Chapter 48: Eve, You'll Form the Head!
Tsundere Duelist
Inside the card shop, Yui at the counter was listlessly fiddling with the "shop treasure" in her hands.
After Amano left, District 32's already desolate card shop had even fewer customers.
No more cheap customers like Amano who came daily but mostly just browsed without buying.
No more angel-like adorable neighbor girl like Shio who'd keep lonely her company while shop-sitting.
No more pretty boys like Kikawayu who'd threaten her shop assistant position.
"It's only the first day—why am I already missing them?"
Yui slapped both hands against her cheeks to keep herself energized.
"Besides, it's not like they're never coming back."
Though being the only one left behind in District 32 felt lonely—
Seeing childhood friends pursue better lives—
Seeing garbage-picking Amano finally become a true duelist—
Seeing wheelchair-bound Shio finally run on her own legs—
As a close friend, aside from occasional loneliness, she naturally felt happy for them from the bottom of her heart.
"Amano, you all better succeed spectacularly out there and come back to brag to me!"
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"Gr-Grave Robber?"
Seeing Painful Choice stolen from his GY into Amano's hands, Akira's slovenly eyes flashed obvious panic.
"Uncle, your second mistake—arbitrarily assuming I wanted to escape lower districts!"
Dissatisfied with your own life, so desperately trying to escape the lower levels?
It's not such a shallow reason!
"District 32 will always be my home!" Amano's thumb pressed against his chest. "I'm carrying my friends' feelings on this journey!"
A place you promised to return to—how could that be called escape?
This card Yui gave at farewell would let Amano defeat the strongest inspector and open Transit Tower's sealed path.
"According to Painful Choice's effect, I select 5 cards from my Deck!"
Amano's card selection showed not a trace of hesitation. As if the moment he saw Painful Choice, he'd already been thinking about how to use it.
Five cards displayed before Akira and Transit Tower's crowd.
Shocking everyone speechless.
"Wh-what are these cards?"
Akira had worked decades as Transit Tower inspector but never seen such cards.
The five cards Amano selected were—
[Left Leg of the Forbidden One]
[Right Leg of the Forbidden One]
[Left Arm of the Forbidden One]
[Right Arm of the Forbidden One]
[Dark Magician]
Two arms, two legs, plus one Dark Magician—uniformly all Normal Monsters.
Even with Akira's rich duel experience, he currently couldn't understand what scheme this kid was playing.
Akira pointed at a card: "I choose Dark Magician."
Anyway these Vanilla monsters made no difference which he chose. Akira simply picked the high-level monster requiring two Tributes to summon, clogging Amano's hand.
According to Painful Choice's effect, the 4 unchosen "Forbidden One" pieces all went to the Graveyard.
"What a baffling usage."
Having Painful Choice stolen, Akira had initially panicked.
Now it seemed merely a lower district brat's useless struggle.
"The outcome hasn't changed at all, kid!"
Right—whatever Akira chose, the result was the same anyway.
What Amano needed was just these 5 cards' shared attribute.
Type—Spellcaster.
Amano flipped his second Set card.
"I activate the Trap Card Necro Fusion!"
[Necro Fusion] [Trap Card: Banish Fusion Materials that are listed on a Fusion Monster from your GY, then Fusion Summon that monster from your Extra Deck. Monsters Special Summoned by this effect cannot attack this turn.]
Not from field or hand, but using monsters from his own Graveyard as materials for Fusion Summon.
"This is—my friend's feelings, and—Fusion's Essence!"
(("You absolutely have to come back! Otherwise I'll be lonely! Definitely!"))
Because it wasn't escape, because he'd made a promise to return, Amano had obtained this skill.
["Fusion's Essence"]
[Unlocks all Level 10+ Fusion Monsters in the Extra Deck.]
As Necro Fusion's materials, five monster cards simultaneously ejected from Amano's Graveyard zone—performing the ultimate Fusion with five cards at maximum Level.
"I Fuse Ib the World Chalice Justiciar with Right Arm of the Forbidden One, Left Arm of the Forbidden One, Left Leg of the Forbidden One, and Right Leg of the Forbidden One!"
Eve: "(ﾟДﾟ) What weird combination is this, Amano?!"
Arm, arm, leg, leg, Eve.
Exodia missing a head—so what?
Amano: "Eve, you'll form the head!"
Eve: "╰(‵□′)╯ Fine, I'll form the head!"
Using five Spellcaster monsters as Fusion materials, the Level 12 ultimate Fusion wave erupted on Amano's field.
"Five souls resonate here! Guiding the supreme mage who exhausts all truths!"
"Fusion Summon!"
"Quintet Magician!!"
[Quintet Magician] [12✪ DARK]
[Spellcaster/Fusion/Effect]
[ATK: 4500] [DEF: 4500]
[Spellcaster monsters x5]
A grand sacred golden pillar pierced through the Fusion spiral effects. The highest-level Spellcaster Fusion Monster materialized, descending surrounded by the supreme magic circle encompassing five truths.
Shio: "(ﾟДﾟ)ﾉ 4500 ATK—same as Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon!!"
Speaking of which, little sis, how do you know about such advanced combat power measurement units as Ultimate Dragon?
"Quintet Magician..."
The excessively outrageous Fusion made Akira forget the cigarette dangling from his mouth.
The lit cigarette butt fell onto the duel field floor, only to be vaporized the next instant by magic waves spreading throughout the tower.
"To Fusion Summon a monster of this caliber—I seem to understand why someone important above targeted you, kid. But in terms of ATK, Gaia Knight is still higher!"
"Discussing ATK before Quintet—you're not qualified! This is Quintet Magician's effect!"
[If this card is Fusion Summoned using 5 Spellcaster monsters with different names as material: Destroy all cards your opponent controls.]
Left Arm, Right Arm, Left Leg, Right Leg, Eve.
No duplicate materials—meeting the five-different-types condition for effect activation.
"—'Zero Sequence - Truth Reconstruction'—!"
The world-ending great magic analyzing the universe's five elemental origins—extreme magic waves shook Transit Tower, crushing all matter before Quintet Magician.
[Gaia Knight, the Force of Earth] destroyed
[Newdoria] destroyed
[Manticore of Darkness] destroyed
Instantly losing all monsters on his field, Akira finally completely panicked.
Looking at his remaining hand cards, all he could use now was the Ground Erosion he'd searched this turn.
Ending Battle Phase, Akira tremblingly inserted his final Spell into the Duel Disk.
"I-I activate the Spell Card Ground Erosion to destroy the monster with the highest DEF on your field!"
Like turn start, Amano's field had one and only one monster.
But unlike turn start, the crumbling ground didn't affect Quintet Magician's existence at all.
[While this card is in a Monster Zone, it cannot be Tributed, cannot be used as Fusion Material, and cannot be destroyed by card effects.]
"If that's your final struggle, then it's over, uncle!"
Facing the will-broken Inspector Akira, Amano forcibly ended his opponent's turn.
"One-hit kill, Quintet Magician!"
Though Necro Fusion had a restriction preventing attacks that turn, that was already last turn's matter.
The hovering five magic circles aligned at high speed during the attack. Each circle's amplification exponentially expanded the magic explosion's power until reaching "instant kill."
"—'Myriad Truth - Quintuple Obliteration Array'—!!"
Akira: "Ahhhhhhhhh!!"
Akira LP: 4000 → 0
Even as just Duel Disk-projected imagery, the excessively terrifying magic wave—while instantly consuming Akira's entire Life Points—even blasted a massive hole through the wall behind Akira.
Transit Tower—the lower district's closest position to mid-level, also the lower district's highest point.
That day, the boy who refused to accept fate, at the lower district's highest point, shattered Transit Tower's century-sealed wall, carving a mark permanently into the slum sky's highest heaven.
"So pretty—is that a rainbow?" Slacking Yui gazed skyward through the shop window.
[JUDGMENT DUEL]
[VICTOR]
[AMANO REI]
[Reward: 500 Points]
***
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