90 Represent - 4

"Settle down people, attention please!" Sheppard's voice rang out loudly and clearly over the gathered assembly of students. The chancellor of Duel Academy peered down at near every student gathered in the main hall of Duel Academy through a video projection. Sheppard sighed, before snapping, "Chumley, stop chewing with your mouth open!"

Early Monday morning found Yarden gathered with the rest of the students, first through third years for an assembly of some sort and for an important announcement they'd been notified of through a mass message to every students PDA.

The students were gathered in three groups differentiated by dorm, lined up in lines of four by four, younger years towards the front, older towards the back. Honestly, it was almost military in a way.

Nothing at all like assemblies back home where everyone just sat wherever the hell they wanted. Duel Academy was pretty big on the near racist classism between the dorms.

When he became the next Kaiba, he'd try not to let his petty biases effect him like this. Though, knowing himself, that was pretty unlikely. He could still try though.

As it was though, Yarden was pretty much already well aware of what this assembly was for, and there was a massive shit eating grin on his face.

Though not for what was about to be announced at all.

"Stop smiling like that." Jasmine huffed from his left side. He was in a line of four between himself, Jasmine to his left, Mindy to her left and Alexis to his right.

"No can do." Yarden merely snorted in pure amusement. He couldn't help it. And the reason for that?

Was because of the girl to his right who was obstinately staring ahead, cheeks flushed and refusing to meet his eyes.

His weekend had been pretty much a flop. He couldn't hang out with his girlfriend at all. Because she'd been confined to her dorm room all weekend. And would also be serving a detention every day for the next two weeks after classes.

Because she'd gotten into a fight.

Yes, a fight, not a duel.

Over him.

And she'd beat the crap out of the girl who she was fighting with. He looked over his shoulder briefly to glance to Alexis' seeming opponent, a rather pretty older girl with curves that stretched out her uniform deliciously, though not on Alexis' level.

And the shiner currently bruising one of her eyes.

He couldn't help it, he laughed to himself even as Sheppard began speaking once more.

"Good, now that everyone is listening and eating quietly, I'm happy to inform you the big match up against our rival school, North Academy is coming up," The chancellor stated and as he did, a beacon of light shone down from the ceiling and shone upon someone behind Yarden, he didn't even need to look to see who it was, even as most others did, "Last year our student rep Zane whooped them good and proper and this time I want to win the school duel once again." he continued, a smug smile showing on the bald headed mans face.

The man must really love having gotten that kiss on the cheek by Dorothy instead of the headmaster of North Academy.

'Actually what about the West and South Duel Academies?' Yarden wondered briefly, why were they not considered rivals? He knew Zane had toured the west one last year for a few months when he was in his second year, as the older boy had told him about his time there and said there were a few decent duellists there, though the headmaster gave him an odd feeling and was kind of creepy to him.

…Well whatever, it probably wasn't important.

Sheppard shook his head before pushing on, "Now we still haven't figured out quite yet who is going to represent us this time around in the school duel this year, so if you keep hitting those books and duelling hard, it could be any one of you in that spot and earning glory."

He said a few other things, before bidding them goodbye and the feed cut off, the massive screen going dark.

Excited whispers and muttering kicked up, though one voice stood out to Yarden above all.

"Hey, did you hear?" Jaden's familiar excited voice chattered and Yarden's eyes flickered over to find him standing behind Syrus, who was standing next to an even shorter red clad student, a beret-like hat clasped tightly apon their head, "It could be me in that sweet duel!"

Hmm…wait, wasn't that Blair?

Oh right, it was about that time as well wasn't it?

Well, Yarden didn't really care about her to be honest. He'd let Jaden deal with her.

"He wishes," Jasmine snorted, "I'll admit he's good, but it's most likely gonna be Zane again, and if not it's definitely gonna be you Yarden, you're the best duellist here."

"I am," Yarden accepted her words humbly, before shrugging, "I wouldn't underestimate Jaden though, he's good, especially now that he's upgraded his deck more."

He'd only seen Jaden duel briefly so far while he was here. But every time he did, he could practically feel it. The air vibrating around him with the sheer amount of power he exuded in excitement.

He was ignorant towards it now, everyone was, hell he'd been ignorant towards it a few weeks ago even until he started getting coached on drawing upon his abilities by Dark Magician Girl, but when he first felt the sheer amount of power Jaden exuded, he'd actually almost passed out.

It was like a massive pressure had pressed down upon his shoulders and stole the breath from his lungs now that he was aware of it that first time.

Even just casually, it was far power more than he'd have even a few weeks from now when he'd fully bonded with all his spirits. Which he supposed made sense, the Light of Destruction was a cosmic force beyond even the god cards and was multiple tiers above the likes of Zorc.

As the Supreme King, Jaden had within his soul, the power of the Gentle Darkness, the force directly equal and opposed to the Light of Destruction.

But beyond that Jaden was just that good. One thing he'd noticed, was that the stronger a duellist his opponent was, the more Jaden delved deeper into his deck.

For most, he barely went beyond Flame Wingman, Rampart Blaster or the Thunder Giant. And even usage of them had dwindled now that he had access to the likes of Heat, Lady Heat and Stratos, with them he rarely needed to bust out any of his fusions, never mind heavy hitters.

Jaden was different from him. He loved duelling in the sense that he would hold back on weaker opponents to keep the duel going longer, when if he wanted he could pull out the likes of Elemental Hero Shining Flare Wingman or Elemental Hero Gaia, or Tornado or Flare Master or even just Elemental Hero Blade Edge and monsters like that incredibly easily.

As it was, in a casual duel with no true stakes beyond competition, Yarden was pretty sure he could beat Jaden. But in a full stakes duel with things on the line? That was where he was iffy.

"Well he did beat Lexi after all," Mindy pointed out breaking him from his thoughts, "That puts him like at least top five right?"

"I don't think I'm quite that high up actually." Alexis finally turned to face them, though there was an embarrassed look in her eyes when he looked straight into her gaze.

"No that's about right for now," Yarden agreed with Mindy, even as he reached his arm over Alexis' shoulders, and enjoyed as he felt simmering glares being fired at him from all directions, seethe and mald cucks, seethe and mald, "As far as I'd say, right now from first to fifth it would be Me, then Zane, then Jaden, then Alexis then probably Bastion I'm thinking."

"The stuffy Ra?" Jasmine asked.

"Bastion is pretty good actually yeah, I'm not sure I could beat him definitively." Alexis nodded as she leaned into him, touching her shoulder to his.

Nah, Alexis was better. The thing was, Bastion tried to play like a meta player, with a very limited source of materials of research unlike the meta players back home, and completely forgot that it wasn't just a mere card game that ran on numbers and probability.

Duel Monsters as a whole, was keyed into the laws of this literal universe. For the truly powerful in this world, it didn't matter if Bastion locked their entire deck down, had them down to one card with a full field of monsters that couldn't be targeted by effects and a full backrow, the truly powerful here could will that single card into being one that would win the duel.

And because Bastion ran purely on logic, numbers and mathematics, trying to build decks that upped the odds of drawing what he needed, including searchers and such, he was always going to be the biggest jobber there was as far as GX went.

…Well it didn't help that he was a bit of a stuffy repressed virgin that would fall in love with the first girl to show an interest in him even if they were like twice his age and had bigger muscles than Arnie and get all flushed to the point where he couldn't think straight.

Bastion was his own biggest enemy, poor fucker.

Soon enough, the students began to be cleared out of the assembly hall and be directed towards their classrooms.

But, just as they were, Doctor Crowler called out, "Ah Zane, Yarden?" he called their names specifically, "Can you two stay behind please, there's something I'd like to discuss with you both."

"Called it." Jasmine snorted.

Yeah, it wasn't very subtle now was it?

"I'll see you in class I guess?" Alexis said, picking up on it as well, while Mindy giggled in amusement.

"Sure," Yarden agreed, leaning forward to peck her on the lips, "And you can tell me all about this fight you got into, it sounds amazing."

Was it wrong of him to be pleased and proud of her for getting into a fight? Especially when from what little he'd put together, it was about him in some form?

Alexis pouted at him, "…I'll think about it." she turned away from him embarrassedly, before quickly walking away.

"You're a real bad influence on her, you know that?" Jasmine pointed out rolling her eyes, "I can't believe our Lexi got into a fight, a cat fight! And that she threw the first hit even!"

"I think it's kinda sweet actually," Mindy pointed out, "Besides from what Alexis told us, that bitch Seika totally like deserved a good slapping."

"Well yes, but still!" Jasmine crossed her arms, "Lexi has detention! Lexi, she's never had detention in her life and now the second she has a boyfriend she's getting into fights and getting them…it's totally weird!" though even as she said that, there was a big grin on her face.

"Well, I'm a bad bad delinquent boy after all, like you said, a total bad influence on a good girl like Alexis," Yarden smirked smugly, "Now I just need to be a bad influence on you two and my work is complete."

"Oh please," Jasmine rolled her eyes, "Keep dreaming you dork. Beyond swearing and getting into a few fights to help us, you're hardly a delinquent. You're always on time to class, you never take part in any of the adventures we've gotten up to in the past month or so, you always talk about rules and logic and you're always in your dorm before curfew. Jaden's a delinquent, you're more like a potty mouth exceptionally muscled nerd. Now go see what Crowler wants, teachers pet."

…Eh?

He…he was a nerd? A teachers pet? Him?!

Soon, Jasmine and Mindy bid him goodbye and made their way to follow Alexis back to their class, leaving only Zane, Doctor Crowler and himself in the hall.

He stared after them, gaping.

'I'm….a nerd? A geek? A teachers pet?' those thoughts swirled around in Yardens brain.

And did not compute at all.

Is that what people thought of him here?

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Well, sad as it is to say boys and girls, my long time minions and fans across the vast multiverse, this is us caught up to where I am currently with this story. It's not really been a main focus of mine lately, not been in much of a yugioh mood. Dunno when I'll update it next to be honest, I'm more focused on other things at the moment. It'll however go up in advance on my Pa---tr---eon before anywhere else when I do eventually get to it.