Chapter 38: The Fusion of Gale Winds
"Has it started?"
"Yes, exactly as planned."
Inside the Vail Machinery Workshop, the man who'd been the employee removed his hood, conversing quietly with the woman beside him.
Without the hood's concealment, the gray-haired man's signature monocle seemed to reflect light of wisdom and scheming within the workshop.
The man's appearance—any card player from Amano's era would surely recognize.
In Yu-Gi-Oh! card lore, a man possessing exclusive BGM just like the three Egyptian Gods.
"Passionate Fusion Man!"
—Aleister!
"These are all rough gems Yugi Muto selected to oppose Eva. Isn't our approach a bit too much forcing growth, Vail?"
"If time weren't so tight, I wouldn't want to do this either, Aleister."
"Time..." Aleister also fell silent. "Ten years faster than Yugi predicted."
"Under Eva's domination and surveillance, there's too little we can do. The seeds of resistance must be personally cultivated and sprouted by these duelists themselves. So who've you got your eye on, planning to tag along with, Aleister?"
"You know I hate women most. I can only find an opportunity to insert myself with the Amano kid."
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"I activate my Set Trap Card—Shiranui Style - Swallow's Slash!"
The trap Nanki'in Sakuya flipped during Amano's End Phase.
"Tribute one Zombie monster on your field to destroy two cards on the field!"
On Sakuya's field, her only monster Shiranui Sensei slowly rose from his seated position, sacrificing his aged form and using the blade in his hands to summon a youthful blade spirit.
"I Tribute Shiranui Sensei to destroy all cards on your field."
On Amano's field: one Defense Position monster plus one Set backrow card—exactly two cards.
The blade spirit's Swallow's Slash struck clean and decisive, slicing through and destroying both Set cards.
Amano's face-down monster was a 1-star Vanilla.
"Squeak squeak squeak!"
[Fire Rat] destroyed.
Under the merciless blade light, the Fire Rat whose field time hadn't even lasted one turn transformed into holographic fragments and entered the Graveyard.
And Shiranui Sensei, tributed to activate the trap effect, also vanished from the field.
This 2-for-2 exchange seemed to return both sides to an empty field state.
But Amano's turn had already ended. With an empty field, he could only be wide open, waiting for Nanki'in Sakuya to charge straight in next turn.
'This young miss actually knows how to duel.'
Should he say as expected from formal academy training?
Nanki'in Sakuya's black sailor uniform should be from Duel Academy's middle school division. Next month she'd enter the high school division.
Definitely stronger than bottom-district self-taught duelists like Nikaido. As for compared to the bounty hunter Lutz...
Finesse reminded: "In terms of pure deck quality, Shiranui is the Nanki'in Family's lineage-inherited deck. Amano, absolutely don't let your guard down!"
Nanki'in Sakuya continued: "Shiranui Style - Swallow's Slash has an additional effect. After this card activates, I can banish 1 Shiranui monster from my Deck!"
The card ejected precisely from her Duel Disk. Sakuya sent the card bearing a female samurai to the banish zone beside her Graveyard.
"I banish Shiranui Spectralsword from my Deck and activate Shiranui Spectralsword's effect."
All Shiranui monsters shared a unified trait: they activated effects when banished.
[When this card is banished: You can draw 1 card, then discard 1 card.]
Draw one, discard one—a filter that seemingly left hand card count unchanged but improved overall hand quality.
"I draw one card, then send Shiranui Sensei from my hand to the Graveyard."
Now Nanki'in Sakuya's Graveyard contained two copies of Shiranui Sensei.
"My turn, draw! I Normal Summon Shiranui Samurai in Attack Position!"
[Shiranui Samurai] [4✪ FIRE]
[Zombie] [ATK: 1800] [DEF: 0]
After towering flame summoning effects, a muscular samurai with twin blades at his waist stood before Nanki'in Sakuya.
Facing Amano's empty field, Sakuya chose offensive summoning with a monster possessing the excellent 1800 ATK at 4 stars.
"Prepare yourself, Amano Rei. This blade will hurt!"
Declaring direct attack, Nanki'in Sakuya activated a card effect as the samurai drew his sword.
[Banish 1 Zombie monster from your GY to activate: This card gains 600 ATK until the end of this turn. You can activate this effect during either player's turn.]
"I banish Shiranui Sensei from my Graveyard to increase Shiranui Samurai's ATK by 600!"
[Shiranui Samurai] [ATK: 1800 + 600 → 2400]
The samurai activating his own effect drew the second blade from his waist, entering dual-blade style.
"2400 ATK?!"
Though flame effects from Shiranui filled the duel arena, Finesse gasped on Amano's behalf.
"And I'm stacking the banished Shiranui Sensei's effect!"
As mentioned earlier, all Shiranui monsters' unified trait: they activate effects when banished.
[When this card is banished: Target 1 Zombie monster you control; it gains 600 ATK until the end of this turn.]
"I increase Shiranui Samurai's ATK by another 600!"
[Shiranui Samurai] [ATK: 2400 + 600 → 3000]
"3000 ATK!" Even Shio was shocked. "That's the same as Blue-Eyes White Dragon!"
Right, right—that's exactly how battle power calculation units work.
Capitalizing on Amano's empty field weakness, the blade Nanki'in Sakuya unleashed absolutely qualified as apocalyptic-level in Eden Tower duels.
"Direct attack!"
"—'Ryūjin Jakka'!"
The 3000 ATK slash effect erupted like a flame tornado piercing the skies.
Even with only minimal physical feedback, the destructive force created by the Duel Disk projection sent Amano's entire body flying up in the flame tornado, tumbling multiple times midair, nearly flinging him outside the arena.
"Waaaaah!"
Amano LP: 4000 → 1000
Nanki'in Sakuya's single-turn attack reduced Amano to critical 1000 LP.
"Young mistress, you've grown stronger." As the personal guard who'd watched Sakuya grow up since childhood, Ryoma secretly wiped tears below the stage.
"Your turn, Amano Rei." After the spectacular flame effects dissipated, Nanki'in Sakuya lowered her Duel Disk.
Amano climbed back to his feet, drawing cards from his Duel Disk.
"My turn, draw!"
This underworld young miss was nowhere near as simple as she appeared. Though seemingly leaving only 1800 ATK Shiranui Samurai on the field, there was actually a hidden pitfall.
Namely, Shiranui Samurai's effect could activate during the opponent's turn too.
Meaning that seemingly 1800 ATK could still rise to 2400 during Amano's turn.
No—combined with the second Shiranui Sensei in the Graveyard, ATK would spike back up to 3000.
"But I've got my own plays."
Amano glanced at this turn's draw.
[Elemental HERO Avian]
"Finally drew a monster I can Fuse with."
After raising Spell/Trap density, monster density correspondingly decreased. Amano no longer had situations like initially drawing all trash monsters.
Amano drew three hand cards simultaneously, raising them high overhead.
"I activate the Spell Card Polymerization!"
"It's Polymerization!" Seeing this card, Finesse couldn't help getting excited.
This Polymerization was the one Amano had won from the bounty hunter Lutz in the underground duel.
Standing behind Amano, Finesse could clearly see the cards Amano held high as fusion materials.
One was Elemental HERO Avian. She didn't recognize the other, but could confirm it was also a Normal Monster.
Fusing two Normal Monsters—Amano had already demonstrated this before.
"It won't work, Amano. Fossil Warrior Skull King can't win."
Fossil Warrior Skull King had 2700 ATK, but Shiranui Samurai with activated effects could reach 3000 ATK.
"No, this time it's a true HERO Fusion, Finesse!"
Compared to the previous battle, Amano now had an additional system skill layer.
From Finesse: Bond Resonance.
[Bond Resonance: Your Extra Deck gains all Extra Deck cards from target's archetype. Requires target's affection above 80 to trigger this skill.]
Now Amano could use Finesse's "HERO" Extra Deck.
"I Fuse Elemental HERO Avian and Sky Dragon from my hand!"
Right—Sky Dragon, not Slifer. The card Amano had obtained from the scammer merchant Vail.
Besides being Vanilla, it was also a WIND Attribute monster.
"Roar, gale winds!"
"Gather storms here, converge into a vortex crushing all obstacles!"
"Fusion Summon—Elemental HERO Great Tornado!"
[Elemental HERO Great Tornado] [8✪ WIND]
[Warrior/Fusion/Effect]
[ATK: 2800] [DEF: 2200]
["Elemental HERO" monster + WIND Attribute monster]
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