Chapter 22:

The talk with Chancellor Sheppard went a bit different than Blake had expected. While both he and Bastion were called in for being the next candidates for promotion matches, there was a twist. Bastion would be the first of them, since he'd been top of the class ever since school started. Blake on the other hand first had to perform well in their upcoming exams. And since those were right before their short vacation break, he'd have his promotion match afterwards, if he managed to get good enough grades. That meant even more studying with his nerds, fantastic.

Once that topic had been dealt with, Sheppard told him that he'd be announced as the new holder of the 'Jack' title, although a whole other name was already making its rounds. Apparently, while the official titles held value due to their inherent power that came with them, it was customary for exceptional duelists to get named titles as well. This was also where the title 'Kaiser' came from, before it was adopted into the official titles. Along with Jaden, who'd been titled 'Red Hero', he'd now be known by an additional name, which coincidentally overlapped with the one he held in the underworld; 'Hound'. It likely wasn't a coincidence, if Sheppard's hint towards his aggressive and vicious behaviour was anything to go by, but compared to 'Hell Kaiser' it wasn't as edgy.

His duel with Zane had been the last thing the Chancellor wanted to talk about, once Bastion had left. The man seemed conflicted, as he was Zane's teacher in the Cyber style and thus had given him the cards he was using. On one hand he was content with someone beating his student, as being able to deal with loss was important, especially since he was going pro once the year was over. The only other student who'd been able to consistently match Zane was Atticus, who'd been missing since last year. On the other hand, Sheppard was anything but happy about the verbal strip-down that Blake had given, which seemed to weight on the Kaiser's mind.

"It wouldn't bother him if there wasn't some truth to it, Chancellor." Blake retorted harshly. "I know it, and I'm sure you know it too. Not only does apparently everyone tolerate the way the Obelisk students hold themselves, but the system right now is neither fair nor healthy for any student that's an aspiring pro duelist. I don't know if the Chairman is just a greedy fuck or if he just doesn't care, but we already had Kaiba call in once and I'm pretty sure if he finds out about this then there'll be hell to pay."

Sheppard winced a bit. "Language, Mister Moore. I am well aware about the changes to the system, but my hands are tied. As for our student's attitude … I'm afraid Doctor Crowler's work didn't help in that regard. If I wasn't so busy with paperwork, perhaps I could do take over some lessons myself."

"Then why don't you let Crowler do the paperwork instead? He's your Vice Chancellor, so shouldn't he do that anyway?" Blake asked with a raised brow.

"While he should in theory, I believe it's no secret that the Vice Chancellor tends to have power get over his head." Sheppard explained. "And while I would appreciate the help, spending the time I get from not doing the work myself only on making sure that Doctor Crowler does his job properly won't get us anywhere."

"Sounds like you need a new Vice then. I mean, what's the point of having one that you can't trust to do his job?" Blake retorted, but Sheppard didn't answer. "Oh, and by the way; once I've got the Queen replaced, we'll shoot against the system. So, if you've got problems with it, it's in your best interest to support us. I for one won't stand for that bullshit."

That got the man's attention. "That so? Hmm … I believe you want to Miss Umeno up for the challenge? You're aware she's from a just as if not more prestigious family as most of the students you so despise?"

Blake shrugged. "Eh, she's alright."

"And why would Miss Umeno want to abolish a system that helps both her and others like her?" Sheppard questioned with furrowed brows.

"Because she is an Umeno." Blake answered with a smirk. Seeing the good Chancellor confused, he continued. "She isn't satisfied with just being Queen for three years. She's gotta do something substantial, something that sets her apart from her predecessors."

"Like changing a system that's been running for years." Sheppard sighed with a mix of laughter and nervosity. "You sure earned your title, Mister Moore. Using the very reflection of the people you loath to support your own ambitions. A vicious hound indeed."

That raised some alarm clocks. "You know?"

"Once Professor Fontaine informed me of what she'd found in you inspection, it wasn't too hard digging the information up." Sheppard replied, before his eyes hardened. "I hope you don't intend to continue with the ways of underground duels?"

"I'll continue for as long as I'm told to. But once I'm going pro, they can kiss my ass goodbye." Blake snorted in response. "I've bleed enough in that shithole, I'll celebrate the moment I don't have to see it ever again. But you might keep a close eye on your dueling prodigy. His ever so mighty façade darkened quite a bit in our duel."

The Chancellors closed his eyes. "It's the way of the Cyber style to seek out and battle strong opponents, but I agree that Zane shouldn't adopt your way of dueling with such dark emotions. Which gives me a fantastic idea." He handed Blake a keycard. "Since you now have access to the same facilities as the other title holders, you can use it right away to schedule more duels against Zane. That way I can keep an eye on both of you while you two can improve one another."

"Why should I?" Blake asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Because maybe I'll take it easy on how good you'll have to be in your written exams in order to get your promotion match in return."

'And here I thought you're the goody two shoes kind of guy. Didn't expect that, but it's a fair trade I suppose. Dueling Zane regularly though?' He thought, fully aware that his duel with the Kaiser couldn't be replicated, he had been running high during their first encounter and had a practically flawless game. But he wasn't delusional yet; he could've lost at almost any turn in one shot. With a sigh, he nodded in acceptance. "Alright, fair enough. Am I allowed to bring other people into that arena as well?"

"You are, if you book it beforehand. It hasn't seen much use ever since the tragedy with Mister Rhodes last year, but we wouldn't want any scheduling problems because of that. Anything else?"

Blake shook his head and was promptly dismissed. He'd accomplished the first task on his list, with the second only being weeks away. And if Sheppard intended to stay true to his word, he didn't have to study as much as Bastion and Bright likely wanted him to. Sure, that would indebt him further to the Chancellor, but it was all but guaranteed that the men would call him in to deal with the Spirit Keys next semester. Now he'd just have to put Kami where he needed her, convince Bastion to take the promotion and not wait in Ra Yellow until he'd beaten everyone, and work through the boring subjects.

"Considering the amount of information I have gathered up to this point, I believe it is fair to say that my understanding is limited, but I believe I have managed to narrow down a few key factors regarding DE." Bastion said as he led Blake into his room. They stopped in front of one his walls, which was scribbled on from floor to ceiling, just like all the other walls. "We will have to try and advance from there to see if I am on the right track with this. Other than that, I got my eyes on any advancement from the leading specialists as well."

Blake's eyes wandered over Bastions notes, although reading the sub-subtitles he'd managed to squish in there wasn't easy. "Focus was the first thing we, well you, noticed. What makes you think those two are equally as important?" He asked and pointed at the highlighted and underlined words.

"The first of them is simple: A purpose, or goal, is a scientifically important piece to consider. One could also call it the intent you want to use this energy for, which goes hand in hand with the focus required to access it." Bastion explained easily. "DE is like a tool in that regard; you take it into your hands, or focus it, and plan on using it to achieve a goal. What does not follow my way of thinking however, is the other key component I have singled out."

And Blake didn't fault him for that. For someone as logical and methodical as Bastion, emotion was likely not on his radar. "If it doesn't, then why do you believe it important?" He asked his friend. He had an idea as to why, considering that he felt the latent energy usually when he was worried, riled up, or ecstatic. At least those were the catalysts for every big moment he'd felt and perhaps even accessed the weird energy. Worry about Jaden's use of his inner darkness in their one-on-one, anger against Panik and Titan, and lastly glee in his duel against Zane.

"While emotions are considered in certain parts of science, they have no relevancy in the passing and manipulation of energy. But that only applied to real world physics." Bastion crossed his arms and frowned. "Much like the exact origins of the game we came to know as Duel Monsters, the supposed supernatural aspects of it do not follow these principles. One would think that it is a game reliant on strategic thinking, proper knowledge, and luck to draw the right cards."

'Your buddies got a point. You're almost there.' Blake felt his partner rumble in the back of his mind. Bastion's explanation was sound from start to finish, and he knew well enough that he'd be nowhere this far if he'd tried to work on this alone. "But somehow it isn't," Blake continued, "we've seen mathematically improbable scenarios time and time again when it comes to high-level dueling. Practically every duel either of the top three duelists play in is a whole slew of incredible lucky coincidences."

"Like how you drew exactly what you needed in your duel against Zane?" Bastion asked with a small smile. "I still believe that strategy and luck heavily impact this, but there's no denying that there is another component to it, which most likely is Duel Energy."

They nodded to each other and stared at the mind map in front of them for a while. "Now we only have to find a way to consciously access it." Blake voiced what they're both thinking. Then he sighed and plopped down on Bastion's bed. "Well, we got this far, so it's only a matter of time. Thanks for your help on this, by the way."

"I am interested in this as much as you are, so there is nothing to thank me for." Bastion countered as he moved over to his desk where he sat down and smoothly changed their subject. "Do you remember when you told me that perhaps I should focus one creating one main deck to use?"

Blake shot up in a sitting position, intrigued. "Did you make one?"

"It is still in its prototype phase, but I intend to premier it in my promotion match." Bastion answered and picked out one of his now seven deck boxes. "Thanks to Doctor Crowler, I believe I know who my opponent will be, which is why I have taken extra care in analysing his duels and cards."

"It'll be Chazz."

"Most likely, and considering the cards he's displayed up until now, both the swarming ability and high power of his Light Union monsters and the tricky ways he utilizes his Dark monsters, I am confident that my deck will be able to handle his." Bastion concluded. "Although I am still missing some cards that won't be here until the appointed date of the duel, it should perform well enough. With so little time left besides lessons and helping you study-" Blake coughed and looked away in response "I do not have much time to try it out against many opponents, but I should be able to get some valuable data in the days to come."

Getting up from the bed, Blake clapped loudly. "Sounds good to me. If you want any help with that, let me know."

"Will do."

The week progressed incredibly slow, which made all the studying even harder. While Jaden seemed to always have some new outlandish story to tell about dueling monkeys, giants, and Tarzan rip-offs, there was a weird air about the academies main building. It didn't easy Blake's nerves that all those things should've happened after Bastions duel against Chazz, nor that he felt like he was forgetting something. Truth be told, he'd completely forgotten about the more or less filler stories that Jaden talked about whenever they met in the cafeteria before quickly fleeing before he could be roped into their study sessions.

Blake mused about the weird feeling he got whenever he was in the main building had to be connected to the hole in his memory, but after everything he'd gone through the past years only the big plots of the story remained. And even those seemed only vaguely correct if not false. He could only hope that there wasn't too much change beside the fate of Yubel, but he could only wait and see.

On his way to the library, a group of Ra students ran into him and promptly excused themselves once they recognized him. By now his own status had cemented itself, in both good and bad ways. After his duel with Zane and his following receival of a title, no one doubted his strength in a duel anymore. Not everyone was happy about it, but no one dared challenge him for now. Doctor Crowler was especially torn between being unhappy and happily obliging whenever they interacted. What surprised him the most however, was Chazz.

Unlike before, Chazz had seemed to cool down. He still glared from time to time, but he didn't childishly raise his voice at every little discomfort or annoyance. Instead, there was more of a … cold indifference and focus on himself, rather than caring about what others did. Something wholly uncharacteristically for the person Blake knew. His dueling record had gone up since their duel as well, itching close to Bastion's third place of their grade's ranking.

Blake didn't know what to make of this, but he didn't think that Chazz's change in attitude so early would change the outcome of his duel with Bastion. After a particularly intense study session that involved a lot of him getting asked more than once if he even listened in class, he took his sweet time on his way back down to the academies ground floor. It was once again late in the afternoon after they'd finished, which meant the academy was practically empty, save for some students that attended clubs and their professors. With a can of iced coffee in hand, Blake strolled through the building, using the rare chance to explore a bit to have his head cool down from the intense studying.

There were a few clubs around ranging from different ball sports, over more game-oriented hobbies like video or board games, separate cooking and baking clubs, to a handful of awfully girly ones he didn't dare get near to. Surprisingly enough, he didn't find a single club related to Duel Monsters. He'd expected to find at least a fan club for pro duelists or something similar, maybe one where the club members would watch tournaments together. Naturally, there wasn't a club to improve at the game either. From what he'd seen in Crowler's and Banner's classes, he really hoped they'd touch more important subjects in the upper years, otherwise he'd have little hope for most students who want to go pro from just these lessons.

'Should I make a club myself?' He pondered as he finished up his drink and threw it in the trash. 'I probably could, but what for? Everyone relevant knows what they're doing and it's not like anyone else didn't have the choice of making a club focusing on proper dueling already. Maybe I'll ask Bastion later …'

About to turn back, he paused when he saw stairs leading down to the basement, a cold, uncomfortable breeze coming up. It felt similar to what he had experienced after waking up from his nightmares, prompting him to investigate. With the door to the room that was likely the cause of the breeze ajar, he took a careful look inside. Three weirdly dressed students were in the room, waving around all kinds of equally weird tools. Aside from making fools of themselves, there were several posters around the room, most of them depicting the Dark Magician Gril in various poses.

'I knew there had to be a club like this somewhere.' Blake laughed inwardly and was about to leave when the big screen in front of the three students began to flicker, a figure showing up in it only to fade out, again and again. He couldn't make out what it looked like, but something else got his attention instead.

'Those fools are really trying to summon a spirit. And not a benevolent one at that.' Growled his partner, seemingly amused. 'I say let them find out what they signed up for.'

"If you say it like that it won't be the Dark Magician Girl. Do you know which one?" He whispered in return.

The spirit replied instantly. 'Small fry, not worth our time. Let's go.'

"What, you scared?"

'Pah! I've beaten that loser a dozen times already.'

'And why would you battle that spirit so often if he's apparently not worth your time? Unless …' "It's one that wanted me as its partner, isn't it?" Blake teased, and judging by the startled noise he got in response he was right.

A pair of glowing red eyes caught his attention, while the other students all shrieked in surprised, but those eyes weren't looking at them. They were looking at him and they gave him goosebumps. The owner of those eyes let out a deep, mechanical cackle before vanishing from the screen. With it vanished the uncomfortable air, which left nothing of interest to stay. On his way up the stairs Blake regarded his partner with a serious tone.

"That spirit isn't the cause for my nightmares, is it?"

The dragon snorted. 'If it were, I would've torn it apart by now.'

"And since you haven't, it's gotta be something stronger than you but weak enough so you can hamper the effect …" He wondered as he left the building and a headache started to build. Not even five steps outside and it started raining harshly, accompanied by rolling thunder. "Fan-fucking-tastic."

At the end of the week, things got loud. The arena was filled to the brim and the students talked animatedly about who'd win the match. As expected, Bastion would face Chazz for his promotion match, certainly not influenced by a distraught and pety Doctor Crowler. Bastion, Jaden, and himself had taken care of painting Bastions walls proper again, after they'd been scribbled on way too much. On the question as to why Bastion had been writing on his walls rather than on paper or electronically, his friend had answered that he'd need a lot of sheets of paper and it was easier to use his walls as canvas. Since they're neighbours, Bastion didn't have to crash with the Slifer boys and although he was sure he'd hear if anyone was rummaging around on their floor, he'd insisted that Bastion would bring all his decks over under the pretext of trying them out against each other.

There hadn't been an incident with someone trying to enter the room or try and destroy his friend's cards as far as he's aware, but he's sure that Chazz couldn't know that he and Bastion were neighbours. It had to do something with his recent change in attitude or maybe Bastion not leaving the dorm was indication enough that a plan like that wouldn't work. Either way, it was better like that. He'd had to stop Bastion from giving him a surprise quiz, but other than that it had been a nice evening after all the hard work. He'd even managed to convince Bastion of taking the promotion, which took a lot less effort than he'd imagined.

He, Yuma, and Bright had arrived early enough to get front-row seats, with Jaden and co filling up behind them. What he didn't expect was Kami sitting down next to him, much to the annoyance of the girl on his other side.

"Hello Blake, I haven't seen you in a while. Just what have you been up to?" Kami asked sweetly, no doubt noticing the angry looks Yuma threw at her but choosing to ignore it.

"'Sup. I'm afraid I was stuck in the library with a mathematician and a drill sergeant." He replied casually. Studying with Bastion and Bright had been an experience to say the least. With Bastion hard to understand explanations and Brights harsh way of repeatedly asking questions, he couldn't help but wonder if he should just gamble on the exams instead. It gave him and Yuma more than enough reason to get far away from them once their sessions were over. Their runs had done wonders to get their heads working again.

"That so? Well, if you want another perspective for your problem subjects, I'm sure we can arrange a time to study together as well." She replied, a small smirk thrown towards the other girls.

"Sure, can't hurt." His reply earned him a stab to his side from Yuma, but he didn't react to it.

Kami seemed pleased by that and turned her head as the two duelists entered the arena. "The third and fourth ranked duelists of our grade, a grand duel indeed. Who do you think will win, objectively I mean?"

"Objectively, you have already answered your question." He laughed in response. "But if we ignore the ranking, I'd still say that Bastion is more likely to win. He's got extensive knowledge of strategies and of his opponent."

"I hope you're not forgetting the fact that Princeton was the winner of almost every junior tournament this year before coming here? As far as I know, he dueled Misawa quite a few times at those too."

He waved her off. "Even so, he hasn't done anything worthwhile ever since school started …"

"Hmm …"

The duel started slowly, both duelists revealing their decks bit by bit. While Chazz apparently had switched to a deck focused on dragons, Bastion had similarly switched to a type of monster, rather than an attribute like his other decks.

'Zombies, huh? Interesting. Does he have vampires or a zombie dragon though?' He wondered as the duel progressed. And while Bastion had neither, he had some generally good Zombie support already, his deck just needed more polish. Hits were traded and the two of them seemed all but equal until Chazz pulled out a monster that caught the interest of his partner.

'Hey, let me fight that one.' The dragon all but demanded.

Not being in the position to question his partner without catching the attention of his seat neighbours, he instead wondered about the choice. 'Light and Darkness Dragon, now that's a card I didn't expect seeing here.' The half angelic half demonic dragon briefly looked towards them before it focused on the duel, where Bastion did his best to use its own effect against it.

'Looks like it's a spirit as well, interesting.' From there the duel grew more intense. Bastion had to use a lot of resources to get rid of the oppressive dragon before he could progress, but once he did its effect summoned a big monster in Dragonic Knight. Thankfully, his zombies made it easy to recycle monsters, which allowed him to bring out his apparently biggest monster in Red Ogre, that swiftly got rid of everything in its path. Bastion's win was near, but with a combination of good cards and better draws, Chazz got back in control. He used every lifepoint and card he could spare, and after destroying Bastion's monster, he left his opponent was left wide open. Seemingly dedicated to his own spirit, Chazz went as far as reshuffling his dragon to summon it once again so it could finish the duel.

'Wait, finish the duel?' Blake blinked in confusion. He could hear the clicking of a tongue from Bright, a sad "Aww man" from Jaden behind him, and even the surprised voice of Crowler as he announced the result of the duel. But it didn't click with him until moments later.

"Seems like you were wrong." Kami said, sounding a bit let down. "Your friend is certainly a good duelist, but it looks like he still can't win against Princeton."

More shakeup from canon! Aside from sprinkling in the filler episodes to where they suited me most, that duel didn't go as expected. I wonder what that means going forward?

The reviews to last chapter have been mixed, which was to be expected. Though I take the fact that the numbers haven't plummeted that most are okay with how I handled that perticular duel. To get the criticism out of the way; yes it would've probably felt more earned and satisfied had Blake won without knowing his opponents deck and strategy in-and-out, but as I've been setting that fact - and the abuse of it - up since the beginning it was to be expected. Calling the MC a crappy SI is only half-true, as its not a SI in the first place, sorry to disappoint. In that sense, its a crappy one. I do like that a guest reviewer has pointed out Blake's own hypocrisy though. He does have an advantage as unfair as unlimited access to cards after all. The other guest review seems to miss the point of what's being conveyed, but hopefully this chapter helped in that regard. Also, ot's nice to see some of you disagreeing with certain reviews like that.

Either way, thank y'all for reading and reviewing, breaching the 200 favs - which I failed to mention last time, sorry about that - and over 40k views! Next we'll have a short overview over what happens before the break and a part of the break itself before getting started with the meat of the season not long after.