Chapter 211: How Did the Second Young Miss Wet Herself in Terror?
"Are you really not going back to Kaiba Corporation?"
"No!"
Amano had originally planned to ride the Moonlight Butterfly down to the transit station alone and meet Yui, then bring her back to the villa. Kaiba Chiha, however, refused to be left behind and insisted on coming.
When Yui heard about Chiha's ordeal in the lower districts, she showed genuine sympathy and took Chiha's side. "Better off not going back to that place, honestly."
Unable to argue against two people who had already made up their minds, Amano had no choice but to let the Moonlight Butterfly carry all three of them, cramming Kaiba Chiha onto the seat between himself and Yui.
Fortunately, the petite Chiha and the slender Yui did not make the ride unmanageable. With those two sandwiched together on the rear seat, the arrangement was surprisingly stable. The proportions were so comically harmonious that from a distance the three of them looked like a little family out for a weekend ride.
When the D-Wheel finally pulled up outside the villa gate, Yui stepped off and stood there with her mouth hanging open wide enough to fit an entire egg.
"This, this is YOUR house, Amano? You've actually made something of yourself?"
Before leaving District 32, Yui had known Amano was doing reasonably well in the mid-level district. She had not imagined he was doing THIS well. It had only been one month since he left the slums, and he was already living in a three-story villa.
Big cities really did have more opportunities.
[Yui] [Affection +5] [Affection: 75]
Just seeing the villa had jumped her affection five points in one go. Amano had not noticed it before, but his old childhood friend the shopkeeper apparently had a bit of a materialistic streak.
Not that he could entirely blame her. She had been poor for so long that naturally she would feel some pull toward a comfortable life. And if she were truly the mercenary type, she would have been chasing after Chiha rather than him, given that Chiha had been calling her "Yui-nee" and was worth considerably more.
By comparison, Kaiba Chiha's reaction to the villa was noticeably subdued.
"Not bad. Which room is mine?"
Hey. You have your own properties in the mid-level district. You are the second daughter of the Kaiba Corporation. You are just going to move into my house like that?
Catching the obvious look of reluctance and disdain in Amano's expression, Chiha, now that she was back in the mid-level district and had reclaimed access to her identity and funds, puffed out her small chest and answered with restored confidence.
"I am obviously going to be living with Sister dear! Besides, I would not be freeloading. I will pay you proper rent."
The prospect of rental income was enough to soften Amano's objections considerably. The spare rooms were sitting empty anyway, and if he could make a little money on the side he had no complaints. Besides, Chiha had inherited the Kaiba family's genetics in the looks department, quirky personality aside. Having a cute girl around would not exactly be unpleasant.
"Brother! Yui-nee, you're back!"
The first person to hear the commotion outside and come running was Amano Shio, from the second floor.
The moment she spotted Yui, Shio threw her arms around her.
"Shio, have you grown taller?" Yui laughed and ruffled her hair.
Back in District 32, Shio and Yui had always been close. On nights when Amano worked late shifts, Shio would often stay at Yui's place, and Yui had looked after her patiently even when getting around had been difficult. The warmth between them picked up exactly where it had left off.
"You, you, YOU! That is completely inappropriate!" Kaiba Chiha froze the moment she saw Shio bury herself in Yui's arms. She was almost vibrating with envy. She had not even managed to hug Sister dear like that yet.
"Kaiba Chiha?"
Shio looked up from Yui's embrace and noticed the small fuming figure nearby.
Shio had already heard about Chiha from Amano after he came back from District 32. She had been annoyed at first about the entrance exam sabotage, but hearing that Chiha had defended District 32 and protected Yui during the chaos had cancelled out most of her grudge. What remained was simple curiosity.
"Wow, you really are short. You are shorter than me!"
This was probably Shio's first time seeing Chiha up close. After measuring the gap between them with a flat hand, she discovered she was actually the taller one.
Chiha's expression shifted from envious to red. The fact of being edged out in height by a middle schooler was hard to argue with, so she mustered her dignity and sputtered, "I, I am still in my growth phase! I will get taller!"
"I am the one in my growth phase. You have already peaked," Shio said without mercy.
Leaving the two of them to their squabble, Yui glanced around and asked, "Amano, where is Kikawayu? I don't see him anywhere."
Of the old District 32 group, he was the only one who had not appeared yet.
"He's in the kitchen making dinner. Tonight's going to be a proper welcome feast, he said."
"He has always had such a gift for domestic life."
Yui said it with mild reluctant admiration. She had a small private rivalry with Kikawayu because he was a boy who happened to be better-looking than her, the official shopkeeper beauty of District 32. But even her competitive streak could not deny his cooking.
"Don't just stand around at the door. Come inside," Finesse called from the entryway, having grown tired of watching everyone linger on the front step.
"Oh, um, sorry to intrude..."
Yui went slightly timid the moment she saw Finesse. The villa was partly Finesse's property, and back when they were still in the lower districts, Finesse had been extremely clear on one point: she was not going to bring other girls along to the mid-level district with Amano.
Here she was, a girl, borrowing Finesse's villa. That had to be a problem.
"Relax. I am not as petty as I used to be. Any friend of Amano's is a friend of mine. Make yourself at home." Finesse smiled with the easy confidence of a woman who had nothing to worry about.
There was no trace of the old guardedness in her manner. She carried herself with the quiet assurance of someone who knew exactly where she stood.
The only one whose composure had quietly come apart was Kaiba Chiha. From the moment Kikawayu's name had been mentioned, her small body had been giving off a very subtle, sustained tremor.
In Chiha's memories, her contact with Kikawayu amounted to a few brief exchanges during her first visit to the Amano house in District 32, back when she had gone to try to purchase the Blue-Eyes White Dragon. She should not have had any particular feelings about him one way or another.
So why, the moment his name crossed Yui's lips just now, had her body flooded with instinctive cold dread? Why did it feel like something sharp had scraped across her nerves from the inside?
"Food's ready!"
The kitchen door swung open and Kikawayu stepped out wearing oven mitts, carrying a large pot.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
The scream that tore out of Kaiba Chiha's throat was not something a person produced on purpose. Her legs buckled instantly. She dropped straight to the floor, then immediately began scrambling backward on her hands and heels in a desperate, instinctive attempt to put as much distance between herself and Kikawayu as possible.
"Chiha, what is wrong?!" Yui spun around, startled.
Chiha had no room left in her mind for anything resembling logical thought. There was exactly one overwhelming impulse.
Run.
Get out of here.
Get away from that person.
"I'm sorry, Yui-nee, I have to go. I'll contact you later, I promise. Don't worry about me, I'll find somewhere to stay on my own!"
Before anyone could react, Kaiba Chiha was out the front door in something between a scramble and a sprint. Her short legs moved with a speed that bore no relation to their length. She cleared the corner of the street before most of the group had finished blinking.
Yui took a step toward the door to follow her, then stopped. Chiha had already vanished completely from view.
So much for collecting rent. Amano had been quietly hoping that someone with Chiha's thoroughly undeveloped sense of money's value would cheerfully quote him something absurd like a hundred thousand Eva Points a month. That prospect had now fled down the street along with its owner.
What he was mainly left wondering was what on earth had happened to her. The way she had reacted to the sight of Kikawayu was not normal nerves. That was genuine terror.
There was also the small matter of the mysterious damp patch left on the floor precisely where her legs had given out.
Amano chose not to examine that detail too closely.
Chiha's sudden exit did nothing to dampen the mood of the reunion. The welcome dinner Kikawayu had prepared that night was exactly what it had promised to be, generous and warm and unmistakably home. With Yui's room still being sorted out, she and Shio ended up sharing for the night, which suited both of them perfectly.
*
The following morning, Amano's alarm failed to wake him.
What cut through his sleep instead was the sound of repeated system notifications.
[Affection +1]
[Affection +1]
[Affection +1]
He blinked at the ceiling. The pattern of single-point increments coming in rapid succession was something he recognized from experience.
[Kuroshio Nagi] [Affection: 77]
Six points in one stretch. Amano had not seen or spoken to Nagi since the battle against the Wicked God. She had been using well since then, at least in the sense that Nibiru the Primal Being had seen plenty of action in his deck.
He glanced at the time. Six eighteen in the morning. If not for Nagi's notifications, he would have completely missed morning training.
The answer to the mystery arrived shortly after he opened his messages.
[The riding duel from your video, I watched the whole thing. It was incredible.]
[You got me fired up again just when I needed it most.]
[I guess everyone needs something to hold onto. For me that's you, my favorite duelist.]
[That video is going to blow up, I just know it. Actually, with that quality, it's already guaranteed.]
Mizuki had apparently pulled an all-nighter editing the footage from the WRGP Chronicle and uploaded it by dawn. Nagi had been awake to catch it.
He could picture why she had been awake. The Academy Challenge Tournament was tomorrow. As a second-year who had climbed far enough through the rankings by sheer aggressive play, Nagi had found herself assigned to defend the Bronze stage from a constant rotation of challengers. The pressure of being a defender against wave after wave of opponents, with no guaranteed rest between duels, was the kind of thing that made sleep difficult even for experienced competitors.
Apparently one riding duel video had solved that particular problem.
At the end of the message chain, Nagi had attached a photo.
Amano opened it. A self-portrait, taken kneeling in front of a mirror. Black lace layered over a short skirt, pale skin that almost looked unhealthy under certain lighting, soft blonde hair falling loose over both shoulders. As a photo it was genuinely striking.
The dark circles under her eyes, however, were spectacular. Whatever her aesthetic intentions, those circles told the real story of the night she had just had.
[Get some rest, Nagi.]
[Affection +1]
*
Back at the academy, Amano cashed in his Chronicle ranking points and picked up The White Stone of Ancients along with a copy of Priestess with Eyes of Blue to round out his Blue-Eyes Synchro lineup. His rank ticked forward from 299 to 250 on the strength of the previous day's clearing bonus.
The Synchro line was still thinner than his Fusion spread, all told. But the Academy Challenge Tournament was a Fusion-to-Fusion climb, starting with the Bronze stage and working upward. Showing up to that tournament and relying entirely on Fusion felt wrong. He was the challenger. He was supposed to bring his own answer.
Two cards would do for now. Tomorrow would tell.
*
The big break of the morning came at the classroom door during the long interval between second and third period.
"Is that a third-year? Not from this district, is she?"
"Going straight to the first-year classrooms, someone she knows?"
"Feels like a familiar setup. Bet she ends up at..."
The murmur from the corridor proved accurate. The girl came directly to Class 1-E, cut straight to the aisle between Amano and Sakuya's seats, and stopped there.
"Jinguuji Masayo?"
Amano had not had time to process the arrival before Masayo was already standing between them.
"Masayo, what are you doing here?" Yukki said, visibly surprised.
"I asked her to come." Sakuya's voice was cool and even. She glanced at Masayo. "Did you bring what I asked for?"
Masayo nodded firmly. In front of Sakuya she had no senior authority at all, only the practiced deference of someone who had spent a long time on the back foot.
"If Sakuya asks it of me, I'll manage. Even something like this."
Something like this? The atmosphere was conspicuously odd.
"Should we find somewhere more private?" Masayo suggested.
"Here is fine. These are all our people." Sakuya looked around the classroom. "Close the door."
The class moved immediately. Doors shut, windows latched, curtains drawn. Fujiwara and two of the sturdier students posted themselves at the front and rear entrances. Even accounting for the fact that Sakuya was technically their class representative rather than anything more, the obedience was total.
For all her struggles with written exams, Sakuya had genuine command presence when she chose to use it.
Masayo settled into a spare seat and took a tablet from her bag.
"I've brought the duel data my sister had stored. Everything from last semester."
"Your sister's duel data," Amano repeated.
By sister, she meant Jinguuji Ryoushuu. Fusion Academy's number two, guardian of the Silver stage. When Amano had tried to search for footage of top-ranked students before, almost nothing had come up. The ranked standings at Academy City tended toward privacy, with only the occasional clash that became too public to suppress ever making it onto the video platforms. Chiha's entrance exam defeat was the obvious example of something that had simply been too widely witnessed to disappear.
Sakuya had arranged for Masayo to bring her own sister's data directly.
For someone who had sworn devotion to the Nanki'in heir, apparently the loyalty extended far enough to involve a degree of familial betrayal.
Actually, this reminded him uncomfortably of Chiha and Kaiba Chiaki. Both academies apparently had a tradition of younger sisters undermining their older sisters for the sake of the people they were attached to.
Still, knowing your opponent before a match was basic preparation. Amano's own duel records were already public knowledge with millions of views behind them. Reviewing intelligence on the other side was fair enough.
Masayo noticed his hesitation and pre-empted the obvious question.
"I want to be clear, this is not a betrayal of my family. This is for the sake of good relations between the Jinguuji and Nanki'in families going forward." She paused. "My sister has recently become rather extreme. She is pushing toward Jinguuji becoming fully independent, which I believe is premature. Our family does not yet have the foundation to sustain that. If she suffers a loss at the tournament, perhaps it will clear her head somewhat."
Amano was not particularly invested in the Jinguuji family's internal politics. His interest was simpler. He needed to defeat Ryoushuu to reach Chiaki's Gold stage. Without that, there would be no Tower Exterior Exploration, no fifty-million annual salary, and none of the answers he was slowly assembling from the outside world.
He took the tablet.
In the footage on screen, a sharp-looking young woman with black hair held a card aloft on the academy's main dueling stage with composed certainty.
"Normal Summon, in Attack Position. Dogmatika Ecclesia, the Virtuous!"
The card that materialized was not what Amano expected from someone at the top of Fusion Academy. A silver-armored figure gripping an enormous hammer, a strange mark inscribed across her forehead, looking more like a wandering knight than any standard Fusion staple.
[Dogmatika Ecclesia, the Virtuous]
[Level 4 / LIGHT / Spellcaster / Effect]
[ATK: 1500 / DEF: 1500]
Effect 1 and Effect 2 can each be used once per turn. (1): If your opponent controls a monster Special Summoned from the Extra Deck, you can Special Summon this card from your hand. (2): When this card is Normal or Special Summoned, add 1 "Dogmatika" card from your Deck to your hand, except "Dogmatika Ecclesia, the Virtuous." After this effect resolves, you cannot Special Summon from the Extra Deck until the end of this turn. (3): This card cannot be destroyed in battle by monsters that were Special Summoned from the Extra Deck.
Amano sat up slightly. Dogmatika. He knew this archetype. By the standards of his previous life, this was a thoroughly modern strategy, the kind of thing that would have been completely foreign to the earlier eras of the game. No wonder Ryoushuu had climbed to second place in an environment where most people were still running straightforward beatdown.
"And then," Masayo continued quietly, "she brings this out."
The footage advanced. Ryoushuu placed a second card.
[Dogmatika Fleurdelis, the Knighted]
[Level 8 / LIGHT / Spellcaster / Effect]
[ATK: 2500 / DEF: 2500]
Effect 1 and Effect 2 can each be used once per turn. (1): If you control a "Dogmatika" monster, you can Special Summon this card from your hand. (2): When this card is Special Summoned: Make each player send 2 monsters from their Extra Deck to the Graveyard. After this effect resolves, you cannot Special Summon from the Extra Deck for the rest of this turn.
"Both players," Amano said.
"Both players," Masayo confirmed. "My sister uses almost no Fusion herself despite her academy affiliation. She does not need to. She relies on the fact that most duelists at this level have only one or two genuinely irreplaceable Extra Deck cards. Losing two of those often decides the match before it has properly started. Without intelligence beforehand, it is nearly impossible to prepare."
Amano leaned back in his chair and thought about his own Extra Deck.
His system-generated card pool was not one or two cards deep. It was not even twenty cards deep. The sheer volume of what the system had unlocked for him over the course of this semester, through Chronicle rewards, affection skills, and the Dragon-type unlock from the very beginning, was closer to a functioning library than a traditional deck's Extra. Any two cards that Ryoushuu sent to his Graveyard from that pool would be replaced by dozens more that she had not even seen yet.
He was not entirely sure what would happen when the duel began and Fleurdelis tried to send two of his Extra Deck cards to the Graveyard. The system generated cards dynamically when summoning conditions were met. It was possible Ryoushuu would peer across the field and find a stack of phantom cards she had never seen in any historical record.
Either she would be staring at a comically shallow Extra Deck of one or two physical cards, or she would be looking at an Extra Deck that seemed to have no bottom.
Either outcome seemed like it would do something interesting to her expression.
"How does she do against people who run large Extra Decks?" Amano asked.
Masayo thought for a moment. "She has not really encountered one. Most students at this level have three to five Extra Deck cards at most."
Amano nodded slowly. The word for this kind of structural matchup, if he remembered it correctly from his previous life, was a hard counter. The strategy specifically designed to exploit one player's weakness ran directly into a wall when it met someone who did not have that weakness.
This was not guaranteed. Ryoushuu was the second-ranked duelist at Fusion Academy and presumably had contingencies. But the primary axis of her strategy was aimed at a vulnerability he simply did not have.
"Can you beat my sister?" Masayo asked.
"Hard to say."
"That is fair. She is only a fourth-year and already the second strongest at Fusion Academy. Once the current top graduates, she will likely be number one. Even a loss would be nothing to be ashamed of."
"Not necessarily a loss either."
It was possibly the most diplomatically humble thing Amano had said in recent memory. Overconfidence before a difficult match had a way of attracting precisely the kind of result it assumed away. He had seen enough duels go sideways to know better.
Masayo studied him for a moment, then nodded, apparently satisfied with the honest uncertainty of it.
Amano handed the tablet back and glanced at the clock.
One day left.
***
you would think Amano is in a "swapped " world, CUZ like 98% of his opponents are girls/women