32 Tagging Up 6

As he left the Chancellor's office behind, Yarden's mind was racing. He had honestly forgot all about Titan. The guy was just that lame and forgettable. He'd been expecting tonight to be a nice, lazy relaxing one.

Instead, things had gone from zero to eleven right quick. Titan had appeared, he'd assaulted Alexis and Yarden hadn't felt that angry in a long time when he came across them. Thank fuck for Hoshiningen coming to find him and direct him there.

A grin split his face as he remembered kicking that shitheads face in. He wasn't expecting his fake millennium puzzle to be able to shoot out mist as well, if it hadn't, he would have taken pleasure punting that fuckhead around. Who the fuck did he think he was?

He was lucky Alexis could see what was going on, or he would have summoned one of his monster, maybe Lesser Dragon in physical form as his Ba and rip him apart. He'd show him a real fucking duel of darkness.

'Well at least he didn't get out of it without losing something.' he chuckled, eyes going to the gauntlet on his arm. This, was a sweet ass Duel Disk. It actually stored the deck within it safely and automatically slotted the cards out of an opening slot.

He thought it had to be connected to that chest plate thing he wore. But no, apparently it could function with just the gauntlet as well. And the duel disk section it fanned out into, while supposed to look like a demon wing, was reptilian in design, so passed for a dragon wing as well.

Way better than the school issued duel disk. And the fact it compressed into a gauntlet made it much less un-wieldly.

And even better, the deck Titan had within it? Was quite incredible and full of rare cards.

Literal Summoned Skull was the first card at the front of the deck. The one headliner of Yugi's deck, and a twenty five hundred attack beat stick that could be brought out with a single summon. Because of its strength and fame, even one in the card shop here at Duel Academy was worth a good twenty five thousand DP. Duel Academy got cards much cheaper than other places and let students here buy them much cheaper as well, with DP they could earn from dueling, outside Duel Academy, it would be worth twice that, if not triple.

Not only that, the guy had freaking King of Skull Servant and other overpowered anime fiends only that were never released back home. Seriously, one that was only a level three could be summoned to the field and instantly destroy any card on the field.

And the cream of the crop of the deck, which was impressive considering there were really expensive cards like Heavy Storm in there, was fucking Mirror Force of all things. The only ones he'd saw in the card shop, were expensive to the extreme. Worth over fifty thousand DP.

He'd just outright nabbed a fortune from Titan.

And now, he was on his way to see Alexis and see how she was doing. He was gonna break the news to her about what was going on now gently before anyone else.

He hadn't expected that security bitch to pin blame on Alexis and try and punish her. But then, this was the chick that was all for expelling Jaden just because she got a letter telling her that he had entered the Abandoned Dorm. No proof or anything. And as much as he'd have liked to run his mouth at her, he kept his mouth shut when she brought up Seto Kaiba. With the kind of guy Kaiba was, he'd have it put to a duel whatever the gripes were and have it settled that way. Dueling ran the world Seto Kaiba built after all.

All in all though, tonight had been a pretty good night all things considered. And he wasn't too worried. The Paradox brothers had the badass Gate Guardian, but in the end, they weren't all that threatening. If he could beat Zane, he could squash those two.

He paused as he felt a familiar presence approaching him. A second later, Serpent Night Dragon rose up out of the floor, and he wasn't alone. Floating up into the air beside Yarden's ace monster, was a beautiful, voluptuous blonde clad in a skimpy blue cleavage bearing leotard and tiny pink skirt with no front, leaving practically everything in view, a blue cone shaped hat on her head and a scepter in hand.

"I have returned master, and I have finally accomplished the task you set for me." Serpent Night Dragon dipped his head in greeting.

"Hiya!" Dark Magician girl gave you a cheery wave and perky smile, "So, you're the one that ol' grumpy here actually teamed up with?"

Make that ramped up to fifteen now.

His lips twitched up into a smile. Dark Magician girl, here in the flesh, huh? She was one of his favorite cards, and a staple in his Red-Eyes Darkness dragon deck before he ended up here. She fit the bill for Dragon Revival Rhapsody, and it was so easy to fusion summon Dark Magician Girl The Dragon Knight. With an effect that let him both power up Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon, and destroy one card on an opponents field once per turn at the same time.

Was it a good meta play? Well, it wasn't the best, that was for sure. But it wasn't bad either.

"That's me," Yarden nodded, and flashed a thumbs up at Serpent Night Dragon, "Well done mate, knew I could count on you."

Serpent Night Dragon merely huffed, "Your praise is welcomed, my master, but I am ashamed of how long it took me to accomplish this simple task."

"I didn't give you a time limit mate, and wasn't even expecting you to get it done, not any time soon at least," Yarden rolled his eyes at the overly proud dragon, "You finding her was only a vague hope, and you went above and beyond and got it done. You're awesome, just accept that fact."

"Well..I suppose truth is truth, is it not?" his ace monster puffed up his narrow chest with pride.

"You two sure get along well," Dark Magician Girl cut in with a musical giggle, "I'm surprised, Serpent Night Dragon has always been a testy fellow and looked down on most humans."

Oh? Yarden raised an eyebrow in interest.

"Hmph," Serpent Night Dragon snorted, "It just goes to show how far above the masses Yarden truly stands in comparison to other humans."

She giggled again at his words, "High praise from you," she mused, before turning her attention fully to Yarden, "So, I hear you wanted to recruit me to become one of your spirits and join your deck?" she asked.

"Yep." Yarden nodded.

"Interesting, I've never had a duelist outright seek me out and ask me to become their Ba before," Dark Magician Girl hummed, looking him over with interest, "I've had masters before, two in fact, and one who a very long time ago I was the Ba of."

Yarden opened his mouth to reply, but she blonde haired spirit floated over to him and began circling him, "You know, I was really curious when Serpent Night Dragon told me he'd met a human he'd taken a liking to, and that he, along with a bunch of other rejected spirits were becoming his Ba," she mused, emerald green eyes narrowing lightly, "Especially when I heard how quickly you were adapting to the bonding process, even for weak spirits, it should be nowhere near this speed. But I see, I get it now that I've got a close up look of you."

Yarden blinked, "It isn't supposed to be this fast?" he asked.

"Definitely not. Don't get me wrong though, it is well within possibility for a human to have multiple Ba, but even for weak spirits, it should take weeks for just one of them, not the absurd speed that you're going through the process," she explained, circling around to float in the air in front of him, "But I see now. Your soul, it's a bit special. Not particularly powerful to be honest, compared to some I've seen over the years. But, it's..bigger is not the word. It's almost like you've got two souls that have fused together, but, the second soul that joined with the first, wasn't a complete soul. Just the dregs of one? Perhaps the lingering remains of a dead soul that has already passed on?"

Yarden paused for a moment as he tried to process her words. Before it clicked and his eyes widened. The previous owner of this body, he was dead? "So what does that mean?" he asked.

"To be honest, I'm not sure, I'm not exactly an expert on this kind of thing I've just noticed it because I've seen something similar, but unlike them it doesn't look like you have two people inside one body," she shrugged, "If I had to make a guess though? I'd say your soul absorbed the dregs of that other soul and got in a word, stronger, or adapted to that process. And because of that, your soul has learned to adapt to this kind of thing, which is what is letting you take monsters as Ba much quicker. Really, it's just letting you do what you'd be able to do anyway, just at a faster pace."

So it wasn't going to grant him some special protagonist power, huh? Well, not that he minded. Adapting to the bonding process quicker was amazing in of itself.

"Good to know," he hummed, and looked the spirit in the eyes, "Putting that on the back burner though. What do you think then? Will you join me?"

She stared back into his eyes, "I don't really have any duties that need me anymore. And you're kind of interesting. A bit violent, but then in response to protecting a friend, that is understandable," she idly spoke. Huh, so, she was around to see him deal with Titan? "Let me ask you one question. My own answer will depend on your what yours is."

Yarden steeled himself, "Alright, ask away." as much as he wanted her, if she refused, it wouldn't be the end of the world.

It would totally suck though.

"Why are you going to such lengths? Why do you want the power of all these spirits to call upon?" Dark Magician Girl's gaze was serious as she asked her question, her stare pinning him in place.