She lost again.
Aki Izayoi fell to her knees, her legs splayed outward, and stared up at the sky.
If the second duel had made her certain of anything, it was the gulf in strength between them.
It was not a gap she could cross just by trying a little harder or having a sudden burst of potential. This person was on an entirely different level from every opponent she had faced so far. The difference was simply too great.
During their first duel, he had deliberately chosen a Plant Deck to fight her in an internal matchup. At first, she had thought it was merely mockery, but later she realized he might have been trying to show her how weak she was.
Yes, she had always hated and rejected her own power, so naturally, she had limited the strength she could have wielded. She had not even developed a tenth of her potential. Even the Plant Deck she prided herself on was nowhere near as familiar to her as she had imagined.
He had shown her greater power and a higher limit to make her understand that.
But the prerequisite for being able to do that was, naturally, that he was fundamentally far stronger than her—strong enough to forgo his usual Deck, casually play around, and still convey his thoughts to her through their duel.
This was what it meant to have everything under control.
That feeling had been even clearer in this duel. He had once again used the duel to tell her something, reminding her of a dream she had buried long ago—the reason she had first set out on the path of a Duelist.
Once he had achieved his goal, he casually ended the duel. Throughout the entire process, it had felt like nothing more than