After classes, Yuji slipped out and made his way directly back to the Slifer Dorm. He didn't care about talking or duelling with others- he needed to examine what he had on hand.
Making his way into his dorm- and mentally thanking his lucky stars that nobody was sharing a room with him- he reached into his pocket and pulled out his deck.
And from his deck, he pulled out a single card.
Super Polymerization.
Yuji knew for a fact that the card had not been in his deck earlier. And this card shouldn't even exist in the current era of Duel Monsters.
This card was meant to come into existence during the third season of Duel Monsters- during Jaden's third year while in the Spirit Realm. Several of his friends would be sacrificed and, after defeating Bronn, he would obtain the card and awaken the Supreme King's spirit within his body.
So, how was it he had Super Polymerization?
He pulled out the other new additions to his deck that had appeared during the duel.
Fallen of Albaz, and Albion the Branded Dragon.
He bit his lip... The answer was certainly related to that strange vision he'd had during the duel, finding himself standing on the ashes of a facility and staring down Fallen of Albaz.
Then that vortex that appeared above them both... Must have been Super Polymerization itself.
In the world of Yu-Gi-Oh, Super Polymerization was a special card. The regular Polymerization only temporarily fused things together, it wasn't meant to last.
However, Super Polymerization was special- because it fused things permanently. Even if disjoined for a short time, they would once again merge together inevitably.
The best example was Jaden fusing his soul together with Yubel's. Even though Yubel had been taken by Darkness during the penultimate duel of the final season, the two once again merged together upon Jaden using Super Polymerization to fuse her with Neos.
During duels, the card followed the ordinary rules. But when its true power was invoked, that was when things changed.
That was why Fallen of Albaz was created. It was an attempt by researchers to re-create Super Polymerization in a humanoid, controlled form. However, something went wrong and thus Albaz was created. He was meant to go mad and fuse with something, leaving behind the facility and arriving in the Dogmatika world- losing his memories in the process.
However, that wasn't what happened in Yuji's vision. Instead, he and Albaz had found one another and then Super Polymerization appeared.
It must have meant something.
He lifted up the green bordered card and stared at it...
Even though he couldn't see spirits- at the moment- he could feel it. There was a tremendous power within Super Polymerization... This wasn't just some knock off or copy. This was the real deal. The genuine Super Polymerization that could fuse and create.
Yuji wondered... Could he use this power? Could he access it to fuse cards together to create new, better ones? Ones that worked better in his Deck?
In Yuji's opinion, it was worth trying.
But not yet. If he fused cards now, he would no longer have a full deck and then he'd really be screwed.
However, after that win he should have obtained some Duel Points... He could buy Booster Packs or maybe even a structure deck depending on how many points he had. If a Structure Deck was possible, then he would absolutely go for the Structure Deck over the packs.
Guaranteed cards were always better than potentially getting nothing in a card pack.
With his decision made, he opened up his Terminal and checked out the Academy Shop... Depending on the deck, the pack might be more or less expensive. Dragon and Spellcaster decks were very expensive thanks to Seto Kaiba and Yugi Moto. Dinosaur and Insect decks were also pretty pricey due to Rex Raptor and Weevil.
The cheapest deck options were Warrior Decks- due to their overwhelming popularity and the vast number of warrior monsters- and Machine Decks.
Ideally, he would have preferred to grab an Ancient Gear Deck. Ancient Gears were a solid deck, containing powerful cards like Gadjiltron Dragon, Gear Golem, and more. On top of that, Ancient Gear specialised in fusion monsters- perfect for testing out Super Polymerization. Ancient Gear Howitzer, Ancient Gear Chaos Giant, Ultimate Golem...
There were many options for an Ancient Gear Deck.
But he also knew that this wouldn't be enough. Not for him...
He wondered, would it be possible to create non-fusion cards with Super Polymerization? Perhaps fusing Ancient Gear with a Dragon card in order to create Ancient Gear Wyvern? Or creating Ancient Gear Box?
Yuji shook his head, slowing his thoughts. Experimental thoughts for later, what he needed was to choose a Deck to buy.
His thoughts stopped, however, as he saw another option for a Deck. Dirt cheap- enough that he could probably buy three copies, even with his meagre Duel Points- and holding hidden potential.
Roid Monsters.
A Machine Deck where the original concept sort of fell through with many subpar cards in the modern era, it still carried some incredibly powerful monsters- and even indirectly got some major support when 'Speedroid' monsters were released.
More importantly, the roid deck was home to some powerful fusion monsters- especially for the current era of Duel Monsters. Super Vehicroid - Mobile Base, and Barbaroid the Ultimate Battle Machine.
If he could potentially use Super Polymerization and transform the Roid monsters into Speedroids... He felt it might be worth trying. At the very least, he'd get Barbaroid and Mobile Base- that alone would make such a thing worth it.
However, there was just one final problem... Speedroid Monsters- with few exceptions- were all Synchro Monsters. He was almost certain that Super Polymerization wouldn't work to create Synchro Monsters.
However, he would definitely come back to Roid Monsters in the future- they were a potentially OK engine in the current era of Duel Monsters if you got rid of some trash.
With that in mind, his only other option were Warrior Monsters. In particular, two Warrior Fusion Monsters came to mind.
Idaten the Conqueror Star and Shura the Combat Star.
Both were cards from the Arc-V Anime, and both were incredibly powerful. Idaten was essentially unbeatable among his level- even the anime immunity of the Egyptian Gods would be powerless before Idaten as he lowered their ATK to nothing when they battled thanks to being Level 10.
And Shura, despite his requirement of Idaten as a Material, was an extremely good card in the GX Era!
Of course, if he could, Yuji would have vastly preferred to get his hands on something like Gladiator Beasts or a Hero Deck- but those were simply out of his current price range... Hero was relatively cheap, but still more than he had at the moment. And Gladiator Beasts? He wasn't sure that deck even existed yet, and it would be extremely expensive if it did.
So, with his limited options, he made the choice to purchase a Warrior Deck... He would cross his fingers to get some good warrior cards, given the decks were completely random for the most part. As long as he got at least three... No, at least six or more Level 5 or higher Warrior Monsters, then he felt like he'd be able to create a usable deck.
Of course, with the power of Super Polymerization at his fingertips, he once again considered making his way to the Reject Well and obtaining the spirits there. However, he once again decided against it.
Even if he could fuse cards together with Super Polymerization- and even then, right now he still wasn't sure if he could- many would likely be Fusion Monsters. Which was fine, more Fusion Monsters right now meant more options for him. But the issue still remained that he simply didn't have enough good cards to make some of the cards in the Reject Well work.
Yes, Relinquished was a VERY good card in the current era. He would absolutely love to grab it. However, if you didn't have a Ritual Card to summon it, then at most it was Trade Fodder for something else or Fusion Material for Thousand-Eyes Restrict.
As he contemplated, he looked at Super Polymerization and noticed it was glowing with a faint light- emitting an ominous pressure that made him drop the card on his desk.
A white light emerged from the card- revealing another card, also with a green border around it that indicated it was a Spell Card.
The Spell Card glowed with light, and he felt like something was being drawn out of him- 'Duel Energy,' he realised. He felt his body grow weak as he slumped down in his chair, now feeling incredibly lethargic.
As he looked at the card once again, he could finally see it clearly...
Branded Fusion.
Yuji shakily reached out and took the card, lifting it up slowly...
It was real. It was actually Branded Fusion.
He looked down at Super Polymerization, the excitement welling within him temporarily pushing away the drowsiness and lethargy.
Super Polymerization wasn't only capable of Fusing things- he was even more sure that it could after seeing the card emerge- but it was now even able to create cards? And cards from future eras that were extremely powerful on top of that?
But what were the conditions for the creation of Branded Fusion just now? And what was Super Polymerization's limit? Was it only limited to Fusion Cards- be they monsters or spells? Or was it also capable of creating Fusion Materials for monsters?
He took a deep breath and- for the moment- he slipped Branded Fusion into his Deck and then set it on the table... He wouldn't play Super Polymerization in his Deck yet, not until he had more cards to take advantage of its power. Even then, he wasn't sure that he could handle its power.
After all, this was the world of Duel Monsters. Playing the card game was a genuinely strenuous activity, to the point that you could enter a coma if you duelled too much in a short period of time- even without the inclusion of Shadow Games.
Yuji wasn't the Supreme King Judai, nor was he Yubel.
He did have that vision during the Duel and obtained Fallen of Albaz, which did mean that he must have some measure of spirit talent. However, he didn't think he was ready to unleash Super Polymerization's power in a Duel... For now, he felt it was better to keep it out of the Deck and to let the card do the work on its own.
It probably knew better than him at the moment anyway.
Taking a deep breath, he finally turned his attention to the other two cards that had magically appeared in his deck after his vision.
Fallen of Albaz and Albion the Branded Dragon.
Fallen of Albaz was the Key piece of one of Yu-Gi-Oh's best engines in the game- Branded. It got a little bit phased out as cards became restricted like Branded Fusion becoming only a single copy allowed in a Deck, but it was still an extremely powerful Deck Engine that could carry many decks to victory with ease.
"... So..." Yuji finally spoke in a careful voice. "I think you and I should probably have a talk, right?"
For a long moment, there was nothing but silence- to the point that Yuji started to wonder on if he was crazy and was just talking to himself.
But suddenly, he saw Fallen of Albaz's eyes snap to him and he lurched back in surprise. The card glowed with soft light and, out the corner of his eye, he saw him appear.
A handsome young man with ashen white hair and crimson eyes, dressed in black rags of clothing with dark skin.
Strangely... It almost felt like he was looking in a mirror.
"So," Albaz spoke in a voice similar to Yuji's own, but deeper and rougher. "What do you wanna talk about?"