A/N Behold! The chapter you've been waiting for nearly five months, now! It's long, almost fifty pages…you better be content with the length because it's compensating for the lateness of this story's update! DX Enjoy and READ THE DAMN A/N at the bottom of the page when you finish the chapter…if you are going to ask me anything, read the A/N…that's all I'm asking…

5-30-12 Sorry guys who thought this was an update, really I am, but this was the only way I could get your guys' attention! Okay, guys, for those of you who don't know or haven't bothered to read my profile, I am on hiatus for this story! Don't bother me with "Update soon!" or "Please update!" or anything similar to that! You guys are really bugging me with that…I have other stories, too! God…this isn't my only story in existence. Sometimes I feel like this story overshadows my other stories at times… I have a few Pokémon stories up, like Our Last Pact and It's Not Easy Being Dawn…

And then there's my new one, I am Trainer, which involves my first-ever Pokémon OC who has ADHD. It's better than it sounds…

And then there's my KH story revamp, The Advent of Misadventures…yeah, I got about seventeen chapters up for that story. And then there's my newest story of a different fandom, Naruto, which I just published on 5-29-12. It's called The Wisteria…I consider it a Naruto-counterpart to I am Trainer… Well, now that I finished explaining this hiatus, please, for the love of god, stop asking me about when I'm going to update! DX I'm gonna be busy this summer considering I'm now signed up in my town's pageant, gonna be a senior, and I have SATs to take on Saturday (go to The Wisteria for more information on my status…it's in the A/N), so I can only focus on one story at a time! Please understand….

ALSO! Remember how I usually give credit to Hestic? Well, not anymore, since I'll be giving credit to ChibiFoxAI. Let me explain…the author, Hestic, is actually two people who shared an account…or used to be as the person I would usually give credit to is known as Chibi, who finally made her own account sometime ago. So from now on, whenever I give credit, it will usually be to ChibiFoxAI

Also, with the addition of this A/N...this chapter IS over 50 pages long! DX Oh, the longness! You BETTER be reading that A/N...also, over 40,000 hits, now! Seriously, this is my most read story...like I said, I feel like it overshadows my other stories...DX

With that said, read on~!

Chapter Twenty

Enter: The Lovesick Transfer

It had only been a few days after Valentine's Day, in which Jaden found herself basking in the awe that was starting a new game in her Pocket Monsters (aka, Pokémon) game… Man, it had been a while since she last started the game…

"Okay, Kotone, let's kick Silver's ass!" Jaden thought as she set her stylus on the touch screen to initiate the move of her choice.

Shou watched curiously as he watched his Aniki play her game…upside-down in her bunk bed…her head was on the pillow and the pillow was on the floor… She was so going to have one hell of a headache once she stood up… Hayato was currently drawing the whatnots of the current happenings between his friends…he was bored and teasing Flat-chest could keep him amused for oh, so long…

Sometime later, the three were now in the dining hall, set down at their usual seats at their usual table…as did the rest of the Osiris Red dorm. It wasn't much of an eventful day, so today marked yet another usual dinner time. And there was Daitokuji with Pharaoh in his arms, walking up to the front of the dining hall. He adjusted his glasses and looked at the Osiris Red students eat their meal…it took them about two to three weeks to FINALLY appreciate the food that Jaden loved to eat since day one. Why?

Well, they were beginning to get tired of buying bentos at Tome's shop and not to mention, their allowance could only last them so long…and the fact that what they didn't eat, usually went to Jaden as seconds, thirds…rarely ever, fourths, which only happened once and it was half of Shou's curry bread… He had a knack at drawing spicy-flavored breads as much as Jaden had a knack at drawing the Golden Egg Bread with Asuka and Taizan…their rivalry was still on!

Anyways, back to the topic with how much Jaden can stomach…it amazed the whole Osiris Red Dorm to how much someone as small as Shou can eat as much as two to three servings before being full. Shou can barely eat three quarters of his seconds before setting down his bowl, giving it to Jaden, and going back to his room to make tea. Very rarely did he ever finish seconds, but in comparison to Shou, Jaden rarely ever gained weight…hell! She didn't even gain half a pound, whereas most people would have already gained at least a pound. (1)

Ayukawa wasn't much shocked…just stunned as Jaden didn't have to work out as hard as she did, just to keep her figure…but then again, Jaden was (is) only fifteen years old…still young in comparison to Ayukawa, who was in her early to mid-twenties. Though, one couldn't help but wonder where it all went…moving on!

Daitokuji cleared his throat as he tried to get the attention of his students. "Nya…There's someone I would like to introduce to you all-nya."

Everyone (save for Jaden) stopped what they were doing (which was eating…obviously) as they turned to face Daitokuji, wanting to see who it was he was introducing. It was most likely a transfer student, which was not unlikely at this time of the school year since this time period was (is…usually) when the late entrance exams began to open for applicants wishing to transfer in.

"Nya!" said Daitokuji.

Shou sweat dropped as his Aniki continued to eat, not bothering to stop until she saw a small boy walk up to Daitokuji's side. Jaden blinked and swallowed, setting her bowl down on the table afterwards. She leaned onto the table to get a closer look at the new student.

The boy seemed a bit…young…but so did Shou and for one thing, Jaden knew for a fact that her otouto was fifteen…going on sixteen at the end of the month… which actually just reminded Jaden of something.

"My birthday isn't this month…that's my mom's!" thought Jaden. "Meaning…oh…"

Jaden was actually younger than Shou, making her actually Shou's otouto instead of Aniki…but influence-wise, Jaden was still Shou's Aniki no matter what. Well, that marks another thing that didn't matter…next to gender, age was another thing. And on another note, Jaden was not so good with dates involving her own birthday, which she managed to mistake her own mother's for hers…that also included her father into this since it was obviously his fault Jaden got that dress from Midori waaay too early into the year. (2)

"Note to self…" thought Jaden. "Remind Dad that own birthday is not this month, but it is Mom's."

Back on topic, this new student had navy blue hair that was…questionably short (he wore a forest green hat…a few hairs stuck out of the hat, you do the math). He had big, brown eyes with long, black eyelashes…and wore the standard Osiris Red uniform with gray pants…

Jaden arched her brow as she noticed two small bumps protruding slightly around the boy's chest…must be the black shirt he wore under his red jacket and maybe the fact that the jacket was a bit too small…if not for that idea, then Jaden might as well thought this boy was a girl. It couldn't necessarily be impossible for the kid to be a boy, though, what with the boy's pretty face…

"Great, we got a pretty boy," thought Jaden. "So…who is he?"

That question was answered instantly as Daitokuji introduced the boy.

"This is Rei Saotome-kun, who took the transfer test, and was admitted into Osiris Red for this journey-nya," said Daitokuji.

The boy, Rei, looked up and quickly took a glance around the room before turning his gaze back down onto the floor…he was definitely a shy one. Hayato laughed mentally as, give a few weeks' time at least, Jaden would most likely fix that problem. She already did that to Kohara and for the small-heighted Ra Yellow to stop being so nervous in a duel after a few visits and deep conversations from Jaden…it was actually stunning.

Even so, Hayato couldn't help but notice Rei's feminine-looking face, which he couldn't help but comment on. "He's as good-looking as a girl."

Jaden blinked and diverted her eyes on Hayato.

"And what am I, Falkner?" questioned Jaden.

Hayato closed his eyes and placed his hand on top of Jaden's head.

"A Healer named, 'Yellow'," said Hayato. "Nice try, flat-chest."

Jaden narrowed her eyes and decided to ignore Hayato…she'll get him in the morning by throwing him onto the ground. Heh heh…

"I wonder if he's upset because he was put in Osiris Red…" Shou said suddenly, wanting to change the subject and shift Hayato and Jaden's attention off each other and onto their new Osiris dorm mate. He sighed and crossed his arms, nodding as he said, "I know that feeling…"

Jaden blinked and looked at Shou for a few seconds. She then stood up from her seat and as loud as she could for everyone to hear (especially for Rei), she said, "All right!"

This caught everyone's attention as they were now all focusing their gaze on Jaden as she held up her hands in the air.

"Go…Go…Reeeei!" Jaden exclaimed loudly.

Rei started agape at Jaden, a slight blush tingeing his cheeks as all he could do was stare…what was up with that boy?

"He's a… strange one…" he thought.

If only he knew…if only he knew…

Jaden lowered her arms and nodded as she made her way over to Rei. It was official…this kid was definitely on her top list of priorities to focus on!

"C'mon, don't feel bad 'cause your grades suck!" Jaden said rather bluntly…but who really gave a damn about that? It was true, about the majority of the Osiris Reds had sucky grades…she knew that for a fact because her grades were definitely sucky, though she was talking a bit on her own behalf…

Though, this was coming from the girl who usually slept through her exams after finishing a reasonable amount answers right (usually the only questions she's answered on the exam) to keep her grades average and away from getting her expelled…moving on!

Rei could only stare at Jaden as the Osiris Red grabbed a hold of one of his hands and placed his (Jaden's) arm around his (Rei's) shoulder. Jaden patted Rei on the shoulder reassuringly, not noticing the boy's flustered expression.

"You'll have fun being with us!" said Jaden.

Daitokuji laughed nervously as he said, "You're misunderstanding-nya…"

Jaden blinked and smiled, replying, "I was just saying stuff to try and—"

Rei managed to pull away from Jaden, causing the brunette to arch her brow at the boy as he hid behind Daitokuji.

"…make this transfer student feel better…" Jaden continued on as Daitokuji walked up to her.

Daitokuji place his hand on Jaden's head and ruffled her hair a bit.

"Yuki-kun…that's not the point," explained Daitokuji. "It's not that Saotome-kun was placed in Osiris Red because of having bad grades-nya."

Jaden blinked and looked at Rei, noticing the slight blush on his cheeks.

"New transfer students are first admitted into this dorm-nya," said Daitokuji. "Saotome-kun's grades could soon move him to Ra Yellow-nya."

A small bead of sweat rolled down the side of Jaden's face as she rubbed the back of her head awkwardly. She laughed a bit and pointed at Rei as she closed her eyes. Well…this was awkward…almost as awkward when Ryou thought she was confessing to him.

"Well, having more friends in Osiris Red is a warm welcome!" Jaden said as she scampered over to Rei's side and slung her arm around his shoulder. "Right, Shou? Hayato?"

Shou and Hayato watched as their female roommate gave them a V-sign, an obvious blush tingeing her cheeks. Rather than say no, the two could only agree…they did NOT want to face Jaden's wrath (Jaden was scary when she was mad…). So the two sat up and smiled as they said, "Of course!"

Daitokuji smiled. "Thank goodness-nya!"

Jaden blinked and wondered why Daitokuji seemed almost…relieved?

"Huh?" thought Jaden.

"Because we don't have enough rooms, I was wondering what to do-nya!" said Daitokuji.

Jaden blinked a few times as she tried to grasp the context of the situation. Shou and Hayato, on the other hand, already figured out what Daitokuji was going say next.

"You can use Jaden-kun and his friends' room for a little while," said Daitokuji.

Jaden blinked again and smiled as she just brought Rei closer. She didn't really mind rooming in with another guy, even though she could obviously offer her room to Rei or her bunk bed…the latter, which shall never happen because Jaden was very attached to the bottom bunk. Shou and Hayato just sighed as they both heard Rei said, "Right."

And that marks roommate number four! Jaden began to escort Rei to her and her roommates' table, during which, she decided to converse with her new roommate.

"You know, I was almost in Ra Yellow…" said Jaden.

Rei blinked and looked at Jaden as he asked, "Really? Why aren't you?"

"I declined!" said Jaden. "My heart's set on this dorm! No matter how crappy people say it is!"

Rei couldn't help but find something rather strange with that…but could get a sense of what Jaden was trying to tell him. Though, something about the boy's personality and the aura he gave off made Rei feel a bit…nervous. Otherwise, Rei was actually rather content to have found someone so willing to be friends with him!

Sometime later,

Shou, Hayato, Jaden, and Rei stared at the bed next to the bunk bed. The bed's large size made getting to Jaden's bunk and the desk across from the bunk bed an inconvenience. What's more, the bed made the room seem even narrower.

"I-It's narrow…" Hayato said as he clutched the bunk bed ladder.

Shou nodded as he added, "There's no room to stand, either…"

Rei bit his lip and looked down at his shoes.

"I'm sorry…" he said awkwardly.

Jaden looked at her roommates and crossed her arms, sighing as she said, "Hey! It isn't all bad!"

To prove her point, Jaden took off her red jacket and hopped onto Rei's bed. Afterwards, she rolled to the side and landed into her bunk bed easily. A few seconds had passed before Jaden popped out and propped her arms onto the bed.

"C'mon, it doesn't matter how narrow it is!" Jaden said as she placed her head on top of her arms. "As long as we've got room to eat and sleep, it's fine! Besides!"

Jaden lifted her head and patted the mattress with her hand.

"This makes getting into bed, fun!" said Jaden. "Also…Hayato…you just avoided a heavy landing tomorrow morning…Rei, you might wanna move out of the way when I give the sign one of these days…"

Hayato sighed in relief…at least one good thing came out of the bed. There goes Jaden pushing him off the bed or at least him having a hard landing on the floor… Shou smiled and grabbed onto Rei's arm.

"All right!" said Shou. "Now let's all go take a bath!"

Hayato closed his eyes and crossed his arms as he nodded. "Washing each other's backs, naked, brings us guys closer!"

Jaden narrowed her eyes at Hayato.

"I did not need to hear that…" she remarked.

Hayato smirked at Jaden and asked, "Aren't you the one who told us that?"

Jaden blinked a few times and tilted her head to the side. "I did…wait…I did?"

Shou nodded as he began to take off his jacket.

"Aniki did say that!" said Shou.

Jaden closed her eyes and let out a puff of breath.

"Well, leave me out of this…" said Jaden. "And by the way, it turns out I'm actually younger than you…"

Shou nodded as he began to take off his shirt, which managed to get out a shriek from Rei. Rei recoiled to the sight of Shou's bare chest and turned around, covering his eyes with his hands. Jaden blinked and looked at Shou, covering her eyes afterwards.

"Shou!" exclaimed Jaden. "Put your shirt back on! No one wants to see that and I have Rei to back me up, now!"

Believe it or not, Jaden still had issues with seeing any of her guy friends, shirtless…save for Taizan, who she already gotten used after their first duel…what? The two already saw each other (in a sense on Taizan's behalf) shirtless, so they kinda went past that part…well, in Jaden's perspective. Taizan…not so much…Moving on!

Shou blinked a few times and blushed slightly as he remembered…his roommate was a girl! That's the second time today he forgot that today! Gah! And what did she mean by "I'm actually younger than you"?

"Sorry, Aniki!" he exclaimed as he placed his shirt back on, much to the relief of both Jaden and Rei.

Rei coughed into his hand and said, "Uh…r-right!"

Rei paused for a moment as he tapped his finger on his chin, trying to think of a way to avoid bathing with Hayato and Shou and the questions that might ensue. He coughed again and with that, Rei found his excuse.

"I-I have a bit of a cold, so…" said Rei.

Shou and Hayato just stared at Rei before shrugging it off. No sense in asking, then! That was a reasonable excuse…though, Jaden didn't think so. She looked questioningly at Rei and arched her brow at the pretty-faced boy.

"Aniki…what do you mean by you're younger than me?" asked Shou.

Jaden diverted her gaze on Shou and closed her eyes as she crossed her arms. "Turns out, my birthday isn't until the next school year. I just remembered…my mom's birthday is in this month, not mine…my mother's."

Shou blinked a few times and pointed at himself. "Does that make me you're Aniki?"

"Shou, I'm whatever you want me to be," said Jaden. "Just so long as you're comfortable with the nickname and I'm okay with it…we're good."

And it was as of that moment, Shou considered Jaden his Aniki, no matter what. Age was just another thing that didn't matter next to gender, however that did tell Shou something about Jaden… Jaden had really bad memory involving her own birthday. Why Jaden would mistake her own birthday with her own mother's, Shou will probably never know but it didn't matter…that was something worth explaining later.

A few minutes after Shou and Hayato left, Rei could feel Jaden's questioning stare burn into the back of his head.

"What?" he asked.

Jaden blinked and held up her index finger. "You're not really sick, aren't you?"

Rei looked nervously at Jaden, obviously taken aback with the older boy's question. "Crap, he's onto me!"

Jaden crawled out of her bunk bed and onto Rei's bed. She looked at the boy for a few seconds before snapping her finger and exclaiming, "You're just shy!"

Rei blinked a few times before stuttering a, "H-H-How did you know?"

Jaden smiled widely. "You're blushing."

Rei's blush just turned an even darker shade of red at that mere mention, earning him a laugh from Jaden.

"That's just cute!" said Jaden. "Don't worry about it! I won't tell…Koala-man would obviously find a way to tease you, like he does me, with that problem of yours!"

Rei blinked and tilted his head to the side.

"Koala-man?" he questioned.

"Hayato Maeda…the big guy," said Jaden. "Ya know, because he looks like a koala!"

Rei arched his brow at Jaden and thought about Hayato's resemblance to a koala. Not long after, Rei burst into laughter at that realization.

"You're right!" he exclaimed. "He does look like a koala!"

Jaden closed her eyes and smiled widely at Rei. "He sure does!"

After a few moments, the two Osiris Reds calmed down from their moment of laughter…the two were already getting along quite well! Jaden sighed and looked at Rei.

"So…you wanna use my bathhouse?" asked Jaden.

Rei looked at Jaden, perplexed.

"Your bathhouse?" questioned Rei.

Jaden nodded.

A few moments later,

Jaden opened the door to her room and led Rei inside. Rei looked around the room in awe after Jaden flipped the switch and turned on the light. It was a modest-looking room with its own sense of style, which was that of nostalgia involving home. It was a decent size and bigger than the room they were previously in…obviously.

"What do you think of it?" asked Jaden.

"It's awesome!" said Rei. "Say…why are you rooming with Shou and Hayato if you have your own room?"

Jaden crossed her arms and held up her index finger.

"Because as Shou's Aniki, ignoring age, I have to be by his side at all times!" she said as a matter-of-factly.

Rei narrowed his eyes at Jaden. "Then why aren't you bathing with him?"

"Because I like my privacy!" said Jaden. "Don't you?"

Rei blinked and nodded. Good point…

The next morning in the Main Academy Building,

Osiris Reds, Ra Yellows, and Obelisk Blues lined up, facing a large, rectangular screen with Samejima's image on the monitor. Today was a day of commemoration worth noting, due to an upcoming event.

"Our yearly good-will duel with our sister-school, the Duel Academy's North Campus, is drawing near," announced Samejima.

Ryou stood out in the Obelisk Blue section, due to the spot light being on him…courtesy of the person with access to the lighting.

"Last year, our then Second-Year, Ryou Marufuji defeated the North Campus representative, bringing our campus victory," Samejima continued on.

Rei and Shou stood up in the front of the Osiris Red group, with Jaden just behind them. Rei diverted his gaze on Ryou, staring at the Obelisk Blue with what seemed to be admiration…at least, that's what Shou thought as he noticed the look on his roommate's face. Smiling, Shou cupped his hand around his mouth as he began to whisper into Rei's ear.

"Heh, that's my Nii-san!" Shou whispered.

A small, barely noticeable blush tinged Rei's cheeks momentarily as he turned to Shou. Shou, feeling a bit…proud, closed his eyes and smiled.

"He just had better grades than I did…" said Shou.

Jaden looked at Shou and smiled as she resisted the urge to ruffle his hair. He was obviously trying to make a good expression on Rei. That was adorable…

"Our campus representative for this year hasn't been decided upon yet, but…" said Samejima. "…keep putting in your daily great effort, everyone, so that any of you can be selected."

With that said, the screen went blank with Duel Academy insignia on it. Another announcement given, another job well done…

Jaden was very pumped up! She heard everything and she wanted in… And to do that, Jaden had to quick slacking off… It was going to be bothersome, considering she would have to do all her homework on time and stay awake during her exams… This was definitely going to prove troublesome, but for what it is worth…Jaden could deal with this.

The gender-mistaken girl popped out of line and came in between Rei and Shou. She had her fists tightened and a look of determination in her eyes. Yes, she was definitely going to be working harder from now on!

"All right!" exclaimed Jaden. "Who wouldn't work hard, aiming to be the representative?"

Shou crossed his arms and looked sternly at his Aniki. "As good as you are, Aniki, Kaiser Ryou's no doubt going to be chosen as this year's representative!"

Jaden puckered her lips as she frowned at Shou. Why…why does her dream have to always be killed? Let her have her moment, dammit!

"Tch…" she said, her eyes diverting to Rei.

Jaden blinked as she noticed that Rei was staring at Kaiser Ryou with a look in his eyes…what the heck? Did Rei want to duel Ryou, too? Speaking of which…Jaden had a date (A/N Not in that way!) with Ryou involving dueling. Oh, today was going to be fun…why? Because Ryou was the reason why Junko and Momoe haven't been able to find Jaden in three full days! It was a glorious feeling to not be discovered by those two…and it was also glorious not being put in girly clothing and covered in makeup.

"Excuse me, but I need to go," said Jaden. "I'll meet you guys back at the dorm, later, 'kay?"

Shou nodded and watched his Aniki make his-er, her… way out through the crowd. Even now, Shou still had trouble remembering that his Aniki is a girl, what with the pronouns she referred to herself as and the times she sometimes even said "ore" instead of "boku"… (3)

A few moments later,

Jaden stretched out her arms after making it into the hallway. She felt good because, right now, she was waiting for Ryou and there was no sign of—oh, god, no! Everything just went black and…oh, dear Ra…she just got dragged into a closet by Junko and Momoe, didn't she?

"I just got dragged into a closet by you guys, didn't I?" Jaden said, her expression blank as a light flashed on.

Junko and Momoe smiled at their gender-mistaken friend, having just flipped on the switch to the light. Momoe wrapped her arms around Jaden and embraced her friend tightly.

"Jaden-kun!" exclaimed Momoe. "You never told me you were meeting up with Ryou!"

Jaden blinked a few times and narrowed her eyes.

"It's supposed to be a secret…" said Jaden. "How did you guys find out?"

Junko crossed her arms and smirked as she held out her PDA with a certain website on it. "Reizo's blog."

Jaden blinked a few times and looked at the PDA, scowling when she saw that it was indeed Reizo's blog…wait? He had a blog? When was this? No matter…Jaden was too pissed that her personal life had just been exposed slightly!

"God dammit, Reizo!" exclaimed Jaden. "So…what are you going to do to me? Put me in a dress? Make-up…dare I say it, heels?"

Anything but the heels…and the cheongsam, because that is waaay to clingy on the body and Jaden despises clingy clothing.

Junko shook her head and replied, "No…quite the contrary. We're actually giving you an upgraded form of the female uniform. Custom made…also, quit using 'ore', use 'boku' if you want to be boyish."

Jaden huffed at Junko and looked away from the rufous-haired girl. Momoe just smiled and released Jaden as she bent down to pick up a bag. Jaden looked at the bag as a small bead of sweat rolled down the side of her face.

"I am not wearing the padded bra!"

Ten minutes later,

Jaden walked out of the closet, feeling somewhat violated by Junko, who was checking to see if she had, ahem…'grown' since the last time the rufous-haired girl saw her. At least the clothes she was wearing suited her clothing tastes.

No more short skirts, for once, much to Jaden's relief. The uniform was obviously custom made, as Junko already stated it. It also seemed to be modified version of the Obelisk Blue female uniform.

Jaden wore a pair of white shorts with a black, sleeveless shirt and a blue vest. She had on black stockings that went up to her mid thigh and a pair of shoes that resembled her usual pair, only instead of red and black…it was blue and black. Her deck belt was replaced with a slightly bigger one that had to be tied around her hips…twice. According to Momoe, it was just for style…which would explain the black, fingerless gloves she was wearing. All in all…Jaden actually liked this uniform! Though, she could actually do with a longer short length, but the fact that this wasn't as closefitting as the girl's uniform made it worth wearing. (4)

And the only type of makeup she had on was mascara… Thank Osiris for Junko forgetting to pack lip gloss!

"Now to find Kaiser Ryou…" Jaden said, turning around…only to find herself nearly face to face with Kaiser Ryou. "Speak of the devil…"

Ryou looked questioningly at Jaden, wondering if that was even her. Jaden looked actually normal for once, so much that Ryou was having a hard time figuring out which name to refer the Osiris Red by.

"Judai?" said Ryou.

Jaden blinked a few times and nodded. Well, this was slightly awkward…

"Junko and Momoe, again?" asked Ryou.

Jaden…Judai nodded and sighed as she grabbed onto Ryou's sleeve, tugging on it afterwards.

"Let's just get to the dorm, Kaiser…" said Judai. "You still have my backup clothes…right?"

Ryou began to walk alongside Judai as she continued to tug on his sleeve, ignoring every stare that he got as he walked by students. It was not worth paying attention to. And about that backup…well…

"In the wash," said Ryou.

Judai blinked and looked at Ryou wide-eyed. "What do you mean it's in the wash?"

Ryou diverted his eyes on Judai. "The cake incident…"

Judai blinked a few times and said, "Oh…right…forgot about that…wait, didn't I bring an extra pair?"

"You forgot," said Ryou. "Why don't I just let you borrow my clothes again?"

Judai huffed and let go of Ryou's sleeve as she stopped walking. She crossed her arms and looked at Ryou, whom stopped to see what was wrong.

"For your information, Kaiser," said Judai. "It's not that I don't appreciate your offer or anything, but as you can see…you're a fricken' giant when compared to me! Your legs are really long, and mine aren't…"

Ryou arched his brow at Judai, not seeing where she was going in her point.

"And your point is?" said Ryou.

Judai blinked a few times and tilted her head to the side in wonder.

"I…I forgot…" said Judai. "Let's…let's just forget about that…" (5)

With that said, Judai and Ryou began walking down the hallway again. After a few moments of silence, Judai turned to Ryou.

"But seriously, you are taller than me," said Judai.

"No, you're just short," said Ryou.

Judai blinked a few times and stopped walking again as she stared at Ryou. Ryou continued walking, not noticing Judai stopped… and, in fact, he didn't know Judai stopped at all. All he did know was how loud she was when she suddenly came running up to him, exclaiming, "Did you just make a joke?" (6)

Sometime later,

Judai carefully peered out from behind the wall into a hallway, looking to make sure the coast was clear. She nearly exclaimed when Ryou pulled her back; having seen a few Obelisk Blue students in the distance in the hallway opposite of the one Judai was looking into. Ryou pulled Judai behind himself and crossed his arms, trying to look casual as the Obelisk Blue students walked past him. As this happened, Ryou hoped deep down that Judai would not screw up her hiding place behind his back…accepting only one girl's chocolates on Valentine's Day was one thing as was inviting her to his dorm, but having people talk about it, was another.

This was actually the first time Ryou has ever invited a girl to his dorm and, seeing as it was the Kaiser Ryou Marufuji, Third-Year Obelisk Blue, whom had invited a girl to his dorm…talk about it would spread like a wildfire…especially with Reizo and Taniguchi doing the talking and confirming.

Taniguchi would make the matter sound more like a humorous factor as that is what he was known for. He'd probably make a mention about Ryou's sexuality or something. If Reizo was right by…dear, god, the possible innuendoes that could come out of his mouth…

Ryou had already heard from Daichi about it and seeing as Daichi had personal experience…

Dear Ra, those guys' infatuation with Judai was just bizarre…well, Reizo's was, Taniguchi already knew where the line was and refrained from crossing said line. He already knew the damage Judai could deal, and thus, infatuation changed to admiration…because Taniguchi found girls who were strong, cool…like Kaiser.

Reizo was pretty much ignorant and didn't even acknowledge the existence of the line and his infatuation with Judai just grew stronger with each hit, kick, and punch she threw at him. Moving on…

Judai stayed very still as she would rather avoid being spotted, now that Ryou seemed intent on keeping her hidden. She had no clue why Ryou wanted her to not be seen, but she could assume it had to do with the fact that she was the first girl he had ever invited into the Obelisk Blue dorms…not even Asuka got invited and for good reasons.

Thus, the two Obelisk Blues were limited to watching the sun rise from the pier by the lighthouse. There, Ryou and Asuka usually conversed about school life, dueling, and more dueling…and every once in a while, they would talk about Fubuki Tenjoin. The question about his whereabouts was still left unanswered…

Judai snapped out of her thoughts as an Obelisk Blue student greeted Ryou.

"Hey, Kaiser," he said.

Judai blinked and tensed up as she recognized that voice…her eyes widened as she carefully peered out from behind Ryou.

"Oh, god no…not them…" Judai thought as she spotted a very familiar Obelisk Blue with his right-hand man.

Dammit, it was Shuichi and Tadao …and they didn't look like they were walking away anytime now as they were too busy talking to Ryou…

"Damn it, Ryou!" thought Judai. "Why do you have to be so goddamn popula—AAHH!"

Ryou nearly exclaimed at Judai's sudden loud outburst, but stayed silent, though wide-eyed. Judai scared the living daylights out of him…and if it wasn't for her scream, then it might as well be the fact that she literally jumped a few feet off the ground and wrapped her arms and legs around his neck and waist (respectively)…tightly, especially around the neck. Ryou stayed calm as, even though Judai was clearly choking him (not much, but it was a bit of a bother…), there were matters much more important at stake…seeing as Judai just blew her cover.

Judai was breathing in and out heavily as her heart palpitated at a rapid pace…most obviously from shock. It wasn't her fault that she got startled by someone tapping on her shoulder… After a few seconds, Judai loosened her hold around Ryou's neck, having calmed down to a certain extent.

"Sorry about that, Kaiser, but I—I just gave myself away, didn't I?" said Judai.

Judai's expression went blank as she narrowed her eyes. Ryou just turned his head to look at Judai. He didn't have to say anything as the look in his eyes pretty much answered Judai's question.

"Frak…" said Judai.

"Judai…you're on me," said Ryou.

Judai blinked a few times and looked over herself. Ryou was right…she was on him and how the heck did she end up on his back? …oh, right! She was startled…

"Gah!" exclaimed Judai.

Ryou winced at the loud volume Judai shouted in…especially since she was close to his ear. Ryou rubbed his ear and wondered what caused Judai to scream…only for him to find out why as Shuichi's right hand man, Tadao, had said gender-mistaken girl in his hold. Tadao held Judai up in the air by the back of her shirt, looking at Ryou as he asked the Third-Year a question.

"Want me to get rid of this cross-dresser for you, Kaiser Ryou?" asked Tadao.

Ryou didn't have time to answer as Judai went ballistic at being held up off the ground in the air by the back of her shirt…like a little kid! She hated being picked up like that! And she was so not a cross-dresser! At least not in this uniform, which she already knew, was an modified version of the female uniform, courtesy of Junko and Momoe.

"Put me down, put me down!" Judai shouted as she flailed around. "Put me down, dammit! Gah! If you don't put me down right now, I'll—!"

Tadao held Judai in front of himself so the two were now face to face with each other. Judai clamped up as she stared Tadao right in the eye.

"Or what?" questioned Tadao.

Judai stayed oddly quiet for someone she had previously kicked down and sent into a wall. It was strange, even for her, as for the first time in many years…she was actually scared. Memories began to pop up in mind…memories of Judai, as a child, being bullied. Tadao reminded her of one of her bullies for some reason and…Judai's eyes widened at that realization. Tadao was one of her bullies!

Images of being held back by Tadao as other children proceed to punch and kick her popped up in Judai's mind. Back then, there was nothing she could do except stay still and take it. Locks of long, brown hair falling onto the floor flashed in Judai's eyes. Tadao had been the reason for her short hair…

Judai was beginning to hyperventilate, earning her a concerned stare from Ryou. He had never seen his brother's friend act like this…ever. It disturbed him to see someone he had seen as a strong person look so…vulnerable. Judai just looked so small and defenseless for once…it wasn't like her to be like this.

Tears began to weld up in the corners of Judai's eyes as she remembered one of her most traumatizing bullying experiences…when she took up baseball.

Tadao looked strangely at the Obelisk Blue student he held up. He had been really quiet after Tadao spoke to him and now…look at him. The guy was practically freaking out and…did his eyes just turn yellow?

"Put me down, you fucking idiot!" yelled Judai.

Ryou's eyes widened as Judai completely snapped. Never once had he seen Judai this angry before and this reckless—actually, scratch that, this was pretty much normal of her to do. Anger…not so much, but from what he knew…she was kind of scary when angry.

Tadao was highly offended with the tone Judai yelled at him and the name he called him! That's it! He was getting it! Just as Tadao was about ready to punch Judai…Judai beat him to it as she smashed her fist into Tadao's face. A sickening crack was made from the impact against Judai's fist on Tadao's face.

Shuichi felt déjà vu from just watching the whole scene. He knew from experience that Tadao's nose was broken as he heard the same sound before when that damn Osiris Red slugged him. It was like last time, only…it was an Obelisk Blue instead of an Osiris Red and this time, it was in front of the Kaiser and…did that Obelisk Blue's eyes just turned yellow? Weren't they brown a second ago?

Tadao immediately dropped Judai as he tried to tend to his broken nose. Judai stared wide-eyed at the black-haired Obelisk Blue. She backed away slowly before hiding behind Ryou, clutching onto the back of his jacket as she tried to figure out what just happened.

Jin and Shigeru ran to Tadao's side whilst Shuichi walked up to Ryou, trying to take a look at the Obelisk Blue student behind the Third-Year.

"Who is he?" asked Shuichi.

"First-Year Obelisk Blue, Judai," said Ryou.

Shuichi arched his brow. "Judai what?"

Ryou blinked and looked at Judai, seeing as the gender-mistaken student never did mention a decoy surname to use. Judai bit her lip and tried to think of one quickly, suddenly coming to a realization not long after. She whispered into Ryou's ear.

"Judai Kawai," said Ryou.

"Kawai…that's an unusual name," said Shuichi. "And Judai?"

Shuichi looked behind Ryou at Judai, whom quickly backed away. She was still getting over the fact that she blanked out after nearly having a panic attack, no thanks to Tadao…how did his nose get broken…? She had no idea, but assuming from the blood on her knuckles, it was her…

"I must've acted on a reflex…" thought Judai.

"And you might want to use your pronouns carefully," said Ryou. "Judai…is a girl, a boyish one, to be precise, but still a girl, nonetheless."

Immediately, this got Tadao's attention as he began to feel rather awkward, having just found out the student he was going to punch was female. Though, it made him feel even more awkward to know that a First-Year female student just punched and broke his nose.

Shuichi, on the other hand, just seemed a bit indifferent as he walked up to Judai. Judai, having calmed down…a bit, just glared at Shuichi. What did he want?

"Judai…chan?" said Shuichi.

THUD!

Judai punched her fist into the wall, ignoring the pain in her knuckles from the impact as she continued to glare at Shuichi. Shuichi knew that that meant to drop the "chan" as Judai didn't seem to like being called, "chan". So this was the same girl who gave him chocolate…she seemed so tomboyish, now…yet, the look suited her. Not as feminine like the last time he saw her, so it was a bit of an easy mistake to make involving Judai's gender.

"Judai-kun…thank you for the chocolates," said Shuichi.

Tadao blinked and looked agape at Judai. She was the same girl who knocked him down last time! Oh, boy…that just made things waaay more awkward…especially since he called her a cross-dresser. That was probably a low blow to her femininity…

Judai just turned her head and looked away. "Don't mention it…seriously, don't."

Shuichi just looked at Judai and then at Tadao. Maybe he should get Tadao out…his right-hand man did freak out the Obelisk Blue girl…

"C'mon, Tadao," said Shuichi. "Let's take you to Ayukawa-sensei…"

Tadao stared at Shuichi as he walked right by. Looking back at Judai, Tadao reluctantly followed after Shuichi. He still had a bone to pick with Judai…no one gets away with punching and breaking his nose and—

"Drop it, Tadao," said Shuichi. "You just called a female Obelisk Blue student a cross-dresser and freaked her out…and in turn, your nose got broken. Don't make it worse…"

Tadao looked at Shuichi and suppressed a groan wanting to leave his mouth. He sometimes hated it when Shuichi can read him like an open book…whatever. The girl wasn't worth it…hell! She didn't even deserve to be acknowledged as a female! Yeah, that's how he'd get back at her…

After a few moments, Ryou looked at Judai, Tadao and Shuichi having walked out of view.

"What happened?" asked Ryou.

Judai was looking down, her bangs covering her eyes. She was oddly quiet, but she was tightening her fists… Ryou arched his brow at the gender-mistaken girl and placed his hand under her chin. He tilted Judai's head up to get the girl to look at him. Ryou was taken aback at how Judai looked…

Tears were beginning to stream down Judai's cheeks, her teeth clenched together as she tried to keep herself from losing it. Ryou felt very strange at the sight of Judai trying to keep herself from crying… He tentatively reached for her shoulder and spoke to her.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

Of course, it was obvious she wasn't, but Ryou didn't know what to do at the moment…and he certainly did not know what to do when Judai suddenly lost it and started bawling. Ryou backed up a bit in recoil as he watched Judai crying, somewhat relieved that the Obelisk Blue dorms were pretty much deserted at this time. Even so, Ryou still felt very confused on what to do with this. He was used to seeing girls, cry…no thanks to their lovesick crushes and his rejections…

Ryou usually left the crying girls alone as he had better things to do and they could pretty much take care of themselves, he knew they weren't weak…albeit, emotionally fragile, but not weak. But this was Judai…Jaden Yuki, his brother's Aniki…he couldn't just leave her here like this. Ryou felt very confused, and still…he wanted to do something to get Jaden to stop crying, but what? He had no experience with girls whatsoever apart that Asuka and Jaden were really good duelists and…Asuka…she'd know what to do!

Luckily, for Ryou, his room was just ahead and his PDA had Asuka on speed-dial…why? Because ever since Fubuki went missing…yeah, and it also made it more convenient. So what was he going to do with Jaden, now…? Ryou blinked a few times and walked up to Jaden, who was still crying. She didn't seem like she was going to move anytime, now, so to speed things up…

Ryou looked around to make sure no one was in the vicinity before he did something he thought he'd never do anytime this early in life… He knelt down and picked Jaden up, cradling the upper part of her body with one hand and wrapping her legs over the other. Thus, no one shall ever know of the Legendary Princess-carrythat Ryou had used to take Jaden to his room. (7)

It shall also never be spoken of again, lest Ryou wanted Jaden to gain some jealous girls on her case…that happened to also be very violent. That would be bad because Jaden would get hurt physically (mentally, she was very strong, so insults didn't work much on her unless it involved a touchy subject) and if she got hurt, Shou would be concerned. And if Shou was concerned, he would go to Ryou and demand to know as to why his Aniki was being bullied by girls. Yeah, Shou was very protective of his Aniki as Hayato was his Imouto-chan (same person, different nicknames)…only not as aggressive.

After setting Jaden down on his bed, Ryou grabbed his PDA off the small dresser next to the side of his bed, right in the drawer where he kept his deck. Jaden was still crying and it was beginning to take a number on Ryou's heart. It felt like someone was punching him repeatedly in the chest...and someone just kicked him in the stomach. Gah, he can't take it anymore…

"Please, stop crying, for god's sake…" thought Ryou.

"Hello?" said a voice on the other line.

Ryou nearly let out a relieved sigh but decided to hold it in as he said, "Asuka…"

"Oh, Ryou!" said Asuka. "What is it and is someone crying? Ryou, did you reject another girl?"

Ryou sweat dropped. Now this was a tad bit awkward…but moving on, Ryou needed tips on how to get Jaden to stop crying. For the love of god, her cries were killing him! It was like that time he wasn't able to get to Shou on time before a group of bullies managed to get to him because of a grudge they held against Ryou. Because of that, Shou ended up with a black-eye, lost his two front teeth, and he was bawling his eyes out. It made Ryou feel oh, so irresponsible since he felt it was his duty to protect his little brother (aka, otouto).

"No, this is different…Judai had an encounter with Shuichi and Tadao," explained Ryou.

"Oh, so how did it go and how does this explain the crying girl?" asked Asuka.

Ryou placed his hand on his forehead. "Well…this crying girl is the result of her encounter with Tadao…"

"Oh, dear Ra, don't tell me…" said Asuka. "That crying girl, is…?"

"Jaden, herself," said Ryou. "Look, I need help…how do I get her to stop crying?"

"Look, just tell me what happened," Asuka said calmly. "Why is she crying?"

"I don't know, I thought you would know," said Ryou.

Asuka sighed and at that moment, Ryou could already see Asuka face-palming in his mind.

"Ryou, she was with you…how would I know?" asked Asuka. "You know what…forget it…try to comfort Jaden. That might work."

Ryou blinked a few times and looked at Jaden, arching his brow at her. How was he supposed to do that?

"How?" he asked.

Asuka resisted the urge to face-palm. Shou was right…Ryou's experience with girls was the exact opposite in comparison to his experience with rejecting girls. No, no, no…now is not the time to think about that, Jaden was still crying. Asuka sighed and shook her head.

"I don't know, hug her?" Asuka suggested, resisting the urge to snort at that suggestion.

Like Ryou would hug Jaden…pfft, now that's a funny thought! Really, it was. However…Ryou was known for doing unexpected things sometimes…like eating Jaden's chocolates.

Ryou just stared at Jaden, who was still crying…this has been going on for more than ten minutes, now. He was beginning to get worried and seeing as he didn't have anything other ideas, Ryou walked over to Jaden and did something very unexpected of him that even Shou wouldn't have expected (and that is very surprising)…he did as Asuka suggested he do (even though the suggestion was done on a whim…).

Jaden stopped crying for a few moments in shock as she tried to grasp the context of her current situation. Was the Kaiser hugging her?

"Is Kaiser hugging me?" thought Jaden.

Ryou stayed very quiet and still as the tension began to rise. It was getting thicker and thicker with every awkward second that once could probably use a knife to cut it. Though, on the hindsight, Jaden did stop crying and—

"WAAAGGHH!" yelled Jaden.

…Never mind. Now Jaden was hugging Ryou back…very tightly. She almost cracked his spine and now if anyone walked into his room, this scene would be very awkward. Why did he forget to lock the door?

"Ryou…what are you doing?" asked Asuka.

Crap…Ryou still had her on the line and now, with Jaden clinging onto his waist…how was he supposed to explain this? Well, at least it wasn't via video phone…

"…I'll call you back," Ryou said, turning off his PDA. "Now what to do with her…"

Ryou tried to pull Jaden off himself…gently, but to no avail. She had a good grip…well, nothing else to do but for Ryou to stay still and hope that Jaden either stopped crying and let go or probably exhaust herself to unconsciousness.

"This is going to take awhile," thought Ryou.

…

…

…

An hour had passed and it had turned out to be the latter when Jaden finally loosened her grip off of Ryou. She had passed out from exhaustion and was now asleep on Ryou's bed…after a few awkward moments of maneuvering Jaden off of himself, Ryou felt oddly vulnerable, now. He just heard his otouto's Aniki cry for a whole hour and he had no clue how to stop her or deal with it. Now he had to go do something to get rid of the lingering feeling in his heart.

Ryou might as well go before Reizo and Taniguchi barge into his room…Reizo knew how to get past the top lock, now! (8) Ryou sighed and made his way towards the door, looking over his shoulder to look at Jaden one more time before he left the room. Afterwards, it was just Jaden and the bed…alone…for about fifteen minutes until an Osiris Red student started to climb the tree just outside Ryou's window…what?

Rei Saotome grunted a bit as he climbed up the tree, making sure to looking around at his surroundings every few seconds as means of being secretive and inconspicuous…the latter being rather difficult due to his red uniform. He stuck out like a sore thumb wearing red in Obelisk Blue territory. Once the coast was clear, Rei continued onwards onto a sturdy branch close by the balcony with an opened door…who the hell leaves their door open? Well, didn't matter for Rei because it just made his job easier.

Rei hopped off the branch and onto the balcony, slowly making his way into the room. He looked around again for any signs of a presence that may blow his cover…so far, nothing. Good…he was now in Ryou Marufuji's room…the same Ryou Marufuji Third-Year Obelisk Blue, also known as Kaiser Ryou. Rei inwardly squeal at the fact and made his way towards the small dresser by the bedside of Ryou's bed.

Rei was very unaware of the unexpected guest in this room that was currently sleeping on Ryou's bed. He was currently too busy searching the drawers for something, stopping when he came across the object of his desire: Ryou's deck case.

Rei opened the deck case and took out a few cards, seeing the familiar Cyber Dragon. After a few moments of staring at them, Rei brought the deck to his cheek and closed his eyes. A light blush tinged his cheeks as he enjoyed the touch of Ryou's deck to his skin.

Rei was too much in ecstasy over the touch of Ryou's deck to hear or notice the slight movement on Ryou's bed, followed by the quiet yawn that came from Jaden as she sat up in bed. She rubbed the back of her head, wincing slightly as she felt a massive headache come on. Her eyes stung and were somewhat still moist. She rubbed her eyes as she tried to recollect what had happened prior to this…too bad her head decided to throb at this moment.

"Augh, my head…" Jaden groaned, clutching her head as she was unaware of the Osiris Red in the room.

It was at that point, Rei took notice that he wasn't exactly alone in the room. Rei looked around before diverting his gaze on Ryou's bed, dropping the deck onto the floor as he saw something that shocked him. Jaden was sitting on Ryou's bed and from the looks of it, he had been asleep…and what was with the current getup? Don't tell him…

"Jaden's a cross-dresser?" thought Rei.

Great, as if getting to Ryou was hard enough, now Rei had a rival…and it was the person he'd just finished making friends with! Rei had no idea how to react with this…in fact, neither did Jaden as he realized that he wasn't exactly alone either…and that this wasn't his room.

"Where am I?" asked Jaden. "Rei…? What are you…doing here?"

Rei's breath hitched as he looked at Jaden, somewhat annoyed.

"Tch, I should be asking you the same thing!" said Rei.

Jaden looked clueless at Rei as she rubbed her eye. "Huh…? Oh…I was supposed to be dueling Kaiser and…"

It was at that moment, Jaden's eyes snapped open and her drowsiness suddenly disappeared. Jaden looked at her surroundings, her hands tightened on the blanket covering her.

"This is Kaiser's room and…!" Jaden trailed off as she looked at the bed she was on. "I'm on Ryou's bed!"

Jaden immediately threw off the blankets covering her as she jumped out of bed, nearly falling onto the ground from the sudden movements she made after just waking up. Equilibrium was not with her just yet as her body had yet to acknowledge that, mentally, she was wide awake. As a result, Jaden didn't last long standing up and ended up topping onto the ground…but not without taking Rei with her! The sudden movement and landing caused Rei's hat to fall off as well as the hairclip that was hidden under said hat, having kept Rei's hair, pinned.

THUD!

Both Jaden and Rei landed on the floor, both now in a slight daze. After a few seconds of this, Jaden was the first to snap out of her daze and looked at Rei to see if the Osiris Red was all right. What she saw instead, surprised her…Rei had long hair.

"So that's what you kept under that hat," said Jaden. "What's wrong with having long hair, Rei?"

Rei snapped out of his daze and blinked, gasping when he noticed stray blue locks of his hair framing her face. He looked around and shrieked when he noticed his hat on the floor as well as his hairclip.

"Rei…?" asked Jaden. "Hello?"

Rei looked back at Jaden, wondering what he thought now that his (Rei's) secret was out.

…

…

…

"I'm gonna ask again," said Jaden. "What's wrong with having long hair?"

Rei blinked a few times as he stared at Jaden. Did he not know of Rei's secret? Did he not realize Rei wasn't really a…Didn't the long hair give it away?

"Okay, I know the long hair makes you look like a girl," said Jaden. "But don't worry about it, you're not the only guy in this Academy that has long hair…just look at Daitokuji-sensei!"

Rei looked at Jaden and sighed in relief…his secret was still safe…now that that was out of the way… "Jaden, why are you cross-dressing?"

Jaden blinked a few times and narrowed her eyes at Rei.

"I'm not…oh, shit," Jaden cursed, her eyes widening as she heard familiar voices just outside the door. "You need to get out of here quick!"

Jaden stood up from the floor and pulled Rei with her. Rei was confused with how Jaden was acting towards him, it was only until he realize what made Jaden worry when he heard talking in the distance…that was getting closer and louder as it approached the door to this room.

"Look, Rei…you have to get out of here!" said Jaden. "They might think you're a spy from the North what with the upcoming school duel! Go! Don't worry about me, I'll be the distraction if you don't have time, now move!"

Jaden pushed Rei towards the balcony door, hoping with all her heart that Rei understood. Rei did, but before complying with Jaden's request, Rei dashed back to pick up his hat. Afterwards, he made his way towards the balcony door.

Laughter was heard just outside the room and Rei's jacket had caught on the door handle. Rei and Jaden's eyes widened in shock as they could already hear the key sliding into the keyhole. Rei tugged on his jacket, trying his hardest to free himself so he could escape via balcony. Jaden's breath hitched as she knew that Rei wouldn't make it in time. Looking around the room quickly, she spotted one of Ryou's jackets and shirts and a plan suddenly popped into mind.

Jaden narrowed her eyes at the thought of the plan because it meant embarrassment for her, but a failsafe way for Rei to escape unnoticed.

"You owe me an explanation for what I'm about to do, Rei!" said Jaden.

Rei looked at Jaden questioningly as he frantically tugged on his jacket. "What does he mean about that?"

Rei immediately discarded that thought as he focused his attention on the door handle and his jacket. Crap! How did it end up like this? It would be better if he took off his jacket, but it was already hard enough WITH the jacket to keep his disguise up! Curse the growth that was involved with adolescence! Rei could have really done without it at this point…

Meanwhile with Jaden,

Jaden grabbed a black t-shirt out of Ryou's dresser and ran by the bedside, setting the t-shirt on top of the bed's mattress. A small bead of sweat rolled down the side of Jaden's face as she took off her vest and dropped it down onto the floor. Her breath hitched as her hands gripped the ends of her tank-top. Jaden swallowed her pride…literally, making an audible gulp as she took off her tank-top.

"Now or never!" Jaden thought as she pulled the garment over her head.

Jaden's face was now burning red as she was nearly topless, save for the black sports bra she wore. Jaden really hated herself for this, but if it's to save her roommate, god dammit! She was willing to make the sacrifice!

Jaden dropped the tank-top and used her foot to push the vest and it under the bed. Once they were out of place, by that time, the door was beginning to open. Rei had just managed to free himself of the doorknob, however, he still had to make it out of the room…and get over his shock once his gaze was focused on Jaden.

Jaden looked over at Rei as she picked up the black t-shirt, her face contorting into a scowl as she hissed, "Get out!"

It was there, at that moment, the door was now open and the first thing anyone who opened the door saw, was a nearly topless Jaden, who appeared to be putting on a black t-shirt. Ryou hoped that Jaden at least woke up by now…he had tried his hardest to keep Reizo and Taniguchi from entering the room quickly by slowly (and by slowly, I mean slowly (9)) opening the door.

Taniguchi just froze into a statue, his mouth agape in shock. Reizo's jaw literally dropped at the sight he saw, which caused Jaden's expression to change from embarrassment to disgust. It was at that moment, to ensure Rei's escape (Rei had just snapped out of it), Jaden forced herself to let out the most girliest, high-pitched shriek she could make.

"KYAAAAAAAAA!" shrieked Jaden.

Ryou immediately reacted to that shriek by pulling Reizo and Taniguchi out of the doorway and throwing them into the hallway. Ryou then ran into his room and slammed his door shut, making sure to lock it before turning to Jaden…which he immediately regretted doing so as he came to see what had caused Jaden to shriek.

Ryou covered his eyes with his hand and turned away from Jaden, not caring once that he wasn't facing Jaden to take his hand off his eyes. He was not risking it… Jaden was nearly topless, save for the sports bra she wore…dammit! He knew what type of bra she was wearing now!

"Jaden, would you care to explain why you're not wearing a shirt?" asked Ryou.

Jaden didn't answer Ryou's question as she pulled on his t-shirt, her face still red with pure embarrassment. She would never live this one down…especially since Reizo and Taniguchi saw…

"I'd…rather not talk about it right now," Jaden said, the top half of her face now turning blue.

Jaden was beyond embarrassment…she was mortified beyond recognition…at least, to herself. Ryou…not so much as he, himself, was flustered. His first time seeing a half-naked girl and it's the girl he respected and acknowledged as both a duelist and his otouto's Aniki…

If Shou ever found out…oh, if he ever found out…

"Please don't ever mention this to anyone…" Jaden said, her voice nearly cracking. "I feel…violated…"

That reminded Ryou…

Ryou removed his hand off his eyes and walked over to the door to unlock it. He exited the room a few moments afterwards (closing the door behind him) to have a little talk with Reizo and Taniguchi. The three of them might never forget the scene they just saw, but Ryou would be damned if he let them blab about it! Forget his reputation (he could save that later since he had a lot of people to back him up)! Jaden was just ogled at by a pair of guys while she was changing her shirt!

Jaden even sounded like she was near her breaking point and with today's earlier incident…Jaden needed all the help she could get. Ryou might as well make up for hearing her cry for an hour by threatening Reizo and Taniguchi to keep this incident secret…

Or else…

One lecture later,

Reizo and Taniguchi were trembling with fear by now after hearing Ryou talk to them in a voice they never thought could be so cold and harsh.

"If I ever hear of this incident from anywhere, including you two…" Ryou said coldly, his expression stoic. "I will hunt you down, no matter where you go… I will kill you…with my bare hands, if I have to…right after torturing you into insanity, smashing them,and then ripping them off." (10)

Reizo and Taniguchi weren't able to suppress a whimper that came out of their mouths.

"Do I make myself clear?" Ryou questioned in a voice that demanded an immediate response.

Reizo and Taniguchi rapidly nodded their heads in response, both exclaiming in squeaky voices, "Yes!"

Ryou stared at the two for a full minute, letting the tension rise…

…

…

…

"Get out of my sight," Ryou said darkly.

Reizo and Taniguchi didn't hesitate at all, whatsoever to leave Ryou as they ran down the hallway. Ryou watched as the two disappeared down the hallway before letting out a puff of air. He turned around and faced the door to his room. He waited a few moments before walking in, making sure beforehand that Jaden wasn't shirtless this time by asking. After receiving the word from Jaden, Ryou walked in and close the door behind him.

Jaden, who was currently sitting on Ryou's bed, seemed to have recovered from her ordeal, only because she overheard a bit of Ryou's threatening lecture to Reizo and Taniguchi. Even so, she was still a bit flustered over it. Ryou walked over to Jaden and stopped right in front of the brunette.

"Tell me…what were you doing?" asked Ryou. "And…why is my deck on the floor?"

Jaden's expression immediately went from nervous to plain out anxious. She stuttered a few times before diverting her gaze on the balcony door.

"Well, you see…I better get going!" Jaden said, standing up.

Moments after hopping off the bed, Jaden was about to make her way towards the balcony to escape and avoid answering Ryou's question…except that Ryou wasn't going to let Jaden just go.

"Wah!" exclaimed Jaden.

Ryou had just pushed Jaden back onto his bed. Jaden landed flat on Ryou's bed, somewhat shocked with the sudden action and perplexed with what caused Ryou to act like this. It took Jaden a few moments to realize that she was face-to-face with Ryou…and that Ryou was straddling her. He held himself up by placing his knees and hands on either side of her, his expression showing that he was obviously not amused with her attempt to avoid the question.

"Uh…?" Jaden said as a small bead of sweat rolled down the side.

Jaden could feel her heart beating faster within her chest. The look on Ryou's face scared her…and crap! She was trapped! Oh, god…what…what was he going to do? Jaden knew what Ryou was possible of after hearing his threatening lecture and…oh god, no… Jaden's eyes widened in fear.

"Oh, god, don't kill me!" exclaimed Jaden. "I don't wanna die!"

Ryou blinked a few times as he looked down at Jaden and sweat dropped. He was glad he locked the door, if not…the person who might've walked in would take this current situation the wrong way, what with the somewhat compromising position he and Jaden were in.

"Jaden…I'm not going to kill you," said Ryou. "I just want an explanation and seeing as this managed to keep you from escaping…and you using your self-defense on me, sorry for this…"

Jaden just stared at Ryou, wide-eyed. "Please get off me…"

"Not until you answer my question," said Ryou. "You nearly broke down again because those two saw you in your sports bra—"

"How did you know it was a sports bra?" asked Jaden.

Ryou scowled at Jaden as he somehow managed to suppress a blush that wanted to tinge his cheeks. "That's beside the point. I'm not getting off you until you answer me…kick me and I'll tell Daitokuji-sensei about the balcony jump."

Jaden clenched her teeth and groaned. "Why is everyone using that against me? It was just a simple jump! I could easily do the same with this balcony!"

"No, you cannot," said Ryou. "Unlike the girl's Obelisk Blue Dorm, there is no lake."

"I'll punch you if you don't get off me," said Jaden.

Too bad Ryou decided to pin Jaden's hands above her head at that moment. That pretty much made Jaden's threat very useless.

"You were saying?" said Ryou.

Jaden scowled at Ryou, who looked somewhat amused.

"You know you're making this harder than it should be," said Ryou. "I'll get off you once you tell me why my deck…is on the ground…and why were you putting on one of my shirts when you and I both know, that you were wearing a shirt earlier?"

Jaden's eye twitched slightly with Ryou's very assertive behavior. She never knew the guy could be like this…it kinda bugged her.

"I-It's a long story," said Jaden. "I'm sure you wouldn't want to hear it, it's quite…boring."

Ryou lowered his face to Jaden's and said, "Try me."

He was dead right serious…he wasn't going to take no for an answer! The Kaiser wanted an explanation! At that moment, Jaden felt something within her snap.

"You're acting out of character, Kaiser!" exclaimed Jaden. "Don't make this scene anymore awkward!" (11)

Ryou arched his brow at Jaden, who was currently ranting.

"I'm having a hard time trying to think of an excuse to why your deck was on the floor!" Jaden said, admitting she was planning on making up an excuse. "I seriously don't know why it's there because when I woke up, it was already on the ground! My roommate was in your room for some odd reason and I had to help him out to avoid you, Reizo, and Taniguchi catching him!"

Jaden's eyes widened as she gasped, just realizing that she just blurted out pretty much everything that she wanted to keep secret. So much for her sacrifice…now that was in vain…

"What was that?" asked Ryou.

A small bead of sweat rolled down the side of Jaden's face as she quickly said, "Nothing!"

"Jaden, I'm not falling for that," said Ryou. "Your roommate…why was he in my room?"

"I don't know!" wailed Jaden. "I just woke up and he was just there! Now let me go! I'm just an innocent bystander who just got thrown into the whole situation by trying to keep my roommate from being caught! Waaah!"

Ryou blinked a few times and sighed. It took Jaden up until now for her to just give a simple answer…really, now?

"You're really stubborn, you know?" said Ryou. "Okay, one last question…"

Jaden blinked a few times and narrowed her eyes at Ryou.

"Get off me, or I'll scream," Jaden said darkly. "I'll do it…I'll even charge you for harassment!"

Ryou sweat dropped at that statement. "Do you even have proof?"

…

…

…

"Shit," swore Jaden. "I hate you…"

"Well, I don't necessarily hate you," said Ryou. "But I wouldn't say that I like you, either…it's more respect than like. You take care of my younger brother and look after him…that's enough to earn my respect and, by the way…thank you for being his surrogate older brother."

Jaden blinked and laughed nervously as she said, "About that…"

Ryou arched his brow at Jaden. "Go on…"

"He's actually older than me…" said Jaden. "My birthday is at least five months away…I mixed up my own birthday with my mom's."

"I don't think that changes your role as Shou's Aniki, much," said Ryou. "You already ignore your own gender, now it's your own age…you really are one interesting person."

Jaden let out a puff of air and looked at Ryou. "So…what was it that you wanted to ask me?"

"Tadao…what happened between you and him?" asked Ryou. "You freaked out…that's very unlike you."

Jaden scowled at Ryou…what did he know?

"Shut up!" snapped Jaden. "You don't know me!"

Ryou was taken aback with Jaden's outburst, but kept his composure. He just looked at Jaden and sighed.

"You're right…I don't know you," said Ryou. "…which is why I'm asking you to enlighten me. Tell me what I don't know about you that you want me to know."

"Can you give me back my hands, first?" asked Jaden.

Ryou blinked and nodded as he released his grip on Jaden's hands. Jaden sighed and rubbed her wrists…Kaiser sure had a strong grip…and he was only using one hand!

"Is he really that strong…or am I just small?" thought Jaden. "Okay, now can you get off me?"

"No," said Ryou. "You still haven't told me…"

Jaden let out an aggravated groan.

A few moments later,

"Bullied?" Ryou repeated, somewhat confused.

Jaden nodded. "I was bullied as a kid…"

"That explains the self-defense…" said Ryou.

"It does…" said Jaden. "You know Tadao? He was one of my childhood bullies and the only one I had yet to confront because he moved away, for various reasons involving me. He would hold me back as the rest of my bullies proceeded to hit me…"

Ryou blinked and decided now was a good time as any to finally get off of Jaden…which he did. Jaden sat up moments afterwards, but showed no interest in taking the chance to escape. All she did was look down and hugged herself. Ryou could tell she wasn't comfortable with this, but that didn't stop her from continuing.

"I used to have long hair as a kid," said Jaden.

"What happened?" asked Ryou.

Jaden inhaled and exhaled. "Tadao had a pair of scissors and cut my hair…I couldn't do anything about it… From that day on, I decided to never let my hair grow out…over the years, I grew to like my haircut, so I never let it grow…even after he moved away."

"What happened?" asked Ryou. "Why did he have to move away?"

Jaden blinked and looked down as she brought her right knee to her chest. She propped her chin onto her knee as she wrapped her arms around her right leg.

"You see this leg?" asked Jaden. "Have I ever told you that I knew Kouyou Hibiki?"

Ryou was slightly surprised to hear about Jaden's affiliation with the three-time Duel Monsters Champion.

"Yes, that Kouyou Hibiki, if you're wondering," said Jaden. "I met him in the hospital I was staying in when I broke my right leg playing baseball. I guess…I would have to at least thank Tadao for that…"

Ryou arched his brow at Jaden. "Why?"

"I wouldn't have taken up an interest in Duel Monsters…" said Jaden. "…if I hadn't met Kouyou Hibiki in the hospital…"

Ryou's eyes widened in shock when he heard Jaden say, "I would have never met Kouyou Hibiki…if Tadao had not broken my leg."

"What happened?" asked Ryou.

Jaden blinked a few times and let out a puff of air. "I took an interest in baseball when I was in elementary school. I would usually play it with my friends…I was their pitcher. When I got roped into joining the school team…that's when everything went wrong."

Ryou arched his brow at Jaden. "Hold on…how did you join the team if you're a girl?"

Jaden laughed awkwardly as she rubbed the back of her head.

"Remember how I managed to get registered into Duel Academy as a male student?" asked Jaden. "Ehehe…that gender mishap involving the unfilled box…"

"They filled that out for you and everyone thought you were male?" said Ryou.

Jaden grinned and pumped her fist into the air. "Bingo!"

"From what I know from Asuka, it was definitely not the first time…right?" asked Ryou.

Jaden blinked and lightly scratched the side of her head with her index finger.

"Actually, that was around one of the first times it began," said Jaden. "I think my Elementary School registration was the first."

A small bead of sweat rolled down the side of Ryou's face. "I get the feeling your father is to blame for that…"

Jaden blinked and glared at Ryou. "Hey! Don't bring my father into this! It's not his fault he was busy trying to support me after becoming a single parent! I'm all he has left…"

Ryou looked at Jaden, noticing her now somber expression. "What happened to your mother?"

Jaden ran her hand through her hair and sighed. "I…rather not talk about it…so, where was I?"

"You were telling me about getting roped into your Elementary School's baseball team…"

Jaden blinked and nodded. "That's right! I started getting bullied when I became the team's pitcher!"

Jaden crossed her arms and closed her eyes as she let out a puff of air. "Jealous punks…"

Ryou arched his brow at Jaden. "How…old were you?"

Jaden opened one eye at Ryou and replied, "Seven."

While Ryou's expression didn't show it, there was no doubt that the Kaiser was shocked.

"That young?" questioned Ryou.

Jaden looked at Ryou and frowned. "Don't judge me!"

"I'm not," said Ryou. "I'm just saying isn't that a little too young?"

Jaden closed her eyes and crossed her arms. "I'll have you know that the coach didn't give a damn about that…Though it did give part of the team a reason to pick on me…and I did have the unfortunate luck to have gotten the position Tadao wanted…"

"So all this over a stupid pitching position?" asked Ryou.

"May I remind you that this was back in Elementary School?" questioned Jaden. "Children are prone to do at least one stupid thing in their whole life."

Ryou blinked and recalled the incident with Shou and Power Bond. "You have a point there."

Jaden nodded her head and added, "I just had the unfortunate luck of receiving the bad end of that stupidity…bullying. I got pelted with baseballs, got one pitched into my stomach by the pitching machine, and got beat up after practice once everyone left…"

"Where was your father?" asked Ryou.

"Looking for a job…" said Jaden. "Stop bringing him in! It wasn't his fault! I was the one who kept it from him because I didn't want to get pulled out of baseball! Let's move on and after this…I'm going back to my dorm…at least, can I, Kaiser?"

Ryou nodded and replied, "You already answered most of my questions and you pretty much filled me in certain aspects of your life. I'd say this is a good start in getting to know you better."

Jaden clasped her hands together and smiled. "Great! Let's be friends."

"Don't get smart with me," said Ryou.

"My bad…" Jaden said, laughing nervously afterwards. "But seriously, let's be friends…we've known each other, for like, what? A few days now…we talk a lot during our duels…"

"That reminds me…we're going to have to reschedule our duel," said Ryou. "No thanks to today's earlier incident."

Jaden turned away from Ryou in a huff. "My bad for breaking down thanks to a childhood tormentor who broke my leg by throwing a baseball at it!"

"Explain," said Ryou.

"Well, we were only a few games into the season," Jaden began. "It was during practice or something, whatever it was…Tadao had finally snapped and threw a baseball at my leg, which by the way, hurt like hell."

"So Tadao broke your leg with a baseball?" said Ryou.

"If that didn't do it, then it was the landing I had when I fell into a ditch behind me after getting hit," said Jaden. "All I know is that I have to thank Tadao for setting up the chain of events that got me to meet Kouyou Hibiki and take up an interest in Duel Monsters…okay, enough about me! Next time we meet for a duel, it's your turn to open up!"

"We'll see about that," said Ryou.

Ignoring Ryou, Jaden hopped off his bed and walked over to the balcony door. Ryou diverted his eyes on Jaden and cleared his throat, hoping to catch the Osiris Red's attention…he did.

"The door's over there, Jaden," said Ryou.

Jaden blinked and laughed as she rubbed the back of her head.

"R-Right!" she said.

Jaden turned around and made her way towards the door. Ryou just looked at her and shook his head.

"Sorry about everything!" said Jaden. "I didn't mean for today to end up like this!"

Ryou just closed his eyes and shook his head as Jaden left the room.

Today had definitely been…an interesting day…

Asuka was going to be hearing about this, seeing as she most likely wanted to know why Jaden was crying.

"I should pick up my deck off the floor, first," said Ryou.

A few moments after getting of his bed, Ryou arched his brow at what he found on the floor right next to his deck and a few scattered cards. It was a hairclip with a cutesy animal design on it…how peculiar…

Ryou was definitely going to have to have a meeting with Asuka at lighthouse, seeing as it was better to meet up then just talk over it via PDA. He had to show her this hairclip in person…(12)

Later…IN THE TOOLSHED!

A/N Okay, there! I said it! Narrator wants his watermelon, pronto! DX

Rei had just made his way back to the Osiris Red dorm sometime after thinking over today's incident involving Jaden. He was sure his eyes weren't deceiving him when he saw that Jaden was wearing a bra, which meant!

"Jaden is a pervert…" thought Rei. "But why a sports bra?"

You'd think someone who cross-dresses would go for something lacy and stylish when it came to undergarments…but a sports bra? If Rei didn't know any better, Jaden wasn't actually a boy at all, but just a very tomboyish girl. Rei snorted at the thought.

"Pfft, as if!" thought Rei. "Huh? It's open…"

Rei had expected to have come to a locked door when he stopped in front of Jaden's room. Meaning…

"I could take a bath, now!" thought Rei.

Rei wanted to get that over with, right now! The faster he took a bath, the better…at least, in his opinion, especially since he just landed in a muddy puddle moments after getting down the tree, having barely escaped. That was seriously too close…

Meanwhile in the bathhouse,

Jaden was currently scrubbing her hair as she sat on a small stool within her bathhouse, just in front of the water faucet.

"Stupid mud puddle…" she muttered.

Jaden ended up falling into a mud puddle when she ended up tripping over a tree root on the way back to the Osiris Red dorms. Luckily for her, at least this was better than falling into a thorn bush. Jaden shuddered at the memory before reaching for the bucket next to her. She set the bucket under the tap and turned on the hot water faucet, waiting a bit before turning it off and turning on the cold water faucet to balance out the temperature of the water. Afterwards, Jaden closed her eyes and inhaled deeply before dumping the bucket of water over her head, washing off the shampoo in her hair.

Jaden shook her head afterwards as she let out a, "Fwaa!"

That felt good…now what to do when Ryou finds out she managed to stain his shirt…

"Gah, I'll deal with that later," said Jaden.

With that said, Jaden stood up from her seat and grabbed the towel hanging on the rack on the wall. She had just wrapped the towel around herself, tying a small knot to the side to keep it in place when, suddenly, the door slid open and lo and behold, there was Rei, holding a towel to his chest.

Jaden and Rei stared at each other, neither saying anything as a moment of mutual silence ensued.

Meanwhile…WITHIN THE TOOLSHED!

Shou and Hayato had been dueling each other in the past hour. So far, Hayato was having trouble getting past Shou's Vehicroid deck.

"Honestly, flat-chest makes defeating you look easy," said Hayato.

Shou blinked a few times and scowled at Hayato. "Oi!"

At that moment, a pair of high-pitched girly shrieks suddenly penetrated through the somewhat thick walls of the dorm, scaring the crap out of Hayato and Shou as it shrieked, "KYAAAAAAAAAAHHH!"

"Aagh!" exclaimed Shou.

THUD!

Hayato fell onto his back from the shock. He blinked a few times and said, "What's going on? What's with the girly shriek?"

DOT DOT DOT…

Girly shriek…

Realization hit both Shou and Hayato like a truck as they realized that their roommate was female. And the shriek seemed to have come from Jaden's room, possibly meaning…

"Aniki!" Shou exclaimed as he immediately got off the ground and ran out of the room like a madman.

Hayato followed soon after, yelling out, "Jaden!"

Hayato found Shou pounding on Jaden's door, having found the door to the room, locked.

Back in the bathhouse,

After getting over the shock and finding out that Rei had one hell of a girly voice when he wanted to, Jaden blinked a few times as she stared at Rei and noticed something…

Rei had curves…and not just any typical curves, but feminine curves…which meant!

"You're a girl?" exclaimed Jaden.

Jaden took the words right out of Rei's mouth and due to the shock of realizing that first person who not only uncovered his, or rather, her secret…also had one.

"You didn't know?" asked Rei. "Didn't the long hair give it away?"

"Long hair does nothing!" Jaden countered. "And is this something Daitokuji-sensei was meaning to tell me?"

"You?" asked Rei. "What about me? You…you're a girl?"

"According to my fixed registration form of this school…I'm female, so yeah," said Jaden. "Used to be male, but a call from my father fixed that at day one…same with you?"

A small bead of sweat rolled down the side of Rei's face as she lightly scratched her cheek with her index finger.

"Uh…" she said.

THUD!

Rei and Jaden nearly screamed at the sudden noise that seemed to be coming from the door… The two peered out of the doorway into the room, their gaze focused on the door…which was currently being banged on…or rather, being kicked.

KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!

"Aniki!" yelled Shou's voice.

KNOCK!

"Jaden!" yelled Hayato's voice. "What's going on? I'm gonna kick this door down if you don't say anything!"

Jaden's eyes widened at that statement as she looked at Rei, who was wide-eyed as well.

"They can't find out I'm a girl!" said Rei. "Not yet!"

Jaden blinked a few times as she stared at Rei, her attention diverting back on the door when she noticed the force against it seemed to have increased. Stuttering a bit, Jaden pushed Rei into the bathhouse and closed herself out, which, at that current moment, the door was knocked down onto the floor.

Shou and Hayato barged right into the room, not caring once about Jaden's privacy just yet as they were concerned with why Jaden screamed.

"Aniki, are you all right?" asked Shou.

Hayato nodded as he added, "We heard a… scream?"

Hayato trailed off as he and Shou noticed that their female roommate wasn't exactly dressed appropriately, as she was just wearing a towel. Jaden stared at her roommates wide-eyed, her hands still on the doorknob on the door that Rei was currently behind wearing a perplexed expression on her face.

Jaden's face burned red as she let out yet another high-pitched, girly shriek that topped the other two shrieks she let out today. It was enough to have been heard throughout the island as the sound echoed out.

"KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!" shrieked Jaden.

Shou and Hayato's face were as red as Jaden's as they tried to grasp the context of the situation. They just knocked down Jaden's door and walked in on their towel-clad female roommate…

"Oh, shit!" yelled Hayato.

"Oh, shit" was right! Before Shou and Hayato could do anything, someone ran by them, pushing them apart to get by to see what was wrong with the situation. It was Daitokuji…and he was very concerned with the shrieks he just heard. Not even a second had passed before Daitokuji had figured out the reason for this whole ordeal…unfortunately, he saw.

Daitokuji face turned red as he backed up a few steps, but he kept his composure as he turned to Shou and Hayato.

"Marufuji-kun!" he exclaimed. "Maeda-kun! What have I told you about sexually harassing your female roommate!"

Oh, Daitokuji was definitely angry…one, Jaden's door was knocked down and two, Hayato and Shou just barged in on Jaden while she was in…in…this. Daitokuji wasted no time in dragging Hayato and Shou out the room. Afterwards, he picked up the door and placed it back to where it as, adjusting it a few times so it wouldn't fall back down so easily.

Jaden stared at the door, agape. She had no idea that Daitokuji was able to get so angry! But on the hindsight…Jaden exhaled and fell onto her knees, somewhat relieved that that was over with… I mean, it could have been worse…her towel could have fallen off.

"Why did I just think that…?" Jaden thought as she rubbed the back of her head.

"Are you okay?" asked Rei.

Jaden opened one eye to look at a towel-clad Rei, who was standing under the doorway, having just opened the door.

"You look…flustered," said Rei.

Jaden closed her eye and sighed. "My friends and sensei just saw me wearing nothing but a towel…you do the math."

Rei's face turned red as she stuttered. "S-S-Sorry!"

Jaden waved her hand at Rei. "That's okay…I'll get over it eventually. By the way, you really owe me an explanation! I took a risk keeping your gender secret by locking you in the bathhouse! The door was knocked down moments afterwards!"

Rei's eyes widened as she just realized that Jaden helped her out yet again. "T-Thank you!"

Jaden just nodded.

"Yuki-kun!" Daitokuji's voice called out.

Jaden and Rei turned to the door across the room.

"What happened-nya?" asked Daitokuji's voice.

Jaden blinked a few times, her eyes widening as she exclaimed, "Oh, not—oh my god! There is a huge spider in my bathhouse!"

Outside Jaden's room,

Daitokuji nodded at the answer, having found some sense as to why Jaden was screaming. The spiders on Duel Academy Island were rather huge… Jaden probably had arachnophobia or some type of it that made her freak out around spiders. Considering how big the spiders were on this island (as mentioned before), it would make anyone freak out if they just found one crawling around their bathhouse.

Daitokuji turned to face his currently red-faced students, Hayato Maeda and Shou Marufuji.

"Knocking down Yuki-kun's door…" said Daitokuji.

"We were just worried about Aniki…" Shou said sheepishly.

Hayato nodded in agreement. Daitokuji looked at Shou and Hayato, sighing and crossing his arms.

"Don't ever let it happen again-nya," said Daitokuji. "Do you have any idea what would happen if Yuki-kun's father found out about this?"

Hayato and Shou looked at each other before looking back at Daitokuji, both shrugging.

"He has connections…" said Daitokuji. "You would most likely have been taken to court for that-nya. Now that you know…knock first, wait for an answer, and then knock down the door. Understand-nya?"

Hayato and Shou nodded their heads. They were probably not going to live this one down…but if Hayato managed to somehow forget the incident involving his Imouto-chan not wearing a bra, he might forget about this incident…one of these days.

"Oh, if you so happen to make a flat-chest comment aimed towards Yuki-kun after this during the week, Maeda-kun…" said Daitokuji. "You'll be seeing me in detention for sexual harassment. I know you're just acting like an older brother to her, but after this, it would now be considered harassment-nya. Wait a few days…a week or two, before going back to that nickname."

Hayato didn't hesitate to nod at that statement. He knew Daitokuji could be very vengeful, having heard the rumors about the Obelisk Blue students who beat up Jaden. Let's just say, Daitokuji gave them hell in detention…

Back in the room,

Rei and Jaden listened carefully, both letting out a loud sigh in relief once Daitokuji, Hayato, and Shou had left.

"Thank you, Jaden…" said Rei. "You've done so much for me today…I don't know how to repay you."

Jaden was still looking wide-eyed at something that seemed to be behind Rei. Rei arched her brow at Jaden.

"What's wrong?" asked Rei.

"I wasn't kidding about that spider…" Jaden said, her voice almost shaky.

A cold shiver when up Rei's spine as she slowly turned around, her hands going to her mouth as she muffled a shriek at the sight of a huge spider in the corner of the ceiling. Dear Ra, Jaden was right about the spider…it was huge, about the size of their hand, at least. Suddenly, the spider moved to the left a bit, causing Jaden and Rei to both let out a moderately frightened shriek.

"Eww, it moved!" exclaimed Rei.

Rei ran out of the doorway, behind Jaden. The two backed up as the spider crawled down the ceiling…and made its way towards them!

"God damn irony!" shouted Jaden. "Where's my shoe?"

Rei hid behind Jaden, her hands gripping the brunette's shoulders. "Don't let it near me!"

"Let me go and I can go kill it!" said Jaden.

Rei shook her head.

"But I'm…scared!" said Rei. "Well…I'm more disgusted at how—oh, god, eww! It moved again!"

Jaden wasn't necessarily frightened of spiders…she was just grossed out with how creepily they moved. Rei seemed to share this trait with her…

"Let me get my shoe…" said Jaden. "The sooner I kill that thing, the better!"

"Eww, eww, eww, it moved again!" shrieked Rei.

"Get back here, dammit!" yelled Jaden. "I just want to smash you!"

One grossed out, freak out moment and a dead, smashed spider later,

"Care to explain to me why you're washing my hair?" asked Rei.

"Because it's long," Jaden said as a matter-of-factly.

Rei narrowed her eyes as Jaden continued to run her fingers gently through her long, blue hair, working the shampoo into a rich lather. Rei could tell Jaden was enjoying this by the manner the brunette was treating her hair.

"Okay, now spill," said Jaden. "I already told you that you owe me an explanation."

A small bead of sweat rolled down the side of Rei's face.

Elsewhere,

Ryou waited patiently by the lighthouse, staring out at the horizon as the sun began to set. The sky began to darken as sun soon disappeared beyond the horizon. It was at that moment, Asuka walked into view, stopping next to Ryou.

"It's rare to have you hall me over here," said Asuka. "Any new information?"

"No," replied Ryou. "Today, I wanted to talk to you."

Asuka blinked once and asked, "Is it about why Jaden was crying?"

"Actually, yes, it is…" said Ryou. "The reason why she broke down…she had an encounter with Tadao."

Asuka arched her brow at the name. "The Obelisk Blue who repeated the First Year twice and is close to having to repeat his Second Year as well?"

Tadao wasn't the brightest person around at age seventeen, almost eighteen. If it wasn't for Shuichi (Shuichi was his cousin), Tadao would have been demoted all the way down to Osiris Red.

Ryou nodded. "The very same…"

"What happened?" asked Asuka.

Ryou diverted his eyes on Asuka. "Do you recall Jaden ever telling you she had bullies?"

Asuka blinked and nodded.

"Momoe told me about one of her encounters," said Asuka. "Jaden used to have long hair until one of her bullies cut it short."

"That was Tadao," said Ryou. "Did you know Jaden knows Kouyou Hibiki?"

Asuka nodded. "Yeah, she met him when she broke her leg playing baseball. Kouyou was the reason Jaden even became a duelist."

Ryou wasn't surprised that Asuka already knew that, but the way she answered…told him she didn't know the whole story.

"Did she ever tell you how she broke her leg playing baseball?" asked Ryou. "And did you notice she said, 'baseball'?"

Now that Asuka thought about it, Jaden never did explain how she broke her leg.

A few minutes later,

Asuka's eyes were wide from shock at what she had just heard.

"That's…just too cruel!" said Asuka. "She was only seven…!"

"And for that reason, she was picked on," said Ryou. "According to Jaden, this was around the time she started getting registered as a male student."

Asuka crossed her arms and looked down.

"So that's how she stayed on the team…" thought Asuka. "Is she okay?"

"She's feeling better after telling me," said Ryou. "Now, moving on to what I wanted to talk to you."

Asuka arched her brow at Ryou. "Someone like the 'Kaiser' is concerned about something?"

Ryou just took out the hairclip he found in his room earlier. The hairclip gleamed from the small ray of lighting that came off the lighthouse. Asuka looked at the hairclip questioningly.

"A girl's hairclip?" she questioned.

Sometime later,

Jaden and Rei stood at the bottom of the seaside cliff just by the Osiris Red dorms. A lot of things happened around the seaside pathway. Dueling with Shou to learn the build of his deck for when he and Jaden were preparing for their Tag-Duel…

"Good times," Jaden thought as she looked out at the horizon with Rei.

The two had decided to discuss about today's incident once they calmed down about the spider in the bathhouse. Jaden wasn't embarrassed anymore, but rather…enraged since her door was knocked down.

Jaden had helped Rei with her long hair by tying it with a light orange ribbon. The ribbon belonged to Jaden and was long enough to keep Rei's hair under her hat, though the ribbon's ends stuck out of the head just behind Rei's head.

…

"So, why did you help me out?" asked Rei. "You kept me from being discovered twice…"

Jaden blinked and looked at Rei. "A girl dressing up as a guy, and coming to a place like this…sounds like something out of one of Momoe's shoujo manga…what was it called?"

Rei arched her brow at Jaden and suggested, "Hana-Kimi?"

Jaden snapped her fingers and nodded. "Yeah! That's the name!" (13)

Rei frowned.

"Please don't compare my situation to that series…" said Rei. "This isn't an all-boys school, you know…"

Jaden just stared at Rei. "Anyways, I'm sure you have your reasons for this…registration mishap?"

Rei looked at Jaden sheepishly. "Actually…that's part of it…"

Jaden placed her hand on her head in slight annoyance.

"Did the lady fill in your gender box on the application because she was in a hurry?" asked Jaden. "Because that's what she did to me and I ended up being registered as a male student…even though I don't mind, I find it annoying that she did it to someone else."

Rei laughed awkwardly as she twiddled her fingers around.

"Actually, um…that's was my fault," said Rei. "I was in a hurry to turn in the application because I was running late and I filled in the wrong box, so…"

"This happened?" said Jaden.

Rei looked down and replied, "Yes…"

Jaden blinked a few times and sighed as she placed her hand on Rei's shoulder. "It's okay…If you want, you can stay with me while we fix your gender mishap with Samejima-san…once you feel comfortable discussing the subject, that is."

Rei stared at Jaden, somewhat surprised by the Osiris Red's offer. Jaden…was definitely an interesting person, but Rei liked that. Jaden was nice…and reasonable! Just the type of friend Rei had always been looking for…

"Where have you been all my life…" thought Rei. "Jaden!"

Jaden looked at Rei questioningly. "What?"

"Can we be…friends?" Rei asked, a slight blush tingeing her cheeks. She was slightly embarrassed and hoped that her overeager anticipation didn't show through.

Rei hoped with all her heart that Jaden would say 'yes' because after everything that happened…Rei wouldn't be that surprised for Jaden to reject her offer.

"Uh…sure!" Jaden said, scratching her head as she wondered what was that about. "I thought we already settled this yesterday when I referred to you as a friend…"

Rei blinked a few times and smiled as she threw herself into Jaden and wrapped her arms around the gender-mistaken girl's waist. "Thank you!"

Jaden stared at Rei questioningly, blinking owlishly as she slowly brought her hand on Rei's head.

"No problem," said Jaden. "By the way…I've been meaning to ask…What exactly were you doing in Ryou's room?"

Rei was taken aback with Jaden's question and immediately distanced herself from her.

"You didn't…tell anyone, did you?" Rei asked anxiously.

Jaden frowned as she placed her hands on Rei's shoulders.

"I'm sorry, but Ryou forced an answer out of me!" wailed Jaden. "I was trying to avoid the answer, but he wouldn't let me go! Please understand that I didn't do this intentionally! It was either that, or have Ryou probably kill me!"

Rei's eyes widened in shock at what she heard. "Please tell me you didn't tell him my name…"

Jaden let out a puff of air. "I didn't give a name, but I did specifically say it was my roommate…"

Rei let out a mushroom sigh in relief. "That's good…"

"It is…" said Jaden. "So…would you care to explain why you were in his room this afternoon, though?"

Rei's face turned red as she knew the answer, but she wasn't willing to tell it to Jaden.

"I'd…rather not," said Rei.

Jaden frowned as she knelt down and took off the blue-gray backpack she was wearing. She opened the backpack and began to look through it as she searched for something she needed for this situation. Rei didn't look like she was willing to explain her motives, so Jaden decided to make it easier for the two of them.

"You know, when you ask someone for help, you should really explain why, first…" Jaden remarked as she continued to look through the backpack. "I mean, I'm just asking you to give me a simple answer…"

Rei held up her tightened fists as she snapped, "I can't!"

Jaden smiled as she found what she was looking for. She closed her eyes and turned to Rei, holding out a duel disk to her.

"Then, let's duel!" said Jaden.

Dueling made everything easier! At least, in Jaden's opinion and she wasn't willing to change outlook.

Rei looked at Jaden, perplexed. Jaden was taking this easier than she thought he-er, she, would…

"Why would I do that?" asked Rei. "And stop using 'ore'! You're a girl!"

Jaden frowned at Rei. "Tch, you're just like Junko and Momoe…"

Ignoring that, Jaden stood up and faced Rei.

"The reason why you would do that is simple," explained Jaden. "Nobody can lie in a duel."

Rei stared at Jaden, finding that explanation reasonable.

"So, you're saying that you'll quit asking me about that if I win?" asked Rei. "No more questions asked about it, either?"

Jaden nodded. "Yeah, since I won't need to ask anything."

Unbeknownst to Jaden and Rei, Hayato and Shou were watching the two from at the edge of the cliff behind the dorm. The two were peering out from the edge as they lied on their stomachs, trying to stay unnoticed. Hayato and Shou had listened to the whole thing, no thanks to their curiosity.

It was quite strange for Rei to have walked out of Jaden's room with Jaden, herself, by his side… If Hayato and Shou recalled (unfortunately), Jaden was alone in her room, having freaked out because of a huge spider in her bathhouse that had caused her to shriek a few times before killing it. It was quite hard to ignore that and the only reason Hayato and Shou knew of this was because they heard Jaden's door fall down. Jaden had hoped nobody had heard that…

So that pretty much explains as to why Shou and Hayato were there. The two were very much surprised with what they discovered about their new roommate.

"That Rei was a girl?" Shou said in a somewhat quiet voice.

Hayato stared wide-eyed at Rei. "That explains why Rei felt uncomfortable around you when you tried to take off your shirt…it wasn't just Jaden…I wonder what they meant when they talked about what happened in Ryou's room…"

Shou wondered that as well because that meant that both his Aniki and Rei were in his Onii-san's room. Though, Jaden's proposition to avoid an explanation from Rei…

"He's the same as always, but to duel right off the bat…" said Shou.

"That's something Jaden would do," said a very familiar feminine voice.

Hayato and Shou turned to see who it was. Standing right behind them, were Ryou, who had his arms crossed, and Asuka, who had her left hand on her hip. Asuka looked very amused, as noted by the smile on her face. Ryou…his expression was stoic as ever, which was normal of him…save for what happened this afternoon to have caused him to lose his stoic composure for a bit. Moving on…

"One's nature is revealed in a duel, even reflecting that person's heart," explained Ryou.

"He said he wouldn't need to ask questions, too," added Asuka.

Shou and Hayato just stared at Ryou and Asuka, both saying, "Ehhhh…?"

"Who would've thought dueling is that profound?" said Shou.

"Duel!" exclaimed a pair of voices.

Shou and Hayato's heads quickly turned, their attention focused on the two gender-mistaken girls. Jaden and Rei were facing each other from opposite ends, their duel disks on their left arms and five cards in their hands.

Rei:

LP

4000

Jaden:

LP

4000

"It's my turn, draw!" Rei said, drawing a card. She had only glanced at her card before setting it into place. "I summon Maiden in Love!"

Jaden arched her brow at the name of the monster Rei had just summoned. It was only until the Maiden in Love appeared on the field when Jaden found some sense with the name.

A young, beautiful girl with fair skin appeared on the field. She had long, flowing auburn-colored hair and wore a pink headband with big, pink bows at the ends. She wore a modest, but elegant-looking, long-sleeved dress with a long, graceful skirt with a white, lacey hem. The dress was mostly deep saffron in color, save for some pink-colored patterns adorning the skirt and a white decorative pattern encircling the center area of the skirt.

Pearl earrings dangled from the girl's ears and a choker with a small bow adorned her neck. The choker and bow was the same color as the girl's dress. A simple, green gem decorated the bow's tie. The girl wore white stockings and a pair of pink shoes with pink bows around her ankles.

With long and thick black eyelashes, full, pink lips, and rosy cheeks, the girl was no doubt a beauty. Her eyes were closed as she kept her hands clasped over her chest.

ATK 400

Moments after her ATK was shown, the Maiden opened her eyes, revealing the biggest, most gorgeous-looking gray eyes Jaden has ever seen. The Maiden in Love reminded Jaden very much of a fairytale princess in both clothing and appearance.

The Maiden in Love looked at Jaden with her big, gray eyes and smiled. Jaden just blinked a few times, causing the Maiden in Love to give a cutesy laugh.

"I think she likes you," Rei said, smiling at Jaden.

"She's gorgeous!" Jaden suddenly blurted out. "She's just like the embodiment of a fairytale princess!"

The Maiden in Love blushed at Jaden's outburst, her cheeks now a beautiful rosy shade of red.

Meanwhile at the top of the cliff,

Asuka was laughing quietly, having found Jaden's reaction to Rei's Duel Monster quite amusing. Ryou had a small smile on his face, having found Jaden's reaction amusing, as well. Hayato just stared at the Maiden in Love. As for Shou…

"Whoa, she's cute!" exclaimed Shou.

Hayato blinked and diverted his eyes on Shou, obviously not amused with Shou's reaction. It was Dark Magician Girl all over again…

"Here we go again…" thought Hayato.

Back with Jaden and Rei,

"I'll finish my turn!" said Rei.

Jaden diverted her gaze on her deck as she reached for her deck.

"My turn!" she said, drawing a card. "Draw!"

Jaden held the card she drew next to her hand. It was Elemental Hero Avian's card that she had finished drawing. Taking a quick look over her hand, Jaden decided whom she was going to start with.

"I summon Elemental Hero Avian in Attack mode!" she exclaimed, holding out Avian's card.

Elemental Hero Avian appeared on the field, poised for battle.

ATK 1000

"We're battling!" said Jaden.

A small smiled formed on Rei's lips as she said, "Oh, my…that fast?"

Jaden didn't notice the suggestive tone Rei spoke in and was completely oblivious to what she had meant.

Shou felt quite sorry for the Maiden in Love since her ATK was no match for Avian's. And she had just been summoned…

"This won't even be a match…" Shou said, pouting. (14)

"Just who are you rooting for?" Hayato asked, somewhat annoyed with Shou's infatuation with the Maiden in Love.

Asuka smiled. "Still, women change when they're in love."

Back to the duel,

"Feather Break!" exclaimed Jaden.

Avian used his wings to create a powerful gale aimed at the Maiden in Love. The Maiden in Love did nothing but stand there, her expression quite fearful. She shielded herself with her hands as her skirt flowed in the wind. Maiden in Love let out the most feminine, high-pitched shriek she could make that reminded both Rei and Jaden of the ones they made earlier. Rei clenched her teeth as she endured her monster's shriek and her life point loss. All would be worth it afterwards…

Rei:

LP

3400

Maiden in Love fell onto her knees, looking very hurt and helpless.

"I activate Maiden in Love's Monster Effect!" said Rei. "As long as she's in Attack mode, she won't be destroyed in battle!"

Maiden in Love stared at Elemental Hero Avian with her big, gray eyes. Her eyes glistened as tears began to weld up in them. The hurt and helpless look that Maiden in Love made was enough to make any person's heart throb in pain…which is what it did to Jaden…

…and Avian.

Winged Kuriboh appeared right next to Jaden, having been dormant for nearly the whole day. He was quite oblivious to what had gone on today, but was very well aware what was happening now. The background behind him and Jaden turned into a mixture of pink and yellow colors with sparkling lights, clear bubbles, and a flowery field of flowers.

Jaden diverted her eyes on Winged Kuriboh, somewhat surprised to see him there.

"Winged Kuriboh?" she thought. "Where have you been all day?"

Winged Kuriboh gave a somewhat awkward reply involving him, sleeping.

"You were sleeping?" thought Jaden.

Winged Kuriboh ignored Jaden as he directed his partner's attention onto the scene before them.

"Kuri kuri!" said Winged Kuriboh.

Jaden diverted her gaze in the direction Winged Kuriboh pointed at. She sweat dropped as she stared at Avian, who was standing right by Maiden in Love. He looked rather guilty with what he had done to Maiden in Love as he knelt down, trying his best to prevent her from crying. Elemental Hero Avian was a sucker for crying girls, not because he was easily swayed by a girl, but because he hated when he had to see a girl. It made him feel so useless and as a Hero, he was supposed to keep the peace and prevent situations like this. The look on Maiden in Love's face made Avian feel as if someone had punched him in the gut…

…and reminded him of how Jaden used to be after their first duel against Kouyou, the one in which Kouyou fell into a coma afterwards. Out of all the cards Jaden had a choice of using, she chose him and the rest of the Elemental Heroes to build up her deck. He knew that Kouyou had an influence on her, but the way she looked at him as the first card she had took out of one of the many card packs she had bought…left an impression of Avian that he could never forget.

"Ah, Elemental Hero Avian!" a young voice echoed. "How cool!"

That was what Jaden first said to Avian…moving on…

"M-Milady…are you alright?" Avian asked Maiden in Love.

Maiden in Love looked at Avian and turned away shyly. A very faint blush tinged Avian's cheeks.

Jaden's jaw literally dropped in shock when she saw the barely visible blush on Avian's face.

"Ehhhh?" she exclaimed. "What the—?"

Jaden never thought Avian was capable of blushing, despite the many times he did when she showed him affection and such. The first time Jaden finally saw, or rather, noticed Avian blush is the first time he wasn't blushing because of her.

For that very reason, Winged Kuriboh kept his eyes closed, somewhat disappointed in Avian.

"Pull yourself together, Avian!" exclaimed Jaden. "Falling in love with a girl isn't like a Hero!"

Unbeknownst to Jaden, she (and possibly Rei) was the only one who had seen that. Shou stared at Jaden, perplexed as to why she was acting like that.

"There's something off about Aniki…" said Shou.

Hayato was somewhat perplexed, but knew that Jaden wasn't like others.

"I know it…" thought Hayato. "Jaden has to be seeing something that we can't…"

Jaden was still shocked about Avian's sudden infatuation with Maiden in Love…after all these years, he's never shown any interest in the female gender…and now this? This just confused Jaden to no end! And not to mention, she felt rather…odd…what happened to the Hero she grew to admire and depend on?

"Avian…just what's happened to you?" Jaden said, her voice almost cracking. "I thought we've been through this after my Pokémon fell for that cow!"

Hayato sweat dropped at Jaden's outburst, having gotten the reference.

"Yellow has issues with Akane…" thought Hayato. "Or does Yellow refer to her as Whitney?" (15)

Winged Kuriboh just sweat dropped as he yet to figure out the whole buildup of the characters from Jaden's game. To put it in simple terms, Winged Kuriboh didn't know what Jaden meant by, "that cow". All he knew is that a redhead named, 'Silver', is a jerk to Kotone after seeing him push her away out of his way. Moving on…

"Kuri kuri!" said Winged Kuriboh.

Rei just smiled in satisfaction.

"It's another Monster Effect!" Rei said as she held up her index finger before pointing it at Avian. "The opposing monster that attacked the Maiden in Love has one Maiden Counter placed on it!"

The Maiden in Love smiled, having just gotten up. She cupped her hands right in front of her chest and a pink heart began to form. She then threw the pink heart at Avian, smacking him in the head. It didn't hurt, but something within Avian…felt different.

"M-Maiden Counter?" questioned Jaden.

Avian looked questioningly at the beating pink heart that resided on his left breast, right where his literal heart should be. He had already snapped out of it when Jaden referred to "that cow" and remembered the promise she made him make.

"Don't fall recklessly in love like Wani-Wani!" a young Jaden's voice echoed in his mind. (16)

Ah, Wani-Wani…that strange, crocodile thing Jaden called a friend…ah, memories…

"It's my turn," Rei said, reaching for her deck. "Draw!"

Rei drew a card from her deck and looked at it and her hand. "From my hand, I activate the Equip Magic, Cupid Kiss!"

A light shone brightly under the Maiden in Love as bubbles began to float into the air. The Maiden in Love had her eyes closed as a small cherub with blonde hair and a pink-heart tipped arrow in his hand flew up to her face. The little cherub smiled at the Maiden in Love and lightly kissed her on the cheek with a, "Chu~!" and giggled afterwards. The Maiden in Love opened her eyes and smiled at the cherub.

"I'm battling!" Rei exclaimed as she held up her fist. "Use your true feelings!"

A faint red blush tinged Jaden's cheeks as she watched the scene before her, the sparkling background returning yet again. The Maiden in Love was running towards Elemental Hero Avian in a manner that made her seem even more adorable. She smiled at Avian, her eyes sparkling with joy, leaving the Elemental Hero very confused.

"Avian-san!" she called out. "Please accept my true feelings!"

Jaden stared agape at the Maiden in Love. "Dear Ra, she's confessing!"

Avian looked back at Jaden with a look that said, "What do I do?"

Jaden shrugged as she and Avian never did go over confessions. A small bead of sweat rolled down the side of Avian's face as he looked back at the Maiden in Love. She was about to throw herself into Avian…

…but Avian stepped to the side, causing the Maiden in Love to fall face-first onto the ground. Avian just stared at the Maiden in Love as she quickly got on her knees and looked at the Elemental Hero with a very hurt expression.

"H-How cruel!" she exclaimed, bringing her hands to her eyes as she began to cry. "You're so cruel!"

Avian immediately felt the effects of guilt when he saw the Maiden in Love begin to cry. He knelt down by her side and tried to comfort her, or whatever, as long as she stopped crying!

"I-I'm sorry!" Avian apologized. "I didn't mean…"

The Maiden in Love stopped crying as she looked at Avian, a smile forming on her lips as she placed her index and middle finger over them. She moved them away, sending a small, pink heart at Avian as she blew him a kiss.

"Chu~!" she said.

The pink heart burst over Avian's face, the expression on his face immediately changing as something within him made him feel…strange. His heart began to beat faster as he stared into the Maiden in Love's eyes. The Maiden in Love gave a cutesy laugh, causing Avian to blush.

"W-What the…" said Jaden.

Avian held the Maiden in Love's hand, having just helped her off the ground. He smiled as he stared into her eyes. The Maiden in Love just looked at him innocently.

"You'll listen to what I say, won't you?" asked the Maiden in Love.

"Of course!" replied Avian.

The Maiden in love smiled and innocently asked, "Then, will you attack Jaden?"

Avian looked at Jaden with a serious expression.

"Of course!" said Avian. "If it's for your sake, I can!"

Never in her life had Jaden ever felt more betrayed than now as Avian sent a strong gust of wind at her. She and Winged Kuriboh let out an exclamation once the wind reached them.

"Shit…" swore Jaden. "Avian, I can't believe you're so madly in love with a girl! Besides, aren't you a Hero? Don't you remember what happened to Wani-Wani?"

Elemental Hero Avian looked at Jaden perplexed, his feelings for the Maiden in Love clouding his conscience and thoughts. "Who?"

Jaden's eyes widened as she stared at Avian in shock. At that moment, something within her…broke. Never had Jaden felt so hurt to see someone leave her for someone else. What's more, the fact Avian forgot about Wani-Wani meant that he forgot about their promise…

"You forgot the Wani-Wani promise…" said Jaden.

Meanwhile at the top of the cliff,

Shou was very much confused with Jaden's random comments and reactions.

"He's muttering again…" said Shou.

Ignoring Shou, Hayato was now very sure about his earlier assumption.

"I knew it…he's seeing something…" thought Hayato.

Back with Jaden and Rei,

Jaden stared at Avian, who was now on Rei's side of the field, right next to the Maiden in Love. A rosy pink aura radiated from Avian as he seemed to glare at Jaden.

"I…feel betrayed…" said Jaden. "What just happened?"

"If the Maiden in Love attacks the monster with a Maiden Counter and ends up being dealt damage instead…" explained Rei. "…the Equip Magic, Cupid Kiss, activates, and is able to control that monster."

The Maiden in Love placed her hand on Avian's arm, earning his attention. She smiled at him and he smiled back.

Rei:

LP

2800

Jaden:

LP

3000

A card appeared on Rei's side of the field moments after the life points score was shown.

"My turn's over," said Rei.

A small bead of sweat rolled down the side of Jaden's face as she reached for her deck.

"Tch, she's like the living embodiment of that cow…" said Jaden. "Only she's pretty, not cute…"

Jaden looked at the card she just finished drawing and perked up a bit. She had just drawn Elemental Hero Sparkman. Jaden diverted her gaze back on Avian and Maiden in Love.

"If I don't attack that Maiden in Love, my monsters won't be taken away," thought Jaden. "Maybe Sparkman can knock some sense into Avian…"

Nodding, Jaden held out Elemental Hero Sparkman's card as she summoned him onto the field. Sparkman appeared on the field, crackling blue electricity crackling off his body.

ATK 1600

"Sorry, Avian, but I'll be attacking you!" said Jaden. "Please don't take this the wrong way…"

Avian showed no reaction to this.

"Okay, you asked for it!" Jaden said, pointing at Avian afterwards. "Sparkman! Use your Spark Flash on Avian and knock some sense into him! The guy fell for a Whitney!"

Sparkman immediately got the reference and took no time to hesitate as he began to charge up an electrical attack. Sparkman sent a ball of blue electricity at Avian, hoping to knock some sense into the love-struck Hero. Just before the attack made contact with Avian, Rei intervened.

"I activate the Trap card, Defense Maiden!" said Rei.

The face-down card on Rei's side of the field flipped over, revealing the Trap card. The Maiden in Love stood in front of Avian, her arms held out with a determined expression on her face. Avian was shocked with the Maiden in Love's actions as she was shielding him, willing to take Sparkman's attack for him…and she did! Cue yet another pained, high-pitched shriek from Maiden in Love…

"Aw, crap!" said Jaden.

Rei smiled at Jaden's reaction…she was just too fun! "Because of Defense Maiden's effect, Sparkman's attack is switched over to the Maiden in Love!"

Rei:

LP

1600

The Maiden in Love fell onto her knees after the attack. The sparkly background returned, much to Jaden's dismay.

"Oh, god, not again…" thought Jaden.

Avian knelt down and placed his hand on the Maiden in Love's back, trying to comfort her from the attack she just took for him.

"Sparkman!" Avian exclaimed, glaring at Sparkman as he held up his fist. "How could a Hero like you attack a defenseless maiden? For shame, Sparkman, for shame!"

Sparkman immediately felt the effects of guilt at that statement. He placed his hands on his head as he regretted ever making an attack.

"I can't believe what I've done!" wailed Sparkman. "Milady, are you all right?"

The Maiden in Love looked up at Sparkman, her reflection showing up on Sparkman's 'mask'.

"Please, don't blame yourself," the Maiden in Love said, her eyes shimmering from the tears that weld up in her eyes. She blinked them back as she shook her head. "After all, fighting… is your destiny…"

The Maiden in Love then winked flirtatiously at Sparkman as she quickly said, "Right?"

Sparkman felt his heart beat faster within his chest at that moment. He felt…giddy.

"I…I'm in love!" exclaimed Sparkman.

A pink heart appeared over where Sparkman's real heart should be…just like the one Avian had. Pink hearts began to literally fill the air, much to Jaden's dismay.

"Not you too…" Jaden said as she face-palmed.

"Now Sparkman has a Maiden Counter placed on him!" said Rei.

The Maiden in Love stood in between Sparkman and Avian, laughing as she stared at Jaden. Jaden was not amused…

"What's with you guys?" yelled Jaden.

Shou frowned at Jaden. "Again? Aniki, pull yourself together!"

"This has to be tough for him…" said Hayato.

"Jaden's clueless about how men and women's heart work…" said Asuka.

"No, it's not just Jaden," said Ryou.

Asuka looked at Ryou.

"History has also proven how one woman's beauty has caused entire nations to fall," Ryou continued.

Asuka smiled. "I see."

Asuka focused her attention on the duel between Jaden and Rei.

"That would explain why someone like the 'Kaiser' has met his match," she said.

Back to the duel,

Rei reached for her deck.

"It's my turn," she said, drawing a card. "Draw!"

Rei looked at the card she just drew, smiling as she knew what to do with it. She held up the card as she was ready to set it into play.

"I activate the Equip Magic, Happy Marriage!" exclaimed Rei.

A pair of bells tied with a pink ribbon appeared on the field, ringing as confetti rained down the field. The sparkly pink background returned as the Maiden in Love was now dressed in a white wedding gown with flowers decorating her hair and a veil. She was taking it Western-styled!

"Because of its effect, Maiden in Love's ATK goes up by as much as Avian's!" explain Rei.

The Maiden in Love held a bouquet of flowers in her hand, her gaze focused on Avian's as she giggled. Avian just smiled back at her.

ATK: Previously, 400

Now…1400!

Jaden stared at the two…newlyweds, and clenched her teeth. She could not take it…did Avian even get a say in the relationship?

"Can't Avian get at least a choice in what type of wedding he wanted to have?" thought Jaden. "Maybe he wanted a traditional Japanese wedding, who knows?"

Certainly not Jaden as the Maiden in Love already went for Western and—hold that thought!

"Oh, god, it's a commitment!" exclaimed Jaden.

The Maiden in Love ran towards Sparkman in a manner that was similar to the one she did earlier.

"Sparkman-sama!" she called out.

Sparkman had his arms crossed and his attention focused elsewhere when the Maiden in Love called out to him. He turned and watched the Maiden in Love coming towards him in a wedding gown. Just as she was about to throw herself into Sparkman (who moved slightly to the side), the Maiden in Love tripped on Sparkman's foot and fell onto the ground face-first.

Rei grimaced as she took damage from Maiden in Love's "attack".

Rei:

LP

1400

Jaden and Winged Kuriboh watched in dismay as the same turn of events began to unravel. A bead of sweat rolled down the side of Winged Kuriboh's face…this was disappointing to him. Watching Jaden's Heroes fall for some girl and her cutesy antics was rather depressing.

The Maiden in Love quickly recovered and got onto her knees, her eyes glistening with unshed tears as she looked at Sparkman.

"Sparkman-sama…how cruel…" she cried, bringing her hands to her eyes to wipe away her tears.

Sparkman knelt down to the Maiden in Love's side, hoping to stop her crying.

"I-I didn't mean…" Sparkman said, trying to apologize.

The Maiden in Love immediately took this chance to use her current position in the situation to her advantage…like she did with Avian. She removed her hands from her eyes and looked innocently at Sparkman.

"Then, can I ask you to fight for me?" she asked Sparkman innocently.

"Of course!" replied Sparkman.

Sparkman brought his hand to his chest as if he was pledging his services to the Maiden in Love. This did not bode well with Jaden, who stared agape at the sight in dismay.

"Oh, come on…" groaned Jaden.

The Maiden in Love clasped her hands together and looked at Sparkman endearingly. "Please, Sparkman-sama!"

Sparkman charged up an attack…that was aimed at Jaden! He sent out a wave of crackling blue electricity at Jaden. Jaden was hit full on and her body began to crackle with electricity and static. She screamed in pain as the simulated pain hurt like a bitch!

The Maiden in Love just smiled and directed Avian's attention on Jaden. "And Avian-san, too…"

Avian sent another powerful gust of wind at Jaden, which, combined with Sparkman's attack, increased the simulated pain by a few notches. Jaden landed on her knees moments afterwards.

Rei smiled, feeling rather confident with herself. She threw her hat up in the air, deciding she was through using it.

"A girl becomes stronger when she's in love!" Rei said as she took off the ribbon keeping her hair up. Rei's hair cascaded freely past her shoulders.

Jaden rubbed the back of her head as she remembered something Momoe once told her.

"They also tend to become beautiful when they're in love…" said Jaden. "At least, that's what Momoe told me…"

Rei heard what Jaden said, but pretended not to hear it. The blush on her cheeks said otherwise, though… "There's nothing that's impossible!"

Jaden winced as the aftershock electricity crackled over her body one last time.

Jaden:

LP

400

"As expected, even Jaden is overwhelmed by Rei," said Ryou.

Asuka smiled and looked at Ryou. "Going as far as seducing monsters in a duel is probably easy. Chasing after her first love, she's come all this way to this distant southern island."

Shou and Hayato were staring at Asuka, having heard her.

"Eh?" said Hayato.

"Was that it?" exclaimed Shou.

Asuka diverted her attention on Rei as she continued. "On the top of that, she even passed the difficult transfer exam."

Winged Kuriboh looked at Jaden, concerned. "Kuri kuri!"

Jaden got up from the ground, having learned from her past mistakes. She looked at Winged Kuriboh and smiled.

"Yeah, it was a mistake to have sent my guy Heroes after a girl…" said Jaden. "Just like it was a bad idea when I set Wani-Wani on that cow!"

…

"Who the hell is Wani-Wani?" exclaimed everyone (except Jaden).

"My turn!" Jaden said, reaching for her deck. "Draw!"

Jaden looked at the card she drew…it was Polymerization. She looked at her hand and spotted a certain Hero that stood out differently among the Elemental Heroes she had in her deck.

"Of course!" said Jaden. "Maybe a girl for a girl…"

Jaden picked out the card in her hand and held it out.

"I summon Elemental Hero Burstinatrix!" said Jaden.

Elemental Hero Burstinatrix appeared onto the field with a fiery entrance.

ATK 1200

"Burstinatrix, I'm leaving this to you!" said Jaden. "Remind them of the Wani-Wani promise and also…they fell for a Whitney!" (17)

Burstinatrix looked at Jaden and nodded firmly. The sparkly pink background appeared yet again as Burstinatrix was set into play. Avian and Sparkman looked rather shocked at the sight of Burstinatrix, whilst the Maiden in Love was just plain out confused.

"This is pathetic…" Burstinatrix said as she kept her arms crossed. "To think you were deceived by a so-called maiden like that…and to top it off, you fell for a Whitney. How could you two forget the Wani-Wani promise?"

Sparkman and Avian were taken aback with Burstinatrix's comment. Burstinatrix was not amused…and Jaden could tell by how fiery Burstinatrix was.

"Whoa…" Jaden said, somewhat surprised with Burstinatrix's reaction. "Somehow, Burstinatrix's…more intense than she usually is…"

Jaden diverted her gaze from the field to her hand. She picked out a card from her hand and held it out.

"I activate Burst Return!" said Jaden. "I can activate this card when I have Elemental Hero Burstinatrix on the field! It returns Elemental Heroes Avian and Sparkman back to my hand!"

The pink hearts on the two heroes' chests burst, snapping them out of their love-struck trance. Realizing what he had done, Avian placed his hands on his head.

"What have we done?" he exclaimed. "We broke the Wani-Wani promise! And what was I thinking? I didn't want to get married!"

Sparkman was in a similar situation as Avian.

"Falling so recklessly in love…" said Sparkman. "I can't believe we were infatuated by love!"

Sparkman and Avian face-palmed simultaneously.

"That is not how a Hero acts!" they both exclaimed. "Guy pact…this didn't happen, okay?"

Jaden was definitely rubbing off on them…

Burstinatrix scowled at the two Heroes, her emerald green eyes nearly flaring with fiery rage. "How about you to get back over here before I tell Terra Firma you betrayed Jaden?" (18)

"Yes, ma'am!" Sparkman and Avian exclaimed simultaneously.

The Maiden in Love was very much confused as she looked to her left and right moments after the two Elemental Heroes left her side.

"Ehhhh?" she exclaimed.

Jaden smiled as she held up Sparkman and Avian's cards in her hand.

"The bond between Heroes is stronger than that so-called love over there," explained Jaden.

Rei clenched her teeth. "Tch…"

"Next, I'll activate Polymerization!" Jaden said, placing the card in one of the slots.

Avian appeared next to Burstinatrix's side, very much reformed from his experience with love. Never again will he break the Wani-Wani promise…it betrayed Jaden…

"I fuse Avian and Burstinatrix to summon Elemental Hero Flame Wingman!" said Jaden.

Just before the Polymerization vortex fused the two Heroes, Avian looked back at Jaden and said, "I'm sorry."

Jaden blinked a few times, slightly confused with Avian's apology. Shaking her head, Jaden diverted her gaze on the fusion vortex that merged Avian and Burstinatrix together, to form Elemental Hero Flame Wingman.

ATK 2100

"Go!" Jaden exclaimed, directing Flame Wingman at the Maiden in Love. "Flame Shoot!"

Flame Wingman held up his right hand and aimed it at the Maiden in Love. A fiery blast shot out of Flame Wingman's hand and hit the Maiden in Love head on, setting her ablaze. The Maiden in Love shrieked out in both fear and pain before being destroyed.

By now, Shou, Hayato, Asuka, and Ryou had made their way to the seaside pathway where Jaden and Rei were. They made it just in time to see the finishing attack deplete the rest of Rei's life points as the fire set her ablaze. Once the fired had ceased, Rei fell onto her knees, panting.

Rei:

LP

0

Jaden smiled as she had her hands on her hips. She looked at Winged Kuriboh, who closed his eyes and said, "Kuri kuri~!"

Jaden winked at Rei as she did her signature pose.

"Gotcha!" said Jaden. "Rei, that was an interesting duel!"

Rei looked up at Jaden, feeling rather different about the female Osiris Red. She wasn't like any other girls Rei knew…in fact, she was very different…in a good way. And since she lost…

"Jaden, I…" said Rei.

Jaden smiled at Rei and held up her hand. "Whoa, stop what you're saying…How about you tell that guy behind you, who was here watching the entire time?"

Rei blinked and looked back and lo and behold, there was Ryou, standing by Asuka, Shou, and Hayato. Asuka looked at Ryou with a smile on her face.

"You're up," said Asuka. "Go easy on her."

Ryou looked questioningly at Asuka. So far, he had been oblivious to Rei's feelings and only recently figured them out when Asuka explained it.

"This is a man's responsibility, right?" asked Asuka.

Ryou closed his eyes and nodded once. Rei immediately got off the ground and looked at Ryou, a rosy blush tingeing her cheeks.

"Ryou-san!" she said.

Ryou opened his eyes and looked at Rei, somewhat perplexed. Asuka just smiled and laughed a bit, very amused with having to see Ryou deal with something like this. Rei clasped her hands together as she looked endearingly at Ryou. Jaden just watched Rei and smiled as she had her hands behind her back.

"Rei looks beautiful," thought Jaden. (19)

"I'm sorry…" said Rei. "I'm not one who snuck into your dorm this afternoon…Jaden just woke up…she's done so much for me just to keep me from being discovered…"

Rei turned to Jaden and nodded her head.

"Jaden…thank you so much, again," said Rei. "For everything…"

Jaden closed her eyes and smiled at Rei. Rei smiled and looked back at Ryou, who nodded. He understood, now.

"I know," said Ryou.

Rei had her hand on her chin, her eyes focused on the ground to avoid having direct eye contact with Ryou.

"Ever since you went on to the Duel Academy, Ryou-san…" said Rei. "I wanted to see you and I wanted to be here…And I finally came this far…"

Hayato and Shou smiled as Rei…it was rather mature of her right now, to say things like that.

"I lost to Jaden in that duel, but I won't lose my feelings for you, Ryou-san, to anyone!" said Rei. Rei smiled widely and held out her arms. "Please accept the true feelings of a maiden!"

A silhouette of the Maiden in Love appeared behind Rei, making her almost appear like a living incarnate of her Duel Monster. This had Ryou very much confused as to what he should do…every other girl who had confessed to him was never like this…so…innocent, like Rei. It was a bit too much for him…and Jaden knew it! Dammit! She was even grinning!

"C'mon, even the Kaiser's overwhelmed?" Jaden teased, rubbing the back of her head afterwards as she looked at Rei. "At any rate, that's an amazing power. It was just like the duel!"

Rei looked strangely at Jaden. Jaden looked rather oblivious to the truth, but Rei didn't mind much…she kinda found it…cute.

"It's not from the duel…" said Rei.

"I see…" said Asuka.

Rei turned to Asuka, who was smiling at her.

"Your wholehearted feelings are lovely," said Asuka. "But, like you just said…Unlike with those Heroes in the duel, a real woman wouldn't use things like winks or kisses."

Jaden diverted her eyes to the side as she muttered, "Or pull a Whitney on you…"

"Jaden, that was unneeded," said Asuka.

Jaden just rubbed the back of her head. "Tch…"

"I wonder if dueling and love both bear and tie feelings together from the very beginning," said Asuka (?)

Rei looked at Asuka and scowled at her.

"Oi, what are you to Ryou-san?" exclaimed Rei. "You're not my rival, are you?"

Asuka looked nervously at Rei, who was currently glaring at her…and was she growling at her?

"T-That's not it…" said Asuka.

Jaden looked at Asuka and Rei with a very clueless expression on her face.

"Rei, I'm flattered by how you feel, but…" said Ryou.

Rei snapped out of her fit of anger against Asuka and pushed her to the side as she got closer to Ryou.

"Ryou-san!" she exclaimed, looking endearingly at the Third-Year.

Asuka sweat dropped as she looked at Jaden. Ryou looked at Rei and sighed…here goes another rejection…

"Right now, I'm devoted to dueling," said Ryou.

Rei frowned a bit. "Ryou-san…"

Ryou reached into his pocket and pulled out something. He grabbed Rei's hand and then placed the object he just took out of his pocket…Rei's hairclip. Rei looked at the hairclip in her hand and looked back at Ryou. She looked rather hurt…but somewhat pleased.

"I finally told him how I felt…" thought Rei.

It was like a load off her shoulders…Rei felt free.

"Rei, go back to your hometown," said Ryou.

Jaden blinked and glared at Ryou. "You don't have to go that far! Even though she's registered as male student right now, she can stay with me while we get that fixed!"

Rei blinked and looked at Jaden, feeling rather grateful for what the girl had to offer. It was as if Jaden didn't want her to leave…what was this feeling?

"My heart…" thought Rei. "Is it…?"

Thump! Thump! Thump!

Her heart was beating faster and she felt…giddy. Rei blinked a few times and smiled as she threw herself at Jaden, wrapping her arms around the girl's waist.

"Onee-sama!" Rei exclaimed, a blush tingeing her cheeks. (20)

Jaden looked perplexed at Rei as the navy-haired girl hugged her. Hayato, Shou, Asuka, and Ryou were very much surprised with Rei's sudden change in emotion.

"Huh?" said Jaden.

Ryou shook his head and shrugged off his confusion. "Rei can't stay here."

Jaden arched her brow at Ryou. "Why not…?"

Jaden blinked a few times as she noticed that she wasn't being embraced anymore, but…groped? Jaden looked down to see that it was Rei who was grabbing her chest. The look on her face was one of confusion.

"Onee-sama is smaller than me," said Rei.

Jaden's face turned red at that statement, as did Ryou, but he turned away, trying to hide the small blush on his cheeks. (21) That marked the first time Ryou had ever blushed at a girl…but it was reasonable, seeing as he just saw a girl getting groped by another girl…

"I guess that makes me straight…" thought Ryou. "As Taniguchi would put it…"

But what did it matter anymore? Ryou didn't care about his orientation…he was rather embarrassed by his reaction. Shou and Hayato were also blushing, Asuka…she just looked way too confused to even say anything.

Once Ryou cooled down, he cleared his throat, snapping everyone out of either his or her confusion or flustered state.

"The reason why Rei can't stay here…" said Ryou. "Rei is still a fifth-grader in elementary school."

The color drained from Jaden as she turned white after hearing what Ryou just said. Hayato and Shou let out a loud exclamation at this.

"Ehhhh?" they both exclaimed.

Rei stopped groping Jaden's chest and clasped her hands over her hairclip as she laughed awkwardly. A pink background appeared behind Rei as characters passed by, forming the word "Elementary School Fifth Grader".

Jaden, having gotten over her shock, looked at Rei, wide-eyed. She placed her hands on her head as she just realized something rather depressing.

"Man, what is this?" Jaden exclaimed as she flailed. "So I ended up fighting an elementary school student?"

Jaden fell onto her knees despondently and let out a sigh in dismay. She stiffened a bit as Rei threw herself on Jaden, wrapping her arms around her neck. Jaden opened one eye at Rei, whom playfully stuck out her tongue at Jaden.

"Sorry!" said Rei.

Jaden sweat dropped as Rei began to nuzzle against her affectionately. "Oi…"

Rei blinked and separated herself from Jaden as she decided to do something for her senpai. Jaden blinked owlishly as Rei held out her (Rei's) right hand, extending her index and middle finger in a quick salute as she winked at Jaden.

"Gotcha!" exclaimed Rei. "That was a fun duel!"

Jaden fell back anime-style, having just seen Rei perform her signature pose with such ease and perfection…unlike a certain Ra Yellow (A/N Meanwhile at the Ra Yellow Dorms, Kagurazaka sneezed for some unknown reason). Asuka laughed a bit at this whilst Shou just rubbed the back of his head. Hayato and Ryou just sighed and looked at each other.

"You think that this marks the beginning of a Senpai-Kouhai relationship?" asked Hayato.

"Looks like it," said Ryou. (22)

"Gah…at least you did it right," Jaden said, rolling onto her back.

Jaden thought about it for a few seconds and snorted, bursting into laughter afterwards.

"This is great!" exclaimed Jaden. "This is why duels are fun!"

Rei stared at Jaden and laughed along with her before tackling the gender-mistaken Osiris Red.

"Onee-sama!" exclaimed Rei.

Jaden yelped as Rei landed right on her stomach. "Dammit, Rei, stop jumping me!"

Rei just laughed as she started to hug Jaden yet again. Rei really liked her Onee-sama!

The next day,

At the Duel Academy docks, a ship had just started to reel in its anchor, about ready to set sail. Jaden, Ryou, Shou, Hayato, and Asuka were all waving at a certain passenger on the ship from the docks. Looking down at them from the ship, was Rei.

"Bye-bye!" exclaimed Rei.

Rei was now wearing a lacey-white dress with a simple pink sweater, clothes suited for her gender. They were a gift from Jaden and by gift, I mean a way to get rid of some girly dress. Rei and Jaden had spent the night packing for tomorrow morning when the ship would arrive to take Rei back home. It was during that time, Daitokuji came to drop off a gift from Jaden's father. All Jaden had to do was take one look at the dress before she stuck out her tongue at it.

And so the gift from her father went to Rei, who would forever treasure the garment…hell! She even wore it today to show off her gratitude towards Jaden! Rei even tied up her hair in a ponytail with the ribbon Jaden gave her the other day, the hairclip keeping the ribbon's tie in place.

"Next year, once I graduate from elementary school, I'll take the test again and study over here!" exclaimed Rei.

Jaden laughed at Rei's statement and looked at Ryou, whom had his arms crossed. Ryou wasn't saying anything and for that, Jaden found it quite mean…but very like him to do that.

"Heartless?" said Jaden.

"I won't be here by then, though," Ryou replied. "And even if I do somehow stay here, I don't think she's interested in me anymore…"

Jaden blinked owlishly as she looked at Ryou, somewhat clueless.

"What do you mean by that?" asked Jaden.

Hayato and Shou shook their heads at their female roommate's density whilst Asuka just laughed. Jaden diverted her gaze back on Rei, who was still waving at them.

"Wait for me…" she exclaimed. "…Jaden-nee-sama!"

Jaden sweat dropped as realization suddenly hit her…hard. Rei's voice echoed in her head, shouting, "Jaden-nee-sama!"

Jaden looked agape at her friends, shocked and very much confused. "W-Why's it me?"

Asuka smiled at Jaden as she explained. "I'm sure she's head over heels because of your duel and the way you were protective of her."

Jaden stared wide-eyed at Asuka as the dark-blonde covered her mouth to laugh. Jaden was still confused! "But she's referring to me as 'Onee-sama'!"

Ryou closed his eyes and shook his head. "Jaden, you're missing the real meaning of the title from her. She refers to you as her highly respected elder sister and while you may not see yourself as one, in Rei's eyes…she sees you as a princess."

Hayato smirked at Ryou's explanation. "That's a shock…Jaden…a princess? Pfft…"

Jaden scowled at Hayato. "Shut it, Falkner!"

"Make me, Yellow," said Hayato.

Jaden growled at Hayato and blinked when Ryou patted her on the head.

"I'll leave the rest to you," Ryou said, turning around afterwards as he began to walk away.

Jaden clenched her teeth as she diverted her gaze back on Rei.

"How do I get myself into these things…?" thought Jaden.

Hayato and Shou began to walk away from Jaden as well, deciding that they've finished saying their goodbyes and that their job was done.

"Well, Aniki, we'll go on ahead," said Shou.

Hayato nodded as he added, "You'll have to see her off…Onee-sama."

Jaden resisted the urge to deck Hayato for that name. Asuka nodded in agreement with Hayato and turned as she followed after Ryou, Shou, and Hayato.

"Keep waving at her until you can't see the ship anymore!" said Asuka.

Jaden had no comment for that as she continued to watch Rei waved at her.

"Wait for me!" Rei called out. "I'll be back, Jaden-nee-sama!"

A small bead of sweat rolled down the side of Jaden's face as she waved back at Rei tentatively.

"Man…I don't…" said Jaden. "No way…"

Jaden was very much in denial that she now had female suitor. She was okay with having her own kouhai looking up to her as a senpai or an Imouto-chan looking up to Jaden as an older sister figure in a similar manner Shou was with Jaden when he referred to her as 'Aniki'. But this?

"What have I gotten myself into…?" muttered Jaden.

This was definitely not the last time she'll be seeing Rei…Rei already promised she'll be back next year. There was nothing left for Jaden to do anything about that except wait.

...

...

A/N End of chapter! *dodges stuff thrown at from angry readers* Gah! Dear god, I know it's been five months since I haven't updated, but hey! It takes TIME to think these chapters through! DX You have any idea how hard it was to put Rei's role in this story into play? Well, I already had her role thought out, but the way she fit in was what I was having trouble with!

So all in all, it took me…a year, which by the way! *throws confetti into the air* It's been a year since this story has been published! ^^

Ironically, my nose started bleeding like it did when I first published the story when I was halfway done with it. XD And if you must know…I'm NOT dead! Didn't the updates from my stories Our Last Pact and The Advent of Misadventures note that I was still alive? Great, now I'm thinking of Portal, which I finally watched a walkthrough of it just last week. Awesome game, by the way! ^^

And if you must know…while it took me four fricken' months to reach fifteen pages, it took me probably up to three days to type up THIRTY pages, I kid you not! This chapter...over forty-five pages long! You better be happy with it because I've been procrastinating with the work I got for this program I'm in, the Academic Decathlon, and I still haven't finished the work I'm supposed to finish! DX I have to study and such! Anyways, I've gotten side-tracked by my three-day trip to Disneyland (best…three days…EVER!) and got back into the Kingdom Hearts fandom before switching back to Pokémon. After posting chapter five to Our Last Pact, I was going to move onto working on this chapter, but it was seriously taking me long to even write anything and then…Tiger & Bunny happened. Tiger & Bunny is the shit! I am seriously in LOVE with that anime and have been (and still am) obsessing over it~!

Now before you start blaming the anime for my lateness…you should actually be thanking it. Tiger & Bunny is about superheroes…now can anyone see why I've had GX on the mind as I watched it? Good! BTW, you guys should really check out Tiger & Bunny! Don't let the name fool you at all…it is one hell of a good anime that came out this year! There are currently fourteen episodes as of last Saturday and it's still ongoing. Watch it on Hulu! Hulu is your friend for this anime! Moving on from my obsession of this anime!

Thanks to Tiger & Bunny, I got my muse back and made this magnificently long chapter! You have any idea why I'm happy about it? I have yet to make any proofing errors that were unintentionally made. And also, you guys might want to know this…

My laptop crapped out on me…the hard drive is broken and the laptop I'm currently using is my brother's. Yeah, my oldest brother bought it off my second oldest brother, but gave it to me…which I am very thankful of! You guys are very lucky I always keep my stories on a flash drive, no matter what. I'm now up to forty-six pages thanks to this A/N and I've decided not to do the shout outs for the reviewers again…I kinda lost track on who was reviewer #110 and 120 and I am too lazy to check it out! DX Sorry!

Now for the little notes!

(1) I was really pissed off when I wrote that down and reason as to why I even mentioned that…around the time I wrote this chapter, I got told that I had to go on a diet after a physical. What pisses me off is that I don't look fat…I'm just overweight. Okay, that's enough about my life! DX

(2) This was placed and is mentioned throughout the chapter because I decided to up Jaden's birthday month. Jaden feels like someone who was born in late summer/early fall.

(3) Remember these guys are speaking Japanese, but we see it as English because, as you can see, this story is written in English! DX Anyways, reason for the note is because I brought up the subject about what pronouns Jaden uses to refer to herself.

Jaden refers to herself with the masculine pronoun, "boku", which is used mainly by, but is not exclusive to, males since tomboys have been known to use that pronoun. However, Jaden has also been referring to herself as, "ore", up to the point where her gender keeps getting mistaken for male to those who know her. "Ore" is the pronoun Judai Yuki (in the original Japanese anime) refers to himself. That pronoun is exclusively used by the male gender as it is a one up from "boku", as far as I know from TV tropes and such. Moving on…

(4) If you're wondering how that uniform looks like, go to my profile and there's a link on my page involving that uniform. The only difference between my description of the uniform and the picture is that mine is blue.

(5) Note placed here because I literally forgot what I was going have Jaden say.

(6) Holy crap! Mori can actually crack a joke!

(7) The Legendary Princess Carry…reason for the bold and underline is for emphasis because it was Ryou who performed the carry on Jaden! Ironically, I ended up seeing this type of carry twice watching Tiger & Bunny! XD You have to watch it to get what I'm trying to say!

(8) Funny thing about that…I actually know how to break into my own house (sometimes we locked out and desperate times call for desperate measures) and my second-oldest brother's house (he lives next door and provides my Internet). While my second-oldest brother disapproves of this…he ends up coming to me when dumbass him forgets his keys inside the house and locks himself out. XD Just a few years ago, I finally figured out how to get past the top lock. It's been a while since I broke into my brother's house now that my oldest brother finally made us another key for my second-oldest brother's house (we lost the other one), so yeah…hey! I only break into my brother's house to steal food and check what's up with the Internet connection and the router! DX

(9) This is how I managed to get the scene between Jaden and Rei out without making it inconsistent to how long it was and how long it actually is to open a door. Ryou purposely opened the door slowly and I used that to my advantage! :D

(10) Reference to Final Fantasy VII during the confrontation with Don Corneo during the Wall Market incident involving Tifa, Aerith, and Cloud (and cross-dressing) threatening to decimate Corneo's…ahem, 'Little Corneos'…XD I just made another reference to a Final Fantasy VII web comic on Deviantart called Final Fantasy VII: The Sevening…another reason why it took me a while to get to this chapter. It is just SO damn hilarious and addicting! Check it out if you want! It's on Obstinate Melon's Deviantart account! Anyways, you'll get the reference if you had played the game, watched a walkthrough, and if you read the comic…you'll definitely get the reference.

By the way, scary Ryou is scary, yo! Especially when he's downright serious! XD

(11) Pointed out by the fact that I may have actually made Ryou OOC in this chapter involving that moment. Pointed out by Jaden for humor and to remind you that if anyone is OOC…it's for humor. As for the second part…the way Ryou and Jaden were positioned…look up episode eight of Ouran High School Host Club. The moment with Kyouya and Haruhi might explain a lot to what Jaden meant by awkward…

(12) This whole moment is what happens when you're up past 10 PM and have just finished watching episode eight of Ouran High School Host Club…only difference is that unlike Kyouya, Ryou had no intentions whatsoever to rape Jaden…no, no, no. Get it out of your heads, Ryou is not capable of doing that if he shows no interest to the male and female gender and respects the person. Yeah…it's just not like Ryou to do that, especially since Jaden is Shou's Aniki and the last thing he needs is for Shou to hate him.

(13) This whole chapter is like a fricken' reference to Hana-Kimi, with the way Rei transferred to a school to get closer to the person she loves and admires. Keep in mind, I only know of Hana-Kimi through summary. I have not even read as much two to three chapters, so don't spoil it for me and don't accuse me of using it as the basis of this chapter! I don't do things like that unless I get a good grip on the happenings of a series. Moving on…

(14) Shou was pouting when he said that in the episode, so I didn't make him pout.

(15) Whitney's Japanese name is Akane and reason why Jaden even knows of the English names…well, let's just say she was bored one day and decided to look up the English version of Pocket Monsters. That is my current explanation and I shall stick to it.

(16) Back when Jaden was a kid, sometime after making her deck, Jaden picked the water-type Starter Pokémon for Pokémon Silver (this was before Crystal, the game where you could finally choose your own gender and when the question, "Are you a boy or a girl?" first popped up). The Pokémon was the water-type Johto Starter Pokémon Waninoko, AKA, Totodile. The name Wani-Wani is derived from Waninoko, which is Totodile's Japanese name. The anime counterpart for Kris (replaced with Lyra in the remakes of Silver and Gold as the female Trainer, but shares the similar hairstyle) is a Trainer named Marina, who chose Totodile as her Starter, which she named Wani-Wani. Since gender was introduced in Generation II (as well as the Daycares), Jaden found out the hard way about that addition when Wani-Wani fell for Attract, which is an attack that only works on Pokémon of the opposite gender. Wani-Wani was male and Miltank is female (only)…you do the math.

(17) By now, seeing as I have used that phrase at least twice by now and keep using it…I should consider making that my catchphrase when a male character recklessly falls for someone of the opposite gender (female) in which infatuation clouds the mind and such and affects the person involved with the love-struck male character…It only works when a guy falls for it when used by a girl because Whitney is only able to pull off the move successfully on Pokémon on the male gender since her Miltank IS female (and Miltank are of a female only species) As of 7-5-11, I call ownership of the definitions for the phrases "You/he fell for a Whitney!" and "She pulled a Whitney on me/him!". Anyone wishing to use it in their stories better make a reference to this story…that's all I'm asking for, it's not much. I kinda created this phrase on a whim and gave it a definition just recently…yeah.

(18) Hestic is to thank for that line! Using the line from the dub and Terra Firma's status among the Elemental Heroes in Jaden's deck, which by the way, he is the leader of the Elemental Heroes… If Terra Firma gets told something like that (Sparkman and Avian's encounter with the Maiden in Love), by the end of the hour, everyone in the deck will know all about it. Originally, Hestic's line involved Burstinatrix saying, "How about you to get back over here before I tell Terra Firma you made Jaden cry?", but I changed that since Jaden didn't exactly cry during the duel…she was too angry and confused to cry, but she was upset…but not enough to make her cry, just…angry.

(19) Remember how Jaden got told by Momoe that "A girl looks beautiful when she's in love"? Well, Rei was in love and Jaden just so happened to notice that Rei looked beautiful. This is a reference to Karakuri Odette, which is a cute shoujo manga about a girl, who is a robot, attending school, wishing to know what is the difference between her and humans. It's a really good manga by Julietta Suzuki, who is the creator of Kamisama Hajimemashita, or Kamisama Kiss, as it is known via English Shojo Beat title as of the near end of December of last year. Moving on…

(20) That honorific…dat honorific…if you must know, I am using a specific TV tropes clarification of the use "Onee-sama" in this story. The specific classification of the term "Onee-sama" I'm using refers to the "Onee-sama" appropriated by the yuri fandom ( I did say that I was okay with both shounen-ai and shoujo-ai, which is also known as yaoi and yuri) involving a particular brand of the Senpai Kouhai relationship (we'll get to that note in a bit). It is part of the yuri-genre on TV tropes and considering how much I've looked into this while preparing for Rei's role…I'm sticking to that use of "Onee-sama".

(21) One. Fucking. Year…I waited a whole year to get to that moment once I got Rei's role down… One year, baby!

(22) The Senpai Kouhai relationship refers to the relationship between an upperclassman, the Senpai, and the underclassman, the Kouhai. Jaden is Rei's Senpai (and the Senpai of the relationship), already in high school (the Japanese school system marks High School as being grade ten to twelve because ninth grade is still classified as Middle School, unlike here, in America, where Middle School starts at seventh and ends at grade eight) and at least four years older than her (Rei is eleven in the original Japanese version…the age in which 4kids thoroughly screwed up by lowering it down to eight).

Rei is Jaden's Kouhai (and Kouhai of the relationship) as she is still in Elementary School, needing one more year (her sixth grade year) before she enters Middle School as a seventh grader. Rei refers to her senpai as "Onee-sama" because she sees her as a princess (in her eyes and this term can be used for that as well) as well as a highly respected older sister figure.

Okay, now that I'm done with that…I'm up to forty-eight pages, now! This is officially my longest chapter as of yet and the thing about the bathhouse incident involving Jaden and Rei…Long hair does nothing! DX Seriously! About the majority of the bishounen (pretty boy) characters in anime/manga and video games have long hair. I'm looking at you, Sephiroth! *shakes fist at psycho bastard*

A lot of you should know by now that long hair really does nothing, as I said before, but it's for emphasis! Jaden brought up the highlight of that and wasn't aware that Rei was female until she and her had their encounter in the bathhouse. As for Rei referring to Jaden as a pervert…it's actually quite possible that a man may be wearing women's undergarments for some perverted reason that might make them cross-dressers or Okama (Japanese slang term for homosexual or transvestite…don't question me and my knowledge of these terms! DX). This was done intentionally for Rei to be on the same terms as Jaden when it came to thinking the other was male. And as for the f-bombs…it's rated 'T' and it's taken me up to twenty chapters before I finally said some and I only done it twice…sheesh! It's been a year already! It's a bit of a sign that the language is gonna be a tad bit inconsistent to rating…yeah…don't flame meh! DX

This chapter also marks the first time Jaden finally talked about her bullying experience as a kid and even brought in some continuity with that involving Tadao…yes! I made her seven, shut up! DX Blame the fact that I already confirmed her age as eight when she was up against Kouyou in a duel…I'd say year had passed sometime after they first met, so there! By the way, if you must know, even after the incident involving Jaden getting her leg broken by Tadao…she was used occasionally as her school's secret weapon and backup pitcher and yes, I used episode twelve to my advantage when I saw Judai as his team's pitcher.

Thus, that position actually has some explanation on Jaden's part in this story since she had experience already…her team used that to their advantage and defeated so many teams…Baseball is actually a very popular sport in Japan, look it up! I ain't kidding, just look at the anime, Princess Nine, for an example!

I'm at forty-nine pages now, almost fifty so I better shut up and get on with the same drill! NO FLAMES! Constructive criticism is always welcomed, reviews are just things that make me happy…like cake!

OC: The cake is a LIE!

I'm not playing Portal, dammit! Besides, I think I'm for pie…eh, better shut up before a Pie vs. Cake fights starts…I'm neutral! DX Moving on…

I'm about almost at 22,000 hits and that really shocks me since it's only been a year since I published this story…I feel so happy! :D Thanks a lot, everybody! You guys are great!

Favorite, alert, whatever! I just hope you enjoy the chapter because I worked hard on this one and will you guys quit asking me about Jaden's father? Dear god, I'm surprised no hasn't even asked about her mother! She's rarely mentioned and yet, no one asks why…just:

"Who is Jaden's father?"

Stop asking me that damn question! DX Just be patient and wait it out because sooner or later, he'll appear and your question will be answered…

Sorry about that, repetitive questions = breaking point for KD. DX Asking about Jaden's father is like asking me who I'm going to pair up Jaden! You guys ask again and I'll firmly tell you to Go Google it! Or as Luka said it, gugure kasu! DX Don't be a Gakupo!

Moving on…I am not sure when I'll get the next chapter up, especially since I have Academic Decathlon work to do that I have to finish so I can turn in. Faster I get it done, the faster I can get back to mah stories, okay?

If you understand, good…if you don't and you ask me about the next chapter, you will be snapped at. So with that warning out and everything else, done…KD out! XD