Inside the exam hall, Kira stood at the top of the audience stands, scanning the crowd, quickly spotting several familiar faces.
For example, the Duel Academy's Zane Truesdale, also observing from above, and the most frequently-seen female background character in GX's early episodes, Alexis Rhodes.
There was also Chazz Princeton in his Obelisk Blue uniform, along with his two minions.
Chazz and Alesis were direct-entry students, the top of the junior division. Only direct entries like them were placed in Obelisk Blue from the start.
Other exam students, even with perfect scores, could only enter Ra Yellow—this is why Bastion, despite being first, was only in Ra Yellow. Only with excellent later performance could one move up to Obelisk Blue.
Kira looked around—though it was exam time, a certain familiar jellyfish head was missing.
If nothing went wrong, Jaden's train was probably late today. At this moment, he was probably meeting Yugi and getting a Winged Kuriboh—the first spirit card he used in early dark duels.
In the GX story, there's no explanation for why Yugi would randomly give a lucky jellyfish kid a spirit.
But if you include the later movie "Bonds Beyond Time," you can guess that Yugi had already met Jaden from the future, so he saw him as a comrade.
"Exam number 001, Fujiki Kira."
It was finally starting.
Kira got up and headed to the duel field.
He'd already observed the examiners' decks—they rotated a few test decks, and after watching several duels, he'd pretty much figured them out.
Nothing he couldn't handle.
A minute earlier, Chazz and his minions were sitting confidently in the stands.
"According to the schedule, number 001 should be up next," one minion said. "Wonder who's first this year?"
The other: "Heh, who cares. This year's king is already set to be Chazz-sama."
Chazz smirked.
"There's only one ruler of this academy. If that guy is strong enough, maybe he'll be a worthy opponent. Otherwise, being king here for three years would be boring."
"You're right, boss! Hahaha."
All three laughed.
Then the announcement sounded.
"Exam ticket 001, Fujiki Kira, please report to field one. Exam ticket 001."
The laughter stopped.
Minion 1: "NANI? That name—don't tell me—"
Minion 2: "Boss!"
Both turned to look for Chazz—but he was gone.
"Huh? Boss, why are you under the bench?"
Though a bit sore, Chazz didn't care—he crawled out, eyes wide, staring at field one.
And saw the familiar figure enter.
The king's dream ended before it began. He hadn't even enrolled, and he was already ruled by the power of darkness.
Why is it you again!?
...
"Hello, teacher."
Kira greeted the examiner politely.
The examiner was a stone-faced tough guy, wearing sunglasses: "Let's duel."
"Yes, sir."
Kira readied his duel disk, but before starting, he frowned and asked:
"Wait, teacher. Hypothetically—just hypothetically—if I win, but you feel upset or dissatisfied during the duel, is there a chance I'd fail?"
"Don't worry." The examiner kept his poker face. "We're professionally trained, not low-class duelists. No matter what happens, I won't get mad."
He paused, then added:
"Besides, the final score is decided by Chief Examiner Professor Crowler, not me."
"I see."
Kira felt relieved.
He remembered Professor Crowler, nicknamed "Pot of Greed" for his resemblance to the card art.
Though he seemed like a villain at first, he only targeted bad students. For top students like Bastion, even if a baseball hit him in the eye, he'd laugh it off as long as you keep your grades up.
So as first in the written test, Kira figured the professor wouldn't give him a hard time.
"Duel!" x2
[Kira, LP 4000]
[Examiner, LP 4000]
"I'll go first. Draw."
Kira drew three cards.
"I set one monster face-down and two backrow cards. End turn."
On the platform, Chazz was already suffocating at this starting hand.
That familiar stench, that aura from the underworld...
"My turn. Draw," said the examiner. "I Normal Summon 'Gene-Warped Warwolf' in Attack Position."
[Gene-Warped Warwolf, ATK 2000]
Kira immediately recognized this as one of the test decks—level 4 beatdown, mostly 2000+ ATK monsters, supported by equips to easily hit 2–3000 ATK for field control.
A tough deck for new students.
Some students in the stands commented, "Oh, number one is facing the beatdown deck."
"Yeah, glad I didn't get that. Poor guy."
Only Chazz clenched his fists, silent.
Poor? No, no, no.
The poor one is the examiner.
He's unlucky enough to face this kind of underworld deck—bad luck for eight generations!
"Attack with 'Gene-Warped Warwolf'!"
Kira flipped his set monster—Old Vindictive Magician.
[Old Vindictive Magician, DEF 600]
"'Old Vindictive Magician'—flip effect activates," Kira said. "When flipped, destroy one monster on your opponent's field.
I destroy your 'Gene-Warped Warwolf.'"
The old magician fired a spell before dying, and the Warwolf exploded.
The Warwolf lasted less than ten seconds, but that's still normal. The examiner didn't realize anything was wrong yet.
"A monster with a flip destruction effect, huh. Battle Phase ends."
The examiner played a card:
"I activate the Spell Card 'Return of the Doomed'—revive a monster destroyed this turn in Attack Position." (Anime effect)
A vortex to the underworld opened, and with a flash, the Warwolf returned, a little battered.
"I activate my set card—Trap Card 'Terrible Deal.'"
Kira pressed his duel disk, flipping his backrow.
"When your opponent activates a Spell, pay 1000 LP to randomly discard a card from their hand."
[Kira, LP 4000 → LP 3000]
"NANI?"
The examiner was shocked; one card vanished from his hand.
"It's not over. Chain with another trap—Torrential Tribute." Kira activated another backrow. "When a monster is summoned, special summoned, or flipped, destroy all monsters on the field!"
A flood erupted, sweeping the field. The poor Warwolf didn't even get to stand up before being swept away.
Examiner: "..."