Chapter 4: The New Kids, Part II

"Why do you keep looking at the board?" Kasumi asked Matt. Every few minutes, it seemed like he stopped in the middle of a sentence to stare at the schedule of upcoming duels.

"I'm looking for someone," he replied. As crowded as the Hibiki Center was, it was difficult to spot someone visually. But knowing he was looking for a freshman, Matt kept his eye on the schedule to see the names scroll by.

"That girl you were telling me about?" There was a clear note of displeasure in Kasumi's voice as she spoke those words.

"Another woman?" Cary repeated sarcastically. "Seriously, Matt. I'd expect this kind of behavior from your taller half; not from you."

Matt made a face at Cary, who was busy scribbling notes about all the orientation duels simultaneously. She'd been at it all morning and wrote notes faster than Matt thought possible. She recently joined the ranks of the school paper and volunteered to cover the orientation duels. A few other reporters were also present to cover other aspects of the orientation, and even though Cary wasn't expected to write about all of the duels, she planned to do so, anyway, just to show how good she was. It was physically impossible for her to do a play-by-play of every single duel, but she was able to write down the final trump cards of every duel to describe the winners.

Matt readied a playful insult and said, "At least I'm not—"

Cary pre-empted his insult by interrupting him and describing her good points. "What? Pretty? Blonde? Eloquent?"

Matt was proud of her ability to pre-empt him, but he didn't want to let her think she'd beaten him, either. "I'm pretty."

"So pretty," Kas agreed and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. With her voice sounding a little less jealous and a little more annoyed, she asked, "Why are you looking for a girl?"

"She asked me to take a look at her deck," he replied. "Simple as that."

"What kind of cards does she run?" Cary asked.

He shrugged. "She wouldn't tell me. I guess she wanted it to be a surprise."

"Maybe Lindsey sold the Dark Magician you gave her," Kas suggested, "and now the new girl has it."

"I doubt it," Matt replied. He took another look at the board and finally saw the name Aurora Ruiter. "There she is. At the fourth duel station." Now that he knew where to look, Matt was able to spot Rory and her roommate moving on the ground in the direction of Duel Station 4. He stood from his seat and excused himself to go say hi.

"I'll come with you," Kas offered. More like stated than offered, really, but she essentially asserted that she was going with him. Matt welcomed the company and a chance to introduce his girlfriend to the new freshman.

Lili actually spotted Matt before Rory did. She pointed him out to her roommate and said, "There's your new boyfriend."

"Shut up," Rory said, but she couldn't hide the excitement behind her smile. As Rory walked up to greet Matt, Lili couldn't help thinking she might have had a skip in her step if the floor were clearer.

"Hey, Rory. Lili," Matt greeted when they closed the gap. "How are you doing, Lil? I haven't seen you since the freshman orientation." He nodded at Rory and said, "I see you every Tuesday and Thursday in Dr. West's class." As Dr. West's assistant, one of Matt's duties was to be a teaching assistant for his class—grading, preparing materials, teaching whenever Dr. West gets otherwise occupied, etc.

"It's good to see you, too," Rory replied with a giggle.

Lili suppressed a mocking comment and instead just said, "We saw your area duel last week against that Bobby Loper guy. It was pretty good. I was impressed."

"Thanks. I'm sorry I missed your earlier duel, Lili. I… was held up."

Kas scoffed and said, "Well, excuse me for not wanting my bangs to dangle right over my eyes." As she said that, Lili was in the process of straightening her hair out of her eyes. She stopped mid-motion and put her hand back down. Kas smirked, then extended her hand and said, "I'm Kasumi."

"Right," Matt remembered. "Kas, this is Rory and Lili, two of the freshmen in Bryan's FROG group. Rory is also in Dr. West's game theory course. This is my girlfriend Kasumi."

Rory shook Kas's hand, but she had to feign a smile to do it. Lili whispered in Rory's ear, "Told ya." To make sure there was no silence for Kas to ask what she just said, Lili quickly followed by asking, "How long have you two been together?"

Matt shrugged. "Not quite a year."

"Eight months," Kasumi clarified while giving Matt a nasty look. "Are you two as excited about the duels today as he was last year?"

"That's hardly possible," Matt assured her. "But I'm sure you two will do well."

"I already have," Lili assured him. "I nailed the written test, and I blew up that guy I dueled in the first round."

Matt made a face and replied, "That sounds a little harsh." Kas smacked him in the arm and told him to shut up.

Rory was busy staring at the necklace Matt wore. It was nothing more elaborate than a string of leather, but it tied around the end of a plastic case for a Duel Monsters card. She reached forward—uninvited, as Kas's expression made clear—and turned the card over so she could see what it was. It had the name Spenta Mainyu.

"What's with the card bling?" she asked him.

Matt looked down at the card he wore as a good luck charm ever since the limitations tournament in Gathas. "This was a gift from the woman who ran an international tournament after I won. I guess she has another one or something because she said she wanted me to keep this one."

"Is that your big trump card?"

He shook his head. "No. I've never played it. Since I got it, the only time it ever left a protective case was to go into this one instead. I wear it as a good luck charm. I guess it works, too, because I haven't lost since I put it on. Except a couple of times during last year's graduation duel, but that was totally different and it improved my rank instead of hurting it."

"Nice," Lili said. She pushed Rory along, mostly as an effort to get the stars out of her roommate's eyes, and said, "Rory needs to get ready to duel, so we'll see you later."

"Are you going to stick around for a while?" Rory called back.

Matt shouted back, "Yeah. We'll get lunch or something." Rory gave him a short smile as Lili shoved her all the way to the appointed duel station. Matt turned back to see Kas giving him a look of disappointment without quite reaching anger. "What?"

She just shook her head slowly. "Nothing."

When the duel began, Rory's opponent started simple: one facedown monster. On her turn, Rory summoned a metallic serpent with a horn on its snout straight to the field; even though it was a level five monster, she could Special Summon it because her opponent had a monster and she had none. It was the Cyber Dragon.

"She's got your cards," Cary noted.

Matt stared at the field wide-eyed. "I guess I know why she's interested in me now."

Late in the morning, the first round of duels was completed and the second round was getting underway. Many students came and went from the Hibiki Center: some to get lunch and others just to do something different for a while. With forty-eight new students participating in three duels throughout the day, seventy-two duels get conducted; it can get pretty old unless the spectator is a real fanatic, or at least has some vested interest in the outcome.

"That was the longest duel I've ever seen," Bryan spoke slowly when Nathan walked away from the duel arena and resumed his position lying horizontally across three seats. Nathan just emerged victoriously from his duel in which he took an average of eighty seconds consideration time before playing any individual card. "Are you sure you know how to play this game?"

"Shut up," Lucy replied and smacked Bryan on the leg. "He won didn't he? I think Nate just likes to take his time and consider every possible consequence before he makes a move. Isn't that right?"

Nathan just shrugged. "I prefer 'Nathan.'"

"Your ability to stay on topic has impressed me," Bryan said sarcastically. He wasn't so sure Nathan didn't take a micro-nap between plays out there. "I can't tell if you're incredibly lucky or if you're that good. I may have to duel you sometime to figure it out."

"Let's just skip it and say you're better," Nathan suggested. He looked like he was ready to doze off at any moment. Not exactly the representative image of a high-class duelist, yet he won his first duel. Unfortunately, he didn't have all that long to relax before his second scheduled duel at the duel station across the center. He was scheduled among the early duelists of the second round, meaning he'd have to push his lunch schedule back some, but at least it would give him lots of time before dueling in Round 3.

"Don't count on such acquiescence from me," Jason told Bryan. His expression was nearly the opposite of Nathan's; he was excited enough to wrestle a bear if one happened to wander into the Hibiki Center. "I'm going to be the best duelist in the school before the year is out."

"Not on paper," Bryan told him, not arguing the idea of who's the better duelist. "Freshmen don't get to have any higher rank than the top of the freshman class."

"I heard about that," Hillary said. "Do you know why the freshmen are so discriminated against?"

Bryan said he had no clue. Lucy suggested, "I think it's a tradition based on the fact that when this was still a three-year preparatory school, the Red Dorm was where they put the students who were on the verge of failing out. They were the students who were either terrible duelists or terrible test-takers."

"That's back when they called it Slifer Red?" Hillary confirmed. "Why did they change the names of the dormitories when they upgraded the school?"

"For a while," Lucy explained, "the Egyptian God Cards and the Sacred Beasts were guarded on this campus. I think it was around the same time Duel Academy grew into a four-year private college that the god cards were brought here. Anyway, with the renovations and all that, they decided to use more generic names for the dorms, I guess as a way to make sure the guardians of Slifer the Sky Dragon and The Winged Dragon of Ra didn't feel like they were inferior."

"That's silly anyway," Clint said. "I always thought Slifer was more powerful than Obelisk. And Ra is just overrated."

"It depends on the duelists," Lucy said. "Some people really know how to make Ra a powerful card, and some people can make Slifer seem more powerful than any of the other gods." What Lucy left out was that she used to be the guardian of Obelisk the Tormentor. She obtained the right to guard it when she was a sophomore, and even though the god cards disappeared after the last school year, her status as a guardian was honored by her holding the third highest rank in the academy.

"What happened to them, anyway?" Carter asked. "I heard something about an epidemic last year. A bunch of students got sick and they thought about closing the school."

Hillary nodded. "I heard the same thing. The rumors said the god cards were responsible. They're supposed to be capable of wreaking all kinds of terror upon a person. I almost didn't want to come here for fear of what could happen."

"The god cards mumbo jumbo is all superstition," Jason replied. "Besides, I could take them all down easily by myself."

Everyone used to think that the god cards were beatable, but so few people ever managed to beat them in a duel. Those talented few who did became the new Guardian Duelers, and many times, they held that position until graduation. Lucy and Bryan were each former Guardians; Bryan held Uria, Lord of Searing Flame before one of the faculty members got a little power hungry and tried to use the power of the god cards to access the Shadow Realm. All the students who got caught in the crossfire ended up in temporary, comatose states.

"It is superstition," Bryan agreed. "But even if there was any magic power there, it's not possible to prove it. The god cards disappeared, probably into the Shadow Realm or caught on fire or something. Anyway, you should be getting ready, Nathan."

Nathan managed to shrug without sitting up. "What's to get ready? I'm not changing my deck. I'll just go out there and duel."

"You know," Lucy told him encouragingly, "one of the reasons they do these placement exams is so you can see your weaknesses as well as your strengths and adjust your deck accordingly as you go along."

"I don't care," he groaned in reply.

Carter looked up at the board and said, "Hey, check it out. You're dueling against Lili!"

"Good. Maybe she'll beat me so badly they'll let me skip the next duel." Nathan finally managed to convince himself to sit up and head back down to the dueling floor and toward the appointed duel station.

Bryan looked at Carter and said, "I have never seen a Duel Academy student so heavily against dueling. Are you sure he didn't get lost on application day? Is he dyslexic?"

"No," Carter replied. "He's just lazy. And I don't think dueling is really what he wants to do. His sister made him come here."

"Why?"

"I don't know. Maybe it's some vicarious thing because his sister sucks at the game. Or maybe it's some voodoo conspiracy where this island is the source of some magical power and she needs him to be here in order to activate it. Then again, Nathan does think she's a witch, so maybe that one's not so far-fetched."

"Right," Clint replied. "Completely logical." He shook his head and mockingly suggested, "What if we watched a few duels without talking for a while?"

Nathan and Lili met at Duel Station 2 and shook hands as the traditional, respectful greeting. Then they got to meet the newest associate professor of dueling for Duel Academy. At the end of the last school year, Maya Kawamura… left… the Academy. Dr. Lankford put himself in charge of finding her replacement to be full-time professor and advisor to the Yellow Dorm residents, and no one could have predicted the woman he found.

Dr. Gabrielle Houtz really stood out in a crowd. She was five feet, ten inches tall and had a nearly perfect figure, plus she wore her yellow faculty jacket open in the front, which already drew enough attention from guys. But that yellow jacket was the only colorful thing about her appearance. Dr. Houtz wore a black dress in lieu of a more traditional uniform underneath her Academy jacket, and her boots were black leather. She wore rosewood-colored lipstick and dyed her shoulder-length hair black before tying it up in a ponytail. She had three visible tattoos: a snake wrapped around her left forearm, a spider web laced her right leg, and some kind of asymmetrical design that extended from her neck down under her dress around her right shoulder. On top of all that, she wore three necklaces and four rings.

Between her two bachelor's and three master's degrees and her Ph.D., Dr. Houtz had degrees in chemistry, psychology, biology, and game theory. As one of the few duelists ever to beat Dr. Lankford in a duel—and perhaps because of it—she was contacted personally with regards to the open faculty position. It took some persuasion, but eventually she agreed to teach at the Academy while continuing to consult for the government on her previous work.

Dr. Houtz, so far, always had a big smile on her face, which was another stark contrast with Dr. Lankford's constant scowl. Hers was a bubbly personality that stemmed from rather extreme extroversion and was exacerbated by her caffeine intake. It was not uncommon for her to have a coffee cup on her at all time, even as she observed the freshman duel exams.

"Hi, guys," she said excitedly. Noticing Nathan's rather lackadaisical demeanor, she asked him, "Why aren't you more excited? This is your chance to show everyone what a great duelist you are!"

"I don't like showing off," Nathan replied. "I'd rather just duel for fun with a friend."

"I'm not wild about this, either," Lili agreed. She couldn't help giving Nathan a dirty look every time she looked his way. It was pretty obvious what she disliked about him; he was lazy and a bit cowardly, and she couldn't stand that. If an opponent wasn't standing tall and boasting about his skill, then he provided little challenge for Lili. "Let's just do this quickly so I can get back to hoping my next opponent will actually be a challenging one."

Nathan looked to Dr. Houtz and said, "See? Neither she nor I really wants to do this. Can I just quit and let her take the win?"

"No way," Dr. Houtz said, still keeping a big grin on her face. "No one quits around here. You accept every challenge that comes your way and you show them who's boss. Now shuffle your decks and let's get this thing going."

As Nathan and Lili exchanged decks to cut and shuffle, Nathan offered, "We can skip the Rock-Paper-Scissors if you want. I don't care who goes first."

Lili scoffed as she took back her deck. "I don't need your charity." She sat down and loaded her deck into the duel station. Then she shot Nathan a second dirty look. "But I like going first, so I will accept your pathetic offer." She drew her opening cards and psyched herself up. Meanwhile, Nathan drew his cards and let out an annoyed sigh.

"I'll start with Shining Angel (4/1400/800)," Lili said. Her field showed a winged man wearing gold bracelets and a white toga. His wings shone with a golden hue. "I'll also set two cards and end my turn."

Nathan pulled a card from his hand. "I'll play Terraforming, which lets me move a Field Spell from my deck to my hand. I pick Brain Research Lab." As a Field Spell, Brain Research Lab changed the appearance of the holographic display. It changed to look like a dark laboratory with gray machines wallpapering the perimeter and a few lights interspersed. The lab was rather drab in color, but that was to make sure everyone could still see the important cards; Shining Angel was the only real source of color. "This card lets me summon an extra time."

"I know what it does!" Lili snapped. She didn't really know, but she had heard of it and knew that if it wasn't a card she remembered, then it couldn't be all that useful. Plus she just wanted Nathan to shut up.

"Okay. I'll summon Pandaborg (4/1700/1400)." Nathan's monster looked just like a metal panda with green and silver metal composing its body. "I'll use Pandaborg as a Tribute to summon Overdrive Teleporter (6/2100/1200)." The effect of Brain Research Lab let Nathan have an extra summon during his turn if he summoned a Psychic-type. The holograms showed Pandaborg's body broken and the scraps thrown into a tube with a brain surrounded by green liquid. A lanky man with purple hair, pale skin, and a pale blue suit emerged from the tube and assumed a position in front of Nathan. The tube showed only the brain at this point, but a Psychic Counter floated nearby; it appeared whenever Nathan used the effect of Brain Research Lab.

"By paying 2000 Life Points," Nathan explained, "Overdrive Teleporter can summon two more monsters from my deck, but Brain Research Lab also lets me take a Psychic Counter instead of paying the Life Points." Overdrive Teleporter began to charge energy into his hands, and two copies of Psychic Commander (3/1400/800) faded in. A UFO-like tank was piloted by a man wearing a green military uniform, but his face was hidden by a metal mask; he also had four eyes shining red behind the visor. Nathan thought over the field for a moment before saying, "I'll have Overdrive Teleporter (2100) attack."

Lili considered her hand when determining which of her traps to activate. Finally she decided, "I can't stop your attack." Overdrive Teleporter blasted the energy from his hands and struck Shining Angel (1400), destroying it. But then the clouds parted overhead and another winged man descended. This one wore a white tunic with gold trim, and his white hair matched his wings in hue. Chaos-End Master (3/1500/1000) could be summoned because Shining Angel's effect summoned another light-attribute monster upon destruction.

"I'll attack with Psychic Commander (1400)," Nathan decided. His move threw Lili off because she thought her monster was stronger. "When a psychic monster battles, Psychic Commander lowers the opponent's attack points if I decrease my Life Points." He input the number 200 into the duel station, and his Life Points and Chaos-End Master's attack points both decreased by the same number.

"I'll play Waboku," Lili quickly countered. Psychic Commander (1400) fired the cannon he drove, but three women cloaked in green robes appeared in front of Chaos-End Master (-1300) and deflected the blast.

"Good move," Nathan admitted. Shining Angel's destruction was necessary to summon Chaos-End Master, and so she waited to use Waboku until she needed it to protect her other monster. "I'll set a card and end my turn." Lili 8000 – 700 = 7300: Nathan 8000 – 200 = 7800.

Lili smiled when she drew. "I'll summon Armageddon Knight (4/1400/1200), and doing so lets me send a dark monster from my deck to the Graveyard." Beside her winged monster appeared a man clad in iron armor, bearing a saber in one arm and a wire shield in the other, wearing aviator goggles over his eyes, and a torn scarf covering his face. The Armageddon Knight swiped his saber across Lili's deck and sent Dark Jeroid straight to the Graveyard.

"Now that I have a dark and a light monster in the Graveyard," Lili continued proudly, "I can remove them both from play to summon Chaos Emperor Dragon – Envoy of the End (8/3000/2500)!" Her new monster was an enormous, green-scaled dragon wearing gold armor around its joints and wings. Its mane shone like a blazing fire as it roared. "Just to avoid your Psychic Commander's effect, I'll use Chaos Emperor Dragon's; I pay 1000 Life Points to destroy every card on the field and in the hands and deal 300 points of damage to you for each."

"Great," Nathan muttered sarcastically. He looked to Dr. Houtz and said, "I can't beat that. Can I quit now?" She simply shook her head and encouraged him to play the cards he's got. "Fine. I'll chain Psychic Rejuvenation. It gives me 1000 Life Points for each psychic monster on my field." A stream of copper energy began to swirl around each of Nathan's monsters. The Chaos Emperor Dragon shone brightly for a moment, and then the energy inside exploded and enveloped the field, including the research laboratory; there was a secondary explosion on Nathan's field when the Psychic Counters were destroyed.

"See?" Dr. Houtz said excitedly. "I knew you had a move to play. That's why you never quit."

"Yeah, yeah," Lili muttered sarcastically. "Nice move. Go ahead." She really had no choice but to end her turn; Chaos Emperor Dragon destroyed all cards. Lili 7300 – 1000 = 6300: Nathan 7800 + 3000 – 3300 – 2000 = 5500.

Nathan drew. "I'll play Teleport." A small teleport pad like out of Star Trek appeared on the field… and nothing else happened.

Lili was frustrated that her turn wasn't more productive. She drew Primal Seed, a Spell that can only be activated when a chaos monster is on the field.

"How annoying," Nathan said regarding the situation. With nothing on the field, he couldn't even quit faster. "I'll summon Doctor Cranium (1/100/100)." His new monster was a short man with purple skin covered by a white lab coat and an off helmet with a dozen light bulbs shining on top. He also had a gorilla thing going where he could touch his toes without bending at the waist. "I guess I'll attack." Doctor Cranium strained his brain as if thinking about a really tough problem, and a small burst of energy spontaneously exploded on Lili's field. Lili 6300 – 100 = 6200: Nathan 5500.

"Wow," Lili mocked. "Big hit there." She scoffed and drew her next card. "I'll remove Chaos-End Master and Armageddon Knight from play to summon Chaos Sorcerer (6/2300/2000) and have it attack." Her monster was a pale man wearing wizard's pants, a wizard's hat, and part of a wizard's mantle, leaving his chest and torso mostly visible. Light energy began shining in his right hand and dark energy in his left. When he placed his hands together, Nathan's monster exploded.

"I guess I'll use his effect," Nathan said. In the spot where Doctor Cranium disappeared, a card lay. Nathan was able to pay Life Points to take a psychic monster from his deck and put it in his hand. Lili 6200: Nathan 5500 – 2200 – 800 = 2500.

Nathan looked back at the field. "I guess I'll activate the Teleporter to Special Summon Master Gig (8/2600/1400)." The teleport pad shone briefly and Nathan's monster faded in. Master Gig had an egg-shaped body with four spout-like cannons. Its head was metallic and expressionless atop its body. "If I pay 1000 Life Points, it can destroy your monster." Master Gig's body began spinning rapidly, its head remaining motionless, and fired blasts of energy from each of the cannons. The energy collided with Chaos Sorcerer and destroyed him. "I guess he'll attack directly now." Master Gig fired its cannons again, this time without spinning. Nathan reluctantly said, "I'll put a card facedown and end my turn." Lili 6200 – 2600 = 3600: Nathan 2500 – 800 – 1000 = 700.

Lili drew her next card and smiled. "I'll summon Reflect Bounder (4/1700/1000)." Her monster resembled a jester with a blue skirt, a red mantle, and mirrors attached to all major points of its body, including a prominent one in the center of the torso.

Nathan groaned. "Great. This duel is just going to take longer now." Lili's monster had the special effect of countering any monster that attacked it by reflecting that monster's attack points as damage to the opponent. In other words, Nathan couldn't attack her monster without losing all his Life Points.

"I'll summon Mind Master (1/100/200)." This new psychic monster was a machine with a hover pad supporting a glass bowl that encased a brain. Two coils, with hands at the ends, spouted from the base of the hover pad. The teal lights on front of the machine resembled a smiling face. Mind Master connected itself to Master Gig and began to drain the fluid around the brain. "I'll tune my monsters together for Hyper Psychic Blaster (9/3000/2500)." Nathan's two monsters faded out, and the monster that faded in was even bigger. Hyper Psychic Blaster resembled a cyborg straight out of Tron, with a big plasma gun in place of either hand. Nathan thought about his next move for a moment. In fact, he thought for so long Dr. Houtz thought he might have fallen asleep sitting up. Finally, Nathan said, "I'll end my turn." His monster could help him regain Life Points, but Reflect Bounder's effect would deplete his own first, and he'd lose the duel before the monster battle even finished.

Lili drew and considered her own options. She could keep Reflect Bounder on the field as a stall, but Nathan seemed smart enough not to attack it, and even though psychic monsters tend to mill through Life Points pretty rapidly, they also have a lot of support cards to increase Life Points, and she definitely didn't need that happening. Luckily the card she drew was a tuner, and she had just the monster to take down Nathan's psychic powerhouse.

"Here we go. I'll summon Witch of the Black Rose (4/1700/1200)." Her Reflect Bounder was joined by a small woman with a hidden smile on her face. She had purple hair, a black dress with white ruffles, and a short staff with a blue gem at the end. The Witch (4) pointed her staff at the ground and drew a circle around herself and the Reflect Bounder (4). A pillar of light surrounded them as they began to tune together. "By combining my monsters, I can summon Light End Dragon (8/2600/2100)!" The light faded, and what remained was a serpentine dragon big enough from snout to tail to cover Lili's entire field. Its white scales shone brightly and reflected the light with a prismatic effect. It wore an ornate, golden crown, and its four powerful wings gave it an archangel-like appearance.

"Crap," Nathan uttered.

"Exactly. Light End Dragon (2600) may be weaker than Hyper Psychic Blaster (3000) right now, but when it attacks, Light End Dragon (-2100) can reduce its own points by 500 to reduce Hyper Psychic Blaster's (-1500) points by 1500." Light End Dragon's wings grew brighter as it prepared to strike; the effort seemed to weaken it, but the lights affected Hyper Psychic Blaster even more. Light End Dragon bit into Hyper Psychic Blaster and ripped a huge chunk from it.

Nathan sighed at the field. "Oh, well. I'll use Psi-Curse." His Trap card activated; the remaining bits of Hyper Psychic Blaster sizzled with electricity for a moment, then finally exploded. Many fragments struck Light End Dragon and destroyed it, but a few flew past the monster and struck the holographic representation of Lili's Life Points. "When a psychic monster is destroyed, it destroys the attacking monster and deals damage to you equal to the psychic monster's level times 300." Lili 3600 – 2700 = 900: Nathan 700 – 600 = 100.

Lili let out a frustrated harrumph. After she beat her earlier opponent so easily, she was going to lose to a lazy guy who would have quit if Dr. Houtz had let him. She started second-guessing every move she made, including the decision to use Chaos Emperor Dragon's effect so early. She started whispering to herself, "Please don't draw a monster. Please don't draw a monster…"

Nathan drew his card and scoffed. "It figures. I didn't draw a monster." Just as Lili got excited and realized there was still a chance for victory, Nathan played his card. "Emergency Teleport summons a low-level psychic monster from the deck. I'll pick Krebons (2/1200/400)." His monster appeared from the teleporter already on the field as a machine-like jester wearing purple and gold clothes. Its limbs were disconnected but still moved about the body as if part of the creature. Krebons seemed to be juggling wire versions of Tetris pieces. It hurled a few at Lili as its direct attack and ended the duel. Lili 900 – 1200 = 0: Nathan 100.

Lili scoffed and tried to leave the table without saying anything. Dr. Houtz stopped her and said, "Oh, come on, Lilian. Everyone loses now and then. It's better that it happens early, right? Just think about how you'll be able to improve by the end of the semester." She stared at Lili until she was convinced that the young student sufficiently calmed. "Alright. Now you two shake hands and get some lunch."

As they shook hands—ever so briefly—Nathan said, "I thought you had me there."

Somehow, that wasn't much comfort.

Is anyone willing to let his or her character be villainous? I may not use someone that way, but I'm curious how many people would be okay with it if I decide I need a student villain.

Just for reference, I didn't know who would win that duel. I let them each play out cards according to the personalities I'm trying to establish, and it was pure coincidence that Nathan still had 100 LP after Light End Dragon's attack. Another piece of trivia: The word count on each chapter has increased by 50% since I started including card descriptions instead of effects only. The credits list and my notes will also inflate the word count significantly each week.

Regarding the characters: I will accept everyone submitted so far. I can't swear to how much "screen" time each will get with the current story I've got, but I will work to make sure everyone gets some time to establish a personality and possibly develop a little bit. Even when I haven't introduced your characters yet, if he or she appears in the credits, I will introduce him or her eventually. One a related note, bear in mind that there are some aspects of Yu-Gi-Oh! GX I prefer not to use. Spirit partners is one example; I just don't see how it helps. Characters may not come out exactly as you planned at times. The only way anyone can be exactly as you planned is if you wrote the story.

On that note, does anyone want to consult on this story? I have the main plot thought out, but with the growing number of characters, I could use someone as a storyboard to help me come up with something for people to do during each chapter. It may also help me come up with more jokes (I'm very much a situational, ironic guy). You can get your name in the opening credits and maybe help me write more amusing chapters.

The next chapter will feature a duel with Matt because he is one of my main characters and we haven't even seen his new deck yet. Based on this chapter, you might be able to guess who his opponent will be.

Credits:
Darius Mantzios....tiramisu19
Jason Maxim....Maxim and Knight
Nathan Zislaw....Mavrik Zero
Hillary Delaney....Nodqfan144
Lili Von....Happy2BMe
Carter Jade....Jaden2010
Mitsuro Itachu....Titanic X
Sean Bivins....DarkVestroia2
Naoto Kurotsuki....Kurotsuki Haru
Hayley Wilson....TeamRocketDiva
Maikeru Stone....onyxshade7
Everyone else so far....YamiRuss