(12) Introductions
I grab my roommate’s fallen body and plunk her down in one of the two bunk beds in the room. She seems to be unconscious, so I'll just wait for her to wake up. In the meantime, I go grab a chair that was next to a desk with a computer on top of it. There are three more desks similar to this one, so guess they’re just office desks they give us. I move the chair next to the bed, and after closing the door and locking it, sit down, waiting for her to wake up.
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About five minutes later, her eyes open.
“Gruhhh, what happened?” She asks as she sits up and looks at me. - “Who are you?”
“I’m your new roommate.” I declare as her eyes open wide.
“So that wasn't a dream?” - she asks looking around confused. - “I’m roommates with a penta...” her words trail off.
‘Oh, not this again...’
“THAT WAS REAL!!?!?!?” she yells really loud.
“Hey you might want to turn that down, before someone comes here asking why you are yelling.” I offer.
This comment of mine appears to have brought her down to reality.
“S-Sorry,” - she stutters - “It’s just... like... I’ve never even heard of someone that had met a natural Penta-Summoner, you... you are people from legends! I have so many questions! L-Like...” Well, at least she perked up.
“Whoa, calm down. You’re not making any sense.” - I interrupt her babble, then offer - “How about we start with an introduction? My name is Yuumi Matsunaga.”
That appears to calm her down.
“M-My name is Yasuna Nishioka. Second-year student.” She is still stuttering a little.
“Second year? Then Yasuna, how was last year?” I ask, attempting to make small talk.
While she’s still a little apprehensive, that allowed her to make conversation. She talked about how she entered the academy and how classes were, etc, etc. It seemed like she was loosening... She then started asking me about how I entered, so I told her about how I defeated the bot.
“You what!?” she asks, surprised.
“Yes, I beat it. To be honest, it wasn’t much of a challenge. I think the bot bricked actually, he drew raigeki for his turn but by that time I already had a negate to combat it...” I trail off as I notice Yasuna’s mouth opening like she had when she found out what I was. - “Is that really that impressive?” I ask.
“Well... do you want to know how my duel with the bot went?” She offers.
“Yes actually,” I quickly accept as she didn’t say earlier.
She draws a deep breath and tells. “Sooooo, I kinda of lost after 10 turns. But as it wasn’t a requirement to win... I passed.” She turns to a shade of red as she’s clearly embarrassed about it.
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“Wow.” It’s all I can say to that. Honestly, that’s really embarrassing.
“Can we not speak about it?”
“Yeaaaaaaaaa,” I offer.
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‘Awkward.’
“So, what do your parents think about the whole natural Penta-Summoner thing?” Yasuna asked the worst question she could to stop the awkward silence.
“Err... Yasuna, I’m an orphan” I blurt out, trying to not make it even more awkward.
Her face grows pale. “OHMYGODIMSOSORRYPLSEFORGIVEME!” - She blurts.
‘NOoooooo. She was just starting to open up too!’
“Yasuna, it’s not a problem. I’ve had all my life to deal with it. It’s fine!” I insist. This at least makes her a little less tense, but she’s still not comfortable.
“I still shouldn’t have asked! I didn’t even consider it.” - She doubles down.
'You know what? I’m just gonna say it. I don’t care.'
“Can I be honest with you?” I ask.
She perks up from her self loathing. - “What?”
“Why are you being so careful with me? You are my senior! Act like it!” I say my thoughts out loud.
She seems stunned at my question. - “Don’t you like, have a direct line to the Director or something?” - She asks, seriously. - “One word from you to the director and I’m out of here!”
“What?! Yasuna. Is that really why you were acting like that?”
“... Yes” she admits.
I facepalm. - “I don’t”
Now, I’m pretty sure if I complained to the director he would listen, he did just spent a stupid amount of money recruiting me after all, but I don’t intend to abuse this.
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A few more minutes of silence and Yasuna seems to have calmed down.
So I breach the topic. - “Better now?” I ask.
“Yes. *Sigh* I’m so sorry Yuumi, it’s just after last year I’m dangerously close to dropping out because of my Elo ranking.” She randomly drops a bombshell.
“What’s your Elo ranking?” I ask the sensitive question.
“643...” She whispers.
“Yikes.” I let slip out accidentally. Making her shudder.
“Well, I mean I’m only at...” ‘WHAT? Why is my Elo 720?!?!?!??! It was only 603 before!’
I open my duel log to figure out the discrepancy and find something strange.
[Duel Bot, Certified 1000-1200 Elo vs Yuumi Matsunaga 603 Elo - Victory, 720 Elo.]
[Anonymous 1 & Anonymous 2 vs Agent Phoenix & Yuumi Matsunaga - Victory, no Elo gained.]
What was a Blue ranked bot doing on a red rank tryout...? Ok, I have some questions for Light, but now I have the more important task of reassuring Yasuna.
“Show me your deck.” I request.
“What? No I... You know what? It doesn’t matter.” She grabs her duel disk, and after opening the deck manager, passes it over to me.
Her deck is synchron based, and from the examples I have seen from both agent phoenix and the goons, plus the dueling bot. It doesn’t seem that bad, of course there are some omissions on the extra deck I would have preferred to see, like for example no quasars to end on, but overhaul a decent deck by this worlds standards.
“This is not bad. How are you piloting it?” I ask, making her go from depressed to hyperactive in a split second.
“You think it’s good?!?!” she demands confirmation.
I flinch. She just jumped from the bed and got into my face. So I reaffirm her. “Y-Yes, it’s a decent deck.”
“I KNEW IT!” she yells.
“Yes, yes. Now, how are you piloting it?” I try to ask again.
This makes her settle down again, thankfully.
“Piloting?” She asks, tilting her head.
“You know… Like, how you play it.” I clarify.
“Oh,” - she seems to understand now. - “Well… I still can’t perform a synchro summon in a real duel…”
I facepalm. ‘Well, there’s your problem. You can’t just play an entire deck based on synchro summoning and then NOT DO IT!’
“Yuumi?” - Yasuna calls.
I look her dead in the eye and tell her. - “Yasuna… If you want to win, you’ll have to either start synchro summoning in real duels or change to another deck.” - I didn’t want to tell her to give up, but I don’t know how to help her with the core problem.
A frown grows on her face. That’s not what she wanted to hear.
“B-But, if I can synchro summon then..?”
“Yes, I guess you’ll at least make it to yellow rank.” I interrupt her. To be honest, all I had to base that guarantee on was my experience with the bot and not much else.
After that loaded conversation, we started talking about more mundane things. Like what bed I would take (bottom bunk BTW, I very much don’t care about the top bunk. I had a bunk bed when I was a child and after that I never wanted to sleep on one again), where I would store my stuff, etc, etc…
I sorted out my stuff, and after that, we started making small talk.
Honestly, I expected it to be more difficult, considering I was in a different world, but the common topics seemed to carry over.
“So, when are the other students supposed to come in?” I ask her.
She stops looking at her phone (what did you expect?) and starts speaking.
“Hmmm. If it’s like last year, they’ll be here at 7, but considering the time the tours take, we will not see them until at least 8.” she tells.
"And what do you do with them?” I ask.
“What do you mean?”
I roll my eyes. “Come on, you know what I mean.”
“Ooooh, well… I’ll leave that as a surprise for later.”
‘Great…’
Yasuna then perks up, having remembered something important.
“Actually. Let me warn you of something.” - She looks at me a little concerned.
“Oh? What’s this now?” - I quip not having noticed her expression yet.
“There is this Blue ranked chick we call her the ‘Princess’. Last year she came into the dorm about half an hour after the new students settled in, and after calling everyone to the lobby made the new students march naked in front of the male dorm under threat of duel disk.” She tells.
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“AHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHA! That’s a good one!” - I laugh my ass off. - “Ooooooooooooooo, that’s a good story! Just a little tip? Next time, if you want to really scare a newbie, make it more believable.” I say, while wiping away tears of laughter.
Eventually, I notice something strange. She’s not laughing.
“I’m being serious,” she insists, her expression not changing.
‘Oh, doubling down, are we? I can play along too,’
“Oh, no!” - I dramatize, laying my hand on my head - “Guess I’ll have to shave!” I joke.
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‘Ok, now this is strange,’
Yasuna is furiously scrolling away on her phone. She then stops, stands up, and swiftly shows me what she was searching for. It’s a picture taken from a window. It shows a bunch of naked girls walking on a path much like the one next to the red dorms, three girls wearing blue uniforms seem to be at the front, and one of them is standing by a naked girl that’s trying to use her hands to cover up. That girl has tanned skin and green hair worn in a ponytail. Yasuna is also pointing at that girl in the picture.
“SEE!” she yells.
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“You were not joking?” I ask.
“NO! WHY WOULD I EVEN DO THAT?!” She seems upset.
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“I’m going to ask again…”
“IT’S TRUE!” I’m interrupted by Yasuna.
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‘WHAT THE FUCKITY FUCK IS THIS GODFORSAKEN ACADEMY DOING?! THIS IS MORE THAN HAZING! THIS IS STRAIT UP CRIMINAL!‘
“Hell no, I’m staying here.” I declare.
“YOU CAN’T! If they figure it out, then the whole dorm gets in trouble!”
“Fine then! You know what? I’m going to duel her.”
Yasuna stares at me like I’ve just grown a second head.
“Yuumi, Penta-Summoner or not, you can’t beat a blue rank!” She insists.
I put on a smug smile. - “Oh. I can’t? Might you be interested in inspecting my duel log?”
“EXTREMELY!” she shots back.
‘Gottem.’
I show her the duel against the bot, eliciting an exasperated sigh from her.
“What are you still doing in red rank?” She asks.
“Just didn’t want to draw too much attention to myself before entering the academy.” I make something up.
“I still don’t like it. What if you lose? Then what will you do?” She probes.
I consider it, then reply. “Well… If I lose and she asks for something absurd, I guess I’ll just go complain to the Director.”
“Why would he even listen to you? You just said that you don’t have a direct line to him, and I doubt he’ll just accept you going up to his office.”
“Considering the amount of money and resources he’s pouring on me, I doubt he’ll stay quiet if I threat to leave.” I reveal, making Yasuna perk up when I mention money.
“Wait? You are getting paid? How much?” She shots out.
“Nanya,”
“Nanya?”
“Nanya business.” I quip, eliciting an eye roll from her.
"Oh, come oooon.”
“It’s high enough for him to not want to let me go, so trust me, he’ll listen.”
“So that’s what you gonna do?” - she starts, crossing her arms - “Challenging her and then going to cry to the Director if you lose?” she hisses.
“How much do you want to bet she’s gonna try the same thing if she loses?” I ask her.
“Well, contrary to you, I’m broke, but if I wasn’t, a lot.” She responds.
“Then that’s settled. Either way, she’s not going to get away with this, and if she tries to make a fuss, I don’t expect it to go over very well. Oh, by the way, you have nothing against me putting her in her place, do you?”
“No, I would never want to make newbies go through that if I could, and if anyone makes a fuss about it in the red dorm, I have your back, but the Director and the rest are your problem.”
“Got it!” I exclaim, sprawling myself on the bottom bunk bed.