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

Chapter 23: Returning the Favour

It was the end of the following day.

Jaden had been spending the day watching the remaining second qualifier rounds, and was considerably pleased with how it had turned out. There had been no more revelations of Dark World monster spirits disguised as duelists, there was seemingly no duelist under Nightshroud's influence and to top it all, Jesse had won his duel with flying colours and had qualified to the quarter finals alongside Jaden and with any luck, Syrus.

Chazz and Aster had won their duels as well and were very impressive victories in Jaden's eyes. But he failed to realize that Chazz was under Nightshroud's control and was the true ally that Yubel had sensed, but in her absence and in Jaden's victory against Sorkam, Jaden was less attentive, and even before exposing Sorkam, he had never suspected his friend.

By the end of the evening, there was an hour break before the commentator gathered the eight remaining duelists together to inform them who would be duelling whom to reach the semi finals. As they waited, Jaden and Jesse sat in the cramped cafeteria, Jaden eating a donut and Jesse eating a cream bun, the cream coloured into a rainbow.

"Any news of Syrus from the spirits?" asked Jesse.

"No." said Jaden, his cheerfulness at Jesse's victory dampening. "I haven't sensed or heard a thing, and if Neos and the others knew, they'd have let me know."

"You don't suppose Yubel and Zane lost to Sorkam's pal?"

"No chance." said Jaden confidently. "They're both too strong, especially if they were to duel together."

"Okay, but if they have been able to defeat this Lorel guy, where are they and Syrus?" asked Jesse.

"Maybe Lorel was just a decoy." considered Jaden. "Maybe Zorath hired Lorel to make it seem that Syrus was with him and Zorath just took him further away. This could take ages."

"We need him here soon, with luck, tomorrow." said Jesse doubtfully.

"I have faith in Yubel, and Zane won't let his little brother down again." insisted Jaden.

Jaden knew he had to stay positive. He had to believe that Syrus would be found and returned safe and sound.

"Jaden, Blair said and now we have the proof of our own eyes that Zorath Newman is one of Nightshroud's allies." said Jesse. "But he was a champion duelist. Why do you think he agreed to serve Nightshroud? I can't think of any reason for Newman to turn to the Darkness."

Jaden had no answer to that. He agreed with Jesse that it didn't make much sense...for now.

Soon the commentator called all eight quarter finalists back to the stadium to learn how the next round will pan out.

"Here are the four duels that we can expect tomorrow!" declared the commentator. "Our first duel will be Ronald Ford versus Jesse Anderson! The second will be Jaden Yuki versus Geraldine Sakary. The third will be James Turner versus Syrus Truesdale...hold on, where is Mr Truesdale?"

The audience soon noticed that indeed there were only seven duelists in the stadium.

"Um, Sy had an emergency!" called Jaden.

"Unavoidable and urgent!" backed up Jesse. "But he'll be back to duel tomorrow."

Jaden looked to Jesse shocked that he put in the gamble of a false promise, but his expression went unnoticed.

"Okay then. And that leaves us with our fourth duel, Chazz Princeton versus Aster Phoenix!" continued the commentator.

Jaden groaned. He knew it would be unavoidable to not duel his friends eventually. And he knew at least two of them would duel each other in the quarter finals. He, Jesse, Syrus, Chazz and Aster were five friends against these remaining three. He could only be grateful that it wasn't him duelling a friend yet.