Preliminary Round

The vast competition grounds housed a Duel Arena Venue built around towering ancient ruins. Though the tournament had yet to begin, the stands were already packed to the brim.

Kira arrived outside the venue with his senior disciple from the dojo, Koji Sato. The moment he got out of the car and looked up, he saw the Dark Magician statue standing at the main entrance.

Although Dark Magician's appearance rate in official tournaments had plummeted after Yugi Mutou retired, it still served as the face of many competition venues as the former Duel King's Ace Monster.

"Then I'll be going to make my pre-match preparations. The preliminaries should be starting soon."

Koji Sato said to him.

"You should get ready too, junior brother."

"Alright. I look forward to meeting you again in the arena, Senior Brother," Kira said politely.

But upon hearing that, his senior brother's expression turned strange. He looked as though he wanted to say something, stopped himself, then wanted to speak again.

I don't want to meet you again at all.

But in the end, he still could not bring himself to say it.

After parting with his senior brother, Kira collected his contestant ID and number tag from the young woman handling registration at the front desk. He looked at the number and found that it was 39.

A pretty lucky number for a card player. Kira put away the tag and nodded in satisfaction.

It looked like his luck was good today. He should be able to get off to a winning start.

"This year's Moonflower Cup feels really high-level."

The moment he entered the venue lobby, he heard spectators chatting.

"I think I just saw Kajiki Makoto from the Psychic Style Dojo. Looks like he's competing this year too."

"Kajiki? That rising dueling prodigy from Psychic Style? Damn, now this is going to be interesting."

Then someone else said, "I don't care much about Psychic Style dueling. I just hope my buddy who plays Spellcaster Type can make it through."

"You want to watch your buddy advance? Pfft, don't make me expose you. You just want to see him summon Magical Valkyrie, don't you?"

Magical Valkyrie wore a revealing mage outfit similar to the Dark Magician Girl from Yugi's legendary deck. She had a sweet face and slender little arms, yet somehow bore a weight in certain areas that her petite frame really should not have had to bear. She was one of the girl cards most beloved by gentleman duelists.

The person who had been exposed immediately blushed. "But she's really huge!"

His companions stopped arguing at once and all nodded solemnly.

"To be fair, she really is."

"Hard to argue with that."

"..."

Kira passed through the venue. Before he had gone far, he heard a young girl cry out in surprise.

"Oh my god, really? Are you sure you didn't see wrong?"

"Absolutely!" the girl beside her said with complete certainty. "There's no way I'm wrong. That was Dinosaur Ryuzaki! A Legendary Duelist!"

Kira's footsteps paused slightly.

Dinosaur Ryuzaki? The one from Yu-Gi-Oh! DM?

When he first appeared, he had been portrayed as a skilled duelist. He had once been runner-up in the national Duel Monsters tournament, back when Yugi, Kaiba, and the many powerhouses from the later parts of DM had not participated.

"Seriously? But isn't the Moonflower Cup an amateur lower-tier tournament? Why would a Legendary Duelist like him—"

"I heard Ryuzaki went into seclusion to train and hasn't appeared publicly for years. Now that he's finished training, this is his Revival Match."

"Damn, the competitors in this year's Moonflower Cup are really unlucky. They ran straight into the Great Demon King."

"Yeah. Doesn't that mean the championship is basically decided already?"

"..."

Kira tried to recall what he knew. He did not remember much about Ryuzaki, but he did remember the guy who had always been inseparable from him in the anime: his good friend, Weevil Underwood. Both had despicable personalities and would do anything to win, though Ryuzaki was a little better than Haga. After all, Haga had once thrown Yugi's entire Exodia deck into the sea.

Yet in a sense, that act had also made him the savior of every boss in the latter half of DM.

Just imagine it. If the five pieces of Exodia had not been tossed away by that bastard, then with Pharaoh's absurd late-game topdecking ability—where he could close his eyes and draw whatever he wanted—the Three Phantom Gods, the Legendary Dragons, Orichalcos, all of it would have had to stand aside.

Marik, Dartz, and Dark Bakura could each kowtow to Haga three times, and it still would not be too much.

Still, after the two of them lost to Pharaoh and Joey Wheeler respectively, they seemed to have transitioned from competitive duelists into comedy entertainers. Their dueling styles had only grown more absurd over time.

Come to think of it, Joey's Soul Card, Red-Eyes Black Dragon, had even been won from Ryuzaki. Since then, Ryuzaki had truly never won another match.

DM never explained what became of him, and he did not appear again in the GX Anime either. But now that Kira thought about it, the GX timeline was only set eight years after the end of DM, so running into him now was not all that strange.

That said, although Pharaoh had already returned to the underworld, characters from the DM era like Yugi Mutou and Joey Wheeler should still have been around in this time period. It was just unknown where they had gone or what they were doing.

As a veteran from the DM era, Ryuzaki had somehow become a "Legendary Duelist" just by carrying the title of "someone who had faced Katsuya Jonouchi."

These days, even nobodies who had once been instantly defeated by Yugi dared to call themselves legends. Some of them had genuinely ridden that gimmick to success.

Some might have had real skill, but others were merely fishing in troubled waters. Their supposed "fought the Duel King" credentials were probably worth no more than Kakuzu constantly telling everyone that he had fought the First Hokage back in the day.

Neither Haga nor Ryuzaki had appeared in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, so it was hard to say how strong they were now. Still, Kira made a mental note that if he encountered Ryuzaki later in the tournament, he would show him at least some basic respect and make a few Targeting adjustments to his deck.

Kira bought a milk tea, found a seat, and casually looked through the list of registered contestants.

The contestants' Duelist Levels were generally higher than those at the Duel Arena. If he finished this tournament, he should be able to reach four stars without trouble, so he would not need to worry about Duel Academy's application requirements.

A quick scan of the list showed that, apart from Dinosaur Ryuzaki, most were unfamiliar faces. There did not seem to be anyone else he recognized—

Hmm?

Kira's gaze settled on a vaguely familiar name.

Jun Manjome?

That eternal second-place finisher from Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, the man who completed a reverse climb from elite student to comedy act within a single year?

He checked Manjoume's personal information as well.

An elite student at the Duel Academy-affiliated Middle School Division, expected to advance directly into the High School Division of Duel Academy when the school year began.

Hmm. Going by their enrollment ages, the Protagonist Group of Yu-Gi-Oh! GX should be the same age as him.

Not a problem.

He then checked the information for his first preliminary-round opponent.

Nakamura Tsubasa, Duelist Level Four.

Did not look like much pressure.

In fact, when Nakamura Tsubasa stepped onto the preliminary Duel Arena and stood opposite Kira, he thought the same thing.

Fujiki Kira, Level One, no tournament experience, no honors or awards, a completely blank record.

Nakamura read the brief personal details over and over. Between the lines, he saw only two words.

Free win.

Sometimes, you got matched against opponents like this in tournaments. People in the business called them charity duelists. They were terrible, but they loved playing anyway. Their whole purpose was giving away points.

This match was in the bag.

But Nakamura did not know that when Kira stood across from him and drew his opening five cards, he silently apologized to his opponent.

Sorry, man, but I drew the nuts.

Looks like only one of us gets to play Yu-Gi-Oh! this game.

Kira went first. He began with the Spell Card "Confiscation," paying 1000 Life Points to look at his opponent's hand and discard a card. Then came "The Forceful Sentry," which let him view the hand and choose one card to return to the deck. Then he played "Mischievous Twins," paying another 1000 Life Points for the third strike: one card was randomly discarded from the opponent's hand, and the opponent had to discard another card themselves, wiping out two more cards in total.

The legendary three sacred artifacts of Hand Destruction, unleashed in one shameless three-hit combo.

It was not even the other side's turn yet. Nakamura was still stunned, but only one card remained in his hand.

And because Kira had seen his opponent's hand, he clearly knew what that last card was: the Spell Card "Double Spell." By discarding one card from hand, it allowed its user to use a Spell Card from the opponent's Graveyard.

Not much use now.

After smoothly completing the shameless three-hit combo, Kira did not even summon a monster. He set one card, then ended this turn. Very cool.

Finally, he made an elegant gesture of invitation.

I'm done. Go ahead.

Nakamura Tsubasa felt absolutely awful.

Before his turn had even begun, he only had one card left in hand. How the hell was he supposed to play?

But in keeping with his principles as a duelist, he did not give up. Nakamura steadied himself and drew from his deck.

Then his opponent flamboyantly flipped open a Trap Card: "Drop Off."

The card he had just drawn, still not even warm in his hand, was immediately sent straight to hell.

Nakamura was a mess.

Was this guy seriously determined not to let anyone play cards?

There was nothing he could do. He was holding only "Double Spell," with no card available to discard as its activation cost. He could only end his turn in frustration.

It felt as though his turn had ended before it had even begun. Maybe it was just an illusion.

Then it was Kira's turn again. Kira activated the Spell Card Reinforcement of the Army, which let him search his deck for a Warrior Type monster. He took "Head Zaluug," Normal Summoned Zallug, and attacked directly.

Then Zallug's effect activated. When it dealt Battle Damage to the opponent, it could make them discard one card from their hand.

Nakamura Tsubasa: "..."

Now he had no cards at all.

No, seriously—

What kind of sins had he committed in a past life to get matched against this kind of shut-in deck?