Is this the world of card dealers? Yada thieves!

As he spoke, Marufuji Sho couldn't help but glance at Fubuki's wrist. Even though he had already checked it while Fubuki was unconscious, he was still surprised by the special power that Principal Hayato had shown earlier: "The power of a Spirit Master, so it can even do something like this?"

"It's not the Pokémon's power that's strong, but rather Hayato-sensei. At least neither I nor Manjoume could do that." Jaden shook his head, correcting Marufuji Sho's understanding. "The most important thing about the Card Pokémon isn't their power, but the hearts that resonate with our duelists. It's not that they lack power, but what's more important is the connection between their hearts."

"That being said, for the vast majority of people in the world, let alone resonating with the spirits of the card monsters, they can't even see the existence of the monsters with their own eyes." If he hadn't witnessed the existence of monsters more than once, Marufuji Sho would have found it hard to believe that such a magical existence as the card monsters could exist in the world.

"Although I've taken the Principal's and Teacher's Spirit Coexistence Class more than once, I still don't have that potential. Asuka seems to be the same, and even Akira is the same. Being able to see spirits is the first step to resonating with the spirits on the cards, but this threshold is so high that only one in a hundred million people in the world can pass it."

Fubuki, having calmed down a bit, lowered her hand from her forehead and gave a helpless, bitter smile. "So far, including you, Judai, I've only seen five people with that kind of ability. It seems my connections are really strong."

Aside from Judai and Manjoume, who enrolled this year, and Hayato Kobayashi, the fourth "spirit user" Fubuki had met was his idol, Katsuya Jonouchi. Not long ago, he was hospitalized and finally saw him in person instead of through a screen.

Although it was somewhat embarrassing to have fainted from fright at the time, I think I would have reacted similarly to hearing that I was alright and then seeing my idol come to visit me, no matter who else came. It was also at that moment that Fubuki vaguely sensed the special power that Jonouchi carried. Unsurprisingly, it was the power of the card spirits, and the weight of it was definitely not an ordinary existence.

—Yes, although it sounds contradictory, Fubuki, who couldn't see or sense the existence of spirits in the past, could sense the special power of the card spirits on the bodies of these "spirit users," including Jaden, Manjoume, Jonouchi, and Hayato. What caused this change in her was none other than the long-term immersion in the power of Darkness over the past year.

'It's kind of funny, really. Coming into contact with that kind of dark power has actually allowed me to access a fraction of the world you used to be able to perceive, Fujiwara...' Fubuki glanced at the sky and thought to herself.

Upon hearing Fubuki mention Ryo Marufuji, Sho Marufuji couldn't help but clench his fist, drawing Fubuki's attention to the blue dormitory uniform he was clutching in his hand. Having heard from Ryo that he was also an older brother like herself, with a younger brother about the same age as her sister, Fubuki already knew Sho Marufuji's personality. Understanding the situation, she didn't disturb him, but instead asked Judai, "So, where is Ryo? Where did he go?"

"As for Caesar, Hayato-sensei said something incomprehensible like 'body pineapple pineapple' and then sent him back to the dueling arena to find Ayukawa-sensei."

After Judai finished speaking, Marufuji Sho, filled with resentment towards Caesar, said with a hint of melancholy, "Was that person really the Marufuji Ryo of the past? He himself said that he was no longer Marufuji Ryo but just Caesar. Really, to what extent was he blinded by power..."

“You’re wrong about that, Liang’s younger brother.”

Marufuji Sho thought that Tenjouin Fubuki, who had been taken advantage of and rendered unconscious because of her duel with Caesar, would also harbor resentment and dissatisfaction towards Caesar, just like him. After all, Fubuki, who had fought Caesar at close range, should have been able to clearly feel the dark will on his body that seemed to be manipulated by darkness. However, to his surprise, Fubuki refuted his opinion even faster than Judai.

After recovering for a while, Fubuki stood up from the ground, telling Judai and Sho not to squat any longer. While brushing the grass clippings and dust off her clothes, Fubuki said, "On the contrary, although the improvement in his resolve has led to a great transformation in Ryo's will, 'Caesar' is still Marufuji Ryo, without a doubt."

"As for being seduced by power... that's more like me. I couldn't resist the allure of darkness and unconsciously sank back into it, unable to extricate myself. It's quite shameful. If the headmaster hadn't stopped the duel and banished 'Darkness,' and if Akira's will hadn't guided me, I probably wouldn't have been able to wake up so quickly."

Marufuji Sho was somewhat surprised: "Brother... is Caesar's will guiding you, Tenjōin-senpai?"

"Hmm, I was wondering why, even as I delved deeper into the darkness, I couldn't find the light in his heart that had been tainted by darkness. It turns out that from the very beginning, he had only been standing on the edge of darkness, never letting those things tarnish the light in his heart."

After a pause, Fubuki scratched her head sheepishly and laughed awkwardly, "But I still don't understand why he would wrap himself in darkness, ahahaha."

“I think it’s for victory, Caesar himself said so. This is his struggle for victory.” Jaden thought for a moment and said, “Without a goal, just pursuing victory for the sake of the duel itself, I think that’s probably what Caesar is thinking now. The current Caesar has become even stronger than before.”

The thought that a stronger Caesar might be able to duel him more enjoyably made Jaden's lips curl up unconsciously; he didn't even realize that he was actually smiling.

"Brother, is that what you think? Do you share the same idea as Tenjouin-senpai?"

Upon hearing Marufuji Sho's words, Jaden nodded without hesitation and said, "Yes, at least that's what I think. Besides, although Fubuki fainted because of her duel with Caesar, the root cause is still that 'Darkness,' right? Caesar didn't do anything to hurt anyone; he was just fighting with all his might in his own way during the duel."

“Even you, Big Brother, said that…” Marufuji Sho had a conflicted expression on his face. He wanted to believe Judai’s judgment, but when he felt the weight of the uniform that Marufuji Ryo had discarded in his hand, he couldn’t help but recall the arrogant smile he had seen on the beach.

"I don't trust you, brother. I want to witness Caesar's duel again." These words did not come out of Marufuji Sho's mouth. In the end, his trust in Judai prevailed. He looked at Judai and, although he lacked confidence, he still said, "If it's you, brother, I trust your judgment."

"The discrimination is really obvious, Marufuji. He seems to admire Judai quite a bit." Fubuki said with a smile, but subconsciously recalled the duel with Judai when Darkness possessed her body in the past.

Darkness claims that Jaden, who uses the hero-themed [E·hero] deck and acts with "hero" as his benchmark, "lost his qualification when he wanted to become a hero," and is not a true hero, nor even belong to the good camp as he appears.

Fubuki initially scoffed at Darkness's judgment in her memory, thinking it was just trash talk Darkness used to influence Jaden's performance in the duel. "How to deal with the opponent's trash talk" was something Hayato-sensei had taught her in class.

But when Fubuki saw Judai's subconscious smile just now, she suddenly felt that perhaps that "trash talk," although exaggerated, wasn't entirely without basis? No, what was she thinking? She was actually thinking about Darkness's words? It seems that she's really not in a good state and has been affected by what just happened. Otherwise, why would she believe Darkness and doubt Judai?

Fubuki shook her head helplessly.

At that moment, a hand quietly landed on his shoulder, and a gentle female voice rang out: "It's normal to treat people differently, isn't it? Because, you see, the other person is you, Fubuki."

As the sound rang out, Judai and Sho saw Fubuki's body visibly stiffen, his helpless smile freezing on his face. Only his eyes could still move, cautiously moving towards the owner of the hand on his shoulder, who was also the one Judai and Sho had noticed after the sudden sound. This was Ms. Ayukawa Megumi, the dormitory supervisor, health teacher, physical education teacher, and school doctor of the Obelisk-Blue girls' dormitory.

"Huimi-chan? When did you arrive? It's such a beautiful day."

Looking at the large dark cloud drifting in from the horizon and Fubuki grinning sheepishly, Ayukawa-sensei smiled gently: "I think I reminded you, Fubuki, to remember to wear your uniform at school. But you changed into this floral beach shirt as soon as you left. Did you even notice the temperature today?"

"No, because my heart has already reached 114514℃ because of you, Emi-chan."

Fubuki tried to gloss over the topic by using her extensive experience in flirting.

"Crack—" Fubuki's bones made a rather subtle sound as the arm suddenly tightened.

"The average temperature today is only 10℃. I can't believe you could say something like that while wearing those clothes." Ms. Ayukawa demonstrated what it means to change one's expression. Just a moment ago she was smiling, but now she had a serious look like a demon. "I also heard from Marufuji Ryo that you fainted just now? You value style over warmth, huh? Wearing such thin clothes, if you don't get a fever, who will!"

"No, no, Emi-chan, I didn't send it—"

"Be good, let me see!"

"Snap—"

The Fubuki fell silent.

Watching Fubuki being dragged away by Ayukawa Megumi-sensei, foaming at the corners of her mouth, Marufuji Sho remarked, "I wonder if that 'Darkness' has a bigger effect, or if Ayukawa-sensei's grappling techniques are more effective at putting Tenjouin-senpai into a deep sleep."

"Mr. Ayukawa has a strong sense of responsibility for the health of our students, which is indeed a good thing. However, it's hard not to criticize his approach of using a grenade to knock out patients in order to treat them," Judai remarked.

Ms. Ayukawa Emi, who hadn't gone far, didn't know if she had heard their conversation, but she stopped and suddenly called out, "Yuki, Marufuji Sho!"

"Hi?!" X2

Suddenly called upon, Judai and Sho immediately stood at attention.

Turning around with a gentle smile, Ms. Ayukawa said softly, "Marufuji Sho, remember to change your clothes when you get back. You'll catch a cold if you don't change them promptly after they get wet. And Yuki, good luck in the competition this afternoon!"

Although their smiles were gentle, neither Judai nor Sho truly took Ayukawa-sensei as someone as kind as she appeared. They hurriedly nodded and bowed, only breathing a sigh of relief after watching her leave their sight.

"By the way, why does Ayukawa-sensei only use such rough methods without hesitation when it comes to Fubuki?" Judai asked Marufuji Sho with a question in his mind.

"I happen to know the answer to this question. Maeda told me that Ayukawa-sensei used to be a member of Tenjouin-senpai's fan club. However, when he participated in the inter-school exchange competition two years ago and Ayukawa-sensei witnessed him flirting with three girls from other schools at the same time, he went from being a fan to a hater."

"Just because of that? That's really hard to understand. Luckily, I don't have fans like that." Subconsciously, Jaden forgot about Rei Saotome.

Chapter 1323 Game Pod "Cocoon"... I mean "Legendary White Stone", activate!

"Reveal the card I set face-down last turn and equip it with the Spell Card [Ritual Weapon]! Similar to [Fusion Weapon], which can only be equipped to Fusion Monsters of Level 6 or lower, this card can only be equipped to Ritual Monsters of Level 6 or lower, increasing the equipped monster's ATK and DEF by 1500."

Asuka inserted a card into the duel disk and waved her hand.

"I equipped it to my level 6☆ [Dragon Goddess - Saphira], then entered my battle phase and used [Dragon Goddess - Saphira] to attack the opponent's [Evolved Fusion Beast - Dioxon]!"

【Dragon Goddess - Saphira】(Ritual Weapon) 【2500/2400→4000/3900】

"A Hymn of Blessing!"

With an aura reminiscent of a goddess, [Dragon Princess God - Saphira] flapped her angelic wings and took flight, opening her mouth to emit a hymn-like sonic wave as she charged toward the last remaining monster on the Misawa field—[Evolution Fusion Beast - Dioxygen Demon God].

"4000 attack power, huh? Just enough to wipe out the rest of my Life Points." Misawa smiled as he watched the attacking [Dragon Princess God - Saphira]. "But Tenjouin, although you tried your best to destroy all the monsters in my front row, you failed to clear out all the cards in my back row. And this will be the catalyst that leads you to defeat!"

[Misawa Daichi: 1200LP, 0 cards in hand]

【Evolution Fusion Beast - Dioxane Ghost God】【ATK2800】

【The Enchanted Fragrance】【Gaikka】

[Tenjouin Asuka: 200 LP, 1 card in hand]

【Dragon Goddess - Saphira】(Ritual Weapon)【ATK4000】

The Threshold of Ritual

"【Ritual Threshold】protects your Ritual Monster from being targeted by monster effects or destroyed by monster effects, but Trap Card effects are not included. I chain 【Dragon Princess God - Saphira】's attack declaration and open my backrow face-down card – 【Magic Cylinder】!"

"When the opponent's monster declares an attack, you can only target that attacking monster to negate its attack and inflict damage equal to that attack power on the opponent!"

Two magic cannons, one facing forward and one backward, appeared in front of [Evolution Fusion Beast - Dioxin] on Misawa Daichi's field as he pressed the button to activate the face-down card, ready to intercept [Dragon Princess God - Saphira]'s attack and reflect it back to Asuka.

Even if Akika only had 200 points left, or even if she had 2000 or 4000 points remaining, she would still be defeated because she used the Ritual Weapon to increase the attack power of Dragon Princess God - Saphira.

With Asuka having not a single face-down card in her back row to counter, the duel seemed destined to end in Asuka's defeat.

It was at this moment that Asuka suddenly felt as if an electric current had passed through her body, and she couldn't help but look into the distance, distracted from her duel.

At the entrance of the dueling arena, Jaden and Sho Marufuji, who was following behind him, hurriedly returned to the scene. As soon as Jaden entered, he looked towards the dueling arena and met Asuka's gaze from afar.

Asuka suddenly relaxed when she saw Judai smiling and giving her a thumbs-up, as if he were saying something—because Judai had actually made it back to the scene; he hadn't missed the final moments of his duel.

"In that case, wouldn't I just have to keep winning and fulfill my promise to meet him again in the next match?"

Talking to herself, Asuka turned to look at Misawa and said, "Sorry, Mitsui Hisashi, I was just spacing out."

"More than your distraction, I'm concerned about my name." A vein bulged on Misawa's forehead. "This is Duel Academy, not a basketball club!"

"Moreover, there is no difference between you being distracted and not being distracted, because due to the [Fragrance of the Spell Seal], neither player's spell cards can be activated unless they are set, and they cannot be activated before the next turn of the player who set them."

Misawa confidently stated, "Your [Ritual Weapon] and the card used to ritually summon [Dragon Goddess - Saphira] were both set off last turn, but you only have two cards left. Even if the card you draw from your deck this turn is a Quick-Play Spell Card that can be activated during the Battle Phase, it will be unable to be activated due to the effect of [Fragrance of Seal].

"This is the absolute suppression I've set up against your deck built around ritual monsters. Your attack from [Dragon Goddess - Saphira] will become the final blow that defeats you!"

"Principal Hayato only gave me one [Red Reboot], you can't just conjure one out of thin air, can you? And without any Quick-Play Spell Cards to support you, you've already lost the duel, Tenjouin!"

As Misawa finished speaking, the Magic Cylinder precisely intercepted the attack from the Dragon Goddess Saphira, which was heading towards the Evolution Fusion Beast - Dioxono Demon God. As the red cylinder expanded, it also transferred the magic power contained within to another cannon next to it. The other cannon, which was expanding continuously, firmly locked onto Asuka and was about to release a terrifying amount of magic power comparable to the absorbed attack.

However, Asuka just smiled and said, "Sore wa toka na!"

"What?!" Misawa saw that Asuka was not only not troubled by her current predicament, but also showed such a confident smile, playing the card in her hand right in front of Misawa.

"However, because of [The Fragrance of Seal], spell cards cannot be played without being set face-down—"

"Look closely at where I placed the card, Kaoru Ichijo. The card I placed wasn't in the Spell & Trap Zone, but in the Graveyard Zone. After all, the effect of this card in my hand requires it to be discarded from my hand."

The blue ancient dragon stretched its slender body amidst a cloud of mist that had appeared out of nowhere. Misawa had actually seen that hermit-like aura before, but he was still surprised that Asuka had drawn this card so precisely at this moment.

"When an opponent activates the effect of a Spell/Trap/Monster that targets a monster on my field, I can discard this card from my hand to activate the effect of [Old Saint Dai - First Dragon], and negate that activation!"

Asuka pointed at the Magic Cylinder on the field, which had expanded to its limit, and shouted, "Use your power to shatter the Magic Cylinder, Ancient Saint Dai - Origin Dragon!"

"The blessing of the elves!"

The aged dragon stopped beside [Dragon Goddess - Saphira], looking down at the two [Magic Cylinders] on the ground. Its claws grasped at the wispy clouds beside it, and it threw the mist like a net at the [Magic Cylinders].

The Magic Cylinder, with its absorption capabilities, automatically absorbed the subsequent attack as well. However, the problem was that it hadn't even finished transferring the attack it had already absorbed from Dragon Goddess Saphira. The result of absorbing external power was a deafening explosion, which also released the previously absorbed attack from Dragon Goddess Saphira, affecting Evolution Fusion Beast - Dioxygen Demon!

In just a moment, the [Evolved Fusion Beast - Dioxin Ghost God], with an attack power of up to 2800 points, was engulfed by the sudden explosion, and was also shattered and destroyed in the powerful impact.

"The activation of the [Magic Cylinder] has been nullified, which means—"

"In other words, [Dragon Goddess - Saphira]'s attack continues!" Misawa's words were interrupted by Asuka, who finished the sentence before he saw Asuka's [Dragon Goddess - Saphira] descend upon him, about to unleash the 1200 points of combat damage from the difference in attack power.

However, [Dragon Goddess - Saphira] has a gentle personality, so she wouldn't do anything too rough in such a close situation. She just flicked her finger and gave Misawa a flick on the forehead, sending him flying.

Misawa Daichi: 1200LP → 0

"Thanks to you, [Ancient Saint Dai - First Dragon], I've received your help again." After winning the duel, Asuka retrieved the perfectly timed [Ancient Saint Dai - First Dragon] from her Graveyard. This Ritual Monster, which she obtained by exchanging cards with Jaden when she first enrolled, had helped Asuka many times, filling her with gratitude for the card and for Jaden who helped her obtain it.

"The winner of the final battle in the quarterfinals is Asuka Tenjouin, a first-year student from the Duel Academy's main campus, Obelisk Blue! Nana no Ne!"