After leading Yugen to what looked like a warrior camp, Marauding Captain warmly invited him to sit and personally brought him a bowl of hot soup.
"Here, give this a try," Marauding Captain said with a broad smile. "I have some interest in the culinary arts and am fairly confident in my skills. This is a new dish I developed today, and everyone who has tried it has given it high praise."
A passing warrior muttered under his breath, "Because the ones who did not praise it are still lying down and cannot speak."
Marauding Captain turned around with a cold face, and the warrior hurried off.
Yugen fell silent.
Now he remembered. There was indeed a card called Marauding Captain, and its artwork showed Marauding Captain cooking in a camp.
By the outside world's time it should still be the middle of the night, and after all the commotion he was a little hungry. But whether food from the Spirit world was compatible with humans had never been tested, so to be safe he politely declined.
"We gathered all the Spirit in the nearby area who were capable of fighting," Marauding Captain said. "But the subordinates of the Dark God were too strong. Our forces kept retreating and suffered heavy losses. If not for the hero arriving at just the right time…"
He turned solemnly. "On behalf of the comrades who were rescued and everyone in this camp, I must express our gratitude."
"There is no need. I was just passing by, and I do not plan to stay long," Yugen said honestly. "If you expect us to remain and help you fight, you may be disappointed."
"It is all right. We understand. The true body of the Dark God is in Duel World. If the source is not dealt with, defeating one Bone King will only lead to another Bone King being raised."
As he said this, Marauding Captain suddenly grew serious.
"But what I truly wish to say is this."
He stood up and walked to a sealed box at the side of the camp, unlocking it with great care. From the way he handled it, it looked as though he were about to draw the finest sword in the village. Yet when he opened the box and strapped the item onto his arm, it turned out to be a peculiar Duel Disk.
It was shaped like a sword and normally rested in a thick sheath. If carried on the back, it would look just like a greatsword.
Yugen could not help imagining it. A wandering swordsman sees injustice, shouts, pulls the blade from his back, only to reveal a Duel Disk, loads a Deck, and challenges the opponent to a duel.
Perhaps this was simply how things worked in the Spirit world.
"I have heard that the hero defeated Bone King with ease and possesses rare and powerful strength."
Marauding Captain dropped to one knee, his expression sincere.
"Please teach me the secrets of Duel!"
"It was because I was too weak and too useless that so many comrades fell and so many were lost. I do not want to continue like this."
"I want the power to protect everyone and protect our home!"
Yugen was speechless.
After a moment of thought, he said, "It is true that I defeated Bone King. But the way I conduct Duel may be somewhat different from yours."
Even the Duelist in the outside world were already quite straightforward. From what he had observed, the Spirit were even more so when it came to dueling.
He had once thought that if a Deck was truly an extension of a Spirit's being, then their bond should be perfect and their topdeck luck even stronger than that of Duelist. Yet in reality, those who stood at the pinnacle of the path of cards were always Duelist. Compared to fighting personally, the Spirit seemed to perform better as warriors under powerful Duelist.
If one lacked strong topdeck luck, Yugen did have some ways to achieve quick results in dueling. But he was wondering whether such methods would be considered crooked by these straightforward Spirit.
However, Marauding Captain seemed to misunderstand him.
He probably took it to mean that power required a price. In many cases that was true. In the world of Yu-Gi-Oh!, many powerful cards demanded powerful souls to control them, and cards that granted extraordinary destiny to a Duelist often carried severe side effects.
Determination flashed across Marauding Captain's face.
"No matter what becomes of my body or mind, it does not matter! If I can gain the power to protect everyone, even if I must sell my soul to a demon, no, even if I must become a demon myself, I will not hesitate!"
"No, that is not what I meant," Yugen said.
After thinking it over, he stood up.
"Forget it. Waiting is still waiting. If you truly wish it, let us have a Duel. I will demonstrate."
At first he had assumed that duels in Spirit World were always to the death. But later Envoy of the Beginning told him that was not necessarily so. Among Spirit, a Duel could decide life and death, or it could simply stop at the point of victory.
That made sense. If every duel meant death, then the first lesson in learning to duel would be killing one's own teacher.
Soon the two of them stood outside the camp and activated their Duel Disk. Upon hearing that Marauding Captain was about to Duel with the hero from another world, the surrounding Spirit hurried over to watch.
Today's opponent was none other than Marauding Captain himself, the captain who led charges into enemy lines.
"Spell Card 'Dragged Down into the Grave'. I look at your hand and choose one card to return to your Deck."
"."
"Trap Card 'Raigeki Break'. I discard one card and destroy the first card on your field."
"."
"I activate the effect of 'Puppet Plant' from my hand. I discard it and take control of one Warrior type monster on your field. I will take control of your second monster."
"."
"'Marauding Captain', attack 'Marauding Captain' directly!"
The Marauding Captain who had been taken to Yugen's side leapt forward without mercy. His blade flashed and came down in a fierce strike.
At the last moment, however, Yugen signaled him to hold back. The sword passed along the side of the original's shoulder and slammed into the ground with a burst of sparks.
Marauding Captain, LP 0.
Marauding Captain, who had nearly been cut down by his own sword, lay on his back staring at the sky.
He began to ponder why a Spirit should live at all, and why he had chosen to duel a hero even stranger than the Dark God.
The cards were played out in only a few minutes. Yet the entire camp of Spirit watching the match fell silent.
How should they put it?
Hero-sama's Duel was nothing like they had imagined.
Among the crowd were two Spirit who had returned from Bone King's cave. When they saw Marauding Captain challenge Hero-sama to a Duel, one of them had wanted to warn him.
But the other pulled him back.
Grinning, he said there was no rush and that it might be interesting to watch first. After thinking it over, the first Spirit agreed.
So they said nothing and stood side by side, munching seeds and smiling as they watched Marauding Captain get crushed.
As expected, it was very entertaining.
After being knocked down by a single strike, Marauding Captain closed his eyes and carefully replayed the Duel in his mind.