Chapter 317: Nanki'in vs Finesse, a Battle of Bad Blood
The rules for Academy City's freshman campus queen election were simple enough: pick the three highest vote-getters across the three academies, then run a free-for-all duel between them, same as the monthly joint duels between the three academies, to crown a final winner.
This counted as the second major event of the second month since the semester started, right behind the academy challenge tournament.
Everyone loves beauty, one way or another, so an event like a campus queen election was always going to spark this level of buzz and voter turnout, no matter what era you dropped it into.
By the second morning after the event kicked off, all of Synchro Academy had already descended into a full blown canvassing frenzy.
Even though first place was basically already locked in for Nanki'in Sakuya, students still ran canvassing booths in every corner of the academy, all trying to push their own personal goddess up a few more spots in the rankings.
"Step right up, vote for our own Natsuho!"
"Vote and get a free packet of tissues!"
"Free soda!"
"Free cards!"
"Free Yuyu plushies!"
Even the canvassing booths had started a full blown arms race with each other.
Everyone in Class 1-E, Amano Rei included, seemed to be having a great time with the whole thing. After all, Synchro Academy's campus queen representative was already basically locked in as their own class rep.
Standing out completely against the cheerful mood around him, Amano Rei sat alone at his desk, eyes closed as if resting, though really he was just zoning out.
"What's up with the class rep today? He's being extra aloof."
"Probably just not interested in something like a campus queen election. His head's probably got nothing in it but dueling."
"No women on the mind, so his draws just naturally hit different!"
"So this is the legendary Sigma male in the flesh. Weirdly kind of hot, honestly~"
If only he could actually manage to have no women on the mind. The whole reason Amano Rei stood out from everyone around him was, if anything, the exact opposite: there were too many women on his mind.
During morning class, Amano Rei had already quietly logged into Fusion Academy's official website to check.
Finesse's vote count was a runaway lead, same as Nanki'in Sakuya's. She'd basically already locked in her spot representing Fusion Academy too.
Speaking of which, that photo of his lady on Fusion Academy's website had been picked pretty well too.
Probably taken during gym class, mid stretch as she warmed up on the field. Bent forward with one leg extended, the pose conveniently hid the one area where Finesse came up short, while showing off the full advantage of her long, pale legs instead.
Clearly Finesse had her own version of a Kozuka Yoka style "strategist" backing her up too.
Wednesday's campus queen duel would, without a doubt, come down to Finesse against Nanki'in Sakuya, and Amano Rei just so happened to have already promised his support to both of them.
Wasn't this its own kind of bad blood waiting to boil over?
Sitting there with his eyes closed, zoning out, Amano Rei's thoughts nearly dragged him straight back to the first time he'd ever found himself caught between two rivals like this, at that family dinner.
"Amano, you look terrible."
Rather than joining in the classroom chaos with everyone else, Nanki'in Sakuya had been quietly watching Amano Rei this whole time.
"Probably just didn't sleep well last night." Amano Rei slowly opened his tired looking eyes.
That was true enough, as far as it went.
Last night, already feeling more than a little guilty after learning Finesse would be representing Fusion Academy, Amano Rei had run straight into more bad luck on top of it, the kind that always seems to find the person already having a rough time.
Getting back to his room, he'd discovered someone, some jerk, had left his bedsheets soaked.
Amano Rei had a strong suspicion Kikawayu had wet the bed that night, and only avoided getting caught because she'd overslept that morning. His best friend, of course, refused to admit any of it.
"Then let's get you to the infirmary, I'll come with you!"
Amano Rei had pretty much figured out the pattern by now. Nanki'in Sakuya was unusually invested in the idea of going to the infirmary, always finding some excuse to "arrange" a trip there for him, over and over, until he practically felt like some frail, sickly pretty boy at this point.
By the time school let out that afternoon, the final vote results had locked in.
Nanki'in Sakuya took first place at Synchro Academy in a total landslide, 8703 votes, earning her spot representing the academy in tomorrow's campus queen duel.
On the other side, over at Fusion Academy, Finesse claimed her own victory with 9200 votes.
The reason Finesse's numbers came out higher than Sakuya's wasn't that his lady was somehow more popular than his class rep. It was simply that Fusion Academy had a larger overall student body, which meant a larger pool of voters to begin with.
Over at Xyz Academy, without any single overwhelming, tier defining beauty to run away with it, the competition had turned out to be a good deal tighter.
In the end, a girl named Hoshimiya Kaguya squeaked out the win with 3700 total votes, edging out second place by a mere 100 votes.
Oddly enough, third place in Xyz Academy's vote count belonged to someone Amano Rei knew well: his own childhood friend, Yui.
Unfortunately, Yui had enrolled a full month later than everyone else.
Even with her people skills honed sharp from working the shop counter, letting her get along with practically anyone, that missing month of bonding time with her classmates had clearly cost her. Otherwise she genuinely might have had a real shot at first place.
If Yui had actually won, tomorrow's free-for-all duel stage would have been full of nothing but Amano Rei's old friends and acquaintances.
He might even have found himself an excuse to openly root for Yui in that case. She was a fellow District 32 native, after all. Nothing wrong with backing a hometown friend.
Too bad his hometown friend had dropped the ball right when it mattered.
That evening, back at the villa, Finesse browsed the website on her phone while chatting with Amano Rei on the couch. "Amano, the final election results are out. You've seen them, right?"
"Yeah, I saw."
Since Finesse had already seen the final results, there was no way she could have missed that particular detail.
The fact that Synchro Academy's representative was Nanki'in Sakuya.
Nanki'in Sakuya's existence carried a somewhat special weight for Finesse, in her own way.
Finesse had already known Sakuya, in a sense, well before she'd ever met Amano Rei.
Though "known" might not quite be the right word for it. For Finesse, it was closer to a different, more particular kind of relationship entirely.
Brought into the Wein family straight from an orphanage, Finesse had, at her very first joint family dinner, laid eyes on the beautiful, coolly elegant Nanki'in Sakuya and been utterly awestruck, marveling that this was what a real family's young lady was supposed to look like.
Having leapt straight from an orphanage into the Wein family as a child who barely understood how any of this worked, Finesse Wein, with no idea what she was even supposed to do, had unconsciously started modeling herself after Nanki'in Sakuya.
That was exactly why Finesse's own original persona had leaned so heavily into that same cool, aloof style.
To Finesse, Nanki'in Sakuya had, after all, once been someone she'd genuinely idolized and imitated.
So when she'd seen the results crowning Sakuya as Synchro Academy's campus queen champion, Finesse's very first reaction had been: of course it's her. She'd even felt a little happy for Sakuya, if she was honest.
But what Finesse couldn't quite let go of was how, just last month at the family dinner, Nanki'in Sakuya had grabbed hold of Amano Rei's wrist and refused to let him leave.
Or the Dark Game with the Millennium Key that followed, where Amano Rei had been forced to defeat Nanki'in Onikiri in spirit form.
At this point, Nanki'in Sakuya was no longer simply the person a young, wide eyed Finesse had once idolized and imitated.
"Amano, are you really supporting me on this?" Finesse pressed, her silver-gray eyes locked hard on Amano Rei.
"Of course I'm supporting you, my lady!" Amano Rei forced himself into an easy, relaxed smile. "What kind of relationship do you think we have? There's no reason for me not to support you."
Finesse pretended not to notice the faint tremor in Amano Rei's fingers around his teacup, and pressed on with her question.
"I just want to ask you one thing, Amano. If I asked you to duel in my place tomorrow, in spirit form, would you do it?"
"Huh, what?" Amano Rei froze, caught completely off guard by the sudden request.
"Would you be willing, for my sake, to personally defeat Nanki'in Sakuya with your own hands?"
Amano Rei quietly set down his teacup.
"Sorry, Finesse, I probably..."
"It's fine, Amano. That was just a hypothetical question. You don't need to think about it at all."
Finesse looked down at the Destiny HERO - Destroyer Phoenix Enforcer card in her hand. "If anything, even if you offered to duel in my place tomorrow of your own accord, I still wouldn't say yes."
"My lady?"
"This is something I have to settle with my own hands."
The next day.
The campus queen free-for-all duel was set to begin at 2:30 in the afternoon, at an open-air venue on the south side of Academy City, built in the shape of a Blue-Eyes White Dragon dome.
Same as the monthly joint duels between the three academies, tickets were sold to generate revenue for the schools.
Even though tickets for the campus queen duel cost more than double a normal joint duel, they'd still sold out completely within five minutes of going on sale, proof enough of just how popular the whole event was.
Who wouldn't want to watch beautiful girls duel it out, after all?
Rin Seiya: "What, I'm a student here too, and I still have to pay 3000 points to the Blue-Eyes White Dragon Dome?"
Unlike the regular joint duels, which every year could attend, this event was restricted to freshmen only, which meant even upperclassmen wanting to watch had to buy their tickets like everyone else.
[Rin Seiya, minus 3000.]
Just before the free-for-all was set to begin, though, Xyz Academy's representative Hoshimiya Kaguya suddenly withdrew of her own accord, citing her own recognition of the gap between herself and the other two. She had no desire to fight for a campus queen title that, in her own words, wouldn't really belong to her anyway.
And just like that, what should have been a three way brawl turned overnight into a straight one on one duel between Finesse and Nanki'in Sakuya.
Of course, the electric atmosphere at the venue didn't dim in the slightest just because Hoshimiya Kaguya had bowed out.
If anything, the reality of the situation matched exactly what Hoshimiya Kaguya, showing a fair bit of self-awareness, had predicted all along: most of the crowd had come for Finesse and Nanki'in Sakuya specifically.
Their popularity, reaching absurd heights even beyond the academies themselves, wasn't without good reason.
The Wein family's youngest daughter, a beautiful duelist who'd once taken down a Wicked God.
On the other side, the sole heir of the Nanki'in family, the beautiful young head of one of the most notorious crime families around.
With backgrounds that heavy behind them both, of course their popularity was through the roof.
And that was before factoring in that the families standing behind both of them were, without exception, incapable of sitting quietly on the sidelines.
At 2:25, five minutes before the official start, the outer perimeter of the Blue-Eyes White Dragon Dome was suddenly swarmed and surrounded by a dense, sprawling convoy of black cars.
Hundreds of intimidating looking underworld enforcers stepped out of the vehicles and filed into the venue. Under Ryuuma's direction, they arranged themselves into perfectly synchronized formation and unfurled banner after banner, joining together into one continuous scroll reading: VICTORY TO THE YOUNG MISTRESS! VICTORY TO THE NANKI'IN FAMILY!
The onlooking crowd was left completely stunned by the sight.
Already seated in the VIP box, Nanki'in Muramasa watched the terrifying wave of enthusiasm his own men were putting on in support of the young mistress, and couldn't help turning to Nanki'in Yukihime beside him.
"Isn't this a little much, Yukihime? It's just a campus queen election duel. Is it really this important?"
"Of course it's important!" A flash of sharp intelligence crossed Nanki'in Yukihime's beautiful eyes. "Dad, do you really think this is just a plain old campus queen election duel? Knowing the Wein family the way I do, they're only going to go even bigger than this."
Nanki'in Muramasa had stepped down from the head of the family long ago. These days, the ongoing business rivalry with the Wein family was entirely in Yukihime's hands.
As far as Yukihime was concerned, this was every bit as much a war as any of that.
Sure enough, the Nanki'in family's convoy had barely finished arriving when the roar of helicopter rotors erupted across the open sky above the Blue-Eyes White Dragon Dome.
Radio in hand, Karl gave the order. "Drop it!"
From the open side doors of three helicopters, eye-catching banners came tumbling down, unfurling into a display hanging directly above the stage.
FINESSE WEIN!
MOST BEAUTIFUL HERO USER!
THIS STAGE BELONGS TO HEROES!
Bringing in armed helicopters, no less. Now that was showing off.
"Big sister, second brother, you two could have at least given me a heads up before doing this."
Looking up at the banner printed with her own name stretched across the sky, Finesse, who'd only just stepped onto the stage, felt her cheeks flush nearly as red as her own hair.
By contrast, Nanki'in Sakuya kept that same unshakeable, coolly composed, quietly endearing expression of hers.
That exact attitude, that exact bearing. Just like the very first time Finesse had seen her at that family dinner, beautiful and coolly elegant Nanki'in Sakuya was, simply put, the perfect embodiment of everything Finesse had once dreamed a family's young lady should be.
But things were different now.
Finesse gripped the card case at her hip, as if steeling her resolve.
Nanki'in Sakuya. The person standing here now neither idolizes you nor imitates you. I'm standing on this stage as your equal, here to settle this between us once and for all.
"Let's begin, Nanki'in Sakuya!" Finesse spread her arm out, her Duel Disk unfolding, and loaded her HERO deck into it.
"Mm." Nanki'in Sakuya answered calmly. Then, with the crisp ring of steel sliding free, she drew the katana from her hip and fused it with her Eva Terminal, forming a silver-white Duel Disk.
Finesse would have loved to transform into her HERO form too, but her homeroom teacher had strictly forbidden it ahead of time. Since this was a campus queen duel, if a transformation ended up covering her face, and the audience got upset enough to demand refunds, it might end up hurting the academy's revenue.
The time read exactly 2:30 in the afternoon.
[Eva: Duel Approved]
[Duelist: Finesse Wein]
[Duelist: Nanki'in Sakuya]
[Data network connected, duel field generating]
[Duel Content: Campus Queen Election Duel]
[Proud duelists, let the outcome of this duel serve as the scale that weighs your very souls!]
[Duel!]
Eva's announcement, marking the start of the duel, sent the Blue-Eyes White Dragon Dome's atmosphere roaring to life.
Nanki'in Sakuya took the first move.
"Go get her, class rep!"
"Show them what real beauty and real strength look like!"
"Synchro Summoning is the most gorgeous way to summon there is!"
Seated right up at the front of the audience, being fellow classmates, Synchro Academy's Class 1-E erupted in cheers for their own.
"Class rep, why aren't you saying anything at all? Come cheer for our class rep with us!" Kozuka Yoka urged.
"Oh, right." Amano Rei nodded half-heartedly.
His seat, courtesy of his "connections" as a classmate, sat far too close to the stage for comfort. If he started cheering for Nanki'in Sakuya the same as the rest of Class 1-E right now, there was a good chance Finesse would notice.
Better to keep a low profile and stay as invisible as possible. Actually turning invisible would honestly be the best outcome here.
"Finesse is the strongest one out there!" The cheers from the Fusion Academy side rang out just as loud as Synchro Academy's.
The two girls up on stage hadn't even started dueling yet, and the crowd below already sounded like it was about to break out into a fight of its own.
Synchro Academy: "Nanki'in's the prettiest one here!"
Fusion Academy: "Finesse is prettier!"
Synchro Academy: "Long, straight, jet black hair, calm and gorgeous!"
Fusion Academy: "Red hair, full of passion and stunning!"
Synchro Academy: "Synchro Summoning is way cooler!"
Fusion Academy: "Fusion Summoning is way more elegant!"
Synchro Academy: "Nanki'in's got the bigger chest!"
Fusion Academy: "..."
Finesse: "Why aren't you fighting back on that one!"
Nanki'in Sakuya: "My turn, draw."
Drawing her card as the first player, Nanki'in Sakuya officially began her turn.
Sweeping her eyes across her hand, she flung a monster card onto her silver katana Duel Disk.
"I Normal Summon Swordsoul of Mo Ye in Attack Position!"
[Swordsoul of Mo Ye] [Level 4 WATER]
[Wyrm/Effect]
[ATK: 1700] [DEF: 1800]
The Swordsoul monster, striking with a proud, feminine figure, materialized on Nanki'in Sakuya's field, sword in hand.
Finesse said, startled, "It's not Shiranui?"
Finesse had already braced herself to duel against the Shiranui deck, the katana archetype. Instead, Nanki'in Sakuya had pulled out a Chinese sword deck entirely.
And if Nanki'in Sakuya was summoning a completely different monster line, did that mean she'd given up on her family's own inherited legacy in favor of some other path altogether?
"This is the new step I've taken, now that I've found the courage to."
Nanki'in Sakuya spoke on, calm and expressionless as ever. And yet what she said next made Finesse's silver-gray eyes shrink in sudden, unmistakable shock.
"It's because of Amano that I found the courage to challenge my own fate. And because of Amano Rei's support, I was able to complete this Synchro deck that goes beyond even needing a Tuner!"
"You're saying, Amano's support..." Finesse's lips trembled as she pushed back. "You're, you're lying."
"Swordsoul of Mo Ye's effect, activate." Nanki'in Sakuya instead revealed a second Wyrm monster from her hand, a Swordsoul card.
[When this card is Normal or Special Summoned: You can reveal 1 "Swordsoul" card or Wyrm monster in your hand to activate this effect. Special Summon 1 "Swordsoul Token" (Wyrm/Tuner/WATER/Level 4/ATK 0/DEF 0) to your field.]
"I reveal Swordsoul of Taia in my hand to activate the effect, Special Summoning a Swordsoul Token to my field!"
[Swordsoul Token] [Level 4 WATER]
[Wyrm/Tuner/Normal]
[ATK: 0] [DEF: 0]
The Level 4 Water Swordsoul Token materialized beside Swordsoul of Mo Ye. Though the Token itself carried 0 ATK and 0 DEF, it held the Tuner property all its own.
Not a Synchro Summon performed with a dedicated Tuner monster, but one performed with a Token, Special Summoned entirely through a monster's own effect.
No need for a Tuner monster at all, and yet still a Synchro Summon that went beyond what a Tuner could even offer.
"I'll tune the Level 4 Swordsoul of Mo Ye with the Level 4 Swordsoul Token."
On her very first turn, going first, Nanki'in Sakuya had already unleashed a single-card Tuning combo on a level that put even Shiranui to shame.
4 plus 4 equals 8!
"Sword heart clear and bright, dragon energy converging! Chixiao, leave your sheath, and cut down every illusion!"
"Synchro Summon! Level 8, Swordsoul Grandmaster - Chixiao!"
[Swordsoul Grandmaster - Chixiao] [Level 8 LIGHT]
[Wyrm/Synchro/Effect]
[ATK: 2800] [DEF: 1000]
[1 Tuner + 1 or more non-Tuner Wyrm monsters]
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