Chapter 46
"Ah...!" Jaden stared at the scene with his mouth hanging open, completely frozen.
"Guriri guriri!"
Winged Kuriboh let out a startled cry and shot backward, diving straight into Jaden's deck and vanishing.
"Kuri kuri?"
The round Kuriboh tilted its head, little stubby arms still raised, looking genuinely puzzled as to why the other one had fled.
Rowan's mouth twitched twice. He found himself with nothing to say.
The reaction drew curious looks from Alexis, Junko, and Jasmine beside him, and from Syrus on the other side. Nobody could work out why, after Jaden extended a friendly invitation to duel whenever the time felt right, both of them were standing there with such bizarre expressions. Like they'd witnessed something incomprehensible.
Alexis and the others followed their line of sight and looked toward Rowan's shoulder area. Nothing there that they could see.
"Right, a duel -- I'm absolutely up for it," Rowan said, clearing his throat and nodding to cover the awkwardness. "Whenever you're ready, Jaden."
That spirit was his, after all. The fallout landed on him.
He was also, if he was being honest, a little curious. Was Winged Kuriboh male or female? He made a mental note to ask the little troublemaker once they were back in the dorm.
"S -- sure..." Jaden scratched the back of his head, not quite sure how to respond either.
"So when's your turn to duel, Alexis?" Rowan pivoted, clearing his throat again.
"Practical duels don't cycle through everyone necessarily -- especially second-year Obelisk Blue students. I may not be called up at all today." Alexis shook off whatever lingering curiosity she had about the previous moment and answered him straightforwardly. "And as the strongest duelist in the Obelisk Blue girls' dormitory, if the matchups follow gender lines, there isn't really anyone who'd volunteer to face me."
"Nobody dares challenge our queen!" Junko jumped in, red hair bobbing as she declared it with obvious pride.
"Junko...!" Alexis felt heat rise to her cheeks and moved to cut her off.
In front of anyone else, being called the queen of Obelisk Blue's female duelists wouldn't have fazed her. It was simply accurate. She was the strongest among the Academy's female students, no argument there. Even among the boys, only a handful could match her.
But with the infuriating person who had beaten her just last night standing right there, hearing Junko say it out loud felt strangely off.
She stole a glance at Rowan's reaction.
He hadn't made a strange face at all. If anything, he looked like he was nodding along in genuine agreement.
Alexis blinked. Then a small, involuntary smile crossed her face.
This guy...
Rowan did mean it sincerely.
Alexis's skills were the real thing. Among all the female duelists he knew of, she sat comfortably at the very top of the pyramid -- and within Duel Academy specifically, she had no equal whatsoever.
Her Cyber Angel deck, once fully assembled and complete with its signature cards, was formidable on top of that.
And most importantly...
The deck was practically wall-to-wall with elegant, mature angel monsters.
Rowan's interest sharpened considerably.
If all of them awakened as duel spirits, he could hardly begin to imagine the spectacle.
Compared to his current situation -- having awakened exactly one round little Kuriboh -- Rowan was envious in a way he couldn't quite put into words. And with both of his cursed decks being what they were, even if an opportunity came later to awaken more spirits from them, he wasn't sure he wanted to.
There was only so far he was willing to go before drawing the line at co-existing with an Evocator Chevalier spirit and letting it challenge him to fencing bouts.
Alexis had no idea what was going through his head just then. If she had, she probably wouldn't have been able to stop herself from punching him in it.
After a bit more small talk, Rowan turned his attention back to the dueling field, where the remaining practical matches were still in progress. A few vaguely familiar faces in the lineup, but mostly students he didn't know by name.
He even spotted the two background lackeys who usually trailed after Chazz, now facing each other as opponents, apparently drawing the short straw on matchups.
Seeing them jogged his memory.
The round Kuriboh had flagged a third person who had been watching him. That person was Chazz himself -- the comedy act who had just been publicly dismantled by Jaden in front of everyone.
Rowan scanned the field casually. Observation area, sidelines, everywhere in between. No sign of that distinctive spiky hedgehog hairstyle anywhere.
"He didn't actually go and drop out early over the emotional damage, did he..." Rowan muttered under his breath, expression turning thoughtful.
In the original timeline, he remembered, Chazz had done exactly that -- taken consecutive losses to heart, temporarily withdrawn from the Academy, then returned through other means to even the score. And from that point on, steadily leaned deeper into the role of lovable comic relief he was seemingly born to play.
Without seeing the man himself, Rowan couldn't be certain it had already happened ahead of schedule.
He'd find out eventually.
Though if Chazz had left earlier than the story he remembered, Rowan had to admit he was a little disappointed.
He hadn't finished squeezing everything useful out of him yet.