"Uh, contestant Bronya doesn't seem able to accept defeat and has requested a rematch. What does contestant X think?" The host's survival instincts flared under Bronya's icy stare.
"Hm?" Xing groggily pulled himself out of Raven's arms.
"Contestant X has agreed! Then the finals will now be best two out of three! A new game will be used for the next match~"
???
This time, it was a card game. When Xing saw the cards, his eyes lit up. "I never thought I'd get to see you all again here. This is wonderful!" (Time for the author's personal indulgence! Readers who don't play Yu-Gi-Oh can skip the first half of this chapter.)
"This duel will use the New Master Rules—the ones from when Link Monsters first came out! Both players may use this arcade's cards to build their decks. Duelists, rejoice!" The host could barely suppress his fervor as a card game enthusiast.
After pondering for a moment, Xing wrote down a list and handed it to a staff member. "Uh..." The staff member's expression became complicated.
After pondering for a moment, Bronya wrote down a list and handed it to a staff member. The other person trembled all over, seemingly recalling the terror of being dominated by some existence.
Both sides were building their decks...
"Activate the holographic projection system!"
Xing looked at the Duel Disk provided by the arcade, his eyes filled with excitement. He handed his Main Deck to Bronya and accepted hers in return, each shuffling the other's cards.
"You are strong, but Bronya will not lose again." As she returned the deck, Bronya spoke flatly. Though her voice carried no emotional fluctuation, it was clear that she was taking this very seriously. Xing looked at Bronya, who resembled a porcelain doll, with stars in his eyes.
(Bronya... a real, living Bronya... hehe~)
They stepped onto the dueling field, moved apart, inserted their Main Decks into their Duel Disks, and shouted the incantation that declared the start of the duel:
"DUEL!"
"I'll go first!" Bronya glanced at her opening hand. "A perfect hand." The girl's lips curved upward.
Xing looked at the four Normal Monsters and one Trap Card in his hand and began questioning his life. "A 'perfect' hand, huh..."
"Bronya Normal Summons Knight of the End and activates its effect. When this card is successfully summoned, I send one Dark Attribute Monster from my deck to the Graveyard. Any responses?"
"I didn't draw any hand traps. Go ahead..."
The lengthy explanation of the Phantom-Honkai U-Lock was omitted here, lest you accuse me of padding the word count...
"Because the two EX Zones are connected by arrows, Bronya can now use your EX Zone. Appear, the circuit that declares Bronya's victory!" After summoning her final Link Monster, Bronya confidently ended her turn.
"Ohhh! It's the legendary full Extra Link U-Lock! And it uses the Mekk-Knight series with Tri-Gate Wizard suppression! The monsters on contestant Bronya's field cannot be destroyed by battle or card effects, cannot be targeted by effects, and if the monsters on both sides of the field are not linked, their ATK and DEF are reduced by 1000! Special Summoned monsters also cannot activate their effects! And thanks to Tri-Gate Wizard, once per turn, she can negate and banish the activation of a Monster, Spell, or Trap! The Phantom-Honkai Despair Field truly is terrifying! How will you deal with this, Genius Gamer X?!" the host passionately explained.
"My turn." Xing placed his right hand over his deck, closed his eyes, and refused to draw for a long while. Raven, watching nearby, comforted him. "If you really can't do it, just surrender. The other side is too strong. You can always win it back with a new game next round." She glanced at Xing's hand. Though she had only just gained a basic understanding of the game, she knew what Normal Monsters represented. "He actually put vanilla cards in his deck. This little guy doesn't seem very good at this game. He was so excited earlier that I thought he knew it well."
"Under the New Master Rules, monsters Special Summoned from the Extra Deck must be summoned to the EX Zone. All EX Zones have now been sealed by Bronya, and you only have five inexplicable cards left in your hand. Once Bronya's turn comes around again, your 8000 LP, like a candle flickering in the wind, will instantly drop to zero. This duel belongs to Bronya!"
"Is that really so? (Sore wa dou kana?)"
"What? (Nani?)"
Xing suddenly opened his eyes. "I can already feel it—the power sleeping at the top of my deck. My turn, draw!" The boy slowly revealed the card he had just drawn, and the air in the arena abruptly froze.
"Could that be the legendary?!"
"Something very few have ever successfully mastered?!"
"Something that can directly grant a duelist victory?!"
"Wait, then that means... Impossible, did he trigger a miracle?!"
Bronya's heart sank. "That is... Exodia the Forbidden?!"
"All its pieces are already gathered in my hand. You understand what that means, right?" The boy placed all five pieces of Exodia onto his Duel Disk at once. "Sorry, I win. (Feels like I traded away my lifespan for this.)"
A massive pentagram magic circle appeared behind the boy. A golden giant descended amid endless flames, incinerating the five Link Monsters on Bronya's field.
Exodia the Forbidden, effect: When this card and "Right Arm of the Forbidden," "Left Arm of the Forbidden," "Right Leg of the Forbidden," and "Left Leg of the Forbidden" are all gathered in your hand, you win the duel.
"Ohhh! Another unexpected victory! It's Exodia, an existence beyond even the gods! Genius Gamer X wins! Never give up until the very last moment, and always believe in your deck—he has shown us the spirit of a duelist!" The host was overflowing with excitement.
"Lost... Bronya has completely lost." The girl collapsed onto the ground, muttering endlessly to herself. Suddenly, a fluffy sensation pulled her back to reality. "Here." Xing held the oversized HOMU plushie out to her.
"I don't really like plushies, so you can have this one. But I really like comics, so I'll keep the volume for myself." Xing smiled.
"Thank you." Bronya accepted the HOMU plushie. Though no emotion could still be heard in her voice, a faint smile appeared on her face.
--Scene Break--
"You're pretty generous, little guy." In a park on the outskirts of Changkong City, Raven sat on a bench and poked Xing's cheek as he immersed himself in his comic.
"It's only a plushie. It's no big deal." Xing read the comic intently. Crimson Kite Bird was perched on his shoulder, flipping through it with him. Wait, could it actually understand what it was reading?
"All right, stay here and don't move. I need to take care of something." Raven rose and left, reminding him before she went. As for what she was going to do—why else would she come to a park on the outskirts?
Of course, because her target was here!
Raiden Mei looked dazed. Faint currents flickered through her violet eyes. She did not know what was happening to her. She only knew that she needed to get as far away from that girl as possible, because...
"What are you afraid of?" That ghostly voice rang out again. "Destroy everything. Make those people pay the price they deserve. Wouldn't that be good?" Mei clutched her head in agony. The concentration of Honkai Energy around her surged, and visible violet currents raged around her.
Yet the scene lasted only an instant before returning to normal. Other than the charred ground proving that something strange had just happened, there was nothing left. Mei gasped for breath and staggered onward. She did not know where she was going. She only knew that she needed to get as far away from that girl as possible...
"Heh. How much longer can you resist me, 'me'?"
Bronya observed quietly from afar. "The target has displayed signs of Herrscher Transformation. Requesting further instructions." A new order from Cocolia came through the communicator. "...Bronya, understood."
A massive mechanical construct appeared behind **. It was the only gift her sister had left her. Looking at Heavy-Duty Rabbit 19C, Bronya's original hesitation instantly turned into resolve. "Seele, Bronya will definitely find you, even if Bronya truly becomes a demon."
Xing, who had been reading his comic, suddenly shivered. He put down the comic and looked around in alarm, but found nothing unusual. Scratching his head in confusion, he was about to continue reading when his vision turned black and white in an instant. Within that monochrome world, a streak of purple stood out with dazzling brilliance.
"!?" Xing blinked, and his vision returned to normal. "What was that?" He focused on his eyes, recalling the feeling from before. Black-and-white boundaries spread through his vision, and he saw it—the purple mass moving away.
Xing set down Crimson Kite Bird. "I'll be right back. Stay here and don't move." Without caring whether Crimson Kite Bird understood, he took off running. Crimson Kite Bird obediently lay on the comic volume and went to sleep.
--Scene Break--
Kiana was extremely anxious. To cheer up her friend, she had skipped class midway through the day to buy a gift. She had even entered a gaming competition on the way, though unfortunately she had failed to win first place. But that was not important. What mattered was that when she returned to Senba Academy, Mei was gone!
Mei had quite a few enemies at school, and Kiana had always been the one protecting her. If those people had kidnapped Mei while she was away... the white-haired furball automatically imagined a plot where a fallen young lady was kidnapped by her enemies and forced into indescribable acts.
"I have to find Mei right away!" Kiana wiped away her drool, shouldered her baseball bat, and continued searching. "Come to think of it, according to everyone, Mei seemed to vanish suddenly. If it was those people, they wouldn't choose a time with this many people around, when it would be hard to cover their tracks. But if this wasn't Kidnapping, then it must be..."
Mei had disappeared on her own!
At that thought, Kiana suddenly remembered a park she and Mei had visited together before. Although it was on the edge of the city and had few visitors, the scenery was beautiful and worth seeing. Mei had even said that she would go there to calm herself whenever she was in a bad mood.
(Without teammates, Kiana's IQ was even higher than Bronya's~ Once she had teammates, she became that brainless tuna who did not want to think...)
--Scene Break--
Raven loaded bullets containing anesthetic and Honkai Energy Inhibitor into her gun, watching Mei stumble forward blindly from afar. Noticing the occasional currents crackling around the girl, she felt a little troubled. "I knew it wouldn't be that easy, but—" Raven pulled down her hood. At that moment, she had changed into the combat outfit belonging to "Raven." The black-clad assassin flexed the claws on her hands, and the Soul Steel weapons reflected a cold gleam.
"It's only a little troublesome, though. Come to think of it, Jackal never told me that the Herrscher Candidate I bring back has to be alive, did she?"
Just as she was about to make her move, a black figure entered her field of vision. "That little guy? Didn't I tell him to stay put?"
Mei heard the sound of rapid footsteps and raised her head in fright. A mass of white hair entered her sight. "Kiana?" the barely conscious girl asked.
The boy who had followed the purple light rubbed his eyes and smiled with slight excitement. "Hello, nice to meet you. My name is Xing—Xing as in lucky. My full name is Xing Kaslana."
Kiana, who was rushing over in a taxi, suddenly had the strange feeling that someone had broken into her home.
Author's Note--
In the next chapter, Xing's first Bonded Weaponry will make its appearance!
PS: The author will occasionally slip in some personal indulgences.
Oh, right—if there are any card game players out there, try guessing what Trap Card Xing drew during the duel?
Before you continue