Extra 18: It's time to d-d-d-d-duel (8)

"Seriously... this is ridiculous..." - Kurama said as he shook his head.

Classes were over and his little trip around the facility together with Midori had already passed. He was currently trying to relax in a normal bathtub, though the place wasn't very clean to say the least, and what made it worse, was that this was the designated dressing room of the Slifer dormitory teachers, well, all but Midori, since she was female she could use the Obelisks'.

"Give up, it's been like this since I entered the academy" - Banner said as he soaked in a nearby bathtub, the only thing blocking the view being a grimy curtain.

"There are times I hate Kaiba..." - Kurama growled as he pinched the bridge of his nose - "I just said I didn't want to have a duel with him, and he pulls this shit on me, I swear to god when I get out of here, I'm going to give him what he deserves."

Banner just smiled when he heard this - "Give him a punch in the nose for me, seriously, the conditions in our dorm are horrible, right Pharaoh?"

"Meow ~!" - a fat, close-eyed tabby cat nodded as he swam around his owner.

"I still can't believe how smart and well-trained that cat is!" said Kurama as he looked in the direction of his colleague.

"Well, I was lucky to find myself a pet like Pharaoh, wasn't I?" - Banner smiled as he stroked his cat's fur.

"Meow ~!" - Pharaoh meowed again in acceptance as he swam around the tub. Normally, he would feel repulsed by the water, though he was ignoring this because Kurama's presence was soothing.

"Go, I can tell you want to go to Kurama," Banner said as he watched his cat jump out of his tub and scurry over to Kurama.

Kurama was surprised to see this, though he quickly smiled as the cat swam around him - "Well, at least the tubs are big."

"Yeah, we can relax without much trouble, and since we're the only male teachers in the Slifer dorm, we can take as much time as we want" - Banner replied as he continued to enjoy the warm water.

"By the way, how long do you have left to live?" - Kurama asked as he felt Banner's aura change.

"What do you mean?" - Lyman Banner asked as he narrowed his eyes.

"I can feel your life force fading from your artificial container" - replied Kurama calmly, only to block a knife that was heading in his direction - "Relax, I'm not asking you to rat you out, but out of simple curiosity."

Banner was silent for a few seconds before sighing with regret because he could feel that the difference in physical power was huge, not to mention that he didn't think he could defeat this man in a monster duel, so challenging him to a Shadow duel would be a suicide.

"A short time, though I did find a way to heal myself" - Banner replied while frowning because he didn't like how this stranger had discovered his secret so easily.

"You seek immortality?" - Kurama asked as he raised an eyebrow - "Or to recover your body to its optimal state?"

"I won't deny it, the premise of immortality is appealing, but I as an alchemist, I know not that it is not feasible" - replied Banner as he frowned - "My people have for years been with the sole goal of being able to succeed in obtaining the philosopher's stone and thus achieve eternal life, though I now understand that immortality is not a blessing, but a curse"

Kurama was silent as he frowned.

"We alchemists seek absolute knowledge, and from our point of view immortality is the answer, though this makes us not see beyond the final result" - Banner continued as he looked at his hands and noticed how they aged for a few seconds before returning to normal - "Immortality will only make us lose our initial goal"

"I understand" - nodded Kurama after hearing his colleague's words - "I guess then you're going to look for a way to regain your optimal state, although honestly in that artificial body I don't think there's any solution"

Banner's expression changed when he heard this - "You're saying there's no possible way for me to recover?"

"If you had your original body, it's possible, although now, I'm not so sure" - Kurama replied while frowning - "Additionally, it's possible that even if you had your old body, you wouldn't be able to return to it because your soul adapted to your artificial body."

"Impossible..." - Banner muttered as he frowned - "Were all my attempts in vain?"

"I'm not so sure, after all, I'm not a doctor or an alchemist, I'm just telling you what I can sense in your erratic life force" - Kurama replied while shaking his head - "As for your wishes, well, I'm not sure if they can help you, and if I'm honest, I recommend you to be careful what you do because your vitality is about to disappear, I only asked you because I wanted to know if you knew about your condition."

Banner was silent before letting out a lunatic laugh - "I see... that explains some things, like for example, why my body has been getting weaker, I guess my end came faster than I thought, yet this is not a bad thing, I still have some things left to do, and I can possibly survive."

"How?" - Kurama asked as he raised an eyebrow.

"You know the Duel Monster Spirits?" - Banner asked as he stood up and covered his lower parts with a towel. He slowly walked over to the white haired man and looked him straight in the eyes.

"Yes, I know them, remember I spent quite a while together with Yugi" - replied Kurama as he shrugged - "Anyway, are you saying that you can survive as a spirit?"

"Yes, my research led me to a method to strengthen my soul" - replied Banner while shaking his head - "That's how I managed to transfer my soul into this homunculus"

"I see" - muttered Kurama as he silently pondered before looking at his colleague - "We'd better get back to the main topic, tell me, how did you plan to maintain your vitality so that you could find a way to solve your problem?"

"I'm sorry, but I can't tell you" - Banner replied as he shook his head.

"Motive?" - Kurama asked as he raised an eyebrow.

"Contract" - replied Banner as he turned around and retreated silently.

Pharaoh jumped out of the water and shook his body before meowing in Kurama's direction and running off to his master.

Kurama frowned he heard this before deciding to leave this for another time and continue with his little relaxation, after all, it had been quite a while since he had taken such a long shower - "Well, we can leave that for another time."

* * * * *

"What do you guys think about Kurama sensei's class?" - Alexis asked as she looked at her two friends.

"It was interesting, especially that new deck of his" - Mindy replied with a huge smile - "Don't you feel that it looks like your [Cyber Angels]?"

"In aesthetics, yes, but in gameplay, they are very different" - answered Alexis while tilting her head - "And while my strategy is mostly focused on magics thanks to playing a fusion and ritual deck, Kurama sensei focuses on a very different aspect, the [Sky Strikers] are a control deck, although I'm a bit confused because I didn't feel them as oppressive."

"Maybe it's because we didn't see them showing their full potential" - replied Jasmine as she started to think - "That Slifer guy didn't show much fight."

"It's because Kurama sensei's deck is a deck that specializes in playing 2nd turn" - replied Alexis while shaking her head.

"What do you mean?" - Mindy asked while raising an eyebrow.

"It's simple, if you remember Kurama sensei's play, and how the magic cards work, it's obvious that the vast majority of these will be used on his turn, and seeing how destructive they are and how easily he can recover them, you can deduce that they are designed to destroy the enemy field or restrict the amount of plays the opponent can make" - answered Alexis as she let the water run down her beautiful figure - "I guess that now we will understand how important magic cards are for building our decks".

"We always knew that" - said Jasmine as she raised an eyebrow - "Our decks are full of them"

"Yes, but we use them as add-ons, instead, the [Sky Striker] use them as the central base of their strategy" - answered Alexis while marking the most important point between the two situations - "Not to mention that today we also learned that our graveyards can serve as one more extension of our plays if we have the necessary cards to use it, like for example [Kagari] who can search for a magic card [Sky Striker] when it is summoned"

"I guess we'll have to check our decks and update them..." - Jasmine said as she let out a heavy sigh - "I wonder if this is how Yugi-sama felt after fighting Kurama-san..."