A/N: Well I guess I can say I got another warm reaction. Guess it takes time for stuff to build up. Well now they arrive at Duel Academy. Things will start to take off from there. Also expect to see more OCs, along the way. Some by request, some by my thoughts alone.
The excitement was growing throughout the minds of the many teenagers currently on the ferry. Obviously, the vessel was within minutes of arriving at its destination. And that place was none other than Kaiba Corporation's Duel Academy. Where students could learn how to duel, and grab a high school education while they were at it.
Among these excited duelists, was none other than Jay Gilder. After pulling off his victory against Koji Kuramoto a few hours earlier, he was determined to carry his winning streak right into the academy.
"Okay, bring on this academy!" he shouted into the air, "I'm ready to duel every single one of them!"
A voice then came on the intercom, "Attention people! We will be arriving at Duel Academy in ten minutes. I advise you all to return to your quarters to gather your belongings. Kaiba Corporation is not responsible for the loss of any personal belongings. Thank you."
So on cue, Jay returned to his living quarters to retrieve his duffel bag. Once he gathered all his things, which included his deck, dueldisk, a box of extra cards he had, extra clothing, a toothbrush, and a few books to top it all off.
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Duel Academy Island
"Well, here comes the fresh meat for the grinder eh?" one male voice said.
"Looks like it," another male voice replied.
"Whatever. Who cares really besides you two?" retorted a female voice.
Three teens were relaxing by the port. Apparently they were enjoying the fresh sea air, or at the least they were loitering. Two of them were male, with the third one being female. The boys wore large blue blazers, while the girl wore a white blazer with a blue miniskirt.
"Well I wonder how many of those losers are Slifers," one boy wondered. He had a skinny build to go along with his spiky blonde hair and blue eyes.
"Why, so another Slifer can kick your spiky headed ass Yasuo?" the other boy shot back. This boy was much bigger built, and taller too. He had spiky black hair to compliment brown eyes. His facial features showed that he was from the Orient. "I remember how you got destroyed by one of those Slifer slackers, during a duel in which Dr. Crowler had previously commended you for your 'phenomenal' dueling skills."
"Speak of that duel ever again Yamato, and you will regret it," said Yasuo.
"Why don't both you boys shut up," ordered the girl who looked up from a book she was reading. She was rather tall for a girl, and she appeared to have been working out, as one could tell from looking at her muscular arms and legs that she was physically very strong. "I'm trying to read here. If you two wish to fight so badly, do it where I can't hear you."
"Come on Jelena," replied Yamato, "aren't you the least bit excited about some new kids to thrash?"
"There is only one duelist I'm interested in facing, and it's definitely not one of those so-called Slifer slackers." 'And he'll be here soon too.'
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Duel Academy Auditorium
Everyone who was either a student or a teacher was in listening to this speech being given by the headmaster of the Academy. The man went by the name of Chancellor Shepard, a nearly bald man likely in his mid to late forties. He seemed like a cheery and optimistic person, yet he was borderline mulling the auditorium with the speech he'd repeated year after year off what Jay assumed were some cue cards.
Taking a look around he noticed everyone else in the room if they were not teachers were wearing either a red, yellow, or blue blazer with the blue blazers looking like huge trench coats. Upon being processed, he confirmed what Koji had said on the ferry that those in the Obelisk Blue dorm were likely the best in the school in terms of dueling skills and academic grades. On top of that, they had also either spent a year at a junior school or had special connections. The Ra Yellow dorm was the best any freshman could get at the academy. It was filled with many good duelists that had excellent grades, but didn't meet the criteria to get into Obelisk Blue. And then there was Slifer Red. One would have to ask themselves how in the hell they got into the academy in the first place if they were placed in Slifer Red. This dorm belonged to those who had either the worst dueling skills and/or low grades.
"And so I wish you all well in your studies and in your duels," Jay caught the last of the speech. Once the man had finished, the entire body gave the headmaster a round of applause. Afterwards the students were asked to go to their dorms to get settled in. And by sometime in the evening, they were to meet in the dorm's respective banquet halls for the ceremonial dinner.
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Ra Yellow Dorms
"Okay, I think this has to be it," said Jay as he wandered the buildings halls. He had a few wrong turns here and there. Nothing to really worry about as he was in no rush at all. At least he didn't end up in the girls Ra Yellow like a few boys claimed to have by accident.
Over one arm, he had his duffel bag with everything he had packed inside it. On his left arm, he had the Duel Academy issued dueldisk that the school had issued to every student. It looked a little like the old Kaiba Corp. dueldisk that he had, but this one didn't swing all the way around when it activated. Best of all, it was brand new too. Finally, he found the dorm that was assigned to him. Without further ado, he slipped the card key into the lock. Once it accepted his card, he opened the door.
Jay was amazed by the layout of the room. It was half a star short of being a four star room in a hotel. There were two beds, which were about queen sized, two dressers that were directly in front of each bed. In the middle, was a table that the television was sitting on. Off to the side was where the bathroom was. Across were the stove, sink and most importantly, the refrigerator. In between was a table with four chairs.
"Hmm, nice setup," said Jay aloud. "Well I'm calling bed by the door here. And I better do so before the roommate decides to make himself welcome. He dumped his bag on the bed and sat next to it. "Ah, I think I'm gonna enjoy it here. I wonder if we get room service too."
Just then Jay heard someone knocking on the door. "Now who could be knocking on the door already? I thought the banquet wasn't for another few hours." Jay walked over to the door and opened it. It was a boy, about Jay's age presumably. He had black spiky hair and it looked like the yellow blazer he was wearing was a tad big on him. "Uh… can I help you?"
"Hi," the boy began, "I'm Chris Gear, and I guess this is my room."
"Well, if your room number is 139, then yes it is," said Jay. "Come on in. Oh and I claimed this bed already, so that one's yours."
"Alright." Chris proceeded to dump his stuff for the moment on his bed when he realized something. "Hey! You're the guy who beat Koji Kuramoto on the boat. You were awesome in that duel!"
"I sure was!" declared Jay. "He learned the hard way that Canada kicks ass! Courtesy of Jay Gilder!"
"Well that's one way to put it," chuckled Chris. "So I guess the banquet is in a few hours."
"Apparently so. Until then, I'm just going to chill until then. It's been a rather long day and I'm tired."
"Same here," replied Chris. "The examinations were tense as it was. Add on the ferry ride, getting processed, and then the speech from the Chancellor. Makes for a very tiring day."
"How'd you do on those exams?" asked Jay. "I got a 96 on the written work, and pulled magic tricks that'd shock Harry Houdini on the examiner."
"I barely got into Ra. I only got a 71 on the written exam, but I completely destroyed the examiner during the duel. I may not look like it on paper, but on the field, I can tear my opponents apart.
"Ouch," said Jay.
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Obelisk Dueling Arena
"I didn't know this was your idea of a welcome Yasuo," said Koji as he walked into the stadium.
"Usually it isn't, but if it can grab me the number 4 spot in the Academy, I'll go for it," shot back Yasuo.
"If I remember correctly, the reason your rank went down was because you lost to a Slifer, am I right?" Koji inquired.
"You will not speak of that!" yelled Yasuo.
"Well it has connections to the reason you challenged me as soon as I settled into my room," replied Koji.
Yasuo activated his dueldisk. "Know this Koji! I'm gonna crush you and take the number 4 spot!"
"Very well." Koji now stepped into the arena and activated his dueldisk. "Do you want to lose or be completely destroyed?"
"The hell you will! I heard you lost to some Ra reject on the boat! I'm sure I can flatten you!"
"I was merely teaching him a lesson. If I wanted to, I'd do to him what I am about to do to you." Koji now picked up five cards off his deck, with Yasuo following suit.
"LET'S DUEL!"
Koji: 4000LP
Yasuo: 4000LP
"Since I challenged you, I'll start," said Yasuo snapping a card from his deck. Quickly looking at his cards, he picked the one he wanted and placed it on the dueling zone. "I summon Pyramid Turtle in Defense Mode! (4/1200/1400) On Yasuo's side of the field, emerged a large turtle with a pyramid for a shell. It had its head and legs retracted into the shell to protect itself.
"And to wrap things up. I throw this card face down," finished Yasuo.
'Hmm, slightly obvious,' wondered Koji. 'That face down card is probably meant to protect his turtle from a monster effect. As its effect only activates when it's destroyed in battle. Sitting around isn't an option, as I know Zombies can be made to swarm.' "I summon V-Tiger Jet in Attack Mode. (4/1600/1800) A blue and yellow fighter jet emerged that looked like a tiger. "Next I play the Spell Card, Frontline Base. This card allows me to Special Summon one Union monster from my hand each turn. And I choose W-Wing Catapult. (4/1300/1500) Simply put, this monster looked like a blue catapult.
"Your point is?" asked Yasuo.
"It's simple really. V and W? Like in the alphabet. Obviously these two go together, as you will see. They can combine to form a new monster, by removing the original cards from play. Now meet my VW-Tiger Catapult. (6/2000/2100) Now the V-Tiger Jet was resting upon the W-Wing Catapult. It looked like an upgraded ship.
"And now by tossing out one last card from my hand," continued Koji, "I can change the battle position of one of your monsters." To Yasuo's horror, his Pyramid Turtle emerged from its shell and stood up on the field. It was now in Attack Mode. "Tiger Catapult, attack his turtle now with Swift Tiger Missiles!"
The fighter jet launched several missiles at the odd looking turtle. It didn't stand a chance as the explosions created by the missiles destroyed it.
Koji: 4000LP
Yasuo: 3200LP
"Feel like you jumped the gun?" asked Koji with a rare grin. I'll warn you now that it's going to get worse."
"Not a chance in hell," smirked Yasuo. "When you destroy Pyramid Turtle in battle, I can Special Summon another monster with 2000 Defense Points or less from my deck. That gives me lots of flexibility. Quickly going through his deck, he found what he wanted. "Now I'll summon Ryu Kokki in Attack Mode!" (6/2400/2000) Now Yasuo had a large monster that had a body made up almost entirely of human skulls.
Koji didn't flinch at all. "One card face down and that shall end my turn."
"Draw!" called Yasuo. "Now check this out. I play Card of Safe Return. As long as this card stays in play, whenever I Special Summon a monster from my graveyard, I may draw one card. And next I play Book of Life! This lets me Special Summon a Zombie from my graveyard. And I summon Pyramid Turtle in Defense Mode. And because of Card of Safe Return's power, I can draw one card."
'Ah, so my face down card does concern you. And the fact you placed it in Defense Mode means you're using Pyramid Turtle as a wall should your collection of skulls get crushed.' Koji liked how this was going.
In the stands, a few other Obelisk students were watching this with some degree of interest, namely Yamato and Jelena. They didn't seem all that impressed with Yasuo's dueling so far.
"He couldn't wait, huh Jelena," Yamato stated.
"Let the fool learn the hard way," replied Jelena who was still reading her book and paying little attention to the duel itself. "Besides, Yasuo will give us a topic to discuss over at the banquet. How he's still the 5th ranked duelist in the Academy."
"Well let's see how this plays out."
"Ryu Kokki! Attack his Tiger Catapult!" ordered Yasuo. The skull monster advanced on the fighter jet with incredible fury.
"Now learn a lesson in advanced strategy," interjected Koji.
"What do you mean?" demanded Yasuo.
"What I mean is that I deliberately destroyed your turtle earlier so you could summon a bigger creature to fall into my trap," answered Koji. "And now it's going to cost you. Reveal Trap Card, Mechanics over Organics! Whenever a non-Machine type attacks a Machine type, I can use this card. It raises the attacked Machine by 1000 Attack Points for the remainder of the turn. In this case, I choose my VW-Tiger Catapult. (6/3000/2100) Now, counter attack!"
Yasuo watched in horror as the Tiger Catapult took flight and launched missiles at his monster. The skulls began to scatter and the beast collapsed under the lack of infrastructure.
Koji: 4000LP
Yasuo: 2600LP
"Dammit," muttered Yasuo. He looked at his hand and sighed. "I end my turn."
"Let's see if I can wrap this up here," said Koji. "First I play Pot of Greed." Koji drew two cards from his deck. Eyeing them over carefully, he made his move. "First I summon X-Head Cannon in Attack Mode. (4/1800/1500) A blue and yellow machine appeared with two large cannons. "And thanks to Frontline Base still being in effect, I can Special Summon a Union Monster to the field. And I choose Y-Dragon Head. (4/1500/1600) Joining the other two monsters was a red dragon shaped machine." Koji kept playing cards though. "And my last card is Graceful Charity. I may draw three cards, and then I toss out two of those cards." Koji was definitely in full control even though he had only one card in his hand and had just gone through many cards so far. "And then to play my last card, Monster Reborn. This will revive the Z-Metal Tank I just sent to the Graveyard." (4/1500/1300) A yellow tank shaped creature was now on the field.
"Oh my god," muttered Yasuo. "You can't be…"
"My advice to you in the future is to know what you'll be up against before you do something stupid like challenge me to a duel," retorted Koji. "I told you I was going to thrash you, and now I will. Now I merge X-Head Cannon with Y-Dragon Head and Z-Metal Tank.
The few spectators watched in awe as Koji's monsters began to merge together. The wings of Y-Dragon Head disappeared, and its feet retracted, and attached to the top of Z-Metal Tank. A spot on the back of red dragon opened up which revealed the plug in for X-Head Cannon. It looked a tad odd, but there was no denying its power.
"Now meet XYZ-Dragon Cannon!" Koji declared. (8/2800/2600)
"But wait," interrupted Yasuo. "You need to discard a card to use either of your monster's effects. And you have no cards in your hand."
"You are partially correct. But you fail to see what I truly plan to unlock. Now watch as I now merge my VW-Tiger Catapult with my XYZ-Dragon Cannon!"
If anyone were awed by what happened the first time, this would take the cake. As now the two machines merged together. A large flash of light consumed the entire area. But once that light subsided, Yasuo could only cower at the large machine monster standing behind Koji.
"Beg for mercy Yasuo, before my VWXYZ-Dragon Catapult Cannon!" Koji demanded. (8/3000/2800) Compared to what merged it together, this machine was definitely huge. The V-Tiger Jet helped make up the head and the back of this mighty mech. W-Wing Catapult's components was the legs. X-Head Cannon made up the other half of the head, the upper half of the body, and it also kept its two large cannons and its arms. Y-Dragon Head was the waistline, which also contained a cannon in its mouth. Surprisingly, its large red wings had returned, and attached to the back of the V-Tiger Jet. And Z-Metal Tank was split into two pieces each with a cannon, which were held in the arms of the X-Head Cannon.
But Koji wasn't done. "And now its effect activates. Once per turn, I can remove one card your side of the field from play. And I'll remove your Pyramid Turtle from play."
Yasuo looked on in horror as his last line of defense faded from the field. And Koji knew the one face down card wasn't going to help him at all. Koji spoke again. "Now, V to Z, finish him off with Ultimate Cannon Firestorm!"
With one, shot from each of the five cannons equipped on the giant machine, Yasuo was sent flying, his Life Points going with him… down.
Koji: 4000LP
Yasuo: 0LP
"Thanks for a topic to discuss at tonight's banquet," said Koji to the fallen Yasuo as he walked out of the Obelisk Arena, leaving the crowd shocked and stunned
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Ra Dorm
"So, you're really a big fan of Team Zero, aren't you?" asked Jay as he watched Chris put up some posters that had pictures of Team Zero on them.
"Yeah, I got all sorts of stuff on them," replied Chris. "I got posters, DVDs of their duels in the many tournaments they've been in, and their exploits on their many clashes with the supernatural."
"So," inquired Jay as he looked at a magazine, "who would be your favourite member of Team Zero? Mine would have to be Reku Yamashita. It's amazing how he makes Fire and Machine Types work together in the same deck."
"My favourite is Akina Oshiro. Not only is she hot, but she uses cards others don't really use, which makes you think."
"I see," said Jay with an anime style sweat drop on the back of his head. "So why don't you plug in a DVD and we'll get to see these guys duel first hand."
"Good idea."
However, they heard someone knocking at the door. "Boys, the banquet starts in twenty minutes! Hurry on down to get the best seats!" a voice called from the other side of the door.
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The banquets were each held in the respective dorms. The quality of food that was served reflected the rank of the dorm. In the Slifer dorms, the quality of food was rather low. The cooks there made a ton of instant meatloaf, steamed bacon and instant ramen, all washed down with a hearty glass of coke.
The Ra dorms were quite a step up. The quality of food there was better than what most middle class families were used to having. The cooks there served baked potatoes, curried chicken and rice, and sirloin tip steaks. To go with the choice of milk or coke.
The Obelisk dorms however were way off the charts. One would think they were being treated like kings there. The food there was cooked by master chefs that been hired from all over the world. The Obelisk students had prime rib roast from some of the best-bred cows, to go with an assortment of high quality organic vegetables and fruits, and they actually had desserts. To drink, they could have access to anything a teenager would be able to drink.
And thus with the banquets being held in all six dorms, the start of the school year had officially begun. Some would wonder if they were ready for what lies ahead. Classes, duels, and anything else that involves teenage kids.
A/N: And thus concludes us another chapter. A note for some people is that there will be girls in all dorms. If you require a legitimate answer, then the one I can give is that I saw an episode where I saw girls in yellow/red blazers. If that's not good enough, then blame the feminist movement, and say they finally caught up with Seto Kaiba.
A/O/N: The reference to Team Zero, is a tribute to a great Yu-Gi-Oh author I know, by the name of Rex the Emerald Dragon who came up with the Team Zero series. Check his fics out when you get the chance.
Card of the Episode
VWXYZ Dragon Catapult Cannon
8/3000/2800
Attribute: Light
Type: Machine
Fusion: VW Tiger Catapult + XYZ Dragon Cannon
Effect: This card can only be Special Summoned from your Fusion Deck by removing from play the above cards on your side of the field. (You do not use "Polymerization"). Once per turn, remove from play 1 card on your opponent's side of the field. When this card attacks, you can change the battle position of the attack-target monster. (Flip Effects are not activated at this time.)
Koji: Ah, it's my chance for the Card of the Episode. And what a card to do. My VWXYZ Dragon Catapult Cannon. If you got the right cards and idea of how to get these powerful Union monsters to work with each other, this isn't as hard as it looks to play. Most of the time, you wouldn't deliberately try to get this out. But if you do get this out, this thing packs a wallop. Not only can I remove one card from the game using this beast of a machine, but I can also switch the position of a monster to whatever mode I choose and negate a flip effect. That is power.