"Something bad happened!"
During the break, Judai was lounging on the grass outside the school, basking leisurely in the sun and dozing off. From afar, he heard Xiang's shouting.
Judai sat up: "What's going on, Xiang?"
Xiang ran breathlessly, his face flush and panting heavily, finally speaking haltingly: "I just... heard... rumors... expulsion!"
As he shouted, he gestured exaggeratedly, but Judai was still puzzled after listening for a while.
"What is it? What expulsion? Xiang, speak slower..."
"Is it about the punishment for trespassing in the dormitory?"
A clear and pleasant voice came from behind. The two turned back and saw Tenjouin Asuka walking towards them.
"Yes... that's right." Xiang finally caught his breath, and thinking turned, seemed to have remembered something else, "Hey, come to think of it, Asuka has been around us a lot lately..."
Asuka startled: "What are you... saying? It's just a coincidence."
Yes, just a coincidence, nothing but a coincidence. The girl said to herself in her heart.
It can't possibly be that she's intentionally hanging around specific people, right?
Judai asked: "What punishment are you talking about, what's the situation?"
"It's about the trespass into the restricted area!" Xiang's face was fearful, "The school rules clearly state that trespassing into restricted areas is a serious violation! In severe cases, one might be expelled!"
"I heard the academy is planning to have us duel to decide the final disposition," Asuka said, "The specific format hasn't been decided yet..."
"What, just a duel?" Judai comfortably lay back on the grass, looking utterly unconcerned, "Just deal with it calmly, that's all."
Asuka hesitated but spoke softly, "Sorry, it's all because of me that you guys got involved..."
No matter the reason, after all, Asuka was the one who first trespassed in the restricted area, and because of her carelessness, she fell into the enemy's trap. If Judai hadn't dueled to rescue her, unnecessary attention wouldn't have been drawn...
"What are you saying?" Judai puzzledly tilted his head, "We decided to explore the dorm ourselves, it has nothing to do with you, Asuka."
Asuka pondered momentarily and asked softly, "Then Judai, if you are expelled for this, wouldn't you blame me?"
"Why would I?"
Judai waved his hand, continuing to lazily sunbathe, looking just like an old retiree by the coast.
"As long as I can duel happily, nothing else matters! Don't burden yourself, Asuka, let's all cheer together during the duel assessment!"
Judai has always hated spending extra brain cells on matters outside of dueling. The incident already happened, assigning blame is just too troublesome, he's too lazy for that.
Asuka said no more, just smiled slightly.
Youki Judai... a kind and interesting person.
What they didn't know was, at the same time, someone else in the classroom window was watching Yuki Judai lazily lying on the grass.
That newcomer rising among academy students, Manjome Jun.
Manjome leaned against the window, staring at Judai intently for a long time. His mouth unconsciously curled as two big words floated in his mind—
—Is that it?
His mentor, Kaiba Seto, told him that the jellyfish-headed kid down there is secretly Duel King Youyu's disciple, his only and most important rival at this academy.
The mentor gave him a strict order that under no circumstances must he defeat that jellyfish-head, failure is not an option!
Manjome also greatly admired the Duel King who mastered Heroes, and initially was very wary of this rival flaunting "student of the Duel King" title.
But after joining, what did his daily observations of Judai reveal?
Napping in class, late assignments, lounging on the grass like a retired old man whenever free...
...Do you think you're the novel protagonist capable of leveling up by lying motionless?
Manjome felt displeased, very displeased.
Why should someone like him be his rival?
For someone like this, Manjome should be able to fight ten of them!
"Big bro, you've been staring at that Osiris Red student for ages." A little brother weakly asked next to him, "What's so special about that kid to make big bro focus so much?"
"Wha—What?" Manjome snapped out of it, quickly retracting his gaze, "Don't be stupid! Since when did I focus on that sort of thing? I was just... just looking at the scenery!"
"Oh..."
The little brother obediently shut his mouth.
Whatever big bro says goes.JPG
But he couldn't help peeking at Judai lazy lying on the grass outside.
Seems like a lazy, unmotivated underachiever, why does Manjome care so much?
...
Kaiba Group's helicopter landed on Duel Academy Island's helipad around 2 PM. Youyu took this flight off the island to Domino.
Titan's incident attracted his attention. The one issuing orders behind the scenes, the darkness corrupting Titan's body—Youyu surmised they may be the same person, that has drawn Youyu's attention.
Like Yubel, Youyu also sensed the power of darkness was strong, the mastermind is definitely not an ordinary character.
The plane landed atop Kaiba Company. As Youyu disembarked, Kaiba Mokuba was already waiting on the rooftop.
Over the years, Mokuba grew slightly taller too, wearing the white suit also made him more of a company helmsman.
Mature since a young age, Mokuba could help his brother handle many of the Group's business since elementary. Over the years, he has become one of the actual helmsmen of the Kaiba Group giant.
However, before Youyu, he always acted like a child.
"Big brother Youyu!" Mokuba approached him, "Brother is temporarily out of the company..."
"I know." Youyu nodded. "That's why I chose this time to come."
"True." Mokuba chuckled, "If brother was here and saw you, he'd definitely pester you to duel again... Yugi has been busy outside for a long time, brother keeps wanting to duel you these days."
Heard Kaiba recently printed a few new cards, his deck greatly strengthened, itching for a capable rival to test strength.
Youyu's head hurt upon hearing this, knowing sooner or later he couldn't avoid another game...
"What about the info I asked you to check?" Youyu asked.
"About Titan? We thoroughly checked all his information."
Mokuba handed Youyu a tablet displaying Titan's profile while walking.
"His history is clear, just a duelist masquerading as a 'Dark Duelist' to scam. His dueling skills are decent, but reputation is bad, only fooling some ignorant people.
He never really took any significant jobs, just some minor stuff, without suspiciousness."
"Then what about his last employer?"
Mokuba shook his head: "Couldn't find any clues. Last night we sent out Kaiba Group's best spies, but the opponent was careful, left no trace to track... Is this employer important?"
"Perhaps." Youyu said, "Titan mentioned a name. He told me this employer is clearly looking for someone at Duel Academy... Yuki Judai."
"Your student, Youyu?" Mokuba smiled, "That surely is a clueless guy, he found the wrong person."
Youyu didn't respond, but asked: "What about the other person I asked you to investigate?"
"President Kagemaru of the Heaven and Earth Imaging Society? This person is interesting too."
"How so?"
Mokuba took the tablet back, swiping, bringing up new data.
"About President Kagemaru... Seems no one has seen him for months."