After hearing Yumi's question, Zane quickly shook his head, brushing aside the memory of last night's duel.
That match with Momoyo… it still haunted him.
While she had gone to bed humming happily, he had stayed up, mind racing, trying to figure out how to counter her chaotic and utterly toxic playstyle.
But the only solution he could come up with is to tear apart his entire deck and build something new. Which was not an option.
His Cyber Dragons weren't just cards, they were a part of who he was. His deck wasn't a strategy; it was his identity. Abandoning them now would feel like throwing away everything he'd built as a duelist.
And Zane Truesdale wasn't someone who folded that easily.
"Don't hold back on me, Kohai," he said at last, forcing a small smile as he locked eyes with Yumi.
Since finding a way around Momoyo's nonsense wasn't working, maybe a good, serious duel could clear his head.
Yumi returned the look, his smile a little sharper.
"Then you better make me, Senpai."
With a flick of his wrist, he activated his duel disk, the device humming to life.
Zane mirrored the gesture, his own duel disk lighting up as he shifted into a focused stance.
"DUEL!" x2
[Yumi, LP 4000]
[Zane, LP 4000]
"I'll go first! Draw!" Zane declared, drawing his opening card.
Normally, a Cyber Dragon deck thrived going second, after all, Cyber Dragon could Special Summon itself when the opponent controlled a monster and you didn't. It was built for aggressive counterplay.
But after witnessing Yumi's second FTK, and noticing that his hand doesn't have something like a Kuriboh. Zane quickly took the first turn to avoid getting FTK after saying all of that.
"I activate the Spell Card, Polymerization!" Zane announced, holding up the card as a swirling vortex of energy erupted beside him.
"I fuse the three Cyber Dragons in my hand!"
Three chrome-scaled, serpent-like dragons appeared behind him, screeching mechanically as they were pulled into the vortex, merging into a blinding storm of blue and silver light.
"Descend! Cyber End Dragon!"
The duel platform trembled beneath their feet as the three-headed mechanical titan roared to life, rising behind Zane like a war machine sent from the future.
[Cyber End Dragon, 4000 ATK]
Gasps rippled through the crowd of students watching. Even Jaden's eyes lit up with excitement; he'd been on the receiving end of that beast before, and he still got chills seeing it hit the field.
Zane wasn't done.
"I set two cards face-down." Two glowing cards materialized behind the metallic titan. Zane lowered his hand and crossed his arms with practiced cool.
"Turn end."
"Wow~! Cyber End Dragon on the first turn! Amazing, Senpai!" Yumi exclaimed, looking up at the massive mechanical dragon in awe.
Zane nearly tripped.
Those words…
His gaze instinctively flicked toward the crowd, there she was. Momoyo, still watching. His expression hardened as he turned back to Yumi.
He sighed in relief, just as the wind kicked up, sending Yumi's hair fluttering. The bangs formed a familiar messy X-shape.
"Not bad, Senpai." Yumi placed his hand on his deck. "Draw!"
Without hesitation, he slammed the card onto his Duel Disk. "Spell card, Dark Hole! Destroy all monsters on the field!"
A swirling black vortex materialized, sucking in everything in its reach. The colossal Cyber End Dragon roared in defiance as it was torn apart and swallowed by the void.
Zane: "…"
His head snapped back toward the crowd. Yep, Momoyo was still there. Then back at Yumi. Then back again, just to make sure it wasn't a cardboard cutout.
"I'll Normal Summon, Sky Striker Ace - Raye!"
Digital particles coalesced, forming into the sleek figure of his ace monster.
[Sky Striker Ace - Raye, 1500 ATK]
"Spell card, Take Over 5! Send the top five cards of my deck to the graveyard!"
Yumi slid five cards into the grave slot.
"Battle! Raye, player direct attack!"
She leapt forward, blade drawn.
"Trap card open!" Zane declared, flipping his card. "Call of the Haunted! I revive a monster from my graveyard in Attack Position. Return! Cyber End Dragon!"
The ground trembled. A familiar roar echoed as the triple-headed metal dragon re-emerged.
[Cyber End Dragon, 4000 ATK]
"Cyber End again?" Yumi murmured with a knowing smile. His tone... was far too familiar.
Zane narrowed his eyes, but before he could turn to confirm his suspicion-
"Quickplay Spell, Sky Striker Mecha - Widow Anchor! I negate Cyber End Dragon's effect. And since I have three or more Spells in the graveyard, I take control of it!"
A large mechanical claw shot out and yoinked the dragon from Zane's field, dragging it to Yumi's side.
Zane: "…"
His boss monster… became the enemy's boss monster. Taken by the younger brother of the girl who had already given him multiple heart attacks.
Zane took a deep breath, placing a trembling hand over his chest.
"Oi, Zane," Momoyo called from the side, "you're not having another heart attack, are you?"
They'd dueled plenty of times. She knew the signs.
"I'm fine…" he muttered. "Just... hard to breathe."
At least she used Change of Heart or Brain Control during her Main Phase. But her younger brother... He is even worse!
"Senpai, since your monster left the field, my attack continues!" Yumi said cheerfully. "Go, Raye! Ace Striker!"
Raye's blade slashed across Zane's chest.
"Ughh!" Zane clenched his teeth, feeling the strike.
[Zane, LP 4000 -> 2500]
"Now, Cyber End Dragon, direct attack!" Yumi shouted, waving his hand.
"Eternal Evolution Burst!!"
The dragon charged and fired a blinding beam of energy.
"Trap open, Draining Shield!" Zane countered. "I negate your monster attack, and gain Life Points equal to the monster's ATK!"
A shimmering barrier absorbed the blast, and a surge of light washed over Zane.
[Zane, LP 2500 -> 6500]
"Amazing, Senpai!" Yumi beamed, which nearly made Zane fall over.
Every time Yumi or Momoyo compliments someone, that person is most likely to have a heart attack if they were playing cards with those two.
"Stop saying that," he said sharply, clutching his chest. "You'll kill someone like that."
Everyone: "???"
"Anyway, Raye's effect activates!" Yumi continues, and Raye's body glows a bright light. "Tributing her, I can Special Summon a Sky Striker Ace from my Extra Deck!"
The light faded, and Raye now stood in her orange-red samurai mecha armor, her blades wings open behind her back, igniting with flame.
"Henshin! Sky Striker Ace - Kagari!"
[Sky Striker Ace - Kagari, 1500 ATK]
"Kagari's effect, when she is summoned, I can add a Sky Striker Spell from my grave to my hand." A card popped out from his grave, and Yumi raised it for Zane to see. "I'll add Widow Anchor back to my hand."
Zane's eyelid twitched violently, his hand reaching back to clench his chest, feeling his heart beating so fast it felt like it was about to burst through his rib cage any second now.
"Kagari's effect: she gains 100 ATK for every spell in my grave." Yumi continued, not noticing Zane was having a heart attack.
[Sky Striker Ace - Kagari, 1500 -> 2000 ATK]
"Quickplay spell, Master Magician's Incantation! Letting me activate a spell like it is a quick play spell." Yumi said before pulling out his final card.
"Spell card, Gift of the Martyr! I'll send Cyber End Dragon to the grave, and transfer its original ATK to Kagari until the end of this turn!"
The massive dragon looks visibly wounded, it was taken from its master, then forced to attack its own master, now it is being tribute to boost the enemy's power.
To make it simple, it got captured, used, and then discarded.
[Sky Striker Ace - Kagari, 2000 -> 2200 -> 6200 ATK]
Zane: "..."
"Go, Kagari! Player direct attack!"
A blaze ignited behind her. Her blade flared as she launched toward Zane.
"Afterburner!"
"Ahhh!" The impact sent him flying backward, rolling across the field, gasping in pain. The crowd was shocked, seeing the Kaiser of Duel Academy being pushed around by this first-year Kohai.
[Zane, LP 6500 -> 300]
"I'll set one card and end my turn," Yumi said calmly.
A single face-down card appeared behind Kagari.
Everyone watching already knew what that card probably was.
[Sky Striker Ace - Kagari, 6200 -> 2200 ATK]
Despite having already ended his turn, Zane made no move to stand.
"Uh, Senpai? You alright?" Yumi asked, a bit concerned.
Then Zane's finger twitched as he slowly pushed himself up, gasping for air, before placing a hand down onto his deck.
"I... I won't lose... I have had enough of this! My turn... DRAW!!"
He ripped the card from the top of his deck so fast that it left a white arc in the air.
Yumi: "..."
Raye: "..."
Again? Senpai, this is a friendly duel! Why are you acting like I'm your mortal enemy!?
Zane looked at his newly drawn card, then slammed it into his Duel Disk.
"Spell card, Card of Demise, letting me draw until I have five cards, but after my fifth turn, I must discard my entire hand!"
Yumi: Wait... why does this feel so familiar?
Raye: I've definitely seen this combo before...
Zane drew five new cards without hesitation.
"Spell card, Mystical Space Typhoon! Letting me destroy a Spell or Trap on the field. I'll destroy your facedown card!"
A violent whirlwind burst onto the field, shattering Yumi's face-down.
[Sky Striker Ace - Kagari, 2200 -> 2300 ATK]
Without wasting a second, Zane slapped down another card.
"Quickplay spell, Cybernetic Fusion Support! Pay half my Life Points and this turn, I can fusion summon Machine Fusion monster using monsters in my hand, field, and grave by removing them from play!"
[Zane, LP 300 -> 150]
"And now, I play, Power Bond! I fuse the three Cyber Dragons in my Graveyard!"
The trio of mechanical dragons vanished in a swirl of blue light.
"Rise again! Cyber End Dragon!!"
The massive three-headed dragon returned, roaring behind him.
[Cyber End Dragon, 4000 ATK]
"Since Cyber End Dragon is fusion summoned using Power Bond. Its ATK is double!"
The massive Cyber End Dragon only grew larger.
[Cyber End Dragon, 4000 -> 8000 ATK]
"Am-" "Battle!" Zane quickly cut off Yumi before he could say another word, feeling that if he let this Kohai finish, his heart might stop beating.
"Cyber End Dragon, attack Kagari!"
As the dragon charged its tri-beam cannon, Zane activated his last card.
"Quickplay spell, Battle Fusion! When our monster battled, my monster gained ATK equal to your monster's ATK!"
[Cyber End Dragon, 8000 -> 10300 ATK]
"10,300 ATK!?" The crowd erupted in disbelief as the blast surged toward Kagari.
"Eternal Evolution Burst!!"
As the blast reaches down toward Kagari, Yumi just smiles.
"I activate the effect of Necro Gardna, which was sent to the Graveyard by Take Over 5 last turn!" Yumi swung his arm forward. A phantom warrior leapt from his Graveyard, taking the hit in Kagari's place.
"By banishing Necro Gardna, I can negate your attack!" Yumi held up the card before putting it away.
Zane: "..."
Zane didn't know what to say anymore. His expression remained calm before he let out a sigh of relief, finally feeling free.
"Power Bond's side effect: I'll take damage equal to the fusion monster's original ATK."
With Cyber End Dragon's original ATK reaching 4000, the result was clear.
[Zane, LP 150 -> 0]
Yumi smiled brightly. "Gotcha! That was a fun duel, Senpai!" He struck his signature pose, pointing two fingers confidently at Zane.
Zane, however, would very much like to disagree.
The spectators were stunned. Zane Truesdale, Kaiser, the strongest third-year, had just been defeated by a freshman.
By a Slifer Red.
What Yumi didn't realize at the time was that this single duel elevated his status beyond expectations, beyond even the title of Strongest Slifer Red.
...
Resting in his dorm room, Yumi lay lazily on the top bunk, arms folded behind his head and one leg crossed over the other.
He had recently been promoted to Obelisk Blue after pulling off yet another FTK, this time against one of their own. But he turned down the offer.
Now, instead of being recognized by dorm rank, Yumi had earned a new title: Slifer, named not after the dorm but the Egyptian God itself.
Despite the ranking of the three dorms, their names are still based on the three Egyptian Gods.
You can mock someone in Slifer Red, but you can't mock a god like Slifer.
Still, Yumi found the title a bit much. He was human, not some god. The thought of "Slifer" wearing the yellow jacket of Ra Yellow or the blue of Obelisk Blue felt wrong. Doing so would feel like spitting on the name of Slifer the Sky Dragon.
Unlike Jaden, who was promoted to Ra Yellow, but he refused and came back to Slifer Red because he missed his friend. But even after all his friends had left, he still stayed. By Season 4 of the anime, Jaden was the only Slifer Red student left in Duel Academy; even then, the first year didn't have a single Slifer Red.
While in the manga, Jaden decides to stay in Slifer Red because his big brother, Koyo Hibiki, wore the Slifer Red style coat, so Jaden wants to follow in the footsteps of his big brother.
So Yumi found that Jaden's decision in the manga is more real a understandable than the one in anime.
But then again, Jaden was depressed during the late Season 3 and Season 4, and he even distanced himself from his friends to avoid causing trouble for them. He was afraid that the event of late Season 3 would happen again, and it somehow connected to him.
Jaden even tried to withdraw from Duel Academy early on during Season 4, but his letter was refused, and he decided not to leave the island.
Yumi exhaled quietly, staring up at the ceiling.
The door suddenly creaked open, and a moment later, a sharp pain exploded in his gut.
"Gahhh!"
A foot dug into his stomach.
"Huh!? What are you doing on my bed?" Celina asked, pressing her foot down harder for emphasis.
Yumi winced. "I thought you got promoted to Ra Yellow? Why are you still here?"
She smirked, grinding her foot into his gut. "What am I doing here? This is my room. My bed."
She was clearly reenacting their first day meeting in this very room, albeit with more force.
"Nuh-uh! Since you left, the top bunk is mine now!" Yumi shot back, playful but defiant.
"Nuh-uh! I never really left, so it still belongs to me!" Celina retorted, matching his energy with a grin.
And just like that, the two broke into a mock scuffle on the top bunk. Neither wanted to back down. Celina held back her real strength to avoid actually hurting him, while Yumi relied solely on his human strength, no duel spirits helping him out.
The bed squeaked beneath them as their playful war over ownership resumed, just like old times.