Yu-Gi-Oh! GX Season 5: Light and Darkness

Chapter 16: The Darkest Power

Another day and a half had passed. The guard of Duel Academy was still sticking to its vigilant watch and protection, completely unaware that there have been two severe breaches of their security. Harrington Rosewood and Pierre the Gambler were still roaming around the school, biding their time to unleash their own Darkness. And Chazz had secretly tainted a few dozen students with Darkness seeds under the orders of Nightshroud. Now those students were beginning to become allies of Nightshroud too, though this was taking time, hence no suspicion had been aroused yet.

Jaden was sitting in the Slifer Dorm watching the television, not because he was off duty, but because he was looking on the news channel for any news that could link to Nightshroud. After all, Bastion had revealed to him that Nightshroud could access anywhere, even other dimensions. And since Jaden had thwarted him more than anyone, his latest example being able to free Nightshroud's ally in the Duel Monster Spirit World, Adrian Gecko, he felt sure that the entity would be targeting his home once more.

As much as he focused on each new story, Jaden could see nothing of significance to Nightshroud. And then, the news started to give a special interview of the upcoming Pro League tournament...and Jaden decided to quickly watch it. After all, he had a couple of friends that he was sure were going to be participating in this event; Chazz, Aster...he doubted that Syrus and Jesse were going as their loyalties to protecting the Academy stood firm, so much so that they hadn't given this tournament a second thought as of late.

As he watched, Yubel was looking out the window in deep thoughts. She had been sensing something ever since the guard resumed the previous day. She was unaware that Chazz was at the Academy, and that he had planted Darkness into the students, but she had somehow sensed the Darkness...she was subconsciously feeling that a dark power was nearby...

Jaden saw a reporter begin to speak.

"We are here to give a special report about this year's Pro League Championship!" she declared, "We have been shown this year's contenders, as listed and shown in these images."

A list of names, with their individual photographs alongside them, was presented on the screen. Among the contenders were Chazz and Aster, as anticipated by Jaden, but there were also some familiar faces that Jaden did not expect to see.

One was Missy, a former student from Duel Academy. She intended to go pro, as well as pursue Zane, her love interest, but she was hindered on both ends by Syrus. Jaden was pleased that she was able to join the Pro League this year, though it seemed Zane was not in the tournament this year, so she had still failed in that quest.

The other two duelists that Jaden recognised were the Princeton brothers, Slade and Jagger. They were the sadistic and cruel  elder brothers of Chazz. They intended to dominate the business world, but when Chazz failed in his field of duelling, they disowned him in disgrace. Fortunately, Chazz got his revenge on them by running their chances to gain power over the Academy.

"Woah, bad memories for Chazz in this championship, then." said Jaden sympathetically.

When he looked over the list again, he noticed that instead of thirty two contenders, since the rules had it divide to 16, then to 8 for the quarter finals, then to 4 for the semi-finals and finally, the last two duelists in the final, there were only twenty nine. Jaden could understand why two were missing, as they were likely Syrus and Jesse, but who was the third?

"As you can see, there is a shortage of duelists this year." continued the reporter, "Syrus Truesdale and Jesse Anderson are due to claim their place in the Championship; we hope that they shall make their appearance as soon as possible. Sadly, the thirty second place in the Championship is confirmed vacant, due to the sudden disposition of the current reigning champion, Zorath Newman."