CHAPTER 26
Sprinting down the street, he couldn't help but curse under his breath as he turned the corner, narrowly dodging a woman carrying a tray of takeout and skidding past a biker waiting at a crosswalk.
"Of all days for the train to be delayed, it had to be today?"
The only day that he needed public transport, and it failed on him? Ugh, Pegasus had offered to drop him off at the Domino City Hall with the limousine, but past him decided to decline with the concern that it would garner unwanted attention...
And look where that got him. Running full speed through Domino City like a madman, with barely—he looked at his watch before cursing out loud.
Shit! Ten minutes left to get to the check-in station! Ken groaned as he picked up speed, his lungs burning. Just as he turned another sharp corner, he heard the blaring honk of a car horn—
Reacting instinctively, he leaped into the air just in time for a sleek black sedan to screech past, missing him by inches.
Ken twisted his body midair, barely managing to land on the sidewalk in a stumbling roll. His heart hammered in his chest as he shot a glare at the car speeding off, the driver yelling something unintelligible out the window.
Breathing a sigh of relief, he pushed himself back onto his feet and broke into a sprint again while making sure that his backpack was still secured with its zipper in place after that stunt. The last thing he needed was his Duel Disk or decks spilling onto the pavement in the middle of a crowded street.
A few minutes of full-on sprinting later, the parking lot of Domino City Hall finally came into view in the distance. He mentally cheered at the sight of the building before increasing his already fast pace to the check-in station, where the registrations were being held.
The check-in booth was right ahead; a handful of second-year students volunteered to help, along with a staff member waiting patiently at the registration table when all of them looked up when they saw a maniac sprinting full speed toward the entrance.
With just under three minutes to spare, he skidded to a stop just in front of the booth, panting like a dog as he announced himself wheezily.
"Examinee Number 23, Yusou Ken, checking in."
The staff member at the booth raised an eyebrow.
"Cutting it a little close, aren't we?"
"WAIT!"
The sudden shout echoed from below the parking lot.
Before anyone could process it, an arm shot up from the railing. A second later, a figure pulled himself up into view. A brown-haired boy with wild, windswept locks and bright amber eyes hung on the railings as he announced his exam number with a carefree grin.
"Examinee Number 110, Yuki Judai! I should be "safe," right?"
A stunned silence followed.
The staff member at the booth blinks once. Then twice. He slowly turned his gaze from Judai, who had just climbed up a wall from the park below, to Ken, who was still hunched over and fanning his t-shirt from his fifteen-minute nonstop sprint.
The two second-year student volunteers looked at each other before stifling a giggle.
Judai scratched his cheek sheepishly after he hoisted himself over the ledge and landed on his feet.
"Eheh, well, the train was late, and then I kind of got lost. The City Hall was just right ahead, so I figured this was faster than running all the way around."
Ken wiped the sweat off his forehead, still trying to steady his breathing. Sure, he was fit, but he wasn't at the level of those marathon athletes that could maintain a fast pace for hours on end.
"You too? My train got delayed too, so I had to sprint the whole way here."
Judai perked up at that, grinning.
"Oh man, same! But, y'know, I figured—why waste time running around when I could just go straight up?"
He gestured vaguely at the railing he had just scaled, to which Ken stared at him, then at the perfectly normal staircase just a few meters away, then back at him.
"There were stairs right there."
Judai blinked, turning to actually look this time.
A pause before he scratched the back of his head.
"...Ah, whoops."
The two student volunteers immediately burst into laughter, and even the staff member at the booth let out a tired sigh, shaking his head.
"You're both officially checked in. Just... go wait in there until we start calling your names."
"Sweet! Thanks!"
"Thank you."
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"Hey, look at them going at it!"
Judai rests his arms and leans on the railing as Ken follows behind him with crossed arms, standing by his side. There were a lot more people here than he thought, with the majority being people that already were wearing their Duel Academia uniforms of multiple colors.
Looking down at the zoned sections for the examinations, he noted that out of the eight that were being held simultaneously, only one was surprisingly winning by a landslide, with the contestant still having 3200 Life Points while the examiner only had 1900 LP.
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TURN ?
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Examiner ?: 1900 LP
Hand: 2
GY: ?
Field: Big Shield Gardna (Monster | LVL 4 / 100 / 2600 [DEF Position]), Gear Golem the Moving Fortress (Monster | LVL 4 / 800 / 2200 | [DEF Position])
Banish: —
=x=x=x=x=x=x=
Examinee ?: 3200 LP
Hand: 3
GY: ?
Field: Vorse Raider (Monster | LVL 4 / 1900 / 1200 | [ATK Position]), ? (Set)
Banish: —
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Ken frowned at the state of both sides of the field as the examiner ended his turn. No back rows at all? And he didn't attempt to remove the Vorse Raider or the set card and opted to just leave them there.
As soon as the Draw and Standby Phase passed by, during the Main Phase, the examinee pressed on the button of his Duel Disk.
"I activate my trap card, Ring of Destruction!"
And the game's over.
"What?!"
"This trap destroys one face-up monster on the field, dealing damage equivalent to its Attack Points to both of us."
A metal collar spewing fire in all cardinal and ordinal directions appeared around Vorse Raider's neck before exploding in a brilliant burst of flames, causing the life point counters on both players' Duel Disks to rapidly drop.
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Examinee: 3200 - › 1300 LP
Examiner: 1900 - › 0 LP
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The smoke from the explosion receded as the examiner's Life Points dropped to zero, the monsters on both sides of the field dissipating as a result of the duel ending.
"Exam duel complete. Congratulations, Examinee Number 1, you've won."
The examiner declared as the examinee bowed to thank the staff member.
"Wow, the Number 1 there had a great combo, huh?"
Judai voiced out, seemingly impressed, while Ken kept quiet at the display of skill.
Was it just him, or is the bar set quite low? No one in their right mind would play Big Shield Gardna without a support card for its effect, while Gear Golem the Moving Fortress, he could kind of get if he squinted his eyes narrow enough.
But no back row while you had 2 cards in your hand? That's just not...
Was it because he was used to playing against good players? Even Insector Haga with his Parasite deck looked competent compared to whatever this display was.
"That's a given. That guy was numbered 1st, in other words, the one who placed highest on the written exam, Misawa Daichi."
The person standing beside Judai, a young boy with unkempt blue hair and glasses, explained.
"Oh, so that's what the exam numbers mean?"
"They determine who gets in based on written exam scores and your duel. I managed to barely scrape by a win in the dueling aspect, but I'm Examinee Number 119, so I don't know if they'll let me in or not."
Ken personally thought that the numbers were based on application order, but that made more sense.
As for his ranking of 12 in the written test...
Right, he took it without studying a single thing, so he didn't know the best way in regard to how an answer needed to be structured. He just wrote what he felt was correct, but his answers should be correct since they were rather basic.
Judai chuckled as he slapped the young boy on the back, nearly toppling the smaller boy over before catching himself at the last second.
"Don't you worry, 119th! If you're lucky, then you'll pass. After all, look at me. I'm number 110. Oh, and this guy here is number 12."
Judai threw an arm around Ken's shoulder, pulling him in as Ken nodded in agreement.
Sho adjusted his glasses, glancing between them with an awkward expression.
"Um, but the duels for the 100s already finished in the first heat, and the 20s just wrapped up with Misawa's match."
At the comment, Ken's casual nod froze.
Judai's arm over his shoulder slumped with a shocked look on his face.
"Huh."
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A/N:
There you have it, the start of canon! I have been so excited to write this for a while now, so you might see the flow of things change slightly with more emphasis in the words being placed on the dialogue and plot.
My boy Ken has no idea what shenanigans are about to go down past this point, so buckle up, guys! This is going to be a fun ride!
P.S. I grew up watching the Japanese dub, so please understand that I'm more familiar with and will thus use the Japanese names of the characters.
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