CHAPTER 3: Yin

"…And another one for you, Flamewing!" Mom placed a piece of fish fillet into Flamewing's plate. Apparently, his marine uniform revealed his love for seafood.

"Thank you." Flamewing bowed a little.

"There's no need to be that formal, Flamewing." Mom laughed. "We're family, aren't we?"

Flamewing nodded and proceeded with his fillet. He's been formal since he stepped into the house and didn't showed any form of vulgarism.

"So Jack," Mom leaned to my brother. "I've heard that you lost to Yang at his first try."

"Mom…" I tried to stop mom from talking about it. Indeed, I also thought that Jack didn't fought me seriously after Flamewing talked about it. Come on, there's no way Jack, the leader of the 104th Buddy Police squad, loses to a total newbie.

"I was caught off guard," Jack said to mom. "The new Sun Dragon attribute is sure strong, you know?" Then, he patted my head softly. "Can I take a look at your deck later? Let's see if we can upgrade it."

"Sure!" I smiled. Even though Jack loses to me intentionally, I'm still happy that he's willingly to help me become stronger.

After dinner, I passed my deck to Jack and he looked through the contents.

"Hmmm." Jack mumbled while he flicked through the cards. "The deck's focused on having the opponent's center open, and there are multiple cards to make it so." Jack passed the deck back to me. "It's fine, maybe try using a tuner to help you."

"A tuner?" I asked.

"Someone that battles with you so you can try to improve your deck." Jack explained. "And that certain someone can't be me, I'm busy, you know?"

I nodded. Jack is way of my league.

"Your brother's right." Mark said to me. "You should find yourself a tuner."

We're at class, waiting for classes to begin. I found a chair and sat beside Mark's seat, while I talked about the tuner thing, Flamewing was sitting on my lap in his SD form.

"But who?" I asked.

"MARKKKKKKKK!"a high-pitched voice echoed the classroom, jumpscaring everyone in the class. Joey jumped to Mark and shook him like a ragdoll.

"I GOT IT, MY BUDDYYYY! I OPENED THE LAST PACK AT HOME AND THERE IT IS. I AM SO HAPPY!"

"O-okeh! Carlarem Dowarenn!" Mark's words are literally swayed away like his body. "Arhh harpp yeh belt ehh dackkk effteh klesssisss okehhh?"

"YAY!"Joey threw her arms around Mark. "Thank you!"

I was dumbstruck by Joey's sudden outburst while Flamewing whispered to me:

"Are they dating?"

"They've knew each other since they're kindergarten," I answered. "But I'm not sure if they're dating or nor."

"Well," Flamewing scoffed. "You're between them?"

"Kinda." I laughed a bit while was shocked by Flamewing's sudden informality. "Well, I'm not bothered by that since I don't really have someone I lik-"

"Excuse me?" a soft voice sounded behind me.

I jumped and turned my head. A girl, with short grey hair while wearing a black hoodie was standing behind me.

"You had my chair." The girl pointed at the chair I'm sitting.

"Oh!" I realised and stood up. "Sorry about that." I also had Flamewing in my arms while I rose.

"Hm, is that your buddy?" the girl asked. "It's cute."

"Thank you." Flamewing thanked the girl for her compliment.

"You are in this class?" I asked.

"Yeah," the girl replied. "I've been here since day 1."

I wanted to raise an eyebrow, but resisted it. I pushed the chair back to the girl's table and walked away, while I kept wondering why I've never acknowledge this girl's

existence but I knew everyone in this class.

"Sensei!" I ran to my homeroom teacher after classes. "How many students are there in this class?"

"Hm?" Mr. Jake, my homeroom teacher was surprised by my question. "55, why?"

"Do you know there's a girl with short grey hair and wears a black hoodie in the class today?" I continued my questions. I thought there were only 54 students in the class, and ironically everyone in the class thinks so.

"Oh, Yin?" Mr. Jake said without breaking a sweat. "Why?"

I was dumbstruck. There was a girl named Yin in my class the whole time and I never knew about it, and if I'm correct even the whole class too.

"…Nothing." I said. "Sorry to take your time, sensei." And then, I ran back to class to see whether my calculations are correct.

"Joey, Mark!" I walked to them while they're building Joey's deck. "How many students are there in this class already?"

"Eh, why are you asking this?" Joey raised an eyebrow. The sudden dumb question must have left her with questions.

"Just say it!" I grew impatient. "I'm not gonna kill you or something!'

"Okay, chill!" Joey said. "54, why are you asking this?"

A drop of cold sweat dropped from my forehead, while I sank into my seat. Flamewing seems to know what I'm thinking.

"There was a student in class, and no one knew about her expect for the teachers." I said with my voice shook with confusion. "What is this?"

"Hey," Flamewing tore down the class name list from the billboard. "Take a look."

Our name list is listed by alphabets, and since my name is Yang Shirosuke, my name must be at the bottom. But then like magic, an extra name appeared under my name:

Yin Kurosaki.

Even the name list, that was hung there and never took down, had a name that was never known by me. How is this happening…?

There was a student whom is literally non-existent, lurking in the classroom the whole time and was never knew by the students.

But then, I realised her existence, and that was because of a chair.

Pathetic.