Author's Note 1: The following is a non-profit fanfiction.

Yu-Gi-Oh is owned by Konami, Shonen Jump, Konami Cross Media NY, Studio Gallop, and Kazuki Takahashi.

Any original characters and concepts are owned by Navek and xpegasus.

Chapter 2: Welcome to Duel Academy

The crowd cheered and roared as the tournament's final match came down to the wire. It was a fierce confrontation between two skilled and passionate young boys but only one could claim victory. In one corner was a young Gerard, and in the other was a blond-haired boy. While both had fought tooth and nail for the crown, it became clear to everyone that Gerard would walk home the victory. The blond boy had an empty hand and 2500 LP while Gerard had just summoned the monster that would clinch the win, Demise, King of Armageddon.

"I'll admit it, you're good," Gerard said. "But not good enough to beat me!" The black-haired boy smirked. "I activate Demise, King of Armageddon's effect; by sacrificing 2000 life points, Demise destroys all other cards on the field! Final Judgement!"

Gerard: 4600 - 2600

With a powerful swing from his axe, Demise, King of Armageddon vaporized all of his opponents Elemental Heroes on both of their remaining spell and trap cards.

"Demise, attack him, directly," Gerard declared. Demise rushed forward and with a great swing, brought his axe down on the blond-haired boy, taking him down to 100 LP.

Gerard couldn't contain his huge grin. 'This is awesome,' he thought. 'His hand is empty and he's got no chance of defending.' Gerard looked down at his hand and saw Fairy Meteor Crush and Armory Call. 'Even he does draw a monster and sets it, I'll grab Axe of Despair from my deck next turn, and along with Fairy Meteor Crush, I'll wipe out his Life Points. Sure, he's going to get Miracle Fusion next turn thanks to Gold Sarcophagus, but I've already destroyed all of his strongest fusion monsters. He's hasn't got anything that will stand up Demise when I equip Axe of Despair. This match is in the bag, Nationals here I come!'

"I'll set two face downs and end my turn," Gerard said as set Armory Call and Trap Jammer just to spook his opponent and as an extra precaution.

Gerard's opponent said nothing as he drew, but the moment he saw it his face split into a huge grin. "Sorry, but I'll be walking away with that trophy today. Now, thanks to Golden Sarcophagus, Miracle Fusion returns to my hand which I'll use to summon Elemental HERO Flame Wingman." Transparent apparitions of Avian and Burstinatrix appeared before merging together into their fusion, Flame Wingman.

Gerard scoffed at this. ' Oh please, you're that desperate. Any pro-duelist worth their salt knows that Flame Wingman is one of the weakest Elemental Hero fusions. Oh well, I guess it's better to go down fighting with a show of force instead of sitting back.' Suddenly, Gerard noticed something. 'Wait a sec, why'd he summon it in attack mode, Flame Wingman's 2100 ATK can't compete with Demise's 2400 ATK.'

"I'm not done," the blonde boy said. "Now I activate the field spell Skyscraper! Thanks to Skyscraper's effect, when an Elemental HERO attacks a stronger monster, it's boosts their ATK by 1000!"

"Oh, crap!" Gerard shouted. Flame Wingman let out a might yell as it unleashed a torrent of flames that engulfed and destroyed Demise.

Gerard: 2600 - 1900

"And due to Flame Wingman's effect, when he destroys an opponent's monster, you take damage equal to its ATK!"

Gerard could only stare on as the Elemental HERO rose high into the air and became shrouded in an aura of flames and divebombed Gerard. The black-haired boy fell to his knees, his face blank, devoid of all thought or emotion.

Gerard: 1900 - 0

All the sounds around Gerard were muted as he took in what had just happened. He had spent hours upon hours building a tournament-worthy deck out of a summoning mechanic that everyone treated as a joke. He had worked and dueled all the way to the regionals...only for his chance at greatness to be swiped out from under him. All because of a lucky draw.

It was that day that Gerard's passion for dueling went up in smoke.

Gerard awoke with a start. He whipped his head around, not knowing where he was or how he'd got here. It took a moment before he remembered, he was on a boat heading to Academy Island along with this year's batch of new Duel Academy students. He rubbed the sleep out his eyes and got up from the chair he'd accidentally fallen asleep on.

'Fucking hell, again,' Gerard thought as he rubbed his sore neck. Even since he'd taken this job, Gerard had been having dreams of his old dueling aspirations, and it was starting to get annoying and mess with his sleep schedule. 'I thought I'd put that behind me. Can't I just move on with my life?'

"Attention everyone," a deep male voice came over the intercom. "This is your captain speaking, we'll begin docking in a few minutes. Please gather your belongings and make sure all of your documentation is in order before we arrive at Academy Island. I'm sure you'll a wonderful time at your new home away from home."

'Huh, guess I slept for longer than I thought,' Gerard thought. He looked out the window and had to admit Academy Island was a beautiful place. Luscious verdant forests, pristine white sand beaches, and crystal clear deep blue water, it was like a little slice of heaven. He was surprised it hadn't been turned into some kind gaudy and overpriced tourist spot.

But Gerard didn't have time to appreciate the natural beauty, he couldn't very well step onto the island still dressed in his t-shirt, shorts, and tennis shoes. He went into the bathroom and changed into his full teaching attire, a brown coat, white dress shirt with a black tie, brown pants held up by a black belt, and brown loafers, and grabbed his suitcase.

Soon, the passengers of students and teachers began to disembark from the docked passenger ship. Gerard looked around, remembering the few instances he had been on the island for his teacher training. But now, he would be able to fully explore the island for his real job.

'I should go over my first lesson plan before eight,' Gerard thought to himself as he stepped off the ramp. 'I'll see if I can look anything weird-SWEET MAMA!'

Gerard's green eyes widened in amazement when he saw one of the security guards who were screening the passengers. The one that caught his eyes was a tall woman with warm brown skin, dark red hair tied into a ponytail, and light blue eyes with a claw-like scar over the right one. But even though she was clad head to toe in a security guard uniform, he could tell just by how her sleeves strained whenever she moved that she was ripped.

"My, my, my. So that's the kind of woman that gets your attention." Gerard quickly turned and saw Cecilia looking at him with a bemused smile.

"I-I don't know what you're talking about," the black-haired man replied with, turning away with a light blush on his face. Cecilia giggled at the sight. The two soon got to the bottom of the ramp towards the amazonian woman.

"IDs, please," she said with a no-nonsense expression. They handed her their staff IDs and scanned them. She then held out a metal detector. "Arms up." Gerard did just that, using every bit of his willpower not to blush in front of her as she ran the wand over his body. "You're clean."

"Th-thanks," he said. "T-The name's G-Robert! My name's Robert Marti. And you are?"

"Theresa Geley," the auburn-haired woman said as she handed him back his ID. She then offered a friendly smile. "See you around, Robert."

"See ya," he said with a blush as he walked off to collect his suitcase from the scanners. "Better get to the first teacher's meeting." The green-eyed man took a quick glance at Theresa before grabbing his suitcase and hurrying off, hoping that she didn't catch how nervous he was.

'Cecilia's going to tease me about this for days,' he thought. 'Focus, Gerard, that's not important! You almost said your real name!' he mentally chided himself as he began to follow the path to the main Academy building, all while the students were heading to their dorms. 'You can't get distracted. Not even for a lady with a stunning smile and probably has thighs that can crush-STOP IT, BRAIN!'

Later…

"Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the new school year," Dr. Crowler said from the head of the circular conference table. "I know that some of you may be new here, but both Chancellor Sheppard and I still expect you to maintain the high standard of excellent teaching that Duel Academy is known for. Now, the first thing we should go over is…"

As Crowler continued to talk, Gerard started to take a look around, taking the appearance of his fellow teaching staff. He saw a few familiar faces, from the card shop owner Ms. Dorothy, the history teacher and head of the Slifer Red dorm Dr. Banner, and even the nurse/head of Obelisk Blue girl's dorm Ms. Fontaine. He also saw some new faces, including a man with skunk hair and glasses, and another man who looked like he hadn't gotten enough sleep the previous night.

"-so make sure you push the students and inspire them to be the best they can be. Especially the Slifers," Crowler finished up. "Lord knows they need it."

A few hours later, Gerard arrived at his room at the teacher's dorm. From his suitcase, he pulled out his journal. While there were some investigators who often kept their findings in digital logs, the black-haired man preferred to keep all his notes written down.

As such, he wrote an entry on each of the new faces he had seen, including adding a bit to the entrees he already had on Crowler and Cecilia.

The easy part of Gerard's infiltration into Duel Academy was over. Tomorrow, the real work of "Robert Marti" began.

The next day…

"Good morning, class!" Gerard said as he stood at the podium by the front of the classroom. And one thing Gerard mentally noted was that the class sizes and classroom layout were more akin to a college lecture hall then the typical high school-level classroom. He figured that Seto Kaiba really didn't spare any expense when constructing this school. "Welcome to Algebra 1. My name's Professor Robert Marti. You can call me Mr. Marti, Professor Marti, or even Rob if you manage to impress me. Now, let's go over so-"

Gerard stopped his introduction when he saw a Slifer Red student raise his hand. "Yes, you with the Kuriboh hair."

"Kuriboh hair?" the young man said to himself before asking his question. "Um, Prof, why do we need to learn math? Isn't this a dueling academy?"

"…what's your name, kid?"

The brown-haired kid smirked before pointing his thumb at himself. "The name's Jaden Yuki. And you're lookin' at the next-"

"Mr. Yuki, got it," Gerard said with a nonplussed expression, deflating Jaden's enthusiasm and earning some chuckles from the other students. "Well, Mr. Yuki, even though the main job of this academy is to make you kids into better duelists, we're still a high school. And you can't really get a high school diploma just by playing card games."

The rest of the class went on as one would expect, with "Robert" laying out the rules for his class and what the students could expect for the upcoming semester. And this was a speech he shared with the other class periods throughout the day.

Finally, the first day of classes ended, with the students and teachers heading back to their dorms. Gerard was one of them, browsing with his phone while walking.

'Great. More Blackwing support,' he thought as he looked up the cards for an upcoming booster pack. 'Like those feathery fuckers don't have enough cards already.'

However, Gerard wasn't paying attention as he turned a corner in the hallway, causing him to bump into someone.

"Oh, crap. Sorry about that," the black-haired man said as he saw that he had accidentally knocked over the tired-looking teacher he had seen yesterday. He was a skinny, pale-skinned man with green hair and black eyes. His outfit consisted of a black t-shirt, blue jeans, black & white sneakers, and matching dark red wristbands. If he hadn't seen him at the meeting yesterday, Gerard would've easily mistaken him for a student.

"It's no problem," the man replied as he began to pick the papers he had dropped from his folder. Gerard decided to help him, but he soon saw the contents of the papers. They seem to be focused on rumors and strange supernatural shit. But one piece that immediately caught his attention was a paper with the words 'missing students' scribbled across the top and a picture of a dilapidated dorm building stapled to it. Gerard took a quick glance and saw that the man's back was turned and quickly folded the paper and shoved it in his coat pocket.

"Again, sorry about that," Gerard said as he and the green-haired man finally finished picking up the files.

"Don't worry about it," the greenhead said before quickly running off, the folder pressed tightly against his body.

Later that night, Gerard took out the folded paper and began to study it. It was less of a document and more of a series of drawings and scribbles with a photo stapled to it. There were notes about an 'Abandoned Dorm', how it was 'officially' abandoned for being structurally unsafe due to being built on top of very soft and unstable ground and rocks. He also saw a list of names under the header of 'Missing Students'.

Atticus Rhodes, Merian Hendrickson, Dalia Michaels, and all the other students he had been hired to find.

It seemed as though Gerard had lucked into his first real lead.

The next day, Gerard was going about his day when he was suddenly pushed against the wall by the smaller, green-haired man from yesterday.

"Where is it?!" The greenhead shouted.

"What? What are you-"

"Don't play dumb with me!" He shouted.

"Hey!" The two turned and saw Theresa walking up to them. "We got a problem here?"

Gerard glanced at the green-haired man. "Nope, no problems here, ain't that right, buddy?" He flashed a grin.

"…yeah. No problem at all, pal," the shorter man replied before letting go of Gerard's coat.

Theresa narrowed her eyes. "Try to set a better example for the kids, okay?" she said as she rolled up her sleeves, revealing biceps that could crush soda cans.

"Um, right," Gerard replied, trying to hide his growing blush. He knew she was trying to intimidate them, and it appeared to be working on the shorter man, but he couldn't help it if this was how some of his favorite dreams started. Seemingly satisfied, Theresa walked away while giving them a look that said 'I'm watching you.' Once she was out of sight, Gerard felt the shorter man tapping his shoulder.

"She's right. Let's settle this with a duel," the green-haired man said. "Meet in near the docks after classes are done. If I win, you give me my paper back."

"I've got no idea what you're talking about," Gerard said. The green-haired man glared at him. "Alright, no use in denying it." The black-haired man then gave a deathly serious expression. "But if I win, you gotta let me see everything else you got in 'Mystery Files'," Gerard said.

The shorter man considered it for a moment. "Deal," he said extending his hand which Gerard took.

"By the way, what's your name?" Gerard asked.

"David Alvarez, the English professor."

"Robert Marti, the mathematics professor."

And so, the day passed until classes were over, and the two teachers arrived at the docks. Gerard arrived and saw that David was waiting, a cobalt D-Pad strapped to his left arm.

"Alright, let's do this," Gerard stated. David nodded, a look of fierce determination on his face. The black-haired teacher took his D-Pad out from his coat and onto his arm. Both teachers then both attached their deck slots (David's deck being clad in dark blue sleeves) and the monster slots folded out.

"D-Pad, set!" The two said before slapping on their D-Gazers.

"D-Gazer, set!" And instantly, the green scream of data surrounded the area around them.

AR Vision: Link Complete.

As the decks were auto-shuffled, a large AR coin manifested between the two.

"I'll call tails," David said as the coin flipped. However, it landed on heads.

"Looks like I'm goin' first," Gerard exclaimed as the two drew their opening hands.

"Let's Duel!"

Robert: 8000

David: 8000

Gerard drew his first card and smirked as a plan began to formulate in his mind. "Alright. I'll start things off with the continuous spell, Soul Absorption. Now every time a card is banished, I gain 500 life points. Next, I activate Gold Sarcophagus, letting me search my deck and banish one card, then add it to my hand in two turns." The ornate sarcophagus rose from the ground and opened its lid. "I choose to banish Necroface." An image of the Necroface card appeared above his head before being sealed within the sarcophagus and sinking beneath the earth.

Robert: 8000 - 8500

"When Necroface is banished, we both banish the top five cards from our deck," Gerard explained. And thanks to Soul Absorption, a green aura appeared around the black-haired teacher as his life points increased drastically.

Robert: 8500 - 13500

"And I think I'll end my turn there."

David just raised an eyebrow at "Robert's" opening move. 'That's weird,' David thought as he drew his card. 'Leaving yourself open on the first turn is beyond an amateur mistake. Even if he has raised his Life Points enough to tank most one-turn-kills, it's still insanely risky.' David eyed "Robert," trying to get some kind of read the math teacher, but the black-haired man had a solid poker face. 'I guess he's either stupid or cocky. Either way, I can't waste this opportunity.'

"I'll start by casting Emergency Teleport," David said. "Letting me special summon a level 3 or lower Psychic-type monster from my deck as long as I banish it during my end phase. Stand up, Krebons!"

A strange mechanical clown in a blue & orange jester outfit danced onto the field, juggling cubes as it did so. (LV. 2/DEF: 400)

"Next, I summon Caam, Serenity of Gusto." A green-haired witch girl appeared in a whirlwind next to Krebons. (LV. 4/ATK: 1700) "Then I tune my Level 4 Caam with my Level 2 Krebons."

'Here we go,' Gerard thought to himself as the AR environment turned monochrome. Krebons and Caam turned into particles and then multi-layered rings that represented their levels.

"The mystical power of the wind flows freely! The gales of the mind fly through the winds of time!" David began.

'Oh, great. He's a chanter,' Gerard thought with a roll of his eyes as his foe continued, the rings stacking and then out stacking into a tower of six rings.

"Converge to create a blistering calamity! I Synchro Summon Daigusto Sphreez!"

A green light blasted from the rings and the color returned to the environment. When it faded, a new female monster with green & red hair, a royal witch-like costume and staff were standing before the English teacher. (LV. 6/ATK: 2000)

"When Sphreez is synchro summoned, I get to add a 'Gusto' monster from my grave to my hand," David explained as he added Caam back to his hand. "Sphreez, attack Robert directly with Psycho Windstorm!"

'God, he even has attack names,' Gerard thought, unflinching as the synchro monster unleashed a mystical blast of wind from her staff at him.

Robert: 13500 - 11500

"I'll set a card and end my turn," David finished up.

"I activate Dimensional Fissure," Gerard said. "Now, any monster sent to the graveyard is banished instead. Your turn."

David drew and began his next turn. And now, the greenhead was starting to figure out what his opponent's strategy was. "I summon Aleister the Invoker!"

A studious-looking man with silver & green hair appeared on the field. His outfit was an arcane-looking cloak, a tome in one hand, and an intricate staff in the other. (LV. 4/ATK: 1000)

'So he's runnin' the Invoked engine,' Gerard thought as David continued his turn.

"When Aleister is normal summoned, I can add the spell Invocation from my deck to my hand." Just as he said, a card popped out of his deck and added it to his hand. "And I'll use it immediately, banishing the Krebons in my graveyard and Aleister on the field to fusion summon."

A phantom image of Krebons appeared next to Aleister before the two began to merge into a glowing, multi-colored vortex.

"Student of arcane arts, invoke the power of the darkness to unleash your full power! I Fusion Summon Invoked Caliga!"

Out of the vortex came a skull-faced demon with flaming blue hair and red claws. (LV. 4/DEF: 1800)

And thanks to David banishing two more cards, Gerard gained 1000 life points.

Robert: 11500 - 12500

"Next, I use Invocation's graveyard effect; I add a banished Aleister to my hand and shuffle Invocation back into my deck."

After doing just that, the green-haired man then ordered Sphreez to once again attack Robert with a blast of wind.

Robert: 12500 - 10500

"I set a card and end my turn."

Gerard drew his next card and Necroface was added to his hand. "I cast Twin Twisters," The black-haired man discarded Necroface, destroying David's set Solemn Judgement. And thanks to Dimensional Fissure, the doll monster was banished again-

Robert: 10500 - 11000

-activating it's effect once again, forcing each duelist to banish another five cards from the top of their deck.

Robert: 11000 - 16000

"Next, I play Pot of Desires, letting me draw two cards after banishing the top ten cards from my deck face-down," The mathematics professor did just that, banishing a good part of his deck to draw two cards and raising his life points by Soul Absorption yet again.

Robert: 16000 - 21000

A smirk appeared on his face as he took a card from his hand. "Time to finish this! I summon Gren Maju Da Eiza!"

A plume of fire exploded in front of Robert as he slapped the monster card on his D-Pad. From the fire came a horned, red-skinned demon with powerful arms, green scales, and large purple leathery wings. (LV. 3/ATK: ?)

"And his ATK & DEF are equal to all of my banished cards x 400."

(ATK: ? - 8400)

"So I was right. You're using a Gren Maju beatdown deck," David said.

"You figured out, huh. Guess that's why you got these two monsters out," Gerard said, pointing towards Sphreez and Caliga. "Caliga makes it so that each of us can only attack with one monster per battle phase. And Sphreez can't be destroyed by battle, plus I take any damage from any battles involving her."

"Huh. You're pretty perceptive," David replied, genuinely impressed. "So what can you do knowing that?"

"This! I tribute Daigusto Sphreez to special summon Gameciel, the Sea Turtle Kaiju to your side of the field."

The green & red-haired sorceress vanished in a wave of water, the sea turtle kaiju emerging with a roar. (LV. 8/ATK: 2200)

Robert: 21000 - 21500

"Gren Maju, destroy Gameciel!" The red-skinned demon conjured up a ball of ethereal fire in between its palms before tossing it at the kaiju.

David: 8000 - 1800

"And for the finale, I activate my trap card: D.D. Dynamite! Which deals you 300 damage for each of your banished cards."

"Well…shit," David said with a sigh as a strange-looking amalgamation of dynamite manifested in the air in front of him before exploding in a massive flame.

David: 1800 - 0

Robert: WINNER!

With the duel over, the Augmented Reality vanished as Gerard walked to his defeated foe.

"So, I think we had a deal," the black-haired man said. David looked at him before shrugging.

"Alright. Follow me."

Soon enough, the two teachers arrived at David's room. Aside from some posters, the major attraction in the English teacher's room was a massive conspiracy board on his wall. There were several newspaper clippings and printed web pages involving Yugi Moto, Maximilian Pegasus, Marik Ishtar, and stuff about Ancient Egypt.

"Wow," Gerard said as he approached the board to get a better look at it. "This is, uh, really…"

"Crazy, insane, stupid," David said as he pulled a lockbox with a combination lock from under his bed. "Please stop me when I've guessed the word you were going to use."

"What! No, no, no, I think it's…interesting," Gerard said in an unsteady. He was starting to think that David more dangerous and unstable than he initially thought.

David rolled his eyes as he unlocked the lockbox and pulled out… a key. David then used a key to unlock a drawer in his desk, and within the drawer was safe with digital keypad. "Look away while I put in the code," David said. Gerard complied but took note that it was a six-digit code.

David pulled out the files from yesterday and turned towards Gerard. "Can you answer one question for me?" the greenhead asked. "Why do you even want to see these?"

"I'm into local horror stories," Gerard blurted out.

"I don't buy it," David replied with a stern gaze. "Why would you go out of your way to steal a piece of paper for a local rumor to tickle your fancy? What's your real reason?"

Gerard was now facing a bit of a conundrum. On one hand, the fewer people that knew about his real reason for going to Duel Academy, the better. On the other hand, having someone possibly helping him out on this would be insanely helpful. And the undercover investigator could tell that David was a man who definitely wanted to keep things to himself.

"Alright, fine," Gerard said. "The thing is, I didn't come to Duel Academy to teach math. You know those missing kids you wrote about on the Abandoned Dorm paper?"

"Yes."

"I came here to find out what the hell happened to them. All Duel Academy told their parents was that these kids are all supposedly 'studying aboard.' None of these kids have contacted their parents since, and all of the parents' attempts to find out more about this program and their children's whereabouts have been a dead-end."

"That's the same excuse Sheppard told the teaching staff," David chimed in. "One day a bunch of kids never showed up to class and all Sheppard said was they were taking part in a 'highly exclusive and confidential study abroad program.'"

"So you buy it as much as they did," Gerard said and then sighed. "But since this school is owned and funded by Seto Goddammed Kaiba, trying to sue the school would drive them to bankruptcy. Not to mention that, from what I can gather, Kaiba is using every resource at his disposal to make sure this doesn't go public. So they pooled their money together and hired this handsome detective to go undercover, figure out what's going on, and find their kids."

"Well, if you want to uncover the truth then you're gonna need all of this," the green-haired man said as he laid his files on his desk, revealing stacks of documents about not just the missing students, but also rumors, legends, and phenomena. "Duel Academy likes to present itself as a glorified performing arts school. But based on the research I've been doing, this island is a magnet for all kinds of weird rumors. Whatever's going on, I think it has to do with these."

"Well, they say there's a kernel of truth to every rumor," Gerard said as picked up and looked over the documents. "So maybe one of them can help me find those kids."

"You mean help us." Gerard raised an eyebrow at this until David continued. "Some of those kids were my students. If something happened to them…" The green-haired man couldn't bring himself to finish that statement, the discomfort and worry clear in his eyes. "Besides, if any of these rumors are even slightly true, you're gonna need an expert on the paranormal on your side."

The black-haired detective resisted rolling his eyes at the 'paranormal' statement and simply held his hand out with a smile. "Well then, let me introduce myself for real. Gerard Reyes, private investigator."

"...it's still just David." The shorter man joked and the two shook hands.

And thus, the investigation for the missing students and the mysteries of Academy Island had truly begun.

To be continued…

Author's Note 1: So we've gotten introduced to Duel Academy, introduced both a possible love interest for Gerard as well as his first confidant, and even see what his real deck looks like (for the time being).

And yes, I am using synchro monsters because some of my favorite archetypes are synchro based. But before you ask, not sure if I'm gonna include Xyz, Pendulum, or Link monsters down the line.

Next Time: Late Night Dueling!

See ya next time!