Chapter 273: I Would Give You Everything I Have
The truly powerful cards: even their costs are part of what makes them powerful.
The truly unsolvable Dark Game: one where either outcome works in your favor.
No wonder Kikawayu had not hesitated for a single second before stepping into this Dark Game opened by Yubel.
Win the duel and she keeps him for life. Lose the duel and she belongs to him for life.
These two really were a matched pair of a very specific variety of unsettling.
Mana: "A rule-based mind control Dark Game. Honestly, almost as nasty as the Millennium Rod."
Amano privately thought it was even nastier than the Millennium Rod. At least Marik had no interest in sleeping with you.
Kikawayu's girl-form arm rose slowly, palm extended toward Amano. "The only happy ending for you is for us to be together forever. Just lose quietly, Rei."
Armityle the Chaos Phantasm, sitting at 10000 ATK in Kikawayu's turn, opened the Battle Phase. Inside the space of the Dark Game, the three-Sacred-Beast fusion body gathered its enormous energy.
"I attack Priestess Who Receives the Star Chalice with 10000 ATK! 'All-Destroying Rebirth Wave'!!"
The attack force and dark energy shaking the alternate world's space generated dimensional ripples that surpassed even the collision with the Supreme King's Evil HEROs.
"Kikawayu!"
"What is it, Rei?"
"Don't you think you're getting a little ahead of yourself?"
"!!!" In that instant Kikawayu's cheeks flushed crimson.
"Lose quietly? Don't forget: you have never beaten me once in your entire life."
Amano flipped a set card. "Trap Card, Power Frame!"
[Power Frame]
[Trap Card: When a face-up monster you control is targeted for an attack by an opponent's monster with higher ATK: Negate that attack. Equip this card to the targeted monster. It gains ATK equal to the difference between the attacking monster's ATK and its own ATK.]
"I negate Armityle the Chaos Phantasm's 10000 ATK attack!"
A silver-white cube materialized from Amano's field, expanding outward to envelop the incoming All-Destroying Rebirth Wave and the massive Armityle body launching it alike, sealing both within the frame.
"And I equip Power Frame to Eve, granting Eve ATK equal to the difference of 10000!"
The force transferred. A second, smaller frame settled around the opposing attack's power and channeled it directly into the flat-chested girl on Amano's field.
[Priestess Who Receives the Star Chalice] [ATK: 0 -> 10000]
Eve: "The power, the power, Amano! I can feel it!"
The girl balled her fists and the energy surged outward: her blue-violet hair whipping upward in the field of force around her.
A 0-ATK flat priestess with 10000 ATK for the first time in her existence.
Eve: "I feel like I could beat Blue-Eyes White Dragon with one hand right now!"
Hard to say whether Kikawayu had gotten ahead of herself, but that declaration was certainly getting ahead of things.
Kikawayu's expression at the blocked attack was remarkably unbothered. As though Amano stopping her was exactly the sequence of events she was most used to.
Which was accurate. From childhood until now, Kikawayu had never once beaten Amano at any game they played.
Of course that only applied to playing. In a Dark Game staking both their futures, with strong psychological control elements in play, Kikawayu had no intention of playing around. She needed to take this seriously.
"I set three cards face-down. Turn end!"
Every remaining card in hand went face-down, and Kikawayu closed out her first turn.
Through the barrier splitting the field down the center, a faint glimpse of the other duel was possible: Jaden and Yubel, fighting on the other side.
Jaden had managed to Fusion Summon Favorite HERO Shining Flare Wingman, but with Yubel currently on the field, no attack was possible.
Yubel: "Attack me as much as you want, Jaden. This pain is also an expression of love."
Kikawayu matched the energy without missing a beat: "I love you too, Rei! So you can hit me as much as you want!"
You are both enthusiasts of a very specific kind.
There was nothing for it. Even with the Kikawayu in front of him undeniably a beautiful girl, declaring her love repeatedly: Amano had spent 18 years as best friends with this person, and he genuinely could not make the mental leap to connect Kikawayu with romantic feelings.
Not yet, anyway.
"My turn. Draw!"
Amano drew his opening card for the turn.
[Armityle the Chaos Phantasm] [ATK: 10000 -> 0]
Armityle only gained its 10000 ATK during the controller's own turn. On Amano's turn, it dropped back to 0.
Kikawayu showed no concern about that. Even with Eve sitting at 10000 ATK, Armityle was in no actual danger: it could not be destroyed by battle, and any battle damage it would have taken was negated to 0 for its controller by Dimension Fusion Destruction's effect.
"I activate Pot of Greed: draw 2 cards from my Deck!"
Professor Chronos, outside the barrier: "Mamma mia!"
"Next, Spell Card, Enchanting Fitting Room!"
[Enchanting Fitting Room]
[Spell Card: Pay 800 LP; reveal the top 4 cards of your Deck; Special Summon all Level 3 or lower Normal Monsters among them in Attack Position; shuffle the rest back into your Deck.]
Amano LP: 4000 -> 3200
Amano paid the cost and began revealing:
Spell Card, Polymerization.
Trap Card, Necro Fusion.
Monster Card, Yuyu.
Monster Card, Yuyu.
Two beams of Special Summon light flared on Amano's field.
Amano placed the cards down. "I Special Summon two copies of Yuyu in Attack Position!"
[Yuyu] [Level 1 / LIGHT]
[Angel / Normal]
[ATK: 300 / DEF: 100]
Two tofu-block spirits with expressions suggesting they had seen through the nature of the universe long ago materialized on Amano's field amid a puff of smoke, floating above the ground.
"More card spirits." Kikawayu's lip pressed into a small pout.
Yuyu was one of the cards Amano had genuinely picked up from the garbage himself, through nothing but his extraordinary luck.
When Kikawayu had just finished saying he could never live without her, Amano was pointedly deploying cards that had nothing to do with anything she had given him. It was hard to read as anything other than deliberate distancing.
"You still can't accept me, can you, Rei."
The truth was that when Kikawayu in her girl-form had appeared in front of Amano and he had recognized her on sight, the internal reaction had been closer to elation than anything else. Of everything Kikawayu had been afraid of, the fear that Amano could not accept the reality of her being a girl had always come first.
So when Amano looked at her and immediately knew: she had been genuinely happy.
But in the duel, she could sense his emotional resistance now.
"These things don't come together overnight, Kikawayu. I need time."
"No." The refusal was immediate. Kikawayu's gaze slid past Amano to where Finesse stood outside the barrier.
If she gave him time, was he giving her any?
Back in District 32, she might have been able to keep waiting. But since arriving in the Academy City, the threats multiplying around her had become impossible to ignore. It was like watching a countdown she could not stop.
Not that it mattered now. Even if Amano could not accept her feelings yet, it was fine.
Yubel had told her: in this Dark Game, win or lose, he would never leave her side again.
Yubel would not lie to her. And she could genuinely feel it as the duel progressed: with every exchange, something was pulling them closer together, soul and body both.
"I also activate Spell Card, Horse Bone's Price! I send one Yuyu from my field to the Graveyard and draw 2 cards!"
Amano clubbed one of the tofu-blocks into the Graveyard and added two more cards to his hand.
He looked at the cards there and felt something he rarely felt: genuine conflict.
What Kikawayu had said: "You can never live without me." Amano understood that more deeply than Kikawayu probably realized.
Not just the daily support and care. Not just the starter deck seeded into the garbage for him. The single most important hidden pillar in every fight he had won since then:
[Kikawayu] [Affection: 100] [Skill: Full Extra Deck Unlock for Specific Type]
Without the affection Kikawayu had for him translating into that Full Extra Deck unlock, the Puppeteer would have killed him in the underground Dark Game. It was that simple.
Even if the feelings behind it were not the brotherly bond Amano had always assumed they were: could he honestly refuse those feelings? He had been running every battle on them this whole time. Saying "sorry, I can't accept this" now would be genuinely awful.
And the thought of using the Dragon Full Extra Deck in this particular duel made him feel unsettled in a way he could not entirely name.
"Damn it all." Amano slammed another card into his Duel Disk. "Spell Card, Capture Device!"
[Capture Device]
[Spell Card: Both players choose 1 monster on their field and exchange control of those monsters. The controller of this card must choose a face-up Normal Monster they control.]
An effect that forced both sides to swap one monster each, with the restriction that Amano himself had to select a face-up Normal Monster as his half of the exchange. A card built precisely around Normal Monster decks.
"I select my face-up Yuyu as my exchange monster!"
This was the reason Amano had Special Summoned Yuyu in Attack Position. The 300-ATK Normal Monster was the key piece.
"Your choice, Kikawayu."
Realistically, there was no choice. Kikawayu's field held exactly one monster: Armityle the Chaos Phantasm.
Far from looking upset at having her boss monster taken away, Kikawayu's smile only grew warmer.
"If it's something you want, it's yours, Rei. Everything I have."
The Capture Device effect resolved: Yuyu crossed to Kikawayu's field, Armityle crossed to Amano's.
Amano declared the effect: "Armityle the Chaos Phantasm gains 10000 ATK during my turn!"
[Armityle the Chaos Phantasm] [ATK: 0 -> 10000]
Amano's field now held two monsters at 10000 ATK each. Kikawayu's field held one 300-ATK Yuyu.
"Battle Phase!" Amano committed immediately. "Eve attacks Yuyu with 10000 ATK!"
Yuyu: "What?!"
Yuyu had not anticipated that one day she would be on the receiving end of 10000-ATK Eve. This outcome had not appeared anywhere in her cosmic awareness.
Eve: "I'll go easy on you, flattest one in the deck!"
Eve's staff swirled, drawing the ambient water energy of the field into a roaring, surging water dragon that crashed toward Yuyu in a torrent.
Going easy was not evident.
Kikawayu flipped a set card. "Trap Card, Draining Shield!"
[Draining Shield]
[Trap Card: When an opponent's monster declares an attack: Target the attacking monster; negate that attack; gain LP equal to that monster's ATK.]
"I negate the Priestess Who Receives the Star Chalice's attack, and gain 10000 LP!"
[Priestess Who Receives the Star Chalice: Attack negated]
Kikawayu LP: 4000 -> 14000
The raging water dragon reversed into a radiant surge of life, and Kikawayu's Life Point total climbed by 10000.
"Armityle the Chaos Phantasm, attack! 'All-Destroying Rebirth Wave'!!"
Kikawayu's smile did not shift. She flipped the second set card.
A second Draining Shield.
Kikawayu LP: 14000 -> 24000
Yuyu, watching two 10000-ATK monsters swing through and both get absorbed into life recovery, came to the quiet conclusion that traveling with this beautiful girl might not be so bad after all.
"Recovery LP is one of the classic flags for losing, Kikawayu."
"If Rei's attacks are what give me those Life Points, then it is the highest possible blessing."
So much flirting packed into a duel situation.
Looking back at eighteen years of shared history, Amano genuinely could not believe he had never detected this side of Kikawayu before. It had been hidden remarkably well.
"I set 2 more cards face-down. Turn end!"
Turn change. Even with Kikawayu at 24000 LP, Amano held two 10000-ATK monsters. The field advantage was total.
At the End Phase: "During your End Phase, I activate the GY effect of Sacred Beasts Thunderclap!"
[Sacred Beasts Thunderclap]
[Continuous Spell GY Effect: During your opponent's End Phase, add this card from your GY to your hand.]
"I add Sacred Beasts Thunderclap back to my hand from the Graveyard!"
One of the cards That Grass Looks Greener had milled into the Graveyard last turn had returned. On Amano's End Phase, Kikawayu had completed her card recovery.
"My turn. Draw! And I activate the effect of Sacred Beasts Thunderclap!"
[Sacred Beasts Thunderclap]
[Continuous Spell Card: Once per turn, during your Main Phase: Place 2 "Sacred Beasts Thunderclap" from your hand, Deck, or GY face-up in your Spell/Trap Zone. After that, you may reveal 1 Level 10 "Phantom Beast" monster from your hand; if you do, place 1 "Fallen Paradise of the Sacred Beasts" from your Deck face-up in your Field Zone.]
"I place 2 copies of Sacred Beasts Thunderclap on my field from my Deck, and I reveal the Level 10 Phantom Beast monster in my hand: I place Fallen Paradise of the Sacred Beasts face-up in my Field Zone!"
The hidden Field Zone on Kikawayu's Duel Disk activated. The Dark Game space around them transformed.
Three enormous columns of lightning and thunder surrounded a great tree bearing forbidden fruit, the landscape reshaping itself into something that looked uncannily like the paradise of ten thousand years ago as written in history.
[Fallen Paradise of the Sacred Beasts effect: Once per turn, up to 3 times per turn, during your Main Phase: Send 3 cards of the same type (Monster, Spell, or Trap) from your hand or field to the GY; then Special Summon 1 "Phantom Beast" monster from your hand, Deck, GY, or banishment. Monsters SS this way are unaffected by opponent's activated Spell and Trap effects. Also, if you control an original Level 10 "Phantom Beast" monster: Draw 2 cards.]
"Fallen Paradise of the Sacred Beasts's effect! I send the 3 face-up Continuous Spells, Sacred Beasts Thunderclap, Sacred Beasts Thunderclap, Sacred Beasts Thunderclap, from my field to the Graveyard! And from my Deck, I Special Summon a Phantom Beast monster!"
Three Continuous Spells as sacrifice, and within the field of Fallen Paradise of the Sacred Beasts, a pillar of purifying lightning drove straight into the sky.
Three copies of Sacred Beasts Thunderclap would normally have been the Summon condition for Hamon, Lord of Striking Thunder. But through the power of the Field Spell, what Fallen Paradise of the Sacred Beasts called up from Kikawayu's Deck was something entirely new.
"The lightning of Fallen Paradise of the Sacred Beasts can call forth the divine flame of judgment!"
"Let the sacred fire purify all things! Special Summon!"
"Inferno of the Sacred Beasts - Uria, Lord of Searing Flames!"
[Inferno of the Sacred Beasts - Uria, Lord of Searing Flames] [Level 10 / FIRE]
[Pyro / Special Summon / Effect]
[ATK: 0 / DEF: 0]
[Cannot be Normal Summoned. Can only be Special Summoned by the effect of a "Phantom Beast" card.]
[Effect 1: Once per turn: Reveal this card in your hand; add 1 "Phantom Beast" Trap Card from your Deck to your hand, then discard 1 card.
Effect 2: This card gains 1000 ATK and DEF for each Trap Card in both players' GYs.
Effect 3: Once per turn, target 1 Spell or Trap Card on the field; destroy it. (Neither player can respond to this activation.)]
From the sea of flames, the amplified Phantom Beast form materialized: the amplified Sacred Beast form materialized: a massive, elongated crimson body that coiled into the sky above Fallen Paradise of the Sacred Beasts and roared down at the barren ground.
"Because a Phantom Beast is now on my field, Fallen Paradise of the Sacred Beasts's bonus effect activates: I draw 2 more cards!"
Kikawayu drew, then declared the card's ATK calculation.
"Inferno of the Sacred Beasts - Uria, Lord of Searing Flames' effect: this card gains 1000 ATK for each Trap Card in both players' Graveyards!"
Power Frame on Amano's side was equipped to Eve and sitting on the field, not in the Graveyard. As a result, Amano's Graveyard held no Trap Cards.
Kikawayu's Graveyard, on the other hand, held the two Draining Shields from the previous turn plus the three Trap Cards that That Grass Looks Greener had milled last turn.
Five Traps total: five thousand ATK.
[Inferno of the Sacred Beasts - Uria, Lord of Searing Flames] [ATK: 0 -> 5000]
Amano said: "5000 ATK. That's not enough to beat either of my 10000-ATK monsters."
Kikawayu's smile sharpened at the corners. She pulled her entire remaining Deck from her Duel Disk and declared:
"Spell Card, Pot of Despair!"
[Pot of Despair]
[Spell Card: Draw 3 cards from your Deck, then send all remaining cards in your Deck to the Graveyard.]
"I send my entire Deck to the Graveyard! Now, Rei: which of us has the higher ATK?"