Ash Ketchum Attends Duel Academy

The Seventh Shadow Rider

Early in the morning, the sun started to rise, and it was totally peaceful around here. Well... maybe not totally peaceful at the Slifer Red Dorm...

"Ah! We overslept!" Syrus cried out.

"Which means we missed... breakfast!" Chumley added.

Apparently, Jaden, Syrus and Chumley overslept and were rushing to their dining hall. When they arrived, they saw four trays left on a table. "Phew, there's some left." Jaden said in relief. "Alright!"

"Let's dig in!" Syrus added as the three of them took their seats. A bit away from them, Chazz was sitting at another table, alone, and enjoyed his breakfast.

Jaden tipped his cup over. "Not all that much to dig into."

"What kind of selfish slime would do that?" Chumley asked.

They figured out the answer instantly. One by one, the four boys gathered around Chazz's table, where he, smugly enough, enjoyed his morning drink. "You snooze, you lose."

"Professor...!"

"Banner!"

"Chazz is being Chazz again!"

But they noticed how extremely quiet it was in here, and that silence reminded the gang of Banner's absence. They didn't even see anyone walk through the curtain doorway where Banner would usually walk through.

"Don't tell me Banner's still MIA." Jaden muttered. "This is getting serious."

Later on, in Banner's alchemy class, all the students who were gathered were just sitting silently on their seats as Banner wasn't there. Only a few of them seemed to express their concerns for the missing Professor. Jaden laid his head on his desk. He couldn't shake the bad feeling that was around him.

"On the bright side, at least we get a break from class." Chumley said.

But, as if he was jinxing everyone, someone entered the classroom with two books at hand. And it was none other than Dr. Crowler, much to their surprise. "Good morning, students! Guess what? Due to Professor Banner's absence, I will be your substitute teacher for the day. Aren't you lucky? Because I'm certainly not! It was supposed to be my day off!" He slammed his books onto the podium, looking absolutely frustrated.

But despite his bad mood, he proceeded to make the preparations for today's class. On the projectile monitor, some kind of symbol was shown. A large, black, nearly complete circle with a dot in the middle. "Let's see here... The Mark of Amnael... yes, it looks like... That's where Professor Banner left off. More duel alchemy nonsense, I'm sure... well, according to these terms, the basics of this are... hmmm... know that. That doesn't make any sense... I don't even know how to pronounce that word..."

Everyone could only watch as Crowler tried to understand any of this. Keyword: Tried.

Shiori leaned over to Andrew. "I bet he's gonna snap at any second now." He whispered. Andrew couldn't help but snicker a little.

Sure enough, Crowler slammed the books closed, even more frustrated than before. "What gibberish! This makes no sense! And he's teaching you it?! Well perhaps it's a good thing he's missing. After all, he's polluting your young minds with nonsense. IT'S GRADE A ACADEMIC TRASH! PURE RUBBISH! USELESS PRATTLE!"

"Oh boy, he hates this stuff!" Jaden commented with a grin.

"No, it's not that, Jay." Syrus replied. "I think more... he just doesn't get any of it himself."

After a while, Crowler calmed down and moved on to experimentation with alchemy. "Alright, it's time for some lab work... according to the syllabus. Now let's see here... I think this is right..." He muttered as he dipped a curved metal utensil into a canister full of some kind of purple liquid. The liquid started to boil as light radiated from the metal utensil. But just a moment later, the whole thing exploded, sending a small cloud of smoke into the air.