The Spirit Within You Chapter 2: The Children of Anubis

The night of the attack by the Children of Anubis has past and its now the next morning. The student who was attacked remains in the Nurses office recovering from the attack. All the teachers within the school were told to keep a close watch on the students and an announcement has reached every student that no student is allowed outside after dark unless accompanied by a faculty member.

Its currently 8:15 a.m. on the Island and students are expected to arrive to their first period class by 8:30 a.m. Students are expected to arrive promptly to their class. (For simplicity's sake, everyone in the RP's first period is Dueling 101 where you learn the basics of practical dueling.)

Nikki yawned as she walked through on the path towards Duel Academy. Many of the students were also walking to their classes passing Nikki as she moved slowly to get to class. Nikki had woken up early this morning to go for her morning jog and after that she got back to get ready for class. Nikki trudged along the path tired now. Angel emerged from her Deck smiling and flying around Nikki pulling her arm so she wouldn't be late. "Stop it Angel I have plenty of time right now." Nikki yawned as she pulled her arm easily away from Angel.

Nikki checked her PDA now and looked at the class she was taking. Dueling 101 it read. Nikki groaned. "Like I don't know how to duel already." she complained. "Whatever easy A, right now Angel?" Nikki asked Angel.

Angel's face had lit up now and nodded in agreement. Nikki smiled at Angel, it was rare for her to smile, but she was glad to see Angel like her usual self especially after last night. Nikki stopped for a moment in deep thought, thinking about what would happen if something bad happened to Angel like that student's Little D. last night (ded). Nikki looked back at Angel and how happy she was and it made Nikki smile again, although this time she tried to hid it.

Morgan happened to have gotten up at 7:30 a.m. He was motivated by his 3DS to play Fire Emblem, since that is routine to him. He went to brush his teeth, and read his scheduled classes for the morning.

8:30 a.m.Dueling 101 - Basics of Practical Dueling.

"Well, that's weird," Morgan thinks to himself. "I could have swore I passed all of the tests with 95%+ on everything, and my entrance exam was on point. I wonder why I was scheduled, here, this must be a mistake."

At 7:45 his alarm rang for him to go to class.
Slow walking on his way to class, Morgan tries to keep a mental note of where everything is.

Understanding there is a small chance of him getting lost, and preferring to get earlier than later, he ends up getting there 5 minutes early. He chooses to sit in the back corner of the class, and flips his 3DS back open to play Fire Emblem until class starts.

Nikki walks into class as Angel silently sits on Nikki's right shoulder. Nikki rolls her eyes at Cyber and whispers to her. "Okay you can be out but please be quiet and sit still I don't want to get in trouble." Angel nods in agreement and is more excited about the first day than Nikki is. Nikki chooses to sit towards the back so she would unnoticed. As the seats start to fill up in the class Nikki decides to sit next to some slifer red student playing on his 3DS. She sat down without even paying much attention to him. She started getting her notebook and things out ready to take notes.

Angel happily looks around the room and notices the slifer red's 3DS. Curiosity gets the best of Angel as she slowly flies behind Morgan to see what he is playing. Angel attempts to remain unnoticed as she watches the young slifer student play his 3DS before Nikki notices.

Shade walked down the halls trying to follow the instructions given by various students but ended up getting lost mutliple times. One of the students was kind enough to escort her to class after several attempts.
After she finally arrived she waved the student a shy goodbye and looked up at the door sign. "Dueling 101". Hopefully this would go smoothly. She walked into class and found a seat next to Nikki. She dropped her books on the table and sat down. She gave a nod saying "Hello" as she did.

Morgan is playing Fire Emblem Fates: Revelation on his 3DS. There are units moving like Chess pieces on this tactical grid-based combat game. He is too focused on the game to notice Cyber Angel behind him.

On the other hand, Chocolate Magician Girl, bored out of her mind, notices Cyber Angel. She walks up to Cyber Angel and asks, "So uhh, do you need him for something? He's pretty boring and unresponsive to everything except for me when he is glued to that screen. I'm Miko by the way, a Chocolate Magician Girl and Morgan's Spirit Monster. Nice to meet you."

Nikki placed her pencils on her desk as she gave a very short smile to Shade. "Hello." She said calmly as she realized Angel was no longer on her shoulder Nikki started looking around and looked next to her and saw she was starting at Morgan's 3DS watching him play. Nikki smiled nervously as she quickly grabbed Angel hoping he did not notice before Angel could respond to his duel spirit.

"I told you to behave!" Nikki angrily whispered to Angel, but Angel had nothing but a smile on her face as Nikki quickly grew annoyed now. Nikki sighed as she looked over to see Morgan still into his game unphased.

Sorry." Cyber Angel Petit telepathically spoke to Nikki very softly.

"Hello Shade." Nikki said as she shook her hand. "I'm Nikki." she adds as she looks at her Ra Yellow Jacket as well. "Looks like we are in the same dorm." Nikki said.

"There are a lot of people here around my skill level.." Nikki thought to herself.

Angel saw Strix and started to fly towards him. Nikki was quick to grab her this time. "Stay put Angel or we'll get in trouble." Nikki scolded Angel. Angel nodded that she understood. Nikki looked over in Chance's direction and gave him a small barely noticeable wave. Angel also copied Nikki by waving to Strix as well.

The Bell rings to begin class. A tall lanky man with disheveled black hair walks towards the chalk board in the center of the room. The man seemed to be half-asleep as he creeped his way towards the chalkboard. Some people in the front of the room could even swear they heard the man snoring as he was walking.

Once he reached the chalkboard he wrote. Professor O'Reilly in large print. O'Reilly groggily turns to the class. "This is Dueling 101..." His eyes begin to close and his head drops for a moment. He then lazily picks up head and continues where he left off as if nothing happen. "and I am your teacher, Professor O'Reilly. You can call me Mr. O for short if you would like." He said quite casually. "I know many of you may believe your knowledge of Duel Monsters is already sufficient and you don't need this class. But this class does not only test you on your knowledge on official rulings and card effects but on how you apply them in physical duels."

O'Reilly then turns around and starts writing on his chalkboard the phrase "Missing Timing". He then turns back around to face the class. "I would like to begin today on taking notes on a common error most duelists make, Missing Timing, prepare to take notes. But before I explain how one can miss timing you must understand There are four main ways that an effect can imply activation:
When...You can... (Botanical Girl)
When... (Sangan)
If... (Darksea Rescue)
After... (Voltanis the Adjusctor)
You might see some variation, like the exclusion or inclusion of a colon, but for the most part these are the four ways that effects can activate. Now, using what we just learned, which of these effect(s) are able to miss the timing?Botanical Girl is the right answer since she has a "When...You can..." effect. Seriously, all you need to remember is that an effect can "Miss the Timing" if and only if it is a "When...You can..." effect. Simple enough, right? Now that you know how to spot effects that can "Miss the Timing", I'll go into the specifics about why this happens."

He continued giving his lengthy speech. "So you are know probably wondering why this occurs the way that it does, and the answer more so has to deal with the literal implications of these words. The phrase "When...You can..." suggests that the effect must occur at the time when a specific condition is met (When...) and the also that the actual activation of the effect is optional (You can...). When these two factors are put together, this allows a card to literally "Miss its Timing" of activation if it is not the last thing to occur.
Tributing Botanical Girl in order to summon Jinzo means that the summon of Jinzo is going to occur when we would need to activate the effect of Botanical Girl. Then, since Botanical Girl isn't a mandatory effect it just fizzles out, never activating.
In contrast, if we were to tribute Sangan under these same circumstances, the effect will resolve. Even though it starts out as a "When..." effect, the actual activation is not optional and as such must activate if the conditions are met, no matter what. It will just do so in a separate chain than of Jinzo's summon. Non-optional effects MUST if their requirements TO actiavte are fulfilled. If the card isn't phrased as a "When...You can..." effect it is impossible to "Miss the Timing."

"S.E.G.O.C.

This is an acronym for the phrase: "Simultaneous Effects Go On Chain"
This is probably one of the most confusing parts about determining whether or not a card will "Miss its Timing". You should remember that only "When...You can..." effects are capable of "Missing their Timing", but there is still some confusion on what will actually cause these effects to "Miss their Timing".
SEGOC is saying that if two effects want to activate at the same time, even if they are optional, they go on a chain link rather than fizzling out. Only a mandatory effects that does not start a chain (like the summoning of a monster or second part to an effect) can cause a card to "Miss Timing". Simultaneous effects form chains according to this order:
Turn Player's Mandatory Effects
Non-Turn Player's Mandatory Effects
Turn Player's Optional Effects
Non-Turn Player's Optional Effects"

O'Reilly gives a few examples. "Example:
The Turn Player controls Sangan and Botanical Girl. The non-Turn Player controls Sangan and Botanical Girl. If the Turn Player activates Dark Hole, then all four monsters' effects activate at the same time.
The Turn Player's only mandatory effects is that of his Sangan, so the effect of his Sangan becomes Chain Link 1.
The non-Turn Player's only mandatory effect is that of his Sangan, so the effect of his Sangan becomes Chain Link 2.
The Turn Player's only optional effects is that of his Botanical Girl, so the effect of his Botanical Girl becomes Chain Link 3.
The non-Turn Player's only optional effects is that of his Botanical Girl, so the effect of his Botanical Girl becomes Chain Link 4."

O'Reilly goes into the final part of his lecture. "Now this may seem pretty simple, but it gets more complex when you have to decide what situations/effects are able to start a chain and what situations/effects are unable to start a chain. Like why doesn't the summon of Jinzo go on a chain with the effect of Botanical Girl since they are happening simultaneously? The answer to this is that the summon of Jinzo does not start a chain and as such may not be placed on a chain. This same logic goes into cards like Soul Taker. If you did not know, Soul Taker will make cards miss their timing.
Example:
The turn player has no monsters on the field and a Soul Taker in their hand. The non-turn player controls Botanical Girl.
Turn player activates Soul Taker targeting the opponent's Botanical Girl.
The second effect of Soul Taker kicks in at the same time the effect of Botanical Girl would need to activate, and since the second effect of Soul Taker does not start a chain, it may not start a chain with Botanical Girl.
Botanical Girl "Misses the Timing" while the non-turn player gains a mandatory 1000 Life Points.
As you can see, since the effect that occurred simultaneously with Botanical Girl was unable to go on a chain, Botanical Girl's effect was not able to activate."

O'Reilly then takes a deep yawn. "That's all for my first day lecture. Any questions?"

Nikki calmly started taking notes as Mr. O began immediately began diving into his lecture. At first Nikki didn't write much down she knew what he was talking about. But as he delved deeper into the rulings Nikki ended up finding herself writing more than she anticipated about missing timing. Angel began drifting off on Nikki's shoulder and slowly faded away back into her card as the lecture went on.

Nikki did have a few questions for MR. O, but she decided to not ask them today. Nikki closed her notebook and placed her things in her bag getting ready to leave. Most people were doing the same. Nikki remained seated for now and examined her PDA to look at her next class. "Dueling History." it read. Nikki sighed now. "When are we going to even duel here..." Nikki said under her breath. As she now slowly got up and headed towards the exit.

Morgan closed his 3DS and put it in his bag. He got out a small composition book for notes. He payed attention for the first 5 minutes of class, then put his notebook back in his bag, and took out his 3DS again.

Chocolate Magician Girl, looking a bit upset, telepathically speaks to Morgan, "Hey, aren't you supposed to be paying attention? The lecture literally just started."

Morgan replies, "Miko, you've already taught me this. This lecture is probably going to be everything you already taught me about the game about properly activating cards and stuff. This day 1 is a waste of time, as I predicted when I woke up. If there is something important, please take note of it for me."

"Alright, I guess."

As the lecture continued, Miko actually did not write anything down, but was confused about the SEGOC. She didn't remember anything being that complicated. She's pretty sure she heard it somewhere, but it was extremely simplified for her.
She just remembers looking for the words: "or", "and", "and then", "then", "when", and "if".

At the end of class, as Morgan noticed the person in front of him left the room and other people were leaving the room, Morgan went to see the professor. He asked, "Good morning Mr. O, I am Morgan Mirakuru. I passed my entrance exam with flying colors. Is it possible for me to take the final exam for this class and say I passed it? I'm honestly not sure why I am here. I am fairly confident I know all of this stuff anyway."

Mr. O tells him, "I'm sorry, I'm not in charge of your classes. Please take this up with the class coordinator or something. I just teach. Additionally, as I said in the beginning of the lecture, you may think you know a lot, you probably don't, just stay a while, see how your first exam goes.

"Okay... I guess..." Morgan muttered. Telepathically, he speaks to Chocolate Magician Girl, "I'm so sad, no one is going to take me seriously around here.

Miko replied, "Yeah, that lecture was confusing and complicated anyway. Let's play! I saw this really cute Cyber Petit Angel earlier today. I think I saw it walking out, let's follow it and ask the Duelist to play. I think we should have plenty of time to play before our next class.

"Wait, confusing and complicated? What?"

"Yeah, something about SEG...something. Was it Segways?

"SEGOC? Don't worry about it, I read about it before. It's stuff you taught me in the past when I started, just in more complicated form. I can see why people don't get this game and why this is a class. Maybe I'll fix it in the future."

"Oh, alright, that's a relief. Anyway, let's go find that Angel!"
Miko pulls Morgan's arm out of the room and looks for the tiny Cyber Petit Angel.

Disappointed, Miko could not find the Cyber Petit Angel. Morgan is now inspired to duel a few people at his dorm,or higher dorms, to make people take him more seriously.

Angel emerged from her card now before Nikki left the classroom. "Well I hope you got in a good nap." Nikki said almost smiling now. As she noticed Chance still sitting in his seat. Nikki was thinking about going to say hello to him, but she changed her mind. Before she could walk out the door Angel was flying over to Last Strix to say hello to her friend from yesterday.

Nikki sighed as she turned around now and started walking over to Chance's seat. "Where you headed to next?" Nikki bluntly asked Chance. As Angel began flying around Last Strix.

"I have Dueling History too. Maybe.." Nikki paused awkwardly for a moment. "You can come with me to class... if you want." Nikki mumbled. "But you don't have to!" she quickly added. "I'm sure you have better things to do." Nikki now calmly said. Angel flew next to Nikki now preparing to follow her to the next class.

Chocolate Magician Girl cleverly drags Morgan to the Duel Courts. "I mean, I didn't find her, but at least we can play here!"

Morgan, confused, replied, "I guess, and there are a lot of people here anyway. I'm going to miss class though."

"Don't worry about it, I'm sure it's fine. It's more overly complicated stuff anyway."

"Eh, sure, well, I'll go spectate first. Maybe someone will ask to duel me. Let me check my PDA, just in case the class looks important." Morgan opens up his PDA. "Dueling History? What the... Yeah, she definitely made the right choice. I literally cannot learn anything new in that class. It's actually history, nothing new EVER happens."

Nikki thought for a quick moment and realized she was not sure where the class was as well. "I'm sure we'll find it." Nikki ssid confidently. "Come on. Angel can help us out as well." Nikki added as Angel happily flapped her wings now. "Besides we got some time before the next class anyway." Nikki reassured Chance and herself.

All the students attending Dueling History 101 have arrived to class on time. The bell has rung and the students are awaiting for their professor to come out and begin his introductory lecture.

An old gray-hair man wearing a yellow professor's jacket walked to the center of the room followed by a young brown haired Obelisk blue teenager. Most of the students were surprised that someone so young was accompanying the elderly man. After closer inspection some of the students realize it was Tatsumi Aizen the upperclassmen representative.

The Professor stands before the class to warmly greet them with both his arms crossed behind his back. "Hello students, I am Professor Miller" Then he holds out his right arm to introduce Tatsumi to the class. "And this is my teaching assistant Tatsumi Aizen. He will be assisting me in my lectures for the remainder of the year."

Tatsumi bows before the class. "I hope I can aid in your learning for the year."

Professor Miller rests his arm on Tatsumi's shoulder signaling the student to lighten up. Tatsumi began to relax and stood back up giving the entire class a warm smile reminiscent of Professor Miller. Professor Miller began explaining class expectations for the year. "The beginning of the first Semester we shall be going in depth into Ancient Egypt discussing how their Version of duel monsters affected their society and discuss how they affect our modern society as well." Miller begins to smile while heshoots a glance at Tatsumi. "Luckily for us class, this happens to Mr. Aizen's specialty and he will be leading many of our Lectures on Ancient Egypt. We shall have a quiz approximately every 2 weeks and a test monthly so make sure to keep up on your notes." Miller gave time for the students to write down the testing schedule for his class before going into the the opening lecture. "As many of you already know according to all known texts, the game of Duel Monster is said to be originated from an Ancient Egyptian of battling with stone tablets that were said to summon actual monsters. Though whether you believe they actually did someone monsters and wasn't simply a game the Egyptian nobility enjoyed is up to you. But one thing is for certain, this early incarnation of Duel Monster was very influential to Ancient Egyptian Society." Professor Miller than began coughing slightly but kept his composure. "Ugh-mhm...Sorry seems my throat is a little dry. Mr. Aizen could you continue the lecture?" Miller then went to his desk to drink from a glass of water.

Tatsumi nodded. "According to all known records the original incarnation of our Duel Monster was created during the reign of the Pharaoh Djoser and was called mubarazat alwuhush. But for simplicity sake we will call it Ancient Duel Monsters in this class." Tatsumi then continued giving a lengthy lecturer on the reign of the Pharaoh Djoser with Miller often seamlessly interjecting giving additional information. It truly was the perfect tag team of information. Each covering areas the other had missed.

After an hour or so the two finally finished their dual lecture. The remainder of class is now meant for any question posed by the students.