Chapter 25: Gifted Card

After the duel ended, even Professor Chronos, who had always found fault with Judai, offered no sarcasm; instead, he happily joined in the applause.

A splendid duel always resonates with duelists—of course, there was an even more important reason: the principal could not wait to come up and congratulate Tenjou Hikari, urging him to do his best to win.

"A truly fine duel; I watched every moment of both your duels," the principal said, smiling and clapping. "Judai, Hikari-kun, the fervor of your dueling hearts has even made me feel somewhat ignited."

"Judai, although you lost, do not be discouraged. I believe today's performance has already honored Ryo-kun's initial recommendation of you."

"Ah, so that's how it was—" Judai suddenly remembered, looked into the distance, spotted Kaiser Ryo, and immediately waved, shouting an apology.

The reason he was able to step onto this "Representative Match" duel stage was precisely because of Marufuji Ryo's recommendation.

"Heh..." Kaiser could not help but laugh.

"You're actually laughing? Ryo?" Asuka beside him could not help but ask. "Judai clearly lost..."

Originally, the academy representative match would definitely have been participated in by the school's top duelist, Kaiser Ryo, but this time the North Branch selected a freshman. Although Principal Samejima desperately wanted to win, he could not simply bully the opposition, so he asked Marufuji Ryo to recommend a student.

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

Although Judai was not as strong as him, in his view, Judai's potential was absolutely extraordinary. Yet now that he had lost... perhaps even his own reputation would be affected.

"It does not matter." Kaiser Ryo smiled. "The appearance of a duelist no worse than Judai, even one more pure, should be cause for excitement!"

"Eh..." Seeing this look of card-game addiction rising in him, Asuka sighed with emotion once again.

Why were all the men around her like this?

"Tenjou-kun, do you have the confidence to defeat your upcoming opponent?" Principal Samejima asked kindly, pulling Tenjou Hikari close with a benevolent expression.

If he did not know the true circumstances, Tenjou Hikari might truly have believed the principal was simply concerned for 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, duels are ever-changing. Until the very last moment, no one can guarantee the outcome."

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

He had expected someone who had just achieved victory to be extremely arrogant, after all, they were young; he had not expected such calmness.

Moreover, based on his experience, whether it was Judai or Tenjou Hikari, they should definitely be able to win.

Looking at Judai and Hikari chatting and laughing, along with Daichi and other students who had rushed over, he could not help but nod in his heart.

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

It seemed the future of the school rested on these students!

In reality, although he had defeated Judai, Tenjou Hikari knew clearly that at this point in time, Judai was still very "green."

Do not let the fact that he was invincible among the first-years fool you; at this stage, he had once been utterly crushed by Marufuji Ryo, almost beaten to a pulp. Later, after experiencing the Seven Stars incident, he was thoroughly beaten by Kaiba Corp's spirits, and when facing the Three Phantasm Gods, he only barely won by using a scoundrel-level card like the "Philosopher's Stone."

After going through all that, he finally managed a draw against Marufuji Ryo by the end of the term—so, how much stronger would Marufuji Ryo be after graduation?

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

Until later, when he let himself go and purely pursued victory, he had not won a single match!

Any professional duelist could bully him!

Defeating the protagonist certainly excited him, but thinking about the strangeness permeating this world, he had to steel his resolve.

This was no time for arrogance!

The true crisis of this world had not yet surfaced.

Over the next few days, Tenjou Hikari clearly felt his study life become much more pleasant. On one hand, Huashan, the responsible teacher of the Yellow Dorm, treated him with increasing warmth, granting him the opportunity to sneak free lunches in the school cafeteria; on the other hand, many students in the Fusion Club began imitating him.

These were not students simply sparring with him or seeking advice as before, but Fusion Club members trying to emulate him by attempting to build full-deck fusion decks.

However, this was entirely unnecessary.

The reason Tenjou Hikari used such a deck was that it was the only kind he could use; furthermore, even he had to include many low-level monsters to make the deck functional. It was only because of Super Polymerization that he almost never drew monsters.

For others to imitate him like this, were they not just inviting misery upon themselves?

Fortunately, students soon realized that imitating Tenjou Hikari was nearly impossible, because even if they filled their decks entirely with fusion cards, they still could not reach the forty cards needed to form a deck—Tenjou Hikari simply had too many fusion cards, while they severely lacked "Fusion."

Thus, this trend quickly stopped within the Fusion Club, but at the same time, new rumors began to spread within the club.

After all... using a full-fusion deck was truly extremely difficult. Since someone in the Fusion Club had attempted it, they naturally realized Tenjou Hikari's "hardship," and their admiration for him grew 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 Club!

At this moment, even students from the Blue Dorm looked at him with enthusiasm; apart from some senior students giving him strange looks, everything went smoothly.

He always felt those senior students were looking at him oddly.

Very strange.

Tenjou Hikari believed that based on his performance, he should at least qualify as the first-year representative of the "Fusion Supremacy Fanatics," so why did those senior students, who were closer to the Fusion faction, look at him even more strangely?

And beyond all this, there was of course a classic segment—

The night before the exchange duel.

"Hikari-kun, why not take this card!" At the academy duel field, when most people had already scattered, Marufuji Sho approached Tenjou Hikari and enthusiastically handed him a card.

Steam Gyroid, Marufuji Sho's favorite card, a Fusion Monster, a Level 6 Machine-Type with no effect.

"Tenjou-kun, my Koala King is a Fusion Monster with 4200 attack points; do you want to use it?" The card Maeda Hayato recommended was his ace monster, Oz the Great Monarch, a Level 9 Beast-Type Fusion Monster with 4200 attack points and no effect.

"And also, and also, how about my Water Dragon!?" Daichi Mizusawa could not help but join in the fun as well.

"Hey, ignoring their cards is one thing, but your Water Dragon isn't even a Fusion Monster!" Tenjou Hikari could not help but roll his eyes. "Ocean, you're making this difficult for me!"

"Uh, look, chemical reactions can count as fusion too, right? Don't you like Alchemy very much?" Daichi Mizusawa insisted stubbornly; to increase his sense of involvement, he even endured being called by the wrong name.

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

Excluding the hard-to-use Water Dragon, the other two cards had special usage techniques; Not to mention anything else, Koala King's over-four-thousand attack points were sufficient, and moreover, his deck had a method to suddenly mutate it out directly.

But still, as he always said.

He was very afraid that Super Polymerization would fuse away other people's cards.

"Ah, Tenjou, everyone, so you're all here?" Just then, Judai walked in from outside the duel field, spotted the group immediately, and asked, "What are you all doing?"

"Uh, Big Brother, we—"

Marufuji Sho briefly explained.

Since the duel was tomorrow, they really wanted to help Tenjou Hikari achieve victory, and additionally hoped their ace monsters could participate; anyway, since Tenjou Hikari was so skilled at fusion without materials, perhaps their monsters would have a chance to appear!

"Oh—is that so... Speaking of which. Hikari, I'm giving you this card." As if suddenly remembering something, Judai dug into his pocket, took out a purple monster card, and handed it to Tenjou Hikari.

Tenjou Hikari lowered his head, looked at the card, his pupils contracting slightly, and accepted it directly: "What is this?"

Evil HERO Infernal Wing!

"Elemental HERO Avian asked me to give it." Judai smiled, pointing his thumb at the space beside him. "Take my share as well, and you must win, Hikari!"

An image of that black-winged Avian's cold face floated up in Tenjou Hikari's mind, and he nodded.

It seemed to be split off from its dark aspect. With that, he could accept this card with peace of mind.

"So unfair, 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. Did you know? His beard is so long, so thick—and yet he's the same age as us!"

Hu Zi?

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

"Isn't it Manjoume?"

He remembered the original male second lead should have gone to the North alone!?

"What are you talking about, Hikari? Manjoume went back to Kaiba Corp to train!"

???

Seeking votes~~

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(End of Chapter)