Is this the world of card dealers? Yada thieves!

Upon hearing Manjoume mention the keyword "beloved," Asuka recalled Jaden's frequent use of the word "beloved" during duels, the actual presence of the "beloved" field in his deck, and, combined with Yubel's repeated mentions of the past during duels, she realized something: "Could it be—"

"【Yubel】, a Duel Monster card that I couldn't find anything about even after asking the International Illusion Society to investigate through the Manjoume Foundation's channels. It seems that it was not created by the International Illusion Society at all. The card's artwork is a monster that is half male, half female, half human, and half dragon. It was Jaden's ace card at the time."

“In the past, that card had already demonstrated its special power, causing those who attacked Jaden in a duel to be injured or even unconscious.” Although most people would only be unconscious after defeating Jaden, considering that he and Hayato had also played cards with Jaden, Manjoume carefully added the result of “being injured.” “This is also the main reason why Jaden later switched to the [E·hero] deck.”

Chapter 1821 The One Who Has Not Returned: One Person

"At that time, it just so happened to coincide with the rocket launch of the Kaiba Group. In order to recoup the money spent by Mr. Seto Kaiba's extravagant spending habits, the vice president of the Kaiba Group, Keihei Kaiba, came up with a special event to 'send things into space' to raise funds."

"Back then, Hayato used his connections to get a spot for Jaden and sent his new hero card, along with the [Yubel] card, into space. Jaden's idea at the time was that he hoped this would purify the malevolent energy in the [Yubel] card."

The familiar plot reminded Sho of what happened last semester: "Big Brother's [N] and [E·hero Neos]?! They were actually sent to space with those dangerous cards?"

"Judging from the result, this is just getting worse," Jim complained. "Originally, it was just to put the duelist into a coma, and although it wasn't exactly safe, after returning from space, it turned into a dangerous guy who wouldn't even spare his former master, Jaden. It's really scary."

"But Jaden clearly remembers what happened with E.Hero Neos, so why does he always claim he doesn't remember Yubel?"

Asuka raised another question, but Manjoume just shook his head: "I'm not very clear about that. Judai moved away from Domino City because of his father's job change, and I only reunited with him at the academy two years ago. I'm not very clear about what happened during that time."

"At this point... should we ask Senior Misawa Tenku?" Kenzan asked, pulling out his terminal. Having been enrolled for over a year, he had learned more or less about an important aspect of Misawa's low profile—that he was truly skilled at gathering intelligence. "Maybe he can find out what Big Brother went through in the past."

"There's no need for that." A voice broke through the group, causing everyone to instinctively look in the direction from which the voice came.

Hayato, with one hand in his pocket and the other holding his personal terminal, was operating it, seemingly retrieving files. He kept flipping through pages, searching for what he wanted, like someone suddenly remembering an emoji that could be used in a chat. As he spoke, he said, "Judai did have a special experience—have you ever heard of a memory eraser?"

"The principle of the operation involves isolating and editing memory-related neural electrical signals. When using it, the user needs to look directly at the device. The neural signals are stimulated by high-intensity light signals, and then electronic pulse signals are used to reverse the operation to convert the neural signals into specific visual memories. The final effect is to allow the user to accurately erase specific memories about a certain event, a certain thing, a certain person, or even a certain period of time, and to accurately implant preset false memory fragments."

The sound came from the terminal in Hayato's hand. He opened a video he had finally found and projected it onto the top of the terminal so that everyone else could see the image.

"I don't understand anything at all," Li complained. "And it sounds like something out of a science fiction story."

"Because that's the premise from the sci-fi movie 'Black Man'," Manjoume retorted. "Why bring that up now, Hayato-sensei?"

"You'll see when you watch it." Hayato tapped on the projected video, without going into details.

In the video, the person explaining the concept of the "memory eraser" is standing away from the camera, revealing his entire body. He is an ordinary-looking man in a white coat with glasses, who looks like a doctor. He doesn't seem to be awkward reciting a science fiction movie concept, but calmly continues: "Through this device, psychological problems that plague the vast majority of people in the world, such as childhood trauma and PTSD, can be effectively solved."

"continue."

The speaker wasn't anyone present, but someone in the video. Judging from the voice, it seemed to be a very old man. His voice was extremely weak, and even then, it had some background noise, as if he was using a microphone to increase the volume.

“Yes, Mr. Kagemaru.” The man dressed as a doctor said respectfully, stepping aside to reveal a huge machine behind him. “Animal experiments have been fully completed, but since the memory eraser was originally developed for humans, the next step is to conduct necessary human experiments.”

"Execution sequence number: 114514 experiment, officially started, machine startup code generation in progress, startup code: 1919810."

"Understood, operator 350234 is initiating equipment startup." Another person, seemingly the doctor's assistant, entered a generated one-time startup code into a mobile computer, activating the enormous device that was completely different from the one in the movie "Black O Man".

In the movie, the memory eraser is just a small stick, no bigger than a flashlight, but the device that is activated at this moment is so big that three liangzi can be stuffed into it, and an elephant can be squeezed into the gap.

On the activated memory eraser lay a child. Although the goggles used to emit bright light and the helmet that emitted electronic pulses obscured the child's head quite seriously, only a sliver of brown hair peeked out from the gaps. Wan Zhangmu recognized him at a glance: "Jūdai when he was a child!? How could he be on that kind of machine?!"

(The parents of the tenth child: They work overtime all year round and there is no one at home to accompany the tenth child. The child has nightmares every day because he is separated from his friends. Their choice is to erase the tenth child's memories and let him sit at the same table with the biological mother of the harmonious child.)

Amidst the astonished gazes of the crowd, the young Jaden was pushed into the activated machine and fell asleep in the bright light emitted by the machine. The operator of the equipment excitedly reported to Kagemaru: "The experiment was quite perfect, Mr. Kagemaru. The memory manipulation on the subject was smooth and precise, and the specified memory fragments were stably removed without affecting other parts."

"Hehe, very good, another problem is perfectly solved." Kagemaru in the video seemed quite pleased. "Once I find a way to achieve immortality, it would be troublesome if my physical body simply gained eternal life but then my memories faded. The memory eraser exists to remove unnecessary memories from my mind at that time. Next, I just wait for the 'Three Phantom Demons' cards prepared for me by 'Amunaeru' to be completed..."

The video ended abruptly there. Hayato put away his personal terminal and explained, "This video is a confidential document from the Kagemaru Pharmaceutical Group. It was filmed six years ago in 2001 at the Kagemaru Pharmaceutical Group headquarters, which you are looking at, sister."

"At the time, Yingwan Pharmaceuticals provided medical assistance to the society under the guise of free psychological treatment, claiming it was a charitable benefit. On the one hand, they received tax breaks from the government, and on the other hand, they used some of the patients as test subjects for new equipment, profiting from both ends. Considering that some pharmaceutical companies in Amei's eyes don't even do nominal charity but directly grab homeless people to do experiments, their actions could even be considered quite conscientious?"

Hayato retorted sarcastically, "However, it is obvious that although this 'memory eraser' was indeed completed by the Kagemaru Pharmaceutical Group, and successfully passed human trials with the help of data collected from subjects covering all age groups, because the original intention, as you can see, was for Kagemaru's own selfish desires, this thing has been hidden within Kagemaru Pharmaceutical Group and has not been promoted as an official product."

"Including this video, the evidence of Shadow Maru's crimes, which had been buried for two years, was brought to light again when Shadow Maru Pharmaceuticals was jointly acquired by International Illusion Society and Haima Group."

"Leaving the city he had always lived in, separating from his friends, and still feeling the loneliness of [Yubel]'s departure, it was inevitable that Judai would exhibit some autistic symptoms after moving. So, out of concern, his parents arranged for him to receive free psychological treatment from the well-known company, Kagemaru Pharmaceuticals. And then, that's what you saw in the video. The memories Judai lost were precisely those about [Yubel]."

"So that's why Judai doesn't remember anything about [Yubel]!" Manjoume scoffed. "Tch, that old man has done so many bad things. Letting him die so easily is too good for him!"

Upon hearing the name Kagemaru again, Manjoume couldn't help but recall the experience two years ago when he almost defeated his opponent but was ambushed and lost. His [Dragon of Light and Darkness] had its spirit power stolen by his opponent at that time, and just thinking about it made him furious.

"When Jaden launched the card into space, [N] received the cosmic energy of 'Darkness of Justice,' while [Yubel] received the power of 'Light of Destruction.' The former became a new hero of the universe, while the latter's already distorted emotions became even more twisted. Carrying the loneliness of being abandoned by Jaden, the sorrow of wandering in the universe, and the twisted understanding of 'pain' as 'love' after experiencing these torments, she returned to Earth to seek 'revenge' against Jaden."

Hayato sighed as he spoke, "In other words, Jaden was probably tormented by guilt after recognizing [Yubel]. He probably thought that all the mistakes and misfortunes were his own fault, and he blamed himself for everything that everyone went through and John's sacrifice."

Hearing Hayato's words, Jim was somewhat surprised: "Why do you know so much about Principal Hayato? It's as if you've been watching Jaden and the others' duel all along?"

"Because I was indeed watching Jaden and the others' duel the whole time. Probably from the moment John finished his first round."

Seeing Hayato say such things so calmly, Rei's eyes widened: "You watched from the beginning to the end, no wonder you're here with us."

"But why? If you had arrived earlier, why didn't you stop Lord Judai from fighting John and the others? If it had been you, Hayato-sensei, John might not have had to sacrifice himself, and Lord Judai wouldn't have felt so guilty—"

"Saotome Rei!" Manjoume shouted Rei's name, interrupting her.

Li realized what she had just said and lowered her head: "...Sorry, my thinking was flawed."

“I arrived at your place after eliminating all the Pokémon besieging the school. By the time I got there, Jaden and the others had already started their duel.” Hayato didn’t care about the words that came out of his head in a moment of madness. “Call me old-fashioned or call me indifferent and cold-blooded, but as a duelist, I cannot do something like preemptively stopping someone’s duel by assuming they will lose. That would be an insult to the spirit of a duelist.”

"Furthermore, can anyone repeat exactly what I said in the initial message I sent you? I remember emphasizing that [Yubel] might approach the students in the academy again, possess them, and drain their inner dark energy, so you should stay obediently in the academy, right?"

At this point, Hayato also wore a helpless expression, "Do you know how I felt when I received the message from Caesar and the others saying that Jaden led you guys to chase after Yubel, who was possessing Gana Malden, and left the academy?"

(Previous context - see Chapter 158 for details)

"I meant for you to stay in the academy literally. Judai's written exam scores were never good, but now he seems to enjoy reading comprehension so much?!"

Hayato felt he had really done his best, stockpiling supplies in advance to prevent famine, preventing the emergence of "Duel Zombies," and single-handedly defeating the numerous spirits attracted by the smarter Yubel to prevent the students from being harmed. He also specifically instructed Jaden and the others not to leave the school without permission to avoid a repeat of the situation in the original work.

While everything else was prepared, the last point remained unprepared. Jaden ultimately faced off against Yubel in their duel. Although the process differed, Johan still sacrificed himself to save Jaden. Jaden blamed himself for everything, and Hayato was also quite frustrated. He rushed to find Jaden and the others, only to discover that they had already begun their duel.

Is he going to go up there and forcibly end this duel? What kind of duelist would dare to do that!

(Raphael, who ended the duel between Isis and Ameluda: Achoo!)

Looking at the students in front of him, Hayato sighed: "Let's leave this topic here. You should all go back and rest. You must be exhausted after spending so many days in the Spirit World. I also have some things to do."

After arranging for the students to return to their respective dormitories, Hayato carried the unconscious Jaden on his back, while the other unconscious person—Gana Malden—was handed over to Coach Napoleon, who had also come from nearby and found Jaden's group. After examining them in the medical room, Ayukawa-sensei confirmed that both were primarily suffering from exhaustion and would recover with proper rest; otherwise, they seemed to be fine. This finally put Coach Napoleon's mind at ease.

Hayato, on the other hand, sent a long message to Kaiba.

"Your research support was of no use, Seth. My students and I have already returned to the human world..."

"...The academy's infrastructure suffered some damage due to the spatial transfer and the environment of the elven realm, requiring extensive maintenance. However, the small world you left beneath the hot spring was unaffected..."

"...Regarding casualties...Although I hate to admit it, it was all a mistake I made because of my youth. The Elf Realm transfer event is now over. One person has not returned."

Chapter 1822 Post-Event Work

The event of the transfer to the Spirit Realm may seem to have ended, but the cleanup work following the event is far from over.

The subsequent repairs to the facilities affected within the academy were secondary—because of the spatial transfer, the main campus was relatively okay, but the underground structures of buildings like the Red Dormitory, which were moved to other locations, were basically destroyed. Even if they returned to their original locations after the Great Transfer, the severed water pipes and cables would not regenerate on their own.

The students' mental state is also a major issue. Although less than a week has passed since they were transferred to the Elf World, the experiences during this period have left many students with severe psychological trauma.

—After all, they didn't even know about the existence of Card Spirits before that. In the blink of an eye, they were asked to risk their lives to fight against fierce and dangerous Card Spirits. If Hayato hadn't held a large-scale event called "Duel-Links" two years ago to let them get used to a similar environment in advance, the students might have been scared out of their wits.

Besides that, Hayato also needs to handle the things that happened before he entered the Spirit World and before the Great Transfer began. For example, he needs to explain Professor Cobra's death to Paul Mackenzie, who has been promoted from Dean of Studies to Principal at the Western Branch School. After all, Professor Cobra was on loan from there to participate in academic exchanges, even though the Duel Academy does not bear any responsibility for his death and it was more due to Yubel.

Similarly, the matter of the only missing person—John Anderson—also needs to be reported to the relevant parties, such as Principal Fumio Ichinose of the Northern Branch School, and John's guardian, Raphael.

"Hayato Kobayashi!" Raphael's angry voice came through the phone. "Aren't you the strongest person in the world? Why, why can't you even protect a student!"

"Don't make things sound so simple, Raphael. Do you think I only need to protect John Anderson? I'm responsible for hundreds of students across three dormitories and three grades at Duel Academy. Whether I've fulfilled my responsibilities is none of your business!"

Although he was informing Raphael that John Anderson, whom he had adopted, had stayed in the Elf Realm and had not returned, Hayato did not let the other party vent his emotions: "I left a bunch of people at the academy to protect them. Besides my brother-in-law and brother-in-law, even Amelda is at the school, but what can I do if John insists on going outside the school!"

“Ameruda? But what's the point of saying that now!” Raphael said angrily on the other end of the phone. “John is dead, I have no interest in right or wrong anymore. Was the spirit who harmed John named Yubel? Such an inherently evil spirit, I will—”

Who said John is dead?

Hayato's sudden interjection startled Raphael: "What...did you say?"

“All I’ve told you from the beginning is that ‘John ​​Anderson stayed in the Elf Realm,’ right? I never gave you any death notice.” Hayato reiterated, “You can rest assured about John’s safety. He’ll be fine for now, but it’s unlikely he’ll be able to return to the human world before the end of this semester. I’m just here to let you know that.”

"So what secrets have you found out this time, Hayato Kobayashi?" Raphael had a clear memory of Hayato's past behavior, knowing that this guy often knew secrets that others didn't, and he didn't know where his intelligence network came from. "How did you know that John wouldn't be in trouble?"

After a pause, Raphael changed his tune again: "...No, anyway, even if I asked you, you wouldn't be able to explain it in a way I can understand, and you'd just ramble on about random things. I've heard Yugi Muto and the others say that you often say your information comes from a guy named Takahashi."

"No, my information really did come from Takahashi-sensei, and sometimes it was provided by Takahashi-sensei's apprentice, Kageyama Naoyuki," Hayato admitted. "The latter's GX manga also provided a lot of helpful information."

"Tsk, that's why I said it, it's all nonsense." Raphael said somewhat irritably, "Anyway, please give me a guarantee—a guarantee about what you just said about John being alright. Believing those nonsensical things would be an insult to my intelligence, but if it's a solemn promise from you, Hayato Kobayashi, I can trust it."

Hearing Raphael's words, Hayato replied earnestly, "Then as a teacher, as the headmaster of the Duel Academy, as a duelist, and as the Duel King—yes, I can promise John's safety and safe return."

"...Alright, that's enough. I've heard about the students who went missing from Duel Academy a few years ago. One of them, named Tenjouin Fubuki, has returned to Duel Academy, just as you promised when the students went missing."

Raphael was truly calmed and relieved after receiving Hayato's solemn promise. He then said, "But don't contact me again until John returns to the human world—I don't want to be filled with hope only to hear that John hasn't returned yet."

As he spoke, Raphael hung up the call. Hayato sighed and complained to the person in front of him, "After all, it's bad news, and unsurprisingly, I wasn't welcomed. But Raphael's attitude was colder than I expected, which is really disheartening."

"Hmph, I think it's just because you've never been very popular." As he spoke, the person who spoke didn't have the usual cold expression on his face. Instead, he curled the corners of his mouth and mocked Hayato, "Especially since your emotional intelligence is so low."

"Huh?" Hayato raised an eyebrow. "Yugi has the right to say that, Jonouchi has the right to say that, but what right do you, a guy who's still single, have to say such things, Seth?"

Seto Kaiba, who was just giggling, stopped giggling and returned to his usual self. He snorted and said with a sour face, "Hmph, I'm going to become the world's number one duelist. Women are just a hindrance."

"Yugi Muto, that mediocre guy, and you, all three of you are tied down by the women around you. Especially Yugi Muto, who even has two women by his side, and Hayato Kobayashi, you also have the added burden of the Duel Academy. Heh, while you won't necessarily regress, the speed at which you become stronger has definitely been greatly affected."

"Let's stay like this for now, and then I'll take this opportunity to become stronger to a level that you can never surpass, hehe, hehe hahahahahaha!"

Seeing Kaiba burst into laughter, Hayato suddenly pointed in a direction: "Huh? How did the Blue-Eyes White Dragon materialize?"

"Where!?" Kaiba turned his head sharply and said subconsciously, then suddenly realized that he had clearly fallen into Hayato's trap. When he turned back, he saw Hayato's expression that said, "Your ego is as weird as ever." He was so angry that he couldn't keep his cold expression and cursed, "You tricked me!"

"And what's with that expression? Do you think your own XP is any better?!"

“What’s wrong with my XP? My XP is perfectly normal.” Hayato retorted, then added, “Alright, we can talk about those unimportant things later when we have time. Let’s finish the important things first.”

"First of all—about the dueling disk that John Anderson used."

The Duel Disk that Hayato mentioned for John is not the Duel Disk he originally used. Before the Great Transfer, after Marufuji Sho and the others collapsed due to the "Death Gauntlet," John and the others used their Duel Disks to fight. Even after going to the other world, because John and the others fought the most, Marufuji Sho and the others did not switch back to their original Duel Disks but let John and the others continue to use them to maintain their fighting ability.

Even when John teamed up with Jaden to duel Yubel, he was still using the Duel Disk, which had a built-in Duel Energy Storage Device, giving him and Jaden a certain ability to protect themselves during the duel.

Meanwhile, the Duel Disks with built-in Duel Energy Storage Devices are not something that can be easily accomplished by simply finding a place inside the Duel Disk to put the device in. They have undergone special internal adjustments, and Kaiba also made sure to install some small devices he left behind in each Duel Disk, such as data collection, GPS, and vital sign monitoring.

Raphael assumed that Hayato couldn't provide any evidence to prove John's safety, but in reality, if he had persisted a little longer, Hayato could have sent Raphael the vital signs data collected by Kaiba, allowing him to clearly see that John's physical condition had always been quite healthy, even excessively healthy.

“This data is quite unusual.” Kaiba casually retrieved the data Hayato needed and tossed it aside. The interactive virtual projection displayed the data in mid-air, allowing Hayato to clearly see all the indicators. Then, Kaiba pointed to one of the lines, “Although all the vital signs are good, this one is the only abnormal one.”

"I don't understand such complicated things, stop keeping me in suspense."

Hearing Hayato's urging, Kaiba explained, "This data is a new indicator of the human body that I calculated using a newly written algorithm. It was based on past data collection on 'Planar' and is used to represent the level of special energy reserves in a certain life form. The higher the value, the more abnormal it is. Although the value may temporarily change during intense battles such as duels and cannot be used as a reference, the normal value is quite stable and can be used to make basic judgments."