Chapter 93: Self-Duel?

"Bright Fusion is a Continuous Magic Card that allows you to send Fusion Materials from your Deck to the Graveyard to perform a Fusion Summon." Seeing Tenjou Hikari play the card, Kagurazaka crossed his arms and explained with familiarity, "However, the monster Fusion Summoned with this card has its ATK reduced to zero."

"You remember quite clearly." Tenjou Hikari raised an eyebrow. "In any case, I will send Gem-Knight Sapphire and Gem-Knight Topaz from my Deck to the Graveyard to perform a Fusion Summon."

"Fusion Summon! Gem-Knight Lapis!"

Gem-Knight Lapis was a blue Gem-Knight wielding a shield-sword; upon hearing Tenjou Hikari's call, he brandished his weapon and descended onto the field.

Gem-Knight Lapis, Level 6, EARTH Attribute, Aqua-Type, DEF 0.

"Lapis? Ohhh! A new Gem-Knight! So cool!" Judai cheered excitedly upon seeing the card.

"A brand-new Gem-Knight; I wonder what kind of power this one possesses?"

Tenjou Hikari glanced at Lapis's card.

Lapis was a card discovered in Professor Dadesi-sensei's Extra Deck after their previous duel, synthesized from Sapphire and another card. Later, with Tierra's help, Tenjou Hikari had crafted a new copy of Sapphire.

Although she was quite displeased about it, she still made it for him.

Tierra had always disliked Bai Jing, and Tenjou Hikari knew this well.

Next, Tenjou Hikari activated a card from his hand: "Next, the Magic Card, Thunder Dragon Fusion. This card can return Fusion Materials for a Thunder-Type Fusion Monster from the field, Graveyard, or banished zone to the Deck to Fusion Summon one Thunder-Type Fusion Monster. I will return Gem-Knight Topaz and Gem-Knight Sapphire from my Graveyard to the Deck, then Fusion Summon! Gem-Knight Prism!"

"Gem-Knight Prism possesses a special effect: by discarding one Gem-Knight card, you can destroy one face-up card on the field." Kagurazaka nodded repeatedly. "As someone who pursues the ultimate fusion, I am naturally very aware of such things."

"Quick-Play Magic, Book of Moon! Before you activate Prism's effect, Captain Bai Jing, get covered up for me!" He waved his hand, produced Book of Moon, shouted at Prism, and flipped it face-down, turning it into a dark, hidden card.

"Hey, Tenjou Hikari, can I kill this kid?" Tierra appeared beside Tenjou Hikari, pointing at Kagurazaka opposite them. "He's a bit disgusting."

The corner of Tenjou Hikari's mouth twitched, but he didn't answer her.

This was how Kagurazaka dueled: by imitating others. It seemed that because he didn't possess enough of his own cards to fully mimic his target, he mixed in cards from other people as well.

He could even replicate the nasty personalities of the Ronghebu Society students; one could only say this person was indeed exceptionally gifted in certain areas.

"Guang's dueling style is a dual tactic of information warfare and psychological warfare," Misawa Daichi spoke from the stands. "In terms of information, he knows almost every fusion-related card, even some obscure, niche ones. Psychologically, Guang can precisely grasp his opponent's mindset."

"But Kagurazaka is someone who can perfectly replicate another person's psychology and dueling habits. He even just used the title 'Captain Bai Jing,' which Guang likes to say. This duel won't be easy to win."

Everyone nodded.

In psychological warfare, the worst fear is letting the opponent completely figure out your thoughts. Now, Kagurazaka was essentially dueling as if he were "Tenjou Hikari" himself; he likely knew exactly what Tenjou Hikari was thinking.

"But that Lapis is a new card, right?" Judai said.

"So, the key point lies with Lapis?"

"Or perhaps Tenjou Hikari will bring out other cards," Wan Wan Zhangmu remarked casually. "He hasn't used that female spirit's cards yet, has he?"

"Now that you mention it, that's true?" Judai looked at Tierra standing beside Tenjou Hikari and nodded lightly.

Tenjou Hikari scanned the field, drew a card from his hand, and placed it in his back row: "I set one card. End turn."

"My turn, draw!" Kagurazaka drew a card, glanced at his hand, and then said, "I know exactly what you're thinking. Do you think I would fear your set card or the monsters on your field? Naive. I activate the Magic Card, Instant Fusion!"

"It's actually Instant Fusion!"

"Did that Kagurazaka even get his hands on Instant Fusion?"

The surrounding students couldn't help but murmur amongst themselves.

He even used the fusion card Tenjou Hikari employed most often; could it be that today Kagurazaka was going to demonstrate that a counterfeit isn't necessarily inferior to the genuine article?

"By the effect of Instant Fusion, I pay 1000 Life Points to Fusion Summon one Fusion Monster of Level 5 or lower from my Extra Deck!"

"The monster I'm summoning, you should all know very well!"

"That's right! Fusion Summon! Relinquished!"

Relinquished, Level 1, DARK Attribute, Spellcaster-Type, ATK 0.

"I see." Several senior students from the Ronghebu Society who were watching the spectacle immediately jumped up in excitement. "Since we don't know Lapis's effect, let's just use Relinquished's effect to absorb him! That way, we can check his effect!"

"Exactly!" Kagurazaka said confidently. "Go, Evil God, devour the Knight!"

Under a burst of purple light, Relinquished's entire body glowed, absorbing the blue knight into his own shadow.

Relinquished ATK: 0 → 1400.

Kagurazaka confidently looked down to check the card, but the next second, his expression changed drastically.

"What's wrong? What's wrong?"

"What kind of effect is it?"

"Kagura looks like he's in trouble?"

Sweat trickled slightly down Kagurazaka's forehead; he wiped it, looked at his hand, cleared his throat, and summoned up his courage to mask his embarrassment: "I tribute Relinquished to Tribute Summon! Ancient Gear Beast!"

"Huh? Why do that? Why tribute the monster he worked so hard to absorb?"

"It must be because of that, right? The negative effect of Instant Fusion: the summoned monster cannot attack and is destroyed during the End Phase. If it remained on the field, Kagura would be completely unable to battle due to Relinquished's effect preventing other monsters from attacking."

"Then... why is Kagura so nervous?"

"Monster effect activates!" Just as they were discussing, Tenjou Hikari shouted back loudly. "Lapis's monster effect!"

"When this card is sent from the field to the Graveyard: Target one card on your opponent's field; return that target to its owner's hand!"

"I target Maze of Nightmare! According to duel rules, since this card cannot return to the hand, it returns directly to the Extra Deck!"

In the Graveyard, the blue Gem-Knight slowly emerged, his eyes flashing with brilliance; he smashed his shield into the chariot, knocking it back into Kagurazaka's Deck.

"Oh no..." Kagura's face stiffened.

"Student Kagura!" Immediately after, Tenjou Hikari raised his fist and shouted at Kagurazaka, "I am honored to be the object of your imitation, but your understanding is still too one-sided!"

"If the goal was simply to trigger a trap, the correct choice would have been to use Instant Fusion for another monster and then Tribute Summon Ancient Gear Beast! Because Ancient Gear Beast possesses a special effect that negates the effects of monsters it destroys in battle!"

Kagurazaka felt somewhat awkward.

His intentions had been exposed directly.

"Eh? Ancient Gear Beast originally had that kind of effect?"

"Strange, if it has such an effect, there was no need to worry at all. In that case... why prioritize fusing Relinquished?"

"Perhaps Kagura wanted to inflict some extra damage."

In the stands, Judai and the others shook their heads.

"Being greedy for a bit of damage is something Guang would absolutely never do."

"Yes, Guang has always created situations capable of a one-hit kill through interaction and strategy to end duels quickly. He pursues a one-turn victory."

To summarize in one sentence: he didn't imitate well enough; he wasn't "fused" enough.

"E-even so, it doesn't matter!" Overwhelmed by Tenjou Hikari's aura, Kagurazaka felt nervous but quickly recovered, shouting hurriedly, "Battle! Attack with Ancient Gear Beast!"

"While this card battles, you cannot activate Magic or Trap Cards!"

Tenjou Hikari shrugged, indicating understanding.

Prism flipped face-up, seeing a giant mechanical hound charging at him; with only 1400 DEF, he didn't even have time to struggle before being crushed directly.

"... End turn."

"Then, I'll activate it this turn as well." Tenjou Hikari pressed his set card. "Trap Card, Fusion Reserve."

"This card allows you to show your opponent one Fusion Monster from your Extra Deck; add one Fusion Material monster whose name is listed on that monster from your Deck to your hand."

"I reveal... Cyber Twin Dragon."

"Cyber...? Ah!" Kagurazaka's expression changed.

"Cyber Dragon?" Seeing this card added to Tenjou Hikari's hand, Judai immediately concluded, "I see. Guang has won."

"What? Big brother, aren't you being too absolute? Even though Cyber Dragon is strong, you can't declare victory just yet, can you?" Sho trusted Cyber Dragon immensely, but he didn't immediately jump to the conclusion of victory.

"Judai is right." Beside him, Wan Wan Zhangmu shook his head. "Just look at Kagurazaka's face; he knows he's already lost too."

Marufuji Sho looked over curiously and saw Kagurazaka's dejected expression, immediately saying in surprise, "Th... that's really true. Strange, why?"

"The reason is simple: Guang knows himself better than Kagurazaka does." Misawa Daichi tapped the railing lightly. "Upon seeing Maze of Nightmare and using Scrap Fusion, Guang was already prepared."

"So you see, everything he used afterward was Gem-Knight; he didn't even consider using the remaining cards."

"Because he was worried that Kagurazaka's Deck might truly resemble his own, or even if only half was the same, he couldn't act rashly."

"Until he was certain that Kagura had not summoned any Cyber Dragon-related Fusion Monsters."

"Then the rest is actually simple."

While many eavesdropping students remained confused, Tenjou Hikari drew his hand.

"Since there is a monster on your field and no monsters on mine, I Special Summon Cyber Dragon. Next, I Normal Summon Ancient Gear Knight."

Tenjou Hikari revealed two monsters.

"Ah!"

Seeing these two monsters appear, Kagurazaka closed his eyes and cursed his bad luck. Clearly, he realized what was about to happen.

"Send Ancient Gear Beast on your field and the two monsters on my field to the Graveyard to Fusion!"

"Come forth, Special Summon! Chimeratech Fortress Dragon!"

Rumble, rumble; countless wheels rose from the ground, absorbing the machines on the field, gradually combining into a massive mechanical dragon with multiple heads.

"Wow! This monster's design is pretty good!" Seeing the solid image, Tierra immediately cheered from the side.

"Chimeratech Fortress Dragon's ATK is 1000 times the number of materials used, which means 3000."

Chimeratech Fortress Dragon, Level 8, DARK Attribute, Machine-Type, ATK 3000.

This was it.

Kagurazaka thought to himself.

"Battle! Chimeratech Fortress Dragon, direct attack!"

"Waaaaah—" Kagurazaka was sent flying backward.

Kagurazaka LP: 3000 → 0

"Feels... worse than dueling my own AI at Kaiba Corp." In the stands, Wan Wan Zhangmu couldn't help but complain upon seeing this scene.

"Well done! Guang, that was a truly interesting duel!" Judai shouted from the stands.

"Eh... I lost again..." Shen Shen Leban knelt half on the ground, dejectedly propping himself up with both hands.

His deck, of course, also contained "Cyber Dragon," and he had even managed to obtain "Chimeratech Fortress Dragon"; although it differed slightly from Tenjou Hikari's Chimeratech Fortress Dragon, he actually remembered the effects of Tenjou Hikari's monsters.

He simply hadn't expected Tenjou Hikari to use "Fusion Preparation" to directly fetch a Cyber Dragon.

Having not experienced the incident involving Yugi Muto's deck, he had spent this entire summer researching the deck of the "top student in the grade," namely Tenjou Hikari; after studying for a while, his recent duel results against others had been quite good—his skills weren't exactly top-tier, but the amazing thing was that whatever deck he got his hands on, no matter how abstract or acrobatic, he could play it almost as well as the original owner, never suffering from a dead hand.

Yet he hadn't expected that, when facing the real deal today, he wouldn't even manage to inflict a single point of damage.

Just as he was feeling dejected, Tenjou Hikari approached him, extending a hand to shake; stunned, he rose and hurriedly reached out his own hand.

As a fellow member of Yellow Academy, and with Tenjou Hikari being the grade representative who had even accomplished the great feat of representing the school in a Duel in Another World, he held Tenjou Hikari in high esteem: "T-Tenjou classmate, hello, hello."

"Haha, Shen Le classmate, that Duel with you was quite interesting." Tenjou Hikari smiled as he shook his hand. "I truly didn't expect to encounter a deck so similar to mine today; I look forward to our next Duel."

Although he had used "Trap Hole of Naraku" and "Book of Moon," Tenjou Hikari knew this was an attempt to mimic effects like those of "Flame Swordsman." In fact, among the three copies of "Flame Swordsman" in Tenjou Hikari's deck, one seemed to have been Fusion Summoned using "Book of Moon."

"R-really!" Shen Le trembled with excitement, unable to form coherent words.

"However, I hope next time you can incorporate some of your own ideas. Dueling you felt a bit strange overall."

Tenjou Hikari cheerfully continued shaking Shen Shen Leban's hand. Now that the Duel was over, Shen Shen Leban had lost that "hostility" characteristic of the Combination Department and seemed much more normal.

On one hand, in the original work, Shen Shen Leban was merely a background character with little presence, and he wasn't really a villain harboring any great malice; in this world, he hadn't joined the Fusion Army either, so Tenjou Hikari naturally wouldn't treat him as some sworn enemy.

On the other hand, Tenjou Hikari was also curious about what kind of card he would receive from Dueling against "his own" deck.

As for Shen Shen Leban, whom he had helped up, he was thinking something entirely different: As expected of the pride of our Ra Yellow Academy!

After this face-to-face exchange, next time I'll definitely be able to imitate him even more comprehensively!

I originally planned to update at nine, but I ended up writing out the entire Duel in one go, which turned into two chapters' worth of content; begging for recommendations and monthly tickets~~

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(End of Chapter)