Touma’s quick retreat from the square had nothing to do with not wanting to be caught up in the argument between Kanna and Jasmine. It was simply a coincidence that he had taken the first opportunity he could to extricate himself from that situation and then left fast enough that neither girl could say anything to stop him. Or at least, that was his story and he was sticking with it.

It was never a smart idea to get between those two when they were like that; few people in the academy could stand up to Kanna’s iron will when she had made her mind up about something, but even she occasionally gave ground when Jasmine felt strongly enough to oppose her. Nothing good would come from him trying to add his own opinion into the mix, not that he had any strong feelings about the matter either way. Whatever the others decided to do about this partnering thing was fine with him; he would just go along with the decision and focus on his own duelling like he always had. So long as they didn’t end up making an alliance with the Synchro dorm.

Speaking of which…

Up ahead he could make out the backs of two other students, both wearing the signature white uniforms that marked out the members of the Synchro dorm from the other dorms; what’s more, judging by the blue and white hair the duo sported respectively, it was none other than the king douche himself and his second-in-command. Well, speak of the devil and he shall appear; of all the people he could have run into it would just have to be Masaru wouldn’t it?

Touma was just considering turning around and heading back the other direction when a sudden shout from off to the side stopped him. Evidently the other two had heard it as well, as they gave each other a quick look before rushing towards the noise. It was only at this point that Touma looked around and saw where he was; in his haste to leave the square, of his own accord and for no other reason, he had been walking in a random direction for a while now, somehow ending up on the path to the Earth dorm. How or why he had ended up here wasn’t important however, as he too rushed into the trees to investigate the noise.

Following the glimpses of white coats he saw through the foliage Touma arrived on the scene just in time to see a black coated figure pick a card up off the forest floor; though he couldn’t see his face the obnoxiously large and ridiculously shaped hair style gave them away immediately and Touma couldn’t keep the sneer off of his face as he recognised Keitaro. His presence, coupled with the scream, could only mean trouble; especially since he had had a nagging thought in the back of his mind for a while now that the scream had been familiar.

When he saw the person slumped against the tree Touma froze shock, though a rapidly rising anger meant he didn’t stay that way for long. [color=6ecff6]“Keita!”[/color] If the blue blazer hadn’t given it away the mop of vivid red hair, the colour far livelier than the person it belonged to, definitely would have. Touma rushed towards his fallen dorm-mate, bumping Masaru aside in his haste, coming to a stop as he kneeled down next to Keita.

The smaller boys face was a mess of bruises, one eye swollen completely shut and his lip cut and bleeding; he was breathing heavily and hadn’t responded at all to his shout, but he seemed to be awake at least if a little out of it. Glancing down Touma could see that Keita’s duel disk was still active, though his deck had fallen out and his cards were scattered around him.

It didn’t take a genius to figure out what had happened here. Keitaro’s duelling style had always been a little excessive and it wasn’t rare for his opponents to walk away from a duel with him with a couple of bruises to show for it. Even so, he had never seen things go this far; although, that may have had something to do with the fact that all of the duels he had seen Keitaro fight had been in front of an audience. Away from the arena or the crowds, away from prying eyes, was this the kind of duellist Keitaro was?

Standing up suddenly Touma spun to face Keitaro, who was still looming behind them. He grabbed a handful of the other student’s shirt and pulled him forward to snarl in his face, ignoring the fact that the other buy stood a couple of inches taller than him. [color=6ecff6]“What the hell do you think you’re doing, punk?”[/color]

[@Ammokkx]