While still in midair, the cabin door slid open, and a figure leapt down. The long coat flared like a cloak as the person dropped. He landed in a dramatic crouch, then stood with his arms crossed as the coat snapped loudly in the wind.
Even the two who were locked in a deadly duel were drawn to the spectacle, both showing clear shock. The alley seemed to freeze for a moment.
Rex Raptor said, "It is you!?"
Ken Fujimoto turned pale. "Legendary Duelist… Seto Kaiba!?"
Yugen said nothing.
Showing up at a card duel like a superhero was already absurd enough. Surviving a jump from that height without injury was even harder to understand. Was playing cards supposed to turn people into superhumans now?
"Brother!"
Mokuba Kaiba hurried to his brother's side and pointed at Ken Fujimoto in the field. "That man. The sensors show he is the source of the Shadow Duel."
Ken Fujimoto fell silent.
He really wanted to say it was not him and that they had the wrong person. But being caught like this left him with very little room to argue.
"This stupid duel ends here," Seto Kaiba said coldly as he stepped forward.
"Bullying weaklings proves nothing. If you want to play, I will play with you."
"You calling me a weakling!?" Rex Raptor shouted in anger.
Seto Kaiba ignored him completely.
Ken Fujimoto swallowed hard. Challenging Rex Raptor was one thing, but standing in front of Seto Kaiba was something else entirely. Everyone knew Seto Kaiba favored Blue-Eyes White Dragon, yet it had been many years since his last public duel.
People had not seen him act in a long time, but they all knew his top research teams never stopped developing new forms for the White Dragon. No one could guess how terrifying those printed cards had become by now.
"Heh heh."
Ken Fujimoto decided to stall for time.
"Fine, fine. I have wanted to test the power of Blue-Eyes White Dragon myself. But once a Shadow Duel starts, it cannot be stopped. Let me finish off Rex Raptor first."
"No need," Seto Kaiba said.
He raised the Duel Disk in his hand.
Only then did everyone notice that the Duel Disk he wore was not a standard model. It was clearly a more advanced, high-end device, something custom-made and not available on the market. The pose and the design suddenly made Yugen feel a strange sense of familiarity.
In The Dark Side of Dimensions, the villain had tried to skip dueling and send Seto Kaiba himself to another dimension. Back then, Seto Kaiba had raised his Duel Disk in a similar pose, claiming it amplified his self-awareness through technology to counter supernatural power. The device in his hand now looked very much like that, and it was releasing a dazzling light.
"I do not know what you are trying to do," Ken Fujimoto said with a frown. "But I told you, once a Shadow Duel begins, it cannot be stopped. Unless…"
Nani?!!?
The Shadow Duelists stared so hard it looked like his eyes might pop out. The barrier of the Shadow Duel was melting under that light.
Impossible. This made no sense.
Ken Fujimoto was completely shaken. He was supposed to be a man who wielded dark power. Was it not said that the age had changed, that mysticism ruled and science had fallen behind? Why could something like this still happen?
Yugen was also seeing such a scene for the first time, yet he stayed calm. In the world of Yu-Gi-Oh!, dueling might be supreme, but that did not mean technology had been discarded. Even in other eras, science had proven capable of making Duel Monsters real and producing effects similar to a Shadow Duel, or even worse.
Seto Kaiba had suffered under supernatural forces for years and never stopped trying to break mysticism with technology. Eight more years passing and achieving a breakthrough was only natural.
"This is the newest Duel Disk developed by Kaiba Corporation," Seto Kaiba said with a cold laugh. "It greatly amplifies a Duelist's mental energy and was made specifically to deal with people like you."
"And it can also do this."
An even brighter blue light burst from the Duel Disk. Streams of data spread like flowing water, quickly filling the entire area. The ground beneath their feet and the stone walls of the alley vanished, replaced by a vast dueling field glowing with blue light, with nothing else around.
"A full projection duel arena," Seto Kaiba continued. "Though it is projection, the monsters we summon and their impacts will gain real mass."
The scale of it and that overwhelming presence made Ken Fujimoto start to lose his nerve. Few would believe it, but he felt like he had stumbled into a scientific Shadow Duel today.
"Duel!" both sides called out.
Seto Kaiba, LP 4000. Ken Fujimoto, LP 4000.
"I'll go first. My Turn!, Card Draw!"
Seto Kaiba drew a card, then calmly revealed one from his hand and sent it to the graveyard. His movements were clean and practiced, without a hint of hesitation.
"I activate the effect of 'Thunder Dragon' from my hand. By discarding this card to the graveyard, I can add up to two 'Thunder Dragon' from my Deck to my hand."
The discarded card triggered the Duel Disk's automatic search, and with a sharp click two cards popped out. Seto Kaiba took them into his hand.
"I add two 'Thunder Dragon' to my hand."
Just that simple opening move made Yugen feel a twinge of envy. In the GX era, searches still required a Duelist to manually pull through the Deck and shuffle afterward, which was slow and awkward for decks that searched often. Only later did Duel Disk reach full automation with instant searches and shuffling.
Seto Kaiba truly lived at the front of the times, and Yugen stared at that Duel Disk while instinctively wondering how he might get his hands on one.
"I set one monster on the field and place three cards face-down in my back row," Seto Kaiba said evenly. "My turn ends."
"So this is the famous Seto Kaiba's Duel?" Ken Fujimoto sneered. "Doesn't look like much to me."
He tried hard to steady his nerves, but his tough talk still sounded forced. In many cases, a Duelist fought as much with presence as with cards, and losing momentum early could ruin everything.
"My Turn!, Card Draw!"
As his eyes swept across his opening hand, Ken Fujimoto straightened his back. He had never seen such a perfect start before, and this hand gave him a real chance.
"I activate the Spell Card 'Graceful Charity' from my hand. I draw three cards from my Deck, then discard two cards."
After cycling his hand, a cruel smile crept onto his face as he glanced at Seto Kaiba's plain-looking set monster. "Looks like the president doesn't think much of me. Too bad. Even if you start taking me seriously now, it's already too late."
"I summon from my hand. Level eight, Archfiend Emperor, the First Lord of Horror!"
A massive black demon burst forth amid blood-red flames, its Legendary Sword sweeping out translucent arcs of force.
"Level eight right out of the gate," Mokuba Kaiba said with a grin, enjoying the spectacle. "That's some presence."
"Archfiend Emperor, the First Lord of Horror's effect," Ken Fujimoto said. "Even though it's level eight, it can be Normal Summoned without a tribute. However, if summoned this way, its original ATK is halved, and it will be destroyed during the End Phase."
Archfiend Emperor, the First Lord of Horror, ATK 3000 to ATK 1500.
"So it's just a paper tiger," Mokuba Kaiba laughed.
"That's not necessarily true," Ken Fujimoto replied with a grin, drawing another card as he showed off his momentum.
"First, Archfiend Emperor, the First Lord of Horror's effect. Once per turn, I can banish one "Archfiend" card from my hand or graveyard from play to destroy one card on the field. I banish Archfiend Soldier from my graveyard to destroy your leftmost back row card!"
Seto Kaiba remained calm with his arms crossed as the face-down card flipped up and shattered.
"You destroyed the Trap Card 'Statue of the Wicked'," Seto Kaiba said flatly. "When this card is destroyed and sent to the graveyard, I Special Summon one Wicked Token to my field."