Chapter 4

Bastion was not a bad teacher. Jade thought it was an innocent suggestion, one with no depth or meaning, but he had taken his role as tutor pretty seriously; just like everything else apparently. Much to Bastion's reluctance, Tyranno also joined, with the condition that he would behave appropriately. Which even to Jade's surprise he did. Of course, much of his explanations revolved around dinosaurs, yet the other Ra student was making a clear effort in understanding what was being explained. Tyranno had told Jade, in confidence, he had actually been absent from all classes for the first three weeks. Because they were both first years, the raven haired girl allowed the dinosaur-obsessed duelist to copy her notes. She doubted that he would read them before their first session with Bastion, but surprisingly, he did.

"What do you guys think about Sy's chances?" Hassleberry asked suddenly. Jade hadn't seen the turquoise haired duelist in action. While talking about their decks she knew he had a roid-type deck. She also knew that his older brother had a Cyber Dragon deck: Syrus had explained without her asking about it. By the way Trusdale spoke about his brother, Jade couldn't tell if his feelings towards him were fear, respect, intimidation or a slight bitterness. Maybe it was all of it, at once. But she had not enough confidence to ask the Slifer student directly.

"Missy is quite tough, she has chances to go Pro." Bastion stated without taking his gray eyes from his notes.

"Are you saying he can't win?" the tanned Ra student insisted.

"If he wins it will help his confidence." Jade said, hopeful. The dark haired boy glanced at her.

"Yes, but if he doesn't he'll probably ditch the Academy. He tried to do that before." Bastion replied, severely.

"You don't have to be so mean!" Jade answered.

"I am not mean, just realistic. It's a matter of probability. Missy has won 8 out of 10 duels, while Syrus has won only 4 out of 10." He clarified.

"Well, if 4 out of 10 marriages end in divorce does that mean you will never get married?" Jade teased. Bastion's cheeks turned into a light pink shade.

"Th-that's a bit early to say." He replied, embarrassed.

"It's probability." Jade insisted.

"I agree with Jade!" Hasleberry grinned. "Maybe Sy will surprise us all!"

With much anticipation, Syrus' duel finally came. In the days coming up to the event, she had not seen much of the Slifer duelist, not even while hanging out with Jaden. Speaking with the brown haired duelist, he mentioned that Syrus had unsuccessfully tried to run away, like Bastion predicted; but he was convinced to stay. However, after that instance, they hadn't seen much of the turquoise haired duelist.

"He didn't ask me to help him." Jaden sighed with a slight disappointment.

"Maybe he wants to win on his own." Alexis answered.

The group was already in place when Jaden arrived last. The duel between Missy and Syrus had just moved on to the second turn. Jaden had been running, as Jade could tell as he caught his breath and allowed himself to fall on the chair.

"What a friend you are!" Chazz exclaimed. "Even for Syrus you are late!". But Jaden paid no attention to Chazz as he cheered for his friend.

"What do you think, Alexis?" Jade asked the blonde student sitting next to her. Alexis placed a hand on her chin in deep thought.

"He is nervous, that is obvious."

While Missy remained still holding her duel disk, Syrus had a much smaller and hunched posture and balancing his whole weight on his left leg whenever he spoke. His words came out shaky and slightly breathless, explaining everything as fast as he could. As if, the quicker he talked, the less he had to explain. But, with every word he spoke he would gain slow crumbs of confidence.

"I-I activate shield crush, meaning I can destroy Prickle Fairy!". The green monster exploded from within. Syrus followed by placing Steamroid (ATK 1800/DEF 1800) in attack position, and declared an attack on the red haired Obelisk student. Missy had 2200 life points, while Syrus remained with all 4000.

In her turn, Missy normal-summoned Pinch Hooper (ATK 1000/ DEF 1200) in attack position. However, the insect was quickly discarded when the duelist activated the spell card Multiplication of Ants, and thus it was replaced by two Army Ant Tokens (ATK 500/DEF 500). Because Pinch Hooper was in her graveyard, Missy explained, she was allowed to special summon another insect type monster from her hand. Insect Princess, with its bright yellow skin and purple bug eyes was summoned to the field. After this, she activated the field spell, Insect Garden, changing the white dueling arena into a garden with soil and white bell-shaped flowers.

"With this, you take control of my two Army Tokens." She explained. Both ants crawled at fast speed to place themselves in front of the Slifer duelist, who was, and now more than ever, not a fan of insects.

But Missy was not done, as she proceeded to activate Insect Pheromone, equipping it to her Insect Princess. To Syrus, though perhaps a trick of the mind because of his nervousness, the monster seemed to grow in size slightly. Moving onto the battle phase, Insect Princess destroyed one of the Ant Tokens which stood in his side of the field. Activating its effect, Insect Princess gained 500 attack points. Syrus also lost life points as a result. But, because of Insect Pheromone's effect, a second attack took place. Once again, Insect Princess gained attack points, 2900; while Syrus lost life points, having only 700 left.

"This is bad." Chazz said somberly. "Oh! Also he gave me an envelope before the duel, to give to you." The dark haired student extended a closed envelope to Jaden. With anticipation the boy opened it revealing a card, Power Bond. Chazz's dark eyes opened wide.

"That idiot!"

"Why did you accept it, Chazz?" Hassleberry asked, in an accusatory tone.

"I didn't know! Now he is doomed!" He pinched the bridge of his nose with his long and thin fingers. "He is so stupid!" he lamented

"What? What 's the matter?" Jade asked, very confused.

"That card belonged to Zane. It's a very powerful card, and without it, Syrus's deck is pretty much useless." Chazz explained.

"Hey! Don't be so pessimistic." Alexis injected. "He…he probably had his reasons to do this, let's…let's keep on watching." To Jade, the blonde sounded hopeful, but unsure at the same time. The only thing she could think was that Zane Truesdale had left quite an impression on all of them, and was eager to see him soon.

Syrus had been able to summon Submarineroid (ATK 800/ DEF 1800) and using its effect, he attacked Missy directly, which was something. He ended his turn with both of his roids in defense position and a single face down card.

"Is that all you can do?" Missy laughed. Back to her turn, she summoned Magical Longicorn (ATK 600/DEF 1600) in attack position. Instantly, because of the field spell Insect Garden, the bug made its way towards Syrus. When she moved to the battle phase, the Slifer duelist activated the trap card "No Entry". Using this card, Insect Princess was changed to face-up defense position, while Magical Longicorn remained in end the girl`s turn, because of the Trap Card, she had to discard one card from her hand.

Chazz took a deep sigh as if he had been containing his breath.

"Maybe…maybe he can turn this around!" Alexis said, delighted. And she was right. Without Power Bond, on his own, Syrus had managed to win against Missy. With a devastating piercing attack with Super Vehicroid Jumbo Drill (ATK 3000/DEF 2000) he managed to destroy Insect Princess, was allowed to move to Ra Yellow.

Syrus stood confidently, with his chin high as cheers poured from Red and Yellowed clothed students, and even, some Blue ones. However when he approached the group, that confident demeanor had been replaced with shaking knees and desire to vomit.

Jaden patted the boy's back.

"Well done, Sy!"

"I…I…yes. I won." he repeated as if he could not believe it himself. He adjusted his round glasses with trembling hands.

"We should celebrate!" Hassleberry clapped.

"Would you like that, Sy?" Alexis asked.

They returned to the Red Dorm, which had become their base of operations. Syrus had already changed into the yellow jacket, similar to Bation's, but despite moving on with the ranks of the Academy he expressed his desire to stay with Jaden. Hasleberry brought in a gallon of juice and soda along with chips and other snacks. Jade noticed that Jaden still carried the envelope with Power Bond in the pocket of his trousers, however, at least for the night, any mentions of Syrus' brother was omited. After all, this was about him, and not Zane. However, while Zane's name was not mentioned, Jade could tell there was a certain expectation that he would win on Friday. Chazz had joked that because it was a celebration they should have something more elaborate, maybe some beers, and Tyranno had replied that on Friday, he would manage to get more stuff.

The Pro duelist was thankful that his assistant did not ask many questions. She simply provided the information he needed. That, and her researching skills were two of the many reasons he would not fire Esmeralda. Whether it be information about Professional duelists he would face or, like now, criminals who had stolen cards, the green haired woman would deliver what he asked and more. And even better, she didn't tell D about it.

Sure, if there was someone who should be slightly concerned of his whereabouts was D. Esmeralda was not his mom, afterall. However, D had raised him in a quite laissez faire fashion in regards to his professional and personal life. His tutor had given him the talk of the birds and the bees and warned him of the dangers of alcohol and drugs, which were quite prevalent in the Professional scene but that was it. Although, he had expressed that he would be very disappointed should Aster follow a less than good path. Not that Aster was interested in drugs, perhaps because D did not consume them either. But he had seen substances being used at parties, events in which he sometimes wondered how he was even allowed to be since he was at least 13 years old.

With those thoughts on his head, Aster decided to stroll around Domino City at twilight before his match with Zane. He put on a cap and a facemask and had switched his usual white suit for a pair of jeans and a white t-shirt. He could easily blend with any teenager who had just gotten off the bus and was walking back home after a long day of activities. He had finished his reading on his opponent this week, meaning now he could take time to his other, more important activity: finding Destiny Hero Plasma. He doubted he would find it tonight, however, there was a certain child-like hope that perhaps by defeating another card thief, he was closer to his goal.

The crime against his father's life happened eight years ago, Destiny Hero Plasma, the card designed by the victim not even once had popped up. Nobody seemed to know about it, or even heard of it. Of course, he wouldn't exactly say the name of the card outloud, just shuffle the deck of the losing duelists and ask vague questions. This meant that the card had not been sold and had remained with the perpetrator since then. His gut kept telling him that the day he found the card was the day he would find his dad's killer.

His hunt for card thieves had begun by accident. During his first tournament he ran into one and without much thought ran after her. He won, but D had followed close behind and saw the whole scene. He had told him he would support him, if that helped ease his mind. But D never interfered or asked again about the subject. Aster wondered if D knew that he was still doing it after all those years.

Maybe, his tutor thought the boy was joking or speaking metaphorically, or perhaps, allowing the emotions to take the best of him. As a norm he stopped talking about his father and Plasma all together. It wasn't because of D either. He never asked him to call him a father, and was aware that Aster had a real dad who was not him. D had presented himself in Aster's life as a mentor, with certain paternal care but never crossing the boundary. Despite this, Aster had given gifts to D for father's day, as a token of appreciation or acknowledgement that he was like a father figure.

He found the location he was looking for: a gymnasium. By that time it was almost empty except for the receptionist and cleaning staff. The rectangle shaped building was in front of a park, where Aster stood until his person of interest walked out of the building. Based on the information Esmeralda had given him, there had been a spike in stolen cards in this place. The victims, all school children between 10 and 13 years old shared that they all practiced sports here. The thief stole full decks, while students were off to their classes. When they returned after the shower they found their lockers opened. This made Aster think that the person responsible was an amateur who had access to the keys of the place. What is more, the place lacked funding meaning that the only camaras functioning were the ones at the front and back doors; but none inside the building.

Aster followed behind the man through the busy streets of Domino. A group of three drunk workers almost crashed into as he turned to the alley. Despite the lack of street lights the man walked at a relaxed pace as he texted away on his phone. He seemed to be familiar with the route. The silver haired duelist hid behind a corner when the man in question suddenly stopped to talk to another man. Then, he gave the other a deck of cards, and in return he was given an envelope. The man who Aster had followed opened the envelope, which contained money and quickly counted it with his index finger. The transaction was done. Both men began walking in opposite directions as if they didn't know each other. Because the man was busy texting again, he jumped a little when Aster spoke.

"That was a bit shady, don't you think?" The man didn't recognize him, thankfully. However, he could tell the words had come from the mouth of a teenager.

"What would you know, kid? Shouldn't you be dining with your parents or something?" he replied.

"I saw what you did. I know you stole those cards and sold them." Aster insisted.

"And if I did, what? It's just paper. You can't put me in jail." The man proceeded to walk past Aster but he quickly grabbed him by the shoulder.

"I don't think so." He said as he turned on his duel disk. As it was not a recorded match the professional duelist allowed himself flexibility, or at least less spectacle. After all, he had other things to do and did not want to stay in a dark alley for long.

His opponent opened the duel. Activating Polymerization he summoned Cyber Ogre 2 (ATK 2600/DEF 1900). A lucky draw, Aster thought. Perhaps, the man in front of him expected a shock expression, but Aster's expression remained blank. However, he could tell his opponent felt confident as he did not place a single card face down and passed his turn. Grave mistake. Activating Destiny Draw Aster sent one card to the Graveyard from his hand, allowing him to draw two more.

"I will do something quite familiar." the professional duelist said. He activated Polymerization and summoned Elemental Hero Phoenix Enforcer (ATK 2100/DEF 1200), with the Burstinatrix which was drawn thanks to the spell card and Avian which he drew in his first hand.

"Still. My monster is stronger than yours." his opponent replied.

"Not for long."

Aster activated the spell card Skydive Scorcher. This card allowed him to destroy a monster his opponent controlled which had a higher attack than his, and inflict damage based on that number. Phoenix Enforcer launched an attack with the three sharp blades in its left arm, destroying Cyber Ogre 2. The man winced in pain with the sudden loss of life points: from 4000 to 1400 in an instant. Moving to the battle phase, Phoenix Enforcer attacked the man directly, ending the duel. As the monster slashed he let out a loud cry. He had not expected the man would be so noisy, surely someone had heard them.

"You can't escape from destiny". He said as he walked away, leaving the man trembeling on the floor.


Well...this is a bit awkward. It was never my intention to abandon the fic. I will admit that 2023 was NOT my year: my dog died and I was fired from my job. I have not opened the word document since June-July 2023, even! It's a bit hard to get back into writing, I feel a bit rusty, but I will do my best to keep going with the story. Maybe I should watch GX again haha