Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Clubit Academia ❯ Drama ( Chapter 3 )

Part 3: Drama

 

Drama

 

I thought it couldn't happen in the real world.

 

But then again, this isn't exactly the real world.

 

Isn't it…

 

Sitting in the booth alone, growling at anyone that came near her, Shariku drank lightly. Tenka Touitsu, it was a special brew from Osaka and the bar owner's only real supply of alcohol, obtained specially for her, the majority of brews and spirits forbidden within the confines of the Academy.

 

And it tasted disgusting. Some moron had stored it in the fridge, ruining the taste completely and leaving her with a bottle resting on a radiator she wasn't allowed to adjust.

 

The new guy was there as well, ten meters away, laughing and joking as he accounted every moment of the duel that had taken place earlier that day, dramatically impersonating each monster with a variety of adequate impressions to the audience of Clubiteers that had since surrounded him, every moron and n00b desperate to get along with someone skilled.

 

The drinking cup fell to the table, she didn't feel like it anymore. Corking up the bottle, she lay back…

 

…

 

…

 

Was it because he was fitting in so well so quickly with this place that was **** her off, or because he had proven her wrong, instead proving to her that duels could still have some drama to them? She always felt, even after the virtual systems came into use, that the game had become boring. The same tactics used over and over again, simplistic, stupid, copied off those who had created them originally, allowing idiots to take over the game. Even the existence of soul decks didn't overcome this fact.

 

Then…Guldalf had been defeated.

 

Guldalf's deck was considered one of the strongest in the game, the card's exhibiting raw power without the need for strategy. It was the only thing that had gotten him into the top ten of the rankings, yet the n00b's win against him…

 

…

 

Pulling the cork out again, she poured another shot.

 

She didn't know. She didn't even know what her problem was. Trying to form theories without enough facts, Sherlock would be very upset with her.

 

She needed more data.

 

*************************

 

This was something he was going to have to get used to.

 

His immediate popularity was bearable, being in the drama club at his old school, he could take being flooded with a swarming audience, all looking at him and only him. And since he had entered this room, which was designed to look like a traditional English pub without the alcohol, the repeated requests to join clubs, dorms and other ventures were, although tedious since he had discovered the lack of a drama group, also tolerable.

 

But this... this was actually just freaky, this girl in front of him, talking to him as if nothing was wrong, when something was- something very clearly was.

 

To say this girl looked a lot- and a hell of a lot at that, like the character Bakura would be an acceptable statement, as it was true. From the white hair to the little eyes, the whole thing screamed that he was looking at a feminized Bakura. However, to say this would be ignoring the fundamental fact that she was nothing more than the severed head of that same said character, floating around in front of him five feet off of the ground like the rest of her body had been painted invisible. It was like talking to a disabled person: desperate to ask what was wrong but afraid of being offensive.

 

He was almost missing her words, the severed head telling him of the basic rules of the Academy, which were mostly common sense save for a few basic etiquette rules such as not bugging everyone for a duel or throwing insults around just to bait people. The way the words were coming out was almost as if she had memorized them.

 

“…Learn, Live,” she finished, her breath steady the whole way, despite the fact she could not have inhaled a single element of oxygen during that entire speech.

 

“Okay, thank for that,” he replied, with the girl already moving on before he could finish, floating through the crowd and randomly talking to anyone she came across, clearly dominating any conversation she came into before moving on again.

 

“U were awesome!” the boy to his left shouted, as if waiting this whole time to speak to him. “I can't believe u beat Guldalf nd yur cards were awesome as well”

 

“Thanks,” he replied, feeling his cheeks go red with blood. This was the seventh person to praise him today after the duel, and as far as he was concerned it could just keep on coming. “It was weird, that guy was strong. I couldn't tell what he was planning half the time. But I handled it in the end.”

 

“U got to have a duel wit me sometime,” the boy said, his fists clenched in front of him with hopeful patience, Paine catching sight of the strange bands dangling round his wrists with dark red blood in them, just underneath the sleeves of his black leather overcoat.

 

“Yeah, okay,” Paine responded with a nod. “Although it'll have to wait a bit. You're the fifth person who's asked me. At this rate, I'll have to start making a list.”

 

“Don't get too ****, n00b,” Shariku said, appearing to his side with a small bottle resting on her shoulder, held in place by some frayed string in her right hand. “The lesson I intended to teach you became invalidated the second you started using a Soul Deck.”

 

“A soul deck?” he replied, his words ripe with confusion as the girl that was slowly becoming his guide approached him.

 

“Don't play stupid with yourself. You know what it is.”

 

As strange as it sounded, he felt like he did know what it meant. The cards he had drawn- they weren't any of the like he had seen before. Yet somehow, he knew. Like the instinct to suck upon a mother's breast, he had played each card barely looking at them, being led whilst blinded. Looking down to the deck contained within his belt pocket, he knew somehow that, although he couldn't name them now, he knew what each and every card in the deck did, and how best to use them.

 

“We call them Soul Decks simply because we don't have any other real knowledge about them,” Shariku said, snapping him out of his reverie. “All that's really known about them is that they show up to certain duelists at certain times, often replacing previous cards the person has owned.”

 

“You mean- it's like a reward for strong duelists or something?” Nearly pulling the deck out, he wanted to admire the cards and study each in depth, yet something he couldn't quite place was stopping him. Like the urge to throw oneself off of a building just to see what it felt like, he felt common sense holding him back on the edge, his fingers hovering like he could feel the power of a magnet pushing him away.

 

“Pfft,” Shariku snorted. “Don't flatter yourself.” Paine felt that pang of depressed pain that he had been feeling constantly ever since he met Shariku. “It's true that some of the top duelists have Soul Decks. But those near the bottom have been known to get them as well, and not everyone near the top has them either. For example, myself and Strategy Master don't have one.”

 

“So what gets you one?” he asked, almost as if trapped in some kind of explanatory dialogue.

 

“Like the name suggests,” Shariku said, her eyes glancing away to stare at something he couldn't quite see himself, “Soul. If you have a passion for something, your deck will become it. But that's only a theory. Soul Decks pop up with little or no warning, and even when duelists get one, they can't exactly explain how they got one, just that it felt right at the time.”

 

“Well I guess that sums up what happened to me,” he said, resting his hand on top of his deck. “After Crass Clown all the others just stopped making any sense, the way I was playing them felt like…”

 

“I didn't ask for a description,” Shariku interrupted, her tone harsh and without restraint. “I can pretty much guess all that from everything I saw there. No one has ever played a soul deck and not looked like they knew what they were doing even though they didn't. Just because you had a crowd doesn't make you special.”

 

“Sorry,” he felt himself mumbling, even though he felt like saying otherwise. This girl was frustrating to say the least. She had been helpful the whole way, yet also completely derogatory, like she viewed herself as some snobbish…

 

“Wait,” he muttered. “Are you a teacher here?”

 

“Wow, are you not, like, the fastest brain alive?”

 

“Shariku is a secondary teacher here,” the blue haired boy next to them said. “She retired from the game a while back but still helps out with everything else here.” He started to list things off on his fingers. “She runs the ranking system, teaches history, english and even writes for the local magazine”

 

The boy was immediately struck down, a white trainer aimed at groin level swiftly knocking him down. Paine wasn't sure whether to laugh or shout at her.

 

“It's Shariku-sama, Zen-chan. As a teacher it was my first lesson. Shariku is appalled that you have yet to learn.”

 

Sitting on a bar stool, Paine drowned out the girl's words, remembering that someone had already bought him a coke a while back. Fizzy drinks weren't his thing, but it was nice and cool in all this heat and he held it snugly in his hands, looking at the different groups that congregated around the room and seeing a mix of different types, including students as strange as the disembodied head he had met earlier.

 

People certainly were different.

 

Near the far side of the room, a man leaned against a wall, dressed in a purple top that looked Japanese, his strange taste in clothing only outshone by the x-like scar across his cheek. Across from him, sitting alone at a table was young boy, completely bald, with his head shining and practically blinding another boy who looked like a walking corporate logo decked out in Nike sports clothing. Another guy…

 

“Hey, is that…” His eyes caught something; white, fluffy ears belonging to a domestic pet, traveling across a sea of heads. It caught his full attention and got him staring, barely noticing Shariku turn to see what he was staring at.

 

“Who is that?”

 

“Who's who?” Shariku replied, now leaving Zen to lay there as her curiosity picked up something else. She was shorter than him.

 

“There!” he almost shouted, a Chinese male now stepping out of the crowd and towards the exit, cat's ears displayed prominently on the top of his head as if connected to a headband. He didn't need her to tell him who it was. He knew.

 

“That's Yo…” he called out loudly now, catching the attention of a few near him. He would have finished the name if a hundred pound weight hadn't descended onto his back, forcing him to the floor like a sack of potatoes. The wind fell out from under him, taking the air in his lungs as well.

 

“Listen to me,” Shariku said, apparently unconcerned for the unwelcome presence of her knee in his kidneys. “One piece of advice…Whatever you do here- Ever, do not approach Yo-Chaos Angel.”

 

“What?” he coughed, deciding not to advantage of her poor footing on account of the conversation. “Why?”

 

“There are people here in Clubit Academia. And they are very different from the average duelist- Even more different than the duelist who owns a soul deck.” Feeling her breath on the back of his neck, Paine could almost feel a tremble of fear going through the girl's kneecap and into him.

 

“His ears were white now, so he was safe. Even so, it's best to keep your distance. But if you ever see black ears- Forget formality, just run. Because of your soul deck, not to mention how fast you got it, you'll be in more danger than most. Just be glad you don't have a Kaa.”

 

“A Kaa?” he replied, his mind reeling away from his reality to another. “You mean?”

 

“I assume you've seen the show.”

 

“Enough of it to know what you mean.”

 

…

 

 

…

 

Silence…

 

Turning, he was surprised to find he could, but not as surprised to find that Shariku was no longer there, not on top of him or standing above him. Did she knock me out? he found himself thinking, although no one appeared concerned when he moved to pick himself up. Had she just left? Ran away? Or was this the reason why she was showing so much worry? Was this Yo that powerful? It didn't make any sense. She made it out that the cat's ears were actually real, and changed colour based on moods or something. And Kaa? He wanted to laugh it off, it sounded too corny.

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