"Your Highness, Prince!"
The woman in pink who accompanied Prince Aojin immediately stepped forward to help him up.
But Prince Aojin waved his hand, indicating her to step aside. Then he looked up and stared meaningfully at Yugen for a long while.
After a while, he squeezed out a word.
"Impressive."
A few seconds later, he added.
"Respectful."
Yes, how can you not admire it?
The legendary Blue-Eyes White Dragon, a symbol of power in the Dueling Realm, that invincible blade of Seto Kaiba, was actually forced into such a form...
Before today, perhaps no one in the dueling world could have imagined that the Blue-Eyes would one day appear in such a posture—repeatedly resurrected, gracing the Bouncing Turtle's rail cannon and gradually chipping away at the opponent's Life Points with each launch, while also crushing the opponent's spirit.
Prince Aojin's team was stunned. It seemed the Mizgaruzeng Kingdom was a simple place, as could be seen from their national leader and dueling representative, Prince Aojin, who admired aggressive OTK so much.
The simple Mizgaruzeng people had just disembarked at the Duel Academy and immediately witnessed the treachery of the outside world. Prince Aojin, who had immersed himself in various satellite OTKs for years, never thought that outside duelists could stoop so low...
"How should I put it... It's truly Yugen."
Mitsuzawa, who was most familiar with Yugen, hesitated for a long while before he couldn't help but speak.
"But that Blue-Eyes White Dragon actually... Hmm..."
He shook his head, indicating he was at a loss for words.
To even make the Blue-Eyes White Dragon feel secluded, it can only be said that it truly lives up to the Master of the Yellow Robe. It seems that sometimes dueling style is not necessarily determined by the card deck.
Moreover, recently, even within the academy, the representative card deck symbolizing flamboyant OTK, the Cyber Dragon, seems to be undergoing slight changes in style. Even the representative of the electronic school, Kaiza Ryo, appears to have become a bit darker at some point...
But correspondingly, Kaiza's fame in the professional circle is growing louder. Ever since he ended Ed Phoenix's thirty-game winning streak, Kaiza has crushed all subsequent opponents with the stance of a sweep.
Furthermore, Marufuji Ryo's style is equally unfathomable. His approach begins with setting three or four cover cards, without any monster summoning, passing his turn completely. Other times, he pulls a combo of Power Combination and three Cyber Dragons glued together with 502 glue, devastating with the 8000 attack Electronic Ultimate Dragon in one breath.
Sometimes he uses Chimeric Rampage Dragon to wipe out the opponent's backfield, delivering a triple attack for an immediate kill, or uses Chimeric Fortress Dragon to blow the opponent's mind...
In an interview, Marufuji Ryo expressed his gratitude to someone in the Duel Academy and said that besides his mentors who introduced him to dueling, this person was the most important figure in his life.
Marufuji Ryo stated he now understands.
Nowadays, he pursues victory and respects opponents. He has moved past the stage of being obsessed with victory and understands that the so-called respect for opponents and the pursuit of victory are not contradictory.
Respecting the opponent also respects all of their possibilities. Then, gathering information in advance, thinking about tactics, and tailoring the most suitable strategies for the opponent is respect for them, right?
When I start with five cover cards and you can't play a single card, failing to summon your ace, isn't that an acknowledgment of your ace's strength, so I'm doing my best to obstruct you from summoning it?
What is respect? This damn thing is respect.
So seeing the former emblematic figure of the Mortal World faction of the academy, Kaiza, fall into darkness, and again witnessing Yugen's performance today with the White Dragon Cannon, Mitsuzawa fully understands.
The reason some people's duels feel like the Underworld is simply due to their twisted mentality, and has little to do with the cards they use.
Well, not targeting any individual, just summarizing his insights.
"Your Highness, Prince Aojin?"
Yugen stepped forward.
The Prince waved his hand, took a long breath, and stood up.
"In Mizgaruzeng, I've been unbeatable, thinking my satellite OTK was flawless enough to match the world's top masters... it seems I was indeed sitting in the well, looking up at the sky."
"No, you are already strong enough," Yugen said seriously.
In fact, the card deck built by Prince Aojin wasn't some scientifically constructed OTK deck, but his dueling fame in OTK implies he uses the same 502-style sacred techniques as early Kaiza, relying on having perfect starting hands.
To be fair, if every starting hand allows you to summon a 4000 attack monster plus a Time Goddess prank, whether the construction is scientific becomes irrelevant. This falls under the category of Destiny Warriors, and it's not exaggerated to call him top-level.
In the original animation, Prince Aojin's two defeats should both be due to Destiny Power suppression.
Saio made a card on site, pulling a zero-turn kill, and without the Destiny Power setting, it would totally be a plot kill.
Judai beat him partly because Judai's Divine Draw was equally strong, but more importantly, because Judai started first, while Prince Aojin went second in that match.
Otherwise, without anything like the Chestnut Ball in Judai's deck to directly block an attack, missing the first move would mean being OTK'd, unless a new card is conjured out of thin air... but it seems not impossible either.
Defeated once to the protagonist and once to the boss, Prince Aojin's losses were not undeserved. This OTK would indeed beat most regular opponents, and so his set up as Mizgaruzeng's strongest card player carries weight, stronger than those supposedly top-ranked professional league players in the animation yet somehow weaker in actual duels.
Yugen glanced at the retinue behind Prince Aojin and noticed a box in one attendant's hand.
An exquisitely crafted metal briefcase, which from its appearance seemed to be specially explosion-proof and had a complex lock combination on it.
"Let me guess."
Yugen looked at the case and said.
"Inside that, is the key to the ultimate weapon 'Sky,' right?"
The students nearby who heard this couldn't help but change their expressions.
Sky, that large-scale weapon of mass destruction mentioned in the news?
"Sky... key?" Mitsuzawa couldn't help but mutter.
Is it really okay to carry something like this around casually?
Prince Aojin glanced at Yugen with some surprise, not expecting him even to know this. But he nodded and openly admitted, "Yes."
Since he carried it around in such a conspicuous case, he hadn't really thought of it as some secret.
"With me is the safest place," he said.
"I think so too."
Yugen nodded and spoke softly.
"However, I've received information that some unscrupulous individuals might have set their sights on it. And those people... let's just say, might be a bit difficult to handle."
Prince Aojin frowned.
Previously, he might arrogantly declare, let them come and then taste the might of my satellite cannon.
But now, having been a defeated subordinate mere minutes ago, if this person in front says the enemy is difficult to handle, they certainly have the credibility to speak.
"But don't worry, Your Highness, I already have a plan."
Yugen smiled slightly.
"I just need you to cooperate a bit."