Yu-Gi-Oh! DA: The Phantom Seal - Chapter Sixteen

And now we have a chapter that includes a time jump! Wow, me, you are good at this whole writing thing.



Chapter Sixteen

What Happened Next


Bad news got worse that night. When I arrived back at my room that evening, I was surprised to find someone waiting for me.

“You,” I said, hatred creeping into my voice. I ran right up to a very startled Ria and punched her in the face. Not very hard. I'm not a fighter. But damn, did it feel good. Then I remembered that Ria is a fighter, and I stepped back and readied myself for her counterattack, but she seemed calm. Calmer than I’d ever seen her in fact.

“Yeah,” she said, rubbing her bruised cheek, “I deserved that.”

I was taken aback, “You did?”

“Yeah,” Ria answered. “I was a little loco. It’s an issue of mine. I come on way too strong, and I have trouble letting things go. I grew up in a rough, overcrowded neighborhood. I had to be loud and eyecatching, or I woulda gotten swept away with the crowd. I’ve always been a good fighter, and an even better Duelist, but I never woulda made it here if not for my attitude. It’s what got me noticed by a sponsor. They paid my tuition.”

“Okay,” I said, “I can get that. Life is hard. But that’s no reason for you to try and break me and John up.” I said I understood her, and I meant that, but it didn’t change the fact that I was angry with her. I didn’t think anything would.

“I know,” said Ria, solemnly, “and I’m sorry for that. Really. But you gotta understand why I acted the way I did.”

“There is no excuse for your actions,” I stated.

“Please,” she asked, “just let me say this, okay?” When I didn’t protest, she began.

“See,” Ria said, “When I started hearin’ rumors about the second Grand Championship, I just knew I had to go. I worked odd jobs after school for almost a whole year and even then my momma still had to lend me some money. I went, and there was Yugi, and Kaiba, and Evo, all the Duelists I’d watched on TV. But none of them compared to John. I’d never seen him or heard of him before, and yet there he was, doing things with the cards that I never woulda thought of in a hundred years! He became my hero, then, on the best day of my life. I heard he was gonna be going here, and when I finally saw him, I thought I’d faint!”

She looked me in the eyes. Her eyes were sad, “I knew I’d never have a chance with him. He was older than me, he was famous, and he was with someone as incredible as you. So I did what I do. I overcompensated. I figured that pretending that Johnny was into me for half an hour would be worth pushing him away forever. And then something amazing happened. He didn’t push me away! He was nice to me. Even after you beat me in our duel, he wanted me around. He wanted to be my friend! I didn’t know how to deal with that, so I kept overcompensating. I never wanted to break you guys up. Not really.”

I didn't know what to say. I looked Ria up and down. I couldn't tell her that that was exactly why this bothered me so much, that I'd though John would push her away, too. That when he hadn't, I'd been afraid that he was attracted to her, even though he said he wasn't. Ria was gorgeous. Who wouldn't find her attractive? Seeing her kiss him, it had made those fears real, even if they still weren't rational.

But I couldn't tell her that, so I said the only thing I could say, “You still kissed him.”

“Yeah,” she replied, kinda dreamily, “but to be fair I thought I’d died and gone to Heaven.”

And before I even knew what was happening, Ria and I were laughing.


The school year ended, and I went home for the summer. I never found out if John did or not. He wanted space, and I wanted to give it to him. After all, even though I was no longer mad at Ria, the points I’d brought up with John that day in the woods were all still valid, and he wasn’t my favorite person at the time. Summer was quiet. Kimi and her family, my adoptive family, had no problem with me staying at the house while they were oversees. They sent me money enough for groceries and bills each month, and I worked a little on the side. I had more than I needed, really.

I kept in touch with Kimi, Thomas, and, believe it or not, even Ria. She'd done well enough on her final exams the previous year to move up to High Dorm with me. She was turning out to be a pretty good friend, someone who truly wanted to do good by me, even if she did sometimes have trouble keeping her more annoying habits in check. She was rude and abrasive, and even over the phone and through email, she was way too competitive. She’s one of those people who take everything as a challenge.

Like I said, annoying.

Aside from Kimi, I avoided my friends from the Duel Force, Even Monty and Lawrence who are like brothers to me. I didn’t want to risk crossing paths with John. I didn’t even want to know where he was or what he was doing.

And then, finally, summer ended, and it was time to go back to school. Kimi’s parents sent me money enough to get back to the nearest pickup point, from which I once again hopped aboard a flying vehicle which would take me to Academy Island. It was a long trip, but soon enough I was lugging my bags alongside several other students as I made my way to the new all-girls half of High Dorm, otherwise known as the wing of the dorm which had been mostly empty the previous year. I checked the room listing, and made my way up to my room on the third floor. When I finally got the door open, once I’d tossed my bags on the floor, I looked around, taking in my surroundings. It was good to be back.

I unpacked my things, hanging up one of the two uniforms that I’d received the previous year and then putting the other one on, taking my time. Giving myself a chance to settle in. Then, once that time was up, I headed toward the main building for this year’s orientation.

As I neared the school, I gave it a closer inspection. As I’d suspected, it was no different, yet my surroundings seemed off somehow. It took me a second to realize that it was the tree line of the forest as seen out of the corner of my eye. Adult trees had been flown in and planted along the old edge of the forest, extending the tree line. You couldn’t see the now-abandoned dorm at all anymore. It was a smart move on the part of the school. With the site of that dorm open to the darkness, tearing the building down could serve to open the door even wider, but at the same time something had to be done to keep students from wandering into the building. Clever.

I was lost in thought, so I didn’t hear anyone approaching until it was too late.

“Hey, Karen!”

Oh no.

I’d been dreading this moment. I turned around, and there was Thomas. I don’t dislike Thomas. I just prefer not to communicate with him vocally. It’s hard to be chatty in email, you know?

But in person, of course, it’s a whole different story. Before I even realized what was happening, Thomas had launched into a rather impressive monologue detailing his summer break. I tried to listen, really I did, but there’s only so much information that the human brain can process at a time.

Luckily I was saved before things got too out of hand.

“Hey Tommy, Karen!”

Of course occasionally your savior is worse than what they save you from. Ria is sometimes like that. And by sometimes, I mean usually.

“Whatcha guys up to?” Ria asked.

“Oh,” said Thomas, “nothin’.” He was swooning. Literally swooning over Ria. God knows why. Actually I was surprised he was able to string together (almost) two complete words this time. Usually when I saw them together Thomas could hardly talk at all, and that’s saying something.

“Okay,” said Ria, “well come on. They’re doing orientation in the arena room this year. Apparently they wanna be ready in case a duel breaks out, like it did last year. We can’t be late. Every student is required to attend.”

“Oh,” I said, “right. Every student.”

That means John will be there too.

I still cared about John. Nothing would ever change that. But spending the last few months apart from him, I’d realized that I didn’t need him or the drama he brought to my life. Even so, I reached down and touched the deck box in my pocket. Separated from my deck by a divider was the card that I’d made for him. The card that, despite everything, I hoped to give back to him one day.

“Karen, come on,” said Ria. She and Thomas were already on their way inside. I ran to catch up.


Even though I knew John didn’t want to see me, and I knew I didn’t want to see him, I couldn’t help scanning the crowd for his face. I didn’t see him, but I did notice that the number of students had more than doubled since last year. Huh, I thought, the dorms might almost fill up this time around. I took another look at the crowd. New students were easy to pick out from the rest. Most weren’t wearing their uniform jackets, and all of them were looking around, completely amazed by their surroundings. It brought back good memories of my first day here.

I sighed and followed my friends as we made our way to three empty seats a couple rows up. It was almost as soon as we were seated that Sheppard stepped out onto the Duel Arena floor below and started speaking.

“Well,” said Sheppard, “I’m glad to see so many young faces in the stands today. It’s impressive, isn’t it? A school dedicated to Duel Monsters, and it managed to stay open for longer than a year!”

He chuckled, and the crowd joined in happily.

“For those of you who don’t know me,” the cheerful man said, introducing himself, “I’m Professor Sheppard, the senior head professor here at Duel Academy. I’ve seen many Duelists in my time, all with potential, and I have to say I’ve never seen more potential than I see in this room today. But potential isn’t strength or skill. Potential is something that must be shaped and nurtured. That is what we do here at Duel Academy. We teach you things you may not know, and we help you hone what you do, helping your potential grow into something great. Our courses may seem tedious, or even simple, but I guarantee that you’ll learn something, and even when you’re not learning something you don’t already know, well, at least your tests will be easy.”

More laughter filled the room.

“Of course,” said Sheppard, more seriously now, “any Duelist who completes Duel Academy is guaranteed to know more than a Duelist who hasn’t, and any design student who graduates will be in the top of their field. If you can tough it out, the opportunities will be many. That is the true focus of Duel Academy. One day I hope to see all of you living your dreams. Duelists, I hope to see you dueling professionally, and designers, I hope to see you creating amazing cards, and I will do everything I can to make those hopes come true.

“Sadly,” Sheppard continued, “our headmaster Chancellor Kagemaru could not be here today due to personal matters, which is why I’m speaking to you in his stead. Hopefully he will be able to make an appearance soon, but until then any questions or concerns should be directed at me.”

He paused. I could tell that Sheppard was genuinely worried about his friend. I tried not to worry myself.

“Moving along,” said Sheppard, working hard to hide his worry (and doing a poor job of it), “there are some announcements to make. First of all, students are asked to refrain from entering the forest. Several students went missing last year and have yet to be found. It is unknown what happened to them, but some reports suggest that at least one of them was exploring the forest the last time they were seen. Our worries are only precautionary, but should be heeded nonetheless. Understand that entering the forest without permission will suffer punishments up to expulsion.

“Also, and this goes hand in hand with my previous request, I must ask all students to stay away from the old High Dorm. A natural disaster occurred in the dorm last year that has made the building unfit for human habitation. In fact, the structure is too dangerous even to enter safely. But our rather stubborn sponsors, Maxamillion Pegasus and Seto Kaiba, refuse to tear the structure down.”

He smiled and chuckled again. It was a clever story, and Sheppard was selling it well. I only hoped that it would hold up.

“And finally,” said Sheppard, “on a much happier note, the three dorms, previously known as High Dorm, Mid Dorm, and Low Dorm, will be renamed, starting the first official day of the new school year, for the greatest monsters in the history of Duel Monsters. The dorms will, from this point forward, be forever known as Obelisk Blue, Ra Yellow, and Osiris Red.”

The crowd cheered. Even I joined in. I couldn’t think of better names for the dorms that would be the homes of the Duelists of future generations than the names of the legendary greatest monsters in the game.

Everything seemed to be pretty good, all things considered, until I felt a presence that I hadn’t expected to feel resonating with my Soul. I looked around frantically, searching for the source of the feeling, but just then the assembly was let out, the students in the stands began moving toward the exits, and John was lost in the crowd.

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