The game mat was set, the game pieces—the cards—were ready, and only one of the players was eager to go adventuring, or whatever it was called. Gaga sat across from Mana, her chin resting on her hand, looking distinctly bored. The dull thud of her fingers tapping on the table was the only sound that was keeping her awake as she stared at the nothing in front of her.

Mana, on the other hand, had her usual vacant stare fixed on the cards, as if they were the most fascinating thing in the world, which given her previous outburst, they probably weren't anymore. Her fingers hovered over them, eyes glazed, but her mind clearly somewhere far, far away, trying to focus, but fearing a repeat of a few seconds ago. She had basically trapped herself in her own bubble, and Gaga had seen plenty of guys she'd get with under normal circumstances take advantage of that…until they put their hands on Mana, and that problem solved itself.

It really should be stressed that by now, everyone in their part of town knew not put their hands on Mana Nakamura. "Any day now," Gaga muttered, her patience thinning.

Mana blinked, as if only just realizing that they were playing a game. "Oh, right, sorry…" she mumbled, reaching for a card, taking half a second to read it, and put it on the placemat. And kept it there. Her hand hovered there for a moment longer than necessary, as if she'd forgotten what the game was about halfway through her decision-making process.

Gaga sighed. 'This is going to take forever. ' It wasn't like Gaga to care too much about this type of stuff, wasn't her thing. The dice, the cards, the over-the-top narrations Darius and his creepy lizard loved to dive into- oh god it was staring at her- keep her out of it. But here she was, playing babysitter again. Gaga didn't trust Mana to get home on her own. Mana's default expression practically screamed 'rob me!' or worse, the type of face that attracted a lot of shifty freaks from just how out of tune with reality she was at times. Gaga didn't need to imagine a hypothetical scenario, she'd seen it play out multiple times, someone trying to pull something on Mana, it almost working, and Mana not even noticing until it was too late for the victimizer who would now be the victim "Are you actually going to play?" Gaga muttered, half-expecting Mana to look up with that blank, vacant look she always gave 90% of the time.

Mana's response was slow, like her brain was catching up to the conversation a few beats behind. "I'm ready." She started, her words robotic and lifeless. Let's, um, let's go adventuring or whatever…"

Darius leaned over the table, setting the scene for the adventure. It was obvious to Gaga and everyone that came here that this man had a body count, a big one, you kinda had to if you were in KaibaCorp as long as he was, so seeing him so excitable, like how Mana was just a few seconds ago but more controlled, was very off putting. His voice took on a dramatic, almost theatrical tone, and a damn shit one at that. Who knew the so called Marauding Captain was a theater kid? "You find yourselves at the edge of the Dark Forest, where rumors of ancient treasures and dangerous monsters aboooouuuuund!" Gaga just stared. "Your journey begins now, adventurers! What will you do?"

Mana's eyes lit up slightly at the mention of monsters. Her fingers twitched over her cards, but it was clear she was holding back.

Gaga, on the other hand, let out a small groan as she helped her friend. "Let me guess," She ordered Mana. "You want to use the Dark Magician." She didn't even know if Mana had the stupid card in her hand, but if a card game was involved, she'd find some way to include the Dark Magician. Even if she was playing solitaire, she'd use the Dark Magician. Gaga crossed her arms, casting a sideways glance at Mana, who was still staring intently at her cards, but managed to make a meek nod in response. "Well, what are you waiting for, come on!"

Darius grinned. "She's right. There's nothing preventing your monsters from using him, so go on."

Mana finally seemed to wake up a little. She leaned forward, her expression distant but curious. "I… I summon Dark Magician." She said with uncertainty, slowing her words down to control the flow. "He can, um, protect us …from whatever's…. in the trees, right?" Her voice was uncertain, as if she wasn't sure whether this was a viable move.

Gaga blinked, staring at Mana. "Ok, but why is he there? This isn't just a story remember? It's also a Duel."

"I thought we were Dueling."

Gaga groaned. "Just think of a reason why the guy's there, ok?"

Mana looked genuinely confused for a moment, her fingers hesitating over the cards. "But… he's the Dark Magician, why wouldn't he…he's always there."

Darius chuckled softly, amused by their back-and-forth. "Don't worry Mana, you can summon him." Mana's eyes lit up. "After all, he's the ultimate magician in terms of offense and defense." A gleeful smile came onto her face. "And magicians can use magic, like summoning minions, right?" She nodded happily in agreement. "For a sorcerer, summoning a creature is an excellent way to investigate an area or scout ahead for reconnaissance, but be cautious. The Dark Magician is the strongest spellcaster in the game, but he's still a sorcerer, not a physical fighter. Not every situation requires a big hitter, got it?."

Mana's excitement was slowly returning, though it was restrained by her own confusion and frustration. "So, I can use Dark Magician to… explore? He could go on adventures and blast things?"

"Exactly," Darius said, smiling. "But think carefully about how you want to use him."

Mana nodded. "Ok, summon this guy, Bokoi-chi, right on the castle drawing thing."

"It's Castle Krakenburg, actually-" Darius's correction went ignored, as did Gaga's snort at his remark, as Mana continued. "Alright, so you summon him to the castle. What happens next?"

"No I said I summoned him on the castle. And since it's a Dark Type monster and a train, so when it crashes, it'll blow up and fill the area with negative energy, blowing up it's fuel supply, destroying your castle, and everyone in, on, and around it."

"Smart." Darius let out a chuckle as he flipped over a red card. "Buuuuut Castle Krakenburg didn't get its infamous reputation for nothing! Your summoning of Bokoichi, The Frightening Train Car had alerted my sentries, and in response they've activated the spacial rending powers of Dark Hole!" Darius put the card in question on the map. "The Dark Hole crushes Bokoichi into tiny, unrecognizable pieces! Your train is reduced to atoms, and my castle is safe!"

"Not if I use the Dark Magician to warp Bokoichi out of there."

Darius chuckled. "You're a smart girl, so you know that not even light can escape the power of a black hole!"

"Oh." Yeah he was right. She shrugged. "Bye bye train thingie."

"Your train is reduced to nothing, and thanks to your summoning, I have a beat on your position, courtesy of this!" He revealed his next monster, a tiny little weird eye thing called a Meda Bat. "These little creatures are used as spies for the many forces of darkness that litter the land, and while your magician was summoning that train, it was tracking the energies you used to summon it right towards your base of operations!

Mana nodded. Gaga sat back in her chair, crossing her arms as she watched Mana gleefully consider her next move. 'Ughhh, just how long was this going to take?' She groaned softly, already feeling the familiar itch of irritation from before she came in here creeping into her bones. Her fingers hovered over the keypad of her flip phone, the small screen lighting up with a faint green glow, a glow that wasn't quite bright enough—too dull, too grainy compared to the large monitors at the local library, or the sleek thin ones at school. The clunky keys on her phone were awkward to press and pretty noisy, lacking the soft, immediate response of a KaibaCorp keyboard. And once she experienced that silent perfection, it was hell on her head to go back to the regular keyboard and numberpad and listen to that noise, but it was the only option she had to keep herself awake right now, and she needed something to do to keep her awake.

Flicking through the limited options on her Gozarola KA-1BA, she started texting herself, not because she had anything to say, but because the rhythm of pressing the keys gave her something predictable to focus on. Each click helped lower her irritation, the tap-tap-tap blocking out the sensory overload of wanting to do something. Gaga wasn't really typing anything important, just letting her mind rest in the comfort of the digital flow. This was Mana's moment, as much as she hated it, and she wasn't going to ruin this for her.

. When it came to tech, everything just connected for her, everything made sense, and responded the way it should. If there was a problem, it had a logical cause, an error in the code, a bug for KaibaCorp to squash-, and that came with the fun of racking her brain on how it worked and however? This was a slow, crawling mess in that pit of vipers she liked to call human interaction. It was random, confusing, and the rhythm was all wrong. There were no quick shortcuts to get the answers she wanted, no command-line inputs to fast forward through the tedious, monotonous crap. It was just Mana, completely lost in her own excitement, staring down at the board like a guy who just saw some smut for the first light in Mana's eyes was shining brighter than ever before, as if this card game were the most exciting thing in the world. The light in Gaga's eyes however? Game Boy Color screen level dim.

If this were anybody else she'd have some colorful words for her, but Mana wasn't like other people, and her hot scary older brother would be very pissed if his little sister repeated how Gaga talked at school. Gaga didn't want to ruin it for her, but holy shit, her brain wanted her to tap out and move on to something else. If she didn't waste all that money on Mana's cards and that shower in Shield-san's bathroom, she'd buy an hour on his Wifi and download some games on this thing. And what's worse, Mana was taking forever to make her move, flipping through the three cards in her hand with that dazed, absent look she always had. "Any time today," Gaga muttered, glancing at the clock on her phone for the third time in the last five minutes.

She bit her lip, her hand instinctively twitching to check her messages. She had to cancel a date with that Tsunami guy because she had to take Mana home, and hoo boy can that man talk your ears off if he was disappointed in you, but she had him wrapped around her finger! Shame he wasn't here, but there was one other option she could try to keep herself entertained.

It appeared on her phone a couple days ago. She didn't know what it did, but it was KaibaCorp licensed, and if it got through their systems, then it was legit. Still, something about it didn't sit right with her, and since deleting it didn't get rid of it, she just let it sit where it was. Her thumb hovered over the accept call/enter button, her finger twitching in anticipation. That silly little icon was just so tempting to her, but she resisted; she had to resist. She didn't know why though, but her intuition was telling her that opening that app right now would be a very bad idea. "So, are we… done yet?" Luckily for her though, she had a nice boring destruction. She was trying to keep her voice nice and calm, but it was very clear that she was about to blow her top if something interesting didn't happen. That instant feedback loop she got from phone, computers, and even talking to ugh, people? That's her jam, that got her engine running. This though? It was like someone poured glue down her ignition pipe.

Mana glanced up, blinking, clearly lost in her own world. "Ok…." she mumbled, her voice trailing off as her focus wavered between the game and her thoughts.

Gaga rolled her eyes. 'Of course it's 'almost.' ' It's always 'almost' with this girl. She shifted in her seat, trying to ignore the itch to just pace. 'Maybe I should…' Her mind went back to that icon on her phone again, the black circle with the yellow star in the middle, but that pesky intuition again bitch slapped her into backing off!

'What to do…' Mana thought for another second, before motivation -another groan of annoyance from Gaga- jump started that brain of hers. With Dark Magician leading her strategy, she would summon three low-level monsters. The first would be Alligator's Sword, a Level 4 monster with 1500 ATK, on the field. "He's an alligator, and quick," she mumbled, everyone already knowing not to ask what she was talking to herself about. Then, she'd summon Ancient Lizard Warrior, another Level 4 with 1400 ATK. He ruled the world before the time of man after all, according to his card description that is, so he's a great combat advisor for the ultimate sorcerer, and Alligator's Sword was an alligator with a sword. That needed no explanation if you asked her. Her final monster was the unexpected twist—Baby Dragon. Without the time clock guy she couldn't make him old and strong, but he was a dragon, and a baby. That last part will make it easy for the Dark Magician to get him to listen.

For the first time since midterms she felt completely in control, and unlike midterms, she actually enjoyed it. She looked at the Dark Magician card on the table, the mage in the artwork now looking more like a commander in her mind, but with purple robes instead of military stuff, leading his army to save the world from Castle Crackenburger! Instead of her excitement causing her to spiral into babble as she tried and failed to organize her thoughts, it instead gave her the clarity and focus she rarely realized she lacked! 'I can win!' She thought to herself excitedly. 'I can do this!'

In her mind,she could see the alligator guy person standing ready next to the Dark Magician, its sword gleaming, eyes trained on the battlefield. He and his allies stared down at the impregnable fortress that was Castle Crackenburger, their eyes resolute like in that one anime opening she saw, where a bunch of people were standing on a cliff overlooking a castle with their eyes all serious and resolute and stuff, and there was music by some Japanese person that probably didn't even match what was on screen but it worked because it sounded cool and promoted the artist and she wanted that for this instance nowhere else. Alligator guy wasn't powerful on its own, but with the right boosts, it would tear through defenses faster than Darius could react.

Next came the advisor. The Ancient Lizard Warrior had a deep history in the game, as he was one of the oldest monsters from an era before man, according to the description on the card she read. That obviously must've meant that he was one of the first cards ever printed, which meant he was smart and strong and resilient, like grandpa, only without the knives in her skin. "Hmmm.." Now she was sad, she needed a name for him… Hank! The old lizard was Hank, and he was old and buff and had claws and was smart, yet he still listened to the Dark Magician. For what was a master was without his disciples, even thoughshe was his favorite, so she supposed she'd let the Ancient Lizard take her placefight alongside him.

Mana blinked; what was she talking about? Eh whatever, wasn't important. She had to lay down the last member of her forces,Baby Dragon. A grin stretched across her face as she placed the small dragon next to her other monsters. "It's a dragon, but a baby, and magic guys like the Dark Magician used dragons in books, so they work flawlessly together." Magicians, dragons, they were in books together after all.

Darius nodded, accepting the logic. "Now it's time to summon my monster! From the dungeons of Castle Krakenburg, I call to you, Curse of Dragon!" Mana's eyes widened in wonder, mainly because Darius was making the sound effects with his mouth, from the fwooshing of the wings to the roar of the dragon, and it was cool…to her. To everyone else, this was the stupidest thing they'd ever seen, and his 'scary voice' sounded like that dad from that cartoon with the yellow people, but they weren't going to tell him that. He could beat a man twice his size and height to death with his bare hands, would you go up and insult him? "The roar of my mighty beast paralyzes your mage and his allies, but only for a few seconds! What will you do? The next few moments could mean the difference between your victory and my domination of the planet! Choose carefully, sorcerer!"

The bell rang, and in came a face and body very familiar to Gaga, mostly his yummilicious tanned body. From that delightful bronze tan, those rippling muscles, the fact he only wore swimming trunks…the weird giant bush he called hair was the one negging point, but Mako Tsunami was eye candy supreme! And he was all hers. And once he realized she was in the same shop, his alright bright face lightened up even more. 'Finally some entertainment.'

"Ahh, my sweet little minnow!" He exclaimed with jubilation, causing Mana to look up at her friend's new boytoy for a split second before going back to the game. Hopefully she won't have to beat up this one after he finds out what kind of person Gaga was. He was loud and talked a lot, and normally that'd make her hate him on principle, but since his voice didn't make her squirm like it would from any other person, she liked him. "I see you too are a purveyor of this fine establishment!" Also he talked funny, that made her smile.

"Evening Mako." Darius shot a glance at Gaga, who flinched, even though she wasn't looking at him. Gagagigo snickered evilly. "We've got those new Water monsters you ordered in the back. Pardon my asking, but what is your relationship with Miss Kagami?" As if he didn't know. He knew Tsunami, but he definitely knew Haga, so this wouldn't be like the last dumbass Kagami lied about when it came to her age and strung around, but Mako came with his own set of problems, and they were loud, blubbering and tear filled.

"She is my girlfriend!" He declared happily, with the biggest smile on his face, as a ghastly look of despair was frantically removed from Gaga's own. She ignored the blank look of pity Mana gave her and tried to reign in her emotions. Maybe if she played it cool, she wouldn't get in trouble. "As for my business here, I am leaving for a trip to the coast in two days!" he exclaimed, moving toward her with all the enthusiasm of a kid showing off his newest toy. "Me and my chums are going to be practicing for nationals all week there, and I am in charge of procuring the entertainment to keep ourselves from being washed away by boredom!"

Gaga rolled her eyes. "Can't go. Busy," she muttered without even looking up. Though she was trying to play it cool, the words 'don't talk don't talk don't talk you fucking idiot!' were playing on loop. 'Pleeaase don't open your mouth Mako!'

"Of course you cannot." Mako said in confusion. "This is for sophomores at our university, and you do not go to the same college as me." If Darius was drinking, this would be the point where he'd spit his drink out and start laughing.

But he was laughing. "I'm sorry, what?" And also quite furious. It was a special skill he had, being able to laugh his ass off while looking so unbelievably pissed that it caused his victims to wet themselves. "I'm sorry Mana, we'll have to postpone our game."

"I understand." Mana said as Darius got up and dragged Gaga into the backroom. How long was she dating Mako? 2 weeks? And she already got in trouble for lying? That was fast. "You wanna play Duel Monsters?I have a new rule for you to try out."