Chapter 2 – The First Day
I stared excitedly out the window of the helicopter as it whirled noisily across the ocean. Next to me was my best friend Ron and along with him were many of the other first years attending Duel Academy. Although I got into Slifer Red, the worst out of the three houses, I was just glad that I got accepted. Not surprisingly Ron got into Ra Yellow but I thought he could easily make into Obelisk Blue, only if he had the money.
As the helicopter landed I readied my drawstring bag to leave. In it was my deck case, my binder full of Duel Monsters cards, my wallet, and my customized Kaiba Corporation duel disk. I abstained from using the Academia's kind because we thought they old ones were way cooler. I found mine in my grandfather's dusty old attic who had stored his duel disk there when partook in Battle City back when he was young. Surprisingly it worked after all this time so after a bit of cleaning, there was a lot of dust in unexpected places, I decided to use it instead of the stupid looking Academia duel disks. The administration office let me use it as long as they put in a memory chip in it like the Academia ones and paint it to my house color. So I covered the monster card slots with some paint tape and painted most of the disk red and painted the deck holding slot of the disk white. Now it looked awesome as it can be.
As soon as everyone got off, teachers in various colored blazers began ushering everyone towards their respective dorms. Upon seeing the other dorms such as the large and eloquent Obelisk Blue and Ra Yellow dorms, I got a bit excited but all my hopes were crushed from seeing the small shack they called a dorm for the Slifer Reds. It was rectangular with two floors with the stairs on the outside wall. All the first year Slifer Red males looked around the dorm to find that there were eight rooms on the second floor and four on the first floor. Fortunately for us, half the building faced the ocean; I was already planning an awesome future beach trip. However there were only four bathrooms which would make it very inconvenient for everyone in the dorm to shower in the morning. The boys all looked to the right to see the female dorms which was placed on a hill and it looked much cleaner and nice than our dorms, sexism at its best. The professor, a large burly man with short black hair and dark eyes, began handing out the uniforms to everybody as I looked at the small dorm wondering if everyone could fit in there. I grabbed my uniform, an uncomfortable looking red blazer and red shoes, then headed upstairs and entered a room tossing my bag into the bottom bed and getting into my new uniform. It wasn't as uncomfortable I thought it would but it obviously wasn't made from the best of materials. As I took out my deck and duel disk, a kid with blonde hair came running into the room very out of breath. "I was here first! That bottom bunk is… Not mine…" the kid said his blue eyes looking crestfallen, "Aww, I don't trust these beds to hold anyone up."
"Well if you're done talking to yourself, I'm Ike, your roommate." I said holding out my hand.
"Hi, I'm Wally Broke the Fourth. If you're wondering about my name, my dad is German and my mom is Japanese American. My name was supposed to be Brokor like my great grandfather Wally Brokor the Third but he changed it when he came to America." My roommate said shaking my hand.
"That's cool. Anyways, I saw you duel before at the entrance exams. Psychics right? They must be hard to use."
"Eh, I get by with them. What do you use?"
"I prefer the classic Elemental Heroes. I'm trying to collect all of them along with the Neo-Spacians."
"Neo-Spacians? They're pathetic!" Wally said almost in shock.
"Well they're cool and they fuse to become Elemental Heroes and they could be good if used them properly." I answered.
"Interesting, anyways want to duel before we head to this Welcoming Dinner? It'll pass the time quickly." Wally offered heading out the door.
"Sure! There's no way I can turn down a duel but I wonder where our roommate is, how can anyone be running this late?" I said I as followed my new found friend out the door and into an open field between the boy's and girl's Slifer Red dorms.
"Who cares, just get ready to lose." He said as he got his red Academia duel disk ready and put his deck in.
"Me lose? No way." I replied as I readied my custom duel disk.
"Whoa, is that a Kaiba Corporation duel disk?" Wally asked surprised drawing five cards.
"Yup, anyways let's duel!" I said drawing my five cards and smiling knowing I had a great starting hand.
The Life Point counter on our duel disks went up to 4000 each as we began our duel. 4000 was the standard for all learning duelists while professionals used 8000, making the duels much longer and more intense.
"Alright I'm going first!" I said as I drew my card smiling as I formulated a plan in my head, "First I set this monster in defense mode and set these two cards and end my turn." The giant hologram cards appeared in front of me knowing that Elemental Hero Woodsman (1000/2000) could take practically every hit from any four star monster, my advantage.
"My go." Wally said as he drew his own card and did a double take, "Hey you know what I realized? The writers of this fan fic got the effect of Psychic Emperor wrong, fail."
I stared at him quizzically as I thought over what he said trying to make some sense of it, it obviously didn't. "Dude what are you talking about? Fan fic? Writers? Something is definitely wrong with you man." I said as I questioned Wally's mental stability.
"Never mind… I summon Psychic Snail (1900/1200) in attack mode! Now go attack that face down!" my opponent commanded as the creepy looking monster charged at one of my toughest heroes. I revealed Elemental Hero Woodsman reflecting 100 damage to Wally's Life Points [4000/3900], "No!" he cried out as he saw his life points drop, "I end my turn."
"I draw and thanks to Woodsman on field, I get a Polymerization from my deck into my hand, isn't that handy." I explained as I got the card out. Now I had a fusion card meaning that I could Fusion Summon for a stronger hero but I lacked the proper cards to do so, well I did have Wildheart but I knew I needed to save him for later since his fusions were quite strong. "I end my turn."
"My go. First I tribute Psychic Snail to summon Psychic Ogre (2200/1700) then I set this card and now attack!" Wally declared as the stronger monster charged towards my Woodsman. Obviously my Woodsman was going to get destroyed but luckily for me I had my face down, Scrap-Iron Scarecrow.
"I activate my face down, Scrap-Iron Scarecrow! It negates one of your attacks and it can set itself again." I explained as I got to continue with my original plan, "Now it's my turn. I don't activate Woodsman effect this turn but I do summon Elemental Hero Prisma (1700/1100)."
"That's not enough to destroy my Ogre you know." Wally commented looking just as confused as I was when he mentioned the obviously smart and awesome 'writers'.
"I know that but you should know how Elemental Heroes work: by fusing them! But first I activate Prisma's effect. Just by throwing my Elemental Hero Ocean into the Graveyard from the Deck, Prisma becomes Elemental Hero Ocean for one turn." I said as a faint hologram of Ocean appeared right behind my pointy crystal monster, "Ready for this? Remember that Polymerization I got from Woodsman last turn? Here it is, lets go! I fuse Woodsman and Ocean, technically Prisma, to form the almighty… Elemental Hero Terra Firma (2500/2000)!" The giant white freaky looking hero appeared as my other two heroes disappeared. Wally looked stunned at my giant monster that could easily beat his stupid Ogre.
"Now go kill that stupid thing!" I commanded as my Hero attacked Wally's monster dealing him 300 damage to his Life Points [4000/3600], "Bring it Wally." I taunted.
"Oh I shall." Wally retorted smiling as he revealed his face down, Telepathic Power. "This card can only be activated when a Psychic monster is destroyed. Then the monster that destroyed gets destroyed in return and I get Life Points equal to its attack points." My new found friend explained as Terra Firma disappeared off the field as he gained 2500 Life Points [4000/6100], "Fine I end my turn now." I said feeling down that I lost one of my strongest cards.
"Great card isn't it? First I summon another Psychic Snail and end my turn since you have that stupid Scrap-Iron Scarecrow." He said as the creepy looking monster appeared on the field again.
"Smart move. First I summon Elemental Hero Stratos (1800/300) who allows me to get any Elemental Hero from my deck into my hand and I choose Elemental Hero Necroshade. Now I activate Monster Reincarnation so I put Necroshade in the Graveyard where it belongs to bring back Elemental Hero Ocean to my hand. Then I play Solidarity! As long as I have only Warrior-types in the Graveyard, all my Warrior-types on field gain an awesome 800 attack power!" I cried out as Stratos gained the attack boost, "Now attack!" I commanded as my monster hovered over Wally and shot two powerful air blasts from his wings to deal him 2600 damage to his Life Points [4000/3500].
Wally gritted his teeth as he drew his next card but then he smiled which kind of scared me. "First I play Brain Research Lab which allows me to put a Counter on it instead of paying for a Psychic-type monster's effect. Then I activate Teleportation which means I can special summon a Psychic monster just by paying 800 Life Points if I have no monsters on field. I pay 800 Life Points [4000/2700]. I summon Psychic Emperor (2400/1000) and use its PROPER effect. You hear that you stupid writers? I gain 500 Life Points for every Psychic-type in the Graveyard. That means 1500 more Life Points for me [4000/4200]." My opponent explained as he gained another edge over me, at least in Life Points, "I'm not done though, I still haven't normal summoned. So come on out Krebons (1200/400) and I think you're done Mike."
I saw Krebons only had 1200 attack with relatively low stars. That either meant it had an epic effect it was a tuner and I was leaning towards the latter. I hated Synchro monsters because most were not limited unless they had cheap effect but even then most were just limited like Stratos. Regardless Wally decided to Synchro summon which meant I was probably going to go downhill from now on. "Now I Synchro Krebons and Psychic Emperor to bring out Thought Ruler Archfiend (2700/2300) now attack Stratos!" the boy commanded as the Synchro monster charged at Stratos only to meet my Scrap-Iron Scarecrow.
"Ha! As cheap as that card is, it still targets Though Ruler Archfiend so its effect activates! If any trap or spell card targets a Psychic monster I can pay 1000 Life Points to negate and destroy it but with Brain Research Lab all I need is to put a simple Counter on it and not pay anything at all. " Wally explained, "Now destroy Stratos!"
I grunted as I took my first hit of the duel losing 100 Life Points [3900/4200], "My go." I said as I drew my card, "I activate Emergency Call which allows me to get any Elemental Hero I want into my hand and I choose Elemental Hero Bladedge! Thanks to Necroshade now in the Graveyard, I can normal summon any Elemental Hero regardless of tributes. Let's go Bladedge (2600/1800)! Then I activate Miracle Fusion! By removing from play any Elemental Hero fusion materials, I can Fusion summon a monster! I choose Stratos and Necroshade, come on out Elemental Hero Great Tornado! That's not all though I play Righteous Justice which means I destroy 1 spell or trap card for every Elemental Hero on field so say goodbye to that facedown and Brain Research Lab."
Wally stood in shock as he was only left with his Synchro monster and 1000 less Life Points [3900/3200] since there was one Counter on Brain Research Lab before getting destroyed.
"Ready for this Wally? When Great Tornado is summoned to the field, all your monster's attack and defense is cut in half. Both my monsters still get an 800 attack boost from Solidarity. It's over now Wally." I asserted as I pointed at him, "Bladedge go for Thought Ruler!" I commanded as my golden Elemental Hero charged towards the weakened Synchro monster and sliced him to bits but Wally didn't flinch like all other duelists did when hit with the blow, it was unsettling but he did lose 2050 Life Points [3900/1150]. "Now Great Tornado, attack directly!"
Wally's Life Points dropped to zero and he let out a sigh of defeat as he took his deck out of the duel disk and placed it back in his pocket. I did the same too when I realized there were a lot of our classmates there watching us which was kind of weird but I guessed everyone wanted to spend time watching a duel instead of doing nothing.
Our fellow classmates began cheering and complimenting the both of us. I just smiled and headed back towards the dorms, quickly followed by Wally. "Wow, you're really good." Wally complimented as we entered our dorm again.
"Really? Now that I think about it, I could have done things completely different but you're good too." I answered.
"Haha thanks, anyways let's go down to have our welcoming dinner."
"Judging by the looks of our dorm, I don't think there will be a 'dinner'." I joked as we headed down to the small space they called a cafeteria, which was conveniently located on the first floor of the girls' dorm.
The cafeteria was filled with males and females alike and we were seated at a table with four other people. They were all girls, and fortunately for me and Wally, there were no other open seats available. Wally and I sat there in awkward silence before one of the girls broke it, "You're the guys who dueled earlier right?" the girl asked moving her long curly blonde hair out of her face.
"Yup but it was a close match." I said nudging Wally with my elbow hoping he'd agree.
"Not really. I got my butt kicked out there. I dealt only 100 damage, you dealt so much more." Wally said shoving my arm away.
"I got really lucky. Trust me; it'll be a lot more even the next time we duel."
"Are you guys going to keep talking to each other or introduce yourselves so you actually have friends to talk to later?" The girl asked sounding a bit annoyed.
"Haha sorry. I'm Ike and this guy over here is Wally." I greeted holding out my hand over the table.
The girl stared at my hand for a second before shaking it, since kids of our generations are a bit uncomfortable with formal handshakes, "My name's Rachel." She greeted.
"I'm Amanda." The brunette to the left of Rachel said without even looking up from her book. She seemed very absorbed in her book instead of the people around her or the food.
"I'm Lauren, and the one across me is Laura." The girl next to me said giving a bright smile.
I glanced over at Laura and found that Lauren and Laura looked very alike. Lauren had auburn hair and brown eyes while Laura had a bit more reddish hair than her sisters but they both had the same eye colors. They even had similar hair lengths which was strange because just based on personality they seemed a lot more different.
"If you're wondering, we're twins but people say I'm better looking." Lauren said giving her sister a bright smile.
"Wanna repeat that to my face?" her twin lashed giving a death glare to Lauren.
I took a glance over at Wally to save myself from the bickering twins but he was busy conversing with Rachel about Duel Monsters strategies and other things. So I turned my attention back to the still arguing sisters, oddly enough it was quite entertaining after listening to them for a little while. "Are you guys all first years?" I asked getting a nod from everybody at our table. I smiled feeling happy that the first friends I made were other first years so I would get to spend more time with during classes, if they ever got boring. I was about to ask everyone else what kind of decks they used but got cut off by the burly teacher from earlier that morning.
"Everybody calm down!" A loud voice boomed throughout the cafeteria, "My name is Professor Allen and I am your dorm adviser. I'm here to make sure you guys don't do anything crazy. Now for our First Year students, our welcoming dinner is one of the best you'll get and don't expect any more. Also dueling with an ante is strictly prohibited and using banned cards is also prohibited. That is all. Everyone dig in!"
The professor looked nice enough to tolerate for an entire year but his size was a bit intimidating. My thoughts of the professor was soon gone because we all got in line for food which consisted of a small bowl of rice, some miso soup, and a small cooked fish. That was it, our welcoming dinner. I sighed as I began to eat and enjoy as much as I could because it wasn't that appealing. As I ate everyone at our table got into a discussion about Duel Monsters because there wasn't much else to talk about and in about an hour left everyone left to the dorms. Unfortunately for the guys, the cafeteria was placed on the first floor of the girl's dorms so we were forced to walk back through the night to our dorms. It dawned on me that the girl's didn't have a dorm advisor but I figured we would see her sometime soon. The short trek felt longer than needed and it was dark but we all made it there safely. Once we all reached the dorms Wally and I changed into our pajamas as another boy walked in with us, probably our other roommate. "Hey I'm George, your other roommate." He said curtly as he got into his pajamas.
Wally and I gave awkward hellos as we all climbed into our beds all excited about the next day. Classes were beginning tomorrow in the morning and that would mark our first day at Duel Academy. I had trouble falling asleep because I was so excited to start the day but after fretting about it for about an hour I eventually fell into a deep sleep.