Yuichi rolled his eyes, ignored him completely, and strode straight toward the girl from the Obelisk Blue Dorm behind him. "Excuse me, miss, could you Duel with me?"
The girl from the Obelisk Blue Dorm looked overwhelmed with gratitude and nodded again and again. "Yuichi! KISAMA, you bastard!" the glasses boy roared.
Yuichi looked back at him with a cold smile. The hell I went through should be shared by my brother too.
So the Yellow-Clad Demon King appeared in front of the glasses boy and raised his Duel Disk with a smile. "Looks like it's just the two of us left, classmate. Before we begin, is there anything you want to say?"
The glasses boy said nothing.
"Activate the Trap Card 'Ojama Trio' and Special Summon three 'Ojama Tokens' to your field. Then I activate the Continuous Trap 'Rivalry of Warlords.' Because there are Beast-Type Ojama Tokens on your field, you cannot Summon Monsters anymore."
"All right, now it's your turn. Go ahead and play. No rush, take it slow."
The other boy's face turned red as he stared at his hand and thought desperately, but he still seemed unable to make a move. Seeing that, Yugen began to drift off a little.
Come to think of it, why had he not seen Judai Yuki anywhere? That made no sense. In an event built entirely around dueling, shouldn't he have been the most active person there?
"Big bro, slow down a little."
In the dense woods behind Duel Academy, Sho Marufuji and Hayato Maeda panted as they trailed behind. Up ahead, bursting with energy as always, was of course Judai Yuki.
"What are you talking about? You can't go on an adventure if you're that slow, Sho Marufuji!" Judai Yuki said with a grin.
"Even if you say that..." Sho Marufuji took a deep breath, trying to steady himself. "Why did we have to skip the Cultural Festival and come all the way out to a place like this?"
"Because lately people have been saying a Student Council koala has been showing up in these woods!"
Judai Yuki looked genuinely excited. Sho Marufuji frowned. "Just hearing 'Student Council koala' makes it obvious that can't be real..."
"No, but we already ran into a Student Council monkey before, didn't we?" Hayato Maeda said after thinking it over. "So a koala isn't completely impossible."
Sho Marufuji glanced at Hayato Maeda and considered that for a moment. Then he nodded.
"That's true. Besides, a Student Council koala wouldn't even be that unusual in our dorm."
"That's rude!"
After walking a while longer, the two stragglers finally ran out of steam. They both stopped where they were, gasping for breath and looking ready to collapse.
"I can't do it, I really can't run anymore. Big bro has way too much energy," Sho Marufuji said between breaths. "And we're almost at the beach already. I really don't think there'd be anything in a place like this..."
"Not necessarily. This island Duel Academy sits on is full of secrets you wouldn't expect," Judai Yuki said. "Maybe something aquatic from the Student Council could suddenly jump out of the sea too."
Hayato Maeda wiped away his sweat. "I think a Student Council fish is absolutely impossible..."
Right then, a sharp smack rang out nearby. In the next instant, a hand in a black leather glove shot up from below the cliff and grabbed the rock face.
A figure climbed up from beneath the cliff. Hayato Maeda and Sho Marufuji immediately huddled together.
"It really appeared!"
The man looked to be dressed in black leather, with half his face covered. After climbing up from the cliff, he noticed the three of them and seemed to frown.
"Damn it. I climbed up from a place like this and still ran into students."
Hayato Maeda and Sho Marufuji exchanged glances. One of them whispered, "What's this guy muttering about?" and the other replied, "No idea. But he definitely doesn't look like a good person..."
Then the mechanical parts folded along the black-clad man's arm suddenly shifted. In an instant, they transformed into something like a cannon barrel, and a spiraling blast of compressed air roared straight toward the three of them.
An air cannon.
"Kuri!"
Winged Kuriboh appeared just in time. Judai Yuki instinctively raised an arm, and a half-transparent Spirit barrier blocked the violent shockwave.
"Kuri kuri!" Winged Kuriboh said.
Judai Yuki nodded. "Yeah, I get it, partner. This guy's an enemy, right?"
He immediately fixed a wary stare on the man who had fired at them. "Who are you? Why did you sneak onto this island, and why are you attacking us?"
"Tch. As expected of Duel Academy. Even some random student I run into can do something like that," the black-clad man said. "In that case..."
As he spoke, the folded machine parts on his arm shifted again. A moment later, they had reassembled into the shape of a Duel Disk.
"You can call me 'Beta.' I came to this Duel Academy for something very important, and since you just happened to stand in my way..." The man's voice turned cold. "Then I'll break through by using Duel, the Duel Academy way."
"What? A Duel?"
Judai Yuki opened his own Duel Disk as well. His eyes were already shining.
"Fine. If it's a Duel, then I'm always ready!"
"Uh, big bro, we don't even know what the other guy wants. Jumping straight into a Duel like this feels a little..." Sho Marufuji began.
But Judai Yuki was no longer listening.
"Duel!" x2
Judai Yuki, LP 4000
Beta, LP 4000
"I'll go first. Card Draw."
Beta's voice was hoarse and muddy, like it had been altered by a machine. Without wasting a single motion, he played his first card.
"Summon 'Twin-Headed Behemoth.'"
Twin-Headed Behemoth, ATK 1500
"Then I set two cards in the Back Row and end my turn."
After that simple opening, Beta lifted his head and spoke in an icy voice. "The best formation is already complete. In this Duel, your chance of winning isn't even 1%."
"Oh? You're that confident?" Judai Yuki said.
Instead of sounding intimidated, he seemed even more interested. Beta replied, "Correct. I have analyzed the essence of the tactics used by the legendary person at the summit of Duel. You have no chance."
"The more you say that, the more I want to see it," Judai Yuki said. "Then let me take a look at these refined tactics of yours."
His fighting spirit rose even higher. He thrust out his hand at once.
"First, I'll need your strength, Sparkman! I Summon 'Elemental HERO Sparkman'!"
The blue Elemental HERO warrior, one of the so-called four weak Heroes among card players, leaped onto the field wrapped in blue lightning.
Elemental HERO Sparkman, ATK 1600
"Sparkman, attack 'Twin-Headed Behemoth'!" Judai Yuki called out.
As the plain-looking Hero fired his electric strike, Beta let out a low laugh of contempt beneath his heavy mask. It seemed that worrying about this kid just because of the Spirit power had been unnecessary. After all, he was only a student from Osiris Red, the lowest-ranked dorm in Duel Academy.
He looked completely straightforward, with no schemes at all. There was probably nothing troublesome about him.
"At this moment, I activate my set card!" Beta raised his hand. "Quick-Play Spell 'Shrink'! It can halve the original ATK of one Monster on the field!"