Role Playing Before Dueling

"Shouldn't you be in school Sonny?" gramps said while he looked at me, while I helped him to prepare the store for the day, of course, he wasn't going to deny someone's help at his advanced age, especially mine, since I wasn't even asking him to pay me, right now we were just checking the cards, making sure that they were in pristine condition, their corners weren't folded, the regular, and if that wasn't enough, there were the boxes filled with new packs, the main income of the store, alongside some of, what gramps called them, rarest cards archetype till date, and honestly, yeah I knew them, Ritual Beast, Myutant, Gladiator Beast, Ancient Gear, freaking Dinosaurs, Dark World, Necroz, Dream Mirror, Ojama, those little pests are here?! Frightfur, Machine Angel, Gem Knight, etc.

I wanted to cry, seeing between them some of the most dangerous and game changers decks in Meta, the only thing that actually made me be on high alert, being a couple of them that I am sure were supposed to be there, obviously I asked gramps about them, but he told that he had never heard of them before, those being Shadoll, God NO! Dark Lord, Shit! Cyber Dark, I hate you with all my might; Invoked, I felt like I may knew who had it, Red Eyes, something tells me that Joey will get it sooner or later, XYZ, duh; and the Hero archetype, though Grams said that he never heard of them before so it made me be more on guard, a lot of them shouldn't be here but, once again this is not the DM anime world that I used to know, so, of course when the times come to face against some of them, I will give it my all, and of course I am not forgetting about my Dragonmaid, Despia, Albaz and Chimera, hopefully they won't be able to replicate them.

"Gramps nothing will happen for being absent for one day, and besides I am supposed to be some kind of big bad delinquent, it will be even more weird for me to keep attending classes with everyone aware of my every action, you know" it was a badly enough made excuse but honestly, I couldn't exactly tell gramps that he was going to be kidnapped because Kaiba couldn't tolerate being apart from his, well, her in this case, millennial dragonian waifu, now that I think about it; Did Kaiba in the anime actually felt ntred when gramps said no to him when he demanded his BEWD and that was the reason why he teared the card apart?

Mm, food for thought.

Then again, it could happen.

"Yeah, and the point of you being misinterpreted as a delinquent its concerning enough Sonny" he said trying to make me understand that this kind of attitude of mine wasn't going to let me have a successful high school life, break news, I don't care, I already coursed school once, enough is enough, though, I am already registered till next year which will be my and the main cast third year and last one in school before we go and choose our respective careers, I suppose I could go and maybe take the one that called the most to me, sadly I exchanged for success, it gave money, a lot of it, yes, but I wasn't happy.

Teaching always called more to me than any other; it was an honorable and respect career, now if it wasn't treated worse than a construction worker, then I guess I could have tried for it in my old life, still I have some plans regarding my new career choice, and they depended either on winning the Battle City tournament or the KC Grand Prix known too as the Grand Championship, filled with lots of npcs that we have never seen before in our lives yayyyyy.

But that was later, much later, first I had to survive Pegasus and Marik, later Dartz, the Grand Prix and yes, whatever crazy shit that Yami Bakura was taking that day with Zorc and everything.

"Gramps, I don't care what other think of me, and much less if they prefer to listen to senseless gossip instead of seeing the hard truth" I said while opening the boxes making sure that the image and name could be seen clearly.

"So I pass, at least for today, besides I don't have friends like at all, my looks made others draw a line from me, no one to share my so called youth" actually it was too thanks to my appearance, that I was labeled a delinquent, people and their insecurities, I swear.

"But Yugi and you are friends, aren't you?" No, we didn't; I couldn't actually said that to his face, it was Sunday the very first day that I met Yugi and co, and honestly speaking, friends do not come so easily to someone personal life. "Yugi and I are acquaintance at best Gramps, yesterday and before yesterday were the very first time that I have ever talked to him" it was true, I can't access to this body memories, but I can say that sometimes I can get glimpses of it, but only when I am sleeping and nothing more, most of the time I am just drawing blank.

"Truly? Then that's even more reason to talk with him and his friends Sonny, they are a really tight knitted group I say, and I am pretty sure that they will be glad to include you n their activities you know" Geh, I know, most of Yugi, not all of them mind you, friends were minor duelist that he was able to beat throughout the events of the series "Who knows, maybe even before you know it they will be calling you a friend" I felt my brow furrowing in contemplation, it was too easy for Joey and Tristan to call someone a fried, Yugi even easier, Tea was more skeptical but in the end she always acquiesced, nonetheless I knew that Yugi wasn't exactly calling me out to hang out or play DM or something lately, I mean I went with to this same shop yesterday and, well, you know how it ended, that and my little confrontation with Joey didn't help, I guess.

"You know what gramps, I'll try okay?" honestly I didn't know if I was trying to convinve him or myself at that time, my entire life I paved the path that I walked on with my own hands, without help or support from others, except maybe my family, and still there wasn't much to begin with, I prefer to play the lone wolf than the guy that scream almost always The Power of teamwork cool!

"You will see Sonny, I promise you won't regret it, they will be the best friends that you will ever have" he said smiling at the end, sure of his own words, while I just stood chuckling awkwardly at his enthusiasm.

"Now move on Sonny, those boxes are not going to be sold by themselves you know" he said while cleaning his counter shop, "And I thought that you were going to send me back to school" sarcasm dripped from my words, while I rolled my eyes in exasperation, and I smiled in fondness of this old man, truly you just couldn't be mad or annoyed with him, of course unless he deserved it like some of his pranks regarding Tea, the old man will never learn.

"And why would I? Everything its better when you have someone to help you with your job, especially if they are working for free, hohoho" I just shook my head at his words, in the end it was true I offered myself to help him out of both, sheer consideration and because of my plan, but that will come in due time, Kaiba kidnapped him around midday, and it was barely eight in the morning, meaning I had time to kill before the evil Winnieh Pooh butler arrived alongside his lackeys.

Like that, time just went on, and surprisingly gramps actually had really diverse type of clientele, there were the elderly that most of the time decided to peak with gramps and sometimes paid to have a little game board in an adjacent room to play with other elderly interested in the game, Monopoly was the most sought after with them, later came the children asking gramps if he had something new, in this case I showed them what new merchandise we had in both in the store and in the stock and if some of them wanted some new specific game, some of them inspired by the movie, Robin Williams its real in this world YES! Decided to pay Jumanji while other chooses the Hungry Hungry Hippos.

The kids were a tad difficult to handle, but with patience, a lot of patience I say, I was able to guide them to the play room and make sure they behaved themselves, they were a chaotic bunch but I liked it, felt like my childhood days when I didn't have to worry what next great project or new responsibility I will have to take care of.

Still, more and more clientele make their presence known, until they arrived, the nerds…My People! Some of them were the stereotypical heavyweight lanky guy with glasses and backpacks, other were closer to more normal guys that wore squared shaped shirts and everyday brown pants while others, wore hats, clubs and whatnot to immerse themselves with the game, roleplaying ladies and gentlemen; of course DnD an eternal favorite and…

"Listen to me, you lowly Mon-Keigh" an overweight guy, with the thickest glasses you could have even seen stood up in front of me, dressed in some kind of purple toga, with a really badly made futuristic white bone armor and a scepter that actually was a broomstick with a purple ball as the scepter sphere, did I forget that every time the guy talk, spit came flying out of his mouth and thanks to that one could see some yellowish teeth's? Yeah, one of those guys.

Nonetheless, that didn't matter, none of that mattered anymore, no, what mattered was the filth that decided to stand in my presence, oh I knew he was role playing, maybe a bit too hard for my liking, but I would recognize those words everywhere, and it seems I wasn't the only one, a guy dressed in all green looked at us like if it favorite meal appeared in front of him, a foursome was there chatting in some weird tongues but listening closely to our conversation, dressed with colors of faded gray, some luminescent blue and a deep red.

A bigger group that screamed, strength in numbers, had a more militaristic look, with one of them narrowing his eyes with a hint of badly disguised paranoia dancing in them, he seemed to be the guy with the highest rank between all of them, then there were some lanky guys that dressed closely to thick glasses and they looked and spoke as pompous if not even more than him, and finally there they were, yes, with colors of steel gray, navy blue, camo green, a bright yellow, one with shade of gray that at first glance seemed to absorb the light, one with a darker shade of gray like the leafs of a tree, some of pure white with a mix of red that resembled some type of scar, an icy blue adorned with fake pelt and lastly some dressed in the bloodiest of red.

I understood, it seems I have been complacent in my activities till now, with a bow I signaled to the adjacent play room, and they, as arrogant as the race they were role playing they went inside, not long after that the green guy, and those draped in red, blue and gray followed, the army like group was next following in this case the guy that acted as their leader, each one of them with a suitcase in hand.

After the biggest group, followed suitcases in hands and everything and though I didn't see their darker counterparts I went back to my job, there was no need for m-

"Brother" it seems I was wrong, duty calls, "Join us! So we may Burn the Heretic. Kill the Mutant. Purge the Unclean" the guy was dressed in navy blue, all righteous and whatnot and I could only said, "Lieutenant Azhmir from the Chapter of the Light Eagles of the Ultra Marines" I said with all the authority that I had at that moment, my last position in role playing in my previous life, our captain was Jhon, dammit Jhon, we didn't end those filthy Orks in the end.

He just nodded at me and presented himself "Captain Khandor from the Abyss Keepers of the Ultra Marine" I stood role playing, it was and embarrassing at the same time, but damn I miss it, sadly I had to do my job, only for gramps to relieve me from my post, only by standing up in front of me and greeting the next customer while winking at me to follow Khandor inside the room, I gave a quick subtle smile in return as gratitude "Lead the way sir" he nodded at me "For the xenos must be purged, for the stars are humanity's birthright." I added at the end, making him accelerate his pace, while I followed him all the time, after all only in death does duty end is no way to live.

"For to be a man in such times is to be one amongst untold billions. It is to live in the cruelest and most bloody regime imaginable. These are the tales of those times. Forget the power of technology and science, for so much has been forgotten, never to be relearned. Forget the promise of progress and understanding, for in the grim dark future there is only war. There is no peace amongst the stars, only an eternity of carnage and slaughter, and the laughter of thirsting gods."