This fic will go into depth with both Ryou's and Edo's family, so expect a lot of family interactions and flashbacks, I hope you enjoy it. This chapter will be more focused on Ryou, but we will have Asuka's and Edo's chapters soon too.

Thanks so much for all the reviews! The adults here are having their own schemes and the kids are swept up in the middle of the war, we're in for a lot of insight into Daitokuji too.

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Chapter II

Welcome to the duel academy

Edo walks on the corridors of the duel academy, ignoring the squeals and comments of the girls as he passes by, just another day. His mind is adrift, recollecting the night he talked to Saiou.

So far from what he gathered, the school seems normal, too normal even. They have classes with a by-the-book curriculum including the physical education, plus the classes about dueling and the practical duels. Sincerely from what he watched, many of those obelisk students were not nearly at a decent level even with low standards, despite the pamphlet with the school introduction explaining the dorm system and treating obelisk as some elite.

"Hm… I don't think the students are aware of anything, but maybe teachers know… Still, I should continue the recognition of the space in the island and check everything properly, Saiou's predictions can't be wrong, those cards must be hidden here somewhere. And that man… He will come for it…"

His hands move automatically opening his locker, a flinch when he hears the neighbor on the right side also opening the locker, none other than the boy known as Kaiser. The title sounded ludicrous to him, but his file registered an undefeated position at the top of the students for never losing a single duel. He'd like to test that, but his priorities urged patience at the moment.

He sighs looking at both sides of some sort of love letter, tucking it in his pocket, he could swear he heard some blissful fangirl screaming for accepting the letter, unfortunately there were about other hundreds of letters, he just piled them over his books, no pocket in the world would have space for that.

Ryou is in a similar situation, with the difference he ignored the letters put into his locker and coldly took out his books, nonetheless he still gets the same amount of attention from fangirls as Edo with some girls swooning and squeaking when he just disregards their letters.

Another person comes close, a pink-haired girl, she has troubles opening her locker that happens to be just on the other side of the Kaiser's, Edo glances briefly, but he soon resumes taking out his own things.

"Has this girl always been here? I don't remember seeing her up 'til now or even in the student files I checked… Strange..."

What catches his attention next is not the color of her hair, but the comments he hears on the sides, gossiping from the girls that made sure to talk loud enough so she hears it too.

"Can you believe it?! She was transferred just yesterday and she already got a locker near the Kaiser and even near the new boy! We all know it's a sacred rule that no girl gets a locker there!"

"I don't know why the school would do this, but she will soon understand why that locker was not in use up until now… No one breaks the rules of the fan club around here."

"A transfer student, huh? That explains why she wasn't in the list before… For a moment I thought I overlooked it…" Edo takes a small breath of relief, keeping those thoughts to himself.

Rie gives another forceful pull at the door of her locker that seems very stuck, bent even, its creaking is uncomfortable to the ears, at this point Edo and Ryou are bothered enough they might just open it for her, however, she manages to do it alone, a rusty metallic sound as the door violently slams the nearby locker, she tumbles a step behind, almost losing her balance.

It's not long until a sea of letters covers her feet, all from her locker, she gasps in surprise, hurriedly kneeling down and collecting them, using an arm near her body to support the pile of papers. There are some notes mixed in the bunch, her blue eyes widening with curiosity as she slowly raises one of them to read it.

The teal-haired boy quietly closes his own locker and also kneels down, their first interaction was a bit clumsy on his part for not knowing her condition, not that he had to, it just felt natural as a good student to help. Perhaps… He shouldn't have.

He hears another soundly gasp coming from her. Her hands trembling subtly, why the fuss? A first glance was all it took for him to conclude she's pretty enough to be popular at their school, the letters shouldn't be a surprise, maybe she isn't used to this type of attention?

While he picks a note from the ground, to help her efforts in gathering the tons of papers spread out, he inadvertently reads the content in his mind, his stoic expression changing slightly to a frown.

"You think you're so special, bitch? You should die! You better change your locker and stay away from Kaiser or we will make you pay for it!"

He stands up in reflex as a reaction, his brows creasing his forehead, his fingers unwittingly crumpling the paper. Is it possible those are all… Hate letters? But she just arrived yesterday, why would they…? This surely can't be just because of him… Can it?

"You might need to talk to the director about this… Someone broke your locker and those letters are…" His voice is calm, his suggestions are not welcomed.

She snatches the note away from his hand in a second, staring at him, gawking in a half panicked expression, maybe at a loss of what to say, mashing the paper in an uncanny shaped ball and turning around rushing to the nearest trashcan, throwing all the letters there, he just gapes at the sight, following her with eyes as she slaps the door of the locker closed shut and disappears nervously from the scene.

"Looks like you have quite the fans."

Edo comments indifferently, Ryou's eyes sharpen as he casts a glance at the other duelist, a berating gleam in his eyes for the unnecessary affirmation, a short tension swelling in the air as he simply walks off.

"Very chatty, aren't you?" He mumbles in a complaint, shaking off his head before going his own way too.

Not long after

Ryou's fists clench subtly as he scans around, she sure disappears quickly, given the situation he'd understand if she wouldn't want to even meet him by chance on the school corridors.

He resumes his schedule, despite being only a student, he was tutoring a few others who asked for his help and as recommended by the academy. His free time was filled with duels when he wasn't spending moments in the library studying or having classes. Albeit unknown to other students, he was also sneaking out of the dorm at night to search for clues about Fubuki's case.

People started comparing him to his cyber machines, making jokes he'd become one of them because he never looked weary or annoyed, his emotions hidden under the surface of an inexpressive semblance, always in check.

Shoving off those thoughts, he heads to the library, the many shelves lined up were overfilled with books that covered subjects like mathematics, history and history of dueling to encyclopedias of cards with all its effects and useful information, even maps of all sorts.

His feet halt after catching a glimpse of a familiar face. The transfer student, she seems to be engaged in taking a book from one of the upper levels, at the top step of the small library ladder leaning against the shelve, unfortunately the ladder seems to be a step too short, her muscles stretch as much as possible, he can almost hear the straining. The tip of her fingers brushing on the side of the book, but she's unable to grab it.

On the same corridor, a pair of a girl and boy obelisk students walk by, they cackle, smiling with something funny in mind, when they are close enough, the boy feints he is staggering and pushes the wheeled ladder, the other people that were close by watch the scene, thrilled with it, time seemed to slow down.

Ryou was close enough, he reacts without much thinking by getting a hold on the ladder and making sure it's stable again. Rie swings back and forth, losing her balance, it all happens in an instant, her hand tries to grasp the book a last time, an attempt to hold herself, it works, but the book falls instead and she ends up throwing her weight to the front, to the ladder supporting the hands on the edges of it and avoiding falling backwards.

It isn't until she hears shocked exclamation sounds and a strange thud that she turns her eyes down, the book just fell straight over Ryou's head, flopping to the side and falling to the ground with a firm thump, his head was forced a bit down, his bangs covering his eyes, his grip on the ladder strengthens, she could swear a vein snapped there.

She quickly steps down, looking around, this would be a perfect moment to laugh at him if anyone wanted, but both the perpetrators of the incident and the other people watching were too stunned and silent.

Are they so afraid of him? She soon got an answer to that, her body jolting back when he finally raised his head high again to look at her, an aloof expression, does he even feel pain? She had the impression his mouth was more curved down than normal.

"I'm sorry! Are you fine?!"

He blinks at the message on the screen of student PDA, she puts it right in front of his face out of apprehension. Dismissing the worries, he takes the book from the ground and answering nonchalantly:

"It's just a book, it won't kill me."

His eyes inadvertently drift to the title of the book for a moment, his lips opening on their own, speechless at the title.

"Advanced Alchemy…?"

She relieves his hand from the object, pulling it swiftly and hugging it close to her body, a restless clicking on her device as she types another message with unease:

"It's for my uncle, he needs it for some class preparations! I'm sorry for the trouble."

"Just take more care next time."

He says that to her, but his eyes narrow and flash to the side, to the spectators that had been observing the scene, in particular to the boy who pushed the ladder for the prank, from the reaction that it spurs, it seems he got the warning, the two pranksters become pale and hurriedly leave the corridor under his menacing glare, Rie just watches with a raised brow, then bows apologetically and leaves.

A shrilling glance from Ryou is enough for everyone to fidget and jump on their seats, going back to their own activities as if that was none of their business anymore.

For the next few days, he watches the tale repeat, the newcomer student opens her locker, a bunch of hate letters drop at her feet. Unsurprised, she takes them all and calmly disposes of them. Later on, they also put a leg on her way to see her fall on the corridors, she gracefully avoids all of it, among other things like stumbling on her on purpose or putting insects on her seat, which she doesn't seem to fear. The bullies are the ones having a hard time, failing miserably at their only objective.

The Kaiser just watches from the sides, he could hear the internal screaming of the girls and see their eyes becoming bloodshed when they find out their intimidation method has not worked by the end of the week, they tried many things, he has to give them that, but they're bound to find out this is not working and drop the whole idea of bullying, right?

A disgruntled sigh escapes his lips. Why does it look like the situation bothers him more than it does to her? He shakes off his head, it's not his fault, nor his problem.

Next morning,

The faint beams of light invade the room from in between the dark-blue draped curtains, and there's the sound of tap water running fast. Ryou supports his hands on the sink at the bathroom, his eyes dwelling on his own image on the mirror in front as the water flowing incites an old memory, his expression closing off more, if that was possible.

A young Ryou holds the hand of his mother. He can hear clearly her voice as she tosses protests over the situation to the receptionist of the lawyer's office:

"Can you believe that? His father is sick and I can't leave him at the daycare because 'he is too old', those people have to be kidding me! He's seven! In which world is that too old?! Well, at least Shou could stay there, I don't know how I'd do it if I had to bring them both…"

"Ah, at least everyone here in the office finally met one of your sons. He is quite the handsome boy, isn't he?"

The black woman bends over the table, a kind smile strapping on her face as she compliments him, the kid simply squeezes the hand of the mother, going a bit behind her.

"Aw, he's so shy, he looks like a copy paste of you, Kyouko." She chuckles, adjusting on her seat. "My Noah just passed the exams to be a lawyer, I told him he can come work with me, but he said it'd be odd."

"Congratulate him on my behalf, you always mentioned how much he'd been working for that. Ryou is too young to be deciding careers, but he got into watching duel monsters a lot lately, his father keeps showing him cards and he's all crazy about it now."

"My son had a phase like that too. They grow so fast, Kyouko, you'll not even see it happening! Noah was your son's age and in a snap of fingers he's finishing law school, I can't believe it. Enjoy while they're small, it's no fun when they become teens."

"I will and I'm sure Ryou won't be one of those annoying and edgy teenagers, right?" She ruffles his hair, messing it up a bit, he sinks his face behind her even more, his cheeks bright red. "Let's go, Ryou, I need to talk to my boss."

His mother tugs his hand softly, he looks up to her as she guides the way through the corridors, he could hear the comments and see the blushed cheeks of the coworkers as she walked by, her hair style and color looked almost the same as his, a tad less unkempt and slimmer, her eyes were a deep green, eyelashes marked on the corners despite the makeup. Her figure was clad in a black skirt and a sleeveless white shirt, her other arm hanging a black blazer common for lawyers as he noted while seeing most people there had similar attires.

"Wait here a bit." She combs a strand of hair back, the pearly earrings shining on her ears. "I'll be back in a minute, be a good boy and behave, will you?"

After saying those few words, she plants a peck on his chubby cheek, letting go of his hand, her pinkish lipstick leaving a stamp on his face, he makes sure to immediately rub it off, a bit grossed by it.

Her hand knocks at the door of the room that belongs to the leader of the lawyer's group, receiving permission to enter, it isn't long until he hears the click of the door closing and an annoying silence.

The office smelled like coffee and fresh paper, also a bit like printer paint, his brows furrowed up, he felt this insecurity in being all alone there with so many adults, a small pout forming on his lips. What's taking his mother so long anyways?

He heard some tattling, people talking to each other on the ear while hiding their mouths, casting glances at him at times.

"She's so pretty. He looks like her."

"Hah, he will be a prince charming when he grows up, won't he? Just like Kyouko-san."

"It seems her husband is sick, that's why she brought him here today. He's cute too."

"Really? I wonder which person got to marry her, he must be a model or something."

"She won't tell anyone, Kyouko-san was always very reserved about personal life, when I heard she had kids already, I thought it was a baby, but a kid this big?"

"She sure started young, haha."

He didn't understand why, but the comments made him feel uncomfortable, not having the patience to stand the strange mood installed in the room, he opens the door in front of him silently, peeking through the small gap.

There was a desk, both his mother and a bulky looking man that had brown hair combed back neatly stood in front of the desk, he overheard their talk for a moment.

"You did an amazing job in Harold's case. Words say their prosecutor was forging evidence and you dug that out in court."

"I was just doing my job." She assures aloofly.

"I'm impressed Kyouko, you started early as a lawyer here but nowadays everyone in the office knows your name, you are not only adored by them, but also a very talented woman, an example for us."

His hand lands on her bare shoulder, sliding softly on it and stopping there, her eyes flinch at his gesture as he continues in a soothing, convincing voice:

"Why don't we talk about your next case after-"

"Mom."

The childish voice startles them both, the man recoils his hand almost in reflex, an unconscious way to show he knew he was wrong. His mother hurriedly approaches, sitting on her own legs to be around his height.

"Ryou! I told you to wait outside." She quickly turns her eyes to her boss. "I'm sorry, this is my eldest son."

"Ah, no, that's not a problem, he came to pick you up. You can go now, we can talk another day." He chuckles to lighten the mood and casts a glance at the boy. "He looks so much like you, haha."

There's something on his smile, the boy can't quite pinpoint it, but it looked fake, his eyes were not smiling, instead he could feel certain contempt as he was looked at.

"Thank you." She bows slightly while standing up and grabbing the hand of her son. "Let's go home, Ryou."

They leave the office of the boss, he looks at his mom walking elegantly on the corridors, her high heels clacking uninterrupted, the people around them stopped what they were doing to look at her.

"I think you're very pretty too, mom."

She blinks once, reducing the pace of her steps, surprised by the sudden statement, a short curve on her lips and a faint blush, her somewhat harsh eyes wavering fondly while looking at him.

"Thank you. But why are you saying this so suddenly?"

"Because everyone says you're pretty. Is this why they look at you when you walk by? I think they like you. Is this why you spend so much time here and not with us? I will tell it to you more times if you come home earlier."

His honesty strikes her unintendedly. Her lips unglue a dire, shocked expression as she stares blankly at her son, she pulls his hand a bit more than necessary walking faster again.

"No, no, darling, I have to work, you should know that, I'm not spending time here because I like people here more than you or your father, it's my job. And what other people think is not important to me. The most important thing is that you and your father think I'm pretty. That's all."

Her voice sounded collected, but a tad saddened. He couldn't comprehend what was wrong, maybe she was just shy? This is what his kid self told to himself at that time.

The sound of the water gushing out of the tap awakens him from the fleeting slumber, an inward mumble of discontentment occurs and a visible wrinkle takes shape between his brows.

"What's so special about my appearance?"

Without delay, he splashes water on his face, part of it also spreading over the black shirt that seemed to be a piece of his makeshift pajama set, he stares at his face into the mirror for a long minute, the drips of water running down before he resumes his waking up routine, after drying his face with a towel and brushing his teeth, he dresses his uniform.

It's too early to start classes, but he always has a walk around the coast to watch the rising sun, then it is time for breakfast at the dorm by the time he's back. He'd been asked a million times by other students who either admired or wanted to learn his secrets in dueling how he can keep up with a timely routine, but there was not much he could tell them besides having diligence.

As if it wasn't enough he was being compared to his mechanical Cyber Dragons, he'd been hearing some strange comments of other boys with silly theories he'd been manufactured to look like a perfect human, but in truth he's some experiment or robot.

Fubuki would be making even more fun of him now if he heard that, but there was a big difference between those people and Fubuki. He'd known Ryou more closely, albeit the stupid jokes could go far than the Kaiser would like, his friend always had this ease in treating even the most serious subjects in the most chaotic and unusual ways possible and still lighten the mood. Perhaps had they not been so different, they wouldn't be such good friends.

After having a session of tutoring some younger students, half of which were sleeping by the middle of it, he proceeds to the classes, this time Rie doesn't seem to have problems opening her locker, it was fixed. Did they give up?

It was too early to conclude that. As soon as she opens it, he could see a paper glued to the door, a badly drawn version of her with horns and a longue tongue like a demon. How old were those girls, five? She just sighs heavily and rips it off without any ceremony, but is astounded while looking at the inner part of the locker, her eyes squinting to ascertain if there was something really there. Then, she rips off other papers from the far depths of her locker wall, that to his surprise seem to be posters of him and Edo Phoenix with a message written on the back:

"Take this and get away from this locker, you can have as many photos as you want, we will gift it to you. Stay away from the Kaiser, fox!"

Where do they produce those things? And why were they filling Rie's locker with this kind of stuff? She tears all those paper to shreds, no remorse and throws it all equally in the trash bin. A drop of sweat rolls down his face, he has the impression she'd do the same to anyone that gets on her bad side or even the girls who had been trying to pull all sorts of tricks on her if she had the opportunity.

"I've seen fans ripping posters and pictures to take it from each other's hands, but that was very frivolous, and right in front of us, she has some courage, but she could have at least sold it."

The silver-haired teen comments and shrugs off his shoulders, Ryou just closes his locker in a soundly manner and cuts off the small talk, his voice is icy, but tranquil:

"If I were being pestered for a reason this stupid, I'd also want to rip off anything with my face printed on it."

"Feeling guilty? Just let them fight and live happily, you're not going to understand how their minds work, this is advice as someone who has fans all over the world, senpai." The last word had an acidic irony, an open provocation that the other merely disdains.

He scoffs and walks away, Edo raises a brown, and they call him the best around here? With this amount of confidence and composure, he'd like to see this guy dueling once and confirm whether he's all talk or not.

For the last part of his daily routine, Ryou finds himself at the lighthouse harbor, he'd come here with Fubuki and talk or duel even, now the only reason he kept coming is solely to exchange information with Asuka. He pretends to watch the sunset, but in truth his mind is too far apart to pay attention or even enjoy it most of the time.

"Ou… Ryou."

A voice brings him out of his daydreaming. He's dazed for a minute looking at the blonde girl staring at him worriedly.

"Is there anything wrong? You seem out of yourself today…" Looking directly into his eyes, her brows coil up worriedly,

"Sorry, I was lost in thought." He displays a faint smile, more to relieve her from the distress, a pinch of guilt in his expression, it vanishes into nothingness when he sets his gaze in the horizon again. "Something bothered me today."

"Oh, that is new. The Kaiser letting something get to him?" She teased to uplift the mood of the conversation.

"Did you know that the locker on my right side used to belong to Fubuki?"

Her friendly smile diminished at the mention, her lips shutting in a line, she decided it's best to look forward to the horizon too for this talk, or rather, she couldn't look at his face right now, her orbs became hazy.

"No… I had no idea." The hesitance in her voice speaks more than the few words she exclaimed.

"The one on the left used to belong to someone called Fujiwara, but both of them-" He gave a pause, ceasing his breathe for a second before continuing. "That pro duelist, Edo Phoenix, he got Fujiwara's locker and the transferred girl got the other one…"

"He would be thrilled to know a girl is having his locker now." She chuckles faintly.

"I'm not so sure about that…" He folds his arms, his eyes sharpening discreetly. "Do you know the reason that locker was unused for so long? Every time they attempted to have someone take it, the locker would be vandalized and a couple weeks in, people would just give up on it. I thought Fubuki's fans were doing it at first and the school stopped letting anyone use it at some point or so I heard. Some girls demanded that it remains empty, some sort of agreement in their fan club or whatever they call their sect, not even boys were free from it. This past week, whenever that new girl tried to open her locker, it was broken, stuffed with a bunch of letters and notes."

"It seems people don't lose any time to make someone popular."

"No, they don't. But Asuka, those were hate letters. I thought there must be a reason, but apparently, I am the reason. I saw the content of one note by chance and it had some twisted writing, very nonsensical too. True enough my fame is the fruit of my labor, but that people would go as far as to do this, that I cannot condone or feel happy about."

"I understand… You know they started calling me the obelisk queen recently and the way those boys look, sometimes I wish I'd just find a hole to hide. It's probably the same for you, but it's not our fault… And I wouldn't know what to do in this situation either…"

"I feel bad for it." His brows angle up guiltily.

"If you feel this bad, then just say it. If it's disquieting you so much, the best is to just tell her and explain it, right? Though, I don't think you are the one needing to apologize for anything, but your fans for doing something this awful to a girl. Hate letters? Are they in middle school or what?"

"I'm not sure if I should dare to say anything…" His mind reminds him of when she just tore the posters to shreds.

"I didn't know you and my brother had your lockers close too… Didn't you say he was staying in the room right next to yours in the dorm too…? When… When the abandoned dorms were still in use…"

"Yes, but they changed the building and everything, erasing all sorts of traits… It doesn't feel real sometimes, we used to be there and now, it's just standing still like a relic and a source for horror stories they spread in school, gathering dust… I wonder if I'm crazy for remembering how it used to be so clearly…"

There's a minute of silence, the crickets sing in the woods, night is long set. They exchange a glance before nodding to each other.

"It's about time… why don't we go now?"

Without further adding words, they set to their nightly investigation, unaware of other students that also had their own plans.

Somewhere on the island

The wide beam of light moves around, illuminating the leaves and some sort of building. Edo's brows converge on his forehead, it's a fairly recent construction and it seems well taken care of, not a land of no one like the ruins he previously visited.

He hears an automatic door opening, it roars through the emptiness of the night, his fingers flip the switch, turning off the flashlight in a heartbeat. He hides behind a tree, sweat rolling down his chin.

"The cameras showed some light! Was there someone around?"

"No way! And even if there was, probably just one of those stupid kids breaking curfew again!"

"Ah, right, there was that boy who was making courage trials or something with his friends… Tsk, those kids have nothing better to do in life… Their brains are all about duels."

The guards come out and check with their own lanterns, but the darkness veils the nosy student. His eyes looking at both sides, if they came to where he is he'd need to knock them out just like in the self-defense classes. They soon give up on the chase, their voices disappearing into the building.

"What is this place? They don't seem like school guards, much less teachers… This building is watched by security cameras… SAL…" His eyes squint at the name painted on the wall. "What does this mean…?"

At the same time,

Daitokuji observes as most of the students leave the kitchen area of the dorm, only Shou and Judai remain there, before he has the time to send them off to bed, they hear the door sliding open. All three of them look at the person coming in.

"Rie-chan?"

The professor adjusts his glasses, Pharaoh rushes to the entrance and walks between her legs, welcoming her with meows, a wry smile appears on her face, the other two students are confused.

"What is an obelisk blue student doing here?"

"Who knows." Judai throws his arms behind his head.

"Judai, Shou, this is my niece, Rie."

She bows with a gentle smile, Shou blushes as she walks past them and offers a book to their professor, her pink hair fluttering slightly with every step. She takes out her PDA from her skirt's pocket and types something for him that stares at her confusedly.

"Uncle, this is the other book you asked me to fetch today. I should've come earlier, but I was stuck with homework."

"Thank you, Rie-chan. Why don't you have a seat?"

"A seat?" Shou looks around, the place looks like a mess and certainly not the type of accommodation he'd imagine would please an obelisk girl.

"Haha, I didn't know you had a niece, professor!" Unlike the friend, Judai comfortably sits the other way around on a chair, supporting his arms on the back of it and smiling cheerfully.

Rie pulls a chair and sits down too, Shou is the last one, still a bit lost and in part, baffled while admiring internally the beauty of the unexpected student and positively surprised she wouldn't mind coming all the way to the osiris dorm.

"You're Judai-kun, the student who beat professor Chronos, right?"

The brown-haired boy blinks twice upon reading the message, then he scratches his face while laughing at the remark.

"You heard about that? It was just in the opening exam, though. I thought it was a requirement."

"Everyone was commenting about it even when I arrived."

"When you arrived…?" Shou finally initiated a talk, his eyes opening in curiosity.

"I transferred here about a week ago."

"That's right, we had some problems with documents and she couldn't come before." Daitokuji raises a finger, Pharaoh jumps on his lap. "But it's all settled now."

"That's cool, I didn't know you could transfer like this."

"Congratulations to you both for enrolling in the duel academy. I hope you enjoy your school life here."

"Thanks! But you can also say it out loud, don't be shy!" Judai guffaws, but he stops after seeing the eyes of everyone else on him, clearing his throat, a twitchy smile.

"Judai-kun, it's not that she doesn't want to, but Rie-chan suffered an accident and can't speak, so be nice, will you?"

"Eh?! I-is that so? I'm sorry! I didn't know."

He stands up on a whim and bows ninety degrees, she gestures it's not a problem with a polite smile.

"You're a third year student too, so you'll be graduating at the end of this year, right? I hope you enjoy your last year here."

The question Shou tosses in the air is more rhetorical, his brows coiling up saddened, his orbs wandering on the table. He said the word "too" which didn't go unnoticed by her ears, but he's not a third year student. Is he having someone else in mind?

"Now, now, why don't we all tell each other horror stories before sleeping?"

"H-horror stories?" The green-haired felt a shiver just at the suggestion. "I-I don't know any."

"Hm, that's interesting, I might know a couple!" Judai sits back and grins animated.

"Uncle!" Rie scolds with a message and a disapproving head shake.

"Haha, it's just something to spend the time on." He pets Pharaoh on his lap and starts: "There are some rumors I heard about something that happened on this island…"

"On the island?!" Shou shrieks, his shoulders shrinking in fear.

"Don't worry, it's probably just a nonsense tale he came up with, he loves to do that." Rie taps his shoulder with an assuring touch.

"Some time ago, this island used to have another dorm for the obelisk male students…"

A smile spreads on his face, a half-shadow appearing due to the light above them, the teens are all silent. Rie's lips open discreetly hearing the story, her eyes flicker while looking at the teacher, her eyebrows arching upwards, a sense of dread stirs inside her. Is he really…?

"Another dorm? Seriously? I never heard about it." Judai is the most excited one.

"Well, it's just a legend, but… They say those dorms used to exist here. It was all normal, but some of the students could swear they heard voices around and… That they saw duel monsters during the night."

"D-duel monsters? This is impossible!" Shou screams in an almost too high pitched tone, denying it with his head. "I-I mean, some people do talk about duel monster spirits… But…"

The tale sounded ridiculous, but Judai was hooked by it from the start, his eyes concentrating on the professor, as if he was expecting to hear something more.

"Indeed, some of them thought they were seeing duel monster spirits, but that didn't stop at that, more and more strange occurrences happened: things moving on their own, belongings of certain students went missing; strange noises during the night like a cry of lost souls, and in the end… One thunderous and rainy night… All of the students vanished without a trace."

Pharaoh jumps out of his lap, its fur bristles completely, making hissing sounds at him as he tells it, then running to under the table and curling itself into a ball there.

"Ieek! What happened to them?" Shou nibbles his fingers anxiously.

"That's the terrifying part, no one knows what happened to them and to this day, people still hold theories whether the duel monster spirits took them or not…" His narrating voice ends somberly.

"D-don't tell those before we sleep! I don't want to disappear!" Shou whines

"That's interesting."

"Aniki, you can't be real. This is not a game, it's scary!"

A chair is dragged making a noise that startles them all, it's the pink-haired girl, she stands, her eyes wavering as she looks at the teacher, her brows angling in concern. Daitokuji chuckles.

"Hah, that's just a story, Rie-chan, you don't need to be afraid."

He knows that's not the reason, but his chill tone makes it sound like that's the problem, she remains silent, not typing a single word to reply.

"Well, it's pretty late, for you all, and for you too, so I think I will walk you back to your dorm, little lady. Try to come earlier next time, will you?"

His words carried no harshness, but she knew she was being called out, nodding in a reserved and rather uncertain move. He stops by the threshold of the door, casting a look back at the boys.

"You two should also go to your room, don't forget to turn off the kitchen lights, right?"

As soon as the two older ones leave, Judai walks out while Shou closes the door behind. His brown eyes cast into the starry sky, a mischievous and enthusiastic grin, the friend has a bad feeling about his expression.

"Hey, Shou, what do you think about the story? Do you believe the dorm exists?"

"I-I don't want to know that!" he shakes his head strongly, dismissing it without hesitation.

"Come on, Shou, they said duel monster spirits could be there… I'm curious to check that out!"

Meanwhile, the ambience sounds of the forest get disrupted by the noise of the crackling leaves under their feet as they walk. Daitokuji stops when he notices her steps make no sound anymore. Whirling back, he finds Rie standing still, a sour curve on her lips and an indication that something frightens her.

"Rie-chan, why are you so worried? Was it the story? Did you dislike it this much?" He trails a few steps back, standing in front of her.

"Why did you tell them about the abandoned dorm? That place is…" She gulps, more afraid of his reaction than anything else.

"Off-limits? For students, yes… But it would be a waste of an opportunity… Judai-kun has enormous potential and I believe he can see spirits… Wouldn't that be a great place to test it? If you're worried about their safety, they will be fine, unless… They can't duel..."

"What if… They disappear? If they are… Taken in by the darkness…"

"It's a test. I told you before, we need to know the scope of the most promising students like Judai-kun… I guarantee nothing bad will happen if he's as skilled as he demonstrated in the entrance exams." His voice is cold, but resolute "Rie-chan, you should do your part too. Don't let your emotions hinder your judgement, we have a job to do and a goal to accomplish."

Her eyes avert from his and she nods resignedly, a pinch of frailty in her heart for even agreeing to come here in the first place. She knew it was wrong, she knew it, but… Now that it's done, there's no way she can stop it, can she?

Casting a last glance behind, to the Osiris red dorm, she tightens her lips, turning her sight away. Those kids have no idea what they're getting themselves into.