Chapter 14

After the duel ended, even Professor Chronos, who had always looked at Judai with disapproval, did not utter a single sarcastic word, but instead happily joined in the applause.

A spectacular duel always resonates with duelists—though, of course, a more important reason was that the Chancellor couldn't wait to come up and congratulate Tenjou Hikari, urging him to be sure to win.

"Truly a wonderful duel. I watched both of your duels from start to finish," the Chancellor said with a smile, clapping his hands. "Judai, Hikari, your passionate dueling hearts have even made my own blood boil."

"Judai, although you lost, there is no need to be discouraged. I believe today's performance has already lived up to Ryo's original recommendation of you."

"Ah, I remember that now—" Judai recalled, looking into the distance where he saw Kaiser Ryo, and hurriedly waved, shouting an apology.

The only reason he was able to stand on this "Representative Duel" stage was because of Marufuji Ryo's recommendation.

"Heh..." Kaiser couldn't help but laugh.

"You're actually laughing? Ryo?" Asuka, standing to the side, couldn't help but ask, "Judai clearly lost..."

Originally, the Academy Representative Duel was supposed to be participated in by the number one duelist among the students, Kaiser Ryo. But this time, the North Academy had chosen a freshman. Although Chancellor Samejima wanted to win more than anything, he couldn't bully others, so he let Marufuji Ryo recommend a student.

The one he chose was, naturally, the freshman he had met once and dueled before: Yuki Judai.

Although Judai was not as good as him, in his view, Judai's potential was absolutely extraordinary. But now that he had lost... his own reputation might be affected.

"It doesn't matter," Kaiser Ryo laughed. "A duelist who is not inferior to Judai, and perhaps even more pure, has appeared. We should be excited!"

"Eh..." Watching him get his dueling itch, Asuka felt another wave of emotion.

Why are all the men around me like this?

"Student Tenjou, do you have the confidence to defeat your upcoming opponent?" Chancellor Samejima asked kindly, pulling Tenjou Hikari aside.

If he didn't know the truth, Tenjou Hikari might have truly believed he was purely thinking of the academy.

"Uh, that depends on the specific situation," Tenjou Hikari replied, not being so direct. "I can only say I will do my best. After all, dueling is ever-changing. Until the very last moment, no one can guarantee the result."

"Oh?" Hearing Tenjou Hikari's words, Chancellor Samejima was immediately surprised.

He had thought someone who had just won would be very arrogant—after all, they were young—but he hadn't expected him to be so calm.

Moreover, based on his experience, both Judai and Tenjou Hikari should definitely be able to win.

He looked at the chatting Judai and Hikari, as well as Misawa and the other students who had rushed over, and couldn't help but nod to himself.

Not arrogant in victory... not discouraged in defeat.

It seems the future of the school lies with these students!

In reality, although he had defeated Judai, Tenjou Hikari knew in his heart that Judai at this time was still quite "green."

Don't look at how he was unrivaled among the first years; at this time, he was once crushed by Marufuji Ryo, almost beaten to a pulp. Later, after experiencing the Seven Stars incident, he was beaten up by the Kaibaman spirit, and when facing the Three Phantom Demons, he only barely won by using a rogue-level card like the "Philosopher's Stone."

After experiencing so much, it was only at the end of the term that he finally tied with Marufuji Ryo—so, how strong was Marufuji Ryo after graduation?

Facing the professional duelist Edo Phoenix, who was even younger than Yuki Judai, he was defeated without even forcing out the opponent's true deck, and after that, his beliefs were shattered!

Until he let go of himself later and pursued victory purely, he didn't win a single match!

Any professional duelist could bully him!

Defeating the protagonist certainly excited him, but thinking about the strangeness everywhere in this world, he had to keep his spirits up.

This is not the time to be complacent!

The true crisis of this world has not yet surfaced.

Over the next few days, Tenjou Hikari clearly felt his study life become more comfortable. On one hand, the Yellow Academy's responsible teacher, Kabayama, became increasingly kind to him, and he had the opportunity to get free lunches in the school cafeteria. On the other hand, many students in the Fusion Department began to imitate him.

These were not the students who had simply sparred or asked for advice before, but students in the Fusion Department who were learning from him and trying to build all-fusion decks.

But this was completely unnecessary.

The reason Tenjou Hikari used such a deck was because it was the only kind of deck he could use. Moreover, even for him, to make the deck playable, he had stuffed in quite a few low-level monsters; it was just because of the existence of Super Polymerization that he almost never drew monsters.

If others learned from him like that, wouldn't they just be making things difficult for themselves?

Fortunately, students soon realized that trying to learn from Tenjou Hikari was almost impossible, because even if they stuffed their decks with nothing but fusions, they couldn't fill 40 cards to make a deck—Tenjou Hikari had too many fusions, and they were severely lacking in "Polymerization."

Thus, this trend soon stopped within the Fusion Department, but at the same time, new rumors began to spread.

After all... wanting to use an all-fusion deck is truly very difficult. Since someone in the Fusion Department had tried it, they naturally realized Tenjou Hikari's "hardship," and their admiration for him became even stronger.

He had overcome so many difficulties to be able to use such a deck!

The Academy Representative of Duel Academy, the pride of their Fusion Department!

Now, even the Blue Academy students looked at him with enthusiasm. Except for some upperclassmen who looked at him with strange expressions, everything was going smoothly.

He always felt that those upperclassmen looked at him with the wrong expression.

Very strange.

Tenjou Hikari thought that based on his performance, he was at least qualified to be the representative of the first-year "Fusion Supremacy Fanatic Faction." Why did those upperclassmen, who were closer to the Fusion faction, look at him even more strangely?

And besides this, there was of course a classic segment—

The night before the exchange duel.

"Student Hikari, do you want to take this card!" At the academy dueling field, when the people had basically dispersed, Marufuji Sho scurried over to Tenjou Hikari's side and enthusiastically handed him a card.

Steam Gyroid, a card Marufuji Sho liked, a fusion monster, a 6-star Machine-type with no effect.

"Student Tenjou, my Koaloala is a fusion monster with 4200 attack points, do you want to use it!" The card recommended by Maeda Hayato was his ace monster, a level 9 fusion monster, Master of Oz, a Beast-type fusion monster with 4200 attack points and no effect.

"And also, also this, how about my Water Dragon!?" Misawa Daichi also couldn't help but join in the fun.

"Hey, their cards are one thing, but your Water Dragon isn't even a fusion monster!" Tenjou Hikari couldn't help but roll his eyes. "Ocean, you're making this very difficult for me!"

"Uh, look, chemical reactions can also be considered fusion, right? Don't you like alchemy?" Misawa Daichi said stubbornly. In order to increase his sense of participation, he endured being called by the wrong name.

Actually, to be honest, Tenjou Hikari was quite willing to accept these cards.

Excluding the difficult-to-use Water Dragon, the other two cards had special usage techniques. If nothing else, Koaloala's 4000+ attack points were enough, and his deck had a way to directly mutate it out.

But still, the same point.

He was very afraid that Super Polymerization would fuse someone else's cards.

"Ah, Tenjou, everyone, you're here?" Just at this moment, Judai walked in from outside the dueling field and saw the group at a glance. "What are you doing?"

"Uh, Big Brother, we—"

Marufuji Sho explained briefly.

The duel was tomorrow, and they really wanted to help Tenjou Hikari win. By the way, they also hoped to let their own ace monsters participate. Anyway, Tenjou Hikari was so good at non-material fusion, maybe their monsters would have a chance to appear!

"Oh—is that so... Speaking of which, Hikari, I'll give you this card." As if remembering something, Judai rummaged through his pockets, took out a purple monster, and handed it to Tenjou Hikari.

Tenjou Hikari lowered his head, looked at the card, his pupils shrank slightly, and he took it directly: "This is?"

Evil HERO Infernal Wing!

"Wingman asked me to." Judai smiled and pointed his thumb at his side. "Take my share with you, you must win! Hikari!"

In Tenjou Hikari's mind, the cold face of that black Wingman appeared, and then he nodded.

It looked like it had been split from the dark part of it. Then he could accept this card with peace of mind.

"So cunning, Big Brother!" "Exactly, Judai!"

"Hahaha..." Judai scratched the back of his head, then changed the subject, "Ah, right, on my way here, I already saw the North Academy representative. Do you know, his beard is so long and so thick—and he's actually the same age as us!"

Beard?

This description was completely different from Tenjou Hikari's memory.

"Isn't it Manjoume?"

He remembered it should be the original male lead who went to the North alone!?

"What are you talking about? Hikari, Manjoume went back to Kaiba Corporation for training, didn't he?"

???

Seeking votes~~

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(End of chapter)