Chapter 248: Chronicle Reward [???] - Kaiba Seto's Gift
"You actually broke through infinite LP with that tactic... Another hero's infinite strike!"
Strictly speaking, this was the second time.
If The Wicked Avatar was the Kaiba family's nemesis across their entire bloodline, then perhaps the HERO archetype was the natural predator sent to put that cursed black egg in its place.
"Wait, what happened here?" Yugi Muto and the others, who had fought their way through every floor to reach the rooftop, arrived to find the outcome already decided: the black clouds torn apart, a clear sky opening above. "Amano? Why are you here?"
Joey Wheeler, never one for subtlety, said it straight: "I tried calling you earlier and couldn't get through. I thought something came up and you weren't coming."
Atem had already pieced together the situation. "So you came straight up here to deal with Tenma Yako yourself. I almost forgot: you have direct access to the top floor." He glanced around at the settled field. "It looks like there was no role left for us to play here."
With the battle clearly concluded, Atem returned to the Millennium Puzzle of his own accord, and Yugi came back.
"Thank you again, Amano." Yugi smiled gently.
"Hang on, no role left for us?" Joey grabbed his own spiky blond hair in frustration. "Then what was the point of me fighting through all those duels? I even took down The Wicked Dreadroot! A counterfeit, sure, but still!"
What other point do you need? It means you're good.
Honda stepped in helpfully: "What do you mean, what was the point? We were rescuing Anzu, obviously!"
Right. If Honda had not said that, Amano would have completely forgotten about the hostage situation that had been going on this entire time.
Sharing the role of Chronicle hostage with Kaiba Mokuba, trapped for the duration: the female lead, Anzu Mazaki. Caught by the villain again.
"Hey, you!" Joey had already crossed the rooftop and grabbed Tenma Yako by the collar. "Where did you put Anzu?!"
Tenma Yako, sprawled on the ground from the Dark Game finishing blow, was in a state of complete mental collapse. The only thing coming out of him was pure reflex and instinct, the same words on repeat: "Lord Pegasus, I will revive Lord Pegasus, I must revive Lord Pega..."
What he had done was inexcusable. But Tenma Yako was only Pegasus's adopted son, with no blood tie, and he had still been willing to stake his own soul on bringing Pegasus back. Amano could at least acknowledge that kind of devotion, in its own twisted way.
He just really could have picked a resurrection vessel that was not Anzu Mazaki.
There was something fundamentally wrong with that version of filial loyalty.
In any case, on this divergent timeline, Pegasus was probably not getting another chance at resurrection. But if the timeline converged back to normal because of this duel, Tenma Yako might find himself in a world where Pegasus never died in the first place.
"Anzu is fine!" Mokuba, who had slipped away at some point without anyone noticing, reappeared with the rescued hostage in tow.
"Yugi? Amano!" Anzu's face still carried traces of weakness and confusion. She probably had not yet fully processed how close she had come to becoming someone who greeted people with "It's game time."
With that, the Chronicle based on the Yu-Gi-Oh! R storyline had reached its proper conclusion.
Being a spinoff manga rather than the main series, there was something about it that gave Amano the sensation of a complete, self-contained arc. Like a proper ending that tied everything off.
But Kaiba Seto's next words pulled Amano back into the long unfinished history that still had many more pages to go.
"I owe you my thanks this time, Amano Rei. And you as well, Yugi. Even that useless one helped retake the Kaiba Corporation building. I appreciate the effort."
Kaiba Seto actually thanking people of his own initiative. Amano had to check that the clear sky overhead was not about to suddenly fill with storm clouds again.
"As a token of gratitude for this assistance, I will give both of you two rare cards that Kaiba Corporation has recently acquired. This power should serve you well in battles ahead."
[Chronicle Clear Condition: Defeat Tenma Yako] Achieved.
[Chronicle Hidden Clear Condition: Defeat The Wicked Avatar] Achieved.
[Completion Rating: SS]
The Chronicle system's clear-condition notification appeared at last, noticeably late.
In that instant, Amano clearly felt a sharp wave of emotion from Kaiba Chiaki, still present in the background spirit connection.
Two years. The scenario that had blocked her for two full years had finally been cleared.
The wait had been so long that when the ending actually arrived, Kaiba Chiaki entered a kind of quiet stillness: her thoughts became clear and calm, the mental noise settling into transparency.
She had waited so long for this that the actual Chronicle reward barely registered as significant.
Though she did remember: when they had entered the Chronicle today, the reward display had changed.
What had originally read [Possible Card Drop: The Wicked Avatar] had shifted to [Possible Card Drop: ???].
The reward card had changed. Was that because Amano already possessed The Wicked Avatar?
But what exactly was the ???
The Chronicle completion system notification appeared again.
[Chronicle High-Score Clear Reward + Chronicle Hidden Condition Clear Reward: Kaiba Seto's Gift.]
Those were the two rare cards Kaiba Seto had just mentioned, his thank-you gift. The Eva system was apparently happy to use someone else's generosity as the delivery mechanism.
In the DM era, a card rare enough that Kaiba Seto would call it rare, acquired through Kaiba Corporation's resources: beyond the three Egyptian Gods, Amano could not think of many candidates.
But this was Kaiba Chiaki's Chronicle reward. Whether it qualified as rare was a question best left to both Kaiba Corporation presidents, past and present, to evaluate.
Just like every other Chronicle before, clearing it did not mean the scenario ended immediately.
Kaiba Seto spoke again. "The card you used at the end, Amano Rei. Elemental HERO Air Neos, was it? A monster I have never seen before, and yet it reminded me of something."
He looked up at the clear sky stretching out now that the storm clouds had scattered.
"Kaiba Corporation ran a Space Capsule Campaign some time ago. A program aimed at children. You remember it, surely."
Amano had zero memory of anything related to a Space Capsule Campaign. But when Kaiba Seto mentioned it, something clicked: the Kaiba Corporation of the anime was always at the cutting edge of Duel Monsters technology, eventually developing a time machine in the final arc. But its actual core business had always been a toy company for children. The theme parks. Kaiba Land, spread across the world. Making children happy had always been one of Kaiba Seto's real goals, under all that coldness.
Back to the Space Capsule. Kaiba Seto continued: "There was a child who sent something rather interesting into space. A card he drew himself. The monster on it looked very similar to the one you used in this duel. Perhaps this is fate. Seeing today's duel made a decision clear to me: I will make that child's dream real."
Wait.
Even without any memory of the Space Capsule Campaign itself, Amano recognized what Kaiba Seto was describing.
The child he was talking about was Jaden Yuki. The card he had drawn himself was the one Kaiba Corporation would eventually send into space: Elemental HERO Neos.
So this was where the two divergent histories converged back together.
Because of this duel with Elemental HERO Neos, Elemental HERO Neos would be brought into existence.
After as many Chronicles as Amano had run, a paradox of causality at this scale barely registered as unusual anymore.
"I had hesitated before," Kaiba Seto added. "Only because among the cards that child drew, there was also one strange card I had never seen before."
"A card even you had never seen? Could it be..."
"Yubel."
At that name, the Chronicle environment began dissolving around them like data breaking apart.
Cut off at another critical moment.
When Amano opened his eyes again, he was back inside the premium private booth of the virtual network login terminal.
Standing in front of him was a visibly stunned Kaiba Chiaki.
Having spent an entire afternoon with her soul inside Amano's body, returning to her own suddenly produced a sensation of unreality. Without pausing to register that Amano was right there, she began running her hands over herself, confirming the details of her own body with careful attention.
On Amano's end, the background spirit connection to Kaiba Chiaki had been severed, and with it the skill had deactivated. The two cards added to his deck by Searching Across a Thousand Years, Neo-Spacian Air Hummingbird from the GX era and the Left Arm of the Forbidden One from the DM era, the pair selected for breaking through infinite LP, both vanished from the deck simultaneously.
"Chiaki-senpai." Amano offered the gentle reminder. "Could you stop doing that. We should check the clear reward."
This Chronicle had taken considerably longer than he had expected. By the time they finished, it was approaching the last period of the afternoon.
Kaiba Chiaki, a lifelong professional at skipping class, had never had any intention of going back. She had simply pulled Amano down with her at this point.
"Oh. Right. The clear reward." Kaiba Chiaki, who had no belief in the metaphysics of soul possession, needed considerably more time than most people to fully settle back into her own body after what had just happened.
She opened the system reward interface. The screen showed the option: [Kaiba Seto's Gift].
Card data assembled in front of the Eva Terminal. Kaiba Corporation's hand-selected rare cards crossed the boundary between two worlds and drifted into Kaiba Chiaki's hands.
[Chaos Emperor Dragon - Envoy of the End]
[Level 8 DARK]
[Dragon / Special Summon / Effect]
[ATK: 3000 / DEF: 2500]
[This card cannot be Normal Summoned. You can Special Summon this card by banishing 1 LIGHT and 1 DARK monster from your GY, and paying 1000 LP. Send all cards in both players' hands and on the field to the GY. Then, deal 300 damage to your opponent for each card sent to the GY by this effect.]
That was not a rare card. That was a card that had been banned from competitive play for years. And this was the pre-errata version, the original effect at full power.
Compared to that, every Chronicle reward Amano had received before felt almost ordinary.
This was the level of favoritism that a legendary ancestor showed toward a direct descendant.
"Wait, there's more!" Kaiba Chiaki said.
More than one card.
Kaiba Seto had mentioned two rare cards inside the Chronicle. And the second card that materialized from the Eva Terminal, to Amano's genuine surprise, landed in his hand.
He was getting a share too?
The ancestor was not as one-sided as he had seemed. Apologies for the misjudgment.
[Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning]
[Level 8 LIGHT]
[Warrior / Special Summon / Effect]
[ATK: 3000 / DEF: 2500]
[This card cannot be Normal Summoned. You can Special Summon this card by banishing 1 LIGHT and 1 DARK monster from your GY. Once per turn, you can use 1 of these effects: 1. Target 1 monster on the field. Banish it (this card cannot attack the turn this effect is used). 2. If this card destroys an opponent's monster by battle, it can make 1 additional attack this turn.]
Black Luster Soldier.
So the two rare cards Kaiba Seto had been referring to were these two Envoy monsters. The Chaos duo.
In the DM era, both cards were genuinely in a tier of their own, both in terms of effect power and rarity.
Though the two cards shared the Chaos series, the Envoy name, and identical ATK and DEF, their actual effects were not close. Chaos Emperor Dragon's board-nuking hand-and-field wipe was a completely different kind of card from Black Luster Soldier's more measured banish-and-double-attack toolkit.
Chronicle rewards and academy point exchange cards both counted as bound cards. Amano was not going to shamelessly ask Chiaki-senpai to swap.
From the way the corner of Kaiba Chiaki's mouth was pulling upward, she was clearly very satisfied with the result.
"No time to waste. Let's keep going, Amano Rei."
"Keep going? Keep going with what?"
"Your Chronicle for this week."
"Another one?"
It was approaching the end of afternoon classes. Another Chronicle now, if it was the kind that ran long, would consume the rest of the evening here.
Amano had not forgotten: last night he had made a separate arrangement with Rin Seiya to stop by the club room alone today for what she had described as a special screening event.
"Of course we're doing another one!" Kaiba Chiaki's energy was unmistakably revived, carrying the look of someone who had been thoroughly hooked.
She had gotten a taste, and it had fully reactivated something.
It was still technically not the end of classes. Time-wise, it was early enough to at least look at this week's Chronicle content first.
If it was one of the lower-difficulty scenarios, something Amano could handle quickly, all the better. But if it was the kind that looked brutal at a glance and would take hours, he would find an excuse to postpone until tomorrow: adjust the deck, proper preparation, all very reasonable.
He stepped up to the Chronicle terminal and tapped the screen, watching the selection cursor jump through the extensive Chronicle library.
The cursor entered the Yu-Gi-Oh! GX section and came to rest on a chapter from the series' later arcs.
Amano's expression went completely still.
The difficulty was SS+. Not quite as extreme as the mightiest Evil God scenario, but the hardest Chronicle he had personally rolled in his own weekly slot.
But the reason his face froze was not the difficulty. It was the content.
[Alternate Dimension Arc: Decisive Battle at Supreme King's Castle! VS Supreme King Jaden!]
[Difficulty Rating: SS+]
[Possible Card Drop: Evil HERO Infernal Gainer, Evil HERO Malicious Edge, Evil HERO Dark Gaia, Evil HERO Poisonous Person, Dark Fusion, Dark Calling]
The card rewards were extensive, but the one most associated with that arc, Super Polymerization, was conspicuously absent from the list.
What settled most heavily in Amano's chest, though, was a different thing entirely.
He had just fought alongside Jaden Yuki in the last Chronicle. He had even heard Jaden's voice, bright and easy, laughing across time in the final moments.
And the very next Chronicle was going to put him across the field from that same person. A Jaden consumed by darkness, the Supreme King.
If he was going by the GX Chronicle's timeline, he would have been at Duel Academy with Jaden. Same era, practically the same building. How had things gone wrong enough that his best friend had ended up like that?
"SS+ difficulty." Kaiba Chiaki smiled with open anticipation. "That looks like an interesting Chronicle. No time to waste then. Let's go, Amano."
Usually Amano would manufacture a convenient excuse to put off a troublesome Chronicle until tomorrow. But this one was different. The questions it raised were ones he actually wanted answered.
Without even any personal memories of Jaden Yuki from that era, the cumulative experience of these Chronicle encounters had, somewhere along the way, made Amano feel like Jaden was a friend. His friend.
He wanted to know why. Why, even with himself present, had his friend still ended up like that.
But when Amano reached for the start button on the screen, the button was greyed out.
The Eva system delivered a notification: [A Chronicle has already been cleared this week.]
Already cleared this week?
Did that mean Kaiba Chiaki's Chronicle had counted toward his own weekly limit?
Looking back at it, that did make a certain logic. Even though Kaiba Chiaki had been the one to open the Chronicle, Amano had been present for the entire storyline, taken over the duel himself, and had even received a card reward at the end.
Eva was apparently not going to allow piggybacking on someone else's Chronicle as a route to additional weekly rewards.
The Supreme King mystery would have to wait until next week.
It gave Amano the distinct feeling of watching a weekly broadcast anime and reaching a next-episode preview, only to be told there was a seven-day wait.
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