Yugen fell into Silence. Getting such praise from Misawa left him feeling a little embarrassed. To be honest, those strange Decks that looked so unusual to everyone else really were his own builds, but many of the ideas and concepts behind them were the collected wisdom of countless people who had come before him.
So while outsiders all thought he spent his days Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginninging hidden little paths no one knew, the truth was that every road he walked was a crowded highway. They were routes people had already traveled hundreds of times. "I understand now!" Kagurazaka nodded hard.
"So that is it. I was already thinking that compared to others, Yugen's Deck looked stronger and more distinctive. So Daichi Misawa thinks the same way too." He straightened up at once. "Good. Then I know what road to take next. Thank you for the guidance, Daichi Misawa!"
Daichi Misawa said, "No, actually what I meant was..." But before he could finish, Kagurazaka had already turned and vanished into the crowd. Judging from that dueling momentum, he was probably no longer in the mood to stay at Cultural Festival and was already heading back to dig through deckbuilding ideas.
Daichi Misawa stood there speechless. It felt like there had been another misunderstanding somewhere. In the end, he could only give up and let him go.
A loud bell suddenly cut through the noise of the Cultural Festival, ringing across the entire Student Council plaza. The students fell silent at once, and every eye turned toward the stage ahead.
At some point, the students who had been performing had already left. The one who stepped out now was that very large senior from the Duel Department. To his embarrassment, Yugen still could not remember her real name.
"Sudden Duel!"
Holding the microphone, the senior smiled as she spoke. "Now we begin the Duel portion of the Cultural Festival. Everyone must randomly choose an opponent nearby and start a Duel within thirty seconds! Each victory earns one point, and when the event ends, the person with the highest score will receive a small special prize prepared by the Duel Department for the Cultural Festival!"
The entire plaza went quiet in an instant. At that moment, Yugen felt as if a full circle of eyes had settled on him, whether openly or in secret.
About a second later, the atmosphere around him changed completely. It was like a frozen picture suddenly being played at maximum speed. Students hurriedly raised their Duel Disks and rushed toward the nearest opponent.
At that point, who they dueled no longer mattered. As long as they did not get caught by the Big Bad, they had already won.
Yuichi Yamamoto from the Yellow Dormitory shot forward like a mortar shell, charging at full speed toward a girl from Obelisk Blue not far away. She jumped in fright at the terrifying dueling momentum coming off him, and from that murderous aura alone, anyone might have thought he was about to pin her to the wall.
That was right, it was Yuichi Yamamoto, the number one Student Council member of the Yugen Fujiki Victims Association among the new students of Duel Academy. In horror, he realized that the moment the Sudden Duel began, sheer bad luck had once again led him right next to the Big Bad.
Yuichi instantly remembered the fear of being dominated by the Yellow-Clad Demon King during the Dorm Exchange Duel. He locked onto that girl from the Obelisk Blue Dorm with determined eyes. No matter what, he absolutely could not repeat the last Duel.
But he was just a little too late. Right when he was about to make it, another student from the Yellow Dormitory suddenly appeared out of nowhere, opened his Duel Disk first, and stepped in front of the girl. "Sorry, could you Duel with me?"
The girl nodded. Yuichi, who had been charging at full speed, immediately crashed face-first onto the ground.
He looked up furiously and saw that the one who had stolen his target was actually one of his close friends. The friend glanced at him lying there, pushed up his glasses, and said in a deep voice, "Sorry, Yuichi."
Dead friends were better than dead me. Today, your brother got there first, so you can be the sacrifice again.
"You're f..."
Before he could finish cursing, a shadow had already fallen over him. Then came that gentle, polite Fiend whisper. "Hm? Isn't this Yuichi Yamamoto? Why are you lying on the ground? Couldn't find an opponent? What a coincidence, I still haven't found one either, so it looks like I'll have to ask Yuichi Yamamoto for another lesson."
Yuichi let out a long sigh, got to his feet, and opened his Duel Disk with lifeless eyes. His expression said he had given up completely, so whatever was coming, just get it over with.
"I activate a Spell Card! 'Card Destruction,' then I chain the Continuous Trap 'Call of the Haunted' and Special Summon 'Protector of the Sanctuary' from the Graveyard."
"Sorry, Yuichi Yamamoto. You have to discard your entire hand, and because of 'Protector of the Sanctuary,' you cannot draw cards except during your Draw Phase. Then I resolve 'Card Destruction' on my side and draw four new cards."
Yuichi said nothing.
"Oh? Yuichi Yamamoto is ending his turn again without doing anything. You're too polite. Then it's My Turn!, 'Don Zaloog' attacks directly! Looks like you lost."
Yugen happily finished another Duel, said goodbye to the shattered Yuichi, and turned to look for his next target. According to the rules set by the Duel Department, repeated matches against the same opponent were not allowed. All he had to do was find a pair already in the middle of a Duel and wait beside them. Once their game ended, one student would naturally be left alone.
For example, there were the glasses boy from the Yellow Dormitory and the girl from the Obelisk Blue Dorm from just now. During their Duel, both of them had been glad they had chosen opponents fast enough to avoid the Big Bad. But after only a few turns, both of them suddenly felt a chill run down their backs.
They turned around, and their bodies instantly went cold from head to toe. The Yellow-Clad Demon King had somehow appeared beside them and was watching their Duel with a smile.
What was that supposed to mean? It was obvious he was waiting by the tree stump for the rabbit, ready to pick his next victim the moment their duel ended. What were they supposed to do?
Deliberately throw the Duel and drag it out a little longer? No. That would be a fake duel, the most shameful thing for a Duelist, and it also violated school rules.
Their duel was almost over, and the glasses boy's LP was about to hit zero, so both sides were getting desperate. The girl seemed to be saying with her eyes, Are you kidding me? How are you already collapsing when I only made a few moves? The glasses boy looked miserable too, but then, from the corner of his eye, he spotted a savior.
It was Yuichi, the very person whose target he had stolen without mercy, now standing at the side and watching enthusiastically after being thoroughly beaten. There was still hope.
The glasses boy's eyes lit up. As long as he could seize his good friend's help the moment this Duel ended, dueling Yuichi would let him avoid the Big Bad.
At the instant of Life Points Zero, the glasses boy endured the virtual shock of the attack and dashed toward Yuichi. "Yuichi! Our grudge ends today! Come on, fight me!"
"No."