Is this the world of card dealers? Yada thieves!

Although Judai didn't understand many of the intricacies, he was straightforward and wouldn't lie, so he immediately replied, "That's right."

"But Judai was doing this to save someone else—"

Upon hearing Judai admit to the trap, Asuka behind him immediately became anxious and hurriedly spoke up, but before she could say two words, she was interrupted by Yuki Nakao: "Keep quiet, fellow jurors, this is not a noisy cafeteria!"

After warning Asuka to keep quiet, Nakao Yuki looked at Judai and asked, "However, since some of the jurors have said that you had a reason for trespassing, please explain your reasons for trespassing into the old school building, Yuki Judai."

Jaden nodded and honestly said, "Because a guy called 'Titan' ambushed and kidnapped Asuka, and also kidnapped Sho, who discovered him. Luckily, Misawa, who was not discovered by him, notified me, so I rushed to the old school building to rescue them."

"Tsk tsk tsk, this is the difference between a bad student and a good student, right? Compared to your reckless actions, Judai, Izawa contacted the school immediately." Upon hearing Judai's words, Chronos immediately began to criticize Judai, while also praising Misawa. However, Misawa, whose name was mispronounced again, was not happy at all.

Looking at Chronos, who seemed to have a conflict with Jaden, Nakao Yuki raised an eyebrow: "So it's obvious that not all students are unaware of the school rules. Compared to you, Jaden, who trespassed into the old school building, Sora knows that students are not allowed to enter the old school building without permission and knows to notify the school in time."

"So, the next question is, you said someone kidnapped your classmate, but when the school teachers arrived, they couldn't find the kidnapper?

"Because that guy was bluffing me during our duel, using hypnotic gas to trick me into thinking it was a dark game. Halfway through the duel, when he tried to run away, he accidentally activated the real dark game and disappeared into the darkness after losing to me."

Judai said frankly, and Nakao Yuki smiled as well: "So, there's no evidence at all? Don't count on your classmates. Their relationship with you could lead to perjury, and the large amount of hallucinogenic gas detected at the scene also renders their testimonies invalid."

“I think that’s enough questions. The investigation into this matter is over, and it’s time to define the nature of the incident and decide on the outcome,” said Yuki Nakao. “Yuki Judai trespassed into an abandoned old school building that is strictly off-limits to visitors, and no one can verify whether the ‘kidnapper’ he mentioned actually exists. According to school rules, I believe he should be expelled.”

"Those who agree, please raise your hands to vote."

As she spoke, Yuki Nakao turned her head and saw that Samejima had no intention of raising his hand.

This was not unexpected for her. The board of directors already knew that Vice Principal Samejima Iemitsu was the kind of nice guy who had hope and confidence in every student and would never agree to drop out or abandon a student.

But it doesn't matter, two votes are greater than one. Although I don't know why the chairman of the board would demand that this matter be dealt with seriously, this student named Yuki Judai is definitely going to be expelled. After all, besides me, another teacher representative seems to have a grudge against him. According to the investigation, he seems to have publicly defeated that ugly professor and embarrassed him.

Thinking this, Yuki Nakao turned to look at the other side, only to find that Chronos hadn't raised his hand.

"I think we should give You Cheng a chance. Although there is no evidence, I don't think he would lie."

"It would be a disgrace to Duel Academy to let such a poor student drop out. I won't allow him to drop out so easily unless he's properly educated."

"Oh, oh, oh, two votes to one, but two votes that mean he won't have to drop out!" Marufuji Sho exclaimed excitedly from the jury, overjoyed for Judai. "That way, my brother won't have to drop out!"

"That's great!" Asuka also seemed very happy.

However, Misawa, oblivious to the atmosphere, poured cold water on the situation, saying, "Although the voting results are as they are, on page 211 of the 'Freshman Handbook,' in the section on student disciplinary actions, item seven mentions that if expulsion is not unanimously rejected, voters can propose another disciplinary action, which is—"

“In this case, let’s use that one, the ‘best way for duelists to resolve things’ specially stipulated by Mr. Seto Kaiba, the founder of Duel Academy.” Looking at Jaden, who was not successfully expelled in the vote, Yuki Nakao glared at Chronos and said, “Let the board of directors choose the opponent to duel with the student.”

"In other words, 'the battle of judgment'!"

Chapter 1097 Choosing a Duel Partner

The final investigation results for Judai indicated that he needed to participate in a "final judgment duel." If Judai had sufficient dueling strength and could win the "final judgment duel," he would not only not be expelled for trespassing on the old school building, but he would not even receive a warning.

Who made this rule? It's Kaiba, the guy with the most addictive gambling addiction in a world where everyone's obsessed with playing cards. A dueling academy that trains the strongest duelists naturally has to let duels decide the outcome.

However, if Jaden loses the "Judgment Battle," he will have to drop out of school.

Yuki Nakao didn't think that Jaden Yuki, a first-year student and a poor student from the Osiris-Red Dormitory, could pass the "Judgment Battle" smoothly, even though he had defeated Professor Chronos from the Blue Dormitory during the entrance exam.

As the only person to vote for Yuki Judai's expulsion, it was only natural for the board of directors behind her to arrange Judai's duel. In fact, the board already had a backup plan in place for the failed vote to expel him. Although they had only just proposed a "decisive duel," they had already agreed on a duelist for Judai—a duelist that a student of Yuki Judai's caliber could never defeat.

"Big brother, I'll let you have the fried shrimp." Sho Marufuji said, pushing his plate toward Judai. He sighed as he looked at Judai, who seemed completely unaffected.

"Really?" Judai, who was enjoying her meal, was pleasantly surprised to hear Sho's words. Without refusing, she picked up the fried shrimp from the plate that Sho pushed over and put it into her own bowl. "I don't know why, but thanks, Sho. I love fried shrimp the most."

Tempura shrimp itself is not a rare dish. No matter how much hype it has to be given to it, it is still just a deep-fried carbohydrate dish of seafood wrapped in batter. The taste is not that great. However, the reason why Jaden loves fried shrimp the most is mainly because it was a dish that had to be made up at the welcome banquet in the Red Dormitory on the first day of school. It was a dish that Professor Daitokuji had to make up for when he made a mistake and lost a main dish. But this became the starting point for Jaden's vision of a bright future for the academy.

Marufuji Sho couldn't understand Jaden's special fondness for fried shrimp. Fried shrimp was a rather common dish for him. Although it was better than pickled radish or similar dishes, he didn't love fried shrimp as much as Jaden did. He casually said, "It's okay, bro. It's Daitokuji-sensei's treat anyway."

"Although tempura shrimp isn't too expensive, Marufuji-kun, could you please save some money for your teacher, meow?" Sitting across from Judai and Sho, Daitokuji glanced at his employee card with some distress. There wasn't much money left in it. He had to be careful with his spending before payday next month. If Judai went all out and ordered a few more servings of fried shrimp, he would have to fight with Pharaoh for cat food again.

In Daitokuji's arms, the orange cat Pharaoh, who had been squinting, making it hard to tell whether he was asleep or awake, suddenly raised his head and looked at Daitokuji, his paws itching as if he wanted to scratch something.

"But why is it so rare for you, Daitokuji-sensei, to treat us to a meal?" After taking a bite of fried shrimp, Judai held the shrimp's tail with his chopsticks and looked at Daitokuji with curiosity.

Upon hearing Judai's words, Daitokuji looked at him with pity, his eyes narrowed in the same way as a pharaoh's: "Perhaps it's because of end-of-life care?"

"Don't talk like you're going to die, Daitokuji-sensei!" Marufuji Sho said, bringing over another plate of fried shrimp. "After all, you're about to participate in the final match, but no matter how you look at it, you can't win, right? Eat something good while you have your last few days at school."

"No, no, what you said is even more outrageous! Wait a minute, how did you get my employee card!?"

"Because you put it on the table, Master Daitokuji, I went and bought another serving of fried shrimp."

Listening to what Daitokuji and Sho were saying, Jaden, even though he saw another plate of fried shrimp in front of him, still said with some dissatisfaction, "That's really too much, Daitokuji-sensei and Sho, if I just win that 'seaweed duel' I won't have to drop out of school, right? Do you guys have so little faith in me?"

"First, it is a judgment, not 'seaweed'."

Like Jaden and the others, they appeared in the school cafeteria. Misawa Daichi walked up to them and said, "Secondly, although I don't know why the school board is targeting you so much, they specially arranged your 'Judgment Duel' as a special 'Judgment Combination Duel' based on the reasons that 'a student who defeated Professor Chronos is definitely not a weakling' and 'cooperation is also an important quality for duelists'."

"So, it's a doubles match." Asuka was also there; because of Jaden, they both chose to have lunch at the school cafeteria today.

"Hey, Asuka, No.3, you guys eat here too." Jaden greeted Asuka and Misawa upon their arrival, then asked, somewhat puzzled, "But, does 'doubles' mean...?"

"It's not a one-on-one duel, but rather you need to form a team with another person, and then duel against another team. You share Life Points but not the arena, etc. The rules are different from a regular 2v2." Misawa explained to Jaden with a "this is basic common sense" expression, "And you're going to have a doubles duel with the people the council found. However, you haven't even confirmed who your teammate is yet, and you can't guarantee that your teammate won't drag you down and affect your duel, so that's why your roommate and teacher are so unconfident, right?"

"Huh? No.3, how did you know I was going to have a 'judgment duel'?"

"Because I was there at the time, my presence shouldn't have been that insignificant!"

“Although I don’t know who the council has arranged for the duelist, Judai, your duel will begin tomorrow. Before that, you must find a teammate and start practicing together.” Asuka said to Judai earnestly, “Although time is tight and it is difficult to achieve the same level of teamwork as duelists who specialize in doubles duels if it is just temporary practice, it is better than doing nothing.”

"And that's why we've come to find you, Judai. You broke into the old school building because of me, in other words, I've dragged you into this, so I'll be your duel partner!"

Hearing Asuka's words, Misawa glanced at her and said, "No, I didn't know you had this idea, Tenjouin. Besides, although your deck is clearly dominated by Fairy-type monsters and focuses on Ritual Summoning, it doesn't seem to fit well with Yuki's deck, does it?"

"Just consider it my way of showing off and proving my strength. I'll be your duel partner, Yuki. I can give you a heads-up: I'm good at using multiple decks, and I've divided them into six sets according to their attributes, which happens to be similar to the [E·hero] deck you're using. Also, my deck mainly uses Warrior-type monsters, so it will be easier for us to work together smoothly."

"But in other words, your and Jaden's roles overlap. The most important thing in a duel is not to combine strengths, but to complement each other. If you and Jaden both have Warrior decks, you are more likely to be targeted in the same way and unable to break the deadlock."

Watching Asuka and Misawa enthusiastically promoting the advantages of their own decks while analyzing the disadvantages of their opponents' decks, Jaden nodded blankly, as if he understood something: "Oh~ I see. There are so many twists and turns in combo duels. I didn't know any of this before."

"Instead of sighing, Jaden, you should make a decision sooner rather than later. You only have this afternoon to practice with your chosen dueling partner. In order to ensure the final duel tomorrow noon, you can't practice all night. Time is very tight."

As soon as Asuka spoke, Sho and Daitokuji nodded in agreement, saying, "Yes, brother, if we hurry, there might still be a glimmer of hope."

"If you were in your second year, or even if you had been in school longer, it wouldn't be as urgent as it is now. But we can only try our best to make up for it by practicing as much as possible."

Jaden scratched his head, looking quite troubled: "Can't I just play doubles by myself?"

"But most of the time, only villains team up with others for a 1v1 fight, right? Don't you like heroes, bro?" As Jaden's roommate, Sho knew Jaden to some extent and put an end to Jaden's dangerous idea with a single sentence.

(At the same time, Hayato, who had just defeated the Mask of Light and Darkness in a one-on-two battle, suddenly sneezed.)

Although he gave up the idea of ​​a one-on-one match and accepted the reality that he had to play doubles, Jaden's expression was still quite distressed: "Even if you let me choose, I can't decide for a while. Asuka is fine, after all, I've dueled with you a few times, but I've only seen what Misawa is like when he duels, during the entrance exam."

"If we really want to build rapport, wouldn't it be more appropriate to start with the side we know better?"

Hearing Judai's words, Asuka could tell that Judai was clearly more inclined to side with her, and nodded in agreement, but a male voice came out before her: "That's right, so according to that theory, I am obviously the most suitable candidate!"

Upon hearing this, Judai turned around and discovered that Manjoume had somehow ended up sitting at the table behind him, eating ramen. It seemed that he had overheard the entire conversation and was the one who had just been speaking.

"Huh? Manjoume, you're here to duel me again? But I've been a bit busy these past few days."

"Oh, then I'll come back in a few days—I'm not here to challenge you to a duel, okay? Don't change the subject!" Manjoume put down his chopsticks, glanced at Misawa and Asuka, and looked at Judai seriously. "I heard that you stayed up late at night and went to the abandoned old school building where it was off-limits, doing something so exciting without calling anyone... cough cough, no, you actually did something so dangerous, and now you're about to be expelled?"

"As for the dueling match, I'll be your dueling partner. Just watch me do the tricks and applaud my performance."

Asuka was about to speak, but Manjoume, who had been overhearing, immediately guessed what she wanted to say.

"When it comes to understanding, no one knows the composition of this jellyfish-headed guy's deck better than me, not even that green-haired, bespectacled, short roommate over there." Wan Zhangmu gestured with his accordion, wearing an arrogant "I know it all" expression. "I believe that guy is the same, and has already thoroughly studied my deck, which is his nemesis."

"Huh? I didn't do anything like that at all?"

Jaden shook his head somewhat bewildered. Whether it was building or dueling, he relied on his preferences and feelings, and his eyes revealed a pure innocence untouched by knowledge.

Manjoume almost collapsed, but quickly recovered and said, "In any case, it's clear that I'm the one who's more suitable to be your duel partner."

Upon hearing this, Judai smiled and teased, "Wow, I didn't expect you, Manjoume, to be so reluctant to see me expelled. You actually came all this way to help me?"

"Hmph, idiot, who told you I'm here to help you?" Manjoume sneered, saying with a touch of arrogance, "I just plan to appear on the field at the same time as you and show my strength by stepping on your embarrassing performance. It's not that I don't want to lose a worthy opponent."

Meanwhile, hearing that another competitor had joined the competition, Asuka said with dissatisfaction, "You haven't even decided who Jaden's duel partner is yet, and you're already imagining what the duel will be like. I can't pretend I didn't hear that, Manjoume. Are you teaming up with Jaden to use that 'Dragon of Light and Darkness' to negate Jaden's cards too?"

"Or are you going to have your [Electronic Angel] serve as fusion material, Tenjouin? As the originator of this whole thing, shouldn't you be aware of the need to hide away and stop causing trouble for others?" Manjou said, glancing at Misawa, "And that Gosawa Kaiyou over there, you're not strong enough to be considered a member of the Sun God-Yellow Dormitory, are you? There's no room for you to interfere here."

"The division of dormitories does not represent the division of strength. At least I do not think I am weaker than the students in the blue dormitory, right? You often lose to Manjoume, the student from the red dormitory." Misawa's aura was not weak either, and he faced Manjoume directly. "Also, my name is Misawa Daichi."

"Wow, everyone looks so tense." Jaden looked at the three of them, Manjoume, Asuka, and Misawa, who were locked in a fierce confrontation. "But making me choose is even more troublesome than having to decide whether to leave out one of the Winged Man or the Electro Man when my deck is full of sixty cards."

"Brother, your analogy is as strange as ever, and if it's really troublesome, you shouldn't have included those two Normal Monsters in the first place."

Hearing Marufuji Sho's complaint, Judai said righteously, "But they are all my favorite heroes, how can I fight without them?"

Jaden glanced at Sho, blinked, and suddenly had an idea: "By the way, Sho, why don't you help me decide? I can't decide who to choose as my dueling partner."

In an instant, the standoff between Manjoume and the others temporarily disappeared, and the three of them turned their gazes to Marufuji Sho, whom Judai had sought help from, watching to see whose name he would utter.

Xiang felt even more nervous and apprehensive than when Professor Chronos called on him but he couldn't answer the question. How could such a difficult task suddenly be transferred to him? What are you doing, brother?!

However, I also have my own ways of escaping. Marufuji Sho said, "Compared to me, it's obvious that Mr. Daitokuji, as a teacher, knows better which student is suitable to be your partner, right, Mr. Daitokuji—"

"Hey, Pharaoh, don't run around like that, meow."

The fat orange cat Pharaoh was thrown from Daitokuji's hands, flying out of the cafeteria in a perfect arc and landing in the grass outside. However, Daitokuji, the one who threw Pharaoh, acted as if Pharaoh had jumped out on his own, pretending not to hear Marufuji Sho's words and immediately ran out of the cafeteria.

All that could be heard from outside the window was Pharaoh's angry meow and Daitokuji's barely concealed voice: "Oh, I'm sorry, Pharaoh, I'll open a can of fish for you when we get back, meow~"

He actually used the cat escape technique!

Marufuji Sho looked at Judai in front of him in despair, as well as the three people behind him who were staring at him. Misawa had let him copy her homework a few days ago, Manjoume had a group of troublemakers, and Asuka was his goddess. He didn't want to offend any of them.

Feeling like he'd become Paris from Greek mythology, the unlucky guy deciding which goddess the golden apple should be given to, Xiang, in a fit of despair, simply closed his eyes and pointed randomly: "I think the most suitable candidate is him/her!"

Following the direction of Marufuji Sho's finger, Manjoume, Asuka, and Misawa were all stunned. Judai was also somewhat surprised by Sho's choice. When Marufuji Sho opened his eyes and saw who he was pointing at, he was also stunned.

Chapter 1098 Strict Investigation of the Eternal Flame Players' Backstage Area

"Professor Chronos, I'm so nervous, meow~"

The next day, sitting in the audience, Professor Daitokuji looked nervous and said to Professor Chronos next to him, "I wonder what kind of opponents the council has arranged for Yuki and his classmates to fight."

"Your worries are completely unnecessary, Professor Daitokuji." Compared to Daitokuji, Professor Chronos said with great confidence, "Although I don't know who the board has arranged for the opponent, the outcome of this duel is already obvious because of the dueling partner that the bad student chose. He's going to win, Nanono. What a pity, I was really looking forward to seeing that bad student suffer a defeat, Nanono."

"I'm a professional dueling instructor, how could I possibly lose?"

Also in the audience, Manjoume couldn't hear Professor Chronos's jinx. With his arms crossed and a disgruntled look on his face, he said, "I asked that jellyfish-head to be his duel partner, but he chose that guy! He must be jealous that I don't want to give me a chance to shine!"

"Bread, go and bring me his head!"