Chapter 166: VS. Kaiba Seto - The Legend of Battle City
On the wide, empty rooftop, Kaiba Seto and Amano Rei took their positions across from each other.
"We duel under the rules of the upcoming Battle City tournament. No objections, Amano Rei? Do not tell me you are still stuck on Duelist Kingdom's outdated style."
"Don't worry about me, Kaiba. I know the rules better than you do."
Better than you do, and you are technically the one who invented them.
Amano raised his arm and felt the classic Duel Disk lock into place. The mechanical components engaged with a clean, resonant click, the sound of something beginning. The sound of every Duel Monsters fan's first memory.
This was where it started. Battle City was the moment the rules finally crystallized, when the game stopped evolving by improvisation and became what it was meant to be. In the anime and in reality both, that shift was what sent Duel Monsters sweeping across the world.
"Let's go, Amano!"
"Come on, Kaiba!"
Duel!!
Kaiba Seto LP: 4000
VS.
Amano Rei LP: 4000
"My turn. Draw!"
Even a single draw from Kaiba Seto carried a kind of gravity. The silver-white coat behind him lifted with the motion as if his presence alone was enough to stir the air.
"To think, a duel against the legendary Kaiba Seto."
Standing off to the side, Kaiba Chiaki's expression had shifted into something she almost never let show. A complicated tangle of things without a clean name.
Was this dueling her own ancestor?
In that case, who was she actually hoping would win?
"All right, I am on the clock."
Rin Seiya, considerably less burdened by existential questions, opened the recording app on her Eva Terminal with cheerful efficiency. This had been Mizuki's personal request. As for why Mizuki was not here herself: she was absolutely terrified of appearing in front of Kaiba Chiaki. The video her channel had posted was directly responsible for a measurable drop in Kaiba Corporation's stock price. The fact that the corporation had not come after her personally was already more than she deserved. Showing up in front of the sitting president was simply not an option.
"Rin Seiya." Kaiba Chiaki glanced over. "Are you planning to live stream this? The same way Sakuya did by accident?"
Rin Seiya waved the idea off. "Absolutely not. I am not as hopeless as Sakuya-chan. I know the difference between a recording app and a stream toggle."
The previous accidental broadcast had turned out well enough, but that was pure luck. Live streaming had too many uncontrollable variables. In practice, a significant portion of Eden's streaming culture ran on pre-recorded content packaged to look live, with only the winning duels released to maintain the streamer's image as someone who never lost. Mizuki had no interest in that approach. Her goal was to edit Amano's duels into videos with her own commentary style layered on top. Her actual dream was to become the most well-known duel video creator, not just a popular streamer riding the live format.
"Good that it is not a live stream." Kaiba Chiaki crossed her arms.
This duel was nothing like the streamer content from before. It involved Kaiba Seto, the legendary founder at the center of Kaiba Corporation's entire history. The weight of that was obvious. Kaiba Chiaki had already begun considering whether to prevent the footage from being released at all once she saw what the duel contained.
But she would wait until the duel was over before deciding anything.
She crossed her arms tighter, one slender finger tapping quietly against her own forearm.
What kind of dueling did her ancestor use?
Kaiba Seto swept his gaze across his opening hand. The corner of his mouth moved with quiet satisfaction. He pulled one card without hesitation and inserted it into the Duel Disk.
"Spell Card: Polymerization!"
"Opening with Polymerization already?" Everyone watching reacted at once.
"Here it comes." Amano frowned. Classic Polymerization spam. Even standing across the field, he could already feel the oppressive weight of what Kaiba was about to summon building in the air.
"If we are testing the absolute performance limits of the Duel Disk, I will not be holding back, Amano Rei!"
With one commanding sweep of his arm, Kaiba Seto sent all three Fusion Materials into the Graveyard slot of his Duel Disk.
"Only one monster can reach that limit! Three Blue-Eyes White Dragons, unite as one!"
Above Kaiba Seto's head, the clear blue sky became the backdrop for three Blue-Eyes White Dragons rising in transparent form, soaring upward toward the spiraling Fusion effect at the summit of the sky.
"Marvel at the most powerful, the most ultimate dragon to have ever existed, standing beyond the boundaries of time and space! Descend!
"Unyielding! Invincible! The strongest!!
"Obliterate! Pulverize! An ovation worthy of the gods!!
"Fusion Summon! Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon!!"
Kaiba Seto's voice carried the full weight of his conviction. The Fusion effect exploded across the dimensions, and all three heads of the original, most iconic Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon roared onto the field together.
Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon
Level 12 / LIGHT
Dragon / Fusion
ATK: 4500 / DEF: 3800
Blue-Eyes White Dragon x3
This era had no Neo Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon. What Kaiba Seto had Fusion Summoned was the original, the classic, a monster with no effects and no embellishments. Pure, concentrated power.
Rin Seiya's hand moved to her mouth. "4500 ATK, that is exactly the same as..."
Kaiba Chiaki looked down at her. "Think carefully before you finish that sentence, Rin Seiya."
Even without an effect to its name, a Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon opening on Turn 1 with 4500 ATK was a terrifying presence by early-era Yu-Gi-Oh! standards.
Kaiba added: "Battle City rules. A Fusion Summoned monster cannot declare an attack on the turn it is summoned. Neither player can attack on the first turn of the duel."
This rule was Kaiba's own invention. He had felt that allowing Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon to swing on Turn 1 was simply too powerful and unfair to every other duelist in the tournament. He had nerfed himself deliberately.
Only Kaiba Seto would design a tournament rule specifically to prevent his own opening play from winning on the spot.
The rule only applied during Battle City. Later eras would remove this restriction on Fusion monsters entirely.
"I set two cards face-down. Turn end."
Six cards played on Turn 1, every card in his opening hand spent, driving straight toward the Duel Disk's limits at full speed.
Tea put a hand over her heart. "Amano is going to be okay, right? He has to face Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon on Turn 1?"
Joey's eyes narrowed at the field. "Tristan, we should go check whether Kaiba actually shuffled that deck."
Yugi watched from across the field, quietly concerned.
"My turn. Draw!"
Amano pulled his card as every eye in the group turned toward him.
Against a straightforward no-effect Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon, the honest answer was that he was not particularly worried. Referencing card theory in the context of an animated series felt a little off-color, but the cards in his deck genuinely represented a more advanced era than early Kaiba Seto's.
"I'll start fighting back with this card. Spell Card activate!"
He reached into his hand and drew out the support card he had purchased fresh from the Academy City points exchange just this morning. Thanks in part to the generous sixty-thousand-point contribution from Kuroshio Nagi's landmark public social death event, he had been able to exchange thirty thousand points for this particular Spell Card.
"Spell Card: Fusion Deployment!"
Rin Seiya grumbled under her breath. "Amano, you spent Synchro Academy exchange points on Fusion support cards again."
Kaiba Chiaki's expression, by contrast, flickered with something that looked briefly like satisfaction.
Fusion Deployment
Spell Card: Reveal 1 Fusion Monster in your Extra Deck to your opponent; Special Summon 1 monster listed as a Fusion Material on it from your hand or Deck.
Amano reached into his Extra Deck, drew out a single card, and turned it face-up for the field to see.
The card he was showing was the same monster standing on Kaiba Seto's field.
Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon.
And the Fusion Materials listed on Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon were, naturally, three copies of the same card.
Pure white light erupted from the tip of Amano's finger and flared across the field in a single brilliant arc.
"If endless darkness stands in the way, then paint the darkness itself white! Surpass the Ultimate Dragon!
"Special Summon from my Deck!
"Blue-Eyes White Dragon!!"
Blue-Eyes White Dragon
Level 8 / LIGHT
Dragon / Normal
ATK: 3000 / DEF: 2500
Against Kaiba's Turn 1 Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon, built from three Blue-Eyes White Dragons, Amano countered with the fourth.
Rin Seiya began again. "3000 ATK, which means it equals exactly the same as..."
"Rin Seiya." Kaiba Chiaki's voice was flat. "I will not warn you a third time."
With a single card, Fusion Deployment could pull Blue-Eyes White Dragon from the deck. With Amano's Extra Deck, the applications extended further: show the Dragon Master Knight Fusion to search Dark Magician; show a Neos Fusion to Special Summon Elemental HERO Neos. In Academy City's current meta, where most encounters came down to direct combat, the raw utility of one card generating a free Special Summon at this level was already strong enough to justify it without ever following through on the Fusion itself.
"Blue-Eyes..."
Watching the dragon materialize on the field in front of him, Kaiba Seto's expression grew serious in a way that had nothing to do with the duel.
After taking Yami Yugi's Mind Crush and beginning to understand the Heart of the Cards, Kaiba Seto had come to recognize what he had been doing wrong. He had even felt something like gratitude toward Amano, who in this timeline had physically stopped him before the fourth Blue-Eyes White Dragon could be torn apart. Perhaps the reason he had offered Amano employment in the first place was partly to repay that act, given everything he had heard about Amano's circumstances.
Of course, watching how Amano had commanded Blue-Eyes White Dragon throughout Duelist Kingdom had made Kaiba genuinely want this duel for its own sake as well.
"Amano Rei!" Kaiba's voice came back to full force. "With only one Blue-Eyes White Dragon, you cannot defeat a Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon built from three!"
"Then let me use cards slightly beyond this era, Kaiba. I Normal Summon Elemental HERO Blazeman in Attack Position!"
Elemental HERO Blazeman
Level 4 / FIRE
Warrior / Effect
ATK: 1200 / DEF: 1800
A hero monster born from fire, bursting into view with a raised fist, left everyone watching on the rooftop staring.
Joey scratched his head. "Elemental HERO? When did Amano get an Effect Monster in his deck? I thought everything in there was regular cards."
Yugi considered it carefully. "Maybe Amano-kun just drew it? But I have never heard of a monster like this either."
Tea's voice rose with excitement. "A monster that even Yugi doesn't recognize from the card shop, it has to be rare. Maybe it can actually stand up to Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon!"
Perhaps in this era, the Chronicle version of Amano had never owned this card.
But Amano, arriving from the future, could step beyond the restrictions of any given era.
"Elemental HERO Blazeman's effect activates! When this card is Normal Summoned, I add 1 Polymerization from my Deck to my hand!"
Blazeman's search effect on Normal Summon, pulling Polymerization directly: a strong recovery tool for a deck running a single copy.
Amano did not hesitate. The retrieved card went straight into the Duel Disk.
"Spell Card: Polymerization! I Fuse Blue-Eyes White Dragon on the field with this monster from my hand!"
The identity of the second Fusion Material caught everyone off guard.
Tea's head turned instinctively toward Yugi. "That card, it's the same one as Yugi's."
Dark Magician Girl.
"Here I come!" Mana's spirit materialized from the card with cheerful energy and leaped into the air, her expression bright, before she and Blue-Eyes White Dragon both soared together into the spiral of the Fusion effect overhead.
"The legend of the legendary dragons! Maiden who rides the white dragon, draw the blade that cuts through all things!
"Fusion Summon!
"Dark Magician Girl the Dragon Knight!!"
Dark Magician Girl the Dragon Knight
Level 7 / DARK
Dragon / Fusion / Effect
Dark Magician Girl + 1 Dragon-Type monster
A silver holy sword tore through the spiraling Fusion effect across the sky. Riding Blue-Eyes White Dragon, Dark Magician Girl descended onto the field: her magician's robes replaced by silver sword, shield, and armor, the dragon knight completed.
In the original storyline, this card required the power of The Eye of Timaeus to be created. Because Amano had access to the full Dragon-Type Extra Deck, he could bypass that requirement entirely and fuse Dark Magician Girl with any Dragon-Type monster to evolve her into the legendary Dragon Knight directly.
Blue-Eyes White Dragon Knight.
"Dark Magician Girl the Dragon Knight's effect activates!"
Once per turn, during your turn or your opponent's turn: Send 1 card from your hand to the GY, then target 1 face-up card on the field and destroy it.
"I discard 1 card from my hand to destroy your Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon!
"Take this, Kaiba!
"Legendary Judgment - White Dragon Sword Slash!!"
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