"We thought you were ignoring us." A red humanoid figure floating while riding on a paper plane could be seen hovering above Clay's head. Surrounding the room were more humanoid figures, one blue, one green, and one yellow. "So why weren't you talking to us earlier if you could see us bub?"
"Well it's not everyday that what looks like a tomato man just pops into existence and starts following you around, plus it didn't look like anyone else could see you. That led me to believe that if I did start talking to you I would just be talking to the air instead of a figure." Clay explained himself matter-of-factly.
"Yeah, that's probably for the best, don't want people thinking that you're crazy or something." This time it was the green figure that spoke up, with a voice higher than that of the red figure. "After all what normal person would be able to speak to duel spirits so casually."
"Duel spirits huh. So are you guys just sticking around or what?" Clay needed to know this, if they were going to stick around then he needed to know what they could do and what they needed.
"Yup, as long as you keep us in your deck then we intend to stay with you." This time it was the blue figure that spoke up using a voice deeper than that of the red. "And with that impressive display you pulled in the morning, why wouldn't you keep us in your deck?"
The yellow figure didn't speak up at all during the conversation, he seemed to be the quiet one of the group. He nodded along when the blue figure when he boasted about the win from this morning.
"Well, if you can help me in one way then I should be able to keep you here." Clay had knowledge about duel spirits from his old life so he wasn't going to miss the opportunity to gain some for free. "So, how can you guys help me?"
"We can search the island for other spirits that want to help you." The red figure spoke once again. "If you want us to take something from another duelist then we should be able to do that after a while."
Clay nodded his head at the explanation. There was something else that Clay remembered duel spirits could do, and he wanted to find out if they would be able to do it with him.
"I heard somewhere that duel spirits were able to fuse with someone's Ba, would it be possible to do that me?"
Hearing the question, all of the figures stopped flying around. They turned to face each other and moved into a group to presumably discuss something. After a few moments of deliberation they turned back to face Clay.
"It is possible to do that, but for now we think it would be best to get to know what our user is like. If we think that you are able to look after us and use us the right way then we don't see the problem to fusing with your Ba." The red figure answered for the group. It seemed like a reasonable request and Clay had no problem in waiting and proving himself.
"I can agree to that, but first I think that introductions are in order. My name is Clay and I guess I will be your duelist from here on out." Clay bowed his head while introducing himself.
"I'm sure you guessed by now, but allow us to formally introduce ourselves. We are the Itsu brothers, Aitsu, Soitsu, Doitsu and Koitsu." Soitsu was the one to introduce themselves, pointing to the figure when saying their names.
"Well, Itsu's, I just got some new cards, hopefully there will be something in them that can help make a great deck for us." Clay opened up the plastic bag Ms. Dorothy gave him that held his booster packs.
He remembered only purchasing five packs but inside there was an extra pack of spells. That was the extra pack that Ms. Dorothy gave him for helping out after he helped put away all of the chairs and tables.
Opening the packs Clay realized that there were a lot more cards than he was expecting there to be. From his old world there were usually between three and nine cards in a pack, but in these packs there were twelve cards.
"Sweet, building up a sizeable collection won't be too hard now." Clay continued opening up his packs and searching for any cards that could help his deck and support the four Itsu brothers.
There wasn't any support for the Itsu brothers back where he was from, they were more of a gag than actual playable cards, but now that he was going to be using them as his aces he needed all of the support for them that he could get.
There wasn't any specific support that he found but there was some support for Union monsters that could be very helpful in his deck. Now looking over his deck, he replaced some cards that had no purpose being in his deck.
After a few hours of tweaking, Clay decided that he should call it a night and test out his deck the next day. He didn't want to make a habit of making it late to class, but if he could make more money and show up all of the Obelisk's then there was no harm done.
***
"Mr. Clay, will you please be quiet?!" Dr. Crowler was furious at this point. Clay had been snoring away in his class again without a care in the world. People were avoiding him like the plague at this point, not wanting to associate with him in fear that they would be targeted by vengeful students.
Only Jaden and Syrus sat by him also snoozing, but with much less sound. The three looked like sloths huddled together and it seemed like nothing in the world would wake them up.
Only when the bell rang for their next period did the trio of Slifer's stir from their slumber. Jaden stretched out, Syrus yawned and Clay rubbed his eyes to clear the sleep. The all jumped up and groggily walked away to gym class where they would do sprints around the field.
Despite his less than ideal body, Clay was able to keep to the front of the pack of first years until the end of class, along with Jaden and a few other students. Syrus wasn't able to keep up and ended up going back to the locker room.
When he returned he was giddy and had a huge smile on his face, but no one understood why except Clay. He remembered what was meant to happen around this time, Crowler was going to try and frame Jaden and get him expelled, but he ended up getting Syrus instead.
Clay wasn't going to tell anyone, but he certainly wasn't going to just do nothing about it. He decided that he would wait at the docks for Jaden to go and row to the girls dorm and try to help him. This would be perfect opportunity to test the improvements he made with his deck and earn some more money.
Class ended shortly after and Clay returned to his room. There he looked over his deck once more to make sure that there wouldn't be any problems when he had to face the girls. Deciding that everything was alright, Clay headed out to the docks where he would be able to see when Jaden left.
He arrived just in time to see Syrus hopping in a boat and rowing towards the girls dorm. Clay couldn't help but shake his head, Syrus was really desperate to get love. He sat down on the edge and waited for a while until he heard the sounds of hurried footsteps coming behind him.
"Clay, what are you doing here?" Jaden slowed down as he saw the other Slifer just sitting down by the water, apparently doing nothing.
"Hey Jaden, just enjoying the view. The ocean is quite nice at this time of night." Clay couldn't exactly saying he was waiting for Jaden to come. He wasn't supposed to know anything about what was happening at the moment.
"Yeah it is. Say, you didn't happen to see Syrus around here did you?"
"Yeah, right when I got here he was rowing in that direction. Why is something happening?" Clay pointed in the direction of the girls dorm. Clay tried to put on his best confused face and it seemed that it fooled Jaden.
"I got a message from someone saying that they caught Sy trespassing in the girls dormitory. If he doesn't want to be expelled I have to go get him." Explaining himself, Jaden jumped into another boat in the water and grabbed the oars.
Before he could row away though, Clay jumped in the boat with Jaden and grabbed the other oar.
"What are you doing Clay?" Jaden was genuinely confused. He hadn't asked Clay to come and they had only met the day before but he was willing to come with him.
"I'm coming with you, who knows what they might do to Syrus so you might need backup." Clay pat Jaden's back and prepared himself to start rowing. "Now, let's get rowing."
"You got it."