As soon as Phil and Jaden returned from the infirmary, Phil sat down on one of the couches in the middle of the Ra Yellow commons room. Jaden sat next to him, a few bandages still poking out in the gaps of his Slifer Red jacket, along with Bastion, Syrus, Alexis, and Chazz. The latter two, who Syrus had fetched from the Obelisk Blue dorms on Bastion's and Phil's assistance, could only sit back in surprise as Jaden revealed the shadow game that had taken place only an hour ago. Meanwhile, Phil sat back on his cushy spot considering how exactly to proceed, what information to reveal and what to keep close to his chest. But, as Jaden's story came to and end with Jinzo's defeat and subsequent 'banishment via chair', Phil leaned forwards with an uncharacteristically serious expression on his face, immediately grabbing the attention of those present.

"Well, this settles it." Phil began, his fingers steepled together in front of his chest. "Shadow games are real. Bastion, Syrus, Jaden, you saw it in person. In addition, Jaden's wounds certainly did not appear out of thin air. First and second degree burns ain't no joke."

"Ancient Egyptian magic…" Chazz muttered in thought. "This truly is difficult to believe, though."

Bastion let out a short, mildly-stressed laugh in response. "Yes, if I hadn't seen the creature for myself, I might still have reservations, but in the face of physical proof, I can only say that… 'magic' is real enough. I suppose that fact does indeed explain a few things that were said to happen in the Duelist Kingdom and Battle City tournaments. No, I would say the real question now is how should we proceed? If a shadow game can happen to us once, then it can happen twice or even thrice. Maybe someone's even targeting the academy?"

Phil nodded in agreement. "Right-o. Interestingly enough, there is a little bit known about shadow games out there that I've happened across in the library. It's all framed as speculation in the books, of course, but now that a shadow game has actually happened, some of that info might have some truth in it. There's no doubt about it that shadow games are incredibly dangerous. Maximillion Pegasus's duel against Yugi Muto during Duelist Kingdom tournament probably had something to do with a shadow game. The duel did involve the Puzzle and the Eye, two damn powerful artifacts if they truly were real. Not to mention what happened to Joey Wheeler and Mai Valentine during Battle City. Anyways, with all that, along with what happened to Jinzo after he lost, we do know that the loser of the game suffers terrible consequences. In addition, during the game, the damage inflicted to a person is brought into reality."

"No kidding…" Jaden winced, poking at his own chest for the umpteenth time. At his side, Winged Kuriboh squeaked in agreement, a sight unseen by all but Phil, who completely ignored the small creature.

"You know guys, I hate to say this but my money's on this happening again, only worse." Phil continued, looking straight into the eyes of everyone present one by one. "I consider you all as friends, so I want you all to be prepared. Our study sessions are helping, but I have another thing that could do some good. I was out walking a few days ago, and I happened across a few cards on the ground, just like Bastion did before our duel. I don't know why this keeps happening, but I ain't about to look a gift horse in the mouth, so I did some testing with the cards. Anyways, it turns out that some of the ones I found just aren't my style, so I got to thinking about you guys." Then, Phil reached into his jacket to withdraw a handful of cards from one of the deck holders attached to the inside of the mustard-yellow jacket.

"Jaden, I already gave you those two Stratos's I found, and unfortunately that's all I could find for you. Bastion, this is nothing new, but here's two Duoterion's and a Bonding – DHO. They should make your Water Dragon strategy a little bit more consistent. Alexis, I have more than a few cards for you. I found a bunch of Cyber Angel stuff, and any time I even see a ritual monster I feel an unnatural hatred. I've tried to make ritual decks work in the past, but they fucking hate me. But, Jaden here mentioned that you play a bit of Cyber Angels, so if you want, you can have this crap."

Alexis stared at Phil for a few seconds, but upon realizing that he truly had no ulterior motives she nodded and accepted the cards.

"There should be a Machine Angel Ritual, two Bentens, one Izana, and one Vrash. Make sure to read Vrash, she's kinda busted if you summon her at the correct moment. However, I am aware that you have a separate fusion strategy in your deck, so I guess it's up to you, Alexis, to decide what is best to play."

"I will do some testing, but with this many ritual cards I think I have a good idea what to do next." Alexis replied while tucking the new cards carefully into her deck box.

Phil nodded and turned to look towards Syrus. "Buddy, I don't have much for you other than a new fusion monster and a few words of advice, if you wish to accept them."

"A-anything would be nice if it helps me out! That Jinzo scared the socks off of me, and I didn't even duel him!" Syrus replied, doing his best to mask his own trembles of anxiety.

"Right. Here's a new fusion." Phil replied while handing Syrus the card. "And I heard through the grapevine that you got your hands on a Power Bond. Am I right? You don't have to tell me if you don't want to."

Syrus gulped but eventually nodded to affirm Phil's words.

"Cool cool. Power Bond is a strong card, and I bet you're worried about using it because of the downside. Just remember that the downside doesn't matter if Power Bond gets you the damage to win the game that turn. I suppose it's okay if you don't use it in normal duels anyways, but for fucks sake use that card and drop a fat bastard of a fusion monster on the field if your life is on the line. If you don't want to do it for your sake, just think of your brother, or Jaden, or any of us. We don't want to hear that you got thrown into the shadow realm or something like that."

"O-okay. I'll… I'll try, Phil. I'll try." Syrus choked out. The boy still looked absolutely terrified at the prospect of using that spell, but the combination of Phil's words, the new card, and Jaden patting his back reassuringly at least appeared to calm him down.

"Now for you, Chazz." Phil turned to the Obelisk Blue student in question, who in return cocked his eyebrows with a challenging look, seemingly not convinced that any help from Phil would be all that helpful to him.

"Yeah, yeah. I know, Chazz. You're strong and you have your own ways to get cards. Hell, you've won enough tournaments before coming to the island to have a good stash of cards, I bet. So, I'll just give you one card of mine that I legitimately can't use in any of my decks."

Phil held out a card, one well-used enough that the back of it was heavily faded, and handed it to Chazz. The two duelists locked eyes, and after an invisible clash of wills, Chazz accepted the card with a scoff.

"Also guys, I think we need to keep an eye on Professor Sartyr's situation. The man hasn't been seen in a week, and the 'personal leave' excuse seems a bit odd when you consider the timing. It could be nothing, but seeing as the substitute teacher should be in tomorrow, maybe we can grill him for info." Phil, of course, left out the fact that he already knew that Sartyr was dead. Even he could see that the weight on the shoulders of his friends was beginning to approach dangerous levels, with the deadly shadow games and all. That small mercy was all Phil could provide.

"Sweet, so with that over, I think I'm gonna hit the hay." Phil heaved himself to his feet, oblivious to Chazz's pupils constricting as he flipped the card over to take a look at it.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

As soon as the door to Phil's dorm room closed, Phil heaved a sigh of relief that the card distribution had gone as smoothly as he could have asked. Sure, he had expected Syrus and Bastion to easily accept the help, but the possibility that Alexis and Chazz would refuse the cards out of pride had weighed on his mind for quite a while.

"Did everything go as planned?" Lumina questioned Phil from where she lounged on the spare bed in front of some sort of TV screen that was displaying two extremely buff ogres beating the absolute tar out of each other with their fists. The TV itself oozed from where it sat, and, as Phil noticed to some disgust, the appliance seemed to be alive somehow, and in great pain if the face attached to the top of the TV that had reception antennas protruding from its mouth was being truthful in its expressions.

"Yeah." Phil finally replied as he did his best to ignore the disgusting appliance. "I couldn't give them any crazy-good cards since people might start asking questions, but they ones they have now should be enough to give them an edge in any duels they participate in."

Lumina nodded absentmindedly, and then gave a startled jump as someone knocked on the dorm room door.

A confused look crossed Phil's face, but he turned to answer the door anyways, opening it to reveal a scowling Chazz.

"Yo, what's up Chazz?" Phil questioned the boy. Sure, it wasn't illegal for Chazz to knock on his door, but it definitely was strange due to the Obelisk Blue's own prideful nature. Hell, Phil hadn't even known for sure that Chazz would accept the card in the first place.

"Tell me how you got it." Chazz curtly replied. Each word that passed his lips sounded like they were being bitten with how curt the boy was speaking.

"Got what? Get to the fucking point dude, I can't read your mind." Responded Phil with slight annoyance.

"The Dark Armed Dragon. How. Did. You. Find. A. Copy."

Phil tilted his head in confusion. Was that actually a rare card? "I thought I told you? I came across it on the ground, with the others. It seems to be happening surprisingly often nowadays for more than a few people around here."

Evidently that answer was one that was none too pleasing to Chazz, for his scowl deepened and he turned around to leave, only spitting one last sentence over his shoulder as a parting gesture.

"If I ever find out that Slade or Jagger sent you, I'll damn well make sure that your stay at the academy is… less than pleasant."

Phil watched him go with a confused expression written all across his face.

Who the fuck are Slade and Jagger?

Then, he giggled despite himself. "Fuckin' hell. Lumina!" Phil shouted back into the dorm room. "There's some poor bastards in this world named Slade and Jagger. How much do ya' think their parents hated them to pick out those names?"

Lumina took the high road and deigned not to answer Phil's off-the-wall question, choosing instead to watch one of the ogres throw the other one off the state to plummet sixteen feet to the ground to crush the announcer's table under the ogre's bulk.