Chapter 91: Go All Out On Me!
"Why are you suddenly asking for that, Finesse?"
Even tucked away at the bend of a school corridor, Amano kept his voice low enough that only she could hear him.
The content of this conversation was genuinely too strange.
His concern was specific. If Shio decided to sneak over and eavesdrop on them, she would look up at him with those pure, wide, completely guileless eyes and ask:
"Brother, why are you getting inside Finesse-nee-san?"
That was not a question he wanted to answer. Ever.
"Amano, I want... I want..."
A faint flush crept across Finesse's cheeks. She was clearly at least a little embarrassed about this, which was understandable given what activating the Guardian Spirit skill actually involved. Two people with no privacy between them whatsoever.
Still, even knowing that, she was willing to ask.
"I want more HERO Fusion monsters!"
So that was the reason.
It made sense, actually. When Amano piloted Finesse's body through a duel in Guardian Spirit form, any Fusion monsters he summoned during that duel would be added to her deck permanently afterward. Vision HERO Trinity was living proof of that. A card she'd never had before their first possession session, now a permanent fixture in her Extra Deck.
But one thing still puzzled him.
"Why do you suddenly need more HERO Fusions right now?"
With Vision HERO Trinity sitting in her Extra Deck, Finesse already had a monster that entered the field with 5000 ATK and could attack three times in a single Battle Phase. That was overkill against basically any first-year student. She shouldn't be anywhere close to needing more power at this stage.
"My older sister is coming back."
"Older sister?" Amano processed that. "The Wein family eldest daughter."
He remembered Finesse mentioning her once before. The situation in the Wein household was complicated by Finesse's birth circumstances, and both her older sister and second brother had made clear over the years that they resented her presence in the family. Sometimes that resentment turned into active pressure.
"Coming back from where?"
"She took a year off school to study under Father, learning to manage the family's affairs. She's due back in a few days."
"A year off. So she's a student too."
"She was in her third year before she left. Apparently she's coming back straight into fourth year."
"That's the same year as Rin-senpai." Amano did the mental math. "So she's actually pretty young."
When he'd heard the words "Wein Group eldest daughter," his brain had immediately conjured someone like Kaiba Seto's sharper-edged business associates. Composed, intimidating, ageless in that particular way powerful executives tended to look.
But Rin Seiya was fourth year too, and his mental image of her involved anime posters and a distressing amount of enthusiasm for marathon watch sessions. Fourth year suddenly felt a lot less imposing.
Finesse narrowed her eyes. "Why are you bringing up Rin Seiya's name right now?"
"My apologies. Forget I said anything."
"Anyway. If my sister comes back to school, the first thing she's going to do is find me and challenge me to a duel."
"Why?"
"Because she can't stand me!"
"That's a very direct reason."
One hundred percent chance of an incoming duel from an older sister who actively disliked her. Amano had to admit that when he analyzed it, the older sister's behavior pattern was genuinely a bit childish. But he kept that observation to himself.
"Using Hacker Invasion to help you unlock more HERO Fusions should be possible in theory," he said. "No issues there."
Finesse grabbed both his hands.
"Amano! Really?!"
Those were the hands. The very hands she'd watched, duel after duel, fusing Hero after Hero into existence in all their varied, spectacular forms. The knuckles, the fingers, the precise movements.
Thinking about being able to do that herself, having access to all of that in her own Extra Deck, Finesse gripped tighter.
"Young lady. I acknowledge your enthusiasm."
The pressure radiating through his hand joints was genuinely concerning. Amano's eye twitched.
He'd had zero time to register anything like the supposed softness of a girl's hands. What he was registering was a grip strength that had absolutely no business existing in a person her size.
Young lady, have you been getting stronger again? Because I think there's a strategy game somewhere that involves physically crushing your opponent through the handshake, and you would dominate it.
"I said in theory," he continued, extracting the subject back to practical matters before she snapped anything. "In practice, we need to think about who you'd actually duel. I can't possess you and then have you duel yourself. And while I'm running Hacker Invasion, my own body is completely out of commission on the other end."
Finesse thought it over. "Can't we just find someone random?"
"Random people aren't necessarily willing." Amano shook his head. "Academy City has stricter rules about unsanctioned dueling between students than the lower districts. It's written into school regulations. You can't just pull someone aside and start a duel without going through an official channel."
Students did bend this rule. Cross-academy friction happened, tempers ran hot, and sometimes two people just ended up facing off on a street corner out of sheer stubbornness. Usually the school turned a blind eye to a first or second offense and settled for a recorded warning plus some credit deductions. But it wasn't the easiest foundation to build a deliberate plan on.
"I just remembered!" Finesse's expression lit up. "Tomorrow is Fusion Academy's weekly duel. We can use that!"
"Weekly duel?"
"Once a week. If you win, the academy system evaluates your performance during the duel and gives out reward cards for your exclusive slot based on how well you did."
"Just from a weekly duel, you get exclusive slot cards?" Amano felt vaguely cheated on behalf of Synchro Academy. "Why doesn't Synchro Academy have something like that?"
"They do, actually. The rewards are better too, from what I've heard. But the frequency is lower. I think it's called a monthly exam?"
So performing well in monthly exams could earn card rewards from the academy system. Amano had assumed it was just a standard academic test. The fact that there were actual cards on the line made it considerably more interesting in retrospect.
"Alright. During tomorrow's weekly duel, you want me to operate you and fuse as many different HEROes as possible."
"Exactly! That way I'll have a much stronger position when my sister shows up." Finesse was practically buzzing. "And if she doesn't come back until next week, even better. We'd have time for another weekly duel. Amano, really go all out operating me. Keep fusing, don't stop!"
The phrasing sat in the air between them for a moment.
He was going to point it out. He really was. But before he could open his mouth:
"Brother?"
Amano Shio materialized around the corner of the corridor.
She blinked at them with perfectly innocent eyes, head tilted.
She'd originally come over because they'd been in the hallway for a while and she'd started wondering if something was wrong.
Then she'd heard the tail end of the conversation.
"Brother," Shio said slowly. "Why are you going to operate Finesse-nee-san?"