Chapter 322: Class Rep, Since When Did You Get Addicted to This?
"Big brother, do you think maybe it's not a cold?"
Amano Shio, working with her own limited understanding of things, tried to puzzle it out loud.
"Maybe Sister Finesse just ate something that upset her stomach. All those leftovers in the fridge from yesterday, didn't Sister Finesse eat every single one of them?"
"You're eating leftovers again." Amano Rei scolded her sternly. "Didn't I tell you, once it's been sitting too long you have to throw it out? Why do you keep fighting the trash can for its job?"
"Mother always said things kept in the fridge don't go bad that easily."
"That's still not okay!"
"Uwaah..."
Finesse shrank her head down, looking exactly like a kid who'd been caught doing something wrong.
Probably because she'd spent the first decade or so of her life living like an ordinary commoner, even now that she had more than enough money, Finesse still hadn't managed to shake the habits she'd picked up from a life that hadn't always been comfortable.
Things like eating the fruit that was closest to going bad first, or the deep-seated belief that anything stuck in the fridge would just stay fresh forever.
The Amano household, by contrast, had never developed habits like that at all. Even living down in the poorest part of the lower districts, Shio had rarely ever gone digging through the fridge for leftovers.
Because looking back across eighteen years, the Amano family had always been too poor to ever have leftovers in the first place, so the habit simply never formed.
As for whether it might not actually be a cold...
Shio had no idea about the hidden relationship between Amano Rei and Finesse, but Amano Rei himself had at least one guess rooted in plain common sense.
Even though, in theory, the odds were vanishingly small, practically nothing at all.
But combined with Lady Finesse's other situation, using a god card without consequence required either being the actual bearer of a Millennium Item, or sharing a bloodline connection with someone who held one.
Could that bloodline connection possibly mean an entirely different kind of bloodline?
That guess, though, was genuinely terrifying to even consider. "Terrifying" might not be quite the right word, but if it turned out to be true, the implications would be a lot more serious than any bad-blood drama.
In the end, Amano Rei didn't dare dig any further into it. He just hoped he was overthinking things, and figured he'd watch and see whether his lady's condition improved over the next few days.
So when Finesse tried to sneak quietly into Amano Rei's room late that night, hoping to slip in under the cover of darkness, he turned her away firmly.
"Ugh, don't you want me to finish you off?"
"You caught a cold, so you should be resting properly, my lady."
"Honestly, I feel pretty fine. I'm sure it'd be no problem even if I got a little active. Besides, breaking a sweat might do me good."
"That's still not okay!"
"Uwaah..."
The next day, Synchro Academy, Class 1-E.
"Long time no see, cousin, Mr. Amano!"
Having vanished from sight for nearly two weeks, Nanki'in Yukki finally returned to everyone's view today, and was naturally met with an enthusiastic round of greetings.
"Yukki? You're back for class, does that mean you passed the trial assessment?" Amano Rei asked.
Once Sakuya had awakened her Swordsoul and Sky Striker deck fields, the Nanki'in family's own inherited Shiranui deck had passed down to Yukki instead.
Of course, Yukki herself had also expressed she was willing to take it on, and her own awakened field, Undead hand traps, suited the Shiranui deck perfectly, with no risk of contaminating the deck's overall card pool.
But big, old families always had their share of strange rules, and one of them was that inheriting a deck required passing the corresponding trial first.
Amano Rei had actually asked Sakuya about it once, in passing. According to her, the trial itself wasn't particularly difficult, but the process was tedious and drawn out. Even sitting in silent meditation counted as one stage of the trial, requiring three full days and nights of formal seated posture, a genuine test of raw willpower.
There were also assorted draw trials, Summoning trials, and the like. As far as Amano Rei's own understanding went, he honestly couldn't see what necessity any of these hurdles actually served in terms of inheriting a deck.
But the Nanki'in family had always done things this way, generation after generation, and there wasn't much point picking it apart too harshly. Even taken purely as training for the heir, it made a certain kind of sense.
"Of course, a perfect clear!" Yukki flashed Amano Rei a bright peace sign with a grin. "I'm officially the twenty-fifth generation heir of the Shiranui style now~"
"Well, congratulations."
Nanki'in Yukki's return carried another layer of importance for Amano Rei as well.
"Yukki, honestly, I've been waiting for you to get back for a while now."
"Eh? Eh?!"
Startled by Amano Rei's sudden, overly warm greeting, Nanki'in Yukki's pretty face flushed red, her whole demeanor turning shy and flustered.
"Mr. Amano, are we really okay doing this? Won't cousin feel awful about it? This doesn't seem right~"
Ah, that familiar, long-missed aroma of tea. It had been a while since he'd had a taste of it. Amano Rei even found himself a little nostalgic for that particular tea-scented aura the second young lady always seemed to carry.
Unfortunately, though, she'd misread the situation.
Amano Rei had only been waiting for Nanki'in Yukki to finish her trial and come home because he wanted the Millennium Key data locked away inside her Eva Terminal, nothing more.
"Hold out your left hand."
"Ah, but, cousin's going to be jealous."
"She won't be." Amano Rei said.
"I won't be." Sakuya said.
Amano Rei had already been honest with Sakuya about everything related to the Millennium Key, back when he'd asked her when Yukki would be coming home.
If he hadn't told her the truth up front, suddenly asking after her own cousin's return date would have looked suspicious, like he had some ulterior motive.
Nanki'in Yukki carefully extended her left wrist, the one wearing her Eva Terminal.
Amano Rei then activated the ability he'd unlocked from his last system upgrade, the skill granting temporary hacked access into Eva's own permissions.
The spirit of Blue-Eyes White Dragon had told him before that somewhere inside a Chronicle, he could obtain the seal code for this world's Millennium Key data.
Coming back from the Chronicle where he'd faced off against the Pharaoh, the only method Amano Rei could think of for cracking that code was this exact new skill from his system upgrade.
Using it on someone else's Eva Terminal brought up four options.
[Decrypt Hidden Data]
[Transfer Eva Points]
[Adjust Guilt Value]
[Force-Start a Duel]
Amano Rei used the decryption ability directly on Yukki's Eva Terminal, burning through a full 100 points of energy in one go.
20260101. That was the code the decryption revealed.
Using that code, it made short work of cracking Onikiri's encryption on the Millennium Key's data construct.
Even Yukki was stunned speechless. "Mother's own password, and it actually worked."
Yukki was still calling Onikiri "mother," huh. Amano Rei had no idea how old man Muramasa had ever managed to explain that whole situation to her.
Given how tangled up the whole immortality and body-snatching mess really was, even the family patriarch probably had a hard time laying it all out clearly for Yukki.
Immortality... thinking about the fact that the Millennium Key, a source of true immortal power, was sitting right in front of him, Amano Rei couldn't help but swallow.
Any living creature, faced with the temptation of immortality dangled right in front of them, couldn't possibly stay completely unmoved by it. Not even Amano Rei was any exception.
But whether or not you could master that raw biological instinct and hold onto your own true self, that came down to the individual.
"Yukki, transfer the Millennium Key over to me."
Old man Muramasa had originally intended to hand the Millennium Key over to Amano Rei together with the Millennium Scale, right from the start.
It had only gotten delayed because of the password Onikiri had set on it.
"Um..."
In that instant, Amano Rei could read a clearly conflicted struggle written across Nanki'in Yukki's face.
Even though this girl had once been a victim of body-snatching herself, faced with the genuine chance of immortality sitting right in her own hand, it clearly wasn't easy for her to say no with total certainty.
"Alright, Mr. Amano. I trust you!" But in the end, Yukki nodded her agreement.
"If it weren't for you, Mr. Amano, I'd still be a victim of that immortality myself. So, so please, promise me you'll never use that power."
"I will."
The instant he received the Millennium Key, Amano Rei suddenly heard, right beside his ear, the cool yet barely-contained excitement of the Blue-Eyes White Dragon spirit girl's voice.
"You finally got the key? That's, that's wonderful! Now part of my power can finally be unlocked~"
Right after that, Amano Rei's Eva Terminal, having received the Millennium Key's data, flickered in front of him, and a new card ready for collection popped into view.
[Heart of the Blue-Eyes] [Level 8 LIGHT]
[Dragon/Effect]
[ATK: 3000] [DEF: 2500]
Had this actually unlocked the Millennium form of Blue-Eyes White Dragon?
That fit perfectly with what the Millennium Key was supposed to represent. Canonically, this was actually the fourth Blue-Eyes White Dragon, the one Solomon Muto had torn to pieces in the original story.
So this was the true power the Millennium Key actually represented, not body-snatching or immortality at all.
Amano Rei reset the password lock on the key data stored in his own Terminal, feeling, in this one moment, almost righteously radiant. "Don't worry. I will never let what happened to Onikiri happen again."
"Mr. Amano! So reliable!"
[Nanki'in Yukki] [Affection +3] [Affection: 71]
[Affection 70 unlocked a brand new Dueling skill: Deploy! Hand Trap Six Sisters]
A new skill was a nice surprise. Honestly, just from the name alone, he could already take a pretty good guess at what it actually did.
As for 71 affection, that was still comfortably within safe territory.
Even though she always talked with that faint, tea-scented undertone of hers, an affection score of 71 put her right around the same range as Yui, proof that Yukki had officially come to think of him as someone genuinely trustworthy.
Watching Amano Rei recover the Millennium Key, something shifted faintly behind Nanki'in Sakuya's own flat, unreadable eyes, her mind drifting back to that very first Dark Game, to the first time her soul had ever merged with Amano Rei's.
"Amano, come with me for a second."
"Where, class is about to start, class rep."
"The infirmary."
"Again?"
He'd been running to the infirmary an awful lot lately. He'd only just been there yesterday.
Sure enough, the scene played out exactly like the day before: finding Miss Kangetsu absent from the infirmary yet again, Sakuya braced the door shut with her own weight, cupped Amano Rei's face with slender fingers, and dove right in without a word.
Wait, class rep, did you actually get addicted to this? Every single day now?
Not that Amano Rei was unwilling, exactly. It was just that doing something like this on school grounds carried a pretty heavy sense of guilt.
Still, ever since yesterday's whole bad-blood mess, Sakuya's attitude had grown steadily bolder without a word, gradually taking the lead over Amano Rei entirely.
When they finally broke apart, Nanki'in Sakuya's usually flat, unreadable eyes carried a rare, lingering trace of allure.
"Amano, are you and Kaiba Corporation heading outside the Tower together next week?"
"Yeah, that's the plan." Amano Rei hadn't expected that to be what Sakuya was actually worried about.
"How long for?"
"Anywhere from a week to a month, not fixed. I've already cleared it with Kondo. The exact timeline depends on how things go outside the Tower."
More specifically, it depended on how long it took Kaiba Corporation's exterior exploration team to track down and recover Celestia, who'd been exiled from the Tower.
Even with the very latest global positioning gear from Kaiba Corp built into the protective suits, there was still no guarantee they'd be able to pinpoint Celestia's location anytime soon.
After all, recovering someone who'd actually been exiled from the Tower was, by all accounts, an unprecedented kind of operation.
And according to Kaiba Chiaki herself, for all the times she'd been outside the Tower, she'd never once actually encountered any Eden personnel who'd truly been exiled before.
Not even a body.
So honestly, the odds of this mission succeeding weren't particularly high, but it was still the only viable option available right now.
Kaiba Chiaki had actually asked Celestia at one point whether she wanted to transfer her own infinite debt onto someone else through a duel, with Kaiba Corp handling the arrangements.
Honestly, if the payout were generous enough, there'd surely be plenty of people down in the lower districts, even the Middle District, willing to take on the risk of saving this particular guinea pig.
But Celestia had firmly refused the offer.
The tomb-keeper clan's own long-standing reputation, passed down through generations, wouldn't allow her to offload her own suffering onto someone else like that.
Honestly, Amano Rei wanted to point out that a previous holder of the Winged Dragon of Ra from her own tomb-keeper clan hadn't exactly had the sterling reputation Celestia seemed to think they had.
Brainwashing, kidnapping, Dark Games, winning duels by cheating through destroying the opponent's own mental will, all of that had been the handiwork of past generations of that very same tomb-keeper clan.
Still, with Celestia standing this firm on the matter, Kaiba Chiaki hadn't had much room left to argue. And honestly, a life was a life. Even if people's worth on paper differed, human dignity didn't come with a price tag.
Having gotten her answer, Sakuya pressed her lips against Amano Rei's again.
This time it lasted even longer, growing steadily bolder, as if she were trying to make up in advance for however long Amano Rei would be gone.
Not until the bell rang for the end of class did Nanki'in Sakuya finally release Amano Rei, who'd been pinned to the edge of the bed the whole time.
Amano Rei's own lips felt almost numb.
"You'd better come back, Amano."
Wiping at her reddened lips, Sakuya left the infirmary first, leaving Amano Rei alone on the bed to catch his breath.
[Deploy! Hand Trap Six Sisters] [At the start of a duel, randomly place 1 to 6 copies of the Hand Trap Six Sisters into your Main Deck. You may choose to guarantee 1 random Sister among your opening hand.]
The skills that stuffed random cards into his deck out of thin air just kept piling up, huh. This time capping out at as many as six cards. One step closer to his dream of only needing to bring a single packet of tissues to a duel.
Speaking of which, this skill could apparently fix a starting hand card, kind of like that Yu-Gi-Oh mobile game Amano Rei used to play, once upon a time.
Though the fixed card itself was randomly selected from among the six Hand Trap Sisters. And out of the six, only a handful actually made any real, decisive difference in Eden's current dueling meta.
If only it could lock in Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring specifically. Even back in his old life's real-card meta, a guaranteed opening Ash Blossom would have been an auto-include, no question.
After third period let out that afternoon, Nanki'in Sakuya suddenly nudged Amano Rei's arm with her elbow.
"Let's go. Infirmary?"
"Again?"
Not that he was opposed to it, exactly, but the numbness in his lips from that morning still hadn't fully worn off, and Amano Rei found himself genuinely impressed by his class rep's tireless spirit.
Being half-dragged, half-pulled to the infirmary door by Sakuya, they found Miss Kangetsu sitting at her office desk with a freshly washed piece of fruit in hand.
"Mr. Amano, Miss Nanki'in? What's going on, is one of you feeling unwell?"
"It's nothing, Miss Kangetsu." There was a faint edge of complaint in Nanki'in Sakuya's voice. "Sitting in your office all the time isn't good for you. Please remember to get out and move around more, teacher."
"I, I just got back, actually. But thank you for the concern, Miss Nanki'in. Would you like an apple?"
That's not concern at all, and you know it.
"Since we're already here, class rep, I don't think I'll go to fourth period." Amano Rei said.
"Then I won't either. Let's go find somewhere else to deepen our bond."
"That's not what I meant by this!"
So this was what "deepening our bond" meant to you, class rep, making out.
"Actually, I already made plans with Yui today."
"Yui, is that your old childhood friend from District 32?"
"Yeah. I asked her to take me to see Kaiba Chiha. It's a bit of a complicated situation. Basically, Chiaki-senpai asked me to help patch things up between her and her sister."
"She asked you to fix things?" Nanki'in Sakuya said. "Aren't you and Kaiba Chiha on pretty bad terms?"
Most of Synchro Academy knew about that entrance exam duel, the one where Kaiba Chiha had specifically gone out of her way to make things difficult for Amano Rei.
But most people didn't know that Amano Rei and Chiha had actually already patched things up back in District 32.
Sakuya had brought up the exterior expedition that morning, and before he actually left the Tower for real, Amano Rei needed to get this task he'd promised Kaiba Chiaki taken care of first.
Whether or not it actually worked out honestly didn't matter that much, but since he'd promised Chiaki, he had to at least give it a real try.
Skipping fourth period lined up perfectly with the end of the school day over at Xyz Academy. Under Yui's guidance, Amano Rei made his way to one of the Kaiba family's residences in the Middle District.
According to Yui, over the past few weeks, Kaiba Chiha had been holed up at home the entire time, not even going to school. It was only when Yui came by that she'd agree to see anyone at all; everyone else got the door shut in their face, no exceptions.
Skipping school was practically a Kaiba family tradition, sure, but the little brat suddenly turning into a full-blown shut-in was something Amano Rei couldn't help but find genuinely concerning.
At the front door of the residence, Yui pulled out a key and let herself straight in.
"You even have a key?" Amano Rei asked, surprised.
"Little Chiha gave it to me." Yui spun the keyring around her finger, carrying herself with all the confidence of the lady of the house.
Even with a shut-in living there, the first-floor entryway was far from messy, actually neat and orderly. Clearly someone came by regularly to tidy up; for the wealthy, hiring domestic help wasn't exactly a novel concept.
But by the time they reached Chiha's door on the second floor, Amano Rei could already sense a damp, gloomy atmosphere seeping out from behind it.
"Shh, let's check first." Yui, apparently experienced at this, pressed her ear right up against the door, listening for any sounds from inside. "If nothing sounds particularly weird in there, we can go ahead and go in."
"What are you, some mother sneaking up on her son's bedroom? Why are you so practiced at this?"
Even as he said it, though, Amano Rei found himself pressing his own ear to the door to eavesdrop too.
He could just barely make out the murmur of a conversation from inside.
"Big sister, you can't do that, not there, not there!"
Ah. Wait.
That sounded pretty clearly like a problem.
"Maybe we should just come back another day." Amano Rei suggested.
"Not a problem at all." Yui pushed the door straight open. "Little Chiha, I'm coming in!"
Inside a room still thick with the lingering smell of delivery pizza, Kaiba Chiha, dark circles heavy under her eyes, sat gripping a controller, the screen in front of her displaying a gal game titled "A Yandere Big Sister's Love."
Hearing Yui come through the door, Kaiba Chiha fumbled frantically to switch back to her desktop.
"Big sister, you're here so early tonight?" Kaiba Chiha forced out an awkward smile.
"I couldn't come yesterday, so I figured I'd swing by earlier today." Yui, unbothered by Chiha's awkwardness, casually scooped up the pizza box off the floor and started sorting the trash into a bag with practiced ease. "What, you didn't want me here earlier?"
"Of course I wanted you here, big sister... wait, why are you here too, Amano Rei?!"
Turning to look at Yui, Kaiba Chiha's forced smile froze the instant she spotted Amano Rei standing in the doorway.
Amano Rei held up two fingers and gave Kaiba Chiha a little wave. "Yo. Nice desktop wallpaper, Chiha?"
If you're enjoying the story, toss a Power Stone or drop a review — it helps more than you'd think.
Advance chapters → patreon.com/Eatinpieces