Yu-Gi-Oh! GX: Spectrum of Hope

Chapter 2: The Colors of a Duelist

"Game on!"

Jesse: 4000
Jaden: 4000

"Look at you!" Snow exclaimed, patting Hope's shoulder. "Watching a duel and actually getting into it."

Hope huffed a little bit. "No one really said I was getting into it. But... I mean, he seemed kinda excited when I said I'd stay... It feels wrong to leave him hanging." Hope shrugged, a small smile tugging at her lips. It felt good for someone to want her to stick around, even if it's been less than a day.

Snow smiled, taking a seat in the air above her, with her airbrush in her lap and her feet swinging back and forth. She was the youngest of the family, second only to Thunder, whose energy and vigor was impossible to rival. Unlike Rain, who was more reserved and professional, Snow was excitable, like a curious little kid. She always wanted to learn more about everything, even going so far as to analyze it as much as she could on first glance. Despite her seemingly childish nature, though, she was incredibly kind and her intuition was almost never wrong.

"So who do you think will win?" Hope asked Snow quietly. Unfortunately, Snow wasn't able to respond, as a Ra Yellow student sitting beside Hope turned to her, confused.

"Um, you mean me?" he asked, confused.

"Uh..." Hope paused. "...s-sure."

"Hard to tell. They say Jesse has the legendary Crystal Beasts, but I still think Jaden's Neo Spacians have it in the bag."

Hope nodded absently. She didn't know who to really root for. Well, that wasn't exactly true. She wanted to root for Jesse, but she didn't actually know if she wanted Jesse or Jaden to win. She didn't know either of them well enough. Though, it made sense to want her friend to win, especially since she'd never become friends with the top student at the school because she was quite literally the lowest student at the school--not just in height.

Actually, wasn't there a Ra student who was shorter than her? He was a boy, right? Friends with Jaden?

"Visitors first!" Jesse exclaimed, drawing a card. He grinned, revealing the card. "I play this little guy! Crystal Beast Emerald Tortoise!"

Hope couldn't help herself when her back straightened, suddenly at attention to see the timid tortoise appear from his brilliant emerald onto the field in front of Jesse, tucked inside his shell. Her face brightened almost immediately, searching for Emerald's glowing green eyes from inside and giving him a shy, friendly wave.

Crystal Beast Emerald Tortoise: 2000 DEF

"Chazz was right!"

"Right about what, Jay?"

"Your cards."

So Jesse hadn't actually told Jaden what cards he had? Hope supposed that made sense, kinda. It was a first day of meeting, and there probably wasn't a whole lot of time for chit-chat. The day was quite young when the pep rally happened, after all.

Hope couldn't hear much, but Jesse was chatting with Emerald, who was most likely frightened inside that shell of his. Hope couldn't blame him. People were terrifying.

Jaden said some things, too—regarding "chatting it up with the monsters", Hope noted—but their chatter ended, quickly returning to the duel at hand.

"I'll place this here face-down and that's that."

"Alright. On that note," Jaden drew a card. "Watch this!" After taking a look at the card, he summoned it as well. "I play my Neo-Spacian Aqua Dolphin!"

Hope's curiosity overtook her shyness in the moment. She tried to get a look at the monster on Jaden's field in front of him. From an explosion of light which seemed to land from outer space stood an anthropomorphic dolphin man in boots with his arms crossed.