Chapter 74: Spending Big at the Card Shop
[Ranking Points Acquired: 15,000]
[Total Accumulated Points: 120,597 + 15,000 = 135,597]
[Shop Available Points: 597 + 15,000 = 15,597]
The joint duel point payout hit during the final minutes of evening self-study.
Fifteen thousand points total. That number accounted for Amano's personal double-elimination win stacked on top of Synchro Academy's overall championship—both factors rolled together into the final figure.
[Ranking Updated: 1,120 -> 890]
[Card Shop — Related Field: Monster Cards — UNLOCKED]
Finally cracked the top 1,000. Kondo-sensei hadn't steered him wrong.
Before the dismissal bell had even finished ringing, Amano had the monster card section of the ranked shop pulled up on his terminal.
The list that opened in front of him was almost overwhelming. Rows and rows of cards, all flagged as available for his account.
He hadn't expected this many. His field must have pulled in more variety than he'd realized.
Then he looked more carefully and understood why.
Every single card on the list was a Normal Monster.
His Normal Monster field had populated the shop with an enormous catalogue of vanilla cards—monsters with no effects, no special abilities, just stats. The shop was doing exactly what it was supposed to do: showing him what was relevant to his build.
Though not everything. Blue-Eyes White Dragon and Dark Magician weren't on the list. Cards that specific, that storied—even Eva's ranked shop apparently had limits. Some cards simply couldn't be purchased. They had to be found another way.
Amano scrolled through looking for Elemental HERO Neos. No luck there either. The five-material fusion fan-favorite apparently sat behind a different wall entirely.
He did find something else, though.
Red-Eyes Black Dragon.
[Exchange Cost: 50,000 Points]
He kept scrolling. Black Dragon could wait. Fifty thousand was a long-term investment he wasn't ready to make yet.
What he actually cared about were the Blue-Eyes and Dark Magician support cards. Those archetypes were the ones already in his deck, and building around them properly was the priority.
There.
[Blue-Eyes Chaos MAX Dragon]
A Ritual Monster. 4000 ATK. The Blue-Eyes variant with the highest attack score in the whole archetype, and one glance at the cost told him exactly how the shop valued it.
[Exchange Cost: 80,000 Points]
Eighty thousand. Nearly half a Pot of Greed. That was a hard pass for now.
He worked down the list. Ritual Monsters as a category weren't cheap—the shop knew what it was offering. The most affordable thing in the Ritual section turned out to be Magician of Chaos, the Dark Magician Ritual counterpart.
[Exchange Cost: 5,000 Points]
But it was a blank Ritual Monster. No effects worth writing home about. Useful in theory, but not something he could build around without the right support pieces, which he also didn't have yet.
So fifteen thousand points, access to the monster shop for the first time—and most of the interesting cards were firmly out of reach.
If he had to spend something, there were options. The shop had a solid selection of Normal Monster beaters in the four-star range—1900 ATK attackers were easy to find, and there were even a couple of 2000 ATK options, though those came with a price premium.
While browsing the high-ATK lower-Level Normal Monsters, one card stopped him.
[Chosen by the Star Chalice]
[4-Star / EARTH / Warrior / Normal] [ATK: 1,800 / DEF: 0]
A Star Chalice card.
"Eve. You know this one?"
"It looks familiar."
It should. It's in the same archetype as you.
Four stars, 1800 ATK. A solid attacker. The zero DEF was the downside, but as a Normal Monster it could contribute to Synchro plays, and the low cost made it a no-brainer.
[Exchange Cost: 1,000 Points]
Cheap.
Done.
[Chosen by the Star Chalice — Added to Deck]
Next: one of the most reliable low-Level Normal Monster beatsticks in the game. A classic.
[Elemental HERO Sparkman]
Beyond just being a competent attacker, Sparkman opened doors for HERO Fusion plays down the line.
[Exchange Cost: 2,000 Points]
Cheap.
Done.
[Elemental HERO Sparkman — Added to Deck]
The last purchase was the one that actually stretched the budget.
[Cosmo Queen]
A one-star Normal Monster—and a Tuner.
Having an actual Tuner that was also a Normal Monster was exactly the kind of card Amano's deck had been missing. One star meant it was cheap to summon, easy to set up, and worked cleanly with everything else he was already running. The only problem was the price, which was higher than the others by a significant margin.
[Exchange Cost: 8,000 Points]
Not cheap.
Done anyway.
[Cosmo Queen — Added to Deck]
[Shop Available Points: 15,597 - 11,000 = 4,597]
The dismissal bell rang.
For most people, that sound meant freedom. For Amano, it meant the next thing on his schedule was starting.
He'd already confirmed on VSN that he'd go visit Rin Seiya's club after school. Which meant tonight wasn't a quiet walk home with Sakuya.
Behind him, Nanki'in Sakuya hadn't moved from her seat. She sat with the same expression she always wore, showing no particular reaction to being left behind—even though she clearly knew he had somewhere else to be.
"Not heading back yet, Class Monitor?"
"Didn't finish the homework. Let me copy yours."
Right. There had been homework assigned during self-study. Amano had mentally filed it under 'too simple to worry about' and basically ignored it.
"Sure, leave it on my desk when you're done." He handed her the worksheet without thinking twice.
Sakuya took it—and for just a moment, her expression did something. A slight narrowing of the eyes. Quick enough that it would be easy to miss, but noticeable on a face that usually didn't move much.
Then she put her head down and started copying.
"I'm heading out then, Class Monitor."
"Bye."
The air in the room had developed a texture. Amano kept his footsteps quiet on the way out.
Clubs in Academy City operated in a slightly different space than the three academies themselves. They weren't affiliated with any particular school—they existed in their own dedicated building on the southern side of the city, accessible to students from all three. The process was simple enough: submit a proposal to Eva's system, get the content approved, and Eva would assign you a room.
In practice, almost all the active clubs had been founded by Fusion or Xyz Academy students. Their schedules ended earlier, their evenings were their own, and they had both the time and the inclination to fill it with extracurriculars.
Synchro Academy clubs were a different story. When your evening self-study ran until nine-thirty, the concept of "after school activities" started to feel abstract. The building didn't disappear, but most Synchro students were already tired and heading home by the time it was technically free time.
That said—if Rin Seiya had founded a club, there would be members. The evidence was already in her VSN follower count.
Building B, sixth floor, Room 619.
Amano followed the address she'd sent, moving through hallways where most of the lights had already been turned down. Nine-thirty meant most clubs had wrapped up hours ago. The rooms he passed were dark. Only the corridor lights were still on.
He scanned the door signs as he walked.
"Card Economics Research Association."
"Chestnut Ball Preservation Society."
"Self-Destruct Button Enthusiasts Club."
"Flash Pull Dojo."
Amano stopped at that last one for a moment.
Eva had approved all of these.
Eva was genuinely very tolerant.
He found Room 619 at the far end of the corridor—the corner unit, and smaller than he'd expected. Nothing about this room suggested it belonged to Academy City's most popular student.
The door sign read:
"Historical Film Appreciation Society."
History. Amano had zero personal interest in history. Rin Seiya watched historical documentaries in her spare time?
He double-checked the room number. Then knocked.
"Come in!" The voice was immediately recognizable. Clear, bright, unmistakably Rin Seiya.
Amano pushed the door open.
The room was exactly as small as it looked from the outside, and decorated with the bare minimum—a few folding chairs, one worn sofa, a table, a storage cabinet along one wall for what he assumed were the films, and an old-style television set up against the far wall.
No other club members present.
Just Rin Seiya, cross-legged on the sofa with her shoes off, knees pulled to her chest, eyes fixed completely on the television screen.
He looked at what was playing.
The opening title card filled the screen in large block letters.
Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's.
So that was the kind of history they were preserving.