Chapter 443: Quarterfinals

On the second day, Gloria withdrew from the revival tournament duel.

Asuka Tenjouin, who was supposed to duel her, won by default and advanced to the next round.

At first glance, this was a very lucky turn of events, and it fit Asuka's consistent good fortune.

But to Chifubuki, who was playing wheelchair racing in the hospital ward, this was the worst possible outcome.

As for those still on the field, as long as they weren't outrageous professional duelists like Edo, there were basically no non-student participants left. The duelists currently competing were, at most, only a few years older than Asuka. And these duelists, whether you called it conviction or persistence, always had their own unique strengths. Dueling such excellent duelists meant every extra match was experience and gain; as a result, one match had been lost for nothing.

And more dangerously, Chifubuki looked at the bracket and felt that it was basically impossible for Asuka to win.

Because her next opponent was Jim.

Asuka's consistent tactic was to utilize the Cyber Angel self-revival from the Graveyard in coordination with effects that controlled the opponent's monsters, but as it happened, Jim's dueling style was aimed precisely at the opponent's Graveyard.

Whether it was Fossil Fusion or that Tyrant Neptune from his duel with Hikari Tenjou earlier, this was his line of thought.

This was extremely disadvantageous for Asuka, who had relied purely on powerful cards to get this far—and sure enough, after just two turns, she showed signs of decline, and after one more turn, it completely entered garbage time.

Chifubuki sighed.

He had no way to help; was he supposed to give his cute little sister a harsh lesson?

As her older brother, he had been missing for over a year, causing his sister to live in fear for so long; how could he be that harsh to her—it wasn't like that brain-cramped Ryo Marufuji next door whom he wanted to beat up. The methods used on his best friend certainly couldn't be used on his sister.

If Asuka lost even a little bit of Life Points while wearing a Darkness mask, he felt he would have to surrender.

He couldn't bear to do it.

"Eh—what a pain." He stopped watching the revival tournament duel.

Anyway, the revival tournament players would eventually have to face Hikari, so he could wait until then to watch. Even if there were some brilliant duels this time, he could find the videos to watch later.

Perhaps it wouldn't be as interesting as a live broadcast, but at least he could learn a few things.

He flipped through his phone, looking at White Dragon X to see if there was anything interesting. Suddenly, his eyes paused as he saw a strange piece of news.

At a certain amusement park in Domino City, there was an uncle dressed like a magician performing peculiar duels.

A peculiar duel?

He opened the link and watched the duel. On screen was a handsome middle-aged man wearing a top hat and a magician's uniform, using a duel disk he had never seen before, greeting the surrounding audience.

The content of the duel didn't actually have many changes or surprises; it was just summoning high-level monsters and crashing them into the opponent. But during the duel, the solid-vision images controlled by this entertainment duelist seemed to become physical, gathering together with the children around. When the children went to touch them, they could actually touch the solid-vision images.

He sat up straight almost instinctively.

A Dark Duelist?!

No—

It didn't look like it.

He continued to watch and found that this duelist wasn't doing anything evil. Besides the solid-vision images mingling with the children, he would also perform circus acts during the duel, such as swinging on swings, jumping through fire hoops, horse racing, and so on.

During this, there was fireworks and music, drawing gasps and laughter from the children.

"Combining dueling directly with a circus?" Chifubuki's eyes lit up.

A genius—

Children going to an amusement park originally just wanted to see the circus, but they were often stopped by their parents from touching things randomly. After all, if they provoked something, paying for damages was secondary, but getting injured would be dangerous.

And now, a duelist with a relatively high "status" in society was not only doing all the circus work in front of the audience and children, but could even conjure solid-vision images, allowing the children to participate and even touch those strange little animals...

This kind of fun was very pure and simple.

Children wouldn't care about so much; seeing such a beautiful performance with their own eyes, they would instinctively feel excited.

This was like people who liked playing games seeing a full-dive virtual reality game; it was very normal. If he took any brilliant or magnificent photos, he would also be unable to help but feel an instinctive joy.

"Oh—this is actually a good direction." Chifubuki's eyes lit up, and countless clouds seemed to rise above his head.

Asuka in a clown suit, Asuka in an idol outfit, Asuka in a sailor suit, Asuka in a Dark Magician Girl uniform—each one was very cute, and each one had an astonishing weight...

"Wow—interesting!"

His eyes flashed with light.

He had to learn this!

Entertainment dueling, isn't it just too interesting!

After a few days of the revival tournament, the people who could win were basically decided.

Without the slightest surprise, it was still Jim.

This was also normal. Any audience member who had been watching the revival tournament could clearly feel that there was a distinct gap between the revival tournament players and the quarterfinalists. And without Chifubuki, Jim was clearly the most likely answer.

If Chifubuki Tenjouin were there, everyone might have looked forward to a duel between Chifubuki and Jim, but now, everyone actually had expectations for the answer.

Thus, the "Quarterfinals" officially began.

The quarterfinals were divided into two groups, "A" and "B".

Group A: Jun Manjoume, Daichi Misawa, Johan Andersen, and the Gravekeeper duelist.

Group B: Ryo Marufuji, the professional duelist Viper, Hikari Tenjou, and Jim.

The two groups rotated, one match from A, one from B, to give every duelist as much opportunity as possible to observe other opponents.

It is worth mentioning that, perhaps for verification, or perhaps to restart the opening.

It might also be to prove the gold content of this current "Quarterfinals," the first duel was unfolded by Hikari Tenjou and Jim—that is, the last group dueling first.

Hikari Tenjou didn't have an easy time in this duel, but it could be considered that no major accidents occurred. Jim's use of Tyrant Neptune last time indeed exceeded Hikari Tenjou's expectations, but without a convenient and quick "Sacrifice" like "Independent Nightingale," the monsters in Jim's deck were still rarely suitable for Tyrant Neptune to devour.

And Hikari Tenjou didn't use the Ancient Gear Golem this time, because he had been dueling for the past few days and Jim, who didn't have much time to change new cards, tried his best and lost to Hikari Tenjou—

Following the trend, Hikari Tenjou also obtained the brand-new Fossil Fusion monster, "Mesozoic Fossil Knight Skull Knight."

In this way, Hikari Tenjou had collected both of the Fossil series' Graveyard-effect Fossil monsters.

"Ah, didn't expect to lose again." Jim laughed and rubbed the back of his head, not discouraged at all.

Next semester, these top students would still have to go to the main school to study, and there would be plenty of opportunities then.

Moreover, to be honest, having already lost once, even after climbing back up from the revival tournament, Jim didn't feel that he could definitely beat Hikari Tenjou in a short time.

This wasn't a lack of ambition, but a lack of options.

Time was just that limited.

For the quarterfinals, Kaiba Corporation didn't separate any rest lounges; the quarterfinalists could watch the matches at the closest and best distance until the finals. Therefore, after Jim lost, he gathered with Hikari Tenjou and looked together at the next duel—

Manjoume vs. Daichi Misawa!

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 444 =====