Chapter 272: I Never Wanted to Be Your Best Friend
Kikawayu: "Because I love you, Rei!"
In that moment, the only thought running through Amano's head was: Kikawayu, what are you even saying right now?
Why was the friend he had grown up sharing a pair of underwear with delivering the exact same line as Yubel?
Love? Kikawayu loves me?
Is that reasonable?
Is that... [Kikawayu: Affection 100]
...well. Without the system displaying that affection value, Amano would have been absolutely certain Kikawayu was messing with him.
But that 100 affection: was this not just the deep bond between two best friends who had been through everything together?
Even so, Amano found it very hard to accept. "Kikawayu, haven't we been friends for life? Best friends?"
"Who said I want to be your best friend? I never wanted to be your best friend."
The unsettling smile faded a fraction. Kikawayu's tone took on something serious, and those mismatched red and blue eyes seemed to hold nothing in them now but Amano's reflection.
"I've wanted to sleep with you for ages!"
The declaration hit like a thunderclap. It was not just Amano who froze: Finesse, Jaden, and every other person present went completely speechless.
Was that really something you could just say out loud with this many people around?
And Amano's "girlfriend" was standing right there.
"What is happening right now?" Aster said quietly to the person beside him. "Is this a warzone?"
"Don't ask me. I have no idea how any of this works." Kaiser Ryo shook his head.
Professor Chronos: "Mamma mia! This is an impure relationship between students! Students cannot conduct themselves this way!"
Sho: "So jealous!"
Finesse frowned at Amano. "Amano, so that really is Kikawayu? I mean, she looks a bit like them, but Kikawayu was supposed to be a man, wasn't he?"
Back when Finesse had agreed to let Kikawayu come along when they left District 32 for the Academy City, she had done so because Amano had personally guaranteed to her that Kikawayu was without question male. Finesse had no reason to think Amano would lie.
The problem was that the Kikawayu standing in front of her looked, in every possible way, like a girl. Not just the face, which had already been prettier than most women: the figure was visibly and dramatically beyond what Finesse herself would claim, in a way that made the heiress feel thoroughly outclassed in a direction she was not used to losing.
"Stop wasting time on people who don't matter, Kikawayu."
The Yubel currently occupying Johan's body released a wave of unmistakable dark energy from around it.
A visible, powerful duel barrier constructed from that dark force formed around all four of them, forcibly separating everyone outside from the four people within.
"Just like we agreed: you take on Amano Rei, Kikawayu. And I will duel Jaden."
"Of course, Yubel. I'll win this duel and make sure Rei stays by my side forever."
Just like they agreed?
Hearing that exchange between Yubel and Kikawayu, Amano immediately landed on another possibility: his best friend had been manipulated by Yubel. The Yubel of the anime was genuinely skilled at playing on people's minds, zeroing in on their weakest points and most hidden desires, coaxing the darkness within them outward.
"Kikawayu: were you deceived by Yubel?"
"Yubel wouldn't deceive me. This is my truest feeling, Rei."
"Rei!" Jaden spoke up suddenly. "Some battles can't be avoided. That's one thing I've understood since I came to this world."
Jaden was facing Yubel: the demon that had come into being because of him, and was now responsible for all of this. In this moment, something in Jaden appeared to have settled into a decision.
"Rei, take these cards. And promise me: no matter what happens, get everyone home."
"Jaden..."
By this point in the story, Amano knew: in this moment, Jaden was prepared to disappear alongside Yubel, trading himself to buy everyone else a way back to the real world.
"We're both going to win, Rei! That's what best friends are for!"
After Amano took the cards from Jaden's hand, the dark barrier Yubel had raised split neatly down the center, dividing the enclosed space into two separate duel fields.
Yubel and Kikawayu clearly intended to challenge Jaden and Amano separately.
There was no way to run a team duel here. But if the story was following the anime's path, Jaden's side did not need Amano to worry about it too much. Jaden would ultimately reach the ending of eternal fusion with Yubel, never to be separated.
Which meant Amano should be more concerned about his own side of things.
He had no interest in eternal fusion with his best friend.
Sharing a pair of underwear growing up was one thing. Being permanently fused together, inseparable forever: that was not something Amano was currently prepared to handle.
But here was the other side of it: both Amano and Kikawayu had only entered the Chronicle through the virtual network terminal. Even if someone lost a duel inside this alternate world, they would probably just be ejected from the Chronicle, the same as what had happened to Chiaki.
Once that thought landed, Amano's head actually cleared considerably.
Whatever had happened to Kikawayu: whether it was Yubel's manipulation, control, or something else entirely, this was still the world of dueling. And in the world of dueling, the answer was to duel.
"Duel!" x4
Both sides of the divided field opened simultaneously. Amano had gone first.
"My turn. Draw!"
He drew, surveyed his hand, then looked across at Kikawayu, who was still smiling at him.
The smile looked genuinely sweet on a girl's face. By any objective measure, the expression was cute. But the only thing Amano could read in it was the depth of something unsettling behind those mismatched eyes.
This was entirely unlike his ordinary best friend.
It was enough to make him seriously wonder: was this actually Kikawayu?
"I Normal Summon 1 monster in face-down Defense Position, then set two cards. Turn end."
Keeping it conservative for now: one monster face-down up front, two cards in the back row, simple three-card opening. Turn over.
The skepticism did not end with his turn.
"Are you actually Kikawayu? Then tell me: the first time we ever left District 32 as kids, why did we go?"
He did not ask something standard like a birthday or a preference or a personal habit. He went straight to the eighteen years of shared history between them and pulled out something only the two of them could possibly know: a secret no third party could ever have been present for.
If this was actually Kikawayu and not some illusion or duplicate Yubel had constructed, answer it.
If the answer was wrong, or vague, or prefaced with "I forgot": that would not pass.
Kikawayu's sweet smile remained exactly the same, with something almost fond layered on top.
"Age five. November 7th, one week before your birthday on the 14th. You said you were sick of life at the bottom of the Tower and you wanted to elope with me to the upper levels. We only got as far as District 31 before we were too hungry to keep going. You used the money you'd been saving for your birthday the next week and bought one plate of plain fried noodles, no spice. We sat on the curb and split it between us. And we made a deal that next year we'd save up properly and make it further."
Well. That was the real thing.
Not only did she know about it, she remembered details Amano himself had nearly forgotten. And apparently what he had said back then was "elope."
"When you were six and lost your first tooth, it was the left incisor, the one next to the front teeth. You said upper teeth get buried underground, and you buried it in the dirt patch behind your house. I dug it up afterward and hid it under my bed. It is still there now, in my room at the villa."
"When you were seven, Yui had just moved to District 32. You said you wanted to give her a gift to get on her good side. The gift went missing. I stole it. I did not want you giving things to other girls. I put it in a shredder. I poured the scraps into the toilet at Yui's house. Her toilet was blocked for two days."
"When you were eight..."
"Stop there, Kikawayu."
"When you were sixteen and picked up your first card from the garbage heap: I put it there."
Amano went still.
"I chose cheap, worthless monster cards, the kind that would not look out of place in a garbage pile, and scattered them around your work area. Did you think you could actually assemble a complete deck by luck from a garbage heap? This is Eden, Rei. The Eva mainframe regulates everything. Even with genuinely extraordinary luck, you might find a card or two by chance. But pull together a full forty-card deck from nothing? That was never something luck alone was going to do."
"...Is that how it was, Kikawayu."
"That is exactly how it was. So, Rei: you probably haven't realized this yourself, but you cannot actually live without me. The only truly happy ending for you is for the two of us to be together, always."
Amano had only meant to verify that he was dealing with the real Kikawayu. Instead he had walked directly into eighteen years of hidden obsession being laid out in front of him without restraint.
Kikawayu finally turned to her Duel Disk.
"Spell Card, That Grass Looks Greener!"
[That Grass Looks Greener]
[Spell Card: If you have more cards in your Deck than your opponent does: Send cards from the top of your Deck to the GY until both players have the same number of cards in their Decks.]
"Your deck is 50 cards, isn't it, Rei."
Because Amano's deck contained cards for so many different skill combinations, compressing it down to 40 was nearly impossible, and 60 felt too bloated. Unless a duel called for a very specific build, Amano's deck generally sat around 50 cards.
And since Kikawayu had brought That Grass Looks Greener, she had clearly built to 60.
The 10-card difference sent the top 10 cards of Kikawayu's deck to the Graveyard.
"Next, Spell Card, Book of the Sun!"
[Book of the Sun]
[Spell Card: Target 1 face-down Defense Position monster on the field; change it to face-up Attack Position.]
"Rei, I'm flipping your face-down monster to face-up Attack Position."
It was a card normally used to trigger the flip effects of set monsters, but Kikawayu had used it like a lock piece, as if she had known from the start that Amano would open with a set monster.
[Priestess Who Receives the Star Chalice] [ATK: 0]
"Of course it's you."
This card was not one Kikawayu had deliberately planted. Just as she had said: if your luck was exceptional, you genuinely could find a card in the garbage. And Amano's luck had always been exceptional.
So some cards in Amano's original deck were not Kikawayu's doing. They had been drawn to him through his own extraordinary fortune.
The Priestess Who Receives the Star Chalice was exactly that: a card spirit who had been called to Amano by pure luck.
Forced into Attack Position, Eve planted her hands on her hips and pointed across the field with fierce indignation. "I knew there was something I always disliked about you, Kikawayu. So you were hiding this the whole time. A full-on yandere!"
"I'm a little envious of you, actually. As a card spirit, you get to stay by Rei's side all the time. You must have seen him bathing by now. Got a front-row view, filed it away in your memory like a recording."
Eve: "I did not peek at anything like that! The level of derangement coming out of you right now, Kikawayu: even other deranged people would call it deranged!"
"Be quiet. I'm going to crush you with this card."
The more agitated she got, the more Kikawayu simply smiled and slid a third card into her Duel Disk.
"Spell Card, Dimension Fusion Destruction!"
[Dimension Fusion Destruction]
[Spell Card: Banish from your hand, field, and/or GY the Fusion Materials for a "Phantom Beast" Fusion Monster; Special Summon that Fusion Monster from your Extra Deck, ignoring its Summoning conditions. Monsters Special Summoned by this effect inflict no battle damage to you.]
In the space of the Dark Game, Kikawayu released a force capable of shattering dimensions itself, and on the first turn of her response she opened the legendary three Sacred Beasts Fusion.
"I banish Hamon, Lord of Striking Thunder, Uria, Lord of Searing Flames, and Raviel, Lord of Phantasms from my Graveyard as Fusion Materials!"
"The remains of the three Sacred Beasts resonate together, reforged within the stirring of chaos into the original body of their source!"
"Descend, three Sacred Beasts made one! Armityle the Chaos Phantasm!"
[Armityle the Chaos Phantasm] [Level 12 / DARK]
[Fiend / Fusion / Effect]
[ATK: 0 / DEF: 0]
["Uria, Lord of Searing Flames" + "Hamon, Lord of Striking Thunder" + "Raviel, Lord of Phantasms"]
[Effect 1: This card gains 10000 ATK during your turn only.
Effect 2: This card cannot be destroyed by battle.]
The twisted, warped fusion of the three: Hamon's wings and body, Uria's head, Raviel's skull and tail, all forced together in an unsettling mass. The Level 12 Armityle the Chaos Phantasm arrived on Kikawayu's field in a form large enough to break the space around it.
Eve: "Am I supposed to fight that? Actually, do I have a shot at this?"
The thing bearing down on her was an amalgamation of three Sacred Beasts, and the pressure it radiated was suffocating. But Eve had a prior track record of tearing Uria, Lord of Searing Flames apart with her own hands during an earlier chaotic duel, and some of that inexplicable confidence had carried over.
Also, for a Level 12 Fusion Monster, Armityle's ATK was 0.
Same as Eve's ATK, come to think of it.
Fifty-fifty!
Kikawayu raised a hand. "Armityle the Chaos Phantasm's effect: this card gains 10000 ATK during my turn!"
[Armityle the Chaos Phantasm] [ATK: 0 -> 10000]
Eve: "We do not have fifty-fifty!"
Ten thousand attack points. Armityle's ATK surpassed three Blue-Eyes White Dragons combined.
What Amano had not expected: That Grass Looks Greener milling only 10 cards had been enough to put all three Sacred Beasts into the Graveyard.
"Hold on, Kikawayu! You know this is a Dark Game, right?"
Amano was not certain what losing a Dark Game inside a Duel Chronicle would do to the person on the outside. Dark Game rules and consequences varied widely. And a Dark Game opened through Yubel's power was unlikely to follow any straightforward set of rules.
"Do you know what happens if you lose this Dark Game, Kikawayu?"
"Of course. I understand the outcome of this duel better than anyone."
Standing before the enormous Armityle with her Duel Disk raised, Kikawayu's unsettling, sweet smile grew wider.
"If I win this duel, Rei: your body belongs to me. Forever."
"And if I win?"
"Then my body belongs to you. Forever."
How is it that every possible outcome seems to benefit you?
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