Disclaimer: We don't own Yu-Gi-Oh GX.


Judai's POV

I ran over to the maze Yubel had mentioned to find her waiting. She looked impatient, but what else was new?

"You're late. I said five minutes, not seven," she said.

I rolled my eyes and answered, "Oh, I'm two minutes late. Sue me."

She smirked then and asked, "So? Where are the flowers I gave you?"

"None of your business."

Yubel laughed some. Then, grinning, she asked, "Did you give them to your little friend there?"

She was teasing me, wasn't she? "Aren't we supposed to be having a class?"

"Right," she said, switching over to our business here. She gestured to the maze, instructing, "Get in there! You've got five minutes."

The lessons I had with Yubel were some of my weirder ones. I'd never understood their purpose until recently—namely, I'd figured out why I had these ones after the battle with the Light of Destruction. The way it worked was I needed to find my way out of the maze without getting caught by guards who patrolled inside during these lessons or by Yubel herself. Along the way, she'd offer me advice from time to time, which was her way of instructing me in these lessons.

"Right," I said, and I headed into the maze.


After that lesson, Sho came to my room to hang out. The two of us sat on my bed as Sho asked, "So, Aniki? How'd it go?"

Well, I'd almost been caught by Yubel three times, and she wasn't too thrilled about it. I guess my head wasn't really in the game that night. No surprise, all things considered.

"Eh, who cares? I don't even know the point of that lesson," I said, even though I actually did. I was just making up excuses for why it was okay for me to fail, I guess.

"But, Aniki! Isn't it so you can get away from bad guys, like the four Monarchs and their followers, at night? I don't know about you, but that seems like a really important lesson to me," Sho said.

Great, so he'd figured out what that was about, too.

I flopped on my bed and just said, "Yeah, whatever."

Sho looked at me with concern. "Aniki? Is something wrong? You don't seem like your usual self tonight."

"I just...have a lot on my mind," I said, thinking about our visitor and the bouquet of roses Yubel had gotten me to give her.

Sho grinned and asked, "Is it about Asuka-san, Aniki?"

I blushed. Wow, could he read me or what? "Yeah..."

"So? Out with it. How'd you talk with Asuka-san go? 'Cause, from the looks of your face, it must have been good," he said, still grinning.

"We talked about how you should never accept help from Yubel, who showed up, gave me some roses, and told me I had class in five minutes. I gave the roses to Asuka, and that was that."

"Y-you gave them to Asuka-san!? Aniki, that's—" He cut himself off, snickering.

Uh-huh, yeah, Yubel had given me a bouquet, knowing full well that was the most likely thing I'd do with it, and I'd fallen for it. Hey, it wasn't as bad as some of what she'd done over the years.

"Yeah, I know."

Sho snickered some more and asked, "So, Aniki, you think she liked them?"

"I don't know," I answered.

Sho just kept laughing.

"Bii bii!" came a familiar voice.

"Huh?" I asked, sitting up. I looked around for the source of that noise.

Sho stopped snickering pretty quickly and asked, "Wha? Aniki, what is it?"

Well, what it was didn't belong in my doorway, that's for sure. Ruby Carbuncle, Johan's duel spirit partner, stood there, looking right at me. In its own language, which I mysteriously understood, it said, "Judai! Come to town immediately! Johan wants to talk to you!"

"Huh? Uh, I'll try."

What did Johan want? And why was he still in Neospace? Shouldn't he have gone home? Did something happen?

"Try what? What's going on, Aniki?" Sho asked, confused.

Ruby nodded and ran off, probably to let Johan know I was on my way.

"I need to talk to Johan," I answered Sho, getting up and heading for the door. "If anyone asks, you don't know where I am."

"Aniki, wait!" Sho said, but I didn't. I just walked out, shutting the door behind me.

I'm pretty sure he sat there confused for a bit, especially since he didn't come after me.


Those lessons with Yubel were definitely meant to help me escape from enemies, but I used them more often to slip out of my own home. Sneaking out of the castle was easy, given how many tips and tricks Yubel had taught me over the years. Once outside, I made my way to the outer wall carefully and crept along until I found what I needed.

The truth was, I'd been looking for another way to slip into town as it was, and I'd found one with some potential. Some of the stones in the wall were loose in a tucked-away corner. Once I found the spot I needed, I looked around to make sure nobody was near to see what I was up to.

Seeing no one, I started pulling out the first loose stone. As I moved them, I made sure to arrange them in a way that would make it harder to tell that there was a hole in the wall unless someone got too close. Once the hole was big enough, I crawled through. When I got to the other side, I got up and brushed the dirt off myself.

"What do you think you're doing?" Yubel asked.

I jumped, startled, then turned and looked down. She was halfway through the hole, looking, as usual, annoyed with me. Like a kid, I stamped my foot and moaned, "Oh, come on!"

She must have been hiding in the bushes nearby while I was shifting those rocks. She'd probably seen me sneaking around and decided to follow. Of course I hadn't seen her—she was the one who taught me to sneak around!

She pulled herself through the hole and got up, crossing her arms. "Well?"

The disapproval was radiating off her. I knew she was going to tell someone about this latest point of escape, no matter what my reason was, but I had to try.

I groaned and said, "I'm going to talk to Johan. This thing between our two kingdoms is ridiculous."

After all, if our kingdoms didn't hate each other for no apparent reason, then I wouldn't have to sneak out to see my new friend, would I?

"Heh. Tell me about it. Alright. But you know you're not going alone, right?" Yubel asked, walking over to me.

"Of course not," I said, annoyed.

"Well? What are we waiting for? Let's go. This problem's not gonna resolve itself." With that, my irritating teacher and babysitter started slinking along the wall.

I sighed and followed suit.


Ruby was waiting for us—or, rather, me—when we got across the moat. "Follow me! Johan's waiting on the outskirts of town! Come on!" he said, running off.

I followed after.

"Hey! Hold up! Do you know where you're going!?" Yubel demanded as she ran after me, not being able to see the duel spirit herself.

"Sure, I do. Ruby says he's this way!" I called back.

"Duel spirits. Figures," she muttered. "Well, whatever. Just hurry up before we're found out, got it?"

"Yeah, yeah."


Ruby led us to my favorite place in Neospace—a hill outside of town with a cherry tree on top. Ironically, this was also the place where the Four Emperors had abducted me. Right now, though, Johan was the only one there, sitting under the tree, leaning against it with his hands behind his head. He stood up, though, when Yubel and I came over.

"Judai! Glad you made it. We need to talk about this feud between our two kingdoms." He looked at my tag-along and asked, "But, uh, before we begin, what's Yubel doing here? I wanted to talk to you in private."

"She followed me," I answered simply.

"Really? Well, that sucks."

"Yeah, tell me about it."

"Cut the chatter, boys, and get on with it," Yubel said. "What did you want to discuss about our two kingdoms? You know why they're fighting?"

"Well, as far as I can tell, this whole feud started because someone stole the family's treasured Blue-Eyes White Dragon deck, and it was never found. Though, for some reason, my father's convinced that it was your grandfather that did it?" Johan said with a questioning tone, looking at me. "Care to fill in the blanks?"

Now that was a surprise!

"Wait, what? Stolen deck?" I asked. They had more than just the Crystal Beasts?

"Yeah. Didn't you know that Kalmar had two rare decks? The Blue-Eyes one would have been mine by now if it hadn't been stolen and the Crystal Beasts, my father's. Though, as it is, my dad thinks I handle the Beasts better than he did, so he gave them to me instead." He rubbed his head, grinning, as he finished.

I guess that explained why Johan still had his dad's deck. But that was definitely news to me.

"Neospace used to have two decks, too, but ours was stolen. It was never found, but copies started showing up in your kingdom, so my ancestors thought yours took it," I told him.

I suppose now's a good time to explain a few things. For one, each of the three kingdoms had a unique deck that belonged to their reigning king or queen—Exodia for Misgarth, Crystal Beasts for Kalmar, and Judgment Dragon for Neospace. The prince of Misgarth had a special deck—the Dark Magician being its main monster—and I'd known previously that I was supposed to have a rare deck. Now I was finding out that, before this all went down, all three kingdoms had special decks for their kings and their heirs.

Our families had been fighting for about a century, ever since our deck had gone missing. Ojin had told me that someone had tried to make off with the Dark Magician deck around the same time, but that thief had failed...and, unfortunately, escaped. A few months later, my family heard that copies of our stolen deck were being used in battles in Kalmar, leading to my grandfather pinning the blame on Johan's family. As far as I'd ever heard, that was the start of all of this. Our kingdoms had almost gone to war over the situation, but Misgarth stepped in and stopped our grandfathers from going that far.

Johan's eyes widened. Apparently, just like the Blue-Eyes deck was news to me, this was news to him. "W-what!? What deck!?"

"Red-Eyes Black Dragon," I answered.

Johan's eyes widened more. "Yeah. There sure are a lot of those in Kalmar, aren't there...?" he said, stunned.

No kidding. Fubuki had used Red-Eyes cards to save me from Honomaru and Iwamaru when I first moved in with Elise, so I'd managed to meet someone with a copycat deck in my early days in Kalmar. Granted, from what I knew, the Red-Eyes cards were still pretty rare. They just weren't unique anymore.

"So this whole feud started over two stolen decks? Really? Boy. You guys are babies," Yubel said, looking like she thought that was the stupidest reason ever.

I couldn't help but agree, honestly. "Yeah, you're telling me. It seriously starts a fight this big? When both of our kingdoms were hit?"

Wouldn't it have made sense to assume it was an outside problem? Or Misgarth, since they were the only ones who weren't robbed? Not that I thought Ojin or his family would do that, but still, it made more sense than the idea we robbed each other. If I'd known Kalmar had been robbed, too, I'd have thought it was a set-up. What were my ancestors thinking?

"Seems so, pal," Johan said. "I don't get it. Who'd want to cause all this, anyway? And where are those decks at now?"

I shrugged. "Who knows? Neospace isn't exactly looking for theirs anymore."

Why would we? There were a bunch of counterfeits out there. It just didn't seem worth it anymore.

Johan sighed. "Neither is Kalmar. This is ridiculous. What are we going to do? And who really stole those decks, anyway?" He clearly didn't expect an answer. Before I could try to offer one, he looked thoughtful as he mused, "Hmm. Guess I'll have to ask him to do some snooping around..."

"Him?" I asked.

"Let's just say I've got a guy on my father's payroll who'd be more than willing to go do some snooping around," Johan answered. "He should be able to find out the truth behind all this."

"Good idea," Yubel said. Turning to me, she asked, "Think we should ask ours to do the same? He sure has the upbringing for a job this huge."

"Right. Sounds like a plan," I answered, nodding.

I knew who she was talking about. Royalty tends to keep someone on the payroll who they often call the royal assassin. They deal in covert affairs and, historically, were often sent to handle the king's dirty work for him. As far as I knew, none of the royals in the modern world had taken out a hit on anyone in a long time, especially since we all knew Kalmar and Neospace royals would have tried to kill each other a long time ago if they did. That didn't mean the position was gone now, however, since the royal assassin could also be sent on diplomatic missions that didn't involve ending someone's life. Yubel was talking about my dad's assassin (though mercenary might have been a better term for him).

"Okay," Johan said, satisfied that we'd come up with something. "I'll see if I can't get ahold of him, then. In the meantime, I'll do some snooping around here as well. I figure if your deck showed up in my kingdom that it would just make sense that ours would be in your kingdom."

"Guess that makes sense," Yubel said. "Try not to get caught."

"Yubel, do you know who I am? I'll be fine. You guys just try and stay out of trouble until I get something, okay?" he answered with a wink and a grin.

"Yeah, yeah. But we need to stay in contact," I pointed out.

"Right. Let's see..." Johan looked thoughtful for a second, arms crossed, then his face lit up. "Oh! I know! If either of us gets any new info, we'll send our duel spirit partners to deliver the message about what we've found out. That way, only you and I will know what's going on, and our covers won't be blown should we try to contact each other at a bad time."

That sounded good to me. Most people couldn't see duel spirits, after all. I nodded and said, "Okay."

"Well, I better be getting out of here before I'm discovered. See you later, guys! Good luck getting to the bottom of this!" He started heading out.

"You, too! And you better not get caught, Mr. Andersen! This was your plan, after all!" Yubel called after him.

"Don't worry! I won't!" he said. Then he ran off out of sight.

Yubel turned her attention to me and said, "Well, then. Shall we go? You're not supposed to be here. Especially at this hour."

"Yeah, whatever," I said, once again irritated at the fact that she was even there.

She started for the castle, saying to herself, "Heh. Just wait til I tell the king about this one. Breaking walls open. Priceless."

Apparently, she thought there was something funny about me sneaking out of the castle by moving loose bricks.

"I hate you."

She just laughed. Not like I was surprised—the feeling was mutual, so why should she care if I hated her?


Once we were back in the garden with the hole in the wall temporarily fixed (and a more permanent fix to be applied later, compliments of Yubel's tell-all tongue), Yubel asked me, "So want me to contact Austin in the morning, or are you gonna?"

"I'll do it," I said.

"Whatever. Well, we better get to bed before we're caught scheming together. Later." She headed off, presumably to go to bed, and I headed back to my own room.


To my surprise, Sho was still there when I got back. He'd fallen asleep, curled up in the middle of my bed, facing the door. I'd almost forgotten I'd left him there.

I smiled slightly, a bit amused at finding him still there, waiting for me. I walked over to the bed and shook him gently, saying, "Sho."

He moaned, blinking his eyes open slowly. "Aniki? Is that..."

"What, don't like your room?" I teased.

He sat up, stretching. "No...I just wanted to know, that's all... So, how'd it go with Johan? What'd he want?"

"To talk about this dumb feud. Which, by the way, just got dumber now that I know the full story."

"What do you mean? Didn't the Andersens steal a royal artifact to make their kingdom more powerful?"

I didn't bother asking Sho why that was the version of events he'd heard. Given that he was from Kalmar, he should have been more familiar with their side of the story. But, given how Sho was, it really wasn't surprising that he remembered my kingdom's side instead. I don't think he really paid attention in school when he lived in Tiller.

"That's what my dad thinks, but they had their own that was stolen around the same time," I explained. "When copies of ours started showing up in their kingdom, one of my ancestors jumped the gun and accused the royals of Kalmar. Guess it never crossed his mind that it could have been one of the people trying to get rich or start trouble."

Sho stared at me for a second, looking totally lost. "What?"

"We had something stolen, but so did they, so it would make sense that it was somebody else, not them, right?" I asked, hoping that question would make some sense to him.

"...Something was stolen from them, too?"

I sighed. Had he been listening a second ago, or did I just think I'd mentioned Kalmar's stolen deck? "Yes, Sho."

"Really? What was it?"

"Their prince's deck."

Sho's eyes widened in shock. "Th-they had one of those, too!? What was theirs?"

"Blue-Eyes White Dragon." Deciding I couldn't just let this slide since Sho clearly knew none of Kalmar's version, I gave him a lame look and asked, "You seriously only know my kingdom's side of the story?"

He blushed. "Yes?" he said before giving an awkward laugh.

I sighed. "Sho!"

Sho decided to change the subject, apparently hoping I'd drop it if he did. "So, who started the feud, anyway? And why did they want Neospace and Kalmar fighting in the first place?"

Well, since lecturing him about paying attention wasn't going to change what he hadn't learned in the past, I let him have that one. "Don't know," I answered his latest question. "But Johan's getting someone to look into it, and I'm gonna do the same."

"Oh, okay..." He let out a big yawn, stretching. It was obvious he was still tired.

I laughed and said, "You should go to bed, Sho."

"Yeah. You're right... Night, Aniki. See you in the morning," Sho said, looking like he was already half asleep as he got up and headed out of my room. He shut the door behind him, and I got ready for bed.