"My turn."
It was Haruki's turn. He placed his right hand atop his deck but didn't immediately draw.
Hikaru was curious.
This Society of Light Duelist, someone who hadn't appeared in the original series, a classmate from the same year that he had absolutely no memory of, what kind of Deck did this guy use?
"Against you, a normal duel won't cut it." Haruki's hand remained hovering over his deck. "You're a powerful Duelist, a Fusion genius. Even with a Deck full of Fusions, you duel with perfect fluidity. If I'm going to face you, I have to go all out."
'Oh?'
Hikaru's curiosity deepened.
As if responding to that curiosity, a strange black mist began swirling in the station. Under everyone's gaze, a black skull emblem slowly surfaced on the back of Haruki's right hand, spreading like a tattoo.
'So those weren't tattoos after all?'
Before anyone could process it, ominous black smoke billowed from the skull, coiling around the area. It gradually formed into a massive, cloaked skeleton, a classic, old-school Grim Reaper straight out of Castlevania.
"What the heck!" Bastion, who had thought this was just a normal duel, exclaimed.
"W-What's happening?"
Several students screamed and fled at the sight of the eerie smoke and that terrifying Reaper.
"...The Death Card?" Hikaru paused for a moment, recalling the card.
"Yes," Haruki confirmed.
Tch... that was kind of impressive.
Hikaru raised an eyebrow.
The "Death Card" was a card sealed at Duel Academy's North Branch, just like how the main Academy had sealed the Sacred Beasts. The Death Card was the North Branch's sealed card.
Like the Sacred Beasts, it devoured life, but unlike them, it only consumed the life and soul of its user.
However, what it offered in return was something every Duelist dreamed of:
Drawing whatever card you wished!
In the original, someone had used the "One Turn Kill! Iaido Draw" combo with it, defeating nearly every Duelist they faced until a duel with Jaden Yuki made them realize their true desire and abandon the Death Card.
The guy before him now... completely different from Hikaru's memory of that character.
'…So Sartorius got the Death Card from that person?'
"The skull on my right hand cries out for victory!
'Defeat, defeat, defeat!'
'Defeat every enemy before me!'
'Death, grant me the power to make my wishes come true!"'
"Choose: life or victory?" The Reaper spoke.
Tierra stood to the side, eyeing the Reaper with keen interest.
"Of course... victory!" Haruki roared as he drew.
Hikaru narrowed his eyes.
"My turn. I Normal Summon Dimensional Alchemist!"
A black orb appeared before him, and then a white-clad mage manipulating the orb floated in front of him.
[Dimensional Alchemist] Level 4 | LIGHT | Fairy | 1300 ATK
"Once per turn, this card can banish the top card of my Deck to gain 500 Attack until the end of the turn." Haruki picked up the top card.
[Dimensional Alchemist, ATK: 1300 → 1800]
"So what's the point of that?"
"I activate the Spell Card, Dimension Distortion."
"This lets me Special Summon a banished monster."
"Huh?" Bastion blinked in surprise. "Isn't that a card you can only activate when you have no cards in your Graveyard?
Normally, by the time you could use this card, your Graveyard would already have something in it. Even if you could activate it on turn one, it's still nearly impossible to have a useful monster ready to Special Summon immediately..."
"And that Alchemist only banishes the top card of the Deck... This is way too reckless!" Not just Bastion, all the nearby students, mostly top-performing Duelists, couldn't help commenting.
How could he be so sure Alchemist and this Spell would combo that cleanly?
Regardless, inevitably, it did.
That was the power of [Death].
"Special Summon, Barrier Statue of the Heavens!"
'Hallelujah~'
A towering rock statue, resembling the Holy Mother, descended from another dimension, radiating light as it landed.
[Barrier Statue of the Heavens] Level 4 | LIGHT | Fairy | 1000 DEF
"Wait, Barrier Statue of the Heavens?" Bastion froze.
"What is it, Bastion?" Celina asked.
"As long as that card's on the field, neither player can Special Summon monsters that aren't LIGHT Attribute. And Hikaru's Deck... really doesn't have many LIGHT monsters." Bastion wore a conflicted expression. "He just happened to banish that card?"
"But it only has 1000 Defense," Celina reasoned. "Shouldn't be too hard to deal with."
Bastion nodded.
"I activate the Continuous Spell, The Fountain in the Sky."
A massive floating island appeared overhead, with streams of white light cascading down onto the field.
Its aesthetic perfectly matched the Society of Light's signature style.
"As long as this card remains, whenever a LIGHT monster is destroyed by battle and sent to the Graveyard, I can banish it and regain Life Points equal to its Attack."
"I set one card and end my turn."
Just like that, Haruki's first turn ended in a seemingly strange but eerily "self-looping" setup.
Hikaru stared at the field, thinking carefully about his opponent's tactics.
His Extra Deck really didn't contain many LIGHT-Attribute Fusion Monsters. The Barrier Statue was definitely limiting him.
If he wanted to duel smoothly, priority one was destroying the Barrier Statue.
But doing that meant, thanks to The Fountain in the Sky, the statue would get banished and Haruki would recover 1000 Life Points.
Then, if the Alchemist got destroyed, its effect would let Haruki retrieve the banished monster.
In short, it was a small-scale resource loop.
Even so... that was only under "ideal conditions."
Hikaru could easily destroy the Alchemist instead and leave the Barrier Statue alone, focus on running a one-off LIGHT play.
After all, he didn't have many, but that didn't mean he had none.
Say, for example;
The Cyber Dragon series was almost entirely LIGHT Attribute.
"My turn. Draw."
Hikaru drew a card.
Just what he needed.
"I activate the Spell Card, Fusion Deployment."
By revealing a Fusion Monster, he could Special Summon one of its listed materials from his Deck.
"Man, must be nice... always drawing exactly the card you need in a pinch," Haruki muttered enviously under his breath.
...
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