Dueling life in a futuristic world

Date: 1/Ago/35MT

[“BEEP, BEEP, BEEP”]

I’m rudely waken up by an annoying beeping sound.

“Errgggggg” groans my roommate in the above bunk bed, reminding me of where I am.

‘I don’t know why I expect to just wake up back in my world every time…’

I sit up and look around. Mia has also woken up, and contrary to Yasuna, is way less grumpy about it.

“*Yawn* Good morning everyone.” says Mia.

“Morning.” I greet, standing up.

“You going in first?” Asks Mia.

“Yea.” I confirm and walk into the bathroom.

I take a shower and change my underwear to the more uncomfortable pair I had on yesterday.

‘I really have to buy another set…’ I conclude.

Walking out of the bathroom, I see Mia and Aiko are already up with Yasuna still sitting up on her bed.

“Yasuna, it was you that suggested we wake up at this hour. Get up!” Urges Mia.

“I am, I am. Just a sec…”

I giggle at the scene. Mia notices and turns to me.

“Hey Yuumi, did you check out your schedule yet?” She reminds me.

“No, not yet, did you?” I ask. Yasuna suddenly gets out of bed and passes by me, then enters the bathroom.

“Yes! Me and Aiko share the same classes!” She celebrates.

I sit down on the desk that we have agreed is mine after grabbing my phone and duel disk. I slot my phone in and open the NWDA App in full-screen mode.

“Let’s see…” I mutter.

[ 1/Ago/35MT]

[8:00AM - 12:00AM|Deck Bulding Introduction|P1.1.3|Mandatory]

[4:00PM - 8:00PM|Dueling Theory 101|P1.1.3|Optional]

[8:10PM - 8:40|ADF Meating|ADF CLUB|Mandatory]

‘Hmm… strange I’m required to be in the first deck building class today, but from tomorrow on, this becomes also optional. The only mandatory thing I have on my schedule is the club meeting every Monday.’

“I have Deck Bulding from 8 to 12 and then dueling theory from 4 to 8.” I report to Mia, making her eyes shine.

“WE TOO!” she yells before being scolded by Aiko for yelling too loudly.

I laugh, then go to the dispenser to get my uniform and start dressing up. After I’m done, I sit back down on my desk and go about exploring the NWDA app. Yasuna had already gotten out of the bathroom and was dressing up by the bed.

“Hey Yuumi, by the way, how much DC do you have?” She asks.

“Nan…”

“Oh, come on!” She interrupts “I saw the price of the set you were wearing yesterday! that’s my whole monthly budget you know! And you said that was only a part of your bonus!” She reveals.

‘Oh shit, yea that’s right…’ I then realized I just spent an entire red rank DC allotment on a set of underwear… I really need to remember just how generous the director was…

I decide that I at least owe it to Yasuna to tell her, as I practically just pulled a “My bag cost more than your rent!” On her.

“*Sight*, I get 500 bonus on top of the 25…” I reveal stunning Yasuna, and Aiko who was still in the room.

“W-WHAT! That’s more than a top rank!” She exclaims.

“Yes, I know. Don’t go around spreading this around, hear me?”

“O-Of course! If the others knew this, I wouldn’t hear the end of the requests!”

‘Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea.’ I think.

I look at Aiko and she nods, not that I would expect her to reveal this… Maybe to her sister… But even then I don’t think Mia would run her mouth, especially if Aiko said not to.

After a few more minutes, we are all ready, so we exit our room and make our way over to the elevator and ride down to the lobby. The lobby is full of people just hanging around, waiting for the canteen to open. I can see some seniors from yesterday. They are looking over at our group and seem to want to say something to me.

There is no way I’ll just say quiet, it's clear that I’m not the only one that has noticed I can see Mia and Aiko getting uncomfortable. So I decide to walk away from my group and make my way over to theirs.

“Yes? You wanna say something?” I confront them.

They didn’t expect me to do so as they stay quiet for a few seconds before the one of them spoke.

“About yester…”

“I made my decision.” I interrupt.

“We know! We just wanna apologize for acting like that… We didn’t mean to! It’s just that bitch!”

“I know.” I once again interrupt.

“Sorry.” She ends.

I turn back to where Yasuna and my other roommates are.

“See? Not that difficult.” I tell Yasuna.

“Did anyone ever tell you how crazy you are?” She says.

“Tch. 10 Years in the streets does that to you.” I remind.

“About that. Why didn’t you try some boarding schools? Even if you didn’t have a deck, the public ones are open to anyone that passes their tests. If you revealed your penta-summoning there, you would have been safer.”

“That’s all good and all, but tell me. How can an orphan tell those offers apart from the malicious ones?” I retort.

“Ohhh…. Didn’t think of that… Sorry…”

“It’s all good.” I reassure.

7AM comes about, the doors to the canteen open and all the students make their way in. The canteen is organized like an enormous cafeteria. I grab a tray and after picking up what looks like some cereal; I sit on a bench with my roommates, surprisingly the food’s free.

As we are eating in peace, an announcement rings out over the PA system.

“Student Yuumi Matsunaga is to report to the Director’s office. I repeat, Student Yuumi Matsunaga is to report to the Director’s office.”

I glance at Yasuna with a knowing look.

“See?” I smugly ask.

“Yup.” Yasuna confirms, exasperated.

I quickly scarf up the rest of my breakfast and, after putting the tray away, make my way out of the dorm. Miss Umeda looks at me with a smug smile, but as I’m already annoyed at this, I don’t bother asking about it.

After a good 20 minutes of walking, I reach the central tower. The island still looks mostly empty of students at this hour. I enter the tower and see some pink, green and even one cyan student around. I walk up to the front desk.

“Yes?” the lady behind asks.

“I’m Yuumi Matsunaga, I was called to the Director’s office?” I tell.

She looks at a screen and then points to one of the many elevators in the middle of the lobby.

“Thank you.” I say.

I walk over to the elevator and, not seeing any buttons, bring my phone over to a panel. This makes the doors open and I get inside.

The elevator rises at a rapid rate. I can see the floor numbers scream by until I reach floor 100 and the doors open, right into the director’s office.

He’s sitting behind a large oval desk, and much to my dismay, Aya is also there.

The door’s opening makes Aya look over.

“That’s the one!” She declares, pointing to me.

“There’s no need to be so hasty.” the Director declares. Then offers. “Yuumi, please take a seat.”

I do that, leaving enough space between me and Aya.

“Now, I’m told that there was a duel at the red dorm. Is this right?”

“Yes, I would be happy to tell the full story, contrary to the doctored version that Aya is over here as told the Director.” I say.

He smiles. “Then please go ahead.”

I recount yesterday’s events to the director, starting with my arrival and ending after Miss Umeda told us to get back to our dorms.

The director’s expression doesn’t change… Until I reach the part of what Aya did last year and tried to repeat this year. Then, his smile slowly fades to a deep frown. By the end of the story, he looks properly pissed.

He looks at Aya and asks, “Is this true?”

“NO! I would never lose to a mere red rank!” She exclaims.

“That was not what I was asking. Aya, your loss has already been registered. What I want to know is if that’s really what you were trying to do? Make the red arrivals walk naked in front of the male dorm?”

Aya looks confused. “Of course! They need to be put in their place! We can’t have haughty red ranks walking like they own the place!”

‘Oh… So she’s of the ignorant type?’

Also, considering the face the director is making, that was not the right thing to say.

He stands up. “Aya Ohayashi. This duel has brought you below the required Elo for the blue rank. I wasn’t expecting to demote you as it was still close enough, but now?” The director announces.

I think Aya just recognized that she fucked up…

“D-Director Light..?” she mutters.

“Aya Ohayashi, considering your transgressions against the students of this academy, I demote you to Yellow Rank, effective immediately

This stuns Aya.

“S-Sir!”

“Not one more word or I will raise that to an expulsion.” The director warns.

She hurries out to the elevator, which closes its doors.

The director sits back down again, holding his head.

“So, Yuumi, are you enjoying your stay at the academy?” He asks, exasperated.

“Very much.”

He lifts his head up, surprised at my response.

“Really?”

“Come on, I will not get discouraged by petty stuff like that.”

“*Sigh*, good. Honestly, when I was told you dueled a blue rank, my first instinct was to think you were already picking fights to rank up.” He quips.

“I wouldn’t do that!” I declare.

‘Maybe I should.’

“So, Yuumi have you decided in which secondary courses you will take part in?” He asks.

“Yes. I assumed that was your intention when you made all of my classes optional. But, for now I will go to them normally, then maybe next week I’ll sign up to the action duel course and after I get a duel runner, the turbo duel one.”

I had looked into the secondary courses this morning while my roommates were getting ready. From them, I picked out these two because, well… Action duels always sounded like fun and children’s card games on motorcycles is something too good to pass up on.

“Very well. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have work to do.”

I nod, stand up and make my way out of his office. The clock in the elevator shows 7:27 so after I exit the central tower, I make my way to the teaching pavilions.

Outside on the covered benches, I spot Mia and Aiko.

“Hey!” I greet them.

“Oh, Yuumi! Here!” Mia calls out.

I sit next to them

“So how did the meeting with the director go?” Aiko asks, worried.

“Haha, you won’t believe it! Aya got demoted to Yellow!” I announce cheerfully.

The surrounding noise of the conversations between other students suddenly stopped. They then turned to us.

‘Aya got demoted?’

‘That’s what she said.’

‘Who is she anyway?’

‘Didn’t you hear!? She’s a natural Penta-Summoner.'

'She’s the only thing that the NWDA forums talk about right now!’

So apparently I have some admirers… Oh well. Also, I’m going to go on that forum, sounds like a good way to get some insights.

“What is this I’m hearing about Aya being demoted?” asks someone being me.

“Well, she lost against me and as her Elo was already low for a blue rank, so she got demoted.” I explain.

‘Wait. I recognize that voice.’

I turn around and find the deck building teacher that greeted me back on the plane.

“Good morning Miss Kayu.” I greet.

“Oh, Hello Yuumi. Sorry, I just couldn’t help but overhear that one of my best students got demoted. Well, see you in class.” And she walks away into the pavilion.

I glance at the twins and say. “We should go too.”

“Yea.” Mia agrees and we walk into the pavilion. Then follow the teacher to the auditorium.

As we are the first ones to enter, we sit down on the middle row. The other students then funnel in. Most of them are red rank but there are some blue and yellow ranks top so I guess they’re all first year.

The professor starts her class.

“Good morning everyone. My name is Kayu Takayama, and I will be your deck building professor for this year.”

“As you all must know, deck building is one of the most important elements that a duelist has to pay attention to. Without a deck that you can count on, there’s no way you’ll be able to win at any duel! During this year, I hope you will all come out of this year with a better deck! Now, take out your duel disk and you’ll find the textbook in the NWDA app.”

…

…

…

As the class goes on, I’m getting bored out of my mind. I mean, the director said I could skip this class later, so I will not complain, but still.

“Now. How about we review your decks? Don’t be shy, the point of this class is to make them better, not just judge them.”

‘Great. Well, it’s not like my deck can be effectively used by someone that can’t perform all five methods, anyway.’

I get a request to share a deck and select my pendulum magician one. The teacher then goes around showing decks of the other students and giving them pointers on where to improve. After a few rounds of LOBY format quality decks with some decent ones mixed in, she gets to mine.

“Now everyone, this is very interesting. The next deck is owned by none other than the natural Penta-Summoner Yuumi Matsunaga right in this very class.”

This announcement makes the other bored looking students perk up right away.