Zane

At the Slifer dorm Jaden and Syrus was in the dining room dueling each other, they had decided not to use their duel disks and were playing on the table with a couple of play mats instead.

Syrus was supposed to go home for the holidays but had received an email from his parents two days before the holidays telling him that they were visiting his uncle in America and he would have to stay at Duel academy.

Jaden was currently winning the duel, but it was Syrus's turn next.

Jaden LP 1800.

Jaden's field Elemental Hero Flame Wingman (attack mode) one card face down two cards in hand.

Syrus LP 600.

Syrus's field Gyroid (face up defense mode) three cards in hand.

Syrus drew his card and saw that he just drew Power bond, Syrus was about to use the card when he remembered what his brother had told him. "You're not ready to play that card, you'll never be ready until you learn the difference between playing a card and using a card, now never play that card until you're ready."

The memory hurt Syrus to the core.

'Why do I even keep this card in my deck, I'll never be ready to play it.' He thought sadly as he reached for the card next to Power Bond.

"I activate Polymerization to fuse my Gyroid on the field and my Steamroid in my hand to summon Steam Gyroid." Syrus said. "Now I attack your monster and end my turn." Flame Wingman was destroyed.

Steam Gyroid ATK 2200 DEF 1600 LV6 EARTH Machine.

Jaden LP 1800 – 100 = 1700.

Jaden started his turn.

"Sorry Sy, but I activate Miracle Fusion to fuse Sparkman and Clayman in my graveyard to summon Thunder Giant." Jaden said. "Now I'll use Thunder Giant's effect to discard one card and destroy your monster." Steam Gyroid was destroyed.

Elemental Hero Thunder Giant ATK 2400 DEF 1500 LV6 LIGHT Warrior.

"Now I attack you directly." Jaden said.

Syrus LP 600 – 2400 = 0.

Syrus dropped the cards in his hand in defeat and looked down at his feet feeling disappointed in himself, Jaden was about to comfort Syrus when he noticed one of the cards he had in his hand.

"Wait you had Power Bond in your hand, why didn't you play it, it would have doubled your monster's ATK and you would have won." Jaden said clearly very confused.

"I can't use Power Bond, I'm not ready." Syrus said sadly.

"What do you mean?" Jaden asked.

"Zane told me that I'm not ready to play Power bond until I learn how to use it." Syrus said.

"Syrus does your brother tell you things like that a lot?" Jaden asked.

"All the time, why?" Syrus answered.

Suddenly Jaden stood up and walked towards the door.

"Jaden where are you going?" Syrus asked.

"I'm going to have a word with your brother." Jaden answered. Syrus jumped out of his seat and tried to pull Jaden back.

"Jaden you can't just walk up to Zane, he's the best duelist at the academy." Syrus said.

"I don't care if he's the king of games, he can't just treat you like that." Jaden said.

"But Jaden." Syrus said as Jaden walked out the door and towards the Obelisk boys dorm.

Syrus continued to try and stop Jaden the entire way to the Blue dorm but with no success, once they reached the dorm Jaden headed straight for the front door only to be stopped by two Obelisk boys.

"Hey Red this isn't your dorm." The first said.

"Maybe he's gone color blind." The second joked.

"I'm here for Zane, so you two can tell him to get down here and face me." Jaden said with determination in his eyes.

Both Obelisk students burst out in laughter.

"Have the cockroaches at your dorm laid eggs in your brain, a Slifer like you wouldn't last two minutes against Zane." The first said.

"Actually I'll go tell Zane, he's going to get a kick out of this." The second said as he ran inside the dorm.

After a couple of minutes the Obelisk boy returned with Zane close behind him,

"I heard someone wants to challenge me." Zane said.

"Zane, I want to know how you could treat your brother the way you do." Jaden said.

"Treat him like what?" Zane asked.

"Treat him like he's nothing, what gives you the right to tell him what cards he can and can't play." Jaden said, Zane looked annoyed.

"I tell him those things because he's not a duelist, and he doesn't know how to use his own cards." He said.

Both blues were shocked at what Zane said.

"Zane, don't you think that's a little harsh to say to your own brother." The first said.

"Until he becomes a true duelist that's all I will say to him." Zane said with no emotion at all.

"You know it's no wonder Syrus has no confidence, with a brother like you I'm surprised he even has the courage to pick up a deck." Jaden said a little angry.

"If he stopped dueling at least he'd stop humiliating me." Zane said.

"You know what you're not so great Zane, and I'm going to prove it, I challenge you to a duel." Jaden said. Zane then chuckled.

"I'm impressed, you're the first person this year with the guts to challenge me, I accept." He said.

Syrus grabbed a hold of Jaden's arm.

"Jaden you can't duel Zane, he never loses." He said.

"Stay out of this, he already challenged me." Zane said, Syrus stepped back with his head tilted looking at the floor unable to say another word.

Jaden and Zane stepped out into the open in front of the dorm building and took their places to begin the duel.

Up in his room, Ryan heard the commotion and shut the book he was reading before stepping out onto his balcony. His balcony happened to be on the side of the building and he couldn't see what was going on while everyone else was at the front door.

However as Jaden and Zane took their places to duel each other they both came into view.

'So Jaden and Zane are dueling. Let's see how Jaden fares against the island's best duelist.' Ryan thought as he observed the two.

The duel started with Jaden taking the first turn.

"I summon Elemental HERO Wildheart in attack mode, and end my turn." Jaden said, Zane was clearly unimpressed.

Elemental Hero Wildheart ATK 1500 DEF 1600 LV4 EARTH Warrior.

"I was hoping this duel would last longer, I'm sad to say I was wrong." Zane said. "I summon Proto – Cyber Dragon in attack mode, and while Proto – Cyber Dragon is on the field its name becomes Cyber Dragon."

Proto – Cyber Dragon ATK 1100 DEF 600 LV3 LIGHT Machine.

"Next I activate polymerization to fuse the Cyber Dragon in my hand and Proto – Cyber Dragon to summon Cyber Twin Dragon." Zane said. "And I'll use my dragon to destroy your monster." Wildheart was destroyed.

Cyber Twin Dragon ATK 2800 DEF 2100 LV8 LIGHT machine.

Jaden LP 4000 – 1300 = 2700.

"And since Cyber Twin Dragon can attack twice in the same turn I'll now use him to attack you directly." Zane said, Cyber Twin Dragon attacked Jaden.

Jaden LP 2700 – 2800 = 0.

Jaden was in shock that he lost so quickly, he'd never lost a duel this fast in his life, Zane turned around and walked back inside the dorm building closing the door behind him.

'Hmm, I was expecting Jaden to last longer than that.' Ryan thought before he walked back inside his room and shut the balcony doors behind him.

Back on the ground Jaden hadn't moved since he lost to Zane, he was still in shock over what happened, Syrus watched Jaden standing there not moving a muscle, after watching Jaden lose like that he felt even worse about himself.

"Hey, your names Syrus right." A voice said, Syrus turned to see one of the Obelisk boys who had stopped Jaden from entering their dorm.

"Right, I mean, I am" said Syrus nervously.

"Look kid, I'm sorry about how your brother treats you, no one deserves that from their own family." The Obelisk boy said, Syrus gave a smile.

"Thanks." He said.

The Obelisk boy returned to his dorm leaving Syrus to lead a still shocked Jaden back to the Slifer dorm.

'Maybe Zane really is just being mean to me, even the other Obelisk students think he treats me badly.' He thought.