Yugen learned about the development status of various projects during the time he was away and quickly discovered that the "Muto Yuugi Research Project," which he had placed high hopes on, had already made some progress.
As mentioned earlier, the Muto Yuugi research project focused on developing the card deck series used by the tabletop personality of Muto Yuugi.
It is well known that in the main story of DM, ninety-nine percent of the duels involving the First Generation Duel King were actually played by Atom, and Muto Yuugi himself did not duel often. Therefore, Atom used more card deck series than Yuugi himself, and after Yuugi became famous, he soon retired, making Atom's cards more widely recognized.
In addition, President Kaiba, the head of the printing cards, is Atom's number one fan, and he has invested more in the development of the Pharaoh-themed card decks headed by the Black Mage in recent years, making Yuugi's own card deck development relatively unknown in comparison.
However, Yugen thought this was an excellent entry point and took the lead in collaborating with the Kaiba Group and Beckas' International Fantasy Association to conduct an in-depth development of the card decks used by Tabletop Yuugi.
The latest result obtained upon his return is a series called "Magical Girls."
This is a new card deck that had not appeared in the main story of DM, first used by Tabletop Yuugi in the movie "Dark Side of the Dimensions."
Strictly speaking, the Magical Girls series should be considered a derivative of the well-known Black Mage Girl from Yu-Gi-Oh!, sharing the same category. The Black Mage Girl is, in a sense, the earliest true monster of this deck.
In the Dark Side of the Dimensions movie, Yuugi summoned "Apple Mage Girl" and "Lemon Mage Girl" during his duel with Kaiba. After some development and refinement over this period, Yugen's project team has completed the design of a total of five Magical Girls, including Apple and Lemon.
The five cards are Berry Mage Girl, Lemon Mage Girl, Apple Mage Girl, Chocolate Mage Girl, and Kiwifruit Mage Girl.
The five monsters are ranked from One-Star to Five-Star, all fruit-themed. The first letters of each monster's name are extracted to form B, L, A, C, K, representing BLACK, symbolizing the five Magical Girls' ability to connect to the Six-Star "Black Mage Girl."
Of course, just by the names, it can be seen that most of the monsters in this deck are coolly dressed, fair-skinned, and voluptuous, clearly a deck for macho men to play.
And as a debut deck in Tabletop Yuugi's hands in the movie, this deck also continues Tabletop Yuugi's consistent style. The girls may look delicate and incapable, with fair and slender arms and legs that seem unable to even open a bottle cap, but in fact, they wield a magic staff capable of knocking the daylights out of opponents.
They are not good at active attacks; instead, they have defensive, tricky effects. Most Magical Girls have the ability to "halve the Attack Power of an opponent's monster when attacked, Special Summon a new Magical Girl, and redirect the attack target to the new girl."
When attacked, the opponent might feel like they're experiencing the Taoist 'four ounces can move a thousand pounds' principle, as the more they attack, the deeper they get. In the movie, even the mighty "Blue-Eyes Chaos Extreme Dragon" of President Kaiba was teased and counter-killed by the Magical Girls, leaving him quite frustrated.
After collecting the deck, Yugen also went to Duel Academy.
At Duel Academy, Yugen's research project team hadn't been idle during this time either and had also produced new results. Upon the leader's return, the heads of each group promptly reported their recent achievements to him.
Although Yugen had crossed dimensions this time, he did not disclose this to anyone at the Academy, and in total, he was only gone for about a month.
A month can be long, but for Yugen, who often left the Academy to attend to his own affairs, it was not uncommon, so no one asked about it. Besides, he left during vacation time, making it even less likely for anyone to find it strange.
Yugen took stock of the results from his Academy's research department, and while there were quite a few outputs, each department had only a few scattered cards, most of which couldn't yet significantly enhance the overall theme card deck series. So, although they were very promising, they couldn't be immediately put into use.
It is worth mentioning that, with the voluntary cooperation of Judai and his New Space partners, the "New Space" deck successfully produced replicas from the world's only deck that Judai exclusively owned.
This advancement was significant not only for Yugen but also for Judai himself. After all, every duelist knows the difference between a powerful card being limited to only one in the banned list and being unrestricted to three is vast.
Judai's New Space deck cards were physically limited to one—because only one existed in the world, it was impossible to have more even if desired.
But imagine if the New Space Heroes could replicate more copies, like the invincible Brother Mole or the early game hand-shaving Brother Dolphin; having multiple strong New Space elements would significantly bolster Judai.
While the New Space deck may seem weak from a physical card structure viewpoint, it doesn't mean it's without its merits. For instance, the invincible Earth Mole was an almost universal attacker in the early slow-paced environment, finding a place in any deck. Otherwise, Brother Mole wouldn't have been limited at one point.
Yugen didn't yet plan to build a full New Space Hero or Hero Card Deck, which is Judai's personal specialty. However, playing around with one or two strong components for interesting combinations in certain decks is still doable.
Of course, the reprinted New Space Heroes are just ordinary cards, unlike Judai's, every single one of which is an elf in its true form and not genuinely Cosmic People with powerful Destiny Power enhancements.
But it doesn't matter; Yugen never intended to have these. As long as they are usable in duels, that's enough.
Coincidentally, shortly after arriving at Duel Academy, Yugen detected a dark aura.
He followed this aura all the way to the volcano in the depths of Academy Island and found Yuki Judai, who was confronting Mr. T.
"It's you again," Judai said. "You guys really never give up, do you?"
Mr. T snorted, "This time it will not be like before, Yuki Judai."
As he spoke, a surge of dark aura gathered in his hand, transforming into an ebony Duel Disc. An even greater cloud of dark mist coalesced in the air, forming countless flying cards that flew into his Duel Disc's card slots in sequence, transforming into a card deck surging with demonic qi.
"This time," Mr. T said in a deep voice, "I will make sure you never rise again!"