2.5k words
Chapter 102: The World's Only Card [2-in-1]
Sky Cup Dragon Hotel, Kaiba Corporation private lounge.
The innermost private room had been reserved for President Kaiba Chiaki's exclusive use.
The corporation president with ten thousand matters to handle daily had to squeeze in work time even during banquet gatherings.
At this moment, Kaiba Chiaki was using her Eva terminal to debug software recently developed by the R&D department.
This was detection radar developed to assist Tower-exterior exploration.
The Kaiba Corporation had poured considerable R&D funding into this project. Which meant she had to personally test it.
If the developed software had problems, the R&D department's salary evaluations for this year would definitely suffer.
Kaiba Chiaki activated the radar.
According to the R&D department's usage instructions, with herself as the center point, if any ancient artifacts from three thousand years ago appeared within a 300-meter radius, the radar would display them with a golden marker.
For this purpose, Kaiba Chiaki had specifically brought the card binder obtained from the last Tower-exterior exploration into this lounge.
In Kaiba Chiaki's words, testing this kind of software only had meaning if conducted in randomly selected locations.
If she only obtained results in the dedicated closed environment of the corporation research lab, the conclusions would be biased.
The detection radar took five minutes to scan the surrounding environment. Not particularly long, not particularly short. But if they wanted to use it while mobile, the R&D department would need to shorten the time to under two minutes.
After the scan finished, the radar generated a three-dimensional map of the hotel, and sure enough, near the center point appeared a golden marker representing a super-ancient artifact from three thousand years ago.
Magnifying the marker, the golden outline vaguely showed the rectangular shape of a card binder.
"The R&D department did pretty well." Kaiba Chiaki smiled.
Then the next second, as she looked down over the entire hotel scan map, Kaiba Chiaki's smile vanished completely.
Displayed inside the hotel was another golden marker for a three-thousand-year-old super-ancient artifact.
Moreover, judging only from the marker size, this "artifact's" volume was far larger than the card binder, and its location was inside the banquet hall.
"Did it bug out on the very first use?" Kaiba Chiaki's frown represented a major crisis for the R&D department's salary evaluation.
Intelligence obtained from previous Tower-exterior explorations had basically consisted only of scattered cards and data remaining in hardware.
How could such a massive Millennium "artifact" possibly appear brazenly inside a hotel banquet hall?
Even knowing it was a bug, Kaiba Chiaki couldn't suppress her curiosity. She dragged and magnified the golden marker on the map to see what exactly had been misidentified as a Millennium "artifact."
However, when Kaiba Chiaki enlarged the golden outline, she froze completely, surprise flashing through her eyes.
This was clearly a human form.
"To produce such a terrible bug!"
Kaiba Chiaki's frown deepened. Thinking about yesterday's confident presentation from the R&D department, she genuinely wanted to slash their salaries.
Misidentifying an object would still be barely acceptable.
But directly judging a living person as a three-thousand-year-old "artifact"?
What, had a mummy appeared in the banquet hall?
Both angry and finding it absurd, Kaiba Chiaki still looked out through the second floor's floor-to-ceiling window to see what this "mummy" judged by the system as a three-thousand-year-old "artifact" actually looked like.
After comparing positions, Kaiba Chiaki's helpless smile instantly vanished.
It was actually that man!
Amano Rei.
Honestly, if the system detection result had been any other person present in the banquet hall, Kaiba Chiaki would have found this bug absurdly laughable.
But the person detected by the radar just happened to be Amano Rei.
The holder of the fourth Blue-Eyes White Dragon.
"Is it because of the Blue-Eyes White Dragon card?"
The Historical Texts showed that the fourth Blue-Eyes White Dragon was related to the sealed "Millennium," so the detection radar reacted to it?
No, Kaiba Chiaki quickly rejected this idea.
If it was related to the fourth Blue-Eyes White Dragon card, the radar map's golden marker should only display the card, not possibly display an entire person.
Unless... the person himself was the problem!
Perhaps Chiha's failure wasn't the carelessness and coincidence she claimed at all.
Having dominated the business world and dueling circles since age ten, Kaiba Chiaki possessed keener instincts than others.
And this battle-hardened instinct seemed to be warning Kaiba Chiaki that this man definitely hid an enormous secret.
As Eden's domineering female president who looked down on everything, this was the first time Kaiba Chiaki had developed such intense interest in a man.
In any case, test him first.
Kaiba Chiaki dialed a number.
As a capital powerhouse, testing a person didn't require personal action -- she only needed to watch everything quietly from behind the scenes.
The opening Fate Symphony finished playing in the banquet hall, and the lighting suddenly dimmed.
"Ladies and gentlemen, we now enter the second act of the banquet opening ceremony!"
The host who suddenly took the stage held a microphone, voice vigorous and powerful.
"Sponsored by Kaiba Corporation -- the Lucky Blue-Eyes Bingo Machine!!"
The inexplicably inserted opening activity actually interrupted the increasingly intense disaster on Amano's side.
At the center of the banquet hall stage appeared a Blue-Eyes White Dragon-styled bingo machine, with several numbered balls rolling inside.
Bingo Machine GO! GO!
[Spell Card]
[You can only activate 1 card with this card's name per turn. 1: Reveal 3 total of the following cards from your Deck to your opponent, your opponent randomly selects 1, add that 1 card to your hand, return the rest to your Deck. "Blue-Eyes" monsters or Spell/Trap Cards that specifically list "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" or "Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon" in their text, except "Bingo Machine, GO!!"]
"Then before we draw the two lucky numbers, let's introduce the lucky prize fully sponsored by Kaiba Corporation! The world's only one -- Dark Magician Girl!"
The high-rarity card preserved in a transparent card brick glowed with alluring light from the lively, cute magician girl on the card face, even in the dim environment.
Dark Magician Girl
DARK
[Spellcaster/Effect]
[1): This card gains 300 ATK for each "Dark Magician" or "Dark Magician of Chaos" in the GY.]
Dark Magician Girl, though without special explanation, was actually a top-tier rarity card unique to the Yu-Gi-Oh! DM anime -- only one existed.
Eden had apparently replicated this world-unique rarity characteristic.
This super-rare card that was both cute and popular had already transcended the realm of actual gameplay to become a collection-grade treasure.
Of course, if you wanted to use it for dueling, that would definitely work too.
Just that the card value didn't match its combat strength.
This Dark Magician Girl was worth enough to trade for a Pot of Greed or even more.
For Kaiba Corporation to directly use such a valuable card as a lucky draw prize really wrote "loaded with money" on their foreheads.
Though everyone understood the true purpose of this banquet.
It was specifically organized by Kaiba Corporation to demonstrate power to the various families.
As the Blue-Eyes White Dragon bingo machine spit out a number, the host raised it high and announced excitedly.
"The first lucky number -- entry number NO.39!"
Entry numbers had been distributed when confirming personal information upon entering the Sky Cup Dragon Hotel.
Originally thought to just facilitate counting attendance, it turned out to also be used for this kind of lottery segment.
And entry number NO.39 -- Amano had a strong impression of it, not only because the number was special, but also because... NO.39 was him!
A spotlight suddenly illuminated in the dark venue, landing directly on Amano Rei.
"We invite lucky audience member Amano Rei to the stage!"
The sudden turn of events left Amano in a dazed state.
One moment still trapped in the blazing disaster zone, the next moment he had to take the stage to receive a prize.
Nanki'in Sakuya, equally confused about the situation, slowly released her tight grip on Amano's wrist in bewilderment.
Though letting go was one thing, her expression remained the same -- still devoid of emotion.
Under everyone's gaze, Amano ascended the stage.
The various company employees in the hall started whispering amongst themselves.
After all, this family gathering mostly consisted of famous business people, but many didn't recognize Amano Rei.
Of course, some people did recognize him.
Recognized him as the duelist who had defeated Kaiba Chiha in the Duel Academy entrance examination.
"Now we draw the second lucky audience member!"
"Second?" The crowd was confused.
The prize card was only this world-unique Dark Magician Girl, right?
"This is also an added excitement specially arranged by Kaiba Corporation for the banquet." The host explained. "Just drawing a lucky number obviously isn't enough. We've drawn two lucky audience members to use a duel to decide the final ownership of this Dark Magician Girl!"
The moment the host finished speaking, the second numbered ball was spit out by the Blue-Eyes White Dragon.
In this moment, Kaiba Chiha nervously clasped her hands. The instant she saw Amano Rei, she desperately hoped the lottery would select her.
That way she could justifiably fight this revenge duel, staging a comeback from hell.
However, Kaiba Chiha knew her sister's personality even better.
Random selection? No, no, no -- it couldn't be random at all.
The hand of capital would guide random events toward the result it wanted.
Compared to having Kaiba Chiha personally duel, there was a better candidate here.
"Number 32, Karl Wein!"
If a duel between Amano Rei and Kaiba Chiha was arranged here, anyone with eyes could see this was rigged behavior disguised as random.
Overly deliberate manipulation would instead give those watching corporations another opportunity to smear the Kaiba Corporation.
But Karl Wein was different. Right now, he still seemed like an outsider completely unrelated to the Kaiba Corporation.
But as long as Karl won, then announce the Wein-Kaiba marriage alliance.
The narrative would become the fiancé avenging his fianceé's duel defeat, not only raising the topic level of this marriage alliance but also getting revenge for Kaiba Chiha's loss in one stroke. Winner takes all.
As for the scenario where Karl lost the duel.
That would presumably mean the marriage alliance would fall through as well.
After all, if the engaged couple both lost to the same person, Kaiba Chiha definitely couldn't accept such an embarrassing situation.
Pieces existed to be pushed forward when needed, discarded when not.
Right now Kaiba Chiha fell into conflict -- not wanting the marriage alliance at all, did she hope Karl would win or lose?
Following the spotlight's trajectory, Karl also ascended the stage under everyone's gaze.
Amano once again marveled that this was truly a man whose looks matched his own. Just Karl walking that distance to the stage had already drawn screaming cheers from several wealthy young ladies.
The banquet venue lighting came back on, both standing on opposite sides of the duel stage.
This should be the second time Amano faced Karl directly.
"Amano Rei, you did something quite excessive."
"You mean making you lose a hundred thousand points?"
Finesse was right -- second brother really was petty. Still holding a grudge about a bet from a month ago.
"Do I look like someone with such limited capacity?" Karl deployed his Duel Disk on his arm. "As for whether your capacity can earn my recognition, prove it to me in this duel!"
"Why would I need your recognition?" Amano similarly deployed his Eva terminal into a Duel Disk.
[EVA: DUEL CONFIRMED]
[DUELIST - AMANO REI]
[DUELIST - KARL WEIN]
[DATA NETWORK CONNECTED, DUEL FIELD GENERATED]
[DUEL TYPE - PRIZE DUEL]
[PROUD DUELISTS, LET THE DUEL'S OUTCOME BE THE SCALE THAT MEASURES YOUR SOULS!]
[DUEL--!]
"Huh? What's happening?" Finesse, who had been in a daze until now, finally reacted. "Amano is dueling second brother?"
From the moment Nanki'in Sakuya grabbed Amano's wrist, she'd entered a complete mental freeze state with a blank brain.
When Finesse came back to her senses, Amano was already fighting her own brother.
Something about a lucky lottery happened in between?
"Nanki'in Sakuya!" But while everyone's attention was drawn to the duel on stage, Finesse finally had a chance to confront this matter directly. "Why do you insist on clinging to Amano?"
Sakuya didn't respond.
When it came down to it, this matter was indeed her fault.
Because she had lied.
Even though Amano Rei had agreed to both invitations, his agreement with her was only to meet her grandfather once.
She'd deceived Amano, saying grandfather wanted to meet a duelist who had experienced Dark Games, when actually she wanted him to pretend to be her boyfriend to make grandfather happy.
The moment she saw Finesse, Nanki'in Sakuya felt she was truly terrible. She must be the kind of scheming bad woman who appeared in the manga she often read.
But when she saw Amano about to leave with Finesse, she'd reflexively reached out and grabbed him.
The overly complex emotions left even Nanki'in Sakuya unable to understand what she actually wanted.
Did she want grandfather to be happy, or did she want Amano to stay on her side?
For Nanki'in Sakuya, who usually had such muted emotions, this kind of question was more beyond the curriculum than Synchro Academy exam papers.
If not for Kaiba Corporation's lottery activity just happening to select Amano, Nanki'in Sakuya didn't know how she would have resolved her action of tightly gripping Amano's wrist.
Sakuya spoke softly in response. "It won't happen again, Finesse."
The sudden capitulation instead made Finesse, who had been holding back a belly full of anger, feel like punching cotton.
"Hmph, you still want there to be a next time!" In the end, Finesse could only barely maintain a slightly angry attitude and fire back at Nanki'in Sakuya.
"My turn, draw." Amano Rei took first strike in the duel.
"Hand card effect of Speed Warrior!"
[By sending 1 monster from your hand to the GY, you can Special Summon this card from your hand.]
"I send Yomi from my hand to the Graveyard and Special Summon Speed Warrior!"
[SPEED WARRIOR] [LV2 WIND]
[Machine/Tuner/Effect]
[ATK: 700] [DEF: 1400]
Speed Warrior
WIND
[Machine/Tuner/Effect]
[1: By sending 1 monster from your hand to the GY, you can Special Summon this card from your hand. A Synchro Monster that used this card as Synchro Material cannot be used as Synchro Material.]
Dressed in cowboy attire and wielding a quick-draw revolver, the Tuner monster materialized and leapt onto Amano's field.
This was a new addition to Amano's Main Deck -- a Tuner monster that finally had an effect.
However, the appearance of this card suddenly made both girls below tense up simultaneously.
Speed Warrior -- they'd just recently seen someone use it.
At the United Duel, Rin Seiya had used the exact same monster.
"Why does Amano have the same card as Rin Seiya?"
Considering Amano's frequent late returns recently, was it really watching anime like he said?
Watching anime got someone else's cards into his own deck?
Finesse and Nanki'in Sakuya, busy fighting with each other, suddenly realized they might have been backdoored.
---