Kagurazaka felt his heartbeat skip. The fiercest and most vicious final ace of the Kuriboh Deck? After being tormented again and again in this Duel, he might still talk big, but he no longer dared look down on these fluffy Level 1 balls.
The moment he heard that, he swallowed hard on instinct. A sudden feeling told him that something absurd was about to appear.
"I activate a Spell Card! 'Metamorphosis'. I Tribute a monster on my field and Special Summon a Fusion Monster with the same Level. I Tribute the Level 1 'Kuriboh' on my field. Transform here into a new form, beast of fantasy. Thousand-Eyes Restrict, Summon!"
Dark magic from Metamorphosis engulfed Kuriboh, and a burst of black spiraling energy exploded outward. The Kuriboh was swallowed by that eerie vortex, as if it had mutated through endless years into a sinister dark shape covered in horrifying single eyes.
Thousand-Eyes Restrict, ATK 0.
Kagurazaka was already dumbfounded. So this was the final form of the Kuriboh Deck? How exactly was a Kuriboh supposed to mutate into something from the Underworld like this?
"Thousand-Eyes Restrict, Effect Activation," Yugen said with a wave. "Once Per Turn, it absorbs one Monster on the opponent's field as an Equip card. Absorb 'Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning'."
A sinister black aura spread out. Black Luster Soldier let out a pained cry and was helplessly dragged into Thousand-Eyes Restrict by the dark vortex.
He struggled with all his strength, swinging his sword again and again, but slashing into that formless darkness was like cutting water. First his head sank into the black opening in Thousand-Eyes Restrict's chest, then his arms and sword, and finally the rest of his body.
Floating nearby, Sanga Spirit and Silent Spirit watched in silence. When their master had said he would not go easy, he had not been exaggerating.
No wonder he had told Envoy of the Beginning to step aside first. This really could cause physical discomfort and leave psychological scars.
Just like it was doing to classmate Kagurazaka. The light had already gone from his eyes.
"Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning... my Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning too..." He was so humiliated that he looked ready to cry.
"And then I activate a Spell Card! 'Soul Release,'" Yugen said calmly.
Kagurazaka jerked in shock. He was not attacking right away?
Yugen smiled faintly. "When you activated 'Arcana Knight Joker's' effect, you sent five Monster from Levels 1 through 5 from your Deck to the Graveyard. If I remember correctly, the Duel King's Deck contains the Level 4 'Electromagnetic Turtle.'"
"During the opponent's Battle Phase, that card can be banished from the Graveyard to forcibly end the Battle Phase. It's a powerful survival card."
Kagurazaka opened his mouth, but no words came out. Even that had been seen through.
"Soul Release can banish up to five cards total from both Graveyards," Yugen continued. "So before entering the Battle Phase, I banish those five cards from your Graveyard, including 'Electromagnetic Turtle.'"
Kagurazaka: "!!!"
Even Electromagnetic Turtle had been shut down? He stared at Yugen in disbelief.
His strongest Deck in history, his flawless tactical setup, had been suppressed from start to finish until it could not move at all. You're the real Duel King, aren't you?
"Battle," Yugen ordered. "Use 'Thousand-Eyes Restrict'..."
But halfway through, he paused and reconsidered. "Forget it. No need for Thousand-Eyes Restrict. Kuriboh four brothers, attack directly."
Kagurazaka: "You @!#%&!"
The four Kuriboh brothers flew into the air. "Kurikuri!"
They struck together in a four-hit combo. For Kuriboh, though, an attack was basically just a headbutt, each fluffy body curling into a ball and smashing forward like a charge.
The damage was fatal, and the humiliation was even worse.
Kagurazaka, LP 850 to LP 0.
Even the Duel King's Deck had lost to that person from Yellow Dormitory.
In less than a day, the news had spread across the entire school. Students who had watched the Duel live had recorded the whole thing, and within a single day, almost everyone had seen the video. It gave the students both experience and entertainment, but it also left many of them unable to stop thinking about it.
From start to finish, Kagurazaka had used the Duel King's Deck with considerable skill. Even so, he had failed to complete a single full attack throughout the entire Duel. By the end, he had not even touched the other side's Life Points.
If even the Duel King's Deck had failed against such suffocating play, then for some people, the future of the Duel world looked grim.
Of course, not everyone was so pessimistic. "Student Kagurazaka performed very well, and he also let all of us witness the style of the Duel King's Deck," Duel Academy's famous emperor Ryo Marufuji said during a conversation, and the people around him quickly recorded and passed along his words.
"But no matter how skillfully you use it, it still is not your own Deck. Only a Duelist's own Deck, built with his own heart, can bring out its full power. The king's Deck can only shine with its true brilliance in Yugi Muto's own hands."
That statement won widespread approval, and even Duel Academy leader Professor Chronos de Medici gave it a like. Of course, most students of the current era probably did not know that the original owner of the Deck Kagurazaka had used had already lost to that same oppressive style many years ago.
After the duel, Kagurazaka returned the Deck. Once he carefully reviewed the match, he concluded that he had made two critical mistakes. The first was discarding Kuriboh on the very first turn.
When he activated the effect of "Arcana Knight Joker" and discarded a Level 1 to 5 Monster from the Deck, the Level 1 Monster he chose was Kuriboh. From that moment on, he was punished again and again by Kuribabylon for the rest of the Duel.
The second mistake was that his mind had not been firm enough. The moment he saw a chance to get the Duel King's Deck, he wavered from the path he had originally planned. In the end, there was only one true path, and that was to study the Duel of that person from Yellow Dormitory completely and without hesitation.
After thinking it through, he decided that his past imitation still had not gone far enough. Before, he had only copied tactics and inner style, but that was not nearly thorough enough. He should copy everything from the outside in, including clothes, hairstyle, and even behavior.
Very soon, a new rumor spread through Duel Academy. That person from Yellow Dormitory had apparently even gained a double. As for how quickly Kagurazaka returned the Deck, Judai Yuki was a little unhappy about it.
It gave him that strange feeling that his cards had been snatched away again. Still, it was not a big problem. The very next day, a transfer student arrived at Osiris Red, and Judai Yuki quickly discovered that the newcomer was actually a little girl disguised as a boy, named Rei Saotome.
When Rei nervously asked Judai Yuki to keep her disguise a secret after being found out, Judai Yuki curled his lips into a dark little smile. "Rei, you would not want other people to find out that you dressed as a boy, right?" Rei tensed up. "Then what do you want?"
"It's simple." Judai Yuki smiled confidently and pulled out his Duel Disk. He said that his urge to duel had struck again, so she had to play cards with him.
Rei: "..."