Not, Where Are My Cards?

Congratulations, Host, for defeating the duelist "Jinzo (Emissary of the Five-Headed Dragon)." You have earned a total of 400 points from this duel.

Along with the system prompt, a warm current gradually spread through his body, repairing his injuries and making Yu Ming breathe a sigh of relief.

As everyone knew, Shadow Duels were the ultimate method for card players, and winning one meant that all this messy business would temporarily come to an end.

Any imprisoned souls would be freed, and anyone sent to some unknown alternate dimension would be returned after it was over.

Just like what Jaden Yuki experienced in GX, it made absolutely no sense, but after he completely resolved his conflict with Yubel, not only was the dimensional fusion crisis averted, everyone easily returned home. He might not have been particularly virtuous, but the cleanup had been flawless.

"Then I should be able to get back easily too..."

That was what Yu Ming hoped.

But unfortunately, there was a saying: Heaven did not always grant one's wishes.

When he gently waved away the text prompt before him, the scene in front of him remained unchanged. That gloomy place, resembling some cult ritual site, inexplicably gave him a headache.

"So, do you know what's going on?"

In the end, Yu Ming turned his gaze toward the ferocious monster beside him.

"Mist Demon"—perhaps because Yu Ming had yet to put the card away, it remained outside.

"So could it be because the effects haven't fully resolved yet?"

Staring into the eyes of that vicious, grotesque demon, Yu Ming spoke.

"Why don't you try resolving your effect?"

Although something like that definitely would not work under the real card game rules, Joey Wheeler had used the anime effect of "Meteor of Destruction" at the end of a duel to take an attack from Red-Eyes Black Dragon, creating a kind of pseudo-draw.

So...

"Try dealing me your thousand points of damage?"

Yu Ming did not know whether this would work, but he felt he had to try.

Unfortunately, the demon's grotesque oversized head shook like a rattle drum.

Before Yu Ming could continue persuading it, it turned into a cloud of black mist and returned to the deck. Even the card in the monster zone of the Duel Disk vanished.

"Fine, if you don't want to, forget it."

Seeing how resistant the demon was, Yu Ming merely shrugged.

"And if it isn't your problem, then there's only one possibility left."

His gaze slowly shifted forward. Directly beneath the still-undispersed phantom of the evil dragon, the spark-covered Jinzo was writhing like a maggot.

Bracing both hands against the ground, Ogorou Daimon staggered to his feet.

"Don't think I'll fall here..."

"But you've already lost."

"One victory doesn't prove anything..."

"But that isn't what you said before."

"The evil dragon's power is beyond your imagination..."

"And then you, who gained the evil dragon's power, went first, drew your opening hand, and still got OTK'd by me."

"..."

The veins on his massive bald head visibly swelled and throbbed.

Then came a furious roar mixed with resentment:

"AAAAAH!"

Yu Ming had no idea whether Ogorou Daimon, appearing as Jinzo, also possessed skills like Psychic Shockwave, but when that roar echoed out, his ears genuinely hurt.

"I'm just saying, why are all of you so loud? You fly into a rage just because someone stated what happened, like you're terrified people won't realize you're upset..."

"You little bastard!!"

Before Yu Ming could finish, an even stronger wave of sound completely drowned him out.

He even felt as though the wind and sand had gotten into his eyes.

"I'll give everything to make you taste my wrath!!"

Bzzz.

Amid the roar, surging energy began to gather, but it was not an attack.

"I offer myself as a sacrifice!"

As Yu Ming wiped at the corner of his eye, he could even see Ogorou Daimon dissolving within that black radiance.

Black mist surged upward, pouring into and filling the phantom of the Five-Headed Dragon. Then, its third dragon head gradually began to solidify.

It turned, opening crimson eyes as though it were the main body.

Within its roar echoed a voice mixed with the dragon's bellow.

"Now, properly experience the evil dragon's power, you little bastard!"

Watching this, Yu Ming could not help scratching the back of his head.

"So it ended up going this way after all."

No one knew who had set the rule, but things with a source of power behind them always ended up dragging out whatever stood behind them for one reason or another.

Like Dartz and the Great Leviathan, Yusuke Fujiwara and Darkness, Seto Kaiba of the pyramid and Anubis, or Dark Yugi and his Pharaoh's Enforcer. It had practically become a fixed formula.

So...

"Wanna play cards?"

Looking at the roaring evil dragon, Yu Ming asked.

"Of course. Though if you are willing to surrender voluntarily and release the souls you have imprisoned, that would not be impossible either."

"Hmph. Even after witnessing the evil dragon's form, you still have the courage to fight?"

"Why wouldn't I? It'd be far too much of a shame if we didn't actually play a round."

It was Yu Ming's sincere thought. It would be a shame in every sense of the word.

Putting aside the Five-Headed Dragon, the opponent's main cards were from the Jinzo series.

Ignoring archetype issues and all kinds of support cards, in the DM era, a single "Psychic Shockwave" was enough to make Yu Ming drool.

Right now, he felt he was at a stage where he lacked everything. At a time when he was stuffing even all kinds of DARK Fiends into his deck, anything with the DARK attribute could count as reinforcement, let alone a versatile card that required only one tribute and had no summoning restrictions!

At that thought, Yu Ming suddenly grew excited.

No matter what, he could not let it go! Absolutely could not let it go!

"Then come on. Let me see how long you can hold out before the power that destroys this world!"

Beat you to death! Beat you to death! Beat you to death! Beat you to death!

Jinzo is mine, and that anime-version Five-Headed Dragon is mine too!

"Duel..."

"Roar!!"

All of a sudden, the evil dragon howled, easily cutting off even Ogorou Daimon's furious declaration.

"Lord Evil Dragon?"

Before the dragon head representing the DARK attribute could show humanlike confusion, the evil dragon flapped its wings.

"Wait, what are you doing?"

As the violent gale raged, the massive dragon body soared upward.

Bang.

As the five elements began to circulate, the entire world seemed to tremble, and visible cracks appeared.

Then...

Rumble.

Everything crumbled apart!

"No, man..."

Amid the violent rumbling, Yu Ming only saw a white light appear before his eyes, bright enough to nearly blind him.

When he finally adjusted to the radiance, what met his eyes was the conference room he had seen before.

Beneath the crystal chandelier, the figures around the round table were sprawled in disarray. Only the boy seated at the center put down what seemed to be a book he had been reading.

"You're awake already?"

"...No, where are my cards?"