The Frost King

A quick tie of the shoe later, Akari was leaning against the hallway wall, using her phone's camera as a mirror to inspect the damage from her fall. Luckily, there wasn't any sort of injury she could see. Her hair was looking a bit more messy though, but with her hair brush all the way back at her room, there wasn’t really a lot she could do about it. The best she could do was straighten with her hand a few times and call it done. With that out of the way, she was off on her search again, although at a much more careful pace. As she arrived at the next room, she looked in, and was at once confused. In this room were three people; one of which wore some sort of robed outfit. At once she thought occult club, but before she could move on, her eyes stuck on the face of the girl in the room. She knew her, not personally, but she knew her. It was Hoshiko, the idol duelist that was in that match against the Kamen Rider. Was this the entertainment duel club? It had to be, right? Well, with only one way to find out, Akari gently opened the door and slipped inside, just in time to catch the edge of something that Hoshiko was saying. ". . .me and my opponent, we make a beautiful dance." "Any questions?" There was a question on Akari’s mind, and although it felt rude to interrupt whatever conversation they were having, she was going to ask it. “Um, is this the entertainment dueling club?” She slightly waved as she introduced herself. "I'm Akari Ito, by the way"

“Excuse me!”, Akari blurted out as she bumped past someone, giving a meek wave back as she continued down the hallway in a hurry. As she neared yet another classroom door, she did what she had done with the past several doors, stopped and peered inside. Empty With a sigh, she kept going on her way. Where was this club?! She knew it was a brand-new club and all, but considering she had been in two different buildings and still hadn’t found any sign of this entertainment duel club, she was starting to get a little annoyed. Of course, her strategy for trying to find the club probably wasn’t the best, but it was better than nothing. As she came across another empty room, she thought back to how she had gotten to this point. After stocking up on club flyers on the first day, she had spent following days deciding on which one of the clubs she should. For most people, they would have probably decided on what club to join within the first three days, but Akari wasn’t most people. She didn’t like making rushed decisions, as doing so usually resulted in her making the wrong choice. So she took her time on picking what club to join, whittling down the number of clubs until she had two remaining: The duel club and the duel entertainment club. In the end, she picked the entertainment club. Because while her family were known for being competitive duelists, she had always wanted to be an entertainment duelist ever since her brother had became the first one in the family. And with her choice made, she went to look for the club. But she wasn’t able to find any sign of the club, nor did anybody seem to know if such a club existed. She couldn’t even find Kyouko or the orange-haired kid who had been looking for members for the club. So with her search being fruitless, she came up with a new plan. She’d find the club when they met up. And so here she was, aimlessly making her way from door to door, hoping to find the room where the entertainment duel club was meeting. As her search continued, she mindlessly started counting the room numbers as she went. 20 Empty 21 A board game club 22 Some sort of book club 23 Empt- Huh? Was that the floor? THUD “Ow.” With a gentle hand, Akari started to rub her hurting head while slowly picking herself up from the floor. She had tripped, that she was certain of, but what had she tripped on? A quick scan around revealed the obvious culprit: An untied shoelace. Letting out a sigh, she started to quickly re-tie it. Hopefully she found this club soon, cause today was starting to look like a bad day.

K

Feels nice when only one of your nominations makes it through the first round. But anyways. . .go Lyon!

Considering I'm playing Pokemon Sapphire right now, this post is perfect for me!

"The opposite, actually. I'm trying to keep all these clubs looking for new members off my back. A room full of strangers doesn't sound all that appealing, even if it's for a common interest." Right then, Kyouko glanced off in the direction of the duel booth, and Akari decided to take a glance of her own. The duel at the duel club booth had clearly ended as the crowd of students who had been watching it were beginning to disperse, a good portion of them getting in line for the club. The duelists stood by themselves as they shook hands, and they both were people that she recognized. The blonde haired boy was the same one who had the duel during move-in day, while the girl with the nice hat was one of the two other girls who had been hanging out with Melissa and Kyouko, also on move-in day. "You should join the swim team and try to pass off as me," Kyouko said in a kinda serious tone of voice, bringing Akari’s attention back to the conversation. "Maybe then they'll stop bothering me." That. . .didn’t really answer her question. Was the swim team bothering her because they wanted her in their club, or was she already in their club and they were bothering her for another reason? As she mentally tried to figure that out, she quickly realized how silent and awkward their conversation had gotten and swiftly tried to ease the tension. “Well, if I did try to pass off as you,” Akari started, closing her eyes and rubbing the back of her head nervously as she continued, “I probably wouldn’t do that good. If you hadn’t noticed, I’m kinda short compared to you, and my eyes are a differen-Huh?” In the short time that she had opened and closed her eyes, Kyouko had vanished. Had her words driven her away or something? A quick look around brought the tall girl back into view, and to Akari’s relief, it seemed like her words hadn’t driven Kyouko away. Rather, she seemed to be interested in an orange haired boy. The boy in question was obviously nervous, his body language and rather fast pace giving away a clear sign, and instinctually she headed over to see if he was alright, quickening her pace so that she could catch up. As she neared, she noticed Kyouko walk up besides the boy, and then look off in a direction as if looking for someone specific, before turning her attention back to the boy. "Something wrong?" Kyouko asked, as Akari took her time to catch up and walk up to the other side of the boy. “Yeah, are you alright?” She asked, a slightly worried look on her face. “You seem kinda nervous.”

Akari was starting to have flash backs to Syllabus day, and for good reason too. Making her way from club stand to club stand had made a rather large amount of different club flyers appear in her hands. Some of the flyers were for clubs that she had found some interest in, while other flyers had more or less been forced upon her by different club members. But what was she going to do about it? She didn’t want to seem rude by rejecting the flyers, but at the same time she didn’t want to be overwhelmed by a bunch of flyers for clubs she didn’t even want to join. As she tried to think of a way to kindly say no, she followed some rather brightly colored signs that announced “More clubs this way!” in bold text with an arrow pointing in the direction of the campus library. Along the way, she noticed a crowd had sort of formed around what Akari assumed to be the duel club, as a duel was obviously going on there. Who was dueling though, she couldn’t really see. Yet she continued to look on as she walked, wondering if she could get a slight glimpse of at least one of the duelists, when her movement was suddenly stopped when she ran straight into something. "Watch where you're going," A rather familiar voice spoke up as Akari turned to face the rather tall person, who she recognized instantly as Kyouko. “I’m sorry!” She apologized, backing up a bit as her face flushed red with embarrassment, “I wasn’t watching were I was going.” Letting out a nervous laugh, she quickly searched for a way to break the ice. “So, uh, how are you doing today? I’m currently looking for a club to join,” she held up the stack of club flyers to emphasize. “Are you looking for one too?”

Here's some serious nominations 1:Lyon (Sacred Stones) 2:Eliwood (Blazing Blade) 3:Ayra (Genealogy of the Holy War) 4:Grima Female (Awakening) 5:Fjorm (Fire Emblem Heroes) And here's the meme nominations 6:Camilla (Fates) 7:Oliver (Path of Radiance) 8:Surtr (Fire Emblem Heroes)

One look was all Akari needed to decide that this was the spot. The perfect spot, in fact. The right amount of shade, neat yet soft grass with no grass burrs or ant hills in sight, and almost perfect positioning for a soft autumn breeze to smooth right on by. Yes indeed, this spot was perfect. With a stretch of her arms and a deep breath, she sat down cross-legged on the soft grass, her back resting on the trunk of the mighty, yet peaceful oak tree that stood there. Spending time alone had been her way of relaxing, which helped greatly whenever she had a tough week or something troubling her. She usually spent her alone time thinking about upcoming tests, new cards or duel equipment that was coming out soon, or just anything that interested her or happened during the week. And sometimes she’d just sit lay down and watch the clouds go by as she let her mind relax. As a good few minutes passed as Akari was taking in the beauty of the new spot she found, her mind wandered to her old spot. For a good portion of last year, the rooftops of the Blue Yonder’s buildings had been where she used to spend alone time, watching as people walked below and feeling the cool air drift by. But after one too many encounters with her head and the rooftop doors, she ended up choosing to find a different place. At first it had been the library, but the almost constant silence began to drive her crazy, so she moved on. She tried her dorm room next and, not surprisingly, had the same result as the library. After that, she tried looking anywhere and everywhere she could think of, but the search would be fruitless in the end. As the school year came and went, she hadn’t been able to find what she had been looking for. Until now. Resting her hands behind her head, she looked up at the leaves above, not looking at them in particular, but rather the vast blue sky beyond them. It was so beautiful, even if it was all artificial. With the clouds softly floating by, the sun shining high, and birds soaring swiftly through the air, it brought a smile to her face. This is what she loved about Blue Yonder. It wasn’t the students, the staff, or the classes. It was the freedom, the freedom to do whatever, whenever, however she wanted to do it. The freedom she never got to really experience living at home with her family. With a ten-foot high wall and iron gate, the only time she could ever leave the Ito property was either with one of her relatives or with a ton of hired guards (of course, the latter was always a package deal with the former), and she couldn’t even do the latter until she was 13! Of course, she understood that her family was one of the most well-known families in the dueling community, and with them having a large following of fans, bodyguards were a necessity for keeping her and her family safe, but still. All she ever wanted to do was play outside and make friends like every other young girl in Ambrosia, but it was kind of hard to do that when a body guard stopped anybody who stepped within 10 feet of her. That’s why she loved Blue Yonder. She could do whatever she wanted or go wherever she pleased without having to have constant supervision. It was something she wouldn’t give up for anything, and yet. . . The familiar ring of a cell phone broke Akari’s train of thought as she Instinctually reached into her pocket to pull it out. The smile on Akari’s face grew in size slightly as she saw who was calling. It was her big brother, Reo. Since last year, he had always checked up on her almost every single week she had spent at Blue Yonder. Her sister did the same thing too, but Akari hadn’t received any contact from her yet. Taking a second to think about what to say, she answered the phone. “Hey Reo!” “Hey sis! How’s it been at Blue Yonder so far?” Just by hearing his voice, Akari could tell Reo was wearing the bright, positive attitude he always had on. “It’s been going great! I got to see one of the best duelists in the campus duel it out a few days ago.” “That’s awesome!” Akari could imagine her brother throwing his fist into the air as he said this. “It must have been an amazing duel.” “Yeah, it was. It reminded me how much I want to be a duelist like that.” “And I’m sure you’ll get there very soon!” Reo was as positive as ever. “Has anything else exciting or interesting happened so far?” There was something else that happened in fact, or to be exact, someone. The kind boy, Kazu, who had helped her pick up the papers she dropped. That was something that had happened, but there was no way she was gonna tell her brother that. “No, nothing else really happened,” Akari replied, although her mind was still on Kazu. Ever since that day, she hadn’t seen him anywhere on campus. Maybe she’d spend the rest of the day wandering campus just to see if she could find him. . .which reminded her. “Oh right, club recruitment week starts today,” she answered, feeling silly for almost forgetting the reason why school was out today. “I almost forgot about club recruitment week! It was one of my favorite times at Blue Yonder, even if I spent most of the week in the hot sun trying to get people to join the club I was in.” Akari laughed at the mental image of her brother, covered in sweat as he tried desperately to hand club flyers out. “Yeah, I can imagine working the duel team club booth was a pain.” “Huh? I wasn’t in the duel team. I was in the art club.” “What?!?” Akari exclaimed in shock. “Yeah! Don’t you remember all the paintings of Rainbow Dragon and the Crystal Beasts I did for you when you were younger?” “Well, yeah,” Akari’s mind flashed to the several chibi artworks of Rainbow Dragon and the Crystal Beasts that were hanging on the walls of her room back home. “But I thought you would be in the duel team because, you know, you’re such an awesome duelist.” “True, I am a good duelist, but back then I was discovering I had a talent for art and wanted to pursue it further. And besides, competitive dueling isn’t my kind of thing. You know entertainment dueling is my kind of style.” “Yeah, I know. . .I guess I just kinda assumed you would’ve been in the duel team.” Akari rubbed the back of her head nervously as she said this. “Yeah,” her brother admitted, “I might’ve joined back then if they had a place for entertainment duelists, but they were strictly competitive only.” An awkward pause followed before Reo picked the conversation back up. “But anyways, do you have any idea on which club you’re going to join?” “No, not really,” With how busy the past few days had been, she couldn’t even remember what half the clubs were, let alone which one to join. “I’m not really sure if I should even join a club.” “Well, if you’re not sure if you should join a club or not, then I think at the very least you should take a look around at all the different clubs. If none of them interest you, then you’ll know not to join a club. But if you find a club that interests you, and your heart is calling you to it, then I think you should go for it.” “That’s. . .actually a really good idea, Reo. I think I’ll do that.” When Akari didn’t get a reply back, she got a little worried. Had he hung up the phone? A quick check showed that the call was still connected, but she couldn’t hear anything. . .wait! She could hear him, although it sounded like he had covered the mike with his hand. She couldn’t make out what he was saying, but she could tell that he was talking to someone else. As a few more seconds rolled by, Reo finally uncovered the mic. “Hey, sorry about that but I’ve got to go. Got some duel training stuff I have to do, but I’ll make sure to call you later this week and find out what you chose to do, alright?” “Okay,” Akari replied. “Alright, I’ll hear from you then! Bye!” “Bye!” As Reo ended the call, Akari placed her phone back into her pocket and looked at the distant campus buildings, catching a glimpse of the club fair behind them. Well, if she was going to go look at clubs, she had better start right now. It was going to be a long day after all. Using the trunk of the tree to steady herself, Akari stood up from her sitting position and headed off towards campus, in search for a club that called to her.