Chapter 156:

"Well, it's actually kind of a long story..."

The moment the question left Alexis's mouth, Bastion's expression turned distinctly pained, like he'd just remembered something he'd rather forget.

"Not long after you all left for the ruins on the far side of the island, Chazz and I went straight to the Chancellor's office. We told Chancellor Sheppard everything Camula had told us, that the Dark Scorpion Burglars had already infiltrated Duel Academy."

"Not long after that, the leader of those five, the one called Don Zaloog, showed up posing as a police inspector, invited in personally by Chancellor Sheppard, supposedly to help investigate the disturbance."

"Except the idiot gave himself away almost immediately. Left behind more holes in his story than we could count."

Chazz sat back up at that part of the story, cutting in with a fist raised, clearly proud of himself.

"And my Duel Spirit caught them red-handed too, trying to steal the Spirit Keys. Woke me right up, and I, Chazz Princeton, Master Detective, shut them down just in time."

"Sounds like things were going pretty well up to that point," Rowan said between bites of his fried shrimp, listening the way most people listened to a good story.

Which lined up more or less with what he already knew, give or take a few details.

They'd caught these idiots before they even realized the Spirit Keys needed to soak up Shadow Duel energy first, before they could even be used to open the seal on the Sacred Beasts.

Then he'd gone and challenged them to a Shadow Duel.

"Then, right when I was about to be the first one to face them..." Bastion's face twisted with visible resentment.

"Turns out one of those idiots had already used his cover to sneak a truly obscene amount of croton laxative into our cafeteria food beforehand."

He hadn't ended up in the infirmary from any Shadow Duel injury.

He'd ended up there because he'd eaten way too much food laced with laxatives, and wrecked his stomach.

"..." Rowan and Alexis both looked at Bastion with something bordering on pity.

Rowan honestly hadn't seen that one coming.

Those idiots really had gone with the dirtiest possible play.

But if Bastion had gotten hit, and Chazz had been eating right alongside him the whole time... there was no way Chazz had come out unscathed either.

The thought made Rowan's eyes narrow slightly as he turned to look at Chazz.

Was that duel of his, actually...

"I'd only had one bite of shrimp before Bastion swiped the rest of my plate. That's the only reason I got lucky."

Catching Rowan's odd look, Chazz quickly caught on and jumped in to defend himself.

Well.

So Bastion had basically brought this entirely on himself.

The look on everyone's faces as they turned back to Bastion shifted yet again.

Bastion, for his part, looked thoroughly miserable about the whole thing.

"That's more or less everything from the past two days. But once we beat all five of them and sealed them back into their cards, they told me one more thing before they went."

Chazz suddenly seemed to remember something, pulling the five cards back toward himself, his expression turning a shade more serious.

"Apparently there's another Seven Stars Shadow Duelist already on their way to this island."

"And this one's supposed to be a lot stronger than that thief gang ever was."

"Stronger than those five? That's not exactly saying much," Rowan muttered, unimpressed.

He genuinely couldn't think of a Seven Stars Shadow Duelist weaker than a five-man crew of Duel Spirits playing dress-up as school staff.

Whatever information Chazz had just delivered, the back half of it was basically worthless.

Even Camula, who reflexively pushed back against nearly everything Rowan said, found herself nodding along in full agreement this time, still crouched dutifully behind him.

Those five idiots had technically been genuine Duel Spirits, given physical form by the power of a Shadow Charm.

But as duelists, she was fairly confident even Professor Crowler, whom she'd once beaten with a single well-placed counter, could have handled every one of them without much trouble.

"Still, the part about a new threat closing in is worth taking seriously." Alexis nodded in agreement.

"We're still holding four of the Spirit Keys ourselves. And counting the Gravekeeper Elder you two beat, the Seven Stars are already down to just three Shadow Duelists left."

Bastion's usually earnest face broke into a confident grin as he clenched a fist, laying out the numbers.

"Feels like the momentum's finally swinging our way!"

Watching Bastion's confident expression, Rowan found himself going quiet for a moment.

Why did he have some kind of ominous feeling about that particular sentence...

...

Some time after Jaden and the others had finally left, Alexis, freshly bathed and changed, stood outside the guest room, a little shy as she offered Rowan a good night.

"I heard my brother's showing some signs of waking up soon. I'll go check on him at the infirmary tomorrow. Well... good night, then."

By her second day staying at the cabin, she'd noticed a rather delicate little problem.

The luxury cabin's indoor hot spring bath seemed to be used by essentially just the two of them.

Well.

Three, counting Camula.

Which meant that, technically, indirectly, she and Rowan were sharing the same hot spring bath.

Rowan, for his part, gave an equally awkward little wave in response.

Then he gathered up his pajamas and headed off toward his own hot spring bath, intending to soak for a while and unwind.

Floating along beside him was the round Kuriboh, clutching its own tiny Duel Spirit-sized towel, looking thoroughly content to be tagging along with its owner for bath time.

Trailing behind them as designated lackeys came the perpetually unlucky Ojama brothers, dutifully hauling along a Duel Spirit-sized inflatable swim ring and a tray of juice.

Downstairs, the Ojama brothers caught the eye of Camula, who stood waiting with her own tray of juice in hand.

For one strange, fleeting moment, something like mutual, sympathetic misery passed silently between them.