To be fair, the girl in front of me is genuinely quite beautiful.
Her Gothic dress is as deep as the night, crafted from the elaborate silk of the celestial sky. Her skin is flawless and pure as the first snow, with a faint hint of pink, white as if never kissed by sunlight. Her long hair is midnight black, cascading down her waist, adorned with intricate braids and delicate hair ornaments. Her petite and exquisite figure resembles a finely-made doll, exuding the cold allure and mystery of Gothic style, yet retaining the innocence and vivacity of a young girl.
The first impression she gives is that of seemingly flawless beauty, hence causing quite a stir on her first day in the dormitory. However, there's something unreal about this beauty.
Because Yugen immediately sees that she is not human.
Now, he recalls the story. Because it's just a segment of the long 180-episode Yu-Gi-Oh! GX series, he barely remembers it, until facing the girl, combined with Auntie Tami's notice at the student terminal, he starts to remember.
The girl is named Alice — indeed her real name. But she's not human; she can hardly be considered a Card Elf. She is a Puppet Elf, a rarity throughout the Yu-Gi-Oh! series.
However, within the Yu-Gi-Oh World, not only cards can possess elves; it's just that Card Spirits are the most common and powerful. Various other entities with spirituality also have the possibility of harboring elves.
Alice's true form is the enigmatic doll in the academy shop, legendary for possessing extraordinary power. Originally, she existed to protect duelists, playing a role akin to a protective talisman, always considering safeguarding the duelist's spirit her duty.
But later, some students in the academy went astray with their duelist spirit, blaming their card and deck for failure and misfortunes in life, thinking it's due to weak cards that led to losses.
So, in a fit of rage, a student tore his card on the spot, shredding his own Monster.
This act of tearing did not settle well; the unjustly treated Monster felt wronged. Obviously, the owner was incompetent, unable to draw desirable cards, still battling ineffectively, yet blaming the Monster. Thus the creature darkened, spawning an evil Card Spirit from the shredded card, resenting all duelists in the world, with a self-imposed mission to make duelists lose their dueling spirit through duels of despair.
However, the evil spirit had no card left, lacking a vessel for action. Consequently, the resentful spirit latched onto the nearby guardian doll in the shop, forcibly entering the doll and darkening it, transforming it from a protective doll into a vengeful cursed puppet.
This is Alice now.
She appears before the students in the image of a petite and adorable girl, quickly winning over almost all the students with her perfect 'cute girl' persona and top-notch cooking skills...and their appetites.
But this is merely bait set by a first-rate hunter. In the original work, Bladehill, besotted by Alice, got up in the middle of the night, drooling, and sleepwalked to a small forest, where, according to Alice, he was entrapped in a realm of despair through a duel, unable to extricate himself.
However, though Alice describes it this way, when Judai and the others arrived, they saw Bladehill with a flushed face, hearts in his eyes, lying on the ground, unconscious yet occasionally twitching, smiling foolishly with drool at his lips, looking anything but trapped in despair, rather appearing as if he's reached Paradise…
So Alice's 'duel of despair' exactly what circumstances lead to it, we don't know, nor dare ask. Only judging by the outcome, it seems rather enticing…
"Senior? Senior?"
The cursed puppet blinked her large eyes twice, then fearfully retreated two steps away from Yugen on instinct.
She lowered her head and whispered, "You... you've been staring at me like that, I'm scared..."
Yugen, lost in thought about the plot, finally snapped back to reality.
Then he smiled warmly.
"Sorry, I was just thinking about something." He shifted aside to make room, "It's fine, you can sit here."
But now, Alice hesitated a bit.
In the original story, Alice, after sneaking out from the shop, pretended to be a transfer student and mixed into the Red Dormitory. But with the world's timeline changed, she's come to the Yellow Dormitory. The reason is simple, naturally because of Yugen.
As she tells Judai in the anime, she is seeking powerful duelists. The more powerful duelist she traps into a reluctance to duel, the greater her sense of accomplishment.
And now, Yugen holding the title of Duel King is undoubtedly the foremost person in the academy, prominent and drawing attention, she rightly came to the Yellow Dormitory to meet Yugen.
But facing him in person, just after one encounter, she faltered.
For she, a cursed puppet fallen into darkness, instinctually felt as though staring into the abyss upon meeting this man.
A voice in her heart cautioned her: this person is dangerous.
The surrounding students see the pretty junior approaching Yugen proactively, feeling envious yet natural. After all, he is the Master of the Yellow Robe, Duel King. Any newcomer at school would want such an opportunity, wouldn't they?
Alice finds the gaze of the person before her friendly, his smile warm, yet instinctually she wants to evade.
She tugged at her skirt hem and whispered, "Um... senior, I suddenly remembered I have something to do..."
"Don't be shy, feel free to sit."
Yugen smiled politely and paused before squinting his eyes.
"Or, could it be that you don't want to sit anymore?"
"No... nothing like that!"
Alice hurriedly sat down.
But instinctively sitting down, realizing something odd in her heart.
Wait, why am I fearing him like this...
Nonetheless, since she was there, she opted to proceed with the original plan.
Alice took a deep breath and then pushed the bowl toward Yugen.
"Well... senior, would you like to try this?" she asked cautiously, "It's mango foie gras sushi I made myself, very delicious."
Yugen was not shy, using chopsticks to pick one to try.
Indeed excellent. No wonder the line is so long on the restaurant side, seems not all just came to see the pretty junior. Her card skills are unknown, but her culinary skills are surely maxed out.
"Pretty good. But let's skip the prelude and get to the main subject right away."
Yugen smiled and said.
"You and I know why you're here to see me."
The puppet girl startled, reluctant to respond.
"Let's skip the troublesome procedures; my time is rather limited... just like this. Come directly to my room at nine tonight."
The puppet fearfully drew back somewhat.
"You... I have not... What do you want to do?"
Yugen looked at her in bewilderment.
"Naturally, it's dueling." Yugen stated plainly, "You came to see me for this, didn't you? What else could it be?"