Secret or Misconception?

by KlonoaDreams

AU Jaden Yuki goes through life at Duel Academy…however, not all is what Jaden seems to be. Why do the guys feel awkward around Jaden? Is this Osiris Red holding a secret? Is it really a secret when all you actually had to do was ask? Fem!Jaden fic with a side of unintentional reverse-harem. DON'T ASK ABOUT PAIRINGS. STOP ASKING ABOUT UPDATES. THIS IS ON HIATUS! READ THE SUMMARY.

18. Turn 18

Behold! The longest chapter I've ever made! Hope this is enough to make you wait for the next chapters I'm going to be working on this and next week!

Chapter Eighteen

The Duel King's Deck

It had been a few weeks since the 'Golden Egg Bread' incident. Jaden had become good friends with Taizan and Asuka did actually become good competition. So far, the three Golden Egg Bread fanatics were at a tie in score with who drew the rare Drawbread the most.

More to the point, it was just another day at Duel Academy. Classes have been postponed for some reason, Jaden was looking for Shou, and there was a huge line in the store in the middle of the morning—wait, what?

Jaden looked perplexed at the crowd consisting of Osiris Reds, Ra Yellows, and Obelisk Blues. What the heck was going on, exactly? That was what Jaden wanted to know…but it seemed everyone had their attention focused on something in front of them. Whatever it was, Jaden couldn't see thanks to her small height and Koala-man wasn't around for her to climb on, so she was on her own…

"Huh?" said Jaden. "What the…?"

Jaden looked around and just her luck, Daichi happened to be just right by her. Finally! Someone to answer her question!

"Oi, Misawa!" said Jaden. "What's all the fuss about? Is it a fight?"

Daichi blinked and looked at Jaden as she tried to get a good look at what was going on. He smiled at her persistence despite not getting any progress and decided to help her out a bit by lifting her up. Jaden blinked as she looked around.

"Huh?" said Jaden. "What the…?"

To her left, was a Ra Yellow student with spiky, dual-colored red and black hair and grayish-blue eyes. He was currently dueling someone, the duel disk on his left arm and the two face-down cards on his field confirming that assumption. Jaden blinked as she stared at him, wondering who he was.

"Who's that?" she asked.

Daichi overheard Jaden's question and replied, "Kagurazaka. He's a Ra Yellow student."

Jaden narrowed her eyes as she diverted her gaze to the right.

"I can tell by looking, you know," remarked Jaden. "I'm not color blind…but I mean, what's…Shou!"

To Jaden's right, was Shou, whom she had been looking right after she had been woken up by Pharaoh rubbing against her cheek when she fell asleep on her desk (again). The first thing Jaden had noticed when she woke up was that the desk next to hers, Shou's, was empty. The whole classroom was also empty, save for Pharaoh and Daitokuji, who had told Jaden to try looking for her roommate at the store. And he was right, Shou was at the store!

Shou had overheard Jaden and turned his head to her as Daichi lowered her down.

"Oh, Aniki!" said Shou.

Jaden made her way through the crowd, ignoring the looks students gave her when she pushed past them. She didn't give a damn… that was her roommate right there, dueling for some apparent reason that she wanted answers for.

"What's going on, Shou?" asked Jaden.

Shou looked at Jaden as she crossed her arms and stared at him with that look.

"That's what I want to ask you!" Shou said as he immediately pointed at the many posters on the wall above the counter where Tome and the counter girl, Seiko, were currently at. "It's that! It's that!"

Jaden blinked as she focused her gaze on the posters. All of them had one thing in common, and that just happened to be the picture of the person in the poster. The person was a tri-colored, spiky-haired young man with violet-colored eyes with a duel disk on his left arm. Jaden's eyes widened as she immediately recognized the person on the poster.

"Here at Duel Academy…a special exhibition…of the deck of the original Duel King, Yugi Mutou?" Jaden said as she read the poster.

Jaden's eyes immediately sparkled in awe as she stared at the poster, smiling.

"So, does that mean…the deck that was used by Yugi-san is coming to this Academy?" Jaden asked ecstatically.

Shou tightened his fist as he looked at Jaden.

"It can't mean anything else, can it?" replied Shou.

Jaden didn't hear Shou as she was too busy staring at the poster in awe. Shou blinked and ran up to the gender-mistaken girl.

"Aniki?" Shou said as he tried to get Jaden's attention. "Aniki?"

Shou waved his hands in front of Jaden's face, but to no avail. She was still too captivated by the poster of Yugi Mutou. Jaden had met him once before, as Shou knew, but when it came to the Duel King's deck…that was a different story.

"Yugi-san's deck…in this Academy!" said Jaden.

Shou blinked as memories of the Duel King popped up from when he and Jaden watched Pegasus' Island and the Battle City DVDs.

"Speaking of Yugi Mutou…" said Shou. "In Duelist Kingdom, he defeated Pegasus, the creator of Duel Monsters…In Battle City, he defeated people like Seto Kaiba and Marik (1)…He got the God Cards and ruled as a duelist like no other! He's a legendary duelist!"

Jaden couldn't help but laugh a bit as she stared at the poster in awe. Shou sounded so much like an expert on the duelist that was Yugi Mutou… it was sort of cute. Jaden blinked and looked at Shou after he tugged on her sleeve.

"I heard it doesn't have the God Cards in it, but…" Shou said as he closed his eyes and smiled. "Stuff like Dark Magician, Dark Magician Girl…"

Shou flinched slightly as Jaden startled him slightly by ruffling his hair.

"Still like Dark Magician Girl, huh?" teased Jaden.

Shou blushed and glared at Jaden before continuing on.

"Anyways, where was I…oh!" said Shou. "And other treasured cards are in that rare deck, in perfect condition! It's something we have to see!"

Jaden looked at Shou and blinked a few times before saying, "I know what you mean, but…What does this have to do with it?"

Jaden turned her head to Kagurazaka, who was currently staring at her and Shou, waiting patiently. Seiko and Tome overheard Jaden, to which the latter decided to answer the gender-mistaken girl's question.

"We're distributing tickets to see it first thing in the morning here in the store," Tome explained as she held out a ticket in between her index and middle finger for Jaden to see. "Since we're down to the last one, they're settling who gets it with a duel."

Jaden blinked and exclaimed, "Eh?"

Shou looked perplexed at Jaden as she narrowed her eyes at him, somewhat miffed.

"How selfish of you, Shou…" she remarked.

Shou blinked and reached into his pocket.

"What are you talking about?" Shou asked as he took out something from his pocket. "That ticket over there is yours, Aniki. As for my ticket…"

Shou smiled and held up his ticket for Jaden to see.

"See?" said Shou.

Jaden immediately had a change of expression as she placed her hands on Shou's shoulders.

"D-Do your best, Shou!" said Jaden.

Shou blinked and said, "G-Got it!"

Jaden closed her eyes and smiled as she ruffled Shou's hair before she returned back to the crowd. Unbeknownst to her, Daichi stood right by her side with his arms crossed as he watched the duel. Shou ran back to his place on the field and looked at Kagurazaka, determination in his eyes. His Aniki was counting on him, now…

"We're resuming the duel!" Shou exclaimed as he held up his fist.

Kagurazaka nodded and drew a card from his deck.

"My turn!" he said, afterwards looking at the card he drew before holding it out. "The Magic card, Heavy Storm! This destroys all Magic and Trap cards on the field-no ne!"

Jaden blinked and stared wide-eyed at Kagurazaka.

"I think I'm having déjà vu…" she said.

Daichi overheard Jaden and decided to tell her about Kagurazaka's deck…though he ended up startling her since she had no idea he was standing right next to her. It wasn't that she didn't notice him; it's just that most of the students in the crowd watching the duel were Ra Yellows, so Jaden didn't immediately recognize him…That, and wasn't he in the back of the crowd? More to the point, and on with the explanation…

"It's Kagurazaka's Professor Chronos Copy Deck," said Daichi.

Jaden stared at Daichi.

"Misawa!" exclaimed Jaden. "When did you move up?"

That question stayed unanswered as Kagurazaka's Magic card, Heavy Storm, destroyed his two face-down cards on his field. Smoke began to flood the bottom of the room where Kagurazaka's face-downs were as two yellow, serpentine-like monsters appeared on the field.

"I sacrifice the two Tokens to summon Ancient Gear Golem!" Kagurazaka said as he did a pose similar to what Professor Chronos did from when he dueled with Jaden.

A giant, golem-like monster made up of gears and armor appeared on Kagurazaka's side of the field. A bead of sweat rolled down the side of Jaden's face as she stared at Ancient Gear Golem. Memories of when she first took her entrance exam, back then when everyone still thought her officially as male and when the screw up took place. Ancient Gear Golem had been a monster Jaden had faced when she dueled with Professor Chronos, who had actually been using his own personal deck rather than the examination deck he was supposed to have used.

Kagurazaka grinned widely before he directed Ancient Gear Golem at Shou and his Jetroid.

"Go, Ancient Gear Golem!" said Kagurazaka.

Ancient Gear Golem swung its arm back before making an attempt to attack Jetroid with a punch. It would've been a successful attack had it not been for Shou as he intervened with his Jetroid's special effect.

"I activate Jetroid's special effect!" said Shou. "When this card becomes an attack target, I can activate a Trap from my hand!"

Shou picked out a card from his hand and held it up.

"Magic Cylinder!" said Shou.

Two purple-colored cylinders appeared on Shou's side of the field.

"I'm sending the attack I'm taking right back to you!" said Shou.

"What?" exclaimed Kagurazaka.

Ancient Gear Golem's attack went through one of the cylinders and came right back out the other, heading straight towards Kagurazaka. Kagurazaka yelled as the attack hit him, depleting the last of his remaining life points to zero. He fell down onto his knees despondently as Shou pumped his fist into the air as he smiled ecstatically.

"I did it!" exclaimed Shou. "I won!"

Jaden ran up to Shou and smiled at him, rather impressed with how calm he was when he was up against Ancient Gear Golem.

"Amazing, Shou!" complimented Jaden. "You went and beat the combo that gave me a hard time!"

Shou closed his eyes and smiled at Jaden as he scratched the side of his head idly.

"I remembered your duel with Professor Chronos, Aniki, and decided I should add a counter into my deck!" Shou said, laughing afterwards.

Jaden sighed and crossed her arms as she waited for Shou. Shou stopped laughing and remembered the reason why he was dueling in the first place.

"Oh, yeah!" he said, running up to Tome and Zaiko. "I'll take this!"

Shou picked up the ticket on the counter and looked at Kagurazaka, smiling as he closed his eyes.

"No hard feelings, right?" said Shou.

Shou turned to Jaden and ran up to her as she kept her smile.

"You did it, Shou!" said Jaden.

Shou nodded and held out the ticket in his hand to Jaden.

"Here, Aniki!" said Shou. "It's your ticket!"

Jaden accepted the ticket and ruffled Shou's hair.

"All right!" said Jaden. "Thank you, Shou!

Shou just nodded again and smiled.

"Well, then, this wraps it up, everyone!" Tome said as she looked at the crowd of students, smiling at them. "Back to class now!"

Kagurazaka clenched his teeth as he looked down, his eyes shut as he tried to ignore the stares given to him by his fellow Ra Yellows and a few Obelisk Blues. Daichi had been the only to not have been looking down upon him and stayed while the others left.

"What's with that Kagurazaka guy?" asked a Ra Yellow.

Kagurazaka gritted his teeth as he looked down.

"He's a Ra Yellow, and yet, he lost so easily!" said another Ra Yellow, not caring once about how his words affected Kagurazaka.

"It's because naturally, all his battles are complete garbage!" a third Ra Yellow said as a matter of fact.

"True, true," agreed the second Ra Yellow.

"I bet that guy's going to get demoted soon!" remarked the first Ra Yellow.

Daichi looked around, the store almost completely empty save for his friends, Tome, Seiko, Kagurazaka and of course, himself. Jaden growled as she clenched her teeth and held up one of her tightened fists at the Ra Yellows who had just insulted Kagurazaka. Shou had his arms wrapped around Jaden's waist as he tried to hold her back and keep her from lashing out on the Ra Yellows by acting as deadweight.

"Damn it…" Jaden said through her clenched teeth.

Shou tightened his grip on Jaden and looked at her with one eye open. She was mad…but he wasn't going to take risk with her getting into trouble.

"Calm down, calm down!" exclaimed Shou.

So far, what Shou was doing was working as every time Jaden took a step, he was dragged along with her. It was difficult for Jaden since she had Shou slowing her down, so all she could really do was attempt to go after the Ra Yellows while dragging her roommate along as she glared daggers at them.

Daichi smiled at Jaden and Shou before diverting his gaze onto Kagurazaka. He closed his eyes and smiled reassuringly at the defeated Ra Yellow as he tried to cheer him up.

"Don't mind them…or those two," said Daichi. "Come on, we're all unlucky at times."

As much as it was nice of someone to say that, the fact that it had been Daichi Misawa who had told him that made Kagurazaka feel even worse. Kagurazaka gritted his teeth and glared at Daichi as he got off from the floor.

"Shut it!" snapped Kagurazaka.

Daichi blinked and looked questioningly at Kagurazaka as the angered Ra Yellow continued on, "What could someone like you understand when you're practically in Obelisk Blue?"

Not being able to take anymore of this, Kagurazaka turned and fled the store, concerning Tome and Seiko. By now, Jaden had snapped out of her earlier rage at the Ra Yellows and stopped what she was doing to see what was wrong. Shou let god of Jaden and looked questioningly at her before they both turned to Daichi. Daichi just stayed silent as he watched Kagurazaka disappeared down the hall.

---

Later that day in the Ra Yellow Dorms,

In a certain Ra Yellow's room,

Kagurazaka gritted his teeth as he tightened his fists, shaking in anger at what happened today.

"Shit!" he swore as he stared at the books on his desk. "Why…why can't I win?"

Kagurazaka threw off the books on his desk in a fit of anger.

"Shit!" Kagurazaka swore again as the notes from the books slid out and slowly fell to the ground. "Yugi Mutou…Seto Kaiba, and…Kaiser Ryou…And even Chronos…I researched everything about the decks of all the famous duelists! I had all their moves memorized…And yet…why can't I win? What am I doing wrong?"

Just then, a paper with the picture of a certain duelist landed on top of Kagurazaka's desk in front of him. Kagurazaka stared at the paper that was right in front of him. It was a poster similar to the ones in the store with a picture of Yugi Mutou and information about the special deck exhibition. He stared at the poster in thought, his rage beginning to cease as an idea popped up in mind.

"What am I doing wrong?" Kagurazaka asked himself. "I'll use this to find out."

---

Meanwhile…in the TOOLSHED (at night…)!

A/N Insert amazed sound, here and YES! The Narrator is back!

In a certain Osiris Red trio's room,

Jaden stared at Winged Kuriboh's card in her hand as she sat in a chair in front of the desk.

"Yugi-san's deck, huh?" she thought.

Hayato looked down at Shou from where he was at the top of his bunk bed. Shou smiled ecstatically, still feeling happy with his victory in a duel.

"It feels so great to win a duel with someone in the Academy!" said Shou. "Right, Aniki?"

Jaden blinked and diverted her eyes on Shou.

"Yeah…" she replied.

Shou looked questioningly at Jaden.

"What are you thinking about?" asked Shou. "Since earlier, you've been…"

Jaden had been quiet ever since they came back to their room. It wasn't like her to be quiet…unless she was focused on battling Red the Ultimate Trainer, but since she wasn't playing her game at the moment, something had to be up.

"Hey, are you all up for going to the exhibition hall for a bit?" asked Jaden.

Shou and Hayato looked perplexed at Jaden.

"The exhibition hall?" repeated Hayato.

Jaden set down Winged Kuriboh's card on the desk and turned in the chair she sat in to face her roommates.

"The exhibition opens up tomorrow morning at nine o'clock," Jaden said as she stood up from her seat, smiling. "Which means the deck's on display tonight, right?"

Shou frowned as the smile Jaden had on her face meant something…

"So if we ask, they'll let us sneak a peek at it, wouldn't they?" Jaden asked as she closed her eyes, her smiling never once ceasing.

Hayato smiled and started to climb down from his bunk bed.

"That's a good idea!" said Hayato. "It's probably going to be crowded tomorrow, and we'd hate having a crowd of people there."

Shou looked perplexed at Jaden.

"Eh?" he said. "So then, you're not going to use the ticket I got for you?"

Jaden walked up to Shou.

"That's that!" said Jaden. "Tomorrow morning, we'll go check it out again!"

Jaden closed her eyes and smiled at Shou as he diverted his eyes to the side. Jaden used her index finger to poke Shou's cheek as a way to try and get his attention.

"Let's go…" Jaden said as she continued to use the tip of her finger to prod Shou's cheek.

Shou stayed silent and kept his eyes to the side to avoid Jaden's smile.

"C'mon…I'll make it up to you!" Jaden offered.

A few minutes of this had passed before Shou sighed and gave in. There was no changing his Aniki's mind once she had her sights set on something.

"There's really no helping Aniki…" Shou sighed.

---

Later in the exhibition hall,

Posters of the Duel King, Yugi Mutou, lined both sides of the hallway leading to the exhibition hall. Professor Chronos was currently talking with the guards.

"We've finished setting up the display case, so we'll return the exhibition hall key and display case key to you," one of the guards said as he handed Professor Chronos the keys.

"You were a lifesaver, covering our guard duty this time," said the other guard. "Keep an eye out for anyone out of the ordinary."

Both guards saluted respectively at Professor Chronos as the first guard said, "We're returning to HQ."

"We'll see you tomorrow," said the second guard.

Both guards turned and walked away as Professor Chronos waved at them.

"Thanks for your hard work-na no ne!" said Professor Chronos.

Professor Chronos watched the guards walked down the hallway. Once they were out of sight and earshot, the blond-haired professor quietly laughed to himself.

"To think that I'll see Signore Yugi's deck before anyone else…" Professor Chronos said to himself as he walked towards the hallway leading to the exhibition hall. "A side benefit to being a supervisor-na no ne!"

Professor Chronos pushed the door open to check on (and by that, also get a glimpse at) Yugi Mutou's deck.

"Let's see here…" he said, immediately focusing his attention on the glass case. "Natale…"

Professor Chronos closed the door behind him as he stared at the glass case, grinning. What sight lied before him had the blond-haired professor shocked and wiped the grin off his face…the glass case containing the legendary deck of the Duel King was broken, pieces of chattered glass laid scattered on the floor. Though that wasn't exactly the point of what had Chronos shocked…it was the fact that the deck itself was gone…and on his watch!

"What is this?" exclaimed Professor Chronos.

---

Meanwhile,

Jaden, Shou, and Hayato turned a corner into the hallway, not noticing the guards that were right behind them, walking towards HQ. Hayato was trying to catch up with his friends, not wanting to be left behind.

"C'mon, wait up!" Hayato called out.

Shou slowed down his pace to turn to face Hayato.

"Hurry, Hayato-kun!" Shou urged the koala-resembling boy as he ran in place.

Both Shou and Hayato knew from experience that if they didn't pick up the pace, Jaden would leave them behind…especially since this was Yugi-san's deck that she wanted to really see. Jaden wasn't going to stop for anyone…or so she thought. Jaden's expression went from its determined and focused demeanor to a perplexed one as she saw a certain Ra Yellow coming her way.

Daichi wasn't a bit surprised to see Jaden making her way towards the exhibition hall with her friends, but he was slightly embarrassed since it wasn't like him to be this late out on his own accord. Jaden was to blame for that most of the time, but this time it wasn't, which is what confused the gender-mistaken Osiris Red. Last time she checked, she only dragged along Hayato and Shou.

"Oh?" Daichi said as he stopped in front of the entrance to the hallway leading towards the exhibition hall. "Jaden!"

Jaden did likewise as both she and Daichi stared at each other for a few moments. This gave Hayato and Shou enough time to catch up with their female roommate since…well, they were exhausted! The moment they left the dorm, they had to keep a steady, but fast pace to keep up with Jaden as they made their way towards the exhibition hall. So at this current moment, Shou and Hayato were catching their breath as they panted while Daichi and Jaden conversed a bit with each other.

"Misawa, what's up?" asked Jaden.

Daichi laughed awkwardly a bit as a small blush tinged his cheeks in embarrassment. So much for trying to keep a low profile…might as well come clean since there was no way he'd get away with lying to Jaden.

"I thought I'd just check out the King's deck," Daichi replied as he rubbed the back of his head.

"Wow, so we're all thinking the same thing, huh?" Jaden said, grinning.

A loud, shocked, and sudden voice echoed through the exhibition hallway, exclaiming, "Mamma Mia!"

This definitely caught the group's attention as they turned their heads to the hallway.

"What was that?" asked Jaden.

Shou immediately recognized the voice, as did Hayato.

"That voice!" exclaimed Shou.

"It's Professor Chronos!" said Hayato.

Daichi quickly looked at Jaden and said, "Jaden!"

"Right!" Jaden said as she and Daichi started running towards the exhibition hall.

Daichi and Jaden stopped right in front of the door and both helped each other push the door open by each taking a side. They looked around and spotted Professor Chronos standing by a broken glass case, looking rather distressed. Professor Chronos heard the door open and turned to the doorway, immediately placing his hands on his cheeks as he shrieked.

"Good Lord!" the blond-haired professor exclaimed.

Daichi's eyes widened slightly at the sight of the broken glass case and with Chronos being right by it, well…that didn't look good.

"Professor Chronos!" said Daichi.

Jaden stared at the glass case, taking in the shattered glass that lied on the floor from the break in one side of the case. Hayato and Shou ran up to Daichi and Jaden, both wanting to know what just happened.

"The display case, it's…" said Jaden.

Hayato and Shou focused their gaze on the display case, their eyes immediately widening in shock. The glass case (or rather what was left of it…) was empty and certainly not containing the deck belonging to the Duel King like it should have been!

"The King's deck's not there!" exclaimed Hayato.

Shou diverted his gaze on Professor Chronos and commented, "Don't tell me Professor Chronos…"

Professor Chronos began to panic as he shook his head and tried to deny that the missing deck wasn't actually his doing.

"Oh, no!" exclaimed Professor Chronos. "Non! Non! Non!"

Jaden turned to Daichi and said, "Let's go tell everyone!"

With that said, Jaden, Daichi, Shou, and Hayato were about to make their way out of the exhibition hall when Professor Chronos, in a state of panic, leapt towards the group.

"Please wait a second!" pleaded Professor Chronos.

THUD!

Daichi, Shou, Hayato, and Jaden groaned a bit in discomfort and slight pain, having just been knocked face-flat onto the ground by Professor Chronos in a way to stop them. (2) Jaden pushed herself off the ground a bit and looked perplexed at Professor Chronos.

"What are you doing?" she asked, slightly miffed.

Professor Chronos looked wide-eyed at the group, worried about the missing deck and the fact that he was supposed to have been watching over it.

"If word of this goes out, I'll be held responsible for it-no ne!" said Professor Chronos.

Daichi looked at Professor Chronos and said, "That's why we have to hurry!"

"He's right!" said Hayato. "If the Principal knows…"

Shou rubbed the back of his head before he looked back at Professor Chronos.

"Maybe he's trying to fool us!" remarked Shou.

Professor Chronos was brought to tears, anxiety finally getting to him as well as concern of the missing Duel King's deck and the fact that he was a prime suspect of it. Well, now was a good time as any to start defending himself…

"I'm telling you, that's not it-no ne!" wailed Professor Chronos. "It wasn't me-no ne! It wasn't-no ne…"

Jaden blinked as she stared at Professor Chronos for a few seconds before turning her gaze onto the glass case. She already knew Chronos was telling the truth, having put two and two together from when she first saw the broken glass case.

"We knew that from the beginning, you know," Jaden remarked.

Professor Chronos looked perplexed at Jaden.

"Really?" he asked, earning a nod from the gender-mistaken girl in response.

Of all the people, it had to be Jaden who actually believed him…it wasn't that Chronos was annoyed, it was just…shocking. The professor had been trying to get Jaden in trouble or expelled ever since the gender-mistaken girl defeated him in a duel. Couldn't she see that he hated her?

"There'd be no need for you to break the glass case, right, Professor?" questioned Jaden.

Professor Chronos snapped out of his thoughts after hearing Jaden's observant comment. He blinked and nodded as he got up from the floor.

"T-That's right-na no ne," Professor Chronos said as he reached into his jacket and took out a key, which he held up for the group to see. "I have the key to the glass case here-no ne."

Jaden stood up and adjusted her shirt as her friends got up from the ground. Afterwards, she looked at Professor Chronos and said, "We haven't run out of time. Let's find the thief!"

Daichi, Shou, and Hayato nodded in agreement with Jaden as they said, "Right!"

Professor Chronos had been biting on his handkerchief like he usually did under stress and anxiety as tears streamed down his eyes. At first, he was concerned, but now…he was rather touched with the fact that Jaden was the one that had been willing to defend him and it made him a bit emotional. Jaden blinked as Professor Chronos smiled at her in gratitude. Well, that was something you don't see everyday…

"Dropout boy!" Professor Chronos said in a surprisingly real friendly tone (that's a first so far). "I'm counting on you all, Signores-no ne!"

And with that, the search for the missing Duel King's deck began as Jaden, Shou, Hayato, and Daichi ran out of the Main Academy Building.

Sometime later on the other side of the island by the seaside,

Currently looking over at the Duel King's deck, was Kagurazaka, having just finished stealing it a while ago. The Ra Yellow looked at the cards in awe, taking in the most notable ones the Duel King, Yugi Mutou, had been known to use.

Dark Magician…Dark Magician Girl…Kuriboh…

"Amazing…" Kagurazaka breathed. "These legendary cards…are in my hands!"

Kagurazaka grasped the green-colored scarf he wore around his neck and lowered it just enough to reveal the smirk that had been hidden behind the scarf. Just then, a very familiar blue-haired Osiris Red ran up to Kagurazaka, having spotted the Ra Yellow while he was out searching for the thief. Shou came to an abrupt stop on top of a large rock and yelled out as he tried to regain his balance to avoid from falling off the rock. It was a small drop down to the level where Kagurazaka stood, but it was just enough to make any landing painful (A/N To a small extent, but who gives a damn!). Thankfully, Shou managed to regain his balance and was now looking down at the Ra Yellow.

"Hey, you!" yelled Shou. "Did you steal the deck?"

Kagurazaka turned and looked up at Shou, his smirk widening in amusement.

"You're Shou Marufuji, huh?" said Kagurazaka. "Perfect timing."

Shou blinked and looked perplexed at Kagurazaka as the Ra Yellow held up a duel disk to him.

"I was just about to try this deck out, after all!" Kagurazaka said before he tossed the duel disk over to Shou. "You'll be my opponent!"

Shou caught the duel disk in his arms and replied, "Of course!"

Kagurazaka placed the deck in the duel disk he wore on his left arm and activated from its standby mode. Shou placed his deck into the duel disk (after putting it on, of course) and activated it to begin his duel with Kagurazaka. Both duelists faced each other on opposite sides as they stood on the seaside rocks.

A/N God, I feel so un-descriptive today…hey! Not my fault school kept me busy!

---

Meanwhile,

Hayato and Daichi met up with Jaden by the bridge after doing a good amount of searching the island for anything or anyone suspicious. Jaden looked at her friends, wondering if they had found anything.

"It's no good…" said Daichi.

Jaden frowned and looked at Hayato, who was currently trying to catch his breath. After a few moments, Hayato finally spoke.

"I didn't find anyone suspicious," said Hayato.

Jaden crossed her arms and sighed in dismay. Great…not only did she not find anything, Hayato and Daichi did, too.

"As if things couldn't get any worse than this…" thought Jaden.

Suddenly, a very familiar voice screamed loudly enough to echo throughout the island up to a certain point, but just enough for Jaden, Daichi, and Hayato to hear it. Jaden blinked and immediately cursed at herself for even thinking that after she recognized the voice as Shou's. You'd think she'd learn?

"Damn it!" Jaden swore as she immediately starting running towards where the scream came from. "Shou's over there!"

Daichi and Hayato trailed after Jaden as her 'Aniki' instincts were kicking in at the sound of her little brother, or otouto, in distress. Damn her jinxing thoughts…

"Damn my jinxing thoughts!" thought Jaden. "Shou! I'm coming!"

Daichi and Hayato found it a bit difficult to keep up with Jaden as she picked up the pace.

---

Meanwhile,

Shou laid back on the ground, having just fallen down after taken a beating in the duel with Kagurazaka. Okay…this outcome was rather ironic for Shou since he did defeat the Ra Yellow in a duel earlier today…what the hell went wrong?

Whatever it was, Kagurazaka didn't care as he gave a satisfied smirk with the outcome of the duel.

"Amazing…I'm really powerful!" Kagurazaka exclaimed, laughing afterwards.

At that current moment, Jaden ran into view and immediately went over to Shou's side whilst both Hayato and Daichi trailed after their gender-mistaken friend. Jaden looked at Shou as she knelt down by him, rather concerned since her jinxing thoughts got her friend into this situation.

"Shou!" exclaimed Jaden. "Are you all right?"

Shou opened his eyes and found himself face to face with Jaden.

"A-Aniki…" Shou said, a slight blush tingeing his cheeks once he realized how close Jaden was to his face.

Hayato noticed Shou's flustered look and decided to help him out by distancing Jaden away from him a bit. Shou sighed and flipped himself into a sitting position on the ground. He turned and looked at Kagurazaka, frowning a bit.

"I'm jealous…that guy's…" Shou said, trailing off as Daichi, Hayato, and Jaden looked at the same direction he was looking in.

Jaden blinked and scowled slightly at Kagurazaka, who was standing a few feet away from them on a boulder.

"Kagurazaka!" exclaimed Jaden. "You're the thief?"

No response from the Ra Yellow aside from the smirk on his face getting a bit on Jaden's nerves…Jaden clenched her teeth and jumped onto a few rocks before landing and stopping on top of a boulder.

"Give that deck back!" yelled Jaden. "Professor Chronos is going to be in serious trouble soon!"

Kagurazaka closed his eyes and sneered, irritating Jaden to a small extend.

"And if I refuse?" asked Kagurazaka.

Jaden growled slightly and tightened her fist.

"What?" Jaden exclaimed as she held up her tightened fist. "Oh, he did not just go there!"

Apparently, he just did…Kagurazaka looked at Jaden and grinned as he gestured at the deck in his duel disk.

"This is the ultimate deck I've been looking for!" Kagurazaka explained before he tightened his fist. "After I…After thoroughly researching Yugi Mutou's dueling, I…can reproduce 100% of his dueling! I won't lose to anyone anymore! Even if it's Chronos, even if it's the Kaiser…Or anyone else!"

Jaden blinked as she stared at Kagurazaka for a few seconds. Afterwards, she nodded once and turned to Shou.

"Shou!" she said. "Hand me your Duel Disk."

Hayato, Daichi, and Shou looked questioningly at Jaden. They didn't like the look in her eye as she stared at Kagurazaka and since it could only mean one thing…she wasn't going to back down afterwards.

"If you're saying you won't lose to anyone, then duel me!" said Jaden. "And if you lose, you'll give that deck back like a man!"

That was so like Jaden to do that…Shou sighed and took out his deck from his duel disk. He might as well listen to Jaden…

Meanwhile with a certain Ra Yellow…no, not the smart one, the other one…Kagurazaka! (3)

Kagurazaka grinned as he stared at Jaden, finding the Osiris Red rather amusing.

"You really think you can beat me?" he asked.

Jaden rubbed the back of her head as she looked at Kagurazaka.

"I have no clue, but it's worth a shot!" Jaden said, smiling afterwards. "To think I'm playing against Yugi-san's deck…"

Jaden tightened her fists and smiled widened as she exclaimed, "I've never been this excited!"

Kagurazaka nodded and smiled as he replied, "All right. I'll take you on."

Kagurazaka held up his duel disk and moved his hand over by the deck (which he stole…ah, dur. (4).

"Aniki!" exclaimed Shou.

Jaden blinked and immediately turned to Shou as the blue-haired Osiris Red tossed her his duel disk. She smiled and replied with a quick, "Right!" and caught her friend's duel disk in her arms. After a few adjustments and movements, Jaden was now ready to duel.

"Oh, yeah!" she exclaimed as she held up her left arm, in which Shou's duel disk resided on.

With both duelists set and ready, it was time to say, "Duel!"

Kagurazaka:

LP

4000

Jaden:

LP

4000

After both duelists drew their first five cards, Jaden, both very eager and ready, reached for her deck.

"We'll go with me first!" she said, drawing a card. "Draw!"

Jaden took a quick look at her hand and picked out the card of her choice, which she then summoned onto the field.

"I summon Elemental Hero Burstinatrix in defense mode!" said Jaden.

Elemental Hero Burstinatrix appeared on the field with a red, fiery entrance before she knelt down into her defensive position.

DEF 800

"My turn's finished!" Jaden said, her gaze focused on Kagurazaka as she watched patiently to see what the Ra Yellow would do next.

"My turn!" Kagurazaka said, drawing a card. Kagurazaka looked at the card he drew and then at his hand before making a move. "I fuse Gazelle the Mythical Beast King and Berfomet from my hand!"

Two beast-like monsters appeared in front of Kagurazaka. A Polymerization card popped up in between the two beasts and caused two swirling vortexes to engulf the monsters as Polymerization's effect began to kick in, fusing the monsters together.

A/N 11-24-10 Damn, it's been a while…bear with me if I lag on or such. It's been three months…yeah…don't kill meh! DX

"Come forth!" exclaimed Kagurazaka. "Chimera the Flying Mythical Beast!"

A two-headed, winged lion-like monster appeared on the field, roaring once afterwards.

ATK 2100

Jaden looked at Chimera the Flying Mythical Beast, slightly shocked after seeing his ATK.

"2100 ATK right off the bat?" exclaimed Jaden.

Jaden wasn't the only one shocked with Chimera's ATK, seeing as her friends were currently staring at the monster agape.

"Go, Chimera!" said Kagurazaka. "Impact Dash!"

Chimera the Flying Mythical Beast growled slightly as he pounced on Burstinatrix, sending the red-clad Elemental Hero onto the ground on her back, destroying her. Jaden clenched her teeth and stared at Kagurazaka, both duelists going into a mutual moment of silence.

As this went on, Hayato looked down at Shou and asked, "Shou, you battled him, didn't you? Give Jaden some advice!"

Shou smiled somewhat awkwardly as he looked up at Hayato.

"Well, I, uh…got beaten with just Chimera…" Shou admitted, earning a rather surprised reaction from Hayato.

Hayato quickly recovered from his shock as he said, "Still, if he's an opponent who beat you once, Shou, then Jaden should be all right. A powerful deck needs high-leveled tactics."

Daichi overheard the conversation going on between Hayato and Shou. He crossed his arms and kept his gaze focused on the duel.

"We'll see about that," he remarked, earning questioning looks from Hayato and Shou. Noticing his friends' perplexed stares, he explained, "Kagurazaka has too good of a memory, so the decks he makes himself are unconsciously based on the decks of others. That possesses him and makes him always lose his matches. When he imitates a deck…he remembers the characteristics of another's deck in an instant."

A bead of sweat rolled down the side of Daichi's face as he continued on, "From his deck, he can even read into the personality of the duelist who built it, and reproduce those tactics. If the deck he has now is the strongest…then, right now, he's what you'd call an invincible duelist!" (5)

As much as Jaden loved to hear Misawa's explanations (which she both meant in a sarcastic and literal way), this was not the time for her to believe everything the Ra Yellow just explained…well, everything involving the 'invincible duelist' part. Everything else he said…she'll take that into mind, but first! It was her turn…and with that turn, she fused Elemental Heroes Sparkman and Clayman to summon…

"I summon Elemental Hero Thunder Giant!" said Jaden.

A bolt of lightning struck down in front of Jaden, which not long afterwards, Thunder Giant appeared on the field.

ATK 2400

"And I activate Thunder Giant's special effect!" said Jaden. "It destroys one monster that has a lower original ATK than this card! Vapor Spark!"

Thunder Giant held out his left hand and yelled out as he sent out a shockwave of electrical energy at Chimera the Flying Mythical Beast. The electrical energy engulfed Chimera for a few moments before vaporizing him, leaving a cloud of smoke behind in the aftermath. Kagurazaka shielded himself with his right arm, lowering it only when the smoke cleared.

"I activate Chimera's special effect!" said Kagurazaka. "When this card is destroyed, I can special-summon a Berfomet or Gazelle in my Graveyard! Be reborn, Berfomet!"

Kagurazaka's graveyard glowed as Berfomet popped out and appeared onto the field in defense mode.

DEF 1800

Jaden held up her fist as she stared somewhat sternly at Kagurazaka.

"I still have my attack left!" she said, holding out her hand afterwards. "Thunder Giant! Voltic Thunder!"

Thunder Giant tightened his fists as he charged up an attack before he held out his left hand, aimed at Berfomet. Yellow, electrical energy shot out of the palm of Thunder Giant's hand and went straight after Berfomet, destroying him.

"That's Yugi-san's deck, all right," Jaden thought, her somewhat stern look softened as she smiled at Kagurazaka. "It won't be that easy to hit him with damage."

"My turn," Kagurazaka said, drawing a card. "I set one card face-down."

Kagurazaka set one card face-down before reaching over to his hand.

"From my hand, I activate the Magic card, Monster Reincarnation!" he said, smiling afterwards as he explained the card's effect. "This card let's me discard a card from my hand to add a monster in my Graveyard to my hand."

Kagurazaka discarded a card into his Graveyard, in which afterwards, a card was ejected out of it. The Ra Yellow took the card and held it up.

"From my Graveyard, I'll add Gazelle the Mythical Beast King to my hand, and then summon it!" said Kagurazaka.

Gazelle the Mythical Beast King appeared on the field in attack mode.

ATK 1500

"And next, I'll activate the Magic card, Swords of Revealing Light!" Kagurazaka said, holding up said Magic card.

Jaden clenched her teeth as she knew what the effect of Swords of Revealing Light did since she did happen to own a magic card of the same name. A green, luminescent light glowed above Jaden and Thunder Giant for a few seconds before an array of light-comprised swords rained down around Jaden and Thunder Giant. As Thunder Giant looked to his left and right at the swords, a small bead of sweat rolled down the side of Jaden's face.

"My field, it's—" she said before Kagurazaka cut her off.

"With this, your monsters can't attack for three turns!" said Kagurazaka.

Okay, it was official…Jaden was somewhat nervous.

"No!" thought Jaden. "Yuki-kun does not get nervous over a Magic card! Now shake it off and think!"

And once again, Jaden's stubbornness proved its worth to her that it's something not to resent. Especially since Jaden's slight anxiety over Swords of Revealing Light disappeared as an idea popped up in mind.

"Swords of Revealing Light…" said Jaden. "There has to be a way to destroy it!"

Jaden reached for her deck.

"My turn!" she said, drawing a card. "Draw!"

Glancing quickly at the card she drew, Jaden put the card, Dark Catapulter, into play in defense mode.

DEF 1500

Hayato smiled and complimented, "Nice move, Jaden!"

Shou blinked and looked at Hayato, perplexed. Hayato saw Shou's confused look and explained, "Dark Catapulter has an effect that destroys a Magic card on the next turn!"

Shou smiled in comprehension and focused his gaze back on the duel. Unfortunately for him, Hayato, and Jaden…especially Jaden, Kagurazaka happened to have a trick up his sleeve (specifically, on his field). Kagurazaka grinned and laughed a bit.

"I've been waiting for you to summon a new monster," said Kagurazaka. "I now activate the Trap card, Dark Renewal!"

The face-down card on Kagurazaka's field flipped up as said Ra Yellow began to explain the effects.

"When my opponent summons a monster, this card takes that monster's soul and one of my monsters…" explained Kagurazaka, "…to revive one Spellcaster-type monster in my graveyard."

This did not look good, but hold on a sec…

"A Spellcaster-type from your Graveyard?" said Jaden. "No way! Your Graveyard only has Chimera and Berfomet in it!"

Kagurazaka's grin widened.

"No, I had one there," he said. "My chance to put a Spellcaster-type monster in my Graveyard…"

Realization then hit Jaden…the card Kagurazaka discarded into his graveyard when he used Monster Reincarnation.

"Back then…" said Jaden. "Well…crap…"

A purple and yellow coffin ascended from the ground with black smoke pouring down from it to the ground.

"I sacrifice Gazelle and Dark Catapulter!" said Kagurazaka.

The coffin opened up and pulled in Gazelle and Dark Catapulter into it in. Afterwards, the coffin closed back up.

"Come forth!" said Kagurazaka. "Dark Magician!"

The coffin opened up once more to reveal the said Spellcaster-type Monster that had been in Kagurazaka's graveyard. A fair-skinned, purple-haired young man clad in purple robes with a green staff (scepter, staff…same damn thing!) in his hand appeared right out of the coffin.

ATK 2500

A/N Must…resist…urge…to fangirl! DX (Please ignore KD, for she is acting like an idiot).

Jaden smiled as she stared at the purple-clad mage that was Dark Magician in awe.

"Dark Magician…" she said, awestruck with the sight of Dark Magician. "He's what you could call the symbol of Yugi-san's deck!"

Shou's eyes sparkled in awe as he said, "Dark Magician."

Hayato and Daichi just stared on at what could also be called Yugi's signature card.

"It's the first time I've seen the real thing!" said Hayato.

Shou looked at Hayato, questioningly.

"Didn't you see him in the Pegasus' Island DVD?" asked Shou.

"Aside from that," added Hayato.

Daichi uncrossed his arms and gave a small smile as he stared at Kagurazaka.

"Not bad, Kagurazaka," he thought. "From the start of the duel, you wasted no time in setting up that Dark Renewal. To think you're playing so well with this deck after just taking a glimpse at it…"

Daichi snapped out of his thoughts as Jaden spoke up, continuing her turn.

"I switch Thunder Giant to defense mode!" she said, the giant Elemental Hero one her field switching into his defensive position.

DEF 1500

"My turn's finished," said Jaden.

"My turn!" Kagurazaka said, drawing a card. "I activate the Magic card, Thousand Knives!"

After placing the card he just finished drawing into a slot in his duel disk, many knives started to appear in thin air behind Dark Magician.

"When I have Dark Magician on my field, this card destroys an opposing monster!" explained Kagurazaka.

Dark Magician waved his staff and a glowing, yellow aura appeared on the many knives behind him. Almost immediately after the knives began glowing did they start to move…rather quickly…and right towards Thunder Giant!

"This doesn't look good…" thought Jaden.

Jaden shielded herself from the explosion caused by the impact of the Thousand Knives on Thunder Giant (which destroyed him). She grunted slightly from the force of the explosion and closed her eyes to avoid the smoke.

"Amazing!" said Shou. "In just an instant, Aniki's Thunder Giant was…"

Jaden's eye twitched slightly at Shou's outburst. Just whose side was he on, anyways?

"This is no time to be impressed!" snapped Hayato.

Moving on with the duel…

Kagurazaka laughed and continued on, "With this, you've been left with no monsters on your field."

Jaden narrowed her eyes and sighed in dismay. "Look, can you not point out the obvious?"

Kagurazaka smirked and replied, "No."

Jaden growled slightly and muttered, "Bastard…"

"Dark Magician!" said Kagurazaka. "Direct attack! Black Magic!"

Dark Magician charged up a green-colored sphere of magical energy with his staff before sending the sphere right at Jaden. Jaden let out a pained yell as the simulated pain took its effect. This definitely caught Daichi, Shou, and Hayato's attention.

"Aniki!" exclaimed Shou.

"Jaden!" exclaimed Hayato.

Jaden hunched over in pain (why does simulated pain have to hurt so much sometimes…) from the attack. As Jaden recovered from her simulated pain ordeal, her life points decreased by 2500 (Dark Magician's ATK), leaving her with only 1500 left.

Jaden:

LP

1500

Jaden shook her head and stood up, afterwards remarking, "That's strong!"

Kagurazaka laughed at Jaden causing the Osiris Red's eye to twitch slightly.

"It's 1000 years too early for a duelist your level to beat me," said Kagurazaka.

It took all of Jaden's will power to not snap at that remark…

"You're talking an awful lot with that deck!" Jaden said, clenching her teeth afterwards. "But that's Yugi-san's deck, all right…I can't find any blind spots! At this rate, I'll really be in trouble!"

Jaden reached for her deck and exclaimed, "My turn!"

Jaden stared at her deck, slightly concerned, though determined.

"I have to hang in there!" she thought, drawing a card. After taking a quick look at her hand, Jaden picked out one of the cards. "I summon Friendog in defense mode!"

A black, machine-like dog appeared on Jaden's side of the field in defense mode.

DEF 1200

"My turn's finished!" said Jaden.

Meanwhile (back with Jaden's guy friends),

Daichi continued to watch the duel, crossing his arms as he began to analyze the match.

"This is bad…" said Daichi. "Jaden's Fusion deck has explosive force. With more cards added to his hand, if he uses them up, it'll be that much more against him."

Back to the duel,

Kagurazaka smirked at Jaden, earning a rather displeased stare from him (he doesn't know…screw it! This is the last time you'll see this message in parentheses!).

"Time to screw with him…" thought Kagurazaka. "It looks like you're at the end of your rope."

Jaden clenched her teeth and growled. "Screw off!"

Yes, very amusing…to Kagurazaka, that is. For Jaden…she just found it plain annoying. Friggin' sadist…

"My turn!" Kagurazaka said and not even a few seconds after drawing a card did he send Dark Magician to attack. "Dark Magician, destroy that monster! Black Magic!"

"I prefer to call him a 'dog' and not a monster," said Jaden.

Kagurazaka looked strangely at Jaden and remarked, "Does it even matter?"

"To me it does, now back off!" snapped Jaden. "And oh, crap…"

"Oh, crap" was right since Dark Magician just sent out a green sphere of magical energy out at Friendog. The poor guy-er, dog… never stood a chance against magic…thankfully, Friendog's demise had a positive effect for Jaden (Friendog's sacrifice will not be forgotten).

"Now, I activate Friendog's special effect!" Jaden said, reaching for her graveyard. "When Friendog is sent to the Graveyard, I add an Elemental Hero and Polymerization card in my Graveyard to my hand."

And as the explanation Jaden gave said, two cards, a Polymerization and Elemental Hero, were ejected from her graveyard. Kagurazaka smirked and couldn't help but say, "Clever."

Jaden smiled and nodded once in approval. "Damn straight…"

"My turn's finished," said Kagurazaka.

Jaden let out a sigh, blinking a few times when she realized that she may have been holding her breath.

"Am I…really that nervous?" thought Jaden.

Hayato, being the older brother figure Jaden currently had who was in her dorm, decided to give Jaden some support. "Hang in there Jaden! The effect of Swords of Revealing Light ends this turn!"

Jaden blinked and nodded as she thought, "That's right!"

"If that happens, you'll have a chance to turn it around!" added Hayato.

Jaden (pepped up from Hayato's outburst) reached for her deck and exclaimed, "Here goes! My turn!"

After drawing a card, Jaden decided to summon the Elemental Hero Friendog's special effect brought back from the graveyard.

"I summon Elemental Hero Burstinatrix!" said Jaden.

Elemental Hero Burstinatrix appeared once more on the field since the first turn in the same defensive position.

DEF 800

"Next, I'll set one card face-down, finishing my turn!" Jaden said, a face-down card appearing on her field after setting a card. Afterwards, Jaden looked at Dark Magician one more time before focusing her gaze on her deck. "Dark Magician's ATK is 2500…Right now, the only monster I have in my deck with an ATK higher than Dark Magician's…"

Jaden looked at her hand and focused on the card that she was currently thinking about.

"…is this 2600-ATK Edgeman!" thought Jaden. "This match is hanging on whether I can call him out or not! C'mon Yuki-kun, compared to the LV-88 Pikachu…this is nothing!" (6)

And yet, why did Jaden find that slightly unbelievable… (7)

"Okay, it's been three turns!" said Daichi.

"So now, Swords of Revealing Light are destroyed," said Hayato.

Shou smiled and held up his fist.

"That's right!" he exclaimed. "Now, Aniki's able to wage attacks!"

Coincidentally, the moment all three of Jaden's friends mention about the third turn and Swords of Revealing Light, the swords surrounding Jaden and her field disappeared. Kagurazaka overheard and noticed as well since the Swords of Revealing Light Magic card on his field disappeared.

"That's if he even has a next turn coming to him, though…" Kagurazaka remarked, smirking as he drew a card from his deck. Not even bothering once to look at the card he drew, Kagurazaka pointed at Elemental Hero Burstinatrix and yelled, "Dark Magician! Attack his monster!"

Jaden grinned and said, "I was waiting for this moment! Trap, activate!"

The face-down card on Jaden's field flipped over face-up.

"A Hero Emerges!" said Jaden. "This card activates when my opponent declares an attack!" Jaden held up her hand and continued on, "A card's randomly selected from my hand, and if it's a monster, I can special-summon it! Now choose!"

And that is where Jaden began to silently pray to the god that was Osiris that the card Kagurazaka would choose would be the one on her far right…especially since it was the only monster in her hand. Kagurazaka closed his eyes and smirked.

"How makeshift…" said Kagurazaka.

Jaden growled and snapped, "Shut up and pick! Jerk…"

Kagurazaka sneered and pointed at the card of his choice, "In that case, the first one to the left."

"My left or your left?" asked Jaden. "Dammit, not again…"

"My left," Kagurazaka replied, slightly annoyed. "Like it's going to make a difference…"

How wrong Kagurazaka was when he saw the wide smile on Jaden's face.

"Bingo!" she exclaimed, picking out Elemental Hero Edgeman's card out of her hand. "Thank you, Osiris! I'll never regret sleeping through the last part of the test that got me into your dorm…" (8)

Kagurazaka's breath hitched as he saw the card Jaden held out for him to see. It was a monster…

"Come forth, Elemental Hero Edgeman!" said Jaden.

Elemental Hero Edgeman, the golden armored-clad Elemental Hero, appeared on the field in attack mode.

ATK 2600

Shou smiled again and held up his fist.

"All right!" he happily exclaimed. "His ATK is higher than Dark Magician's!"

Daichi smiled and decided to add, "With no Gods in that deck, Dark Magician is the ace in Yugi's deck."

Dark Magician and Edgeman stared down at each other as their ATK popped up, the 100 ATK difference somewhat making it a bit of a big deal.

Dark Magician: ATK 2500

Edgeman: ATK 2600

"Really, if he can beat it, Jaden might have a chance!" said Daichi.

Kagurazaka overheard and began to laugh, earning Jaden's clueless and perplexed look.

"That small-fry monster's my ace?" said Kagurazaka. "You're moving me to tears!"

"What?" exclaimed Jaden. "Did he just…oh, he is so gonna get it…nobody calls Dark Magician a small-fry and gets away with it under my watch!"

"This deck is far beyond your wildest imagination!" explained Kagurazaka. "And it can hold its own, even without God cards! From my hand, I activate the Instant Magic, Dedication through Light and Darkness!"

Jaden clenched her teeth. "Aw, crap…forgot about that card…"

"By sacrificing a Dark Magician on my field, this cards summons, from my hand, Graveyard, or deck…" Kagurazaka explained as a purple, shadowy aura engulfed Dark Magician and dragged him down, "…Dark Magician of Chaos!"

Daichi, Hayato, and Shou all watched in awe and shock…mostly shock since, they too (like Jaden), forgot that Yugi's deck contained that card and monster.

"Dark Magician…" Shou said, trailing off as Hayato finished for him, "…of Chaos…"

"A legendary magician, and one of the highest-leveled monsters…" said Daichi.

Kagurazaka overheard and smirked as he held up Dark Magician of Chaos's card.

"That's right," he said. "You will all now witness a legend. Come forth, Dark Magician of Chaos!"

In a bright, glowing light, the Dark Magician of Chaos made his appearance onto the field.

A/N As much as I would love to describe this sexy card (don't judge me! DX), I can't do that decently enough for me to type it. Hell! I don't even think my description is even worthy enough to be typed since I'm just probably going to say…see, I can't even get a start at all! Point made.

"When this card is successfully summoned, I add one Magic Card in my Graveyard to my hand!" Kagurazaka continued on whilst grabbing the Magic card his Graveyard ejected. "And Dark Magician of Chaos's ATK is higher than Dark Magician's!"

ATK 2800

"2800 points!" said Kagurazaka.

Daichi kept his calm composure while Shou and Hayato…well, they sort of freaked out and were currently staring at Dark Magician of Chaos's ATK agape. Jaden was also shocked with the three-hundred point difference.

"2800?" exclaimed Jaden. "Oh, god…it's the level 88 Pikachu all over again…"

Kagurazaka smirked and directed Dark Magician of Chaos at Edgeman.

"Take this!" exclaimed Kagurazaka. "Dark Magician of Chaos's attack! Destructive Spell!"

Dark Magician of Chaos aimed his staff at Edgeman as a blue, electrical-like crackle of magical energy charged up on the top of the staff. After a few seconds, Dark Magician of Chaos sent the magical sphere of energy that was charged up at Edgeman, destroying the golden-armored Elemental Hero. Jaden shielded herself from the small explosion Edgeman's destruction caused.

Jaden:

LP

1300

"Told you, didn't I?" Kagurazaka said, grinning. "That it's 1000 years too early for a duelist of your level to beat me?"

Jaden clenched her teeth and tightened her fist as she stared at Kagurazaka.

"This strength…" said Jaden. "The opponent I'm facing…is really…Yugi Mutou!"

Kagurazaka laughed in a somewhat haughty manner as a silhouette of Yugi Mutou appeared behind him. Jaden blinked and shook her head.

"This is no time for hallucinating!" thought Jaden.

Jaden:

LP

1300

Kagurazaka:

LP

4000

"Now you're just mocking me…damn Ra Yellow…" thought Jaden. (9) "Though on the hindsight, this is rather exciting!"

Yes, leave it to Jaden to never give up being optimistic during a duel. One of the many reasons why certain duelists were irritated when dueling this Osiris Red, specifically, a certain Obelisk Blue who left Duel Academy…you know who I'm talking about.

Shou looked at Jaden rather concerned as he said, "Aniki's ace card just…"

"Kagurazaka has the 2800-ATK Black Magician of Chaos on his field," Daichi said, having overheard Shou. "To make matters worse, he's taken no damage so far. In a short time, this has turned into one difficult situation to win over."

Jaden continued to stare at Kagurazaka, the silhouette of Yugi Mutou appearing over the Ra Yellow once again, only this time…it stayed and hid Kagurazaka's true form.

"I'm really fighting…" Jaden said, grinning afterwards as she felt slightly happy and was rather pumped up. "If that's really Yugi-san, the Duel King…All right! I'm all fired up!"

This was it…this is where all her skill as a duelist built up in the past seven and a half years in her life was finally going to pay up! Yeah!

…oh, she was so screwed if she messed up! IF she messed up, that is.

"What are the chances of that?" thought Jaden. "Wait, on second thought…never mind."

Luck did have a bipolar change of heart when in a duel, so one little thing can turn the whole duel over in just a mere turn or so…

"My turn!" Jaden said, drawing a card. The Osiris Red glanced at her card, her eyes widening after seeing that it was Winged Kuriboh. "Winged Kuriboh!"

Winged Kuriboh reacted by closing his eyes and giving a rather happy, "Kuri kuri!"

Jaden smiled and looked at Winged Kuriboh.

"Winged Kuriboh, you're glad to be fighting against Yugi-san's deck too, huh?" asked Jaden.

Winged Kuriboh replied with a "Kuri!"

"I summon Winged Kuriboh in defense mode!" Jaden said, setting Winged Kuriboh's card on her duel disk.

Winged Kuriboh appeared on the field right next to Burstinatrix with a 'Kuri kuri'.

DEF 200

"Next, I'll set one card face-down, finishing my turn!" said Jaden.

Kagurazaka looked at Winged Kuriboh and then at Jaden.

"Winged Kuriboh, is it?" he said, reaching for his (not really his) deck. "My turn! Draw!"

Kagurazaka drew a card and looked at it, smiling afterwards.

"In that case, I'll also summon this," he said, setting down the card on his duel disk.

And right next to Dark Magician of Chaos, appeared the most notable, and of course, the most adorable (in Jaden's opinion) monster in Yugi-san's deck…the brown furball that was…

"Kuriboh!" said Kagurazaka.

ATK 300

"Kuri kuri!" said Kuriboh.

Shou looked perplexed at Kuriboh.

"Kuriboh?" he said questioningly.

"Go, Dark Magician of Chaos!" said Kagurazaka. "Attack Burstinatrix!"

Burstinatrix kept her composure as Dark Magician of Chaos charged towards her. Jaden was sure to have something up her sleeve…figuratively (or else that'd be cheating and cheating is frowned upon duelists…yeah…moving on!).

And Jaden did!

"Trap, activate!" said Jaden. "Super Junior Showdown! When my opponent attacks, this negates that battle…and makes my opponent's lowest-ATK monster battle my lowest-DEF monster, finishing your battle! So, the ones fighting are Kuriboh and Winged Kuriboh!"

Winged Kuriboh's fur puffed out after hearing Jaden's explanation. This seemed to have caught Jaden's attention and almost caused the Osiris Red to squeal in delight…almost. Aside from that, currently staring at both Kuriboh and Winged Kuriboh…were Daichi, Shou, and Hayato. All three of Jaden's friends knew where the gender-mistaken girl obtained her Winged Kuriboh and seeing the winged furball up against his non-winged counterpart (the one who originally came before him)…it was rather interesting to watch.

"It's a Kuriboh showdown!" exclaimed Hayato.

Jaden looked at the trap card she activated and then at Winged Kuriboh.

"Tch…never thought I'd used this Trap card again in a situation like this…" thought Jaden. "Oh, well…a strategy's a strategy…I'll make it up to him once this is over."

Kuriboh's fur puffed up and his violet-colored eyes stared sternly at Winged Kuriboh as he charged at his winged opponent.

"Kuri kuri!" he said in a somewhat aggressive tone.

Winged Kuriboh kept his guard, his eyes staring down at Kuriboh and, despite the 100-point difference on him…he was not afraid. Apparently, Jaden's stubbornness was beginning to rub off as well as her ability to keep her composure (unless given a rather nasty scare or unexpected surprise). Though, that didn't keep him from yelling out "Kuri!" when Kuriboh charged right into him, destroying the winged furball.

"Tch…got in my way, huh?" said Kagurazaka.

Jaden smirked and replied, "Well, what else am I supposed to do? You've pretty much got me beaten and you just expect me to give up? As if!"

Kagurazaka glared at Jaden and set down a card face-down, ending his turn. Kuriboh returned back to Kagurazaka's field with a "Kuri kuri!"

Daichi, as usual, was analyzing the duel between Kagurazaka and Jaden. So far, the current results have proved some of Daichi's earlier inferences false. It was quite intriguing…though, still…

"He managed to avoid that attack, but…" thought Daichi. "At this rate, you'll be done for, Jaden!"

Jaden got a sudden urge to snap at Daichi, but she waved off the feeling. Besides, it was her turn and she had to start it since time was of the essence to keep Professor Chronos from getting into trouble. As much as Professor Chronos was hard on Jaden and seemed to enjoy getting the Osiris Red in trouble or try to get her into it…Jaden could really live with it.

"My turn!" Jaden said, drawing a card. "I activate the Magic card, Pot of Greed!"

Jaden drew two cards from her deck and took a quick look at them. She gave a small smile and continued on, "And then, I summon Elemental Hero Bubbleman!"

The white-caped, blue-clad Elemental Hero (that was Bubbleman) appeared on the field next to Burstinatrix.

ATK 800

A slot on the side of Jaden's duel disk slid up as the gender-mistaken girl held the card she was going to place in the slot in her hand.

"Next, I activate the Field Magic, Skyscraper!" Jaden said, placing the card in the Field Magic slot.

The ground started to quake as huge buildings began to emerge from the ground. Kagurazaka stared at the emerging buildings in question and shock.

"What?" he exclaimed. "The field is being covered by these high-rise…?"

Jaden wagged her finger at Kagurazaka and replied, "They're called skyscrapers!" Afterwards, she stuck out her tongue with a "Nyah!" earning an enraged glare from the Ra Yellow. Yup! She still got it!

"That'll teach him for trying to mess with me!" said Jaden. "That's for Winged Kuriboh, right there!"

And it also helped that her otouto added more to this by exclaiming out, "This is Aniki's field!"

Jaden smiled and pointed her index finger at Kagurazaka.

"When a Hero battles an opponent that's stronger than them, this field ups their ATK by 1000 points!" Jaden explained, moving her hand to the side before tightening up her fist.

Kagurazaka stuttered, "T-These makeshift tricks…"

Jaden smiled and held out another card. "The Equip Magic, Bubble Shot!"

Bubbleman held up his hand as a blue, bazooka-like weapon with red ends and ammunition in the shape of a vial of what seemed to be blue liquid. Bubbleman maneuvered his hold on his weapon and aimed it well at Jaden's opponent. Jaden smiled and held up her fist.

"This ups Bubbleman's ATK by 800 points!" explained Jaden. "And, When Bubbleman's destroyed, this card becomes his substitute!"

Bubbleman smiled as his ATK increased.

ATK: Previously, 800

Now…1600!

Jaden smiled as she ordered Bubbleman to attack.

"Bubbleman!" said Jaden. "Use your Bubble Shot on Kuriboh!"

Bubbleman took aim at Kuriboh and pulled the trigger, sending out a bubble shot directly at the furball. This excited Shou, seeing as for that past turns, he's been watching his Aniki taking damage from Kagurazaka with him-er, her dealing no damage on the Ra Yellow whatsoever. It was a nice change to see that…

"If this attack works, he'll hit him with 1300 damage!" exclaimed Shou.

As the bubble shot headed straight towards Kuriboh, Kagurazaka smirked, finding Bubbleman's attack and Shou's outburst very amusing.

"We'll see about that," said Kagurazaka.

Jaden's breath hitched as Kagurazaka's comment had her stunned. Kagurazaka held out his hand and exclaimed, "Magic card, activate! Multiply!"

Kuriboh was replaced with four copies (clones!) of himself on the field. This surprised Jaden…slightly. She already knew Yugi-san's deck had that card, but of all the times…

"What?" she exclaimed. "Now that's just too much of a coincidence…well, then again, so is my Mirage of Nightmares and Emergency Provisions combo. I still wonder how I pull that one off…" (10)

"There's so many Kuribohs!" exclaimed Shou.

Actually, compared to what Jaden and Shou saw in the Pegasus's Island DVD…back then, when the rules were so completely different…this situation had nothing on the many Kuribohs Yugi-san's Multiply brought out! But still, it was more than two, so in a way…yeah…

"By sacrificing Kuriboh, Multiply summons Kuriboh Tokens onto all open Monster Zones!" explained Kagurazaka.

"So that's what the new edition of Multiply does…" thought Jaden. "Tch…I knew I forgot to look something up after watching that DVD…"

The four Kuriboh Tokens took up all the spaces on Kagurazaka's side of the field. The Dark Magician of Chaos stood in between two of them, his expression stoic…like a certain Obelisk Blue who usually resembled a sexy-no…supermegafoxyawesomehot bishie from a certain manga series involving a host club. (11)

DEF 200

Kagurazaka smirked and said, "And so, you'll be attacking…"

Jaden growled as Bubbleman's Bubble Shot destroyed a Kuriboh Token.

"Shit…" she swore, clenching her teeth when she noticed Kagurazaka's widening smirk.

Dang it! She hated how much Kagurazaka was enjoying her irritation…

"Friggin' sadist Ra Yellow…" muttered Jaden. "I'll set one card face-down, ending my turn!"

Jaden exhaled, feeling slightly stressed for once in a duel that where her soul wasn't on the line. She rather enjoyed dueling, but this…this…the guy was enjoying her reactions, for Ra's sake! Just the way Manjoume did…strange, Jaden never thought that as an annoyance, just…

"With a lot more defense thank to that, it's like an iron wall!" exclaimed Hayato.

Jaden blinked and just realized that she had just gotten off track. She made a mental note to thank Hayato after this was over. Who knew where that thought was going towards…?

Daichi tightened his fist, a small bead of sweat rolled down the side of his face.

"This is Yugi Mutou's deck…and what a deck it is!" thought Daichi. "Its offense and defense…it has a perfect balance. At any rate, mastering this much of the deck…Kagurazaka's tactics are impressive, as well."

"My turn," Kagurazaka said, drawing a card. "I activate the Magic card, Treasure from Heaven! Both players draw cards until they have six in their hands."

A short moment of silence ensued as the only sound made was from Kagurazaka and Jaden drawing cards from their decks. Kagurazaka looked at the cards in his hands and smirked as he picked and held one out.

"I special-summon Watapon," said Kagurazaka. "When this card is added to my hand with a Magic, Trap, or Monster effect, I can special-summon it to the field."

A pink, powder-puff like monster with big, blue eyes appeared on the field. It was…adorable…

"Resist urge to squeal…" Jaden thought, which was really something hard to do.

"And, I'll sacrifice Watapon!" Kagurazaka continued on, which Jaden couldn't help but mutter, "Oh, thank god…"

"Come forth, Dark Magician Girl!" said Kagurazaka.

Watapon was sacrificed and replaced with a highly attractive, young blonde girl dressed in what seemed to be clothes similar to that of Dark Magician's…only it was pink and blue.

"Dark Magician Girl?" exclaimed Jaden.

Kagurazaka smirked and explained Dark Magician Girl's effect.

"For each Dark Magician that's in the Graveyard, Dark Magician Girl has her ATK raised by 300 points!" explained Kagurazaka.

A gentle, pink aura emanated from the Dark Magician Girl, her ATK increasing by the said amount Kagurazaka mentioned.

ATK: Previously, 2000

Now…2300!

Jaden blinked and despite having actually shown admiration for the Dark Magician Girl in her younger and current years, she frowned…

"Oh, no…no, just no…" thought Jaden. "Here it comes…"

Jaden looked at her Osiris Red roommate…her blue-haired Osiris Red roommate. She let out a slightly aggravated sigh when she saw Shou's face contorted into one of pure infatuation at the sight of seeing Dark Magician Girl. His eyes were glimmering with awe and an obvious blush tinged his cheeks as he dreamily sighed, "S-So cute!"

Dark Magician Girl seemed to have heard Shou as she directed her gaze at him and…flirtatiously winked at the blue-haired boy. A small heart formed from this wink and floated over to Shou until it came in contact with him. After impact, Shou's legs began to feel like jelly to him as spirals formed in his eyes and his face was red from blushing furiously.

"I want Aniki to win, but…I kinda just want to root for her…" Shou said, slightly dazed.

"No…no…no…" growled Jaden. "How dare you use attract on Shou…" (12)

Hayato scowled and was about to snap at Shou when suddenly, Jaden did it for him.

"Baka!" snapped Jaden. (13) "Shou, you're going to be hearing a lot from me tonight if you don't pull yourself together, ya hear? Control your emotions, dammit!"

This definitely got Shou to snap out of his infatuation and instead of trying to make an awkward apology, he took back what he said and rephrased it.

"I mean, Dark Magician Girl isn't the only thing in Yugi-san's deck, and tonight might be the only time we see her in person!" Shou exclaimed, obviously flushed with what Jaden told him.

"Tch…baka…" remarked Jaden.

Hayato sweat dropped as he slapped his hand on Shou's back, startling the blue-haired boy.

"Ack!" exclaimed Shou.

"Nice try, Shou," said Hayato. "Even flat-chest saw through that."

"I'm gonna let that one slide!" snapped Jaden.

Kagurazaka arched his brow at this remark. "Flat-chest? Jaden was a guy…he's supposed to not have a chest."

Either way,Kagurazaka was deeply amused to have seen Jaden's reaction, followed by the ones his friends gave. It was a nice change from seeing Jaden's irritation aimed towards him…

"Go, Dark Magician of Chaos!" said Kagurazaka. "Attack Bubbleman!"

Dark Magician of Chaos leapt up into the air and shot out a sphere of magical energy aimed at Bubbleman. Bubbleman shielded himself from the attack by using his weapon as a shield, which was destroyed in Bubbleman's place. And since Bubble Shot was gone…Bubbleman's ATK decreased back to his original ATK.

ATK 800

Kagurazaka grinned and remarked, "I still have an attack left. Dark Magician Girl! Black Burning!"

Dark Magician Girl waved her staff in a rather flamboyant fashion before sending out a purple wave of magical energy at Bubbleman. Despite Bubbleman's destruction and Jaden's 500 life point loss, she still couldn't help but say, "Show off."

Dark Magician girl reacted by crossing her arms and huffing at Jaden, miffed with what she said.

Jaden:

LP

800

After seeing Dark Magician Girl's attack on Bubbleman and the life points she caused Jaden, Shou was impressed, and not to mention, he felt slightly deceived.

"Whoa!" he exclaimed. "Her looks give you the wrong idea of her strong power!"

Hayato nodded in agreement, his hand on his chin as he added, "'A beautiful rose has its thorn,' as they say."

Out of the three of Jaden's friends, only Daichi seemed to show some self control as he snapped at both Hayato and Shou, having seen Jaden's irritated expression.

"Oi, show some decency in front of Ichiban-kun!" snapped Daichi.

Hayato blinked and immediately glared at Shou.

"Geez, Shou, control your hormones," Hayato remarked.

Shou stuttered, "But I…"

"That's enough, Shou," said Daichi. "Don't make it any worse…Jaden-kun is already mad at you."

Shou blinked and nervously looked up at his Aniki, who was currently tapping her foot while keeping her hands on her hips. He laughed awkwardly whilst his female roommate made a motion with her middle and index finger saying that she was keeping an eye on Shou. This made Shou feel even more awkward…

Afterwards, Jaden stared at Dark Magician Girl and scowled at her. Sure, she still admired her as a powerful and not to mention, beautiful spellcaster, but when it came to messing with her guy friends' emotions…oh, it was on.

"Dark Magician Girl thinks she can pull of a Whitney…tch, typical," thought Jaden. (14)

"Jaden, you got little life points left…make it count," said Daichi.

Jaden turned to Daichi and scowled.

"Don't tell me what to do!" snapped Jaden. "This is why I don't go to your study sessions with Shou!"

Daichi sweat dropped.

"Jaden…you go with Shou to keep certain Obelisk Blues off him and to eat dinner with us," said Daichi. "I think that pretty much contradicts what you just said…"

Jaden crossed her arms and huffed, "That's beside the point…and don't bring Shou into it!"

"Aniki…" whined Shou. "Let's talk about this later…"

"Fine…besides, I have a few tricks up my sleeve," said Jaden. "You better watch your back, Kagurazaka!"

Kagurazaka scowled and remarked, "What'd you say?"

Jaden grinned as she rubbed her nose with her index finger.

"I've got what I need for my win all set up," Jaden said, drawing a card. "My turn! I fuse Elemental Heroes Avian and Burstinatrix to summon Elemental Hero Flame Wingman!"

One use of Polymerization later…

Jaden's signature Fusion Monster appeared on the gender-mistaken girl's side of the field.

ATK 2100

"And then, I activate the Magic card, Warrior's Return!" Jaden continued on, holding out said Magic card for Kagurazaka to see. "I'll bring back a Warrior-type monster from my Graveyard and summon it! Sparkman!"

Elemental Hero Sparkman appeared back onto the field, crackling with electricity like most of the times he appeared on the field.

ATK 1600

"And with Skyscraper's effect, Flame Wingman's ATK goes up by 1000 points when he battles!" said Jaden.

ATK: Previously, 2100

Now…3100!

This definitely took Kagurazaka by surprise.

"What?" he exclaimed. "His ATK is 3100?"

Shou held up his fists as he stared at his Aniki in awe. "Awesome!"

Hayato smiled, as did Daichi. This was certainly a nice turn of events…

"So now, his ATK is higher than Dark Magician of Chaos's!" said Hayato.

Jaden held out her hand as she directed Flame Wingman to attack.

"Go!" she exclaimed. "Skyscraper Shoot!"

Flames began to envelop Flame Wingman as he charged down at Dark Magician of Chaos. Dark Magician of Chaos was destroyed on impact, taking a small toll on Kagurazaka's life points.

Kagurazaka:

LP

3700

"And, I activate Flame Wingman's effect!" said Jaden. "It deals my opponent damage equal to the ATK of the monster destroyed in battle!"

Jaden grinned and pumped her fist at seeing Kagurazaka scowl.

"Payback, bitch…" thought Jaden.

And thus, this is why one must never mess with this gender-mistaken Osiris Red…

Kagurazaka:

LP

900

"He did it!" Hayato exclaimed happily. "He took out the Dark Magician of Chaos!"

Of course she did-wait!

"Oh, my god…I actually did…" Jaden said to herself. "This is so going on my letter to Dad-er, never mind…"

Because then Jaden would get a phone call asking as to why she was outside of her dorm late at night. And that, my dear friends, is not a good thing…well, to Jaden, it is. Moving on!

"It's a big turn-around, Aniki!" exclaimed Shou.

Jaden grinned and rubbed her nose with her finger while keeping her right eye closed.

"Aw, yeah!" she exclaimed. "I've got this duel in a bag!"

A small bead of sweat rolled down the side of Daichi's face.

"Jaden Yuki…what a guy…" thought Daichi. "From what I've seen, Kagurazaka hasn't missed a play once. And yet, to think he's in a close tie against Yugi Mutou's deck…It's true that he doesn't have any high-leveled monsters, but by using fusion, his deck has completely overcome that weakness."

"Go, Sparkman!" said Jaden. "Spark Flash!"

Sparkman cupped his hands together and charged up electrical energy. After a certain amount of charging, Sparkman lifted the ball of electrical energy in his hand and threw it at a Kuriboh Token, vaporizing the furball.

"Next, I'll set two cards face-down, and then activate the Magic card, Emergency Provisions!" said Jaden. "By sending one of my face-down cards to the Graveyard, this card restores 1000 of my life points!"

One of Jaden's face-down cards disappeared from the field, in exchange for an increase in her life points.

Jaden:

LP

1800

"I've finished my turn!" Jaden said, biting her lip afterwards. "I can't believe I'm even saying this, but…you finally cornered me Kagurazaka…No…Yugi-san! Even if he's pulling the strings, I'll be proud to remember fighting your deck!"

Shou tightened his fists and exclaimed, "One more strike…one more strike, and he'll win!"

Kagurazaka scowled and remarked, "Don't think you can defeat my deck with something like this!"

Jaden blinked a few times before scowling.

"What exactly do you mean by that?" retorted Jaden.

Kagurazaka ignored Jaden as he drew a card from his deck. "Draw!"

One moment of silent later…

"I switch Dark Magician Girl to defense mode," said Kagurazaka.

Dark Magician Girl switched from her current offensive mode, into a defensive mode.

DEF 1700

"And, I activate the Magic card, Spider's Thread!" said Kagurazaka.

Jaden blinked owlishly as a silky, white thread headed towards her direction. She exclaimed when she saw that the thread was after her Graveyard as it took a card from her.

"What?" she exclaimed. "Oh, don't tell me…I think I remember this card's effect…"

Spider's Thread was a card that can add a card from an opponent's Graveyard that has been used one turn earlier to the player's hand. And if Jaden recalled, the card she used a turn ago that she knew would be of use to Kagurazaka was…

"Emergency Provisions," the Ra Yellow said as the white thread returned to him with the aforementioned Magic card. "I'll set two cards face-down, and activate the Magic card, Monster Reincarnation! Next, I'll activate Emergency Provisions!"

Jaden clenched her teeth as she saw Kagurazaka's two face-down cards and Monster Reincarnation go to the Graveyard.

"With the effect of Emergency Provisions, I regain life points," Kagurazaka said, smirking in satisfaction.

Kagurazaka:

LP

3900

"And with the effect of Monster Reincarnation, I'll be adding Kuriboh from my Graveyard to my hand!" said Kagurazaka. "I'll finish my turn with that!"

"Why is it that most of the times I use Emergency Provisions, it's used against me?" thought Jaden.

"Aniki!" exclaimed Shou. "Hang in there!"

Jaden blinked and nodded as she reached for her deck to draw a card.

"My turn!" Jaden said, looking at the card she drew. "Great! Let's settle this right now! Flame Wingman! Skyscraper Shoot!"

Flame Wingman was set ablaze with flames as he charged at Dark Magician Girl. Jaden bit her lip. She didn't want to attack Dark Magician Girl, but she had to…at least she can count on Shou to control his emotions…but…

"Why do I feel like I'm being screwed over?" thought Jaden.

After Dark Magician Girl's painful impact and destruction from Flame Wingman's attack, Jaden looked at Shou. Shou frowned as he stared at where Dark Magician Girl once was, his eyes glistening with unshed tears.

"Goodbye, Dark Magician Girl…" Shou lamented.

At least he didn't snap at Jaden for destroying her…

"Good…" thought Jaden. "I activate Flame Wingman's effect! My opponent's hit with damage equal to the ATK of the monster destroyed in battle!"

Jaden paused for a few seconds before adding, "Give him hell, Flame Wingman."

Flame Wingman obeyed and landed in front of Kagurazaka, his right hand opened and aimed in front of the Ra Yellow's face. Jaden smirked a bit as flames shot out of the Elemental Hero's hand and into Kagurazaka's face.

"That was for insulting my deck…" said Jaden.

Yeah, she wasn't just going to let the guy go that easily…

Kagurazaka braced himself as the force of the flames sent him back a few centimeters. Smoke began to waft from his yellow blazer after the fire attack was over. That simulated pain has got to hurt…

Kagurazaka:

LP

1600

Kagurazaka scowled and remarked, "However, I still have enough life points!"

"Nope!" said Jaden. "I still have my attacks going on! I activate the Quick Play Magic, De-fusion! Separate, Flame Wingman!"

Flame Wingman glowed brightly as Burstinatrix and Avian separated from him into their original separate beings again. This move stunned Daichi…

"Good move!" he exclaimed. "Monsters that were released from their fusion in the middle of battle are allowed to attack!"

Jaden smiled as she knew that already…that was another reason as to why she had De-fusion in her deck.

"This is the Fusion Deck's ultimate attack pattern!" stated Daichi.

Jaden smiled as she directed her Elemental Heroes at Kagurazaka's Kuriboh Tokens.

"It's called unity!" said Jaden. "Go, Avian! Feather Break!"

Avian jumped up high and attacked a Kuriboh Token with a powerful kick. A fighting move against a Dark-type monster…

"It's super effective!" Jaden exclaimed. (15) "What…?"

Everyone just stared at her, a huge drop of sweat rolling down the back of their heads.

"Yellow really needs to stop training her Tyrogue…" Hayato sighed.

Daichi and Shou nodded in agreement. Moving on…

"Burstinatrix!" said Jaden. "Burst Fire!"

Burstinatrix leapt into the air, her hands cupped behind her head as she formed a fireball. She then used lobbed the fireball over her head at the last Kuriboh Token. While it may have missed, Burstinatrix was still shooting out fireballs at the furball until one of them finally hit the Kuriboh Token.

Jaden blinked and commented, "We have got to work on your aim…"

Burstinatrix turned away from Jaden, causing the brunette to stutter.

"No offense!" added Jaden.

Burstinatrix waved it off as a response, a response that most likely said, "None taken."

Jaden let out a sigh in relief…the last thing she needed was to fight with her cards (which she actually never did).

"Amazing, Aniki!" Shou exclaimed ecstatically.

Shou's fists were tightened in anticipation as he stared at his Aniki in awe. Hayato did likewise…only, instead of Aniki, it was Imouto-chan…may Jaden never learn of this nickname (an excerpt from one of Hayato's thoughts).

"With this, the monsters on his field were destroyed!" said Hayato.

Daichi just smiled as he added, "On top of that, Jaden's Sparkman has an attack left!"

"He's got 1600 of his life points left!" said Shou.

And Sparkman had 1600 ATK…you do the math…

Hayato pumped his fist into the air and said, "If this attack works, it'll be a win for Jaden!"

"Go, Sparkman!" said Jaden. "Spark Flash!"

Sparkman charged up an attack consisting of crackling, blue electricity, which he aimed and shot at Kagurazaka. Just when the electricity was going to come in contact with the Ra Yellow, at the last second…

"I'll activate this Monster Effect!" Kagurazaka said, holding up Kuriboh's card. "Kuriboh!"

Said brown furball immediately appeared on the field, shielding Kagurazaka from Sparkman's attack.

"What?" exclaimed Jaden.

"Kuriboh has an effect that reduces battle damage to zero once by discarding it from my hand," explained Kagurazaka. "Did you forget that I added Kuriboh from my Graveyard to my hand with Monster Reincarnation?"

A small bead of sweat rolled down the side of Jaden's face.

"That's right!" said Jaden. "Damn it…"

Kagurazaka looked at his duel disk, his expression softening.

"Thank you, Kuriboh," he said. "You're the monster I chose thousands of years ago, all right."

A silhouette of Kuriboh appeared on Kagurazaka's duel disk.

"I've been saved so many times by you," Kagurazaka added.

Kuriboh sweat dropped and let out an awkward, "Kuri…"

DOT DOT DOT…

"What the hell is he thinking?" snapped Shou. "Didn't he steal that deck?"

Shou had been snapped at his Aniki, had to deal with being beaten in just a few turns, and now…now this? What…the…heck…?

A small bead of sweat rolled down the sides of both Daichi and Hayato's faces. This was definitely awkward in some sense.

"He really thinks he's become Yugi Mutou…" said Hayato.

And to makes things even more awkward…

"Kuriboh, I won't let the chance you gave me go to waste," said Kagurazaka. "My turn!"

Kagurazaka drew a card and looked at it, his expression changing into a slightly smug one.

"Here goes," said Kagurazaka. "This turn, you'll really get to know this deck's true power!"

Jaden let out a shaky breath. This didn't look good…

"I remove one Dark-attribute and one Light-attribute monster from my Graveyard," Kagurazaka said as he held up a card.

Kuriboh and Watapon appeared on the field, side-by-side. Jaden blinked owlishly.

"Huh?" said Jaden. "You're removing a Dark and Light monster from your—crap!"

This took Jaden by complete surprise as realization suddenly hit her. Memories began flooding into her head as she recalled that there were certain summoning conditions…specifically, ritual summoning conditions that she recalled that required the removal of a Dark and Light monster.

"What kind of special summoning conditions are these?" asked Shou.

"Such a monster can't…" said Hayato.

Jaden turned to her friends and scowled at them, a bead of sweat running down the side of her face.

"Don't you remember?" asked Jaden.

Silence from Shou and Hayato…

Sweat drop from Jaden and a comment that was, "Tch…idiots…"

Daichi, on the other hand, was actually trying to remember as he also seemed to recall certain summoning conditions, but the question was…which one?

"A Light and Dark monster…" thought Daichi.

Realization struck him in a manner similar to Jaden…only his reaction was much more startled and shocked. He gasped, his eyes widening in shock.

"No, there is!" Daichi exclaimed. "Monsters called out through these summoning conditions…Those cards are separated because they're said to decide a duel's outcome by just having the card!"

Jaden nodded and remarked, "See, the smart one knows!"

Daichi ignored Jaden and continued on, "One of them, Chaos Emperor Dragon, was made a forbidden card…in official Duel Monsters tournaments because of its excess strength and fearful effect. And the other one hasn't become a forbidden card, but it had a strength not unlike Chaos Emperor Dragon's."

Kagurazaka smirked as he held out the card in his hand.

"Right," he said. "This card is the deck's real ace! Come forth, Black Luster Solder-Envoy of the Beginning!"

A white vortex appeared on the field, in which both Kuriboh and Watapon were sucked into. Jaden bit her lip as a tall, black and gold armored figure with a big sword and shield in his hands, appeared on the field.

"Black Luster Solder-Envoy of the Beginning!" exclaimed Jaden.

Black Luster Soldier looked up and stared at Jaden, causing the Osiris Red the back up a bit.

"What a guy to call out…" said Jaden.

Despite being rather shocked and slightly scared, deep down…waaay deep down in Jaden's heart…she was actually excited. She admired this card and its strength…this was her first time she'd actually seen this card in person…

"Wow…" sighed Jaden.

"Just try to take an attack from the strongest warrior in the world of Duel Monsters!" said Kagurazaka.

Jaden blinked and narrowed her eyes. He had to kill it…he had to kill it… Her moment of joy was just killed by Kagurazaka, having snapped Jaden back into reality. Great…

"This is gonna hurt…" muttered Jaden.

Black Luster Soldier readied his sword for attack.

ATK 3000

"Go, Black Luster Soldier!" exclaimed Kagurazaka. "Double-Destruction Slash of Creation!"

Black Luster Soldier rapidly jabbed his sword, sending out a wave of what seemed to be many of his sword's blades at Avian, destroying the Elemental Hero.

"Avian!" exclaimed Jaden.

Jaden:

LP

800

"I'm not done yet!" said Kagurazaka. "This card's true power is coming right up! I activate Black Luster Soldier's special effect! When this card destroys an opposing monster in battle, he's allowed to go on and attack once more!"

Jaden's eyes widened as she stared at Black Luster Soldier. "Shit…"

Shou began to shake rather badly from the intimidation that Black Luster Soldier's power created.

"With 3000 ATK, he really has a continuous attack ability?" Shou managed to say without stuttering.

"Space-Time Breakthrough-Double-Destruction Slash of Creation!" exclaimed Kagurazaka.

Black Luster Soldier let out a battle cry and charged directly at Burstinatrix.

"This is bad!" exclaimed Daichi. "If this attack works, Jaden will lose!"

Kagurazaka's grin widened as he yelled, "Begone!"

Jaden inhaled and said, "The Trap card, Hero Spirits!"

Black Luster Soldier continued his attempted assault on Burstinatrix, the red-clad Elemental Hero shrieking in surprise. Suddenly, a bright light flash and Black Luster Soldier's sword was deflected…by Elemental Hero Avian's spirit!

Kagurazaka stared in shock as he said, "What?"

Jaden exhaled and explained, "When an Elemental Hero is destroyed, for this turn…Hero Spirits makes damage from one opposing monster, zero!"

Jaden looked at Kagurazaka and managed to force herself to smile.

"Tch…I'll finish my turn with that," said Kagurazaka.

Jaden's breath hitched as the certain turn of events began to take its toll on the gender-mistaken girl in the form of stress. She wiped the sweat off her face with the palm of her hand as she stared at Kagurazaka and Black Luster Soldier.

"If it wasn't for the unity among Heroes, I would've been done in that turn!" thought Jaden.

Jaden looked at Black Luster Soldier; a silhouette in the form of Yugi Mutou appeared over it. A sudden flash caught Jaden's attention as she looked down to see what it was. It was coming from her duel disk's Graveyard.

"Kuri kuri!" said a voice.

Winged Kuriboh appeared out of Jaden's duel disk, surprising the gender-mistaken girl slightly. Jaden looked down, slightly ashamed.

"Winged Kuriboh…I'm sorry," said Jaden. "It's just that it's the other guy that's one or two cards ahead of me this time!"

Winged Kuriboh narrowed his eyes and immediately began to slap some sense into Jaden.

"Kuri kuri!" snapped Winged Kuriboh. "Kuri kuri!"

Winged Kuriboh then pointed at Jaden's opponent. Jaden rubbed her cheek as she replied,"No matter what you do, I just can't beat Yugi-sa—"

Jaden gasped as she realized something…

"That's it, isn't it?" thought Jaden. "The one I'm really fighting isn't Yugi-san!"

The silhouette of Yugi Mutou overshadowing Kagurazaka disappeared, revealing the Ra Yellow's true form. Jaden scowled and muttered something about some damn hallucinations…

"I really gotta get some sleep…" thought Jaden. (16)

"Kuri!" snapped Winged Kuriboh.

"Okay, geez!" thought Jaden.

The fact that Winged Kuriboh was her partner, also meant that he could read Jaden's thoughts, which sucked sometimes…

"Hold on…if I recall, I got something he doesn't have at all, don't I?" thought Jaden.

"Kuri!" said Winged Kuriboh.

Jaden's lips began to form into a wide grin.

"I get it, Winged Kuriboh!" thought Jaden. "I'll believe in my deck, and fight 'til the end!"

Jaden reached for her deck, drawing a card.

"My turn!" she said, looking at the card she drew afterward. "It's this…"

Jaden smiled as she looked at Kagurazaka.

"With this, I've got my hand ready to take you out!" exclaimed Jaden.

Kagurazaka's breath hitched. "What?"

Jaden grinned as she held out the card in her hand.

"The Magic card, Silent Dead!" she said. "This special-summons one Normal Monster from my Graveyard in defense mode! Be reborn, Avian!"

Avian appeared onto the field right beside Burstinatrix in a defensive position.

"Next, I activate the Magic card, Double Magic!" said Jaden. "In exchange for discarding one Magic card from my hand, I'll use one Magic card in my opponent's Graveyard!"

Jaden grinned as she said, "And the card I'm choosing now is the key card that'll take both you and your legendary warrior out. Can anyone guess which on?"

Daichi blinked and looked at Jaden's field, his eyes slightly widen in surprise.

"He has Avian and Burstinatrix on the field…" said Daichi.

"Correct!" Jaden said, her grin wide. "I discard one card, and use Polymerization from your Graveyard! With it, I fuse Avian and Burstinatrix!"

Polymerization appeared on the field and fused together Avian and Burstinatrix to form…

"Come forth, Elemental Hero Flame Wingman!" said Jaden.

Flame Wingman appeared once more on the field again, only this time…he did it with style. The Elemental Hero was currently standing on top of the highest skyscraper, in a fashion that resembled what most heroes in comics did.

"And because of Skyscraper's effect, his ATK goes up by 1000 points!" said Jaden.

ATK: Previously, 2100

Now…3100!

"Flame Wingman!" exclaimed Jaden. "Skyscraper Shoot!"

Flame Wingman jumped off of the skyscraper and was set ablaze as he charged downwards towards Black Luster Soldier with full speed. He then threw a punch at Black Luster Soldier, destroying the legendary warrior.

Kagurazaka:

LP

1500

Kagurazaka was stunned as he stared at where Black Luster Soldier once was.

"B-Black Luster Soldier, he's…" said Kagurazaka.

"I activate Flame Wingman's special effect!" said Jaden. "The opposing player's hit with damage equal to the ATK of the monster destroyed in battle!"

Flame Wingman turned to Kagurazaka and aimed his right hand at the Ra Yellow. Kagurazaka yelled as he was hit with a fiery blast. Daichi, Shou, and Hayato watched in awe as this marked the end of the duel.

Kagurazaka:

LP

0

Jaden smiled and winked as she did her signature pose.

"Gotcha!" she said. "That was a fun duel!"

"I can't believe I…lost!" lamented Kagurazaka.

Kagurazaka fell despondently onto the ground on his knees. His whole body shook as he watched Dark Magician's card fall onto the ground.

"I couldn't win, even by using this powerful deck?" he said.

Dark Magician Girl's card, then Kuriboh's card also fell onto the ground next to Dark Magician's.

Kagurazaka's irises shrunk as he stared at the fallen cards, realization hitting him rather badly.

"It looks like I…really have no talent!" Kagurazaka said, closing his eyes afterwards.

"No, it's not like that," said another voice.

Kagurazaka looked to the side and gasped when he saw the two most notable Duel Academy students of the Obelisk Blue dorm, Kaiser Ryou Marufuji and Asuka Tenjoin, walk into view.

"The Kaiser!" said Kagurazaka.

"Onii-san!" said Shou.

Jaden looked questioningly at Asuka and Ryou.

"Asuka, why are you here?" she asked the dark-blonde.

Ryou answered for Asuka as he said, "We also wanted to hurry and see the deck before anyone else."

"We went to the display hall, but the case was broken, and the deck had vanished," Asuka continued on for Ryou. "And while we were looking for it, we ended up finding you all."

Ryou nodded and added to what Asuka had said; a faint smile on his lips. "We thought of stopping you, but stopping you would've been somewhat regretful, after all."

Daichi smiled and said, "That's true."

Jaden blinked and smiled nervously as she replied to what she just heard in a somewhat irritated tone. "Hey, c'mon, you should've shown up when I was fighting for my life there!"

"About that…it seems it wasn't just us who were watching," said Ryou.

Ryou and Asuka turned around to look back. Jaden blinked, her expression now one of pure cluelessness. What exactly did they mean by that? That was answered when Jaden turned back and looked up at the cliffside above her. Right above her on the cliffside, was a huge crowd consisting of just about everyone from each of the three dorms.

"It's true!" exclaimed Hayato.

Two of the Ra Yellows rubbed the back of their heads awkwardly while the rest of the Ra Yellows and a group of Osiris Red applauded.

"No, it was an amazing duel!" commented the first Ra Yellow (of the two).

"You showed us some good stuff!" said the second Ra Yellow. "We learned a lot!"

Kagurazaka looked at the crowd, his expression softened. He blinked when he saw Jaden's outstretched hand right in front of him. The Osiris Red was trying to help him up! Kagurazaka turned and refused, but after a bit of Jaden's persistency…he gave in to his help. He grasped onto the Osiris Red's hand…which he found out was very small, compared to his own…it was almost dainty in a way.

"Uh…can you let go of my hand now?" asked Jaden.

Kagurazaka's face turned red as he realized that he had been holding onto Jaden's hand for about almost two minutes. He immediately let go of Jaden's hand and looked away, his face still red from embarrassment.

"To be honest, taking someone else's deck as your own is an unforgivable offense," Ryou said, closing his eyes afterwards. "However, it's a fact that everyone wanted to see the Yugi Mutou's deck in action, showing off its power. I'm sure we can all let this slide."

Asuka nodded in agreement

"I can't believe he was able to master that much of Yugi Mutou's, the King of Duelists', deck!" one of the Ra Yellows exclaimed, his fist tightened up.

"That was amazing, Kagurazaka!" another Ra Yellow exclaimed.

Kagurazaka frowned and looked down.

"But I still lost…" he said. "Why?"

"Baka!" snapped Jaden.

Kagurazaka blinked and yelped when suddenly felt a rather hard knock on his head. He looked down to see that Jaden had just bopped him upside the head. For a rather slim guy with small hands, Jaden could really pack a punch…

"Quit beating yourself up!" said Jaden. "And as for your question…that's easy! It's something that I have and you don't!"

Kagurazaka looked questioningly at the Osiris Red. "Something I don't have?"

A slight blush tinged Jaden's cheeks as she rubbed her nose with her index finger, while saying, "That's the feeling of believing in your deck."

Kagurazaka blinked owlishly as he repeated, "Believing in my deck?"

Jaden nodded as she held up her index finger.

"See, that deck is really strong, but the idea to make that deck wasn't yours, after all," Jaden stated. "That's why you didn't win the duel."

Jaden blinked and placed her hand on her chin.

"Hmm…uh, how…can I put it…" Jaden said, looking up in thought.

"Because you put in the time and effort, you're able to believe in your deck from the bottom of your heart," said Ryou. "And, that feeling gives duelists the spirit that decides their battles at the last minute. If it were the real Yugi Mutou in that duel just now, there's a chance Jaden would've lost from that pressure."

Jaden nodded and smiled as she added, "And like I thought, bringing out that deck's real power is something no one but Yugi-san can do."

Jaden held out her hand to Kagurazaka as she said, "As promised, you'll be giving back the deck, right?"

Kagurazaka nodded as he took the deck out of his duel disk.

"Of course I will," he said.

Jaden smiled. "Good…so…if you're up for testing out any dueling tactics or breaking in a new deck, just to let you know…I'm always in for being your tester, 'kay?"

Kagurazaka blinked and nodded, smiling afterwards as he handed Jaden, Yugi-san's deck.

---

The next day in the exhibition hall,

After a surprisingly early wake-up call from Jaden, who both her roommates would've expected her to wake up late since they got back to their dorm late at night, the Osiris Red trio was currently at Yugi's deck display. The walls were decorated with posters of the shorter-than-average, legendary duelist.

Jaden stared at the deck, which was incased in a new unbroken, glass case. In her hands, was a rolled up scroll, which she had gotten as a gift from Tome. Standing next to her, was Hayato, the two of them both watching the many students of Duel Academy look at the Duel King's deck in awe.

The gender-mistaken girl smiled and crossed her arms, her eyes closed.

"What a relief, what a relief!" she said. "The deck's back in one piece!"

Hayato nodded in agreement.

"Mm-hm," he said. "Yugi Mutou's deck is something that belongs to all duelists."

Jaden nodded, not noticing the perplexed look that came from her roommate. Hayato eyed the scroll in Jaden's hand.

"By the way, what are you holding, Jaden?" asked Hayato.

Jaden smiled widely as she pointed at the scroll.

"Oh?" said Jaden. "You mean this?"

Jaden smiled as she unrolled the scroll, revealing it to be a poster of the Duel King, Yugi Mutou.

"Hehe, this is it!" she said ecstatically.

Hayato let out an exclamation in response to seeing the poster. Jaden rolled it back up and looked at her roommate.

"Nice, isn't it?" she asked. "Let's hang it in our room!"

"Geez…you can't go grabbing things…" said Hayato.

Jaden frowned and looked at Hayato.

"Don't talk about me like that, Koala-man!" said Jaden. "I got it from Tome-san, you know."

Hayato eyed his female roommate suspiciously. "Uh-huh…I've got a bad feeling…"

Jaden laughed, not noticing a familiar blue-haired boy running towards her until…

"Aniki, we've got trouble!" exclaimed Shou.

Jaden blinked and turned to see Shou right next to her, panting as he tried to catch his breath.

"What's up?" she asked.

"There's an imposter posing as you, Aniki!" exclaimed Shou.

A small bead of sweat rolled down the side of Jaden's face as she yelled, "What?"

---

Sometime later,

The Osiris Red trio ran onto a pathway in the near entrance of the forest. After a few moments, they came to a stop when they had spotted a rather familiar figure in the guise of a certain gender-mistaken Osiris Red.

"I've been waiting for you, Jaden," said the imposter.

The imposter turned to face Jaden, revealing him to be…Kagurazaka. Jaden's eye twitched at seeing the Ra Yellow attempt at trying to look like her. He's got everything down…except for the hair and the fact that he's a guy…but still…

"Kagurazaka…what are you up to?" Jaden managed to ask, despite being oddly disturbed with Kagurazaka's garb.

"I figured it out!" Kagurazaka said, smiling at Jaden. "Why couldn't I believe in my deck? That's basically…"

Kagurazaka tightened his fists and looked at Jaden.

"…because I hadn't perfected my imitations!" he finished.

Jaden, Hayato, and Shou face-faulted at Kagurazaka's outburst…this was rather awkward. Jaden face-palmed afterwards in annoyance as a bead of sweat rolled down the side of her face, her eye still twitching.

"You haven't figured anything out!" said Jaden. "Man, this guy…"

Kagurazaka quickly searched his pockets before pulling out a deck.

"I even made a deck that resembles yours!" he said. "With this, I've made my body and heart just like yours!"

"What the hell?" snapped Jaden.

Kagurazaka ignored Jaden's outburst as he pointed at her.

"Now, I'm challenging you to play me one more time!" he exclaimed.

Afterwards, he did something that infuriated Jaden…he posed just like her, only…it was a fail. The facial expression was wrong, the hand gesture…even the quote, which was, "Gotcho!" was wrong…

A blush tinged Jaden's cheeks as the guy embarrassing not only himself, but her, as well. And besides…she didn't like the fact that he was doing it all wrong!
"Aah!" yelled Jaden. "Geez, the pose and everything is way off!"

Kagurazaka looked perplexed at Jaden as he tried to adjust his wig.

"Huh?" he asked. "Where?"

Jaden popped up right besides Kagurazaka and used her hands to fix his right hand's gesture into the correct position.

"Keep your right hand here!" she said before bending down to fix Kagurazaka's left foot. "Keep your left foot here!"

Jaden appeared right by Kagurazaka's side, about ready to show him the correct way to initiate her trademark pose (copyright of Jaden Yuki since the third grade).

"And it's not 'Gotcho'!" she snapped, holding out her right hand in the correct gesture. "Gotcha!"

"Asuka-chan!" exclaimed Kagurazaka.

Shou and Hayato sighed in aggravation as they sweat dropped.

"This is…" said Hayato.

"I don't say that when I win!" snapped Jaden. "I don't! I don't even call Asuka, 'chan'!"

"Weren't they going to duel…?" asked Shou.

Jaden growled and crossed her arms as she shouted, "You may get everything right, but there's one-two things you will never be able to do!"

Kagurazaka looked questioningly at Jaden and asked, "What is it? What do you mean I can't?"

Jaden opened one eye to look at Kagurazaka. She took out her deck and started to search through it before pulling out one card. She showed it to the Ra Yellow.

"Elemental Hero Terra Firma is the only one in existence," said Jaden. "A gift from my friend a long time ago… who just recently woken up from a coma just a few weeks ago."

Kagurazaka stared at the card in awe, scowling when Jaden pulled it back and placed it back into her deck.

"So…what's the other thing?" asked Kagurazaka.

Jaden placed her hands on her hips and stared sternly at Kagurazaka.

"Tch…you'll never get my body right," said Jaden.

Kagurazaka scowled and retorted, "Oh, yeah? Tell me what I'm missing! I got the uniform…the hair…"

Jaden shook her head and turned around.

"You idiot…you haven't figured it out yet?" asked Jaden. "I'm not even a guy at all!"

Kagurazaka stopped and looked at Jaden questioningly.

"Not…a…guy?" he said.

Jaden closed her eyes and nodded. Suddenly, she felt a pair of hands patting her chest a few times, moving down a little each time until it made a small sound that said…

Squish!

"Gyaah!" Jaden shrieked, elbowing whoever it was behind her in reaction as she used her free arm to cover her chest.

Kagurazaka was sent back a few inches as he stared at Jaden, red faced. He just…touched a girl's chest?

"WHAT THE?" exclaimed Kagurazaka. "You're a girl?"

Jaden looked at Kagurazaka, red-faced as well.

"No crap!" snapped Jaden. "Didn't the breasts give it away?"

"Yes, but…they were small…" Kagurazaka muttered as he twiddled his fingers around.

Jaden blinked a few times before letting out a puff of breath. At least he acknowledged the fact that she had a chest. But what she didn't notice, was that her koala-resembling roommate (who looked rather mad), was walking right up to Kagurazaka.

"Oi!" yelled Hayato. "You think I'm just gonna let you slide after seeing what you did?"

Kagurazaka backed away from Hayato, looking nervously at the big boy.

"I'm sorry!" Kagurazaka exclaimed nervously. "I didn't mean it!"

As Hayato was about ready to gang up on the poor Ra Yellow, Shou walked up to his Aniki and looked curiously at her.

"Aniki…I heard a small sound," said Shou.

Jaden looked curiously at Shou before looking down at her chest. Shou then did something without thinking…he placed his hand on his Aniki's chest. But the second he placed his hand on Jaden's chest, he backed away in recoil, his face red from blushing furiously.

"ANIKI!" exclaimed Shou. "Are you even…"

This caught Hayato's attention as he turned away from the scared Ra Yellow to his female roommate. Shou's reaction was rather…embarrassed…more than usual. Hayato blinked when he seemed to recall he heard a small sound when he saw Kagurazaka pat his roommate's chest…one that was aside from patting. His eyes widened as he realized what it might've been.

Hayato walked up to Jaden and looked at her sternly.

"Jaden, are you wearing a—?" he asked.

Jaden's cheeks were tinged slightly with a blush as she looked down, twiddling her fingers.

"I was in a hurry…you guys rushed me and…I couldn't find one that fast…" said Jaden. "And it's not like it matters anyways, seeing as you usually say I don't—"

"I don't give a damn what I said!" Hayato snapped as he grabbed onto Jaden's wrist and began to drag her towards the Osiris Red dorms. "Go back to the dorms and put on a bra!"

Kagurazaka and Shou watched as Hayato dragged his red-faced female roommate all the way back to the Osiris Red dorms. Both boys looked at each other, their faces both red with what they had to go through.

Today was definitely going to be an awkward day…that's about what they assumed it would pretty much turn out to be. But then again, who know? It might change…though, now Jaden will never probably live this one down with Hayato. And neither will he, himself…

---

A/N End of chapter…yeah…hey guys! It's like 3 AM, BTW, MERRY CHRISTMAS! And yesterday marked my second year of me being on fanfiction…yeah! I made a promise to myself a few days ago and to my friends that I would update this chapter yesterday…well, I tried! But by the time I was JUST about done…it was midnight. Yeah, I got sidetracked because I was watching Up with my family and all…

If anyone was OOC...it was for humor and maybe the fact that I was typing this while I was sota half-asleep...yeah, about a quarter or this story was written past 10 PM. anyways...

Yeah, I went through a lot in the past four months, as you might want to know for the reason of this late update. My PSP was stolen in October (my mom STILL doesn't know…), I got SO much homework, and I had finals last week! That's a lot of studying I had to do beforehand…

Anyways, let me tell you this straight out, as you already figured this out, but…I'M NOT DEAD! DX KD is very much alive (and sleepy right now since it is 3 AM…). If you've read my new Pokémon Story, Our Last Pact: A Journey of Commemoration, you'll see the other part of the reason for this late update. If you haven't…go now and see, BTW…tell me what you think if you bother reading the two chapters. It's not much, but hey! That's what happens when you get into Generation V…

That last part…credit goes to my friend, Hestic for suggesting the chest pat. As for Jaden not wearing a bra…this is what happens when I awake past 1 AM…

Anyways, onto the notes! There are a lot of them this time…

(1) By Marik, I meant Yami Marik and BTW…just to let you know, I refer to the real Marik as Malik and Yami Marik as Marik…just to keep the difference simple and…yeah…I is lazy! DX

(2) That was rather rude…almost as rude as throwing a harpoon at someone! XD Yeah, pretty much what I just wanted you guys to know, loved that LittleKuriboh joke…oh, and there's something you might want to know…Little Kuriboh has been suspended from YouTube again! DX I KNOW! Horrible! Next note…T_T

(3) Geez, I have to specify which Ra Yellow since we have the imitator, Kagurazaka, and the smart one, Daichi.

(4) KD had a Captain Obvious moment.

(5) Misawa talks so much sometimes, but for once…typing this whole thing was worth it! One, it made so much sense, and two…it really does explain a lot. Give it up for Super Daichi and his intellectual explanations! :D

(6) Yes, the ACTUAL "if this was late" reference…Pokémon.

(7) It's called blasphemy! This is Yugi-san's deck Jaden is up against…oh, I just noticed something…Red is like the Yugi of Pokémon (Adventures/games). Or would it be the other way around? Which came first, then…?

(8) Jaden (Judai) strikes me as someone who is actually rather smart, just…carefree, somewhat. I mean, the guy sleeps through tests…so maybe this might be the reason why he got sent to Osiris Red. In my story, that is the exact reason as she could've actually gotten a good score had she not been up late at night trying to beat the eight Gym Leader of Kanto, Green (that's Blue's Japanese and official name! DX). That…and yhe fact that she was also building her deck.

(9) In this AU, players have the ability to bring up LP scores whenever they want to (LP score is still brought up after damage calculation and such), like Kagurazaka did to annoy Jaden. That pretty much explains why Jaden just damned Kagurazaka…yeah…

(10) Yes, I've noticed…it's a combo that happens to actually be somewhat coincidental. Someone up there must really love Jaden…XD

(11) Yes, I'm referring to Mori-senpai…god, I really want to see if I can tackle this guy to the ground with a flying glomp…and yes, that long description on how hot Mori is…it's a quote from A Very Potter Musical, the most HILARIOUS thing I've ever seen on YouTube since LittleKuriboh's videos.

(12) That pink heart…that heart…and me playing Pokémon and watching Best Wishes (Season 14 of Pokémon)…yeah! Couldn't resist that reference… *gets hsot*

(13) If I ever use this work…it means emphasis on idiot, stupid…you know what it means. It's either this reason, or I'm makings someone enunciate it slowly.

(14) Whitney is the Goldenrod Gym Leader and she had a Pokémon that knows attract. According to what I've seen in walkthroughs, Whitney makes her Miltank use Attract on a male Pokémon. Reason as to why I barely notice this (aside from the TM I obtained from her) is because my Soul Silver team is made up a pure girls (save for an Umbreon)…for this exact reason. That, and the fact that my encounter rate of male Pokémon is seemingly low since my Togepi was born a girl (weird since I usually get male Pokémon from eggs), my Dratini was a girl (which is why I kept the name Ryou), and my Starter Pokémon…the rare occurrence where I get a female. Yup…my Eevee (now an Umbreon) was probably the only male I had on me when I bullshitted my way through the Pokémon League. You can see why I take long, now, can you?

(15) Pokémon reference I noticed after I saw my Riolu use Force Palm on a Sneasel (Candice's). *gets shot*

(16) An allusion to what Ryou told himself last chapter. XD

And now that that's over…I'll give out the honors later today about the reviews since I'm sleepy, slightly in deep shit if my mom finds out I'm still awake (it's past 3:30 right now as I'm typing this), and yeah!

Anyways, NO FLAMES! Constructive criticism is a godsend…especially since I probably made a whole lotta mistakes near the end of the chapter because I was beginning to get tired…and reviews…not pushing it~!

Anyways, yeah…KD IS BACK!