A Series of Extremely Questionable Decisions

This is Why We Can't Have Nice Things

Once she was out of Chazz's line of sight, James took the time to stop and open her backpack. She needed to pick a deck to use in her exam.

'Let's see... since this is a public duel, I should probably stick to the summons that actually exist in this timeline. So Xyz, Synchros, and Pendulum summons are automatically out. Which means I can't use my PePe deck or most of my most powerful decks, not that I need them for an exam match. That leaves most of my modified character decks. They all have rare cards almost exclusive to the character that inspired them, though, so using them will also garner unwanted attention.', James thought with a scowl as she sat down and started looking through her many decks intently, trying to pick one that was just right, even though she really didn't need to be picky for such a trivial duel.

'I suppose it all comes down to what I want to have attention for; owning rare but existing cards or owning cards that shouldn't even exist by these people's standards.', James mused as she held two decks up in front of her; her Kaiba deck and her Aster Elemental Heroes deck. James eyed the two uncertainly, then shrugged and sat her Aster deck down as she started to skim through her Kaiba deck for a certain card.

'Oh well. If I've replaced Jaden like I'm starting to think I have, then that means I can use Elemental Heroes without looking like a stalker. I'll use those cards in this duel to pay tribute to him, since I've taken his place in the story. I'll use my Aster deck though, mostly so I can use Phoenix Enforcer instead of Flame Wingman. I just think his art is cooler. And I think I'll throw in a Blue Eyes just to fuck with Kaiba a bit, since I know he founded Duel Academy and will probably being watching the exam duels in some capacity. I'll only use one Blue Eyes though, since Kaiba supposedly has the 'only other three' in existence. It'll still be fun to have even if I probably won't get the chance to use it in this duel. I wonder how shocked he would be if he found out I bought six Blue Eyes on Ebay for like five bucks.', James thought with a snicker as she started to rearrange her Aster deck and placed her Blue Eyes inside it.

'Besides, using a deck similar to Jaden's will keep things semi in line with the plot before I nuke that shit into oblivion later on. If I duel Crowler, I know what cards he's gonna use and how to counter act them, and if all else fails or if I get really bored during the match... ', James trailed off with a smirk as she pulled out Slifer again, who's eyes still seemed to be glowing weirdly.

'I've got this little fucker to one-shot Crowler into hating me worse than Jaden.', James thought with a chuckle. Then the intercom beeped to life again.

"Last call. James McKenna, please report to dueling arena B-4.", a dull man's voice said. James sighed and stood up.

"Better get going. The last thing I want is a proctor bitching about how late I am.", James mumbled, and then she started to walk over to her designated arena again, her deck of choice in hand. Then she paused again as she realized something.

'Oh shit... I don't have a duel disk.', James thought with wide, dilated eyes. She immediately started rifling through her backpack again, trying to find anything that so much as resembled a duel disk, when (thank the Egyptian gods) she found something.

"Haha, yes! Once again, luck has- !", the girl started to say with a triumphant grin. James lifted the object out of her bag... only to realize it was a fucking toy. Her smile immediately fell and her expression turned to one of disbelief and anger.

"You've gotta be kidding me! A fucking toy?! God fucking damn it!", James cursed as she got a good look at her duel disk. It was the toy duel disk her grandma had gotten her last christmas. It was Shark's duel disk from Yugioh Zexal, so it didn't look at all like the GX duel disks and came with a blue duel gazer. James looked like she wanted to smash the toy to bits. She opened her mouth to start cursing more, but then she realized she had a place to be and decided to save the yelling for later. She put the duel disk and duel gazer on with a heavy sigh.