Chapter 18: The Search Continues

When the alarm went off, Matt spun over and slammed it with his palm splayed as if preventing the clock from moving. He held it there long enough to identify the buzz as belonging to a piece of equipment he had purchased intentionally and not as a looming threat. Sighing in relief, he gently tapped the button to shut off the alarm. Now that the room was silent, he lay back down and stared into the back of his eyelids while releasing a huge yawn. The weekend was over. It was time to resume a normal school schedule.

Matt slung the comforter off himself and swung his legs out of bed. He grabbed his glasses and headed straight for the door, being careful to step over the tripwire in the doorway. He was only wearing boxer shorts at the moment, but the bathroom was right next to his dorm room. And he only had to share it with two other students… Well, three other students, if you count the fact that Lucy had a tendency to sleep over in Bryan's room. The chances of someone seeing him were slim.

The bathroom was designed for optimal use by three young men: One urinal was attached to the near wall, the toilet sat on the opposite side, and a shower stood between them with a curtain so heavy a typhoon wouldn't move it. Seriously, Matt had done pull-ups from that shower rod before. The bathroom was spotless. It usually was. Darius had an eye for cleanliness, even after Bryan's marathon pee the night before. For ridiculous reasons, Bryan had refused to use the bathroom at all while visiting Yasna: something about frostbite in irreparable places.

When he finished, Matt pulled up his shorts, flushed the urinal, washed his hands, and headed back into the small hall in front of his room. He stopped long enough to grab a bungee cord from his closet. He proceeded to hook one end on Bryan's bedroom door and the other end on Darius's door. It was a distance only barely reachable for the poor bungee cord. With the ends set, Matt flicked it to test its tension. It moved, but only slightly. Perfect.

Before heading back into his room, Matt knocked on Darius's door and called, "Good morning, Darius." Without awaiting a response, he returned to his own room.

Because he felt like propping his door open, Matt grabbed a pair of blue shorts from the closet and put them on over his boxers. It wasn't time for breakfast just yet, though. Going to school to make playing a card game his profession was no reason to let himself get overly soft. Matt dropped to the floor to complete his ab crunch circuit. That meant doing normal crunches, rolling onto one side to do oblique crunches, rolling onto his belly to do Superman stretches for his lower back, rolling to the other side for more oblique crunches, and finishing on his back with ab crunches again. Normally he would try to complete sets of one hundred crunches, but he was exhausted after a weekend of confronting duelists with criminal tendencies. The mental tug-of-war between resting and staying fit ended in compromising on sets of fifty. When his abs burned, it was time for cereal.

Sitting at his desk with a bowl of Frosted Flakes, Matt reviewed his email from the weekend. It had been nearly impossible to obtain a cellular signal in the arctic expanse of Yasna, let alone wifi. And when he had gotten back to the dorm, he had only the urge to drop down and sleep. Despite that, his email box was reasonable. There were a few emails from Cary regarding official school business—namely his membership in Team OTK. There was going to be another promotional exhibition in the town of Kazuki, sponsored by some rich folks who wanted to see the best Duel Academy had to offer. That meant Matt was going to duel against Cary again, with an audience this time. He also had an email from Dr. Arbus regarding semester assignments for his Urban Legends class. That one was pretty cool and one of Matt's favorites. The class focused on myths and archaeological relics that related to dueling and its precursors. And they were going to have a two-day extension on their current essay assignment so Dr. Arbus could take a sick day.

Nothing else exciting in the email.

Finally the sound of a jiggling doorknob wafted in from the hall. And as chance would have it, Darius would not be the one to suffer from this prank. Bryan's was the door that moved. When the knob turned and the door began to pull back, the tension on the bungee cord increased so much that it snapped the door shut again, eliciting an excited and painful yelp from the one whose fingers couldn't hold the door as planned.

"Very funny," came an annoyed reply, muffled by the thickness of the door. "A bungee cord to hold the door shut. That's classic. I have to pee!"

"Again?" Matt asked. "I'm surprised you have anything left." Jokes aside, he decided to take down the bungee cord so Bryan wouldn't decide wetting the floor was a valid decision. Somehow Matt would be the one to clean it up. Bryan would be the one making the stupid decision, but somehow he'd convince Matt that it was actually his fault. It would be a drawn-out argument, to be sure, but Bryan had more endurance on ridiculous debates, meaning he would win. Matt knew that from experience.

The instant the bungee cord was removed, Bryan's door flew open. Matt's giant friend bolted right past him, not even looking upset as he disappeared into the bathroom.

"You're welcome," Matt mumbled after him.

"Looking for thanks is a little strange after being the one to cause the problem, don't you think?" Obviously Lucy was awake, too. She was still in Bryan's bed. The lights in the room were off, but Matt could see the light of her cell phone as she completed her mandatory check on all social media sites. He wasn't shy about looking into the room; Lucy wore more conservative dress to bed than either he or Bryan did. Sure enough, he could see she wore at least a t-shirt, though her lower body was still covered by the bed's comforter.

"I helped him out even though I didn't have to. That's worth a 'thank you.'"

"Even that was self-serving," Lucy said.

Forcing the subject to change, Matt explained, "The more important question is: Why is he up already? He doesn't have a class."

"Yes, he does," she argued. "He has Dr. Kerr at nine—the same class you have."

"I know he's registered, but after the weekend we just had, he told me he planned to skip it and catch up on sleep."

"Oh." Lucy had to accept that explanation because it was exactly the kind of excuse Bryan would give for skipping class. "Well, he had a couple of nightmares tonight. He said there was another god card."

"Another god card?" Matt repeated.

From the bathroom, they heard a shout, "Another god card!" They both looked as Bryan tore out of the bathroom with excitement controlling his face. "That's what woke me. I felt the power of another god card last night."

"Really?" Matt asked. Thinking about Bryan's connection with Uria, Lord of Searing flame, he asked, "You think maybe you found Slifer the Sky Dragon?"

"No, it wasn't Slifer," Bryan replied. "It wasn't any of the gods we already know about. It was something else." He moved uncomfortably close to his sworn brother and peered obnoxiously with one eye. "It was something big and shadowy with a giant eyeball."

Matt took a step back. "Okay. Assuming you aren't just delusional from hypothermia, then my first question is: What's the card?"

"I don't know."

"Who played it?"

"Couldn't tell ya."

"Okay. Any idea where someone would play a brand new god card?"

"Nuh uh."

The expression on Matt's face at that moment could best be summed by the word "exasperation." He watched Bryan for a moment and commented, "You're incredibly helpful."

"I plan to be. I'm going to find this card. That's why I'm skipping class."

Matt frowned. "I thought you were skipping so you could sleep."

"No time for sleep! I have to find a god card!" He stepped back into his bedroom and added, "And pants, too. Not necessarily in that order. But take good notes for me, will you, please?" He pressed his hands together and batted his eyelashes.

With a groan, Matt said, "You know I can't resist you when you're disgusting."

Where would one start looking for a brand new god card? It's not as if all the wicked duelists went walking around the Duel Academy campus wearing black clothes and proclaiming their desires to end the world. That would make things terribly easier, though. Certainly easier than stopping every random student who happens to be walking by along the perimeter of the quad, or chasing and waving down all the ones across the quad.

"I thought you and Matt retrieved all the god cards already," Maikeru had said when Bryan accosted him with a barrage of cryptic questions. He was a senior student adorned in a yellow jacket, and pretty much the only person willing to stop and listen to Bryan's insanity. It sounded like insanity, at least. "Isn't that why you guys left town?"

"They weren't all there…" Bryan started to say, but he stopped himself when he realized Maikeru wasn't supposed to know that. "Hang on. Matt and I attended an international tournament this weekend. What makes you think it had anything to do with the god cards?"

"The rumor is that your tournament held the god cards as prizes."

Bryan couldn't help sulking a little bit. It was like Maikeru peeked at the magician's trick, the way he stole Bryan's big secret. "Seriously, is there nothing secret on this campus? It was Cary who spilled the beans, wasn't it?"

Maikeru shrugged. "Maybe you shouldn't go around bragging about your big-time duels with the best cards in the world."

"I was talking about my Elemental Heroes!"

"Maybe. But everyone assumes you were talking about cool cards."

"Dude!" Bryan held a finger in Maikeru's face. It was a rare moment when Bryan felt the need to be intimidating, but he pulled it off nicely. He was a big guy at 220 pounds, plus his insistence on wearing a black, leather jacket instead of the traditional school colors added a 50s flavor. All he was missing was the slicked-back hair and some chewing gum. "Don't mock my Elemental Heroes."

Unfortunately, Maikeru was unfazed by the Sharks look. He'd shared a few classes with Bryan and knew of his rather teddy bear-like personality underneath. And so he could be honest with his opinion. "Face it: They're a bunch of weak, normal monsters that require fusion cards to be much use in a real duel. Almost every duel you've ever won was because you were lucky enough to draw the cards you needed."

Accepting the defeat of his inner gang member and pouting because of it, Bryan replied, "I've improved the deck a lot since freshman year. It's not quite so luck-based now." He spoke with a bit of a whine in his voice. But he quickly reverted to his more serious tone when he added a caveat to his claim: "Actually, my Uria build is still pretty luck-based. Do you know how tough it is to keep a lot of Continuous Trap cards in a Hero deck? I feel like I have to stack my deck just to have things work out for me."

That statement gave Maikeru pause. One eyebrow cocked, he asked, "Do you stack the deck?"

"No," Bryan answered before the question was even finished.

For a moment, he and Maikeru stood there in silence—just two guys blocking the sidewalk on the quad until Bryan asked, "Why did you stop me again?"

"You stopped me!" Maikeru shouted back. With a huff, he reminded Bryan, "You wanted to know if I knew anything about a new god card."

"That's right! I was testing you, and you passed."

"That, or you forgot to take your Ritalin this morning," Maikeru grumbled. He sighed, which was not too reassuring for Bryan. "Do you have any idea what this new god card looks like?"

Now it was Bryan's turn to raise an eyebrow. "What it looks like?" he repeated. He hadn't considered that. He'd gotten so little sleep over the weekend that he hadn't stopped to think about any of the details that would have made this search easier for him. "That's a good question." His dream provided very few details. "It was pitch-black, so I couldn't see it. Considering how all the other god cards tend to look, it's probably something so big it takes up the entire duel arena, like Obelisk or Uria do. Oh yeah! And it had one, enormous eye."

"Well, it's a good thing no other Duel Monsters cards have eyes," said Maikeru with such a snarky tone he could have slapped Bryan for the same effect. "I'll spread the word and keep my eyes open for you."

"Cool. Thanks!" Bryan continued along the quad as Maikeru shook his head and continued on his original path toward class.

Suddenly a note of caution struck Bryan. Guilt trickled through him and filled him with doubt. Maybe he shouldn't have shared that kind of information with Maikeru. The guy was a pretty decent duelist, but he was on his last semester at school and still stuck in the Yellow Dorm. What if he decided not to help Bryan and Matt, but instead to help himself? Any duelist would be lucky to hold a god card, and they did have a tendency to turn people into better duelists.

Maybe good enough to muscle his way into the Blue Mansion.

"Hey, Mike!" Bryan shouted before he was too far away. "You do realize this is important, right? These cards are dangerous. People have been hurt in pursuit of them. We want to find a way to make sure no one can be hurt by them again."

Maikeru waved and replied, "Got it. Dangerous cards. Fate of the world. Late for class."

Bryan watched his lackadaisical pal walk away and tried to reassure himself. After all, it was too late to take back what he'd said. "He's not a threat." With that thought, he continued searching for information. From this point, he could be more subtle about it, just in case.

Although some may think it odd, Matt actually found himself relieved to be in class. Duel Academy may be a school intended for duelists, but having a break from the cards was nice every once in a while. And it was nicer still not to have the fate of the world resting on his shoulders. That hadn't worked out for him over the weekend in the polar city of Yasna. Fortunately Bryan was there to pick up his slack.

But even being back in a place he considered "home" only gave him a moment's reprieve. Still three other god cards eluded his reach. Somewhere out there, The Winged Dragon of Ra, Slifer the Sky Dragon, and The Wicked Dreadroot still threatened the spiritual balance of the Shadow Realm. Quite possibly they were in someone's possession, further making that person a threat to everyone around. The cards were vessels for power that had a tendency to leak out into the real world and mutate its surroundings. If that meant warping the soul of an unlucky person, then that power simply gained a new host… until it consumed the soul completely.

Dr. Natalie Kerr snapped his attention back to the present, in his fourth class of the day. She was hoping for every student's participation in this lecture regarding probability and statistics. Imagining the god cards in an amateur's hands was pointless anyway. Until Matt knew where the cards were, everything else was just speculation and random guessing.

"In order to determine the likelihood of events occurring simultaneously," Dr. Kerr said, "we have to multiply the probabilities. So Matt, what is the probability that someone might draw all five pieces of Exodia into his opening hand?"

His face pulled into a smirk at the question. Not only did Dr. Kerr ask the question in a way to ensure he had the numbers he needed, but that very event happened to him in front of the whole school once.

"Well, the probability of drawing an Exodia card first is one-in-forty. The probability of drawing another one second is one-in-thirty-nine. Continue each card and probability accordingly and we end up with…" He scribbled a few numbers down on the paper in front of him, and then he gave up and typed them into his calculator app instead. "…a number that's too low for me to give it a name." That answer elicited some giggles around the classroom.

"Try," Dr. Kerr requested.

"One point two seven times ten to the negative-eighth power," he said.

"Can you turn that into a ratio?"

"Maybe." More typing in the calculator. "That's a chance of one in almost seventy-nine million. It seems pretty unlikely." And yet it had happened to him.

Dr. Kerr smiled at him. "It is indeed unlikely. But that means that if a duelist were to play seventy-nine million duels, on average, he or she would draw five specific cards into his opening hand exactly once. Now, who wants to figure out how long it would take to play so many duels?" The result was even less promising for Dave's chances of repeating that little miracle.

When the lecture ended, Matt packed up his supplies and wandered down the tiered floor toward the front of the lecture hall, where Cary had chosen to sit like the teacher's pet she was. She wore her white uniform jacket with the blue skirt, plus black leggings because it wasn't yet warm enough outside to go around with bare legs. Too bad, too, Matt thought to himself, because Cary had the legs of a tennis player.

"I know what you want," Cary told him as she slung her bag over her shoulder. "I don't know!"

"You just said you do," Matt replied. He knew what she meant, but he decided to play around instead, being difficult and forcing her to talk more than she should need to.

With a forceful grunt, she said, "You want to know if I found any leads on your three missing god cards. The answer is: I don't know where they are!" She led the way out of the classroom.

"Okay," was all Matt said as he followed her.

"I've been busy," she continued. "Classes don't pass themselves for those of us who fail to earn the 'saved the world' credits. Team OTK is still expected to participate in school events and put on demonstrations to help spread the name of Kaiba Corp." She looked at Matt long enough to ask, "You got my email, right?"

"I did."

"Good. Be there by noon, which means you should eat lunch early that day. You don't get to be late and then reuse the excuse that it was lunchtime."

"Got it."

"I set up Google Alerts for all three of your god cards. If anyone has anything to say about them, I'll know it. I've asked Dave to use his contacts in the professional world for an extended search. But he says anyone in the pros who holds a god card will have a hard time not playing it. They get a lot of pressure to be flawless, even though that's statistically impossible, as we learned in Dr. Kerr's class."

"Of course."

"I've been cautious about spreading seeds with my journalism contacts. I'm a little bit afraid that if I told someone about three god cards being out there in the world, it'll be that much harder to get it back. Maybe the reporter who finds it decides to keep it, or maybe every country in the world sends government agents to take possession of it. Those cards don't have a great track record for being found by people with noble intentions."

"There's no one you trust?"

"I'm still just a college student. I don't know these people well enough. There are a few who might be willing to help us at my word that those cards are better off being locked up than in use, but I can't be certain who they are. I trust Dave and Justin and Andy, though. They know the stories of the god cards."

Matt agreed, "Plus, they suffered the overwhelming influence of the Shadow Realm. They understand firsthand what those cards can do to people."

Cary sighed. "Yeah. So that's where things stand. I have no news for you."

"That's okay. I appreciate the fact that you're trying. You're still much better at it than I am. I'm choosing to see the brighter side of things right now. Every moment we don't know where those cards are, they aren't threatening anyone. The second they do, we'll be able to find them."

"What about your big doomsday prophecy with the Shadow Realm and the real world colliding and exploding?"

"Bright side, I said, Cary."

"Sorry."

Matt and Cary stopped momentarily in the entryway of the building, just before exiting onto the quad. At that moment, they were approached by Leila Locklear—easily recognized by her platinum-colored hair and the fact that she only stood as high as Matt's ribcage, which is pretty impressive considering the guy was only five-and-a-half feet tall.

"Um… Matt?"

Leila did not have a commanding presence, and so Matt's first thought was that a mouse had scurried nearby. But the aforementioned hair shone brightly in the afternoon sunlight and drew attention down to her level.

"Hi, Leila," he said. "How are you?"

Either she didn't hear the question or she didn't choose to answer. She was focused on the reason that brought her to talk to someone she normally might just as soon avoid. "I might have seen the card you're looking for."

Matt and Cary both experienced a temporary blanking of the mind as they struggled to interpret what she said. "What card is that?" he asked.

"The pitch-black giant Bryan was asking about."

Pitch-black giant? That didn't describe Ra, Slifer, or Dreadroot. Leila must have been confused. But there was no need to dash her efforts right away. Leila was so shy it took a lot for her to approach anyone. "I'm afraid I'm still not sure what card you're talking about."

Leila, looking nervous as always, moved a little closer and whispered, "Tell him to meet Logan in front of the Marufuji building at nine-thirty."

"But curfew is at ten."

That was all Leila had to say. She walked away into the nearest classroom, leaving Matt to ask, "What was that about?"

Cary shrugged. She said, "I think her instructions were pretty clear. Bryan should meet Logan in front of the Marufuji building at nine-thirty. Any idea what card he's looking for?"

"Not really. He had a dream about a god card."

"That sounds like a reliable source. Tell him I said 'Good luck.'"

Matt smirked. "I'm sure Bryan will find comfort in your sarcastic words."

Logan Wilson was generally a person Bryan would avoid when possible. He was tall and strong, which wasn't such a problem except that it reminded Bryan how much he had let himself go since high school. There was a huge dip in physical activity when he went from playing football every week to playing a card game all the time. Many people also considered Logan to be funnier, with a sharper wit than that which Bryan had shown as he aged.

But mostly, Bryan was sick of Logan's desire to fight anyone who looked reasonably strong. He was so scrappy he even tore the sleeves off his very expensive Academy jacket. Most considered it a miracle that anyone who spent so much time and effort deserving the term "meathead" would even be offered a blue jacket.

Bryan was in front of the Marufuji building at nine-twenty-seven. Logan attacked him at nine-thirty on the dot. By nine-thirty-two, Logan had a mouthful of sod as his shorter but slightly heavier opponent managed to wrestle him into submission. That was all it took for Logan to settle down and lead Bryan off campus into the nearby town of Kazuki. (Bryan made Logan take the lead to reduce the chance he would be ambushed a second time.)

No later than the moment Bryan knew he would be punished, if he were caught, for being out of his room did Logan finally stop walking.

"Where are we?" Bryan asked him.

"We're at 3rd and Main," Logan replied. Those weren't the real names of the streets. He was just being sassy.

Trying to be patient but tensing up in case of another scuffle, Bryan asked, "Why are we here?"

"That's one of life's great mysteries, isn't it? Do you believe that god created the world with a specific purpose in mind, or is everything just one, big, cosmic coincidence?"

Bryan sighed deeply and loudly. But he wouldn't threaten Logan. That was probably what the man was looking for.

"Relax, big guy. We're exactly where you wanted to be."

Aside from the dark street corner, the closed bakery in front of them and no one at all walking the streets, Bryan didn't see anything. "And where is that?"

Logan simply pointed to the door of the bakery. "Right there." At first Bryan assumed this was another of his ridiculous jokes, but Logan's finger didn't point to the locked front door with the sign indicating "Closed." He actually pointed at the dark alley beside the building. "I think you'll find it's unlocked. Of course, if it isn't, we can always muscle it open, can't we?"

"What are you up to?"

"Go inside and find out?"

Bryan didn't trust Logan as far as he could throw him, but Leila was the interesting factor. The shyest girl in school chose this lunk-head to be her messenger. Why would she trust him? More importantly, assuming he was trustworthy, why would she want Bryan to show up here, at a subpar bakery in the middle of the night?

The backdoor was open, just as Logan had said. Cautiously, Bryan slipped inside. It was dark, as one would expect in a place of business after closing time. The tables were neatly arranged with chairs flipped upside-down on top of them. Doing so gave easy access to the floor for sweeping. The cabinets were all locked up tightly, even though they were empty. Bryan figured there could be a rodent problem for all those pastries to disappear.

"There's nothing here."

No sooner had he come to that conclusion than Bryan heard a faint whine, like a high-pitched tone one might hear from a computer or a hologram projector. Actually, it wasn't that he heard it right then, but rather that he finally became aware of it. It was such a familiar sound to student duelists that he almost hadn't realized it was out of place in a bakery. Following the sound to where it was loudest, Bryan found himself opening the door to the kitchen. It looked like any old kitchen as far as his undiscerning eye could tell, but the darkness was broken by flickering lights in the corner of the room. The sound was louder in the corner, too.

"Well, well. What have we here?"

It was a staircase leading down underneath the building. Bryan's better judgment told him he should cut his losses and get back to Duel Academy. He might still be able to sneak in without being caught. But his better senses were drowned out by his curiosity. The staircase smelled strongly of pastries, and other sounds accompanied the drone of a hologram projector. They were the sounds of commotion and fanfare.

One step at a time, Bryan descended into the basement. It looked like a limestone bomb shelter the way it lacked any decoration at all and the walls appeared almost green. The light in the room was minimal. A food stand off to the side of the cellar was well lit, and it was stocked with the kind of snacks Bryan had expected to see at the front counter. Each smelled of being day-old, but that didn't stop hungry spectators from scarfing them down. Whatever was going on here, it was good for business. He even recognized a few familiar faces that were also guilty of missing Duel Academy's curfew, but they were the minority compared with all the older faces of people from town. No wonder the cellar was unlocked after hours.

This was not the kind of place Bryan would normally find himself. It looked like a den of shady dealings. To be fair, the people didn't necessarily look like untrustworthy folks, but rather whoever organized the gathering was probably not strictly legitimate. Bryan tried to reserve judgment, though, considering even he went through a dark phase in association with some less affable types. Personalities aside, there were just too many people in congregation in this tiny cellar. And at least one of them didn't know enough about body odor. Finding out why everyone was here almost didn't seem worthwhile.

The other source of light was much more prominent than the snack stand, and it took Bryan's attention away from everything else. There was a pair of duelists standing opposite one another at the very back of the cellar. Each was lit by the light of the Duel Disks they wore on their arms and by the monsters they summoned to the field.

One of the monsters stood as tall as the cellar. Its body was pitch-black except for the gold markings on its face and sides… and the blue fire erupting from the ground underfoot. It had the size. But was it a god card? Something about it felt incomplete.

The resemblance was undeniable. It was just like in Bryan's dream.

After a ve~ry long break, I've finally returned to this story. The current plot for this arc is 31 chapters. That means we're making good progress. I'll try to write more consistently, but many of you know how romance, academia, and employment get in the way. In the next chapter, house rules will prevent Bryan from obtaining this new, possible-god card.

There are so many characters contributed over the years. Some will play big parts in a chapter and some will merely be mentioned in passing. Rest assured that all characters are in my roster and will reoccur as fits the story. Thanks go this week to tiramisu19, onyxshade7, Windraider, and MercWithTheMouth13 for contributing Darius Mantzios, Maikeru Stone, Leila Locklear, and Logan Wilson.

Trivia: Duels are such a big part of Yu-Gi-Oh! and a big part of my story, but the chapters where I get the chance to play around with the characters are my favorite. Duels are tough, and there are only so many ways to make the dialogue interesting without resorting to age-old trash talk.