Chapter 6:
Cries of agony resounded all throughout the arena, followed by an almost deafening applause. The duelist hit the ground, tossing around in pain caused by his equipped collars as they burned his clothes. From above, the masked men and women looked down on him in glee, rejoicing at his every turn.
The scene repeated. The cheers were still there but got drowned out by the ever-growing cries of pain. He turned and tossed on the hard floor below, electricity coursing through his body. What did he do to deserve this? Why did he have to endure this pain over and over again?
His surroundings changed, to a small, musty room with a smell that made his stomach turn. Pain. A slap with the belt, a kick to the stomach, loud screams he couldn't make sense of. He was hurled into a tiny room, broken and crying, his stomach aching, but screaming for food. Until all went black once again.
With a sudden, stinging ache headache, Blake surged up in his sleep, only to hit his head on the empty bed above him. Hissing in pain, he rubbed his fresh bruise, noticing that the room was completely dark. He searched with his hands and grabbed the PDA next to his pillow, turning it on for light, that promptly blinded him. Four in the morning, its clock read. Tossing the blanket aside, he sat up properly at the edge of his bed and noticed how his body was drenched in sweat. The tank-top he wore to bed was clinging onto him, as did the briefs. He ran his right hand through his hair, getting his wet bangs away from his eyes. The pain had subsided, but his body hadn't yet calmed down.
"Fuck", Blake sighed lowly as he stood up, making his way over to the bathroom on unsteady legs. A flick of a switch later, he saw his tired face in the illuminated mirror, a bead of sweat running down his forehead. He turned on the cold water and washed his face, the shivers caused by it straightened him out. Getting out of his sweaty clothes, he continued with a wet towel, not wanting to make his way over to the dorm showers at this hour.
Although faint, he remembered what he had seen before he woke up. How it felt. The smell, the pain, the laughter. He thought it had stopped once he was out of his parents flat. The dreams became further and further apart once he had moved in with Katherine, after all. No more beatings, no disgusting smells, no spiteful people that saw him as a nuisance, which they could use to make money. She had saved him from there, gave him what he needed. She got him to grow stronger and prove his worth, not only to her but himself. And now, when she allowed his selfish demand to go to the academy, it didn't even take him a week before his nightmares were back again. He knew she didn't help him out of charity, but who else did he have? Only himself, who got nightmares the moment she wasn't around.
He put on a fresh set of clothes, struggling to do so with his left arm for a bit, and looked at the time again. Only half an hour had passed and it would take another couple of hours before the sun would rise. Classes started at nine in the morning, but he knew he couldn't go back to sleep. Instead, he pulled out the tracksuit the students had been provided with for sports classes and put it on. He felt weak, vulnerable even, and it disgusted him. 'I won't get weighted down by this. Stupid nightmares won't keep me from my chance to finally have it good.'
His mind set, he pulled up the tracksuits zipper, put his cap on and shoes on, and quietly left his room.
Despite the early hour, the air wasn't as cold as Blake had expected. After a short warm-up, he began jogging along the coast, and the fresh, cool air did wonders to clear his head. The docks were near the Slifer dorm, and a cliffside not far from it either. He remembered that location from several duels that would happen there in the future; Jaden against Syrus, and later on Dimitri, who used a version Yugis deck that was sent to the academy as part of an exhibition. Only a handful of people had seen that duel originally, which was a shame. Especially with the newer support cards in the King of Games deck, it would be a show for sure.
Resuming his jog, he passed the Ra Yellow dorm, which was a group of several larger houses, up until a wide river, which led up to the Obelisk Blue boy dorm. It was massive, which was hilarious, as it housed about the same number of students as the tiny, cramped Slifer Red dorm. He could almost see the look on the pretentious bastards faces in blue once he got promoted to their dorm, and kicked one of theirs out. There were enough of them that only were in there because of their parents' money, not their own accomplishments, and he'd see to it that those would get booted out. Others had to work hard to get anywhere, and the people that got everything handed to them on a silver platter and then blared about their greatness just urged him to prove them wrong, as violently as acceptable. There would certainly be enough other students that deserved their places more. Bastion wanted to get into the Blue dorm, but refused to get in the first time he had the chance and then never tried again, from what he remembered. Jaden should be there from his dueling prowess alone, yet his grades stopped him. But if Syrus could manage it, so could Jaden. Wouldn't that be a sight to see.
Turning away from the prestigious blue dorm, Blake made his way back to the huts that were his. He knew there was a beach further east, but that one was behind the girl's dorm and he'd only get in trouble being around that one during this hour. When he returned, the sun had slowly begun rising, and he'd noticed some life signals from other students waking up. After a quick visit of his room, he took a cold shower to get ready for the day.
On the way out, a smaller student with brown hair, completely unremarkable if placed in a crowd, came in. "Good morning", he yawned, almost dropping the set of clothes he had with him. "You're the guy that won against that Blue student, Blake something, right?"
Blake, still drying his hair with a towel, nodded. "Yeah, why?"
"That was so cool, man. Those guys were giving me and the other Slifer's some real nasty glares back on the ship, you know. I just think it's good that some of us won't take their attitude and fight back." The boy blabbered on, blocking the doorway completely, much to Blake's annoyance.
"If you and the others don't want to get bullied by them, you should make sure that you're able to deal with them yourselves", Blake told him. "'cause if you don't, nobody will."
With furrowed eyes, he boy countered. "Well, but you're here, right? And that Jaden guy who beat the professor. You're super strong duelists, so surely you-"
"No", Blake replied flat-out. Crestfallen, the other student blinked, trying to come up with something, but he continued. "You can't rely on others to fight your battles, and once exams start, I'm out of this excuse of a dorm."
Done with the conversation, Blake brushed passed the boy, who only shouted after him. "I-If you change your mind, we'll be happy to have you! I'm Kenyou by the way!" The only answer he got was the sound of the door getting slammed shut.
Blake had heard the name before, but he couldn't remember where and in what context. 'Doesn't matter. If he and the other Slifer studends are already looking for someone to protect them, there's no hope for them. Either they learn to look after themselves or have to live with what the other students do to them.'
He put the clothes from this morning away and his Slifer jacket on, his bag slung over his shoulder. A quick look at the PDA told him that first lessons would be with Dr. Crowler, making him groan in annoyance. 'One would think that putting one of the two subjects revolving around the card game everyone is here for in the first spot would get the students motivated. But I dread the man's attitude already. I wonder how he'll react to me trying to butter him up.'
After he met up with Bastion on the way to the main building, they took their seats in the large classroom. Contrary to what he remembered, the seats weren't split vertically but horizontally, meaning that the Slifer students got the lowest front-row seats, the Obelisk students the uppermost ones, and the Ra students everything in between. Blake took a seat somewhere in the middle, with Bastion in the row directly behind him, who told him about how his dorm head was the one cooking for all his students, which were quite a lot.
Not long after, Dr. Crowler entered and took attendance before the bell rang, with Jaden and Syrus coming late by mere seconds. They quickly shuffled for the free seats in front of Blake, but no one could've missed the look of irritation on their professor's face. Nevertheless, the class started and apparently, the next two weeks would be a rehearsal of the basics, so that everyone – Crowler looked at the late comers especially – would be on the same page on that front. That said, they began with a brief history of Duel Monsters.
As the actual lessons were never shown, Blake was quite impressed by Crowlers lecture about how the game had developed. From its creation and beginnings with the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs and stone tablets as the game's roots, over its initial phase before and during Duelist Kingdom, then the modern ruleset laid out in Battle City, which was only slightly altered since then. He was spot on from what Blake remembered, and the lesson in and off itself was more engaging than he'd expected.
With most of the lesson time over, it was time for questions. After a few questions used to highlight the knowledge of his own dorm students, the Slifers were asked next, Syrus to be precise. "Signor Truesdale, would you tell the class the differences between a Field Spell and a Continuous Spell?", the professor asked in his shrill voice. The student in question, however, fumbled around with the stuff on his desk, completely shaken out from his half-sleep.
"Eh, yes just, eh … gimme a second …", Syrus mumbled as he stood up, panicking with all eyes on him. The laughs from behind only made things worse, and after a painful minute of watching him stutter around, the professor ordered him to sit back down, which made the Obelisk Blue students only laugh louder. Blake, who just sighed and shook his head right above Syrus drew their professor's attention right after.
Dr. Crowler, who was visibly satisfied after embarrassing Syrus, then asked Blake. "I see you're as distraught by the lack of answer as I am, Signor Moore." He smirked, and Blake was sure that the doctor knew that in terms of written exams, the next worst student after Syrus was himself. "In that case I hope you can fill in the gap."
Blake stood up and answered. "Yes, sir. The first and most important difference is their placing. While Continuous Spells are placed in the Spell and Trap Card Zone with all the other spells and traps, Field Spells have their own designated slot on each duelists field. Although every duelist has one zone designated for Field Spells, there can only every be one active, as the moment a duelist activates another one, the old one gets destroyed. So, while each duelist could theoretically have five Continuous Spells active, there can only ever be one Field Spell active."
The good doctor blinked at him, apparently surprised by his correct answer. 'Why are you surprised, this is basic knowledge?!' But that didn't stop him from delving deeper. "You're right indeed, Signor Moore. And can you tell us when the concept of Field Spells first came to be?"
It was painfully obvious where the man was going with that, but Blake continued, doing his best not to smirk while he answered. "The concept of different fields was first tried out during Duelist Kingdom, hosted by none other than Maximillion Pegasus. In this tournament, which still used the now obsolete Duel Arenas, every field was predefined with different field power bonuses, similar to the Field Spells we have available now. After this, it took a bit of time until the first Field Spell cards were released, around the time of the Battle City Tournament."
"That … is correct. Thank you, Signor Moore", Dr. Crowler said, his face a mix of surprise and confused acknowledgement. He continued asking students questions about everything they went over today, until the bell rang, ending the lesson. Before the first students could stand up, he handed out homework. "I expect all of you to rehearse everything we've talked about today. As we're spending this and next week with the basics, everyone will be expected to have learned from these lessons. You're dismissed."
As the first students left and the rest moved up the stairs to do the same, Blake waited until the path was clear and walked down to the professor. "Dr. Crowler, do you have a moment to spare?"
The man jumped a bit, clearly not having expected anyone to come down instead of leaving for break. "Signor Moore? What can I do for you?"
'Alright, let's see if it works', Blake thought, before asking. "As you may know, my marks on the written exam were abysmal, to the point I wonder how I even passed." It took the doctor a moment, but he nodded. "Which is why I'd like to ask if you have further material, I could use to bridge the gap, in addition to the homework you hand out." 'Which is completely unnecessary for this subject, but as long as it looks good to him, I'll do it.'
Dr. Crowler pondered for a bit, rubbing his chin. "Well, Signor Moor, I appreciate your drive to make up for your entrance exam, but I believe the material I provide you with is quite enough. I could extend the exercises to hand in for you, but the reading material will stay the same. I'd say your best bet would be being attentive during class and active when it comes to questions, unlike your dormmates." The last bit came out with a touch of annoyance, but overall, it seemed like the man was fond with his idea.
"I will, thank you, doctor", Blake said, after which he grabbed his bag and left. Before he was out of the room, he heard the doctor talking to himself in disbelief. "To think that there would be a day were a Slifer slacker would ask me for more homework …"
It had been a long morning for Bright Hara, one that had just gotten longer, after she was given a number of boxes by their history professor Mr. Stein, who had asked her to deliver them to the faculty room. While she had nothing against the subject itself, their professor sure made it hard to like his lessons with his incredibly dry style of teaching. Since most other students were quick enough to get out of the classroom and into their long lunch break, she was stuck with that assignment after not making it out fast enough. Due to her being one of the few students who actually tried to listen to the lecture, Mr. Stein had ranted off for another ten minutes before he remembered that he had some files that needed to delivered, promptly pushing it onto her.
Now on her way to the second floor, she couldn't even see properly with all the boxes stacked up in her hands, but there was no way she'd make more than one trip or else the break would be over before she even finished eating. In her haste, she didn't notice one of the few people actually tall enough to be seen while carrying a stack of boxes coming around the corner, and crashed into him. The cartons and the papers inside went flying through the corridor, while Bright herself fell onto her butt.
"Ouch … sorry, I didn't see you there", she apologized, realizing that she couldn't see clearly at all, as her glasses must've fallen off when she hit the ground. Furrowing her brows, she began looking for them, before a rough hand handed them to her.
"It's fine, but maybe you shouldn't run when you can't see anything", a cold voice replied. It sounded familiar, and once Bright put her glasses on she saw why. The Slifer student who made such a ruckus in his duel the day before was crouching in front of her, gathering the paper laying around. After that duel and his bashing of the Obelisk students, he had made quite a number of enemies in the student body, according to her seat neighbour. And if not flat-out enemies, then enough others who didn't like his attitude, like her.
The loud snap of his fingers took her out of her thoughts. "Hey, I asked if you need help carrying all this", he said, a tad annoyed.
Bright blinked, surprised by the question. Seeing how he already collected everything she had dropped, she nodded. "Yes, that would be great, actually."
"Good", he replied and took most of the boxes. "Then lead the way."
She got up, took the two remaining boxes and eyed the tall boy a bit warily, before leading him up the stairs to their destination. After a short talk with Professor Satyr, they put the boxes down in the faculty room and left for their overdue lunch break.
"Thank you for your help", Bright said. "After I saw your duel yesterday I kind of expected you to leave after some snarky remark."
Blake, rolling his left wrist, snorted in amusement. "You just didn't hear it." She furrowed her brows. "So, I guess if I hadn't accepted your help, you would've just left?"
"Totally", Blake responded, looking at the map of his PDA. "Why would I help someone who doesn't want me to? All I can do is offer and respect the answer."
Bright was baffled. It was common curtesy to help someone, especially if oneself was the reason for their need of it in the first place! "You're the reason I dropped the crates!" She shouted at him angrily, to which he barely reacted. He put the PDA away and turned to her.
"No, the reason you dropped them was that you carried all of them at once and couldn't see. Instead of running into me, it could've just as well been a pillar", he countered. "If anything, I spared you from falling down the stairs once your tower of boxes would've swayed."
'The audacity of this guy!', she thought, about to say something before getting interrupted. "Look, I'm sorry you crashed into me, but I helped you clean up and carry the stuff, so can we just leave it at that? Or do you want to argue until breaks over?" He sounded as annoyed as Bright felt, but she had to agree on the last part.
"Alright, fine. Forget it", she conceded and made her way to the stairs, where her friend waited around the corner, making her jump in surprise.
"I searched everywhere for you, imagine my surprise when I see you with him off all people. How sneaky of you", she teased, laughing when Bright grimaced at that.
"That ass can go screw himself!" Bright puffed, walking down with her friend in tow. Said friend happily skipped besides her, telling her the one thing she didn't want to hear right now. "He's right, you know."
Bright sighed, letting out a quiet "I know". When she noticed her friend was about to say something, no doubt of lewd nature, with a smug grin, she swiftly put her hand on her friend's mouth. "I don't want to hear it, Yuma." The smaller girl relented, laughing at the prudish look of her green-haired friend. They both knew what she would've said.
Finally, Blake entered the cafeteria of the main building. There was quite a selection of foods and drinks to get here; basic sandwiches and a lot of different beverages, as well as a daily changing menu. The prices in terms of DP were quite high, where a full meal in the cafeteria every day at lunch would require a student at least win three times a week in a normal duel. Since Blake had quite a few DP won already, and wasn't exactly thrilled by the food they got at the Slifer dorm, he ordered himself a big bowl of spicy ramen noodles. When he looked for a seat, the usual Slifer misfits plus Bastion were quite easy to find, so he made his way over to them.
"Hey Blake, where have you been all break?", Jaden asked, slurping on his drink, an empty food tray in front of him. The others also had food trays in front of them, but were still eating.
Blake took a seat between Chumley and Bastion, before he answered. "Got lost and helped someone carry around some documents." Then he began devouring his food, causing even Chumley to make wide eyes at his speed. "Did you guys duel today or did we finally get our allowance?"
"Allowance", Syrus said, finishing his sandwich. "It's gonna be pretty hard to manage the few DP we get if we want more than the meagre meals at the dorm."
Pausing his meal for a sip of water, Blake raised his eyebrow at him. "Just win a few duels. That's what everyone's here for anyway, isn't it?"
"Easy for you to say …", the smaller boy pouted, while Jaden nodded. "Yeah! That's why dueling is more important than schoolwork!" A sweat dropping Bastion couldn't argue against that statement, as Jaden repeated for the third time what had happened the night before. "You remember how we were super tired this morning? It's because Chazz challenged me to a duel in the middle of the night. He sure was lucky someone interrupted us, otherwise he would've lost for sure. Next time I'll get him for what he said."
Blake, who had finished his meal while listening, looked up at him. "You mean how you 'only were lucky when you beat Dr. Crowler'?"
"Nah, I don't care about that. But he said I didn't deserve using the cards I have in my deck, and I won't let that stand", Jaden argued, a fierce determination in his eyes.
Blake blinked in confusion. "Don't a lot of people use Elemental Hero cards? What's the big deal?"
"That's because I received a few super rare ones from my mentor, Koyo Hibiki. He was a pro duelist before he got bedridden and was up there right with the King of Games and Kaiba, you know!", Jaden claimed. "He had a lot of fans, and Chazz was one too, I'd say."
That name didn't ring a bell for Blake, but it'd be weird if all there was to these people was what had been shown in the series. Their table got quite a number of glares after Jaden raised his voice, which prompted Syrus to steer them out of the cafeteria. "W-well, we're all done with eating, let's get going. Next class is soon enough." Nobody could argue against that, so they put their trays away and left, but Blake didn't follow them for long.
"You guys can go ahead, I'm gonna take a look at the card shop real quick", he told them, following the way on his PDA. The shop itself was moderate in size, with several shelfs standing around, showcasing cards and Duel Monsters merch. The booster packs were lined up on the wall behind the counter, along with deck boxes, card foils, and a screen that showed upcoming cards and replays from tournament matches. Behind the cash register stood a tall, brunette girl that looked like she could be a senior, wearing a uniform that matched the rest of the store. Off to the side stood the equally tall frame of Alexis Rhodes, looking over some cards, briefly looking up as he entered. Their eyes met for a moment, before both of them went back to what they were doing.
After Blake took a quick look around the showcased cards, he made his way for the counter. "Hello, I'm looking for two specific cards and couldn't find them on the shelfs. Do I have to order them or how does this work?", he asked the girl, who put up a classic saleswoman smile.
"Not all cards are put onto the shelfs, especially not the rarer ones. If you tell me what cards you're looking for, I can search the system to see if we have them in store. If not, we'll have to order them for a small surcharge, unless you want to try and get them from a booster pack", she explained with a cheerful voice that definitely wasn't played up, already on the pc beside her.
"Okay, I'm looking for a copy of Dark Armed Dragon and Allure of Darkness", he told her, after which she quickly put the names in.
"We've got four copies of Allure of Darkness for 5000 DP in the back. The Dark Armed Dragon you're looking for we'd need to order, which would increase its cost from 10000 to 12000 DP", the girl told him, looking back at him. "But I'm afraid we can only order once you have the DP needed, so you'll need to come back later."
Blake winced at the high prices, but relented. "Alright, thanks for the info. In that case I'd take three of those boosters over there for now."
"That'll be 600 DP then", she said, putting the packs on the counter and a notice on his PDA asked him to confirm the purchase, which he did.
"Thanks again …", he looked at her with an eyebrow raised. She got the meaning and laughed. "It's Sadie, the new uniforms still miss their nametag." Blake nodded, giving her a brief smile. "Alright, I'll keep it in mind. I'll be back once I got enough DP."
"Just don't take too long, or someone else might buy the cards you're looking for", she bid him goodbye with a wink.
Before he could leave the store, Alexis's friends came in, with one of them grimacing once she saw him. "What are you doing here?", the red-headed girl asked him, or more like demanded of him, with a clear touch of hostility in her voice.
He visibly pocketed the booster packs he just bought, before looking at her confused. "Buying cards, what else?"
Alexis was already closing in, but that didn't stop her friend from going off on him. "Bet you feel real good after your little show yesterday, huh?! Do you think that nasty attitude of yours will get you anywhere?", she continued, getting up in his face.
"No", he told her flat-out. "I'm more off-put by the 'attitude' you guys from the Obelisk dorm have, when you can't back it up."
"What did you just say, you slacker?!", the girl raised her voice, ignoring her friends trying to calm her down.
Blake sighed, "You're just proving my point. Because I wear red and you blue, you act all high and mighty. Not everyone is a good study, you know. But if we dueled, you'd lose like the guy from yesterday."
"Oh, that's it! Once schools over you're done for! And don't even try to run away, I'll show the whole school the difference between a real Obelisk student and a Slifer!"
Hello again everyone and thanks for reading. Before I knew it we already broke the 2000 views mark, which I didn't expect. I'm glad to see that there actually are people that are interested in what I'm writing and I hope I can keep your interest as the story developes.
No duel this chapter, but since I focused on world- and characterbuilding this time, it didn't really fit. But there sure will be one next time, which will be a longer one, I imagine. While most named characters that aren't the main crew don't perform all that well in the show, and Alexis's friends definitely don't, I'm going to take input from the TagForce games, as seen with other characters this chapter. While not on par with students like Bastion, I'll try to make other characters more formidable and perhaps give them the motivation to get better over time.
The last thing I want to mention is the topic of knowledge for the MC. As those who know the different stories and characters in the GX era - or have read it in other fanfics - there was an important name dropped this chapter, one who the MC doesn't remember. I believe you can guess where I'm going with this and hope you're as excited as I am to see it unfold. Until next time ~