The afternoon had finally arrived, bringing an end to the school activities. The students from the classroom had moved the chairs and tables to a side and began cleaning the classroom. Yet, some students were a bit distracted by the two popular kids of the day, the pair of duelists that delivered a bit of a show for everyone during the lunch break. With boys and girls alike gathering by them, gossiping and inquiring about different things related to dueling.

While Koji would remain as the more welcoming of the duo when it came to engaging in those conversations. Van, on the other hand, would just address those apparent 'fans' the minimum required, remaining polite and friendly. But choosing to break away from those conversations every moment he could, showing again that he wasn't comfortable by being in the spotlight.

The boy distanced himself and watched the people he managed to dodge, then focused more on Koji, and let go a tired sigh "At least one of us can put up with all that attention... hm?". The boy then looked down at one of the buckets of water they were using to mop the floors, it was almost empty, to which he picked it up and turned to the door. Just a couple of steps in his way, a voice called out.

"Hey wait up!"

A girl's voice made Van turn around for a moment, as he did recognize it. It was Haruko holding a bucket as well.

"You are going to fill it up, aren't you. Mind if I tag along?" she asked, tilting her head to a side slightly, smiling at him.

The boy just looked at her, raising an eyebrow and replied to her with a simple "Sure…" and right after that, both of them walked out from the classroom. With the afternoon sun illuminating the hallways, both teenagers headed over to the first floor's storage, so they change and refill the water from the buckets.

The way there was filled with a bit of an awkward silence. Van didn't seem to know any way to strike a conversation with her, and Haruko apparently found herself in a similar situation. She seemed to have some ideas and questions she wanted to bring up to the boy, but everything went away once they stepped out from the classroom.

"Uhm…" Haruko eventually collected her thoughts and asked the first thing that came into her mind, "… So… you like wearing those glasses?" And right after she asked that, her inner self wanted to bury her head in the ground by how silly she was being with that question.

Van, however, entertained her by replying, "Well, you could say so. They work well to conceal myself during duels."

The girl blinked and asked, "Conceal yourself, what do you mean?" Leaning forward just to have a better look at Van's face, paying attention to what he had to say.

The boy shrugged, saying, "You know what? Never mind… " Then after walking a bit more, the boy decided to carry on with the conversation by asking "So, how long have you been into dueling?"

With a soft hum, the girl gave that question a bit of thought, "Well not that long… maybe two years or so…" replied with her tone subtly changing and muttering under her breath "… things were a bit different…"

The boy then looked at her, having not caught the last couple of words coming from her mouth, and she, having noticed this; dismissed the matter by laughing it off and asking another question to divert the conversation, "That last play… did you actually plan it?"

That did work rather well, as the boy's interested shifted from trying to figure out what she had said to her last question regarding his duel, "Well…" He'd then laugh at the thought of it. "I just gambled it, I guess, I had set that trap at the start of the game as a bait, to see if he would have anything to mess with my trap and spell zones." He explained, before adding, "You could say all that last play happened by pure luck."

The Kaiba sibling looked a bit disappointed by that and just let go a mere "Oh… I see…" Then the memory of that moment before he drew the card came to her mind, "what were you thinking? You know, at that moment. Your last life points, no safe calls for a comeback…"

The boy kept looking at the front while saying, "That I wanted to win, that's all I thought. Panicking and losing my cool wasn't going to help." Then he shrugged. "Not gonna deny there was luck involved." He added.

Haruko then stopped, finding that attitude as odd. While in situations like this, he seems extremely laid back and almost careless in his approach to his duels. When she saw him, it almost seemed different. Confident and certain, in control of the situation almost frightening. Was it all a fluke?

When they arrived at the storage room, at the opposite corner of the hallway, they could see that the place was being used not only for keeping the materials to clean the classrooms. There were also some extra material for particular classes, such as maps and the like. This room also worked as a place where the Janitor could keep his working tools at hand whenever they had to work on that particular floor; as each floor had its storage, focused on the classrooms of each given floor.

Haruko, for some reason, couldn't wrap her head around the boy's personality, specially after he said so adamantly that he would reach to the top, that he could even his her step-brother a 'run for his money'. Maybe she was annoyed, perhaps she wanted to give him a little push, but the girl felt the need to speak, "You know… you'll never get there like that…"

Van was changing the water and filling it in a sink that was in that storage. He quickly looked over to her saying "What?" he was a bit distracted, and he didn't catch what she had exactly said, nor exactly what she was talking about.

"You want to get to the top, to be among the legendary duelists" The stated while Van gave her room to fill the bucket. "You can't take things this lightly if you really want to-"

"Really? Is that what you had to say?" Van interrupted her, annoyed by her comments. "Do you do this with everyone you meet?" Then he'd shrug and finish with, "Because I am not lecturing you on how you should go up stairways, Am I?"

That last comment struck her aback and she pressed her teeth, blushing a bit as she still felt embarrassed by that moment, "I-I already told you that was an accident!". Then after a bit, she'd clenched her fists and asked, "And I'm being serious, do you think those legends we admire would let the outcome of a duel to just luck?"

"I think it's a bit unrealistic to think luck plays no role in it." Then he stepped closer, "But to be honest, arguing about it is just besides the point." Then he pulled back one of the sleeves of his uniform, showing that he was still wearing that duel disk. With the reduced size of the latest models, he was able to easily keep it strapped during class without the teacher noticing.

He then started to unstrap the duel disk and hand it to her, "Tell 'thank you' to Mokuba for me, would you?"

She just grabbed a hold of it, "H-hey, I'm not done yet!" she exclaimed, frustrated by how he was behaving. Not only, to her, he seemed extremely laid back for someone speaking big time, but also now he was being childish by ignoring any criticism which she didn't mean any ill to him.

"Yeah, but I am. Careful with that water, by the way." The boy said, without turning back, and waving to her on his way out.

"Water?" Then she turned around, realizing that she had set the bucket in the sink in a way that the water couldn't be drained. The water was already flooding the sink and close to overflowing and pouring over to the floor. "Ahh!" she screamed and rushed over to prevent that, "V-Van, Van! Please, help me out with this!?" Shouted panicking while in her mind she thought "You can't just leave like that, y-you…!"

The boy just kept walking, ignoring the girl's calls and minding his own business. Eventually, he got back to the classroom, and acting as I've nothing happened, he got back into cleaning the bathroom. Both his and Haruko's friends looked at him, and they all felt as if something was missing.

Minutes later, the confirmation came that it wasn't 'something' rather 'SOMEONE' who didn't skip a second to make her presence back in the classroom known. With a loud knock on the ground, she let the bucket with water lad hard, almost as if he had dropped it intentionally; splashing some water around in the process.

Van looked at Haruko, but before he could even react, there was a mopping rag flying towards his face, hitting him clean and from that surprise. The hit combined with the surprise actually knocked the boy back on the ground.

And that was met with everyone's expression of shock, which was only enhanced by the girl's world

"Thanks for helping me back there, you JERK!" Then she headed over to her desk, clearly angry, and proceeded to pick up her belongings.

"Uh… Haruko?" Rika asked worried.

"WHAT!?" The girl replied, giving her a look that spoke leader and clearer than her yelling. And instantly making her reconsider and just shut up along with the rest of her friends.

While Haruko picked up her stuff, some drops of water slid from underneath one of the sleeves of her jacket. As her arm was damped from having to fix the mess she accidentally had made in the storage.

With the classes over and the classroom almost clean, she was able to just take her leave without any issues apart from the worry from her friends.

"Hey, man, are you alright?"

"What up between you two!?"

Koji and Chiaki asked as they approached the boy on the ground, who slowly pulled out the rag from his face, grumbling. His eyes were just dead-focused on the ceiling while asking, "Where is she…?"

"She just left." Rika asked as she, along with her friends, approached Van as well, and checked on him. While Sayuri and Saori did look a bit concerned about him, and helped the boy up. However, Rika showed to be in a more serious and upset mood, with her hands held on her waist; waiting for the teen to catch a break and have a better chance of getting some answers once she began inquiring.

"Well?" Then the girl asked, followed by, "What did you do!?" inquisitively.

The boy sighed while wiping his face with his arm's sleeve, "Hmph… well, nice to know you too and all, right?" replied sarcastically.

The girl then leaned closer to him stating with a stern tone "She is not the kind to get that upset out of nowhere. I'm serious, what did you do?!"

The boy then walked over to pick up his mop before deciding to get back to work while replying, "She was trying to poke someone she barely knows, far too much, alright?" He did sound annoyed. But still tried to keep his cool, the main reason being he didn't like this. While it looked like Van had a natural talent for getting on people's nerves, being 'that person' wasn't what he liked.

The rest of those present in the classroom, including Van and Haruko's friends, just looked at each other with a mixture of confusion and worry. With Kumiko being the only exception who barely showed any interest in the small bit of drama that had occurred before her.

Nothing significant or improper happened on the second day of school. However, there was some tension in the air that could be felt by, on one side, Chiaki and Koji. And on the other side, by Rika, Saori and Sayuri. The origin of this tension being both Van and Haruko, who were clearly avoiding each other, behaving in the complete opposite manner they had done on the first day.

Once the bell that marked the end of the final period rang, the students proceeded to clean the classroom as per protocol, and once finished, slowly made their way home. While leaving the building, Van and his friends were on what was becoming their usual small chatter, however, Chiaki was the one that felt like addressing the elephant in the room.

"So… is this how it's going to be the rest of the year?" the girl asked, deciding to start addressing the matter in a bit of a subtle way, even though this wasn't really her strong.

Both boys looked at her in question, without saying a word, and after rolling her eyes decided to be more direct, "You and the Kaiba girl, doofus."

The boy then hung his head back, "Please… do we have to?"

Koji decided to back up her friend and added "Well, you are a pretty cool guy and all Van, and I believe your side of the story…" Stated just to soften things out and then continued, "…but you can't deny carrying this thing on will just be a mood-killer. Specially once the club inscriptions open up and low and behold, she ends up signing along with us… awkward, right?"

Van just looked at Koji, and he made a good point. Not only the club matter, but also because dragging this on would be just too much of a thorn in his side. "Hmm… Well, I guess that's true, but I think I'll wait a bit for things to calm down between her and me before apologizing."

"Don't you dare use that an excuse to slip away from the problem!" Chiaki exclaimed while bumping Van's arm with her knuckle. "I don't understand why you boys can't just go and straight up say, 'sorry', you complicate things too much."

Meanwhile, already outside the school and heading to their typical meeting spot. Haruko and her friends were walking down the street discussing their matters. With Rika being the one visually looking the most frustrated by what was being talked about.

"I can't believe we are almost three days in, and we can't make up our minds…" then shook her head, "We need to decide which club we are all joining!

Sayuri then, looking at her usual chance to avoid extra activities, just commented "Well it looks like we will have to scrap that plan off the list…" with a bit of a smug

"Stop that!" Rika yelled before looking over to Saori and asking, "Do you have anything in mind, or Maybe you, Haruko?" However, that's when she noticed that she seemed out of their conversation, even a bit more than usual. As she knew that even if her friend was the last one to add her two cents, the norm was her paying attention. Yet now, she seemed to be in constant thought. "Haruko…?" Rika asked again, trying to get her friend's attention.

"Ah!" she exclaimed, snapping back into reality, replying "Yeah, I think that could work…" But she could look at her friends, looking back at her, almost as if she had something on her face.

"Uhm… Haruko…" Saori's worried voice called.

"Ooh!" Sayuri then exclaimed, letting go a snicker, "I know what's up with her!" making the whole group focus on her, easily. Then she showed another smug and said, "She is thinking about that boy…"

"What, shut up!" Haruko yelled at her, causing her friend to laugh and make an apologizing gesture.

However, Sayuri wasn't wrong. Haruko had been thinking about him the entire time, but not in the way her friend was suggesting, the reason was being carried by her that day. And still was on the morning of the third day. On said morning, Haruko was waiting in the back seat of her driver's car, with her backpack laying next to hear, open, with Seto's duel disk in clear view.

She looked at it, her face suggested that having that in her possession bothered her and her thoughts would only confirm that

"Why am I even still bringing this here…?"

The images replayed in her head, how after Van had given back Seto's duel disk to her, and after getting home; She had met with Mokuba, he had explained the situation to her, letting his step-sister know that Seto had actually allowed her classmate to keep that duel disk. And her step-brother, oblivious of what happened between them, asked if she could hand the disk back to Van.

And that, was the crux of what was going through her mind. Part of her wanted to give the disk back because Mokuba had asked her to do so, yet her anger towards Van was something that kept her from doing so. She imagined that if she decided to hand it back, just like that; the boy might be childish enough to take it as some sort of petty victory and rub it on her face. To add salt to that wound, her thought of the boy she saw in the last moments of that duel in contrast to the one she saw in the classroom frustrated her even further. There was something she felt from him, as if it was a feeling, she could relate to.

But she couldn't linger in those thoughts forever, eventually she got off the car and moved on to meet with her friends as usual, and made their way to school. However, the girls were not aware they had caught the attention of some less than enjoyable individuals.

Meanwhile. At the train station, Van was just relaxing and waiting on a bench, enjoying a can of soda. He had arranged to meet every morning with Chiaki and Koji at that spot, so they could head over to school together, and fortunately, it wouldn't take long for his friends to arrive.

"Hey Van!" Chiaki exclaimed as she rushed a short distance along with Koji to meet with their friend.

The boy then stood up and nodded, "Hey, good to see you guys are punctual." Van said as they all high five'd each other. Then got on their way to school, as they did, the German-born teen asked "So, are there any news about the clubs?"

The girl looked up and tapped her chin with her index finger, "Hmm, well, we should have news about them before the end of the week." Then smiled, adding, "I wonder how the Dueling club It's going to be."

"Well, I'm sure it's not going to be just all about playing the game and having duels. There might be some more thought behind that." Said Koji said, his arms crossed in front of his chest still, "I think the right question should be if the club will be oriented towards experienced Duelists or Rookies."

Van brought his hands to the back of his neck asking "So, if we had to bet on it, what would y-"

Then a beeping alarm would catch the attention of the trio. Koji reached into his pocket, pulling out his phone, noting "Ah, forgot to put it on mute." Then blinked, noticing the notification, "Huh… it's from my Duelist Application. Someone's dueling nearby…"

"This early, who, where?" the girl asked, leaning close to the boy, trying to peek at the screen of his phone, soon to be joined by Van as well. With now the three of them sticking their heads over Koji's shoulders.

The three of them leaned close to the screen while the phone's owner noted "Wait, the app recognizes that disk, it says I have 1 loss with it…"

Van then quickly figures out where the duel was being activated and rushed off. He had an easy guess of whose Duel Disk was that.

"H-hey wait!" Koji Exclaimed, trying to catch up with his friend, Chiaki following close behind.

"Hey, not now, we are gonna be a lot!" The girl exclaimed.

Moments before, Haruko and her friends were on their way to school. Just like the previous days. However, a group of students would intercept them on their way. With two of them standing behind them, while two in the front. Effectively blocking their path.

"I'm sorry, but I'm afraid you are not passing girlies!" The boys wore the full uniform of Domino High, however, none of the girls could recognize them from their classroom, neither from the students of the other division. The boys were, in fact, second years.

They were taller than the boys from their class, with the one at the front of the trio being also of a broader build.

"And… what are you exactly doing?" Rika asked, unimpressed.

"What does it look like? Blocking you. But don't you worry, we may not take much of your time." the boy who seemed to act as the leader of the group then pointed at Haruko, "You… you are related to Seto Kaiba, correct?"

Haruko kept her calm, however the look on her face was sharp, serious. She wasn't sure what these people had on their minds, but she figured out that rumors of who she was related to, had spread across the school, so lying would be rather pointless. "And if I was?" She replied, being quick and blunt, as she would rather not be seen as weak or an easy target of any sorts before a group of potential troublemakers.

The boy with a smirk replied, "Then I have a proposal for you" followed by a snicker

Haruko glanced at her friends, while Rika was keeping her cool, Saori and Sayuri were not doing so good, so she decided to go back at the boy with a question "I'll assume this is the kind of proposal I won't be able to reject, right?"

The student then snapped his fingers and pointed at the blonde girl, "Oh, we got a bright one here, boys!" After a short chuckle, he reached into his backpack and pulled out a Disk, "Don't you worry, it's just that not everyday we get a chance to face 'a Kaiba' and I'm sure kicking your butt would look quite well in my dueling history.

The girl just clicked her tongue and pressed her teeth, annoyed by this whole matter, specially because it got her friends stuck in the middle. That's why she chose not to waste any time and pull out Seto's Duel Disk "Fine, I'll make this quick and once I win, you'll let us through"

her friends looked at her, calling her out, concerned by her decision. with Saori particularly stating "Wait, no Haruko, there is no-"

"Don't worry Saori." Haruko replied, with a warm smile on her face, she said, "I'll make this quick."

The girl then decided to strap her step-brother's disk onto her arm and activated it, looking at her opponent with fierce, determined eyes.

"Well, aren't you confident… think the last name alone grants you the chops of the pros?" The man asked, mockingly, as he reached into a sports bag from which he pulled out his disk. He activated the device and then inserted his deck. "Well, let's do this."

Both of them exclaimed "DUEL!" as the virtual area was created through the disks' solid vision technology.

Duel Start

Haruko 4000 LP – Bully 4000 LP

"I'll start!" Haruko called, quickly drawing, then declaring "I will set a monster and with that, I'll finish my turn."

"She is setting a monster like Koji, is Haruko's deck like his, or perhaps she doesn't have a strong monster to start off like Van?" Saori thought as she looked at her friend's move. It was rather simple, no cards set in the back row, and just a single monster. She couldn't help but wonder what would happen if she happened to lose. "Do they truly just want to duel her, or is there more to it?"

"Come on, Haruko, teach him to think twice before trying to bully us!" Rika cheered out loud. She didn't really care for the game itself, but she wanted to support her friend, plus as far as she knew, that was the only one those boys would leave them alone.

"Yeah, come on, kick his butt!" Sayuri just added to Rika's cheering. Leaving Saori as the only one remaining silent and being more worried about the situation they were in.

The bully then reached for the card at the top of his deck, "Alright then, here I go. Draw!" He quickly shows a spell card from his hand, "I play Foolish Burial, and use its effect to send a monster from my deck to the graveyard!" He then showed a monster that seemed to be some sort of Skeleton wearing ragged, dark blue robes. "Then I'll play Card Destruction. So now we get to discard our entire hands and draw the same number of cards we had. So, I get to draw Four new cards!"

Haruko clicked her tongue and drew a new hand, as she had now to rethink her current strategy. While looking at her new hand, she simply hummed, "Good."

"Okay!" The bully called, "I'll play Graceful Charity, draw three cards and discard two!" He then drew three cards, and discarded two. Maintaining the total of four cards in his hand. "Now, with everything set, I play THIS!" Then he revealed another spell card, "Zombie Reborn! So now, I can banish a copy of a monster I have in my graveyard, and special summon it. Now rise from the dead, King of The Skull Servants!"

He then slapped his monster over the board of his disk. A decaying skeleton wearing ragged robes would then rise from the ground.

King of the Skull Servants ATK 0/0 DEF

"What…?" Haruko's friends asked, completely lost, to what the bully planned to do.

"No, that can't be right. Why would he go through such trouble?!" Saori's mind tried to figure out what was going on. She looked at Haruko, who remained serious and concentrated on the duel.

"This is the part you explain what it does, right?" The Kaiba sibling asked.

"Bingo!" The boy snapped his fingers and pointed at the girl explaining "It's not much, but basically, my monster takes advantage of the number of 'Skull Servant' cards in my grave." Then a grin would show on his face, noting "And right now, my three copies of Skull servant are there, in addition to my 'Wightbaking', 'Wightprince' and 'Wightprincess'. Yes, those three might not be carrying that name, but their special abilities allow them to be considered as Skull Servants while they are on the grave!"

"So that was it!" Saori thought, pressing her lips nervously as she looked how the monster on the field started to change its form.

The decaying skeleton then lifted its arms, as a pile of fallen skeletons rose beneath him. The broken bones, and fallen bits, would then start levitating and attaching to the King. Slowly but surely, the bones would form an improvised version of what seemed like a Skeletal Royal armor with a large axe made of bones.

King of the Skull Servants ATK 6000/0 DEF

"SIX THOUSAND ATTACK POINTS!?" the three girls watching the duel screamed, with Sayuri pointing out, "That's even stronger than that card Van pulled against Koji!"

"My king, attack and destroy that set monster!" right after that order, the Skeleton king would leap forth and swing its Skeletal axe, chopping the virtual display of Haruko's set card. "Heh, lucky you, I still need to draw another card to back up my monster's attack. So, that's all for me on this turn. Now, give me your best shot, girly!"

Turn 1 End

Turn 2 Start

Haruko 4000 LP – Bully 4000 LP

Haruko was about to start her next move when…

"You know, maybe you should listen to your friends. That 'Van' they mentioned, must be that little idiot with the sunglasses. But compared to me, he is nothing but a small fry, so perhaps you should just give it up girly. Not even he could top my-"

"Shut up!" Haruko called, the fierce and focused expression on her face, unfazed by the presence of his monster. She looked over at her friends for a moment, and then at her opponent. With both sides remarking Van's play from the other day. "I am not Van. I don't need luck to beat you."

"Haruko?" Rika called, confused by her remark.

"Sure, sure. Surprise me then!" The bully taunted.

"Then I'll start with the special ability of the monster you just destroyed. Apprentice magician. When is destroyed by battle and sent to the graveyard, I can special summon another level two or lower spellcaster and set it in defense position!" With that, the girl pulled another monster from her deck and set it on the field. After shuffling her deck, the girl continued with her move and drew a card.

"Now, I'll tribute summon my Blizzard Princess!" When she placed the card on the board, the set card would start shining, acting as a portal of sorts from where the Blizzard princess would emerge, quickly levitating over the ground. A cute blue haired, and young-looking girl. Dressed in what seemed to be a set of white and blue robes, with jewelry. Crystal white sparkless of ice would fly around the princess, in perfect harmony with her graceful movements and poses.

Blizzard Princess ATK 2800/2100 DEF

"And this is just the beginning!" Haruko exclaimed, getting ready to play her next cards.

She placed another spell in the back row, "Now I activate Dark Magic Veil!" A spell card would then raise, showing the picture of a white pentagram with a foggy looking, blue background. "With this card, I'll pay 1000 lifepoints and special summon a DARK Spellcaster from my hand or grave!" She would then reach out to her graveyard and pull a card she was previously forced to discard. "Now I'll summon my Dark Magician Girl!"

A pentagram would be drawn on one of the monster slots of the field. Opening a gateway to what seemed to be a dark void, however, from said void a figure which was an absolute contrast to its darkness and mean looks. It was a young, blonde woman, with a colorful and a bit revealing outfit, armed with a small magical rod. The girl floated on the field, performing one flip in the air and then striking a pose. Her introduction would end with a single wink which made multiple small hearts appear around her.

Dark Magician Girl ATK 2000/1700 DEF

"Look at them!" Sayuri exclaimed with excitement, "They are gorgeous!" said with a big smile on her face that was matched by both Rika and Saori's

"Oh, look at the Magician's hat, it's so cute!" Rika called before cheering again for her friend, "Come on, go get him Haruko!"

Saori did also do her fair share of cheering by calling "Come on Haruko, you got this!" yet in her mind, she still tried to pay attention to the field. "None of her monsters are strong enough, what is her plan…?"

"Well, I have to give it to you, girly. Bringing those two summonings like that in a single move was rather impressive…" The bully stated confidently before smirking and adding, "…But your duo of cute idols is nowhere near the power of my King!"

"Yes, I know…" replied, without any hints that she was worried in the slightest, "It was never in my intentions to brute force my way through your monster, though." Then she activated another spell card, "I play this, Dark Burning Attack!".

A spell card with the portrait of the Dark Magician girl, performing a spell, was shown on the virtual field. "Since Dark Magician Girl is on my field, I can play this spell, which allows my Magician to obtain enough power to wipe all your monsters in one magical blast!"

"Wait, no!" "God damn it, that ruins my back-up plan!" The boy exclaimed and panicked in his mind when the girl declared the effect of the spell card.

The Dark Magician girl then started loading up her powers in her rod. Forming a magical sphere that emitted sparks of energy before finally firing it towards the bully's field. Such was the force of the spell, that the Magician was pushed back and flipped once over the air before recovering and levitating back to her spot in a bit of a comedic fashion.

The blast then impacted against the bully's field, causing a massive explosion that covered its entirety, and destroying the king in the process.

The bully just covered his face from the impact and coughed a bit from the dust while screaming, "Damn it!"

"The field is open!" Saori exclaimed, her friends just now. Haruko, meanwhile, pointed at her opponent with a smirk on her face

"Now, let's finish this. I attack directly with all my monsters!" Following her order, both the Dark Magician Girl and Blizzard Princess quickly flew to the middle of the field, and together pointed their rod and scepter charging a combined magical blast with both Dark and Ice magic.

"Tsk…" the bully did seem annoyed by getting beaten so easily. However, his expression of anger would soon change to a devilish grin.

Damage Calculation

Bully 4000 LP -0 LP

Duel End

Haruko 4000 LP - Bully 0 LP

Haruko, meanwhile, closed her eyes and stood both proud and confidently as her opponent's lifepoints dropped to zero. "And that's that!" her friends would soon rush up to her, cheering for their friend's victory. Then she pointed at the bully, "Now, just like we said. Let us be and mind your own business!"

However, instead of cooperating, the group would simply close in and surround the girls "Yeah about that, I don't remember agreeing to your part of our terms…" Then laughed at the girls. Who were by now growing more worried about what were the intentions of the second years. they would simply come close to each other, defensively, as they looked at their potential aggressors.

When the leader of the group started to approach directly to Haruko, something would catch his attention. His eyes would catch the glimpse of a shade passing right above him, and a metallic sound.

"AGH, you soon of a…!" One of his friends screamed, almost losing his balance and holding a hand on his face, "… that hit me in the nose, who threw that!?"

"Hahah, that was a nice throw!"

"Pft, bull… I was aiming for the tall one…"

A pair of voices commented, familiar to the group of girls that looked over and watched both Koji and Van walking in the scene. With a worried Chiaki at the back and top of a short stairway, holding their bags.

"Alright, I got your back!" Koji exclaimed as he was stretching his arms, clearly getting ready for a fight to break out.

"Mhm!" Van replied, remaining visually as he walked up to the bully leader, "Let's not kid ourselves, four on two and if what Chiaki said is true, second years. We are gonna get our asses kicked. But…" Then he closed in the bully, standing with his hands out of his pockets and his sunglasses already off.

The bully then turned to Van and stared down at the teen, "The hell do you want, punk?"

The boy hummed a bit, "If I land a good one on this idiot's face, that's enough for me…" crossed his mind, proceeded to taunt the Bully, just for the sake of getting their attention entirely focused on Koji and himself. "Well, I'm hosting a raffle, and you happen to have all the winning numbers for a bleeding nose"

"Wait, you idiots, what are you doing!?" Crossed Haruko's mind as he looked that both of her classmates were getting involved in this matter and, even worse, were clearly ready to pick a fight with that group.

"What did you just say?!" Then, after exclaiming that, he pushed Van back, managing to make the boy stumble back some feet.

"Van!" Rika exclaimed, while the rest of her friends just

However, right after that and maintaining the momentum, Van stomped one of his feet on the ground and while diverting the weight of his body swung his arm seeking to deliver a punch to the second year's face. However…

"Hey watch it!" Koji called out for Van.

And right after that, Van's arm would be grabbed from behind by another person. And said person would then wrap its arm underneath the boy's chin and pull him back, "Enough, not worth getting in trouble for this!"

"Hey, w-what are you doing, let me go!" Van exclaimed as he struggled against the grip he was being held into, however the way and the force applied to hold him was well applied in all aspects. Making it impossible for him to get off.

"Well… crap…" The bully stated when he noticed the person holding Van. With was a young teen, taller than the German boy. With a broad build, however, his was actually sturdy, hinting a background of exercising. His hair was short and messy, almost looking spiked, depending on from where one would look at it. His eyes were brown, and were always behind the lenses of the boy's glasses.

"Tsk, listen Yamada!" Takato said to the bully and his group while holding the struggling Van, "I don't care, what are you guys up to this time around. Leave now before I report you all to the Principal!"

"Hmph, always a buzzkill… Alright guys, we are leaving." Yamada then motioned his friends to follow him and take their leave.

"Uh, you sure about this 'Ya' ?" one of his friends asked, not showing any hint of protesting, though.

"Yeah, besides, we got enough fun for now anyway." After they were away, he would look over his shoulder and stop, just to point at Van "You, however. Watch your damn back, punk! Takato won't be around forever to babysit you" after the threat, Yamada and his group left the scene.

And just after that, Takato would let go of Van. Making the boy then protest about how he held him, "Jeez, what are you even made of… bricks and cinder blocks?" Then he'd stretch his arms muscles while looking at Koji, "Hey, you said you got my back!"

"Hey, hey. I swear I was about to make my move!" Koji responded, shaking his fist at his friend "But, still… thanks for that dude" said then, to Takato.

Takato nodded at them, but his serious expression did not change, looking not only at Van's group, but also at the girls who were approaching them, Chiaki being the last one to approach.

"Ah, thank god no one was hurt" Rika noted alleviated-

Saori nodded and looked at the boys, "Yes, I was pretty brave on your part to jump in our defense, thank you."

"No way we were going to stand still and just watch!" Koji replied with a thumbs up towards the girls, trying to act cool in front of them.

Chiaki, however, wasn't as glad. And tossed the boys' backpacks at them" Pretty stupid too!" Both of them would manage to successfully catch them, so the girl went on, "Why did you have to try to play the heroes!?"

"Hey, I'm not saying what we did was ideal, but time wasn't in our favor, was it?" Van retorted while shrugging.

"I agree with her." Haruko then joined the conversation, looking at Van, "what on earth were you thinking? Did you think that you and Koji could take on four second years? Was that your brilliant plan?"

The boy then looked at Haruko and while reaching for his sunglasses, to put them on, he shrugged and responded with "Nope, not really." calmly, as if nothing happened.

"What?" Haruko asked, and that question was replicated by her friends and Chiaki as well.

"To be honest, I was feeling bad that Koji joined." Said while glancing at his friend with an apologetic smile, "The plan was kind of… get their attention away from you, and that was it."

Koji would laugh at Van's words, adding "Hey, you never know, I was ready to put one heck of a fight!" Which also made his friend laugh

"Are you dumb!?" Haruko then exclaimed, once again irritated by Van's easygoing demeanor, "Has the thought of getting badly hurt crossed your mind!?" her fists and teeth pressed shut.

Then Takato would try to deescalate the situation, firstly by catching the group's attention with the clapping of his hands "Alright, alright, alright" repeated with each clap. "Now I have a more in-depth understanding of what happened here. Yamada and his friends were bothering you and your friends here joined to help you out, right?"

Saori would nod at Takato with a small, yet still worried smile, "Yes, that's right."

"Classmates…" Haruko noted, "They are our classmates, not friends." Looking at Van with a sharp look, to which the boy simply rolled his eyes and stepped away.

Takato would laugh nervously, "Eh… alright. What it counts is that they just wanted to help you out girls, and nobody got hurt. But yes, next time they should just try getting help, and report what's going on." Then he continued, trying to push the tension away, "My name is Takato Shirai, by the way. Pleased to meet you, I'm a second year student, and I'm sorry you had that first experience from our class…" The boy would then bow slightly, apologizing on their behalf.

Rika blinked and waved her hand, "No, no. You shouldn't apologize, you came here to help as well. Please, on the contrary, we should apologize for making take this trouble" And instead, Rika now performed an apologetic bow to the second year.

"How about we walk all together and make sure no more trouble shows up on the way?" Takato proposed to the group with a gentle smile on his face.

"Sure. You guys can join as well, Koji, Chiaki... Van?" Rika responded before she noticed that now Van was keeping his distance from the group, likely to avoid Haruko. The girl just sighed and looked at Takato, nodding, as she was also growing tired of that situation.

The second year just chuckled nervously before the group took off. With Van following them a bit of a distance behind.


Author's note: Alright here we have another chapter! Gotta say these last couple of weeks have been a bit rougher when it came to writing. A new heatwave making being able to focus on writing very hard. And also an massive energy blackout that left half of Buenos Aires without electricity can really slow down the writing process.

Also we are getting close to chapter 10! didn't really think I'd dedicate this much time to this fanfiction when I first started it. And here we are, not only almost 10 chapters in, but also closer and closer to get to the 100k words mark, which would make by far the longest thing I've ever written

Anyways, I hope you all enjoy this new chapter and have a wonderful weekend, take care and see you around!