A Heart to Duel For; Yu-Gi-Oh! Protagonists x Reader

Chapter 21: The Gang's All Here

At school the next day, Vanessa boasted all morning about how she talked with Yugi on Saturday. But her voice was filled with awe as she recounted how he gave her dueling advice and suggestions on how to improve her deck and the best strategies for any of the hypothetical situations they had thought up of.

"I even gave him advice on his own deck," she said, a growing smirk on her face. "And he took me seriously, but of course I already knew he would. I did play Dark Magicians myself before."

"Why don't you play them anymore?" Her friend sitting beside her asked.

"The meta is always changing, and I change with it if I want to win."

"But can't—" They were interrupted by our English teacher, Ms. Bandercroft. While she was an enjoyable teacher and even joked with us a lot, she was strict when it came to working and doing her assignments. "Ladies! Please, no talking if you haven't finished work."

"But I've already finished, Ms. Bandercroft," Vanessa put in.

"Gabrielle hasn't though," Ms. Bandercroft said sternly. She turned to regard the clock on the wall. "Lunch is in twenty minutes. I want everyone's work before then."

They went quiet, Vanessa taking out her phone and Gabrielle hastily finishing the rest of her paper.

Sara, who was sitting at the desk beside me, chuckled and turned to me. Her voice was hushed as she spoke as to not bring the attention of Ms. Bandercroft. "How was the party for you, (Y/n)?"

"It was pretty good," I replied, my voice equally low, keeping my eyes concentrated on the work in front of me which was asking me to explain the meaning of the poem we read in the beginning of class. "I talked to Yuya and we danced together."

"You danced with him?!" Sara's attempt at being quiet was thrown out the window as she squealed, her eyes widening in delight and surprise. "For real?"

A blush crept to my cheeks and I brushed my hair behind my ear self consciously. "Not romantically! We just did some funny dances to the pop songs the DJ was playing."

"Uh huh." Sara nodded though her tone was still teasing, the grin on her face growing even wider.

I shot her a playful glare. "What about you?" I asked. "You ran off right when we went in."

"Haha, sorry about that," she said. "I saw Benjamin and all of them so I wanted to say hi to them."

"It's alright. As long as you had fun."

"I did!" Sara smiled, but then she frowned. "I wish I could've met your friends though. The tournament guys I mean. They seem like really nice guys from what you've been telling me and everyone else."

"They are," I said, trying to hide my smile. I was really lucky to have met them and to even call them my friends. Having this opportunity was rare, and I was glad that they had been kind people instead of the type of duelists often seen on television, who just dueled for fame or money. These guys, even Yusaku, looked like they dueled for fun. And that was the most important thing about being a duelist in the first place.

The rest of the school day went by and finally, we were dismissed from our last class. Math was the worst to have at the end of the day. It wasn't any better to have as my first period either, and that had been the case when I was in seventh grade.

I said goodbye to Sara and our other friends before walking down the street towards the park. Hopefully Yusei and the rest of the duelists wouldn't get lost, but at least it wasn't Jaden tasked with bringing everyone to the meeting place. I chuckled, remembering how he told me he had gotten lost when I first met him in the mall.