While Jayden began making his way onboard, everyone else soon followed. Syrus, Bastion, Tania, Chazz, Alexis, Jasmine, Mindy except for Blair and I. “Y’know what? I get seasick really bad, so I’m just gonna sit this one out.” Chazz scoffed at me along with Jasmine. “Is that why you didn’t want to Duel?” I shrugged, while Alexis frowned at me in distrust, her gaze moving to Blair still joined with me at the hip. “Actually I’m not feeling too well on the ocean either. I think I’ll stay back in case this is a shadow duel. I don’t want to cause problems for Jayden.” She said, glaring at me the entire time she spoke, Mindy giggling at her. “Sure, we’ll give Jay- I mean Rakki plenty of support in your place.”

After they left, leaving Alexis, Blair, and I alone on the outside. “Alright, spill it. You two weren’t going to… While Jayden is taking a bullet for you! Were you!?” Alexis demanded an answer, poking her finger against my chest harshly, just waiting for me to say something that she could hit me over. I scoffed while holding my arms in surrender. “No, I was gonna-” “We’re not?” Blair pouted in response, Alexis immediately stomping my foot with her heel. “OW! It wasn’t even me! OW!” I pleaded my case, but another foot stomp proved Alexis wouldn’t hear of it. “You taught her that!” 

I sighed, not even bothering to explain how much more mischievous the little minx latched onto me was. ‘If she learned from anything, it would have been Dreamsprite. Although, she didn’t have to learn much…’ “That old guy isn’t a shadow rider, he’s just an idiot. One of many I already have to deal with at school.” I said, glancing at plenty of Obelisk blue’s and even Ra yellow’s glaring at me. All of them guys, disliking Alexis being as close to me as she was. 

Alexis looked around, seeing the glares and leers disappear just as her gaze wandered past them. She sighed, annoyed with them all for trying to force her decisions again. Almost all of the boys she knew, besides her few male friends and Rakki, were always like this. Always assuming what she desired, and doing things for her that only caused her grief. It was ironic that in their haste to acquire her favorability, they only further pushed themselves away from her. Alexis sighed and shook her head, rubbing her temples as she spoke. “I’m sorry about them…”

I scoffed at Alexis’ apology. It almost seemed to be that she apologized more for things out of her control than anything she really did wrong. “Don’t worry about it. Just know that Jayden and everyone else is completely okay.” I then had a sudden thought, glancing back at Alexis, her frowning gaze loosened looking back at me. “Wanna look over your deck with me?” Alexis flinched at my proposal, stuttering her words as her gloved hand began scratching her cheek, trying to pull her lips back down. “Uh… Sure, yea, if you have time.”

I scoffed, Blair giggling at Alexis’ sudden nervousness. I motioned my head towards the school, and began leading the way. “C’mon, I think I already have a few ideas for cards you might like.” 

Alexis jumped at the idea of her becoming stronger, she had already watched how well Blair could handle herself to attain the pendant still tethered around her neck, or the vampire Alexis now had living with her. During late at night, before Camula would leave to fly around under the stars, she begrudgingly explained how Blair had beaten her. With spell counters. It was a very unique and strong playstyle that snowballed quickly if left unattended, making the user almost invincible if they amassed enough counters.

Alexis quickly ran up and walked beside Rakki, on the other side, Blair still holding onto his arm as they walked. She frowned just seeing how nonchalant Blair was while ‘hiding’ her gender. Before realizing it, Alexis found herself grabbing Rakki’s other arm. Rakki paused in confusion, looking at her, Alexis frowned, unsure of what she was doing. “If you’re going to keep her around, maybe she shouldn’t be so obvious… You both look like a couple.” 

I glanced at Blair, she frowned at her, but began growing a smirk once the words of ‘looking like a couple’ exited Alexis’ mouth. I then looked back at Alexis, still frowning while grabbing onto my other arm. We were about the same height since she was wearing heels, so her grip on my arm felt more grown-up for lack of a better term. Blair only held my forearm as we walked, but Alexis gripped onto my bicep. 

I couldn’t hold back a grin as I looked at Alexis’ ever reddening face. “I really don’t care if others think we’re gay. Believe me, I’ve heard plenty of whispers from girls in just about every dorm, I’m used to it now.” Alexis frowned deeper, her grip loosening on my arm as she turned away. “Right… You never care what others think.” She muttered, shaking her head while she let me go. However when she did, I took the opportunity with my now free arm to place it over her shoulder.

Alexis felt the weight of Rakki’s arm around her back, wrapping around the back of her neck. She wasn’t sure what she was doing grabbing onto him, perhaps jealous of Blair being so close to Rakki all the time. Maybe she wanted some personal attention again after last night with their talk. But she wasn’t expecting this. Rakki pulled her closer, somewhat the same as how she forced him closer to her last night. He then whispered into her, his lips tickling against ler earlobe as he spoke. “I don’t care what others think, so I’m more than happy to keep this here. But just say the word, and I’ll move my hand.”

I watched as Alexis bit her lip, her face turning red hot. She turned her head lower, avoiding looking at me while I directed us away from prying eyes. She then mumbled under her breath, something I couldn’t quite catch. “Sorry, what?” I asked, moving my hand off of her shoulder as I leaned closer to hear her, but the moment I did, she grabbed my hand, and kept it in place over her arm. “I hate you…” She murmured, pinching the back of my hand, making me wince in pain.

After we made it to the roof,(My favorite spot) a few surprised gazes and hushed whispers along the way. However, I didn’t want Alexis to die from embarrassment, so I played the part of the ‘over touchy friend’. The one that for some reason feels most comfortable forgoing personal space. “You didn’t have to do that… I thought you didn’t care how people saw you.” 

Alexis frowned at me, pinching the back of my hand again as I scoffed. “I just felt like it. You wanna talk about that, or your deck?” I teased, sitting down, Blair quickly finding her way onto my lap. Alexis grumbled while taking her seat beside me, leaning her body onto mine for support as she detached her deck from her Duel Disk. “If you can’t think of anything, then I get to slap you.” She smirked at me while I glanced at her deck, internally wondering if perhaps Alexis had a bit of sadism in her. “Let’s see…”

Rakki then began analyzing Alexis’ deck, muttering under his breath as he thought, a quirk of his that Alexis couldn’t help but smirk at, along with Blair, eagerly smiling upwards while resting her head on Rakki’s chest. “We have warrior earth monsters with fairy light ritual monsters… They have almost nothing in common on their own except for the terms of ‘cyber’, but we can deal with the problems easily for the fact that the fairy’s are ritual monsters… We just need enough support…” 

I began scrolling through my PDA, looking through as many ritual support cards I could find. I easily thought of the first major three manju of ten thousand hands, pre-preparation of rites, and the most obvious, ritual sanctuary (But she already had that one). ‘I can think of maybe a few more all purpose ritual support cards, Alexis already has support for her ‘angels’ in particular, but this isn’t just about ritual monsters. I need to think of something that-’ 

“Hang on…” I muttered, scanning through the miles of cards on my device to find the one that I wanted. “Hm!?” However, while looking for it, I found something much different. “What is that?” Alexis asked, Blair pulling the PDA down so she could see as well. “I don’t know… But it looks familiar.” I clicked on it, to see more of the princess as she grew to a full blown empress between cards, right alongside a young agent of- “I… I feel something too.” Alexis said, speaking over my thoughts as she looked at the empress closely.

“Hmm…” Suddenly Zorc appeared from behind, his darkened appearance seemed to somehow suck the light around us, the clouds covering the blotted out sun. I looked back along with both girls, Dark Magician Girl appearing beside Blair, her hand over Blair's shoulder to aid her at a moment’s notice. Zorc sighed as he looked over at Alexis. “Indeed… I figured one day you may come to find her.” I squinted in confusion as Zorc reached out his hand, cards appearing in a flash of green flame.

“What are those!? Don’t trust them! They could be tainted!” Dark Magician girl yelled, but fell of deaf ears as Alexis slowly reached her hand out to take the blue cards. “You won't find those cards on any other source… I had placed them there as… A sort of test.” Alexis and I slowly looked over each card, all 5 of them ritual, and ritual spells and support. After we were done, and looked back up at Zorc, I could feel his depression just seeing the images of the cards, but also at Alexis, like a sudden realization had taken hold. “It has been eons since I had thought of her. Until that night in the abandoned building…” 

Zorc chuckled weakly, before sighing, adjusting his blood red wings around his back, like a robe flapping in the wind. “I figured you would like a part of her by your side. However small that part might be…” He looked down at Alexis. Although she wasn’t near at all to ‘her’ in looks, her fiery attitude and prone for violence wasn’t. A spitting image of ‘her’. “Hmm… I guess I don’t feel anything wrong with those cards, in fact… They feel like- no… How do you have elements of fairies!?” Dark Magician girl yelled in disbelief, looking over at the cards he gave to Alexis.

Alexis held tight the cards in her hand, a strange feeling that she knew was akin to the first monster spirit she attained with the help of Rakki came to her. The same strange sense of familiarity, and safety came to her chest. She then looked up to the darkened ruler that gave her chills just in his presence as he frowned at Dark Magician Girl. “There is much you never felt the need to ask about me…”