It was a peaceful night at the Central Academy; almost all of the students were in their rooms, either studying, tinkering with their decks, or simply sleeping the night away. Well, almost all of them.
At the card shop, a group consisting of the shop's employees and a trio of Slifer Reds alongside a Obelisk Blue girl were lying and waiting for the culprit that wrecked the place, with one of them being very eager to get his hands on the culprit.
While some were struggling to stay awake and others had fallen asleep altogether, namely Jaden Yuki and Chumley Huffington, Oleander stood wide awake. He went even further and used tape to make sure he wouldn't blink, not wanting to lose even a split second of anything that could happen.
"Oleander…" Sadie poked him in the shoulder. "Are you sure you don't want me to take over the watch?" She had a tinge of concern in her voice; she was not used to seeing her co-worker, who is usually a very laid-back and relaxed person, like that.
"No," he flatly said, before reaching inside his jacket, pulling a little bottle of eyedrops, and before long he had soaked his eyes in the liquid.
"Is he usually like that?" Alexis asked while looking a bit on edge after witnessing the Slifer Red odd behavior.
"No," she turned to face her fellow Obelisk Blue, "and I don't get it; other than the window and the sandwiches, nothing of importance was stolen."
As soon as the words left her mouth, she felt a sinister chill run down her spine. She slowly turned around, only to be face-to-face with Oleander, who now turned all of his attention squarely on her. His crimson eyes almost seemed to glow in the dimly lit card shop.
"I mean, it's such a tragedy what happened to our beloved card shop," she said, giving him a nervous, cheeky smile. Hoping those words appease her co-worker.
And it seemed to work because Oleander's attention soon returned to the card shop, and Sadie felt as if a huge weight was lifted from her shoulders.
"That was… Weirdly intense" Syrus commented as he shuffled backwards a bit as the young Slifer asked, "Are you 100% sure he isn't like that all the time?" He said that last part in a hushed voice, afraid that the purple-haired sentinel might hear him.
"Yes." Sadie sighed as she shook her head. "If only he had that kind of focus and dedication on other things other than his work, he'd be an Obelisk Blue by now." Sure, she too liked to work in the card shop, but Oleander took that to a whole other level.
But she did notice something odd; maybe it was a trick of the light or sleepiness is finally catching up to her, but she could see a fainted projection of Starving Venom Fusion Dragon right behind him during their brief stare-off.
Her thoughts were interrupted when everyone heard a noise coming from the broken window. Someone was trying to remove the cardboard piece they had placed to fill the hole.
After a few minutes, the cardboard fell off, and everyone laid eyes on the culprit who had wrecked the place earlier.
It was a muscular man wearing nothing but ripped shorts; his long jet-black hair almost disguised him in the darkness of the shop. It was clearly obvious from his unkempt and wild appearance that he lived in the forest.
He looked left and right, and once he was sure the coast was clear, he walked over to the sandwich box and stuck his hand inside. Thanks to the efforts of the Slifer trio and the shop's employees, they were able to make more sandwiches. But something felt off about the new pile; it was a bit larger than normal, and Sadie could swear she heard movement from within.
For a second time, her train of thought was stopped dead in its tracks as a howl of pain filled the shop as the sandwich thief tried to take his hand off the box. It was clear that something had grabbed his hand.
"Caught you~" Oleander sang as a sadistic smirk broke through his face. "Seems like he found the little "gift" I left just for him," he chuckled lowly.
Once the man managed to remove his hand, Sadie quickly noticed what seemed to be a scorpion pinching his index finger and a chameleon biting his middle finger.
"Are those…" She trailed off once she recognized what those things were; they were those freaky plants Oleander had in his deck.
"Remember when I had to leave to get something earlier?" He turned to her, the grin on his face growing. "Well, I went back to get my duel disk," he said, then pointed to a specific spot on the ceiling. And that's when she saw it—his duel disk resting against one of the metal beams that provided support to the structure.
"How did you do that?" She and everyone there were absolutely flabbergasted; the support beams were extremely high in the ceiling, and yet the purple-haired duelist managed to get up there.
"If you were a proud employee like me," he jabbed his chest with his thumb as his smirk went from sinister to prideful in a blink of an eye. "There would be no such thing as the impossible."
"You are a weird guy." Alexis said it with wide eyes. "But I can't argue against your dedication to your job." And with that, everyone nodded in unison at the Obelisk's words.
But their attention was then snapped back to the culprit as he finally managed to pry the plant abominations from his fingers, by throwing them over the counter.
Unfortunately for the group, Ophrys Scorpio landed squarely on Syrus's face, causing the blue-haired Slifer to squeal like a little girl and begin to desperately claw his face as he tried to get the plant monster off his face.
The culprit, noticing the group on the counter, threw himself through the broken window and ran away.
"Oh no!" Oleander declared as he jumped over the counter, "Not on my watch! Let's go Starving Venom!"
From the darkness of the ceiling, Oleander's ace monster descended, one of its snake-like tendrils holding its master's duel disk. Oleander wasted no time in slipping the device into his arm before climbing on top of the ferocious dragon.
And before anyone had the time to react, both the dragon and the duelist launched themselves out of the window, pursuing the sandwich thief deep into the dark forest.
They just stood there in silence, processing what just happened. The silence was so deafening that a pin could be heard dropping.
And then Jaden broke the silence as he yawned, finally waking up from his slumber. He smacked his lips and looked left and right while scratching the back of his neck.
"Did we catched the guy?" he asked while letting out another yawn and getting up on his feet
At the forest
The Sandwich thief was running through the forest, jumping from branch to branch. He made his way through the foliage, and he did not fail to notice the giant purple dragon and its angry duelist chasing after him.
"Get back here, you shop wrecker!" Oleander angrily shouted from the top of his lungs, "You can't escape me! I'll chase you down to the ends of the earth!" as if resonating with his master, Starving Venom angrily roared.
The chase continued for a few good minutes with the Tarzan knock-off trying every trick in the book to try and get Starving Venom off his hide, and they worked—that is, until they didn't and Starving Venom was once again hot on his tail.
But it all came to a head once they had hit a waterfall. The sandwich thief looked left and right, frantically looking left and right, desperate for a way to escape.
However, it was too late. Heavy footsteps, accompanied by a low, albeit audible, snarl, were audible behind him. He turned around and was faced with the sight of Oleander and Starving Venom Fusion Dragon, whose piercing, glowing yellow eyes were staring directly at his soul.
"So," the purple-haired Slifer said as he dismounted from his ferocious beast. "You are the one that wrecked my workplace environment." There was a low growl in his voice as he said that last part.
Instead of giving up or cowering in fear, the Tarzan knock-off did a somersault backwards. He then stuck his hand into the waterfall, pulled a battle city-era duel disk, and slipped in his arm.
"Me not give up!" He declared as he activated his duel disk. "Me defeat you!"
"Oh, sweet summer child." Oleander shook his head as he took his position and prepared himself. "You have absolutely no idea with whom you are messing with."
The very next day
"And then he mounted on top of that purple dragon and took off." Alexis finished recounting the events that transpired last night.
"Wow," Jasmine said with wide eyes. "Talk about hardcore dedication to his job."
"Did he look handsome?" Mindy asked her blonde friend, with a dreamy smile on her face, "Please tell me he's single."
Before Alexis or Jasmine had the chance to respond, they arrived at the card shop and were greeted with an unusual sight.
The same muscular man from yesterday was there again, but this time he was wearing a card shop uniform and was currently moving some big boxes out ot the back
"Hey Damon!" Oleander's Voice rang from the other side of the shop "A Customer needs help with something on a high shelf!" he snapped his fingers before pointing to a Ra Yellow student struggling to get a structure deck on a high shelf
"Yes, Sir!" He straightened his position while giving the purple-haired duelist a soldier's salute. "Me, go there now."
Alexis simply pinched the bridge of her nose and shook her head, The Slifers of this year are a whole different breed indeed.