Chapter 215: Extra Deck Severed? Amano Rei's Two Hundred and Sixty Cards
The Silver stage of Fusion Academy had seen what it needed to see. Jinguuji Ryoushuu had just finished making an example of her own sister in full view of several hundred students, and the afternoon session had barely started. What came next was the Eva system's announcement of the following challenger.
Ryoushuu had settled into the easy confidence of someone who expected the rest of the day to be a comfortable series of demonstrations. That expression adjusted itself when the name came through the speakers.
"Amano Rei."
She looked at him as he stepped onto the stage, and the idle comfort sharpened into something genuinely attentive.
Up on the Gold stage above, Kaiba Chiaki, who had been staring at nothing in particular since leaving the cafeteria, also sharpened.
"I did not expect to see you here today," Ryoushuu said. "This just got interesting."
Amano had access to Masayo's pirated duel data. He knew that. What Ryoushuu knew about him, by contrast, was considerably more thorough. The Nanki'in family's prospective son-in-law, confirmed by Muramasa himself, was going to become a major force in the new generation of Academy City's power structures. A person like that warranted research. And Amano Rei, between Mizuki's editing work and the simple fact that his duels tended toward spectacle, was extremely easy to research. Several videos, millions of views per episode.
"You have potential, Amano Rei. More than you know, frankly. The Nanki'in family is operating on methods from a hundred years ago. Why stay with them? The Jinguuji family can offer you better."
Yukki made a sound of frustration. "She is trying to poach Amano-sensei right in the middle of the tournament!"
"We are not operating from the past," Sakuya said.
The response from Amano was immediate. "No. I have no interest in joining a family that is ready to cut a hundred-year alliance the moment it becomes inconvenient, and no interest in working with someone who has just publicly humiliated her own sister. That is not something I want to be associated with."
Ryoushuu tilted her head. "You are speaking about 'honor' as though it has practical weight. In the real world, what actually matters is the strength of the cards in your hand."
There was no way to honestly disagree with the second half of that. Amano knew it and did not try to deny it. The Shiranui deck the Nanki'in family had been refining for a century was formidable by the standards of most of the student population and still a generation behind what Ryoushuu was running. That was simply true.
It was also true that Sakuya had registered it. The slight shift in her expression said that this observation had not been abstract to her for quite a while.
Transmitting inherited power through preserved decks was the foundation of how established families maintained themselves. It also meant that each generation received a ceiling as well as a floor. Sakuya had been thinking about how to push past it since the class war ended. Having someone say it plainly on a tournament stage did not make it easier to hear.
"The Eva system is ready," the platform display announced.
[Eva: Duel Approved]
[Duelist: Amano Rei]
[Duelist: Jinguuji Ryoushuu]
[Data Network Active. Duel Field Generated.]
[Content: Academy Challenge Tournament]
[Proud duelists, let the outcome of this duel serve as the measure of your soul!]
[Duel!]
The coin flip gave Amano first move. Ryoushuu clicked her tongue, once, quietly.
First move was worth more to her than to almost any other duelist in the tournament. A Turn 1 setup with the Dogmatika engine could lock the board before an opponent ever drew a meaningful response. Being handed the second seat against a well-researched target was a genuine inconvenience.
*
"Spell Card: Enchanting Fitting Room!"
[Enchanting Fitting Room]
[Spell Card: Pay 800 LP. Reveal the top 4 cards of your Deck. Special Summon all Level 3 or lower Normal Monsters revealed this way, and shuffle the rest back.]
Amano LP: 4000 to 3200.
Four cards came off the top of the deck and spread across his field of view.
Elemental HERO Avian. Elemental HERO Burstinatrix. Polymerization. Lady of the World Chalice.
Three Normal Monsters and a Fusion Spell looking back at him with what felt like a suggestion. Amano acknowledged the implication and declined it. He was here representing the Synchro Academy on Fusion's home stage. Opening with a Fusion play would have answered its own question in the wrong direction.
Both Avian and Burstinatrix and the Lady materialized together, the two Heroes flanking the smaller figure in the center.
Amano chose the Synchro line. He laid the two cards at angles on the duel disk, Synchro stars lighting in sequence.
"I use Lady of the World Chalice as a Tuner with Level 3 Elemental HERO Burstinatrix for a Synchro Summon."
[Lady of the World Chalice]
[Level 2 / EARTH / Spellcaster / Tuner]
[ATK: 500 / DEF: 2100]
Special ability: Can function as a Tuner despite having no printed Tuner status, when used as material for a World Chalice Synchro Monster.
"That is a non-Tuner Synchro," Ryoushuu observed, which was technically accurate and also irrelevant to what came next.
The flat-figured Lady looked at Burstinatrix next to her with an expression somewhere between professional resignation and mild indignity, then both figures dissolved into intersecting rings of Synchro light.
"Transcending the standard rules of Tuner summoning, in the name of the Divine Child, harmonize the light of the stars!"
"Synchro Summon, Level 5! Star Grail's Oracle Eve!"
[Star Grail's Oracle Eve]
[Level 5 / WATER / Spellcaster / Tuner / Synchro / Effect]
[ATK: 1800 / DEF: 2100]
[1 Tuner + 1 or more non-Tuner monsters]
Effect 1 (Synchro Summon only): When this card is Synchro Summoned, add 1 "World Legacy" card from your Deck to your hand. Effect 2 (GY): If this card is sent from the field to the GY, Special Summon 1 World Chalice monster from your GY.
Eve's Synchro form stepped into the field with considerably more composure than the process of being summoned seemed to warrant. An effect that had, apparently, been waiting for the right conditions finally resolved without interruption.
"Eve's effect. On Synchro Summon, add one World Legacy card from the deck to hand."
The card that arrived in Amano's hand was World Legacy - "World."
He followed it with the second action. "Spell Card: Horse Bone's Price. Send 1 Normal Monster from my field to the Graveyard and draw 2 cards."
Elemental HERO Avian was sacrificed to the cause of better hand quality, its three stars briefly serving as a very expensive pot of avarice before dissolving into the Graveyard.
Amano set two cards face-down in his back row.
"I end my turn."
"I have not given you permission to end."
Ryoushuu's hand moved before the turn declaration could complete.
"During your Main Phase, I activate the hand effect of Dogmatika Thunder Fleurdelis!"
[Dogmatika Thunder Fleurdelis]
[Level 8 / LIGHT / Spellcaster / Effect]
[ATK: 2500 / DEF: 2500]
Effect 1: During either player's Main Phase, if there is a monster Special Summoned from the Extra Deck on the field, Special Summon this card from your hand. Effect 2: When this card is Special Summoned from the hand, set 1 Dogmatika Trap Card from your Deck face-down on the field; that card can be activated the turn it is set if a Fusion, Synchro, Xyz, or Link Monster with 2500 or more ATK is on the opponent's field.
The knight with the thunder lance materialized on Ryoushuu's field during Amano's own turn, bypassing the normal sequence of play with the casual authority of a card that had been designed to ignore whose turn it was.
"When Special Summoned from hand, Dogmatika Thunder Fleurdelis sets one Dogmatika Trap Card from the deck face-down."
The trap card that appeared in Ryoushuu's back row during Amano's turn, facedown and already half-active, was Evil Dogmatika Script.
A voice from behind Amano: "She is already playing cards during your turn! That is impressive."
Amano did not look back. He recognized the voice. The middle school section had let out early, apparently the administrators had given the younger students the afternoon to watch the Challenge Tournament. Shio had arrived.
Ryoushuu glanced at the new spectator, then back at Amano. "Now you understand the difference between what I run and what the Nanki'in family has. This is why I told you they have fallen behind. Dueling evolves continuously. A family that has maintained the same deck for a century, unchanged, will inevitably be washed out by that current." She paused. "Even now you could make a different choice. The Jinguuji family can match anything the Nanki'in offer and give you something they cannot: a future that actually keeps pace with the game."
Yukki bit down on her response hard enough that it was audible.
Amano picked up his duel disk and declared his turn end.
Then he said: "I want to be clear about something. My reason for refusing has almost nothing to do with family loyalty, or the question of which deck is stronger, or what terms anyone can offer."
"Then what?"
"I simply do not want anything to do with someone who made their own little sister cry. People who treat their little sisters that way are not my kind of people."
Silence. The specific kind of silence that meant multiple people had not expected to hear that particular sentence on a tournament stage in front of several hundred spectators.
Masayo, still standing at the edge of the crowd with Sakuya's sleeve still lightly in her hand, had stopped crying. Chiaki on the Gold stage above had acquired an expression she was not entirely managing. Shio had gone red and covered her face with both hands.
"Brother, please do not say embarrassing things at full volume in public," she said to no one in particular.
Finesse, watching from the crowd, was nodding with the expression of someone whose assumptions had just been confirmed. "The sister-con attribute. Confirmed in field conditions."
Ryoushuu stared at him for a moment.
"A trivially small ambition." She let it go. "My turn. Draw."
*
Whatever she thought of his reasoning, she was apparently done trying to recruit him. The gloves were off.
"Hand effect of Dogmatika Theo, the Iron Hammer! While you control a monster Special Summoned from the Extra Deck, I Special Summon this card from hand!"
[Dogmatika Theo, the Iron Hammer]
[Level 4 / LIGHT / Spellcaster / Effect]
[ATK: 1800 / DEF: 1500]
Effect: If the opponent controls a monster that was Special Summoned from the Extra Deck, Special Summon this card from the hand. When this card is Special Summoned this way, additional effects apply.
The broad-shouldered young man with the single war hammer arrived on Ryoushuu's field. There was something consistent about the Dogmatika aesthetic: regardless of whether the figure carried a sword, a lance, a hammer, or a staff, they were all Spellcaster-type. The archetype's commitment to physical weaponry was apparently cosmetic.
"Activate the face-down Trap Card: Evil Dogmatika Script!"
[Evil Dogmatika Script]
[Trap Card]
Effect 1 (once per turn): Tribute "Dogmatika" monsters or Ritual/Fusion/Synchro monsters you control with total Levels equal to the Ritual Monster's Level; Ritual Summon 1 "Dogmatika" Ritual Monster from hand or Deck. Effect 2: Banish this card from your GY; target 2 "Dogmatika" monsters of different Levels in your GY; add one to hand, shuffle the other to the bottom of the Deck.
The trap's crimson light poured out of the set card and wrapped around Dogmatika Theo, consuming it. Four stars were drawn from the hammer-wielder's figure and embedded into the ritual circle.
"Level 4 Ritual Summon! From my Deck!"
Ryoushuu pulled the Ritual Monster card from her deck with the efficiency of someone who had run this line hundreds of times.
"Awakening in the ritual where light and darkness entwine, desecrated holy relic! Rise!"
"Ritual Summon, Dogmatika White Relic!"
[Dogmatika White Relic]
[Level 4 / LIGHT / Spellcaster / Ritual / Effect]
[ATK: 500 / DEF: 2500]
[Requires "Evil Dogmatika Script" for Ritual Summon]
Effect 1 (on Ritual Summon): Target 2 face-up monsters on the field; one of them gains ATK equal to the other's ATK until the End Phase. Effect 2: Level 8 or higher "Dogmatika" monsters you control cannot be destroyed in battle. Effect 3: When the opponent Special Summons a monster from the Extra Deck: look at the opponent's Extra Deck and send 1 monster from it to the GY.
A slight figure in white and black, carrying a dark scepter instead of a weapon, stepped out of the ritual light. Among all the sword-bearers and hammer-wielders of the Dogmatika court, this was the first one that actually resembled a Spellcaster.
"White Relic's Ritual Summon effect!" Ryoushuu placed her hand on the field. "I target the White Relic and Dogmatika Thunder Fleurdelis. White Relic gains ATK equal to Fleurdelis's ATK of 2500!"
The dark scepter flared as the borrowed lightning poured into it.
[Dogmatika White Relic: ATK 500 to 3000]
From the crowd, Shio's voice carried: "That is a hand-built Blue-Eyes White Dragon!"
Rin Seiya had apparently maintained her custom of requiring Blue-Eyes White Dragon's level as the benchmark for everything. With Rin Seiya herself stuck on the Gold stage, Shio had quietly inherited the tradition.
"Battle Phase!"
Dogmatika Thunder Fleurdelis moved first, launching the thunder lance directly at Star Grail's Oracle Eve in Defense Position.
"Dogmatika Thunder's Lightning Resounds!"
2500 ATK against 2100 DEF. Eve took the full impact and disappeared in a burst of light, with a noise that sounded vaguely offended.
"Eve's Graveyard effect." Amano responded as the dust cleared. "When this card is sent from the field to the Graveyard, Special Summon one World Chalice monster from the Graveyard."
Eve, still apparently present enough in the Graveyard to trigger effects, pointed at herself.
"I'm referring to myself, if that was not clear," Amano said.
"I Special Summon Lady of the World Chalice in Defense Position."
The flat-figured Lady returned to the field with 2100 DEF and the resigned expression of a recurring shield.
[Lady of the World Chalice: DEF 2100]
"Continue the attack. White Relic!"
3000 ATK against 2100 DEF. Lady of the World Chalice was removed from the field with considerably less drama than Eve had been, leaving Amano's Monster Zone empty.
"Direct attack. Dogmatika Sanctus!"
[Dogmatika Sanctus]
[Level 8 / LIGHT / Spellcaster / Effect]
[ATK: 2000 / DEF: 1500]
Effect 1: When a Fusion, Synchro, Xyz, or Link Monster is sent to any GY, Special Summon this card from the hand. Effect 2: When Special Summoned this way, return 1 Dogmatika Ritual Spell from your GY to your hand.
The figure wearing bladed gauntlets rushed toward Amano's life point total with both arms extended. The pointed edges closed in.
A card flipped up from Amano's back row.
"Trap Card: Soul Resonance!"
[Soul Resonance]
[Trap Card: Activate when the opponent's monster declares a direct attack. Negate that attack. Then, banish 1 Tuner and any number of non-Tuner monsters from your GY, with combined Levels up to 8; Special Summon 1 Synchro Monster from your Extra Deck with a Level equal to those combined Levels.]
"I negate Sanctus's direct attack. Then I banish from my Graveyard: Level 5 Tuner Star Grail's Oracle Eve and Level 2 Lady of the World Chalice. Combined Level 7. Soul Resonance Synchro!"
Eve surfacing from the Graveyard again produced a sound that would have been words if the summon sequence moved more slowly.
The Synchro light that burst out of the two banished monsters was not the calm silver of Eve's own summoning or the cold blue of the machine-types that had dominated the tournament so far. It was deep red, and it arrived with rose petals.
Thousands of them, projected into the air above the Fusion Academy stage, crimson against the afternoon sky. The crowd moved in response to them without quite meaning to.
Masayo caught one of the hovering projections on her palm, her expression doing something complicated. "Rose petals. Same as back then."
This was the same monster that had appeared on the night of the Nanki'in estate duel. She recognized the arrival.
"Cold flames encircle the world entire. Black blossom, bloom!"
"Soul Resonance Synchro, Level 7! Black Rose Dragon!"
[Black Rose Dragon]
[Level 7 / FIRE / Dragon / Synchro / Effect]
[ATK: 2400 / DEF: 1800]
[1 Tuner + 1 or more non-Tuner monsters]
Effect 1 (on Synchro Summon): When this card is Synchro Summoned, destroy all cards on the field.
Black Rose Dragon arrived through the rose storm with all three thousand petals attending, and the board-clear effect activated immediately upon landing.
Three Dogmatika monsters and a back row trap. All of it headed for the Graveyard simultaneously.
Ryoushuu reached into her hand.
"If you could not mount a counter of this level, I would have been disappointed." She set the card on the field in one motion. "Forbidden Chalice. I target Black Rose Dragon."
[Forbidden Chalice: Target 1 face-up monster; until the End Phase, it gains 400 ATK and its effects are negated.]
[Black Rose Dragon: ATK 2400 to 2800, effects negated]
The board-clear effect dissolved before it resolved. Three Dogmatika monsters remained standing. Amano had one monster with negated effects and two more turns of the end phase before Forbidden Chalice wore off.
"You beat my sister. That does not mean you have standing on this stage." The confidence in Ryoushuu's voice was not the performed variety. She had seen the counter coming. She had prepared for it. "Now. White Relic's Effect 3."
[Effect 3: When the opponent Special Summons a monster from the Extra Deck, look at the opponent's Extra Deck and send 1 monster from it to the GY.]
Black Rose Dragon had been Synchro Summoned from the Extra Deck. The condition was met. Ryoushuu extended her hand toward Amano's Extra Deck.
She had already done her research. Of the Extra Deck cards Amano had shown in his documented duels, the highest-priority target was clear: Scarlight Red Dragon Archfiend, the variant of Red Dragon Archfiend that swept the field of non-Tuner monsters below 1500 ATK and burned the opponent accordingly. Against a board of Dogmatika monsters that were all either Ritual or Effect, it was the most dangerous card she needed to remove.
"You want to see it?" Amano said.
He closed his eyes for a moment. There was a specific quality to the pause, like something behind his eyes was running very quickly through a large number of options.
Then he opened his eyes, laid his fingers on the edge of the Extra Deck, and displayed all of it at once.
The projection that appeared in the air between them was not one or two cards. It was not a dozen. What Jinguuji Ryoushuu found herself looking at was a wall.
Dragon-type Extra Deck monsters, stacked in a display that covered more vertical space than any single duel she had ever seen. Row after row after row, organized loosely by summon type, the projection extending past comfortable visibility into something that had to be scrolled through like a document.
Fusion: 80 cards.
Synchro: 120 cards.
Xyz: 60 cards.
Total: 260.
Amano had printed all of them during the moment he spent with his eyes closed, running a catalog of every dragon-type Extra Deck card he could access through the system at the current instant. He had not had time to be comprehensive. This was what he had arrived at with the available window.
"Take your time," he offered. "But there is a timer."
Ryoushuu said nothing for a moment.
She had seen people pad their Extra Decks before. Against the Dogmatika strategy of precise Extra Deck removal, the naive countermeasure was to load in extra copies of less important cards to dilute the targeting pool. It made the job slightly less precise. It did not make it impossible. White Relic's effect could still look through any number of cards and select the specific target she wanted. Two or three extra copies of secondary cards changed nothing.
But two hundred and sixty cards was a different problem entirely.
This was not a question of degree. Past a certain threshold, the difference in quantity became a difference in kind. Finding one specific card in a list of two hundred and sixty while the countdown clock ran was not the same task as finding it in a list of fifteen. The precision targeting that made the Dogmatika strategy nearly unbeatable in every documented deployment was designed for opponents with small, curated Extra Decks of finite and identifiable cards. It had never been aimed at something like this.
"Where is it," she said, not quite as a question, scanning the list. "Red Dragon Archfiend, right mark, right... How many Scarlight variants are in here?"
The countdown timer from the Eva system appeared at the edge of the projection.
She found Scarlight Red Dragon Archfiend with a few seconds remaining on the clock, located it in the wall, highlighted it.
Then she saw how many copies were in the list.
Three.
There were three copies of Scarlight Red Dragon Archfiend in Amano's Extra Deck.
She could send one of them to the Graveyard. Two would remain.
Ryoushuu looked at the timer, then at the projection, then at Amano.
"What exactly have you built."
If you're enjoying the story, toss a Power Stone or drop a review — it helps more than you'd think.
Advance chapters → patreon.com/Eatinpieces