[Central Academy Main Building - Classroom #4 - 9:05 AM]

Oleander was slumped on his seat with his gaze absently locked on the ceiling. The class had barely started, and he was already bored out of his mind. The worst part is he tried to skip class, but unfortunately for him, Sadie caught him red-handed.

Crowler, as usual, was just dronning on and on with that voice of his that is as pleasant as nails scratching a chalkboard.

Thankfully, the Obelisk Blue headmaster stopped talking when none other than Chancellor Sheppard appeared. The older man excused himself into the room, giving the students a friendly wave and an approving nod as he passed by.

Upon arriving at the bottom of the classroom, he whispered something into Crowler's ear, causing the professor's expression to suddenly become downtrodden as his shoulders slumped downward.

"Students, the Chancellor has a very important announcement, and as such there will be no class for the rest of the day." Crowler explained with a heavy sigh.

"Yes!" Oleander loudly exclaimed while jumping from his seat, though he was quickly dragged back down by Sadie, who did so by pinching and twisting his ear.

"Sorry Doctor, please continue," Sadie said with a pleasant smile as her grip on her boyfriend's ear only tightened, causing him to whimper.

"Like I was saying, the Chancellor has an important announcement, so please make your way to the dueling fields." Crowler finished the explanation with a small bow.

The students started to make their way out of the room with the exception of two; by this point, Sadie had let go of Oleander's ear.

"That was unnecessary," Oleander said while rubbing his ear in an attempt to stifle the pain.

"The same could be said for your little stunt," Sadie calmly shot back with a smug smile.

Oleander opened and closed his mouth as his mind raced to rebuke her, but alas, there was none to be found, so instead he opted to simply grumble under his breath something that isn't neither her nor there.

"Come on, Ollie, we're going to be late for the announcement." Sadie grabbed his hand and led the defeated duelist out of the classroom.

[Central Academy Main Building - Dueling Fields - 9:13 AM]

At the stands Oleander and Sadie were chatting while waiting for the announcement to start, the stands were quickly getting filled as more and more students poured in from various entrances, judging by the amount of students it wouldn't take long for the announcement to start.

"...and then you can add a card like Haunted Zombies, it would give you two tokens, ready to be used for a tribute or fusion summon" Oleander finished his explanation with a satisfied smirk.

"I will see if I have one in my trunk, if not I'm sure grandma would be willing to sell me one or two for a discounted price" Sadie concluded as she wrote the card's name on her PDA.

"Employee privileges or granddaughter privileges?" He cooked an eyebrow at her response.

Before she had the chance to respond, the lights in the fields dimmed, save for one particular spot right in the middle of the central field where Chancellor Sheppard stood with a microphone in hand.

"Good morning, Central Academy!" He greeted the students with a warm smile, waving at them with his free arm. "As some of you might know, the annual duel between Central Academy and North Academy is fast approaching; however, this year things will be a bit different." He motioned to a big screen behind him.

The screen came to life briefly displaying the Kaiba Corp logo before displaying a massive tournament bracket, which got some students to murmur between themselves and Oleander's face to contort into sheer confusion.

If memory didn't fail him in the anime, the teachers would pick a student to face another student picked by North Academy, but the revelation of the tournament bracket caused him to be equal parts confused and interested, so for the first time in a while he decided to actually pay attention to what Sheppard was about to say.

"Me and Foster decided to shake things up; seeing both academies received a large influx of students this year, we will hold a tournament where various teams consisting of three students will compete; the winner will be awarded the opportunity to face the team selected by North Academy." He buried his hand in his pocket and pulled a remote control.

Upon pressing the control, the image displayed in the screen changed from the bracket to three blank portraits with the phrase "Team A" written under the portraits, and with another press of the button, another set of three portraits appeared, this time with "Team B" written under them.

Sheppard then went on to explain the specifics of the tournament; most of what he said was typical tournament ruling, though one thing really caught everyone by surprise, and it was the fact that there's no restriction when it comes to the creation of a team.

For example, there's nothing stopping a Slifer Red or Ra Yellow student from inviting an Obelisk Blue to be a part of their team; the only caveat is that only the first-year students would be allowed to partake in the tournament, seeing as North Academy will send a team composed of first-year students.

Oleander whistled while nodding his head in a satisfactory manner; without a restriction based on dorm or gender, the tournament would be bound to have some terrific combinations.

The more he thought about the upcoming tournament, the more he found himself getting excited; it was like there was an itch deep inside his skull that could only be scratched with a good duel.

"I know that look in your eyes," Sadie commented while resting her chin on the back of her hands while eyeing Oleander up and down.

"Would you like to form a team with me?" He asked while fluttering his eyelashes and clasping his hands together in an innocent fashion.

"While I'm not a big fan of tournaments, I will participate in this one, just because you asked." She said while reaching forward and booping him on the nose, "Tough, we need a third member."

"Don't worry," Oleander said with a dismissive wave of his hand. "I have the perfect person in mind."

[Obelisk Blue Dorm - Shinji's Room - 9:30 AM]

Shinji found himself staring at a mirror while undoing his bandages. Once his brown locks were freed from their restraints, he gave the back of his head an experimental poke to see if it was still hurting, and to his utter delight, the pain was long gone.

Smiling, he happily dumped the old bandages into a trash bin by the foot of his desk before throwing himself on his bed, sighing in relief as the comfortable mattress shifted under him. Tomorrow he'd go back to going to classes, and he couldn't wait. Ra knows that he will have a mountain of assignments that he would need to turn in.

But that was a problem for tomorrow-Shinji to deal with because today-Shinji was about to spend the rest of the day sleeping in pea–.

He wasn't allowed to conclude his train of thought as the door to his room was suddenly kicked wide open. The Obelisk Blue screamed while scrambling to get up from his bed, though his panic turned into sheer frustration when he saw none other than that purple-haired maniac.

"Shinji, my main man!" Oleander practically shouted while opening his arms wide.

Shortly after Sadie appeared, and she looked positively horrified as her gaze landed on the broken oak door, said horror morphed into anger as she pinched Oleander's ear and started to give him an earful.

For the next minute or so Shinji just stood there dumbstruck while Sadie tore Oleander a new one, however he would be lying if he said he didn't find the sight of the defeated look on the purple-haired maniac's face enjoyable.

"So, did you two kick down my door just to argue or…?" Shinji asked while leaning against a nearby wall causing Sadie to stop mid berating.

"Oh yeah, sorry for that" She sheepishly said while letting go of her boyfriend's ear causing the latter to rub his ear while sighing in relief.

"I will assume that you're already aware of the up and coming tournament, so we came here to extend a formal invitation to make part of our as-of-yet-unnamed team," Oleander explained while extending a hand.

Shinji was about to tell him off for even entertaining the idea of them partnering up for anything, but he stopped himself when he considered two very important factors.

1: While Oleander could act like either a complete idiot or a complete maniac at the drop of a hat, there was no denying that not only was he a competent duelist, but his deck was obscenely strong; hell, there's even talking that he could go toe-to-toe with Zane Truesdale of all people.

2: Not only did he drag Shinji's ass from that random corner of the forest all the way to the infirmary, but he also held on to his deck and personally delivered it to him.

With those considerations in mind and with no small amount of hesitation the Obelisk Blue reached forward and grabbed the extended hand in a firm handshake earning a toothy grin from the purple-haired duelist.

"Okay, now that we are officially a team, we should do some team-bonding activities" Oleander proposed as he let go of Shinji's hand and began wandering around the room while brainstorming ideas.

On his part, Shinji couldn't help but groan, already second-guessing his decision to join the purple-haired nutjob's team, but he reassured himself that if they managed to win the tournament and face the North Academy team, it would serve as a good exposition to potential sponsors when he goes pro.

Sensing the Obelisk Blue's irritation, Sadie decided to step him by gently, albeit firmly, placing her hands on Oleander's shoulders, causing him to stop his mumblings and turn his attention to her.

"Ollie, your enthusiasm is nothing short of admirable, but let's start with something simple; we don't want to overwhelm our new member, do we?" She graced his cheek with a quick peek, which finally caused him to calm himself.

"Yeah, sorry, I got a bit too excited." He closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths. Once done with his brief exercise, he turned his attention to Shinji. "Do you have any suggestions?"

"I propose a Battle Royale between us, it should give us a good feel on each other's deck" The Obelisk Blue explained in a slightly condescending manner, as if it was the most obvious course of action to take.

[Central Academy Outskirts - Sea Facing Cliffs - 11:45 AM]

With a grunt, Oleander put a large cooler down and wasted no time sitting on top of it to catch his breath.

"Why did we bring so much stuff?" Oleander complained while giving his shoulder a few twists to ease the aches. "I thought we were going to simply duel."

"If we want to win this tournament, or at least enhance our odds, we should iron out any flaws in our decks." Shinji explained while setting down a cooler next to his exhausted teammate. "So it's only natural that we spend a good few hours training."

"Speak for yourself; my deck's pretty strong as it is," Oleander said with a smug smile while placing his hands behind his head and leaning against the rock wall.

"But not invincible; we have to work with the mindset that people will expect you to appear in the tournament and thus bring their A-game into the table," Shinji countered with an annoyed expression.

"That's rich coming from the guy who lost to me on ten separate occasions." The purple-haired duelist remarked, his smugness only intensifying as Shinji groaned in frustration.

"But that doesn't take away the truth in his words." Sadie chimed in while she picked a soda can from one of the coolers. "Don't get me wrong, you're one of, if not the most talented duelist I've seen in a while, but let's be real for a second, you're not Seto Kaiba."

"Ouch, that hurt," He commented while rubbing his chest as if it were hurting.

"Just because I love you wholeheartedly doesn't mean I will turn a blind eye to your bad habits." Sadie countered, "And trust me, you have a lot of them."

"And besides, do you really think I'm proud of my past behavior?" Shinji added as his expression went from annoyed to stern.

"Okay, sorry," Oleander spoke in a meek voice while practically shrinking on the spot, all of the smug air surrounding him disappearing.

Instead of engangin further into the conversation, Shinji opted to simply hand the duel disks to his teammates before making his way toward the more open area, where he stood impatiently tapping his foot on the ground.

With a deep sigh, Oleander patted his cheeks a few times before putting on a brave face and steeling himself for what promised to be a non-stop marathon.

[10 hours later]

Oleander was struggling to keep himself awake; it was duel after duel after duel with barely any pauses between them; he could barely concentrate on the duel that was happening in front of him.

"Go Tri-Horned Dragon..." Shinji weakly commanded with a sluggish motion of his arm.

The purple-haired duelist gaze shifted from his hand to his field; even his dragons looked tired with Starving Venom and Dark Rebellion struggling to keep themselves composed, and as for Odd-Eyes, the red dragon had completely given up and was now passed on the ground face first, right beside Predaplant Chlamydosundew, who was in attack position.

He couldn't help but groan at such misplay on his part; he should've used Chlamydosundew's effect to fuse it with Starving Venom to make Greedy Venom and beat Shinji's Tri-Horned Dragon on the next turn, but he was just so damn tired... Well too late to cry over the spilled milk as the mighty dragon squished the sleepy iguana like it was nothing.

Oleander Hemlock: 0
Sadie Agawa: 0
Shinji Abiko: 200
Winner: Shinji Abiko

"Finally" With a sigh of relief, Oleander practically collapsed on the floor, completely unbothered by the fact that Shinji managed to beat him in a duel.

"I think that's enough for one day," Shinji said while rubbing his eyes, which were already forming bags under them.

"Sadie, let's go back to..." The purple-haired duelist trailed off when he saw that his girlfriend had already fallen asleep leaning against one of the coolers.

He had to admit the sight was nothing short of heartwarming, though as much as it pained him to disturb her, especially when she was in such a peaceful state, he needed to take her either to her room or his room for a proper rest.

Picking himself off the ground, he made his way toward her. With a firm grip on her shoulder, he gently shook it to arouse her from her sleep, but alas, all he got were some mumbling in Japanese.

"Come on, Sadie." He tried again only to get the same results. With a sigh, he turned to face Shinji "Do you mind wrapping things around here while I take her back to the dorm?"

"Go ahead; this shouldn't take long." The Obelisk Blue said while taking sight of the mess they made.

"Thanks a lot; I owe you one." Oleander gave him a nod before reactivating his duel disk and summoning Odd-Eyes. The dragon was now awake, though it was clearly obvious he was still groggy.

"Well, that's something you don't see every day." Shinji remarked with curiosity while watching the heterochromatic dragon stretch himself.

"Yeah, let's just say that Duel Monsters cards are more lively than you think." He gave his teammate a wink before gently scooping the sleeping Sadie in a princess carry and hopping on top of Odd-Eyes.

Both Oleander and his dragon then set off disappearing among the foliage, leaving a very puzzled Shinji, though that got him thinking maybe his monsters would also be as lively...? There's only one way to find out.

[Academy Outskirts - Path to the Obelisk Blue Girls Dorm - 21:55 PM]

The walk toward the dorm was nothing short of serene. Sadie had adjusted herself onto Odd-Eyes' back, so she was still passed out while Oleander was taking the sights. He'd usually opt to go for the scenic route, but this time he had to take the more conventional route.

"So, you're excited for the tournament?" The purple-haired duelist asked Odd-Eyes while running a hand through the dragon's neck, getting a bark in response, "I can imagine, though I wonder... what to do with Clear Wing?" He mused while scratching his chin.

While he did get out relatively scot-free after he summoned Dark Rebellion for the first time, he severely doubted that Sheppard or the CAIS would be as lenient; honestly, he was surprised by the lack of a buzz after he defeated the number 1 freshman using an as-of-yet unheard summoning technique; he was half expecting Seto Kaiba himself to show up at his doorstep demanding to see the card.

Either KaIba wasn't interested, which he severely doubted, or Sheppard was doing his very best to keep this whole situation under wraps, which in itself was a bad idea.

Why? Because Central Academy was built by Seto Kaiba, the same guy that overthrew a tycoon titan like Gozaburo Kaiba when he was only ten years old, it wasn't a question of if he was going to find out but rather a question of when, and going by Kaiba's track record, it wouldn't be long.

And Oleander would be lying if he said he wasn't a tad nervous, while he was sure that whatever quarrel Kaiba might have with him would surely be resolved with a duel, and that's that part that had Oleander a bit on edge.

Oleander might have Synchro, Xyz, and a slew of Number Monsters at his disposal, but he would be going up against the second-best duelist in the world, and he was pretty sure that Kaiba would have some anime-exclusive cards, like Virus Cannon and Deck Destruction Virus, and those two cards alone would be more than enough to pummel Oleander into the ground.

Sensing his friend's apprehension Odd-Eyes stopped moving and craned his neck back to nuzzle the purple-haired duelist's face, which admittedly helped to ease his anxiety.

He simply shook his head. Look at him overthinking and getting worried about something that might not even happen; Oleander himself would mock that kind of behavior. Returning the gesture of affection, Odd-Eyes quickly returned to his usual pace; the trees were making way to a more open field, revealing the Obelisk Blue Girls Dorm.

"I think I should take Sadie the rest of the way there on foot." Oleander got off Odd-Eyes' back and carefully scooped his sleeping girlfriend into his arms, much to the red dragon's confusion. "Look, remember when we first met?" He asked, getting a bark in response, "The staff is aware of your appearance, and that might lead to some rather invasive questions if they say you, so don't worry about me, okay?"

The dragon looked at him dead in the eyes for a solid few seconds before solemnly nodding, earning a sympathetic look from his purple-haired friend.

"I will be fine; I will just go there, speak to Nurse Fontaine, and hand Sadie to her. I will be back before you know it." He gave the heterochromatic a wink before commencing his march toward the luxurious building.

Odd-Eyes wanted to go after him so badly but he contained himself, instead of disobeying the order the dragon opted to hide himself inside a few bushes and just lie and wait.

[Central Academy Outskirts - Ancient Ruins - 3:33 AM]

Professor Lyman Banner was standing over some ruins he found during his night walks throughout the island, in his hands were a notebook and pen which were being used to draw sketches of the various monuments and to write down notes.

He always found therapeutic the mere act of taking notes and cataloging everything that there's to be found and he's been doing said therapy a lot in recent times, with a disgruntled sigh he stopped and looked at the back of his hand, his frown only deepening as his red-eyes laid on a faint crack that adorned his pale skin.

Though his attention shifted from his cracked hand to the ruins, something about it felt strange; it was the kind of strange he wasn't used to.

Closing his notebook the Slifer Red Headmaster started to make his way through the worned stone structures the deeper he walked into them the stronger the feeling became.

Eventually he found the source of it, a simple Duel Monster card that was unceremoniously lying on the floor face-down. Curious, he crouched down to pick up the fallen card, his eyes widening as he flipped the card face-up.

A sinister smirk broke through his lips as he reached inside his pocket and pulled a burner phone and called the only contact present on the device.

"Superintendent Kagemaru" The professor's voice rang across the forest "I've found something of great interest to you" He got up allowing the moonlight to reveal the card in his hands.

Number 96: Dark Mist

[Author's Notes]

Hey there folks! It's ya boy! Mac!
I don't have a lot to say regarding the chapter, but I will announce that there's a very high probability that I will not be posting any chapters in November. With the end of the year in sight, I will be too focused studying for the final exams to focus on writing chapters, but don't worry! If everything goes smoothly, I will be able to post a chapter in December.

Anyhow, that's it, folks! Mac sign' out!

Don't forget to leave a review containing criticism and/or suggestions! I read all of them!