Buster Blader, strike through!
The entire audience burst into applause without holding back, affirming this thrilling and high-level duel.
In this era, it's impossible not to have heard of Kaiba Seto's name. Everyone knows he is the strongest duelist standing at the top of the pyramid, the legendary big boss, though most have only heard of his reputation. Those who actually had the fortune to witness Kaiba in action are few.
It's because President Haima had long retired many years ago to focus on developing his company and promoting the Duel Monsters business.
...Well, at least that's what he says to outsiders.
However, Youyu knows it's best not to mention the words "retirement" in front of the President. The President can go around telling everyone he's quit the card addiction and washed his hands of it, but whenever Youyu brings it up, the President suddenly suffers from selective amnesia, as if he completely forgot about it.
At such times, the President often pulls out his supposedly "sealed" card deck at light speed: "You↑yu↓! It's time to settle this once and for all!"
Here's a joke — retirement from card games.
As everyone knows, President Haima's deck is only sealed when it needs to be.
This year, it's rare for Kaiba to personally make an appearance at the KC Cup, so the audience was in for a treat. Even before the ceremony started, the crowd was already pumped, incredibly awed by President Kaiba.
Watching Kaiba exit amidst the applause and cheers, Mokuba turned to Youyu: "Alright, let's head to the backstage as well."
But Youyu didn't move, his gaze fixated on the direction where a certain Bambi-headed buffoon just disappeared off stage.
"You go on ahead, something just came up for me, I'll catch up shortly."
"Eh? But the opening ceremony starts in ten minutes and my brother needs to prepare his speech..."
"It's alright." Youyu waved his hand, "That kind of dull segment is repeated every year, missing one won't hurt."
Mokuba was taken aback: "Are you talking about... my brother?"
"Ah? What? Oh no, of course I wasn't saying the President's speech is dull, how could I think the President is dull?" Youyu chuckled quietly, whispering, "Though maybe besides me, everyone else thinks so."
The President's speeches are not quite like the boring ones of other leaders and tycoons.
Typical leader speeches just put you to sleep, but not the President's.
Youyu had often suspected that ever since developing the Dimensional Travel system, President Haima's vision and thinking have not been on the same level as ordinary mortals.
Whether it's releasing a new Duel Disc or delivering an opening speech for a tournament, although it's clearly an event about playing cards, he somehow manages to elevate it to topics of national, ethnic, religious, or even war levels, occasionally diving into profound philosophical issues.
Forget the other spectators, sometimes even Youyu is left bewildered, wanting to say only one thing to the President —
— Who the heck understands what you're saying?
Of course, as long as the President is happy.
Youyu swiftly caught up with the player who just dueled with the President known as the "Professional Commentator." The latter was obviously very excited to encounter the legendary Youyu-san here, showcasing great eagerness and enthusiasm.
This saved Youyu a lot of trouble. He engaged in a brief but in-depth exchange with this player, quickly reaching a consensus and acquiring a "Buster Blader" from him.
Buster Blader series, GET.
In return, Youyu opened a special pathway for him — offering him a direct invitation to Duel Academy, bypassing the evaluation, as one of the second batch of recruited mentors from among the players.
Since the first batch of mentors have shown fairly good teaching performance so far, Youyu plans to expand the mentor team. He intends to recruit more players into the academy in the second batch — of course, despite that, given the massive player base, only a few would enjoy this privilege.
A mentor position translates to an opportunity to officially join the grand GX narrative stage starting this academic year, an enticing condition no player can refuse.
"Thank you, Youyu-san!" The Professional Commentator was instantly rejuvenated from his recent duel loss, "Youyu-san, I promise you, this is definitely an incredibly right decision!
Ever since I was young I noticed I have a special talent for education, especially adept at teaching girls, preferably those in their first year, shy in personality, very attached to teachers, can act cute and do the baby talk...
Seeing Youyu squint with a somewhat strange expression, he quickly changed his tone: "Oh, older ones are fine too, I'm not picky. Whether tsundere, cunning or strong-willed ones, I can handle them!
How about assigning me to the Obelisk Blue girls' dorm, as they appear to be quite big in the anime... ah ptooey, I mean, they are very talented! Excellent seedlings worth nurturing!"
"Mentors are not assigned based on academy allocation, each mentor is responsible for just one student assigned to him."
"Ah?" The Professional Commentator was a bit dumbfounded.
Doesn't that mean it might be some foot-scratching oaf who doesn't bath for a month, catching cockroaches in the dorm?
No, that doesn't seem to be the worst...
"...Marufuji Shou?" he asked cautiously.
"He's already been assigned." Youyu said.
The Professional Commentator breathed a deep sigh of relief.
Luckily, it's all good as long as it's not Shou...
"But since you've mentioned him, I can talk to his mentor and reassign him to you."
The Professional Commentator nearly jumped up: "No no no no, no need, haha, it's not nice to snatch someone else's student, I'll just follow the organizational deployment..."
For some reason, he suddenly thought that a foot-scratching oaf who doesn't bath for a month might not be all that unacceptable...
...
Alice stood among the duelists who participated in the KC Cup, listening to President Kaiba's grand and eloquent opening speech, but her mind was not on him.
Her mind was filled with thoughts of that Duel King, Youyu.
Alice was originally an underground arena duelist, living off illegal card games. Her strength was formidable, and she was quite renowned in the underworld.
Until one day when she met that lord.
The one who knows the past and the future, who sees through destiny, the seer Saiou Takuma.
She once naively attempted to challenge Lord Saiou, but the result was, as destiny had predetermined, her utter defeat.
The moment her Life Points hit zero, she felt the light.
Surging, incessant light, like a flood breaking through a dam, poured into her body, filling her up completely.
It was about to overflow.
Since then, she completely transformed into the shape of light.
Lord Saiou's predictions are absolute!
She had never felt so grateful for a duel loss — her defeat that brought her to Saiou showed her the truth of the world in an instant. She realized, everyone was but puppets of destiny, pulled by the complex intersecting threads, dancing along the predetermined paths.
Just like bees spinning in an infinite figure-eight for their whole lives.
But now Saiou told her, there's someone who leapt off the board of destiny, deviated from that track!
As a devoted believer, she felt unable to accept this.
Alice clenched her fists inwardly, making a firm resolution.
Lord Saiou, I will not disappoint you.
I will prove through action that even the so-called Duel King, in front of our great wheel of destiny, is nothing more than a mere speck of dust!