Chapter 20: Darkness of Duel Academy

"The red sky to one side, the blackness in the other, the poisonous-looking green flora, the stony beach with those disgusting monsters scuttling slowly along, the salted sea, the thin air that hurts so much when you breathe…" Rory paused in the middle of recounting what she saw in this other dimension. The memory haunted her, not for any particular event, as far as Matt could tell, but for the emotional weight it set upon her. "It is impossible to convey the sheer desolation of that place."

"It sounds awful," Matt agreed. He placed his hand on her arm to reassure her and to offer her his warmth. "I get the gist of the landscape. It almost sounds like an anti-Duel Academy. Don't focus on the misery. Just tell me what Hayley was doing there."

Rory squeezed a tear from her eye, put there by the frightful images she held of the alternate dimension. "It wasn't actually Hayley. Serpentina is the one who wandered in."

"Of course." Matt was the one who had explained Hayley's mental condition to Rory. She couldn't understand why, after the all-night adventure over the weekend, a girl who looked exactly like Serpentina acted as though they had never been introduced.

"She didn't say what her goal was. There was a weird thing she mentioned about students disappearing from campus." Chuckling nervously to ensure she didn't sound crazy, Rory added, "It sounded like one of those ridiculous conspiracy theories, the way she told it."

Unsure what to add, Matt said, "Could be. I don't know of those stories."

"Yeah, I didn't really believe it actually happened. Except…"

Matt took her hand and held it firmly between both of his. "Hey! Just tell me. I promise not to judge you. That's why Bryan's not here now. Only you and I will know what you say here."

Comforted by his words, Rory pressed her lips to Matt's hand, serving the purpose of relaying her affection for him and allowing her to hide her face when she spoke. "I got the feeling that someone in Serpentina's family was one of the disappearing students."

"Really? That's interesting. I knew she had a brother who disappeared a while back. I just assumed that meant he was kidnapped as a child or that he ran off to join the circus or something." He rubbed the stubble on his chin, which served the dual purpose of helping him feel like he was putting in their places pieces of a complex puzzle and reminding him that it was time to shave again. "If her brother indeed disappeared on campus, it would explain why she goes wandering the campus at night."

"Do you think that's what's going on?"

He shrugged. "It's just a theory, but it fits the information we have so far."

Even had Matt not realized Rory's mental anguish from her journey into another realm, her body language betrayed the nightmares she'd experienced since entering. "So how do we find out more about that place?"

"Going back in would be the best way," Matt suggested, though it made Rory nervous to consider the possibility.

She found solace in knowing: "The gate's not there anymore."

"What gate?"

"The rift. The tear in the space-time continuum. The invisible curtain that locked me out past curfew for several hours and filled my dreams with terror and isolation!" She hadn't realized how strongly she felt about never going back.

"Hey!" He grabbed her hand again to calm her. "It's okay. You're safe."

"Maybe not," spoke the powerful voice of Ahura Mazda. Matt's parasitic spirit hovered in the air beside him. More accurately, he simply stood still, only appearing to float because Ahura's planar existence was invisible to all except his host.

"I'll bite, Ahura," Matt said. He chose those words specifically to enable Rory to ignore his next few comments. In essence, he alerted her that his invisible friend finally wanted to talk, even though she wouldn't be able to hear his comments. "What's the matter?"

"An intermittent rift may signal an unstable dimension colliding with ours. It follows that more students could disappear each time the gate opens. Worse, something else could cross over into this realm."

"What do you suggest?"

"We should examine the site and determine the effect on the surrounding environment."

Thinking about how Rory would take that suggestion, Matt said, "Do we really need to? First of all, there haven't been any new stories of disappearances in fifty years. Second of all, Hayley obviously figured out how to come back, so how dangerous could this alternate dimension be?"

"That is a loaded presumption. How dangerous are the woods? Influenza has not claimed the life of a Duel Academy student in years; ought the administration to preclude flu shots among health requirements?"

Matt frowned. "When did you get to be such a smart aleck?"

The irony of the question made Rory laugh nervously, not knowing the other side of the conversation. "What's going on?" she asked of her boyfriend.

Reluctantly, he answered, "He wants to check out the quad… you know, see the sights."

She replied to his evasive language by making a face. "He wants to see the gate?" Matt nodded. She shuddered at the thought, but she did admit, "That makes sense. He's a god, so he can probably see something we can't."

"Yeah, perhaps," Matt agreed. "You should wait here."

Surprised, she said, "Really?"

"Yes. You've dealt with enough stress actually going to this other place. You don't need to go looking for it again. Stay here and do some homework or something. I'll head out there and be back before you know it." Rory might have argued, but the look of relief in her eyes and the heavy sag of her shoulders instantly gave away her true feelings. Brushing her cheek, Matt promised to return shortly.

As soon as he exited the room, Matt looked into Bryan's room. The door was propped open, revealing Bryan's large body sitting on the floor, leaning against his dresser while tapping away furiously at an electronic device held between his hands.

"Whatcha doin', Bro?" Matt called in.

Looking frustrated, Bryan continued to stare at the screen, though he offered as explanation, "How am I supposed to catch 'em all when I have to start over every two years with a new game?"

That sounded bad. Bryan needed some time outside. "Want to come to the quad with me?" Matt asked him.

"To do what?"

"Look for a gateway between this dimension and a parallel universe that may or may not be dying. Possibly stop by D-hall for a luncheon."

Bryan turned off the handheld console and placed it on his dresser. "Yeah, why not? Beats pretending I don't know what an organization whose name starts with 'Team' is planning. Like we're supposed to think, 'Maybe this time they'll be the good guys.'" He grabbed his key and phone and closed the door behind him.

Unfortunately, Bryan's phone beeped as soon as the pair exited the dorm. Quickly perusing the text of the message, he hummed with amusement. "Sorry, bro. Apparently I've been summoned to the administration office to discuss my behavior of late."

"Your behavior? Do they suddenly have a problem with letting your fiancée sleep in your bed at night?"

"Doesn't matter. We usually sleep in her bed."

"Yeah, that's totally different."

"Sorry to abandon you so soon after agreeing to join you on the quad."

"Don't worry about it. I only invited you 'cause you looked so pathetic sitting there in the dark with a handheld game"

"Good looking out for me. Have fun searching for the TARDIS." Bryan pointed with both index fingers as he turned to walk the other way. It was a signal that he turned over all responsibility to Matt. As if Matt needed the reminder.

The only thing that concerned Matt was the size of the quad. At one thousand square yards, it made the prospect of searching for something invisible more inviting with a second person to help. Better yet, his help could come in form not of a human but of a god. Surely that would improve the ease of finding Rory's portal to another world.

"Do you see anything?" he asked the incorporeal griffon that shadowed him.

"I see everything."

"Wonderful," Matt replied dryly. "Care to share anything worth noting?"

"The world comprises the energies of all things. To my eyes, these energies are clear and distinguishable. It is just as Aurora suggested: There is a significant energy at the other end of the quad, in front of Wilson Hall."

"Really?" Matt sounded more disbelieving than he had intended. Ahura's information was actually helpful when he often seemed almost autistic in his ability to speak cryptically, if he even focused on the correct topic at hand. "Let's get a closer look. Point me in the right direction."

Stepping up from that, Ahura Mazda glided ahead as he led Matt directly to the point of investigation. "Right here exists a weak but significant break in the natural energy that flows from the earth's surface."

Focusing on the spot as he circled Ahura Mazda on all sides, Matt relayed, "I don't see anything."

"Visible light is not reflected by it, but electromagnetic energy is absorbed at heightened levels. Memory serves me no examples of such transdimensional paths, but little doubt is left that this rift is what Aurora described."

Matt lifted his arm warily, attempting to touch some sort of electromagnetic curtain, but the air provided no reaction to his efforts. Feeling defeated, he sighed sorrowfully. "Too bad we can't see what's on the other side." He felt elated, however, to know that Rory wasn't mixing reality with dreams.

"Would it provide more information if we traced the energy to its source?"

"What? You mean this portal wasn't always here?"

"The trail is faint, but residual energy streams indicate the rift has experienced drift over time." The sleeve of his robe motioned in between academic buildings, past the main campus toward the end where stood the only controversial building at Duel Academy.

Feeling this was no coincidence but uncertain of how the pieces fit together, Matt said, "You're telling me this walkway to a world on the verge of death came from the same building Bryan battled against all three Sacred Beasts?"

"The building closest to where my energy protected you from the Wicked Gods and the Shadow Realm, yes."

Bryan knocked "Shave and a haircut" as he poked his head into the administration office. The shape of the building presented him with an L-shaped hallway. To the left was the administrative assistant's office, where Colleen Bartlet busied herself with the usual duties of someone hired to keep the professors from getting too busy. As a college graduate with a pile of debt and a need for a decent-paying job, Colleen put her administrative skills to the test working for Kaiba Corp. Bryan rarely engaged her in conversation—primarily because he avoided the administrative building as much as possible—but her name was on just about every Duel Academy event email he received.

Since all the other office doors were closed, he decided to start with her. "Good morning, Colleen," he greeted, sticking his head through her open door.

Colleen was an attractive young woman. She kept her brown hair in a bob cut in order to frame her face and remove focus from the fact that it was remarkably round; the effect was accomplished masterfully. She, like so many other humans at Duel Academy, was much shorter than Bryan. Not that she was self-conscious about her height, but Bryan's sheer volume was a tad intimidating to her. Because of that, she almost always sat down when she saw him, to prevent anyone from seeing exactly how gigantic he was next to her.

"Hey, Bryan," she said, promptly dropping to her cushioned desk chair. "What brings you here?"

He showed her his phone. "A summons. Any idea what it's about?"

"Let me check," she said. It was a front, of course. Colleen feigned uncertainty about the summons to present the appearance that she was too busy for Bryan to stick around and chat. She clacked away on the keyboard for a moment, busily drafting an email to her friends in the administrative offices in downtown Kazuki when she finally decided that was long enough to make Bryan wait. "Oh! You were summoned by Dr. Lankford."

"That's what I was afraid of. But it figures." Hesitantly, Bryan looked back at Dr. Lankford's office door. A big, oak door with the name Kevin Lankford, Ph.D. embroidered on it, closed just like Dr. Lankford's heart. "Is he in?"

"He was last I checked. Just knock. But don't do 'shave and a haircut.'"

"Good advice," he agreed. "Thanks."

"No problem," she said, beaming at him. He tried to return the smile, but he always felt uneasy around her. For some reason, she seemed squirrely around him, and it made him uncomfortable. It showed in his attempted smile.

In reality, Colleen's behavior was easier to fixate on that to let his imagination run away with thoughts of what Dr. Lankford wanted him for. The best possible scenario he could come up with was a job offer to work with Kaiba Corp. upon graduation, complete with a full benefits package, a pricey stipend, and a bonus house on the lakefront perfect for him and Lucy to begin their marriage! The worst scenario he could determine was being expelled from Duel Academy and brought up on criminal charges for some reason.

He crossed his fingers, wishing hopefully the meeting would fall somewhere close to the middle.

Three methodic knocks on the door this time. That was sufficient for attention-grabbing.

"Come in," came the stern, muffled voice of Dr. Lankford.

Bryan couldn't help opening the door so slowly it creaked. He'd been there several times, but Dr. Lankford's office always threw him for a loop. As cold and heartless as the professor seemed to each and every student who ever bent a rule, the office was shockingly warmhearted. The colors were vibrant, the shelves recently lacquered, and sunlight streamed in without obstruction. Pictures of the Lankford family dotted the antique, oak desk. Even Lankford himself had a default smile—tiny though it was—while he looked at the work on his desk.

"Sit down, Mr. Knight," he said. Again, he sounded easygoing enough. Before Bryan stepped too far into the office, he added, "Close the door, please." Bryan did so and then sat down without saying anything else—just waiting to hear what the Kaiba family wanted from him.

As soon as he found a stopping point, Dr. Lankford looked up and met Bryan's befuddled gaze. "Tell me about last night."

"Last night?" Bryan wasn't sure what he meant. "Um… I might have found something."

"Was it a watch, or perhaps a GPS?"

If Bryan was confused before, he was baffled now. "What?"

"I won't mince words, and you won't prevaricate about the bush. You were outside of your dormitory past curfew. Outside Duel Academy campus, even." He flipped around the monitor on his desk and revealed a pictorial play-by-play of Bryan's duel with Logan. "Your Duel Disk is registered with the school for this very reason."

Of course it was. Kaiba Corp. Duel Disks only worked because they relayed signals from satellites run by Kaiba Corp. And all transmissions were recorded automatically. In the beginning, it was to keep an eye out for rare cards, and maybe it still was to some degree, but it also allowed private schools with strict rules about curfews to keep an eye on their students.

"I don't deny it, then," Bryan said.

"Good. Your punishment is academic probation for three weeks."

"What?! Just for being out past my bedtime?" Bryan knew about academic probation. It happened to a senior he knew the previous year. Basically, the guy was unable to issue duel requests, punishments for skipping class were more severe, and it was like being on house arrest—except his "house" was Duel Academy's campus. In short, he couldn't go anywhere outside of the Academy, and his academic performance was under stricter scrutiny.

"It may seem like a simple breach of protocol to you, Mr. Knight," the professor spoke, "but it is a rule taken seriously at an institution as prestigious as this one. And the evidence is immaculate, meaning there is no room to negotiate."

"That blows," he said, letting his colorful language slip by accident. "What about Logan?"

"Mr. Wilson and I will discuss his punishment in private. You need not concern yourself with it."

Despite his outburst, Bryan actually counted himself lucky. Curfew rules had been the cause of several students being expelled over the years. At least he beat that rap. Still, he understand why Vic's Duel Club didn't let people rent their Duel Disks the same way they rented out decks.

"Anything else, sir?" he asked harshly.

Dr. Lankford leaned back in his chair and watched Bryan squirm for a moment. "Did you find what you were looking for?"

It was almost impossible to be sure what Dr. Lankford knew. As an expert in Duel Monsters, he could just be good at reading Bryan's facial expressions and body language to figure out there was a secret, legitimate reason for him to be out after curfew. Or maybe he heard the rumor that Bryan was searching for a heretofore unknown god card. From the look in his eye, that option seemed most likely.

"I can't be sure. I didn't get a good enough look."

"That's too bad. Perhaps next time, if it makes its way onto campus."

"Do you think it might?"

This was the first complete, undeniable smile to pass Lankford's lips since Bryan entered the room. "Such cards have a tendency to gravitate toward this academy. If it is something we need to take note of, it will show itself soon enough." Turning back to his work, he said, "I have a full day ahead of me. You'd be surprised how much paperwork piles up as a professor, alone. I do not look forward to the day Corbin retires."

Small talk? From Dr. Lankford? About how hard his job is? The scenario was preposterous and nearly left Bryan feeling catatonic in his stupor. "I'm sure," was all he could muster.

"You may leave now," the professor said, more directly. Happily, Bryan turned away, but no sooner had his hand touched the doorknob when the professor added, "I know of no other actual god cards in all of history. But anything powerful enough to catch your attention deserves a closer look."

That message was as cryptic as Bryan could have asked for. Did that mean he was still allowed to look for it, even if it meant violating his probation? Or was Lankford simply pointing out that they probably had nothing to worry about from these black monster gods?

No, there was no way the ranking professor left Bryan's imprisonment for an X-factor. If Bryan wanted to find out more about this unknown monkey god, he would need some help.

Every professor earns a certain reputation amongst the students, and students will always need a favor. If one wanted encouragement that anything was possible, Dr. Houtz was the incurable optimist to visit. Pr. Baker was more than willing to share real-world experience and share stories of criminal idiocy. For sage advice belying a youthful appearance, Dr. Kerr could always be counted on to give the unseen answer. If a student was feeling overly optimistic felt the need to be squashed and brought down a peg or two, Dr. Lankford was a master.

But to find answers about rebuilding a previously ruined building, best to ask the man who chaired the charitable foundation that supported the project. Dr. Arbus was as open and approachable as any student. As the newest professor to Duel Academy, he had the professionalism to bear great knowledge of history and mythology, but he retained the humility not to lord it over the students in an antagonistic manner.

Dr. Arbus wasn't in the faculty office at the Yellow Dorm, or even in his office at the administration building. After checking his schedule with Colleen Bartlet, Matt figured out Dr. Arbus was in class, but it was also ending soon. He figured he'd head straight over and wait through the end of the lecture.

Maybe the prospect of accidentally falling through a portal into another world a second time frightened Rory enough to keep her off the quad. But she wouldn't skip the opportunity to learn more about it. As soon as Matt texted her that the portal came from the visitor dorm and he was going to ask Dr. Arbus about it, she dropped straight to ground level and met up with him near the academic buildings.

"What time does his class end?" Rory asked Matt.

"Ten more minutes."

"Oh. Do you want to go watch that couple making out by the fountain?"

"Not the kind of fruitful I planned. Let's just audit the last few minutes." Rory wasn't eager to spend even more time in the classroom than she was required to. She had actually thought maybe watching the couple with the horribly inappropriate PDA would distract him, and maybe they could outperform the couple by displaying some style.

Odd as the decision may seem from a college student, Matt really did want to sit until the very end of the lecture, just in case Dr. Arbus managed to slip by them on his way out. The lecture hall wasn't the biggest at the academy. Maybe thirty seats of the fifty available had butts in them. The percentage made Matt feel a little obvious as he and Rory slipped inside, momentarily drawing everyone's attention until they returned to the lecture at hand.

Dr. Arbus didn't refocus his attention, though. He kept his eye on Matt. "This seems a good cessation," he spoke, his accent strong. "Be sure to read the next chapter and begin working on your essays. Don't just put them off because you have two weeks. A little progress at a time is the optimal form." This was not a professor known for ending class early. In fact, he was very particular that classes end on the dot, even if he was mid-sentence. But the students offered no objection to regaining ten minutes of their lives.

"Matthew," the professor noted, loudly to make it clear he could see his visitors. "And Aurora. What gives me the honor of your visit today?"

Matt answered, "If it's not too much trouble, we were hoping to ask you some questions."

Rolling the wheeled chair from behind the teacher's desk to a space in front of the lecture seats, Dr. Arbus motioned for the two students to sit as well. "Please sit. What's on your mind?"

"As I understand it," Matt started, "your foundation supported the rebuilding of the Medici Building."

"That is correct. The building had fallen below standards set forth by city ordinances. My wife was a Duel Academy graduate who wished to see the campus appear in optimal condition."

"Why would the administration let the building fall apart? I mean, with tuition rates like they are, Duel Academy has been a moneymaker since its inception. They spend tons of money on upkeep ever since I've been here, even though we only have campus visitors every once in a while."

Arbus sighed, suppressing a coy smile. "Your friend Cary asked me the same thing, but I will explain it again." The look he gave was telling-that Matt should already know this information because Cary should have shared it. But she never told Matt about it, even when she started researching the missing god cards. Everything she learned was kept secret between her and whomever she was working with.

"There's an unfortunate history behind that dormitory. Urban legends, mostly, but cause for the old blue dormitory to be abandoned and then razed, replaced by building a brand new dormitory over the old foundation. Students who stayed at the original building disappeared overnight. While the cover-up story was that they attended a study-abroad program—secretly, of course, without telling their parents..." He cocked an eyebrow, belying the sarcasm in his voice. "...the event I learned was that one of the students performed a Hellfire ritual that drew him and his classmates into the World of Darkness."

"What's the World of Darkness?" asked Matt.

"It is a sort of purgatory, not unlike what we know as the Shadow Realm. According to the stories, souls are tortured in that world. The effects vary depending on the person, however. There are no demons with pitchforks as one sees in many cartoons."

Matt hummed pensively for a moment. "I heard some of the students describe that kind of thing two years ago, when all the Guardian Duelers were possessed and stealing souls from the other students."

"'Stealing souls' is not perfectly apt, as the bodies are merely kept comatose while the mind experiences a rush of unnatural chemical transactions, but perhaps the problem extends beyond the physiobiological issues we can directly observe. Stories have often described the Shadow Realm as needing more souls to continue its existence."

"I'm sorry," Rory interrupted. "I feel a little bit confused. What's the difference between the Shadow Realm and this World of Darkness?"

Arbus smiled and offered a knowing wink. "An excellent observation, my dear. Based on no information further than self-reports, I suspect the World of Darkness is an astral representation of the Shadow Realm-how the human brain experiences the wave existence of the Collective Consciousness. If I may continue; the same ritual that disappeared the students also imbued the dormitory with shadow magic. It was as if stepping foot into the building were the same as stepping into the Shadow Realm itself. Many subsequent visitors to the rundown structure succumbed to similar symptoms that afflict survivors of Shadow Games."

"That's a good reason to demolish the building," said Matt.

"I concur," said Arbus, "although the destruction did not occur in an orthodox fashion. There was a fire, possibly set by a student distraught over losing a loved one or possessed by nightmares and driven mad. One urban legend even claimed it was actually a Duel Monster Spirit who torched the by-then abandoned dorm."

Rory was confused again. "Duel Spirit?"

"Just as the name suggests: a spiritual manifestation of a Duel Monsters card. Their existence has never been proven, but the stories abound."

Matt suppressed the sudden urge to shift his stance. Standing alongside was the luminescent body of Ahura Mazda in all his griffon-like glory, bearing witness to the conversation with Dr. Arbus. With the god-like spirit uncertain of his origins, it was impossible to draw a clear conclusion about whether he was a true god in the sense of universal creation... or if there were some chance that he was actually a Duel Monster Spirit.

"I cannot deny the possibility," Ahura admitted, his voice clear and heard only by Matt. "My origin is unclear to me. Perhaps I originated as a Duel Monster Spirit. One alternative theory exists: The term 'Duel Monster Spirit' refers only to an entity that resembles a Duel Monster card. Possibly the spirits are already godly existences, made into mythology and later painted into cards."

A subtle nod from Matt's forehead and a brief flick of his wrist, intended to silence his cohabitant spirit, caught Rory's attention. He had told her of the spirit possessing his body. Though lacking in any real proof, he convinced her that Ahura Mazda was there whether or not she could discern his existence. Matt hoped the motion was subtle enough not to draw questions from Dr. Arbus, but if the professor noticed his movements, he betrayed no signs.

Looking from Matt's face to Rory's and back, Dr. Arbus asked, "Did I answer all of your questions?"

"Honestly, that was a lot more detail than I expected from you," Matt commented. "Urban legends aren't exactly knowledge freely provided by Academy administration."

"I'm still new here," the professor joked. He noticed the empty look in Rory's eye. "Ms. Ruiter, you look as if you still have questions."

"Not something you can answer, I think," she replied with a laugh.

"Try me. What harm can it do?"

"It's... nothing."

Nudging harder, he added, "There is very little in the rumors of this campus that would surprise me. The worst that can happen is I am unable to help and you remain in the exact situation you currently face." Something in how he pushed caught Matt's attention.

"He knows something," Ahura pointed out, "but he does not wish to share voluntarily." Matt wanted to ask how he could tell, but he didn't know how to do so without speaking out loud and drawing unnecessary attention to himself.

To propel the conversation, he gave it a shot. "What do you know about dying planets?" He braced himself for Dr. Arbus to react with confusion. Rory held her breath, expecting the same while also concerned that Matt would be so bold.

But Dr. Arbus was not confused. Quite the contrary, he appeared to grin as if struck with an epiphany. "Of course!" he uttered with growing zeal beneath his breath. "The world of Duel Spirits is dying!"

Matt and Rory, taken aback equally by the unexpected outburst, exchanged glances. In unison, they replied, "What?" Even Ahura did not know how to interpret his words.

"Bear with me," he requested. "My wife once spun this yarn. She believed that the planet begat all life in much the same way our personal biology produces cells. Each life upon the planet contains a piece of the planet's spirit, which is returned to the planet upon the death of said organism. Take it one step further: As the planet weakens and approaches death, it needs to recoup its existing energy. Life would become sparser. Animal life may reduce. Plant life could spread. So forth would life continue dwindling as the planet struggles to restore its desired spirit."

"And so Duel Spirits would be a less obstructive form of life that illustrates the end of the planet's life cycle," Matt deduced. "The energy required to produce physical forms is conserved by the planet, and life continues in a spiritual form. As a side effect, those spirits may sometimes communicate with other worlds, like ours, in the form of ghosts or Duel Spirits."

"Exactly!"

Though she felt she understood what the two apocalyptic nerds were talking about, Rory felt compelled to ask, "What could cause a planet to die?"

"Old age claims us all," Dr. Arbus offered.

Matt suggested, "Overuse of resources, if your spiritual energy theory is accurate."

"Of course. Should a spirit disperse into the air instead of being returned to the planet, the energy loss would accelerate."

"Maybe it doesn't even have anything to do with the planet's energy, per se," Matt said. "If the local star ceased in providing heat and energy to the surface, the planet may be forced to generate its own in much the same way our bodies consume energy to produce heat when we can't get enough from the sun."

Rory's eyes popped open with shock as Matt slowly realized that she had told him precisely that.

"Oh! Of course! You said that other world had a red sun! If the sun is on its last leg, so to speak, then the planet would be struggling to live, as well."

"So that means Hayley and I actually discovered a way to enter the Duel Monster world?" said Rory.

"I believe so!" Matt was very excited about this news, which is why Rory felt bad stepping on his enthusiasm.

"So why didn't we see any Duel Spirits?"

The smile stayed on Matt's face but the enthusiasm drained from his eyes. "Um..."

Adding fuel to the fire, she asked, "And if the spirits come about because the planet can't afford the energy to produce external bodies anymore, why are there stories of Duel Monsters dating back thousands of years?"

Dr. Arbus chimed in with, "That explanation is easy enough. Death is a slow process—imaginably slower for a creature the size of a planet. Thousands of years to us is only a small stretch in the lifespan of something so massive. As to your lack of vision, I do not know the answer, having never been there myself."

"Maybe we should try to go there again," Matt suggested.

Rory didn't like that idea, and the worry in her eyes said as much.

"You don't have to go back," he promised her. "You've done enough just bringing it up. I will work on that. Maybe I'll even get Bryan to help, if he stops looking for that black monkey card."

A disapproving noise from Dr. Arbus caught Matt's attention. "I don't know how helpful Bryan will be to you. He's been placed on academic probation."

"He's what?!"

Contrary to popular ribbing employed by high school jocks and undeveloped middle schoolers, women do comprise a significant percentage of the nerd population. Even Duel Academy—considered to draw students exclusively from the "nerd" pool what with its glorification of a card game—beheld some striking beauties. A few were the type of woman who might be considered completely unattainable, out of their league for even the manliest of jocks. But every woman was beautiful to someone, as long as one chose to see it.

Bryan was one such person. Before he ever met Lucy, he made a habit of hitting on every young woman at Duel Academy. He was not one to close doors that might lead to lifelong happiness before finding out where they would go. Erica Dawkins was one of the earliest efforts he made, though as a senior, she wasn't keen on the idea of falling for a freshman. He earned one date with her before she decided they weren't right together. Bryan felt it was a shame, especially since Erica was one of those women who was out of anyone's league, but his friendship with her led his meeting with Lucy—ultimately his most fulfilling relationship ever.

Following graduation, Erica obtained a job as an adjunct professor at Duel Academy while she continued work on her Master's degree in teaching. Being faculty gave her certain perks, such as knowing which students were being punished and for what infractions.

Erica found Bryan in the lounge in the basement of the Blue Mansion, where he was watching the giant TV with a few other residents of the dormitory. He seemed in good spirits, considering his encounter with Dr. Lankford that morning. Even a model student like she was dreaded a meeting with the Academy sourpuss. She got Bryan's attention advertently, and every other guy's attention inadvertently.

"What's going on?" Bryan asked her, trying not to seem too casual since she was a professor, after all.

"I heard about your run-in with Dr. Lankford this morning."

"Did you now? I survived his wrath, so I'm curious why you came to see me in person."

She smirked. "I also heard a rumor about your looking for a new god card, or something that might be one."

"It's possible. Why?"

"I want to help."

"How? You going to seduce Vic?"

"No," she replied, unfazed by his predictable humor. "But if you tell me more about this card, I know someone who can get into his club. I just need to know what I'm looking for."

Thanks for this chapter go exclusively to Amourenvie. I'm sorry you lost your account password, but I'm grateful that you continue to read. After receiving no feedback from the last two chapters, I was planning to take a break. It's a wonderful feeling to know someone is there to appreciate my work! If anyone reading would like to see regular updates, just remind me once in a while that you anticipate the next chapter!

Trivia: The title of the chapter is a double entendre: the disappearing student coverup being a morally poor action and the main antagonist from Arc 4 of Yu-Gi-Oh! GX. Foreshadowing? You'll have to keep reading to find out!