I Groaned As I Woke Up, No Strange Dream This Time. The First Thing I Decided To Do Was Check My Email To See If The Duel Academy Had Sent Anything. But My Email Was Empty, Reclining Back On My Chair My Eyes Were Drawn By a Particular Card Sitting Upon My Table Grave Squirmer. Smiling, I Took The Card In My Hands And Stared At It.
"You And Me Buddy, We Will Rise To The Very Top"
As I Closed My Eyes, I Ran My Fingers Across The Card Artwork
"That's The Spirit My Man! Keep Up With This Mindset And We Gonna Hit The Top In Not Time!"
My Eyes Shot Open, I Started To Frantically Looking Everywhere In A Desperate Bid To Find Who Said That.
"Who…..Who Said That….?"
Then I Shook My Head, What The Hell Am I Doing? It's Clearly Obvious That Due To The Fact That I Am Still Sleepy My Mind Must Be Playing Tricks On Me.
"What You Mean "Who Said That?" I Was Obviously The One To Speak To You"
Looking Behind Me I Saw What Or Rather Who Spoke To Me. There He Was Doing Push-Ups On The Floor Of My Room, The Very Same Card That I Was Holding…Grave Squirmer Was In MY ROOM Doing Push-Ups.
"Little Buddy? You Good?"
I Did Not Have The Strength To Answer To Him. I Just Stood There Paralyzed By The Sigh In Front Of Me My Jaw Open. That….That Was No Dream No Hallucination, It Was REAL.
"Oh I Get You Must Be Taken Aback By THESE BAD BOYS"
He Got Up And Flexed His (Quite Frankly Impressive) Muscles, Doing Several Poses To Showcase His Muscles Covered In Bandages.
"These Weapons You Are Seeing Are All Natural, Unlike Those Fake Muscles Ojama King Keeps Bragging About."
As He Continued His Display I Finally Got Enough Mental Willpower To Speak
"You….You Are…Real"
Upon Hearing My Words He Stopped His Flexing Contest And Looked At Me Dead In The Eyes.
"Of Course I Am Real, Did That Display Of Peak Duel Monster Spirit Performance Was Not Enough?"
He Said With Voice Filled With a Tinge Of Sorrow
"I-I Mean Don't Get Me Wrong, It Was a Impressive Display…But What I Was Saying Is YOU Are Real"
As The Words Left My Mouth He Sited On My Bed And Spended Several Seconds Thinking. At Long Last He Finally Spoke
"Oh Yeah! I Remembered Humans Are Not Used To Seeing Duel Monsters Spirit, Sorry I Should Have Approached This Situation a Bit Better."
He Said With a Small Chuckle
"Hold The Phone For a Moment, Duel Spirit Monsters?"
"Yeah We Are Spirits That Inhabit Those Cards You Humans Use To Duel, And I Am One Of Them! Amazing Grave Squirmer! And From Here On Out We Are Partners"
He Then Once Again Started To Make Various Poses To Flex His Muscles And I Just Stood There My Brain Taking a Solid While To Process The Info Dump That Was Given To Me.
"Little Guy? Are You Good?"
"Just….That Is a LOT To Take In"
"Oh Don't Worry You Are Not The First One To Get Intimidated By My Natural Muscles"
"That Is Not What I Meant, Is Just Outside My Dreams I Never Tough Something Like That Could Be Possible, Duel Monster Spirits…."
I Stood There Pondering Some More, Then The Obvious Question Sprouted On My Mind.
"Why Me? What Made You Choose Me As Your Partner?"
And Once More He Sited On My Bed, Pondering For A Solid Minute, It Seems Like He Is Not The Brightest Cookie Of The Jar.
"Well….I Don't Know"
"What Do You Mean You Don't Know?!"
"Well When I Said I Don't Know I Meant That I Don't Have a Concrete Awn-"
"That Is Not What I Meant, What I Meant Is What Do You Mean You Don't Know Why You Are Here, Did You Just…Appeared Out Of Nowhere And You Did Not Question?!"
"Pretty Munch, This Kind Of Thing Is a Pretty Big Unknow Back In The Spirit World, Heard From a Buddy Of Mine That Even Those Egg Heads In Endymion Are Having Problem Figuring This Out"
After a Few More Seconds He Simply Shrugged And Then Returned Doing His Push-Ups.
"Well….That Is Certainly a Lot To Ta-"
I Was Interrupted By a Sound Coming From My Computer, It Was a Notification On My Email, It Was From The Duel Academy!
I Quickly Clicked On The Email And It Read The Following.

Mister Freig
We At The Duel Academy Would Like To Extend Our Congratulations For You Acceptance Within The Duel Academy, We Are Sure You And Your Fellow Students Will Grow To Become Brilliant Duelists! We Reached Out To Inform You That After Analyzing Your Results In Both The Written Exam And The Practical Exam You Shall Be Placed In The Slifer Red Dorm, Your Classes Will Begin Next Week. We Provided a List Of Material Necessary For Your First Year.
Best Regards
Chancellor Sheppard.

Below The Email There Was a List Of Some Of The Material It Would Used During My First Year Of The Academy.
"Ok, Just Gotta Write That Down…"
"Write What Little Buddy? We Gonna Make The Grocery?"
I Yelled And Jumped Out Of My Chair, I Completely Forgot That Grave Squirmer Was In The Room With Me. My Scream Ended Up Attracting Unwanted Attention. Rally Burst My Door Open. Crap! He's Gonna See Grave Squirmer!
"What Happened Erwin?! Are Y-"
His Eyes Got Wide And I Prepared Myself For a Scream.
"Is That The Duel Academy Email You Talked About?"
Rally Made His Way Towards My Computer, He Completely Phasing Trough Grave Squirmer.
"Soooo….You Are In "Slifer Red" What Does That Mean?"
It Took Me a Few Seconds To Process What Happened. It Seems Like I Am The Only One Capable Of Seeing Grave Squirmer.
"What Does That Mean?"
Rally's Question Snapped Me From My Daydreaming.
"Uh? Oh Well….To Put It Simple Slifer Red Is The…..Worst Dorm"
Rally's Face Soon Turned Into a Grimace, He Was Clearly Outraged Upon Hearing My Words.
"WHO THE FUCK THEY THINK THEY ARE?! YOU SHOULD HAVE BEEN PLACED IN THE BEST DORM! HOW DARE THEY DO THIS TO Y-"
Rally's Words Were Cut Off As He Saw My Face He Slowly Turned Around To See Miss Martha Standing In The Doorway…
"Oh! Uh…H-Hey Martha! How Long Have You Been There"
Rally Said With a Nervous Chuckle
"Long Enough To Hear Your Very Colorful Choice Of Words Mister, And While I Understand Where Your Frustration Is Coming From Is a Good Place, I Will NOT Allow This Kind Of Words To Be Spoken In MY Orphanage You Hear Me?"
She Said In a Firm Tone While Tapping Her Foot.
"You Mister Is Coming With Me, We Are Gonna Wash Away That Filthy In Your Mouth"
She Then Steps Aside From The Door And Points In The Direction Of The Bathroom In The End Of The Hallway. Rally Goes As Instructed And Miss Martha Goes After Him Closing The Door.
Grave Squirmer Was In One Of The Corners Of The Room, Completely Terrified By The Sight Of Miss Martha.
"Who Was That Woman….? Your Mother?"
"No, Miss Martha Is My Caretaker"
Grave Squirmer Looked At Me For A Few Seconds. Confusion Could Be See Behind Those Red Eyes Of His.
"Then Where Is Your Mother?"
Sadness Took My Heart Upon Hearing That Question
"Honestly? I Wish I Knew"
He Looked At Me For a Few Seconds Then The Weight Of My Words Finally Sinked In.
"Sorry Little Buddy, I Had No Idea"
"It's Fine….Really, But I Would Appreciate Greatly If You Did Not Brought That Up Again"
He Then Flexed His Left Bicep And With His Right Hand Made a "X" Shape In The Bandaged Muscle.
"What Was That?"
"It's Like That Thing You Humans Do, Like When You Cross Your Heart To Make a Promise, But THIS Is a Fitting Vessel For Such a Promise"

I Chuckled At His Response, At Least He Seems To Be One Of Those "Dumb Of Ass Full Of Heart" Type. I Then Decided To Focus My Attention Of The List Provided To Me By The Academy. Just a Few Books On Basic Duel Lessons, I Should Be Able To Find Some Used Books Lying Around Satellite. After I Finished Taking The Necessary Notes I Turned Off My Computer And Decided To Start Looking For These Books.
Putting On The Same Clothes I Wore Yesterday I Set Out In The Streets Of Domino City To Try And Find Those Books. With a Meat-Head Of a Duel Monster Spirit In Tow.