Chapter 276: Kikawayu, Let Me Take This for You
"Fusion Summon in the Extra Monster Zone! Gem Dragon - Underground Spessartine Dragon!"
From the earth's cracking roar to the uncut-stone radiance shimmering across Amano's extended Duel Disk, the new Fusion card landed in the Extra Monster Zone.
Aster, on the other side of the barrier, tilted his head. "A Fusion Summon into the Extra Zone? What does that mean?"
Kaiser Ryo observed the geometry of the field. "It looks like an additional monster zone. Does it have some special function?"
In an era where Link Summoning had not yet been invented, the Extra Monster Zone had no special mechanical function. It was just an extra space.
But what Amano needed right now was exactly that: the extra space.
"ROARRRR!"
The Gem Dragon erupted from the collapsed earth veins, its hardened body radiating intense red heat, and roared into the battlefield to face the combined energy of seven Phantom Beasts across the field.
"Gem Dragon - Underground Spessartine Dragon's effect! This card's ATK increases by 1000 for each Normal Monster used as Fusion Material!"
Ten Fusion Materials, nine of them Normal Monsters from the Graveyard. Spessartine Dragon's ATK rocketed to three Blue-Eyes White Dragons stacked together.
[Gem Dragon - Underground Spessartine Dragon] [ATK: 1600 -> 10600]
Finesse stared, jaw open. "10600 ATK! That's higher than Armityle the Chaos Phantasm! Only Amano could pull off a Fusion like that!"
She had been watching from outside the barrier the whole time, completely unable to figure out why Amano had been fighting through the entire duel with nothing but Normal Monsters instead of Fusing. She had never doubted him. Amano always had his reasons.
And the one Fusion he made the whole duel was, exactly as she had always known it would be, strong enough to overturn everything.
"It won't work, Rei!" Kikawayu, though startled when Amano suddenly opened the Extra Monster Zone, had recovered quickly and was not panicking over Spessartine Dragon's ATK exceeding Armityle's. "Even if you boosted your ATK to 10600 by fusing nine Normal Monsters, I can activate The Chaotic Phantasmal Sacred Beasts' effect to negate your ATK boost!"
"It's you who's out of moves, Kikawayu!"
"Wha... why are you suddenly yelling at me?"
"Because the moment Gem Dragon - Underground Spessartine Dragon landed on the field, you lost the ability to stop me!"
Kikawayu raised her hand to activate The Chaotic Phantasmal Sacred Beasts, ready to negate Spessartine Dragon's ATK-boosting effect. Then discovered that her The Chaotic Phantasmal Sacred Beasts, on her own field, was being suppressed by the diamond-faceted brilliance radiating from the Gem Dragon, pressing it down and preventing any activation.
"This is Gem Dragon - Underground Spessartine Dragon's second effect! And Kikawayu: this is also the power of the starting cards you gave me!"
[While this card is in the Monster Zone: The effects of your opponent's monsters whose Level, Rank, or Link Rating is equal to or lower than the number of Normal Monsters on your field and in your GY are negated.]
Because this was a continuous effect that required no activation, it had locked down the field the instant Spessartine Dragon was Fusion Summoned.
"I currently have 10 Normal Monsters in my Graveyard. That means the effects of every monster you control up to Level 10 are negated!"
The power of the Normal Monsters used as Fusion Materials had not simply become Spessartine Dragon's raw ATK. Their souls in the Graveyard were also the count that suppressed The Chaotic Phantasmal Sacred Beasts' three-per-turn negation effect the moment they arrived.
And the reason so many Normal Monsters occupied his Graveyard right now came down to Reversal of Day and Night having sent his entire Deck there. His "cheap, worthless" Deck was short on Graveyard effects, but it was never short on Normal Monsters.
Kaiser Ryo, outside the barrier, said something that very rarely escaped him: "This is something Normal Monsters can actually do?"
"These monsters..."
Kikawayu's mismatched eyes moved to the forms gathered behind Spessartine Dragon, the Normal Monsters flickering at the edges of visibility.
She knew each of them. Two years ago, working to let Amano assemble a full deck as fast as possible while staying under the Eva mainframe's notice, she had collected every single one with everything she had.
Weak. Worthless by any competitive measure. But they were the only means available to fill a deck by exploiting gaps in Eva's monitoring, and they were the light that had given Amano Rei something to hold onto during the hardest stretch of his life.
"Kikawayu: honestly, I cannot imagine my life without you. You are the most important person in my life."
Kikawayu's breath stopped. "Rei... is this... a confession?"
"It is the highest recognition I can give to someone who is my best friend. And because you are that important to me: I will not accept a bond altered by a Dark Game, or a will twisted by Yubel. I am going to defeat you here and change this ending!"
"Defeat me? That's not possible."
Even with Spessartine Dragon on the field suppressing The Chaotic Phantasmal Sacred Beasts' effects: Hamon, Lord of Striking Thunder's Defense Position taunt effect needed no activation. Armityle the Chaos Phantasm's battle destruction immunity and zero battle damage to the controller also needed no activation. These were rule-based conditions, not activated effects.
And if Amano tried attacking The Chaotic Phantasmal Sacred Beasts with Spessartine Dragon directly, Brittle Blade's shared battle damage would bounce the difference back onto him and end the duel at 100 LP.
Not to mention Kikawayu had nearly 20000 LP. And Amano's Deck held one card left. Draw it and he was done.
Only one card stood in Amano's Extra Monster Zone. No reasonable line existed to win from here.
"I'll change it with this! I flip my last set card!"
Albaz, from inside the deck: "I can feel your fusion will again, Amano Rei. I am very grateful you saved the Fusion world. But now it's time to save yourself."
Amano: "Albaz."
Albaz: "I'm glad I got to meet you. Truly. But it is also time to say goodbye. Leave this alternate world and go back to where you belong."
On the other side of the barrier, Jaden and Yubel's duel had reached its climax with Super Polymerization's activation. The force of that trans-dimensional power being fully released had made everything inside the Chronicle unstable. All the students who had crossed into the alternate world had begun to blur at the edges of their own existence.
Before the duel had started, the cards Jaden pressed into Amano's hands, and the promise he had asked Amano to make: they had been for exactly this moment.
("Take these cards, Rei. And promise me: no matter what, get everyone home.")
"Come back with me, Kikawayu!" Amano flipped his last set card. "Trap Card, Return from the Different Dimension!"
[Return from the Different Dimension]
[Trap Card: Pay half your LP; Special Summon as many of your banished monsters as possible. During the End Phase, banish those Special Summoned monsters.]
Amano LP: 1600 -> 800
Outside the barrier, the alternate world was shaking with something that felt like the end of it. Professor Chronos grabbed the students around him to keep them together against the violent tremors, making sure no one was swept away in the chaos of the crossing.
"Mamma mia, what in the world is happening right now?!"
"Professor! I'll get everyone back to the Academy with Jaden. The Academy is in your hands from there!"
"Amano-kun?!"
"Amano!"
In that moment, everyone outside the barrier understood at once: what Amano had been building toward when he opened the Extra Monster Zone, and why he had specifically placed the Fusion Summon there.
With an Extra Monster Zone active, the Duel Disk had a total of seven monster zones: five standard plus two Extra. With Spessartine Dragon in one Extra Zone, five standard zones remained open.
Return from the Different Dimension reached into Amano's banished zone and called back five monsters.
[Elemental HERO Neos] [ATK: 2500]
[Elemental HERO Avian] [ATK: 1000]
[Elemental HERO Burstinatrix] [ATK: 1200]
[Priestess Who Receives the Star Chalice] [ATK: 0]
[Blue-Eyes White Dragon] [ATK: 3000]
Heroes, Eve, and Blue-Eyes White Dragon. The signature monsters of Amano's time at Duel Academy, all standing together on his field.
There was one card left in Amano's hand: the monster he had retrieved from the Graveyard using Monster Reincarnation. The last unused card across this entire long Chronicle.
"I Tribute all five Normal Monsters on my field as Tribute Summon materials!"
"Five monsters as Tribute for a Tribute Summon?!"
The students could not hold back their shock even while bracing against the tremors.
Aster: "A Tribute Summon using five monsters!"
Kaiser Ryo: "Has Amano gone past the gods?!"
A Tribute Summon requiring five monsters surpassed even the legendary Divine Cards, which needed only three. Five Normal Monster souls, poured into the final card in Amano's hand, and the monster that had been waiting on the other side of a thousand years of sealing was now thundering into this collapsing dimensional space.
"Changing the rules of the world: that is what it means to call forth a miracle!"
"Gather the souls of five cards, and call forth the body of the Guardian that breaks its own seal!"
"Tribute Summon! Guardian God - Exodia!"
[Guardian God - Exodia] [Level 10 / DARK]
[Spellcaster / Effect]
[ATK: ? / DEF: ?]
[Cannot be Special Summoned. Can be Tribute Summoned using 5 monsters.]
[Effect 1: This card can be Tribute Summoned by Tributing 5 monsters.
Effect 2: This card's ATK and DEF become the combined original ATK and DEF, respectively, of the monsters Tributed for its Summon.
Effect 3: When this card Tribute Summoned using 5 monsters destroys an opponent's Fiend-Type or DARK monster by battle: You win the Duel.]
More commanding than a Divine Card. Larger than the Phantom Beasts. Guardian God - Exodia, gathering the souls of five cards, shattered the chains that had bound it for a thousand years and descended onto Amano's field in the space of a world on the verge of collapse.
Kikawayu's eyes trembled. "Rei's final summon... it's Exodia..."
Amano raised his arm and declared the card's effect. "Guardian God - Exodia's ATK is equal to the combined original ATK of all the Tributed monsters!"
Neos (2500) + Avian (1000) + Burstinatrix (1200) + Blue-Eyes White Dragon (3000) + Priestess Who Receives the Star Chalice (0) = 7700.
Eve: "Why is my 0 in that calculation? This is so embarrassing!"
Amano: "You will understand exactly how important that 0 is very soon!"
[Guardian God - Exodia] [ATK: ? -> 7700]
"This is the final battle, Kikawayu!"
Amano declared the Battle Phase.
Facing the five-tribute Guardian God - Exodia, with Spessartine Dragon still in the Extra Zone keeping The Chaotic Phantasmal Sacred Beasts' effects negated, Kikawayu had no ability to respond.
"Gem Dragon - Underground Spessartine Dragon, attack the Defense Position Hamon, Lord of Striking Thunder!"
Hamon's Defense Position taunt effect required no activation to function: as long as it was in Defense Position, all attacks had to target it. Amano had to clear the path first, giving Guardian God - Exodia the opening to reach The Chaotic Phantasmal Sacred Beasts in the dimensional space that was rapidly approaching its end.
"'Spessartine Hidden Light Burst'!!"
The 10600-ATK shockwave erupted from the Gem Dragon's hardened body with a roar that cracked the earth beneath them, and Hamon, Lord of Striking Thunder dissolved in a shower of brilliant light.
[Hamon, Lord of Striking Thunder: Destroyed]
"It's over, Kikawayu! This is the final strike!"
"Over?" The chaos of the collapsing environment had Kikawayu one step behind. "What's over? How is anything over?"
She still had nearly 20000 Life Points.
The ultimate divine flame built at Amano's feet, rising and concentrating between the enormous golden palms of Guardian God - Exodia.
Bathed in that light, Amano's hair drifted across his face in the heat of it, and for one brief moment the image stopped Kikawayu entirely.
"I direct Guardian God - Exodia to attack the DARK Fiend-Type The Chaotic Phantasmal Sacred Beasts!"
"'Darkness-Scattering - Ultimate Divine Inferno Cannon'!!"
The five-card sacrifice concentrated into 7700 ATK, the flame pillar driving back the darkness: Guardian God - Exodia's attack hit The Chaotic Phantasmal Sacred Beasts with enough force to tear through the collapsing dimensional space from side to side.
Because The Chaotic Phantasmal Sacred Beasts had Brittle Blade equipped, the 700 points of battle damage were taken by both players.
Kikawayu LP: 19450 -> 18750
Amano LP: 800 -> 100
Eve: "See? My 0 was very important!"
If Yuyu at 300 ATK had replaced the Priestess in those five Tributes, Guardian God - Exodia's ATK would have been 8000 instead of 7700. The shared damage would have been 1000 instead of 700. At 800 LP, Amano would have been destroyed by his own winning blow.
Eve's 0 was the only reason Amano survived it.
The 100 Life Points remaining, the mental state on the edge of collapse after the Dark Game's full pressure at near-zero LP, the dimensional space shaking apart around him: all of it had arrived exactly at the ending Amano needed.
One step left.
"Kikawayu!"
Amano ran directly into the fire. Into the magical inferno still burning across The Chaotic Phantasmal Sacred Beasts' enormous body from Guardian God - Exodia's attack.
In Kikawayu's field of view: nothing but the sea of fire consuming the The Chaotic Phantasmal Sacred Beasts' massive form ahead of her.
Then she heard Amano's voice calling her name. And she saw him: running through the burning magical flame with his arms crossed in front of his face, breaking out the other side.
"Kikawayu!"
"Rei?"
"I am not letting you take this alone!"
He burst out of the fire's trail with embers still glowing at his cheek, and on his face: the confident grin of someone who had just taken an impossible situation and turned it inside out.
In the last moment of awareness she had, Kikawayu felt herself held tightly by Amano, and saw a golden light blazing from his wrist: a radiance like a Millennium Puzzle piece catching the light.
Use every available skill. Including this one.
"'Hacker Invasion,' initiate!"
Target: Kikawayu.
He had tried using Hacker Invasion on his best friend once before, for a test. The system had rejected it: Kikawayu was not listed as an available target.
But when he had pulled up his available skills during this duel, her name had appeared in the invasion target list.
Whether this worked or not, it was the last option Amano had.
After the Guardian God - Exodia attack declaration was made, Amano had done everything within his own power in this duel. What happened next, the effect resolution, did not require Amano to be physically present to confirm it.
So Amano went all-in and sent his own soul into Kikawayu's body.
Crossing through the dark channel between one soul and another, Amano did not hesitate: he went in directly, a ghost-in-the-machine possession taking over Kikawayu's body completely.
He had always asked the girls politely for consent before using Hacker Invasion. Every single time.
That was not strictly necessary. The skill description stated: hack into the target's brain through the Eva Terminal, invade the soul. Hacking into the brain, invading the soul: the forcible nature of the entry meant the original occupant's permission was not required.
He had asked out of basic decency.
But this was his best friend. Decency could take a back seat.
When Amano opened his eyes, his soul had arrived in Kikawayu's body and he had full control.
He used Kikawayu's arms to gently hold his own unconscious physical body, keeping it from being lost in the collapsing alternate world.
Only after truly taking over this body did Amano understand what state Kikawayu had been dueling in.
This body was burning up. Both legs were barely capable of supporting any weight at all. And from somewhere deep in the lower abdomen, a relentless, throbbing pain had been running the entire time.
Kikawayu, from somewhere inside: "Rei. Rei, why? What is happening?"
She had no framework to understand having her own body taken from her.
Amano: "From here on, leave this to me, Kikawayu. I said I wouldn't let you take this alone."
Mana had assessed this Dark Game: it operated like the Millennium Rod, twisting the duelist's will, brainwashing the soul through the rules of the duel.
In other words: unlike the Dark Game that had targeted Kuroshio Nagi's body, this one targeted the soul.
So in the final moment of the duel, using the ghost-in-the-machine possession, Amano had replaced Kikawayu's soul with his own.
The two sides of this Dark Game were now Amano Rei versus Amano Rei.
If the brainwashing was going to hit someone, it could hit him.
In Kikawayu's body, Amano held his own unconscious physical self and looked forward.
"Do it, Exodia!"
At the moment of the attack declaration, Amano had already completed everything within his own power in this duel. The effect resolution required no further input from the Duelist.
Guardian God - Exodia: when Tribute Summoned using five monsters and it destroys an opponent's Fiend-Type or DARK monster by battle, the Duel ends in the Summoner's victory. A rule-based condition, no activation required, applying automatically at the moment of resolution.
[Guardian God - Exodia destroys The Chaotic Phantasmal Sacred Beasts by battle]
Kikawayu: "How... how can this be?"
No matter that Kikawayu still had nearly 20000 Life Points. The moment Guardian God - Exodia destroyed the DARK Fiend-Type The Chaotic Phantasmal Sacred Beasts in battle, the duel was over.
[Duel End]
[Defeated by Guardian God - Exodia's Effect]
[Winner: Amano Rei]
Kikawayu: "So I lost again, Rei."
Amano: "We both lost, Kikawayu. I'll take the consequences of this Dark Game for you. In return: give me a little more time to think about your feelings."
Kikawayu: "But... but..."
Amano: "Before we get to any of that: let's live the same way we always have. I know you accepted Yubel's Dark Game because you were afraid of what would change if you didn't. But I am not going to change. Whatever happens: you are the most important person in my life. That does not change."
Kikawayu: "...I love you!"
Amano: "Yeah. I know."
In the last moments of the Dark Game, with the dimensional space on the edge of collapse, a young man's soul settled into a young woman's body and held that young man's unconscious form close, and together they faced the oncoming blaze of Guardian God - Exodia's final, decisive fire.
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