How should he put it?
There was nothing he could say.
Yu Ming felt as though he had completely lost the ability to speak. He had no idea how to describe the situation before him.
But he knew very well what emotion lingered deep within his heart.
Anger?
Impossible.
Getting hand-trapped—who hadn't experienced that?
Before being transported here, Yu Ming had lost track of how many times he had been hand-trapped. Something like that wasn't enough to stir his emotions.
What truly caught his attention was that gloomy-looking little girl!
"Shiranui Solitaire."
As Yu Ming spoke that wonderful name, he felt every pore on his body widen.
Even within this scorching Palace of Myriad Demons, he felt an indescribable sense of refreshment.
After all, that single term represented her... or rather, the identity of those "companions" like her.
It was a powerful term, something that made card players' legs go weak at the sight of it, leaving them unable to move as they willingly sank into despair!
"Hand traps!"
Yes, that was it.
With them, he could stop his opponent's plays at the very first moment.
With them, he wouldn't need to panic even when going second.
With them, the entirety of Yu-Gi-Oh! would enter the age of the Hand Trap King!
"Save..."
Just as Yu Ming couldn't help but let his imagination run wild, that suddenly echoing voice yanked him from his thoughts.
"Save me..."
When he came back to himself, he saw the little girl in the Western-style dress reaching toward him.
But before she could cry out anything else, her already unstable figure suddenly twisted, and countless bony arms surged up from the abyss beneath the ground.
Then they dragged the girl into the grave.
At the boundary between life and death, the last thing Yu Ming saw was that complicated look in her eyes.
Fear, unease, and yet a trace of hope.
"Please, save me."
"Oh, damn, it even comes with a spirit."
There was a reason for that sentiment. After all, everyone knew that spirits meant bonds, and bonds meant you could use them as bait to pull cards!
So...
"You really brought out something good."
Staring at the seemingly immovable archdemon, Yu Ming narrowed his eyes.
"Say, Hades, you don't happen to have Ash Blossom or Called by the Grave in your deck too, do you?"
But Hades gave no other response.
It was as though he hadn't heard any of Yu Ming's questions or trash talk at all. He merely waved his arms about like some shaman performing a ritual.
Seeing that he seemed ready to make another move, Yu Ming couldn't help speaking again.
"Let me make this clear first: monsters Special Summoned by Demon Cavalry's effect can't attack that turn. Don't think you can fool me with some random chant."
Still, Hades seemed to have enough shame to not try that.
"I summon Hell Soldier Demon in battle position to replenish my forces, then set my final spell in the back row."
With that, he ended his battle phase.
Then...
"Turn end."
"Hell Soldier Demon (lv2)" "Attribute/Earth" "Type/Demon" "ATK/1200 DEF/200"
After glancing at the utterly ordinary-looking demon monster, Yu Ming couldn't help letting out a sigh of relief.
"It's finally over."
Honestly, those strange chants were truly hard for him to put into words.
The timing in the anime had always depended entirely on on-the-spot reactions. If you didn't activate a card yourself or shout it out in the moment, it was assumed not to exist—yet his opponent didn't even speak like a normal person.
As a result, what should have been a card game with fixed rules not only tested a duelist's knowledge of cards, but even tested the duelist's eyesight.
Honestly, Yu Ming felt that the only reason he could keep playing this kind of game was his chuunibyou nostalgia.
Oh, right. And the rewards...
Yu Ming couldn't help glancing beneath Hades's feet. Below the altar of the Palace of Myriad Demons churned an abyss—the location of Hades's graveyard.
And now, his hand trap was sleeping there!
"Shiranui Solitaire..."
From the moment he first saw her, he had decided that he had to obtain her.
To do that, he had to win!
"My turn, draw."
Still, although he had made up his mind, Yu Ming couldn't help sighing when he saw his hand.
All he could say was that imagination was beautiful, but reality was painfully thin.
A hand full of monsters left him with practically no possible plays. The only card he could place his hopes on was the one he had just drawn.
It was a green card, depicting a pot with a broad smile.
That pot's smile was incredibly infectious. The moment Yu Ming saw it, he couldn't help smiling, even though he had just taken a hit.
After all, it was a "Pot."
"Spell Card—Pot of Greed."
A card that had elevated the word "Pot" to godhood in the history of Duel Monsters... of Yu-Gi-Oh!
"By its effect, I can draw two cards from my deck directly, with no conditions and no cost."
That kind of unconditional one-for-two could only be used so freely in this early era, where there were no one-card combos or repeated extension plays.
Yet even in the DM environment, which lacked explosive combo potential, it could still demonstrate tremendous power.
After all, the fundamental law of this game never changed.
More cards in hand, more resources, more chances to turn the tables!
"Here we go."
After glancing at the cards he had drawn, Yu Ming took a deep breath.
"I'm coming for you, Hades... I'd like to say that, but you don't seem to be reacting at all."
Facing the archdemon's utterly unchanged deadpan expression, Yu Ming inserted the card in his hand into his Duel Disk.
"Spell Card—Tribute to The Doomed."
Then a massive statue of flesh and blood appeared behind it.
At the same time, Mr. Pluto, who had worn a dead expression until now, finally reacted.
"The effect of that spell is..."
"Choose one Special Summoned monster on the field and send it to the graveyard, then Special Summon one Level 4 or lower Normal Monster from your hand."
Before Hades could explain anything in his cryptic manner, Yu Ming promptly gave the proper explanation.
At the same time, the demon's single eye burst with scarlet light, engulfing the frenzied bull-headed demon within it.
"I choose to send Berserk Demon to the graveyard, then Special Summon this guy from my hand in Defense Position."
Amid furious wails and roars, the demon gradually vanished and melted away. Its remaining wreckage crossed the boundary of the duel field and reassembled on Yu Ming's side.
At last, what reflected in Hades's murky eyes was a figure completely unlike Berserk Demon.
Weak, fragile, without a single scrap of flesh anywhere on its body.
Most people should be familiar with this card, because it had the plainest name imaginable:
"White Bone!"
"You damned bastard, are you looking down on me?!"
Before you continue