Clearly, they were not shouting Rex Raptor. They were shouting the name of the newcomer who had ground him into the floor.
The Legendary Duelist Rex Raptor had failed in his comeback and instead became a stepping stone for a rising star.
"Congratulations to Yugen Fujiki for defeating Rex Raptor and claiming the championship of this Moonlight Cup!" Wataru Komatsu shouted with excitement.
"What an unbelievable duel this was. A newcomer making his first appearance wins his first match against the returning Rex Raptor, and even held the upper hand for the entire duel. No, more than that, his Life Points never dropped from four thousand until the very end, a true flawless victory in the literal sense."
Rex Raptor thought, please stop, stop rubbing it in.
"Yes, and based on my years of commentary, I dare say this may not even be this player's limit," Takeshi Sasaki added. "'Card Trooper' has another effect. When it is destroyed, its Duelist can draw one card from the deck."
"After Machine monsters receive the effect of Limiter Removal, they self destruct, which means Yugen Fujiki would draw three more cards at once from the destruction of Card Trooper. On the other hand, Rex Raptor has an empty field, and because he activated 'Reckless Greed' last turn, he must skip his next two draw phases. So."
He did not continue, but the meaning was obvious.
Even if Rex Raptor somehow survived this turn and blocked the final assault of Card Trooper, his chance of winning would still be close to zero. Not to mention that Yugen still had two Machina Fortress in his graveyard, ready to come back at any time as long as he had Machine resources in hand. By this point, the gap between the two sides was already overwhelming.
Rex Raptor said nothing.
"What a fearsome young talent," Wataru Komatsu said with growing admiration for the newcomer. "But no matter what, let us congratulate Yugen Fujiki on taking the championship."
He had a feeling. This would not be the last time he saw this player on the stage. Or perhaps for Yugen, this was only the beginning.
"He really won."
Already seated among the audience, Dueling Dojo senior brother Koji Sato stared at the scene and blinked in disbelief. Then he pinched himself hard.
It hurt. This was not a dream.
Junior brother had really beaten a Legendary Duelist. All the anger and frustration he once felt when he had been crushed by that junior brother vanished, replaced by a sense of pride. If such an amazing junior brother had beaten him before, that almost felt like something to brag about, and his back straightened without him noticing.
With Yugen taking the title, Dueling Dojo erupted in celebration. Just imagining that this would appear on the front page of Duelist Times tomorrow made the apprentices feel proud, as if even mentioning Dueling Dojo outside would carry more weight. The most excited of all was the hall master.
The moment the champion was announced, the hall master Takeuchi rolled his eyes and nearly fell backward. When the apprentices hurried to support him, he waved them off at once and said he was fine, only too excited.
Later, when no one noticed, the hall master stood up and walked deeper into Dueling Dojo. He reached out and pressed his palm against an ordinary looking wall, his fingers tapping with a hidden pattern. Moments later, the wall trembled and split open from the center, revealing a hidden door.
No one else in Dueling Dojo knew this door existed. He entered the passage, and the door closed behind him. At the end of the tunnel, all the light gathered on a single point.
A transparent display case stood there, holding a single card. The hall master murmured to himself.
"The one who can inherit it is finally about to appear, isn't he?"
"You really are the champion. Even a demon king like Rex Raptor got taken down by you. Junior brother, you are incredible." As they left the arena, Koji Sato looked like a completely different person and eagerly reached for the luggage.
"Junior brother, why are you carrying it yourself? Let senior brother do it."
Yugen tried to refuse, but could not withstand his enthusiasm. "By the way, people say there is no order in learning, so from today on, how about you be the senior brother and I be the junior instead."
Yugen was speechless.
"Still, your mindset is really strong," Koji Sato said. "You won the championship, but you look like nothing happened. If it were me, I would be floating right now."
Of course Yugen was not unhappy. He had expected this result from the start, so there was not much surprise. What he cared about more was when the prize money would be paid.
The more he understood this world, the more he felt that money in the Yu-Gi-Oh! world was not all powerful, but having none was impossible. People like Seto Kaiba or Manjoume with pure spending power aside, even the first generation protagonist came from a card selling family, and the second generation Judai Yuki also seemed to be rich.
The third generation might have come from the slums, but that one could build a perpetual engine from scrap and even print his own cards. As the story went on, protagonists always upgraded their decks and kept gaining new cards. Playing cards was truly a bottomless pit, and unless you had the talent to print cards yourself, most people could only burn money.
It only made Duel Academy look even better with the strong backing of Seto Kaiba.
They left the arena one after the other.
In the shadows, a figure in a black robe stood in the corner, watching Yugen's departing back from afar. Under the hood, the corner of his mouth curled into a dangerous smile. A green glint flashed beneath the hood, and in the darkness his eyes briefly shone with an eerie green light, flickering like ghost fire within his pupils.
The next day, when Yugen returned to Dueling Dojo, everything felt different. It was not only about changes within himself, though those were real enough. After winning the championship, he could clearly feel how people looked at him differently, and the moment he stepped inside, someone shouted first and the rest rushed over in a crowd, treating him like some revered master.
But that was not the only change.
When he reached the Battle Arena and looked around, Yugen immediately noticed that the entire atmosphere was nothing like his first visit. Back then, duels here had felt like old-fashioned slugfests, where both sides focused on summoning bigger monsters to overpower the other. It was not completely mindless, but most offense and defense still revolved around brute force on the field.
Today was a different sight.
Deshi A: "I go first, Card Draw! I set four cards and end my turn!"
Deshi B: "Nani?!! Four set cards on the first turn?! Do not get cocky! My turn, Card Draw! I set five cards and end my turn!"
"..."
Similar scenes were playing out across several different dueling fields at the same time. Just a week ago, when Yugen had first arrived, setting no monsters on the opening turn in Duel Dojo would get you mocked for building your deck wrong. Now it had somehow become the norm.