking the note from the dog. Wiping the drool off of it.
Soon enough, almost the whole castle was awakened as the duck ran screaming out of the throne room, careening wildly across the halls.
Something had happened. Something unheard of, and Daffy had always been known for his extreme reactions.