As expected, he breezed through the exam and was honestly finished in less than half the allotted time given for the exam.

There was a massive difference in his mindset in comparison to nearly everyone else around him. To them, it was a way of life, the same way back home he studied subjects like mathematics, geography and such. For him? It was a hobby he spent years indulging in. It was like pokemon in a way. How many people could pour over a textbook and internalize hundreds of names what they were affiliated with, what they looked like, what they could do, their height, weight and more?

Not many he wagered. And he definitely wouldn't have been able to. Where as, because it was a hobby to him, it soaked into him over time through experiencing it, spending excess amount of time on it because he enjoyed it.

And that was the fundamental difference between Yarden and everyone else around him, sans the likes of Jaden Yuki. But, he wasn't ever going to bother trying to figure that guy out. Jaden was a Jaden, and he'd leave it at that.

So he finished the test with over a half hour to spare, and he spent the rest of the class shooting the breeze and chatting internally with his spirits, and checking out the trio of voluptuous babes he was sitting beside.

And they knew it to. Alexis didn't care at all and Mindy was perfectly fine with it, even throwing him a few flirtatious winks. Jasmine on the other hand? She spent half her time working on her test, the other half glaring at him.

That girl needed to lighten up a bit. But then, as stupid as it was, the whole difference in social stature between the three dorms was deeply ingrained within the populace at this school.

'You've got to give it to Kaiba,' Yarden gave a rueful chuckle as he leaned back in his seat, balancing his feet on the edges of the desk, 'He really doesn't do anything by halves.'

The guy literally created a new form of racism, between red, yellow and blue jackets. There should be an award for jackassery of that level. Yarden aspired to one day be that much of an autistic jackass himself. After all, it clearly worked for Seto Kaiba, and outside of losing to Yugi Moto and the cheating Pharoah Atem, Kaiba was like the biggest fucking winner in the world. The dude was practically the richest man in the world, his name on everybody's lips, and the guy had even outright fucking hacked his way into the after life.

Yeah, if he had to choose to be like someone. He'd choose Seto Kaiba over Yugi Moto any day of the week.

Once class let out, Yarden found himself more or less alone in the classroom for a bit. The new cards had all come in today and Duel Academy was one of the places the newest booster packs and cards would drop first, before most stores even. The vast majority of his class had made a stampeding beeline for the card shack.

Yarden didn't bother. He'd already added some new cards to his neck this morning. Some very awesome and powerful cards.

Besides, he already knew nobody would be able to get their hands on any of the new booster packs. Because Crowler was going to yoink them all before anyone else and then give them all to Chazz Princeton so he could try and dunk on Jaden.

Alexis, Jasmine and Mindy didn't stick around long at all, Alexis was wanting to go prepare for her own practical duel exam and the other two were eager for her help to make sure their decks were up to par.

"You know, you could always ask me to help you out and free Alexis up some time." He couldn't help but grin and say to Jasmine as the three of them squeezed by him.

She'd paused and hesitate for a moment, before shaking her head, "I don't need the help of a Slifer!" had been her vehement denial. It was too cute and adorable to even find insulting or get annoyed by

Besides, as far as Yarden was concerned? Give him Slifer over any of the other two god cards any time. Slifer the Sky Dragon was just awesome. They all were really, but Slifer was by far his favourite.

He'd been left with nothing to do until his own practical came up, so ended up bumming around until lunch was finished, and then finally made his way to the massive gymnasium that had been altered up with massive metallic walls to create tens of dozens of duelling fields.

Thankfully, the Slifer Red's were the ones who generally got their tests done first, and the first years before anybody else.

It was maybe only fifteen minutes into the testing time that Yarden found himself being called out to duel.

As soon as his name was called out, he found himself the centre of attention. For the most part, all eyes on him. Reds, yellows, blues, you name it. He even caught sight of his three eye candies paying rapt attention as he made his way down and onto the duelling field.

His opponent was a guy named Ren Kurosaki. A tall, thin fellow with dark black hair that had an almost green sheen to it. Honestly, it kind of reminded him of baby shit from eating all those soft tinned vegetable baby foods.

"Damn it, I had to get Odhar of all people!" Ren cursed from across the duelling field.

Yeah, sucked to be him. Especially with how supped up Yarden's deck was now with Nightmare Sonic Blast, two more Serpent Night Dragons and Dragon Mirror.

"Don't worry, I'll make it quick mate." Yarden grinned over at him, drawing six cards after he won the coin toss to decide who was taking the first time.

Yarden Odhar: 4000 LP

Ren Kurosaki: 4000 LP

"Alright first things first," Yarden began after taking in his hand. He placed one card in one of the spell card zones, "I'll be starting with Pot of Greed to draw two more cards."

A moment later, the grinning green jar flashed into existence in front of him with a swirling sound and golden light surrounding it.

He drew two cards from his deck a second later, 'Ookazi and Graceful Dice, huh? I can work with this.' he smirked.

"Next, I'll be summoning my Dice Jar in defence mode." he continued.

In a flash of light, a large man sized jar appeared in front of him, the grinning face of a deformed man hanging in the gaps, two huge dice balanced atop a long slimy tongue.

Dice Jar - Rock/Light/Effect: 200/300

"What the!?" Ren stepped back at the sight of the monster, before shaking his head and glaring at Yarden, "Are you not taking me seriously!? What's with this crappy ass weak monster!?"

Yarden rolled his eyes, "Maybe if you didn't just look at attack points you wouldn't be so scared to duel me," he replied, he felt no need to explain his strategy to this random stepping stone, "From there, I'll place one card face down and end my turn."

Ren just continued glaring as he draw a card and began his turn, "I'm gonna make you regret this you asshole!" he threatened, before quickly slamming a card down on his disk, "I summon Kelbek in attack mode!" he shouted

A metallic fish like monster appeared in front of him, all silver armour, with flared fin-like protrusions at the back, yellow in colour and buzzing with electricity.

Kelbek - Fairy/Earth/Effect: 1500/1800

"Next, I'll-" Ren made to go on, but couldn't.

"I'll just jump in right here and activate the effect of Dice Jar," Yarden cut him off, "It's a quick effect, and see those two dice? They both roll, one for me, one for you. And whoever gets the lowest roll, takes the opponents number rolled multiplied by five hundred, though if say you roll a six, I'll take six thousand points of damage."

Once upon a time, Dice Jar was a flip effect monster. But, when Kaiba changed up the rules with Battle City, he done away with flip effect monsters more or less, by getting rid of the ability to play monsters in face down defence position. So many monsters had the way their effects worked, altered because of that. Dice Jar, was one of those monsters, and its effect was hella useful if played right as a Quick Effect.

"...Y-you...are you crazy?" Ren stared at him in horror.

"Maybe," Yarden chuckled before pointing his hand at his monster and clicking his finger, "Roll the dice."

"Yes sir!" Dice Jar gave a high pitched giggle and replied, though only Yarden himself could hear it.

Dice Jar spat out the two dice and they bounced into the ground, before splitting apart. One rolled towards Yarden's side of the field, while the other rolled towards Ren.

Seconds later they stopped. Yarden's landed on a two, while Ren's landed on a a four, winning the roll.

Ren's eye slit up, "Looks like luck isn't on your side, huh Odhar?" He gave a full bellied laugh as Dice Jar turned towards Yarden, its mouth open and an orb of dark energy swirling into existence within its maw.

"Oh no...there goes half my life points..." Yarden droned, deadpan. Before smirking, "Do you really think I'd play a card like this without having a combo for it? I activate my trap card, Rainbow Life."

The card he'd placed face down lifted up to reveal its face an the image of a fan with a barrier of prismatic light surrounding him.

"What this does, is for the cost of discarding one card in my hand, I can make it so that any damage I would take this turn, by battle or card effect, I instead gain as life points," Yarden explained, smirk stretching smugly as he deposited one of the cards in his hands to the graveyard, "Carboneddon, thanks mate."

A prismatic barrier of rainbow coloured light sprung up into existence around Yarden, just as Dice Jar fired a beam of dark energy. A beam of dark energy that was promptly swallowed up and disappeared from sight.

Yarden Odhar: 6000 LP

"Mmm, that's some good life points," he taunted his opponent with a chuckle and stretching his arms out above his head, "So what was that about luck not favouring me? Bro what kind of pansy would rely on luck?"

Ren grit his teeth, his hands balling into fists, "Oh whatever, so you got a few life points, big deal! It doesn't protect your weak ass monster!" he snarled, "Kelbek, take it out with thunder-"

"Ah, not so fast." Yarden cut him off.

"Again!?" Ren shouted angrily, a vein beginning to throb on his forehead.

"Bad news for you mate, but yep," Yarden shrugged, placing another spell card in one of the spell zones, "I'll be activating the quick spell, Revived Serpent Night Dragon."

"..Noo.." A low groan left Ren, his rage draining out of him in all of a single moment as realisation washed over him.

Revived Serpent Night Dragon was one of his favourite cards now. And one of his most common and favoured plays.

"Yes," Yarden refuted, "With this, I can tribute any monster on the field, mine or yours and special summon from my hand, deck or graveyard."

Kelbelk exploded into shards of light, and dark flames rose from the ground, from which a very familiar huge, beautiful and noble purple scaled serpentine dragon formed into existence.

"Oh, but I'm not done there," Yarden crossed his arms smugly, "I'll be activating the effect of Carboneddon in my graveyard, and by banishing it I can special summon any level seven or lower normal dragon monster from my hand or deck, and I choose another Serpent Night Dragon!"

Another wave of dark flame emerged from the ground, and a second gorgeous serpentine dragon was born from them.

Serpent Night Dragon - Dragon/Dark: 2350/2400

Serpent Night Dragon - Dragon/Dark: 2350/2400

Ren slumped to his knees, all fight leaving him as his shoulders went limp, "..I...end my turn." he sighed in defeat.

Eesh. Yarden winced. His spirit looked so badly broken that, well, even Yarden himself almost felt some sympathy for him. Almost.

"Finish him off boys," Yarden lifted his hand into the air and pointed at Ren after drawing a card, "Twin Ebony Blaze."

The two majestic serpentine dragons reared up, glittering black flames pooling in their mouths, before thrusting their heads out and firing twin waves of dark flame that converged into a tsunami of darkness that washed over Ren.

Yarden Odhar: 6000 LP

Ren Kurosaki: 0 LP

"It's not all about attack points mate," Yarden told him, "In fact, most of my cards have pretty crappy attack points, it's all about how you make them work together. Like, Dice Jar alone is bad card, but with Rainbow Life? It becomes a card that can outright win me a duel in a single turn, or raise my life points up to a maximum of six thousand."

Ren sighed, but nodded, "..I guess so," he admitted, "I'd never think to use a card like that in my deck, I'd have just seen the massive drawback from it and nothing else." he shook his head.

"You should work on that," Yarden mused, before chuckling, "And don't feel to bad about losing to me like that, I've crushed plenty of Obelisks over the past week that wouldn't have been able to do anything against this play either."

A moment later, the voice of Chancellor Shepherd rang out over the intercom system, reverberating throughout the huge gymnasium. He was announced the winner.

And, his promotion to Ra Yellow was added right after.

'I'm so not wearing the mustard jacket.' Yarden thought to himself as he made his way out of the gymnasium after his duel. He much preferred the red jacket. 'Well, it should be fine to just wear it, plenty of other people wear customized outfits.' he mused, and in Chazz's case, the rich idiot would just flat out wear a black duster.

As he made his way into the hall that left the gymnasium, he paused. Two people were standing in the middle of the hallway. One a familiar, tall and bodacious blonde, the other a tall, leanly built older boy with dark blue hair, a cold detached look on his face and a frown on his lips.

Alexis. And Zane Truesdale. The 'Kaiser' himself.

Yarden's interest was peaked now. 'Wonder what they want from me?' he wondered. Well, he honestly didn't care all that much about Zane, beyond how much DP he'd get for pushing his shit in through a duel. But, he'd definitely make time for Alexis.

Waifu, my waifu, and all that crap.

"What's up good looking?" Yarden asked, directing his attention fully to Alexis as he placed his hands in his pockets.

And ignored Zane.

"Hey Yarden," Alexis smiled at him, "That was a pretty impressive duel out there, you controlled it from the very second it started."

"I'm just awesome like that." he smirked and gave a shrug. In all seriousness, his deck was pretty awesome. But he was still lacking some pretty vital counter traps he needed and some effect monsters as well, and even some spells. Right now, his best option in duels was to go full on escalation overwhelming train, and run right over any opponents before they could do anything.

"Seems so," the blonde raised an eyebrow, before shrugging, "As for what brings me down here, well I did want to congratulate you, but it was this guy here that wanted me to introduce you to him." she jerked her head to the side and nodded at the tall blue haired boy.

Well, was that so?

"And what does the big bad Kaiser himself want with me?" Yarden turned his attention to the third year student.

A bit of a snort left the older boys nose, "Finally deigning to give me your attention huh?" he mused, before smirking, "Alexis told me about you earlier, said you might interest me. So I checked your duel out alongside her when she asked, and then I decided to meet you, that's really all there is to it kid."

"Uh-hu," Yarden's eyebrows rose up into his hairline, "..Good for you?" really, he wasn't sure how he was supposed to take or respond to any of this.

Still, what a rude cunt. Maybe that's why Alexis thought he'd be interested in Yarden? So they both could be rude cunts together or something?

"I'm impressed kid, the way you chain together your cards and all the combinations Alexis told me is something else, especially considering where you picked up most of those cards, you really do know the difference between using a card and playing it." Zane praised the younger boy.

...Wait, wasn't that the the whole spiel he gave Syrus in the anime? Yarden didn't get it then, and he still didn't get it now. Really, just a bunch of cryptic nonsense to sound cooler by the looks of it. 'I wonder if he thinks acting cool like that is good payment for stomping all over his little brothers self esteem?' he idly wondered.

"That said," Zane continued, narrowing his eyes at Yarden, "You duel like a complete thug. Your duelling style is all about overwhelming and crushing everyone in your way, just to earn money."

Yarden blinked, "...And?" he slowly asked. He wasn't seeing a bad thing to this.

Zane sighed disappointedly, "You don't even see it do you?" he shook his head, "Your monsters will never respect a duellist like you in the end, this style will fail you when they give up on you."

Yarden gave a second, languid blink, '...So, do I not have your respect or something because of the way I'm using you guys?' he asked internally. Because, instead of debating with some random guy who came up to him and started spouting crap like that, he could literally hear it right from the horses mouth.

'Your dreams of philandering aside, the boy speaks nonsense,' Hyozanryu scoffed, 'I do not even sense the ability to see or speak to us monster spirits within him, how would he ever know what we feel?'

Yeah, he thought so. "Cool story bro," Yarden rolled his eyes before turning to Alexis, who was trying and failing to smother a smile at the interaction going on between you two, "So, what was Jasmine's reaction?" he asked the voluptuous blonde.

"Mostly reluctant acceptance, she already knew you were going to win," Alexis replied, "I was impressed by the way, using a card like that and making it so the only outcomes were you gaining loads of life points or your opponent losing them."

Honestly, that kind of stuff was everywhere back home before he got here. Anyone competent at duel monsters could come up with a combo like that.

"Are you not going to defend your honour?" Zane asked before Yarden could reply.

He sighed and turned to the blue haired third year, "What do you want me to do mate?" he asked, honestly curious, "Do you want me to get all angry because you don't like how I duel, then challenge you to a duel where we pit our ideologies against each other, all dramatic like?"

"You said it, not me," Zane smirked at him, crossing his arms, "I wouldn't be opposed to seeing how you stack up against the best this academy has to offer after all the praise Alexis had for you."

"Really Zane?" Alexis sighed, "It's not fair to goad people into duels you know they can't win."

..He was going to tell him to buzz off. Playing against the Cyber Dragons when you hadn't finished your deck yet? That would be a pain. But hold the damn phone.

"What's in it for me?" Yarden jutted his chin out challengingly at the older boy, "Beyond the DP I'll get from booting you off of your little imaginary throne pretty boy?" honestly, it would be much more fun just to punch his face in, see how much of a tough guy he was then.

...Then again, didn't this dude go full on electric shock masochism later down the line and literally get high off of getting electrocuted to near death?

"Yarden?" Alexis looked at him, confused, as if she couldn't believe someone at this school actually thought they could beat Zane Truesdale.

"Ever the greedy one, huh?" Zane shook his head, "What do you want?"

"Nothing from you," Yarden shrugged, before grinning at the blonde girl across from him, "How about a date with you if I win Alexis?" he challenged.

It served two purposes. One, an actual date with Alexis. Two, didn't Zane have a crush on her as well like every other guy at this academy? I'm a petty fuck like that.

His grin stretched as he saw Zane frown, "Is that all you think about?" Alexis rolled her eyes, before shrugging, "Sure, why not. You're good Yarden, really good. You're a top contender for the best first duellist no doubt, but you can't beat Zane, nobody can, not even..." she agreed and then trailed off, swallowing heavily.

'Not even your brother?' Yarden finished for her internally. Hmm, he felt bad for her. Maybe it was because she was probably his favourite character of the Gx series, or maybe it was just because she was so hot. But, he decided he should probably do something for her in regards to Atticus.

Maybe after the whole fiasco with the Abandoned Dorm he could lay some ground work with his meta knowledge? And getting some brownie points with Alexis was not something he'd ever say no to.