[center][h1][color=#af7ac5][b]Valerie Durand[/b][/color][/h1][/center]

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[h1]Homeroom, First Day[/h1]

What a bunch of...quirky people she was stuck with. With a resigned sigh, Valerie stood up as she came up in the rotation for introductions, starting to speak.

[color=#af7ac5][b]"Hey,"[/b][/color] She waved lazily, looking around the room. [color=#af7ac5][b]"Name's Valerie Durand. Let's see...something I do besides dueling...well, I read a lot. Mostly fiction."[/b][/color] She said plainly, clearly unused to talking about herself. [color=#af7ac5][b]"As for fun facts, my favorite pro duelist's Chazz Princeton. Chazz it up. Woo."[/b][/color] She sat back down without another word, looking bored.

Seemed Ceruli was being too skittish to materialize. Something he'd said last night about want to take the measures of others first before he demonstrated her own spiritual awareness. Still, without his help, Valerie couldn't exactly tell if there was anyone among her classmates similar to her unless their spirits decided to manifest. Without anything better to do, she found herself being forced to just keep sitting through the introductions, waiting for the bell to ring.

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[h1]A few nights later...[/h1]

Valerie had been in the process of getting ready for bed when it hit her. She staggered slightly, cursing under her breath as she looked out the dorm room's window. What the hell...? What was that light?

[color=#af7ac5][b]"Ceruli, you got any idea what's going on here?"[/b][/color] Valerie asked quietly so as to not wake Roche up from her slumber, already putting her clothes back on. 

[b]"None whatsoever."[/b] He said, looking resigned at his charge raring to go put herself in danger. [b]"I realize that I cannot stop you from running into this crisis head-first, but might I suggest you at least caution? This...spirit geyser is dangerous, if nothing else."[/b] 

With her uniform back on, Valerie just nodded briefly at Ceruli, slotted her deck into her Duel Disk, and left the room, starting to make her way towards the forest.

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She'd barely made it a few steps in before she'd met her first duel spirit that wasn't her own partner. An Adhesive Explosive. Reminded her a little of Roche's Blast Sphere, really. Too bad the little prick was both mute and obstinate, immediately challenging her to a duel. And he was a prick. Five turns of stalling, followed by Val finally having the resources to just roll him over. As the duel concluded, Valerie barely spared the spirit a second glance before rushing further into the forest, curious as to what exactly was going on here.

If nothing else, she wasn't insane after all. There had always been an underlying current of doubt in her mind over the years, wondering if she'd just hallucinated Ceruli's presence and voice out of sheer loneliness. But if anyone else on this island had a spirit, or, hell, could even see them, that would put her worries to rest for good. 

As she stepped into the clearing, Valerie was greeted with a bewildering sight. One of her classmates...shit, what was her name? Haruko? Helena? Whatever. But she was floating, and-

[b]"Possession."[/b] Ceruli manifested beside her, his lip curled as he called out to the floating girl and the multitude of spirits surrounding her. [b]"How distasteful. You would take your resentment out upon an innocent child with no responsibility for your predicament? And here I thought I was free from the barbarity of the Dark World under that [i]idiot[/i]. Girl, for your own safety, I recommend dueling. These little fools won't stop hounding anyone until they're defeated."[/b]

[color=#af7ac5][b]"What happened to being careful?"[/b][/color] Valerie snarked back at her partner, but trusting him implicitly as she raised her duel disk. There was another girl here, in the same Ra Yellow uniform as her. What was her name...? Screw it. [color=#af7ac5][b]"Yo,"[/b][/color] She called out to Mina. [color=#af7ac5][b]"So I'm pretty sure you can see spirits, same as me. Mind jumping in on this duel at all? Not gonna turn down free help when it's not an official game."[/b][/color]