World Championship, Duel Arena.
The magnificent Blue-Eyes Duel Dome—its entire roof looked like the head of a massive white dragon resting on the ground. Inside, the place roared with life, countless excited hearts beating together to weave a grand overture.
The stands were packed to the rafters, not a seat empty. The clamor swelled with the approaching match, an unstoppable rush; cheers and applause surged like they might blow the dragon dome's roof off.
This was the top championship of the Pro League, a much-watched event. Major TV stations were broadcasting it live; even most at Duel Academy were watching on TV.
Jaden and his underclassmen complained the Slifer Red dorm's TV was too small, too old, and often had bad reception, so they asked Kira to borrow his. Kira didn't mind and invited them over to his place.
As the duelists stepped onto the stage, the cheers hit a fever pitch.
["Today's challenger to The D. is the super-criminal with an IQ of 200 and multiple indictments—the escapee from prison, Doctor Collector!"]
Spotlights converged at center stage, revealing a disheveled, bearded figure. He wore a restraint jacket, his hands cuffed—he looked exactly like a man who'd just broken out of prison to rush over and duel.
When Kira first saw this guy, he couldn't help but roast him in his mind. A felon with multiple indictments still able to come duel on TV? Was he literally breaking out of prison just to play cards?
So brazen on live TV—wouldn't they just haul him back?
"Oh, I've heard of this guy!"
Jaden's new underclassman this year, Tyranno, said.
"They say he's a super-genius duelist who's been assisting the FBI with cases even while in prison."
Then the prisoner roared, flexed, and with monstrous strength tore his restraint jacket apart, bursting it into strips.
Yep—people who duel have superhuman physiques. This strength was beyond normal human limits.
Then, under the gaze of the crowd, the legendary champion The D. entered.
The crowd was buzzing; Jaden and his friends were excited, discussing how the prisoner was a genius who could read opponents, an expert in card-related crime—how much chance did he have against the champion?
But Kira knew: barring a timeline shift, the result was already set.
Predictably, the duel unfolded as expected.
To be fair, just from Dimensional Fissure presence, the prisoner Doctor Collector had something. Even from the perspective of card sharks back in the day, his Spellcaster Lock was quite threatening.
He opened with the Continuous Spell "Dimensional Fissure," sending monsters that would go to the graveyard to be banished instead. It's the spell version of Macro Cosmos—no need to explain the suppression.
Then, leveraging Fissure, he sent and banished five monsters in one go, then slammed down the real-world heavyweight Forbidden card "Dimension Fusion," bringing all banished monsters back to the field at once.
So turn one, he summoned Cosmo Queen, Ebon Magician Curran, and three Magician's Valkyria.
A burly, bearded, shackled tough guy summoning nothing but "waifu cards"—mature women and lolis, a complete spread—the tonal whiplash on first sight was real.
But on second thought, nothing wrong there. That's exactly the kind of deck a real man would use.
With three Valkyries on the field, the opponent couldn't attack non-Valkyrie Spellcasters—three of them meant full attack lock. The opponent couldn't declare attacks at all.
Dimensional Fissure banished anything that would go to GY, effectively graveyard hate.
Ebon Magician Curran burned the opponent each turn for 300 times the number of monsters the opponent controlled. He summoned five in one turn, so 1500 burn per turn.
Then the prisoner added the Spell "Magical Blast," burning for 200 times the number of Spellcasters on your field—another 1000.
Finally, he set the ancestor of degenerate cards, "Nightmare Wheel," to bind an opponent's monster from attacking and burn 500 each turn.
With that lock and formation, the opponent was at a crushing disadvantage.
But faced with this setup, The D. suddenly burst into laughter.
"That's it?"
The D. laughed loudly.
The prisoner tensed. "What's so funny?"
"Nothing," The D. grinned, feral—a look he'd never shown the public.
"Just thinking that human geniuses amount to only this much. The power I possess is beyond your imagination—at the cost of selling my soul to a demon."
"What are you talking about?" Collector barked. "I'm a prisoner—the demon's inside me!"
"Not that joke of a thing. I'll show you a real demon now!
My turn!"
The D. immediately revealed three copies of "Fiend's Sanctuary," summoning three Metal Fiend Token, then raised his arm and roared: "I tribute my three Metal Fiend Token—descend!
The ultimate—"
The screen cut off.
Just before the broadcast ended, there was a hint of a massive explosion, like something had detonated. A terrifying power was released; even through the TV screen, you could feel it faintly.
Then came static—no picture at all.
"What the heck!" Tyranno groused. "It was getting to the best part."
Jaden frowned. "What he was summoning… felt really bad."
With the live feed down, no one knew what happened or the result. But Kira knew even without seeing.
Doctor Collector's lock was decent, but unfortunately, it got soloed by Ultimate D.
The D. likely tributed the three tokens to summon Plasma and activated the Spell "D - Force." That card was an anime only card that only got printed years later—original Plasma needs D - Force to show its true strength.
With D - Force on the field, Plasma negates all effects of the opponent's monsters on the field—so the Valkyries' attack lock was gone.
And empowered by D - Force, any Spell/Trap effects targeting Plasma were negated and destroyed—so Nightmare Wheel was invalidated too.
Finally, though Plasma's base ATK is only 1900, it can absorb an opponent's monster and gain half that monster's ATK. So The D. probably absorbed Cosmo Queen for the ATK, and since the Doctor Collector paid 2000 LP last turn for Dimension Fusion, Plasma one-punched him.
While Jaden and the others debated the duel, Kira was already thinking.
He remembered that after this match, The D. would go to Aster and lay everything bare—then lose to Aster, and Plasma would return to Aster.
If Kira wanted to study the card, he could either wait until Aster recovered Plasma and contact him, or move early before Aster got it—now was likely the last chance.