Ruins

Early the next morning, Kira set out from the dojo and embarked on a trip with the students to visit the ruins.

To be honest, Kira was quite interested in the stone tablets found in ruins before they were turned into cards in this world. Especially after learning that stone tablets were not the only things in ruins that could be turned into cards.

But that was simply how the World of Yu-Gi-Oh! worked. Far more than just stone tablets could be made into cards—gems could become cards, swords could become cards, and sometimes even living people could become cards.

Or rather, turning stone tablets into cards was not true "card creation" at all, but merely a form of "transplantation."

After all, the stone tablets were cards created by ancient people thousands of years ago. All Pegasus had done back then was transplant those ancient cards onto a new modern medium. The process by which the ancients created the tablets was when the corresponding cards had truly been created.

The ruins were located on the outskirts of the city. After getting off the bus, Kira had not walked far before reaching the vicinity of the excavation site, where he ran into Master Takeuchi's good friend, Uncle Saito.

"Yo, you're here."

Uncle Saito warmly came over to welcome them, giving Kira an especially thorough look.

"Young man, your duel yesterday was quite impressive. You must've gotten quite a few benefits afterward, huh?"

"Not bad." Kira smiled. "Thanks for showing us around, Uncle."

Uncle Saito waved a hand. "It's nothing. I'm really just bringing you in a few days early to take a look. The team seems to have decided that, if they don't make any new discoveries, these ruins will be opened to duelists Level 4 and above in a couple of days."

Uncle Saito led the group inside as he explained.

"You've probably heard the rumors that spirits sometimes choose duelists themselves, right?"

"We have." Everyone nodded.

Kira remembered that the most representative example in the original story was the Crystal Beasts. After Pegasus created the Crystal Beast deck, he happened to be watching Johan Andersen compete at a dueling tournament one day. To his surprise, the deck inside its case suddenly began to glow.

Pegasus then gave the Crystal Beast deck to Johan, and Johan consequently formed a bond with his deck that ordinary duelists could never match. So it was not always duelists who chose cards; spirits could choose duelists as well.

"Master Takeuchi said that too," one dojo student recalled. "He said that a duelist rejected by their cards cannot bring out the deck's true power."

Listening to this, Kira pondered inwardly, What does it mean, unable to bring out the deck's power?

Could it be that if the spirits hate you, they'll desperately stuff useless cards into your hand until you brick so badly you start questioning your life?

Damn, that'd be pretty terrifying.

"Yeah, some ruins are like that too. Sometimes research into certain ruins makes no progress at all, but when a particular duelist arrives, strange phenomena that were not there before suddenly appear, as though that person has been chosen.

"But I don't know what criteria they use to choose someone."

Uncle Saito smiled.

"After all, I'm just an old laborer here. I've only heard people talk about it a lot."

Koji Sato asked, "So can you tell us what ruins we're visiting today now? Master said they were amazing, but he was all mysterious and refused to explain the details."

Uncle Saito gave a mysterious smile. "You'll naturally find out once you go in."

"..."

Following the man-made excavation path, they soon arrived in an enormous chamber. Towering stone walls surrounded them, carved with intricate patterns and mysterious symbols that remained clearly visible despite seemingly having weathered thousands of years.

At the center of the ruins stood a massive stone platform, upon which rose a tawny stone tablet whose age was impossible to determine. Painted in the center of the tablet was a sword-wielding warrior.

Although the ancient art style was highly abstract, everyone still recognized the figure at a glance, and quite a few students cried out in surprise.

"Black Luster Soldier!"

Archaeological myths described him in extremely exaggerated terms, calling him the Strongest Warrior who split open heaven and earth, cleaving chaos apart with his sword—light on one side and darkness on the other, as heaven and earth were created and all things came into being. Of course, because the account was too absurd, it was currently treated only as mythological background.

He was also one of the famous Ace Monsters once held by Yugi Mutou.

"That's right, Black Luster Soldier. This legendary monster has become a key subject of research for many teams ever since 'Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning' appeared. Unfortunately, while 'Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning' shocked the Dueling World when it emerged back then, it also became a research bottleneck.

"Many years have passed without any team making another breakthrough. Some expert teams have even claimed that they believe the Envoy of the Beginning is already the full extent of Black Luster Soldier's potential, with no possibility of further evolution."

That way of thinking seemed understandable. Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning had extremely simple Summoning Conditions, 3000 ATK, and powerful abilities that allowed it to banish one monster on the opponent's field or attack twice consecutively During this turn.

It was so powerful that Konami had even banned it in 2005 in reality. Its strength was indeed quite high in this era's environment.

Of course, as a Future Person, Kira knew that this was far from the limit. Black Luster Soldier still had plenty of undeveloped support cards.

Looking at the stone tablet, his thoughts became somewhat active.

In fact, even without any later new-card support, the Envoy of the Beginning had already been strong enough in its early days. Come to think of it, after the Hand Destruction deck he had used in reality, the World Champions for the next two consecutive years had both been Chaos-themed, with the Envoy of the Beginning as a core card.

Chaos back then already felt like the overwhelmingly dominant decks of later eras, practically a dimensionality-reduction strike against other decks in that environment. Even after Big Envoy was sent to the Forbidden/Limited List, "Chaos Sorcerer," known as Little Envoy, barely took its place the following year—and that year's World Champion deck was Chaos with Last Will, still a Chaos theme.

Kira thought that if he could find a way to get a Big Envoy, perhaps he could consider putting together another Champion Deck.

"Then wouldn't uncovering related ruins this time be helpful for new research?" a student asked curiously.

"I don't really understand the specifics," Uncle Saito said. "But I seem to have heard experts from the research team say that it isn't. That's because the stone tablet found in these ruins corresponds only to the Ritual Monster 'Black Luster Soldier,' which was created many years ago and is already a card we possess.

"It seems no clues were found here that could allow the monster to evolve further..."

The Ritual Monster "Black Luster Soldier" was the Original Form that Yugi had summoned as early as the Duelist Kingdom arc. A 3000-ATK effectless Ritual vanilla, it bore the title of "legendary monster," but it had long since fallen behind the times.

"...Here."

Kira: "?"

He seemed to hear someone speaking beside his ear. But when he turned toward the sound, there was no one there.

The students were all in the opposite direction, excitedly discussing Black Luster Soldier and topics related to the former King of Games, Yugi Mutou. People came and went through the ruins' grand hall, but no one stood in the direction from which the voice had come.

Was he hearing things?

He looked around in confusion, but he could find no other explanation. Just as he turned away—

"Here."

That voice again.

Kira turned back for another look. That direction was still completely empty, with no sign of anyone who could have been speaking to him.

What was going on? Telepathy? Sound Transmission?

Then his gaze locked onto the other stone tablet excavated from the ruins.

Unlike the Black Luster Soldier tablet surrounded by onlookers, this one was completely blank.

Could it be... this blank tablet?

As if possessed, he walked over and slowly raised his arm.

As though drawn by some invisible force.

At the same time, someone among the researchers at the excavation camp suddenly cried out, "Team Leader!"

"What is it?"

The Team Leader, dressed in a white lab coat bearing the Kaiba Corporation logo, hurried over.

"Energy! The Duel Energy readings have suddenly started skyrocketing!"

The Team Leader glanced at the instrument readings and was instantly startled as well. "A spirit reaction? But that intensity... How is that possible?"

His face was filled with disbelief.

Their earlier scans had clearly found no signs of any monster spirits in these ruins. Yet in the span of a single second, the readings had suddenly surged like mad.

And if it really was a spirit materializing, then with such absurd energy levels...

"Wouldn't that make it as strong as the Blue-Eyes White Dragon?" the Research Team Leader said in astonishment.

These days, ruins were being unearthed all over the world every year by the truckload; there was nothing unusual about them anymore. But spirits on the level of the Blue-Eyes White Dragon were still exceedingly rare.

"..."

The instant his fingertips touched the stone tablet, Kira suddenly felt a powerful suction force.

Caught off guard, his feet left the ground. His entire body seemed to merge into a massive vortex, dragged toward another world.