Big Dog - 13

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A/N: Instead of 'words' as thoughts, I'm going to use italic words for what the character is thinking.

***

As Jaden was escorted to the nurse along with the rest of the gang, Gojo was thinking, as he made his way up to the duel stadium podium. Aster did the same, both of us preparing for what lay ahead.

"Empty as hell in here," Gojo remarked with a smirk. "Welp, I'm gonna wrap this duel on my first turn."

Aster scoffed. "What else can your mouth do besides bark?" He slid his deck into the duel disk, matching Gojo's smirk.

"Oh, you're curious?" Gojo quipped. "I don't like to brag, but my mouth can make women scream my name." <referring Gojo eating Dark Magician Girl out (Dabussy)>

Dark Magician Girl blushed crimson and playfully punched Gojo while in spirit form.

Chancellor Crowler and Vice Chancellor Jean were also present, but only Aster caught the innuendo and went along with it.

"Ah, so you're a player, huh? The worst kind," Aster mused, sizing up Gojo based on his assumptions.

"Hey! Don't judge a book by its cover. I'm happily married," Gojo countered, flashing the ring on his finger.

Aster raised an eyebrow skeptically. "Really? You're married? You don't strike me as the committed type."

"Like I said, don't judge a book by its cover." Gojo retorted.

With their duel disks ready, they prepared to face off.

"Let the match begin…?" The Vice Chancellor announced as he was overhearing the conversation between Gojo and Aster.

""Duel""

Aster, 4000 LP

Gojo, 4000 LP

/

"Senpai, I'll let you go first," Aster smirked, ready to give it his all. He estimated his chances of winning were only 30%, but he was determined to make the most of it.

Gojo clicked his tongue, wagging his index finger.

Aster frowned, a look of confusion crossing his face.

"You've already made two grave mistakes, kouhai,"

"The first mistake was letting me go first," Gojo continued, "and the second was having the audacity to challenge me to a duel this early in the fucking morning." With a flourish, he drew his card.

"Wait. I don't think the morning has anything to do with—" Aster tried to comment.

"And I hate the goddamn morning!" Gojo inserted five cards into his duel disk and then ended his turn. "End Turn." The holograms barely had time to finish animating before a massive blue dragon with an ominous aura emerged on Gojo's side of the field.

Here's a closer look at the sequence of Gojo's actions:

Gojo started by playing the spell card Chaos Form, by sending the Blue-Eyes White Dragon from the hand to the graveyard to ritual summon Blue-Eyes Chaos MAX Dragon in attack mode. This sequence was executed in a mere 0.5 seconds.

Blue-Eyes Chaos MAX Dragon - 4000 ATK points

He then set two cards face down and ended his turn, concluding his turn in a concise 1.1 seconds.

Aster watched, his eyes blinking in disbelief at the rapid sequence of actions. He chuckled softly, clearly amused. "Seems like you're all talk. Did you really think you could finish me off in just one turn?"

Gojo remained silent, patiently waiting for Aster to draw his card. When Aster finally drew the card on his turn...

"And now, I reveal my face-down card: Ring of Destruction. I'll use it on my own monster to deal 4000 life points to both of us," Gojo immediately activated his trap.

"Huh?!" Aster was utterly in disbelief and shock. This was a bit too fast to process, even for a professional duelist. Why would Gojo do that?

"Now, I bet you're wondering, 'Why would Gojo do that?' Isn't that right?" Gojo struck a strange pose as he spoke.

Gojo's next move answered all of Aster's confusion.

"Because! I reveal my trap card, Rainbow Life. By discarding a card, any damage I take this turn turns into life points instead." Gojo scoffed as he started to leave the duel podium, leaving Aster standing quietly, stunned, as the explosion started heading towards him.

As Aster's life points hit zero, Gojo had already disappeared.

"Uhhhhhh. Winner: Gojo!" The Vice Chancellor announced in disbelief, with Chancellor Crowler standing there with his jaw dropped.

And that was how the most highly anticipated duel ended, just like that.

***

Classes were over, and the hospital where Jaden was admitted was unusually crowded.

Gojo finally arrived at where the gang were after reading Alexis's text message. He was genuinely surprised by the message she had sent.

"Sup. So, is Jaden really blind?" Gojo asked as he casually took a seat from who knows where, positioning himself besides Jaden. Jaden was seated across from a 'nice'-looking nurse who was in the midst of diagnosing him.

The nurse winked at Gojo, and he nodded in acknowledgment, though he didn't smile. She is a nurse, after all. So, stop looking at me like that, Wifey. But Dark Magician Girl, in spirit form, gazed into his soul, inches away from his face.

"Jaden can't see any of his own cards," Chazz explained, holding out Jaden's deck. "Apparently, it all just looks like white blank to him. He can't even hear the spirits' voices anymore."

So, Jaden can't recognize his cards in his own deck anymore. Daym. What kind of penalty shadow game is this? He definitely has to switch careers at this point. I wonder what he's going to work as. KCdonald? Lmao.

[That's not funny.] Dark Magician Girl attempted to chokehold Gojo in spirit form but failed.

Syrus picked up the deck and looked at it. "I can see his cards. So, why can't he?"

"There's nothing physically wrong with him, per se. But I believe the duel against Aster Phoenix must have been traumatic for him," the nurse said. "By the way, my name is Fonda Fontaine. You may all call me sensei."

Everyone responded in unison, "Hai, Sensei."

Anyways, this won't do. Jaden looks like he is about to unalive himself sooner or later. I need him alive to handle the world ending sthicks and everything.

"So, Jaden, why the hell do you look so depressed?" Gojo demanded. "You've lost to Zane before, and it wasn't that bad. You even lost to me, and you thought it was no big deal. Hell, you even lost to a Kaiba before—don't ask how I know. But now you lose to that weirdo, and suddenly you lose all your motivation and get upset?"

[Hubby, are you actually gonna try to cheer him up?!] Dark Magician Girl was utterly flabbergasted and shocked. She couldn't believe her eyes—it was heartwarming to see her husband lending a hand to his friend—

"You weren't this upset when I officially beat you and your friends in a 1 vs 10 with my eyes closed, my hands tied behind my back, my duel disk offline, and using only Pokémon cards with my mouth."

Dark Magician Girl demanded, [[Give me back my expectations!]

"Wait a freaking second! That did not happen—" Chazz started to protest.

"I think…I understand what you're trying to say," Jaden said with a strained smile, facing Gojo.

"I hope you're not moping about who was the better HERO deck user now. You know I helped suggest replacing some of your cards. From that point on, it wasn't even a pure HERO deck anymore. Besides, the stuff you guys pulled off was more like Elemental HERO versus Destiny HERO," Gojo remarked.

I still really want to fucking cuss at him for not trying to top deck and end Aster in one go. But seeing how badly this loss had affected his mindset was unsettling. What's worse there is really no sign of dark magic in Jaden. Jaden's defeat didn't have his soul stolen or brainwashed, but it left him partially blind? Not gonna lie this was uncharted territory for me and new. On top of that… I beated Aster but Jaden still hasn't recovered. Tsk, it's not like those traditional shadow games where beating the caster fixes everything.

As the nurse tilted her head, she couldn't help but wonder if this was one of those 'Bro pep talks' she'd always heard about—the kind guys did to cheer each other up when they were down.

"Gojo, it's not that," Jaden said quietly, staring down at his feet.

"Gojo," Alexis interjected, trying to make him see the reality of the situation, "Jaden can't duel anymore. Since he can't see his cards." Knowing Gojo's thinking could be erratic at times, she emphasized the point.

Oh, OH! Right, right, right, right. Damn this puts me in a tight spot. He can't see Yu-Gi-Oh cards, but everything else is fine. Still what kind of bullshit logic is that? Why the heck can't he see it? If I draw a penis on a blank Yu-Gi-Oh card, can he still see it?

[Gojo, what the hell.] Dark Magician Girl complained as she heard his thoughts.

[Yes, dear, I was just thinking.] Gojo quickly made an excuse on the fly as he thought about how to fix Jaden's problem.

Jaden is the main protagonist of this story. Him losing was expected, but also unexpected at the same time. How many times has he lost already? But losing to Aster resulted in him losing his ability to see Yu-Gi-Oh cards. And then there was Dark Magician Girl mentioning she felt some bad things in Aster's deck momentarily… But beating Aster didn't solve it. Do I have to go to him directly? I have little to no information about this shitty season to work with. Gojo scratched his head as he pondered.

Jaden rose from his seat, extending his hand towards Syrus, silently asking for his deck. With a heavy sigh, he turned towards the door, his footsteps deliberate and slow.

"Jaden..." Syrus began to reach out, then hesitated.

"Sorry, I need some time alone," Jaden replied, glancing back briefly before leaving.

As everyone exchanged glances of helplessness, Gojo remained lost in thought. Most of the people here finally left. When Gojo finally returned to his senses, he found that everyone had disappeared, except for Alexis.

"Hey, what were you so lost in thought about that you didn't hear anyone?" Alexis approached Gojo, who appeared to have just snapped out of a reverie. Earlier, she had called out to him loudly, but he seemed completely absorbed in something, so she leaned in to check if his eyes were closed behind those sunglasses. Sure enough, they were open, confirming that Gojo was lost in deep contemplation.

"Jaden's loss of sight was probably because of some shadow game… I think." Gojo answered.

"What?!" Alexis exclaimed, her voice loud with shock.

"Not so loud," Gojo sighed.

"A shadow game? But there wasn't even a Millennium Item or any signs like that!" Alexis remembered aloud and then thought back to times when shadow games had been triggered without supernatural artifacts. "Oh, right. Like that time you mentioned duel spirit Jinzo. He managed to trigger one without any of those items." She muttered, piecing it together. "But I don't think Aster is the type to resort to these types of things."

"Anyway, I beat Aster, and that didn't help fix Jaden," Gojo continued.

"Wait... You beat Aster Phoenix??? WHEN?!" Alexis yelled in disbelief as she tiptoed and pulled his shirt.

"Hmm. After you guys left, we had a short break that lasted like two minutes. When we started again, I beat him in one turn. You should have seen the look on his face. The guy was speechless." Gojo flashed a cheeky smile and made a double peace sign.

Alexis covered her face with her hand and sighed. She had missed an incredible duel. Probably.

Alexis tugged at his sleeves. "Can you explain how the duel went, properly, when we get back to our dorm?"

Uwaaa, this crazy duelist enthusiast.

"Sure," Gojo hummed, his answer a casual yes.

"So, what now? Class seemed to be over since I saw a bunch of mouth breathers on my way here," Gojo asked.

"Yeah, yeah, Chazz's room. We gotta talk with everyone now that your duel is over," Alexis said, grabbing Gojo's hand and pulling him along. "That's where everyone is going to be later," she added, quickly texting the group chat with her other hand.

Dark Magician Girl giggled, her hand covering her mouth at the sight as she followed along in spirit form.

***

A/N: Dealing with basement water leakage in the summer. Unfortunately, it's sewer/dirty water. A fucking hassle. Author out.