The duel officially began.
A few duelists still in the City of Duels noticed a duel starting. Most were about to take a passing glance and carry on with their business.
But then someone shouted "Joey!" and suddenly the veteran duelists who hadn't planned on watching came flooding over, calling their friends along.
Hikaru stood in front of the card shop alongside Solomon Muto.
The old man had wanted to chat with Hikaru, but seeing a duel start, he wasn't in a rush. Since Hikaru was the one who suggested it in the first place, they simply stood together and watched.
The first turn went to Rex Raptor.
He glanced at his hand, then looked at his opponent.
Over the past decade, he'd grown considerably taller. While he still hadn't caught up to Joey Wheeler's height, he no longer had to crane his neck upward like before. Only now, the gap between them couldn't even be called "looking up."
Ten years. From living on the streets, digging through trash and scrounging for scraps, to barely clawing his way back to respectability as a sponsored duelist for the Dinosaur Corporation. He'd taken many wrong turns and wasted a lot of time.
Joey was different.
After graduating, that guy had entered the professional dueling circuit, and it wasn't long before he carved his way through the competition. He became a genuine "Professional Dueling Legend," a bona fide "Top Three Duelist in the World," one of the "strongest duelists alive."
Rex was just one of many commercial "hired duelists." Joey's commercial empire, on the other hand, was like a tidal wave.
The gap was enormous.
But still, when the two of them stood across from each other in a duel again, Rex couldn't help feeling a surge of excitement.
A familiar impulse, one he could never forget, slowly rose within him.
He wanted to win!
No matter what, he wanted to beat Joey!
Even if it meant giving his life, even if it meant selling his soul to a devil, or abandoning every card he'd ever held...
He shook his head clear.
"Who's his opponent? For Joey to actually step up himself."
"It's been years since anyone's seen Joey duel..."
A number of duelists gathered at a distance, watching the match from afar. When they finally saw the opponent, it all made sense.
So that's who it was.
Rex Raptor.
While plenty of so-called "Legendary Duelists" were riding on unearned reputations, this man and Joey genuinely had a lot of history.
This duel could truly be called a "Revival of Legends"!
"Is that your senior?" Solomon hunched over and asked Hikaru.
Hikaru nodded. "He's guided me down many paths in my work, helped me out of a lot of trouble. Even this visit to you was his recommendation."
"Ho ho ho... Rex, eh..." Solomon chuckled and didn't press further.
"Go for it, Rex!" Hikaru cheered him on.
Some duelists, surprised to hear someone cheering for Rex Raptor, looked over curiously. A few of them recognized Hikaru and were taken aback.
Rex heard Hikaru's shout and took two deep breaths.
Don't be afraid. Don't be afraid...
Ever since Hikaru had defeated Weevil Underwood, Rex had actually been gradually reconnecting with old acquaintances and had started working within the "Legendary Duelist circle."
That was also why he'd previously accepted a position from KaibaCorp and become a "Star Duelist" at the Tipping Point.
On one hand, he wanted to keep walking the path of dueling. On the other, he genuinely appreciated the kid who'd helped him and wanted to do what he could for Hikaru in return.
But even so, there was still one person he couldn't bring himself to face, and that was... the man standing right in front of him.
Joey Wheeler.
One of the two people he'd never dared to confront.
He'd always assumed he and Joey would never cross paths again.
But when he heard that Hikaru wanted to visit and even challenge legendary duelists, an impulse he couldn't suppress made him dial that number.
And now, Joey had clearly been waiting right here for him all along!
"My turn, draw! Spell Card, Pot of Greed." He opened with a powerhouse card right away.
Then, drawing two cards at lightning speed, he glanced at his hand and immediately played: "Normal Summon in Attack Position, Souleating Oviraptor."
A dinosaur clutching a blue fireball, its head and spine ablaze with blue flames, charged onto Rex Raptor's field.
Souleating Oviraptor, Level 4, DARK, Dinosaur, ATK 1800.
"When this card is Normal or Special Summoned, I can take one Dinosaur monster from my Deck and either add it to my hand or send it to the Graveyard. I add Petiteranodon to my hand."
Oh ho.
Petiteranodon, huh.
Hikaru watched from the sideline with a grin.
"Then, I set one card. Turn end."
Rex finished his turn at lightning speed.
"A pretty unremarkable turn."
"He's probably being suppressed by Joey's dueling aura."
"No, he searched, summoned, and set a Trap. That's not as bad as you're making it sound."
A few duelists exchanged their thoughts.
"Alright! Then it's my turn! Here I come, Rex!"
Joey saw that Rex had ended his turn just like that, showed not an ounce of tension or urgency, laughed, and drew a card from his Deck. He barely glanced at it before playing it immediately. "If you're gonna use Pot of Greed, then I'll use this!
Spell Card, Graceful Charity, activate!"
"Draw three cards from my Deck, then discard two from my hand." Joey drew three, looked over his hand, selected two, and sent them to the Graveyard as data streamed into his Duel Disk.
He swapped out his hand?
Rex watched his opponent in silence.
His own strategy hadn't changed much.
Prepare on the first turn, set a Trap that could counterattack, then go to battle next turn.
For instance, right now, his face-down was the classic Torrential Tribute, which could destroy all monsters on the field when a monster was Normal Summoned, Special Summoned, or Flip Summoned.
"Now then... Rex, let me show you some super interesting cards I've collected recently!"
?
"Spell Card, Law of the Cosmos, activate!"
What the heck?
A question mark practically materialized above Rex's head as his body spun among the stars, utterly lost.
"This card name can only be activated once per turn. My opponent can select one Trap Card from their hand or Deck and Set it in their Spell & Trap Zone!"
Joey grinned and called out to Rex. "Well? Want to set one!?"
Rex shook his head, an oddly familiar feeling nagging at him from deep within.
"Are you looking down on me?" he said aloud, while thinking to himself: something that looks like a free gift at first glance is bound to have a follow-up effect. He wasn't falling for it.
"Huh? Why would you give the opponent a free Trap?"
"Exactly... Isn't that weird?"
"What's even weirder is that Rex Raptor actually turned it down. A free card, just like that..."
Several onlooking duelists murmured in confusion.
Seeing this, Joey laughed and explained. "Law of the Cosmos' effect: if the opponent Sets a card, I Special Summon one Jinzo from my Deck. If they don't Set one, I add one Jinzo, or one monster that specifically lists Jinzo in its text, from my Deck to my hand."
"I see!"
"So he can Special Summon Jinzo directly? That monster completely locks down all Trap Cards on the field. No wonder he wasn't worried about letting the opponent set one. As expected of Joey."
Joey didn't pay the spectators any mind. He simply took a monster from his Deck, adding it to his hand and displaying it. "The card I'm adding is the Level 7 Menacing Jinzo."
"When either player possesses a Trap on the field or in the Graveyard, I can Special Summon this card from my hand. This Special Summoned card becomes Level 6 until the end of the turn."
Joey pointed to his own Graveyard. "And right now, there is indeed a Trap Card in my Graveyard!"
Rex clicked his tongue. He could see the color of the card Joey revealed from his Graveyard.
Then, a green-skinned android with folded arms took its place on the field.
The Menacing Jinzo, Level 7, DARK, Machine, ATK 2400.
Law of the Cosmos...
Jinzo?
Rex stared at this monster, and couldn't help but lose himself in memory.
Ten years ago, during Duelist Kingdom, he had dueled against Esper Roba. Back then, he hadn't understood what was happening and had genuinely believed the other person possessed psychic powers, that he could duel by reading information from the cosmos.
In reality, Esper Roba had his younger brothers secretly peek at the opponent's deck for him. That was why he had lost to that person back then.
Regardless of any of that, Rex Raptor had lost to Esper Roba at that time. The trump card monster Roba had used was none other than "Jinzo", and Esper Roba had also claimed he could communicate with the cosmos…
He quickly shook his head clear. "I activate my face-down card, the Trap Card, Torrential Tribute! Destroy all monsters on the field!"
It seemed this Jinzo was just a different form of the original, without the ability to lock down Trap Cards, so he should activate it while he had the chance.
"Then, chain activate!" Joey Wheeler thrust his fist forward. "During either player's Main Phase, I tribute this card to activate its effect. I Special Summon 1 'Jinzo' from my hand or Graveyard! After that, I can destroy all Trap Cards on my opponent's field!"
Ugh
Rex Raptor groaned inwardly.
'Bad call.'
Joey let out a smug laugh, jutting out his chin toward Rex as he said: "See that just now?! What I sent to the Graveyard was a Trap Card and a Sangan! I sent the threatening Jinzo to the Graveyard, then revived the Jinzo from the Graveyard!"
Bzzt bzzt bzzt
A surge of electricity crackled through the air, and the classic green-skinned cyborg replaced the newer, more advanced model, appearing on Joey's field.
Jinzo. Level 6. DARK attribute. Machine-Type. ATK 2400.
The torrent that had risen from the ground, ready to sweep away every monster on the field, was slowly brought under control by Jinzo's psychic power, gradually calming down, until at last it subsided and dispersed entirely.
"While Jinzo is in the Monster Zone, neither player can activate Trap Cards, and all Trap Card effects on the field are negated!" Joey grinned, rubbing the tip of his nose with his index finger. "How about that, Raptor, the me you're looking at right now isn't relying on luck anymore."
Jinzo's Trap-locking effect was incredibly potent. Any Trap Card, without exception, would be directly suppressed by it, it couldn't even be activated.
"What are you so smug about, you punk." The faint, grudging sense of guilt that Rex Raptor had somehow been nursing toward Joey Wheeler was nearly completely extinguished in an instant.
As expected, he and Joey just didn't get along. He'd always been unable to stand the sight of that guy.
But;
Still, when all was said and done.
He watched Jinzo standing on Joey's field.
It had been so long since he'd had any real contact with the game, and seeing this familiar monster again after all this time, he found himself struck by something strangely warm, which made him feel like gagging, honestly.
A grown man shouldn't get so sentimental. But he couldn't deny it: after all these years away, Joey hadn't used any particularly flashy cards in this duel. He was still using the same cards he recognized, the same ones he knew, as if they were still back in those days ten years ago, still dueling over a single win or loss.
And yet;
He knew too.
Nothing could go back to the way it was.
Just like the first time he lost to Joey, then handed him Red-Eyes Black Dragon, and then Joey used that Red-Eyes to climb all the way to the top of the world.
A gulf had already opened between people. A distance that hadn't existed before.
After that, all he had thought about was beating Joey. He had gone so far as to join Doma, so far as to surrender his very soul to the seal of Orichalcos, all just to defeat Joey. And even later still, he and Weevil Underwood had together broken into Yugi Muto's house to steal from him.
Whatever the case, people weren't the same people anymore, and ten years had already passed.
None of it could possibly return to the past, and there was certainly no such thing as a miracle cure for regret.
Joey didn't say anything either. He pointed at the monsters on Rex's field and called out loudly: "Come on, Sangan, Jinzo attacks Souleating Oviraptor!
Joey's Psych Blast!"
"Hey, that's not even the attack's real name!"
But even though he'd called the wrong attack name, Jinzo didn't hesitate for even a moment. A red glow ignited in his eyes, and a blazing crimson stream of psychic energy, like a beam that could cleave the world itself, instantly sliced Souleating Oviraptor clean in two.
Immediately after, two laser torrents surged through Rex Raptor's body as well, shaving away his life points.
Rex Raptor, LP: 4000 → 3400.
Pain?
No, or perhaps, relief.
After absorbing the damage, Rex Raptor felt as though something deep inside his body had truly, completely awakened at last.
His eyes snapped wide open, and a golden light seemed to blaze within them.
"End turn." Just like that, Joey ended his turn with perfect calm, without even setting a face-down card.
Though calling it "calm" wasn't quite right, his expression had grown increasingly resolute, as if he were waiting for something.
"That's it?"
"Is that really Joey's dueling?"
"It looked impressive at first glance, but the numbers are way too low…" A group of duelists shook their heads in bewilderment.
"Oho ho ho… Looks like those two have finally finished warming up." And not far away, Solomon Muto watched the expressions on both their faces, unable to hold back a smile.
Hikaru gave a slow nod as well.
It seemed like it.
The duel he had set into motion just might bring about an ending that would satisfy everyone.