Who Let Him Play Yu-Gi-Oh!

Maitre' D took a deep breath.

Suddenly, he recalled that when this student got on stage, someone introduced him as a first-year freshman.

Actually, even before that, he was wearing a yellow uniform.

Maitre' D had at least heard about Duel Academy's basic rules. The student dorms are ranked by color: Blue, Yellow, and Red, and there's a strict hierarchy.

Blue-uniformed students are the elites; in fact, some rookies in the professional dueling world have come straight from the Blue Dorm. The Red Dorm, on the other hand, is the bottom of the barrel—historically, no Red student has ever made it into the pro circuit. The Red Dorm is filled with rookies barely scraping by.

The Yellow Dorm, while not exactly weak, is only average. Someone in a yellow uniform should logically be at a middling level within the academy.

That was Maitre' D's naïve thought before stepping in.

Now, he just wanted to find the Chancellor of this academy and have a good, long talk about their management.

Especially, he wanted to ask: What were you thinking, putting someone of this caliber in the Yellow Dorm?

As the professional ranked eighth in the world, Maitre' D was starting to seriously doubt the teachers' vision and judgment.

This guy only made it to Yellow in your academy?

He suddenly felt the urge to drag the Chancellor out, pin his bald head down, and have him duel this Yellow Dorm student himself.

Come on, try it yourself—let's see if you can even win against this!

Then, explain to me what you mean by Yellow Dorm student.

"That was a pretty good duel, wasn't it, none?"

Professor Crowler stepped up with a smile.

"I believe everyone here got at least a little inspiration from today's duel."

Maitre' D: "I…"

Inspiration? What inspiration?

Honestly, he was supposed to be the pro, invited here to teach the students. Yet, right now, it felt like he was the one getting schooled.

Is this guy really a student? Are you sure you didn't just dig up some hidden boss to come ruin my reputation?

Then Professor Crowler turned to Kira.

"Kira-kun, although your performance was fantastic, next time I hope to see your real main deck, non.

Everyone's quite interested in your actual deck—I'm sure we could all gain even more insight from that!"

"Of course, Professor. Next time for sure," Kira replied with a smile.

Maitre' D: "?"

He suddenly felt like he didn't understand at all.

Wait, what does real main deck mean?

So the deck he just used to crush me… was just for fun?

Maitre' D stared at Kira in shock.

Yet the latter simply nodded at him, still polite and smiling.

"Thank you for your guidance, Mr. Professional."

Maitre' D: "..."

He felt like he was being insulted after being called professional.

He even started thinking: next time, he should bring more rookie pros to Duel Academy for training.

The pro circuit is just for fun—if you really want to prove yourself, you need to come to Duel Academy more often.

As for himself?

Heh.

He figured he'd never come back again in his lifetime.

Maitre' D, ranked eighth among professionals, left howling.

Watching the pro's retreating figure, Chazz fell into deep thought.

Ojama—always ojama…

But now, Chazz's feelings were different from when he was beaten by Kira in the representative match.

Now, he didn't see "Ojama" as an eyesore anymore. No, watching the trio wipe the floor with a pro in seconds, he felt a strange stir within, as if some forbidden desire was awakened.

In fact, he'd felt this before—back when the Paradox Brothers first came to Duel Academy, and Kira introduced his "Ojama" deck, using a joyful cosmic LOCK to sweep the legendary brothers.

But that was a tag duel, with Jaden as his partner, and didn't show much of the deck's true potential.

Chazz had gradually forgotten that feeling during later training.

Now, as a spectator, he felt the joy of Ojama once again, and his heart started to itch.

Could Ojama actually have real potential…?

"Boss, see? We can fight, can't we?" The Ojama Yellow Spirit popped up. "Isn't there a saying—there are no useless cards, only useless duelists?

Boss, with your skill and wisdom, if you used us, you could unleash our true power just like Lord Kira!"

"Shut up," Chazz growled. "Forget it, I'd never use your kind of trash deck—it doesn't suit my image at all!"

"Boss, you're so mean," the Ojama Yellow whispered, "but I saw you yesterday, sneaking to the shop to pick out a few Ojama cards from the pile nobody wanted.

You're totally building Ojama deck on the sly, you just won't admit it."

Chazz's face flushed red.

"Nonsense!" he yelled.

"I'm just… studying the enemy, know thyself! Who said I was building your garbage deck?!

Even if my deck was confiscated, even if I was at the bottom of the academy, even if I hit rock bottom, I would absolutely, definitely, never ever use your kind of Ojama deck!"

"Aw, boss, you're too cruel…"

…

Leaving the hall, Kira stretched.

So satisfying.

Dueling really is a lighthearted, fun activity. After that match, he felt much better.

There are benefits to dueling pro players. Kira was already considering logging into the Link System later—apparently, there were plenty of pros online, and maybe he'd get some more good matches.

On the flip side, it's good training for the pros, too. After all, they don't often get such interesting matches on the professional stage. It's great for broadening their horizons, improving adaptability, and mental fortitude.

Speaking of tournaments…

Kira quickly remembered that Mokuba had reminded him to sign up.

He pulled out his terminal, opened the Duel City Tournament registration page, and filled out the form.

That's when Jaden showed up.

"Wow, Kira, you're amazing!"

Jaden suddenly jumped in and patted him on the shoulder.

"That was a pro! A pro duelist! Even they couldn't do anything against you…"

"You'd be the same," Kira smiled.

It was true. He was just a Yellow Dorm student, and Jaden was a bottom-of-the-barrel Red. Letting a pro feel the strength of the academy's bottom-ranked students—pro players would have to question their lives all over again.

"Damn, I'm so jealous. Kira, you got to duel a pro again, and I missed my chance…"

Noticing Kira filling out a form, Jaden asked,

"Hey, Kira, what's that?"

"Registration form for the Duel City GX tournament. It's about to start—during winter break."

Jaden's eyes lit up.

"Duel City? The legendary one? So tons of top duelists will be there?" Jaden was hyped. "What about me? Can I go too?"