Chapter 251: Burning Timelord! This Card Wants to Come to You
"Burning Timelord?"
Staring at the 80-affection skill notification Kuroshio Nagi had practically handed him for free, Amano could not construct a logical explanation no matter how hard he tried.
But on the principle that free is free and not taking it would just be wasteful, he moved to check the skill's effect while Rin Seiya was catching her breath.
Before he could open the skill panel, a small foot wreathed in burning flame nearly connected with his face.
A shame that spirits had no physical form and could not actually provide impact. That one would have landed.
"I only just manifested and you are already making me see this?! Have you no shame?!"
Amano's gaze followed the small foot upward and found a pink-haired little figure floating in the air, both hands planted firmly on her hips with visible indignation.
Whose child is this?
Eve: "You're new, aren't you? This kind of thing is not a first-time event here. Best practice is to find a corner and observe quietly. Once you're used to it, it's actually quite interesting."
Mana: "I did say the human recruitment documentary was worth watching. Eve, you finally understand what I mean."
Ivaliss: "Not bad."
Ecclesia: "Bad."
The spirits from his deck had been completely silent up to this moment and now chose to emerge all at once. The pink-haired newcomer was clearly the card spirit that came with the new skill.
Same pattern as White Ecclesia: rather than slotting a card directly into the deck, the skill manifested the spirit's physical presence.
At least Rin Seiya apparently could not see the spirits. Amano could play it off without explaining.
Otherwise, having this many girl-spirits suddenly popping up and talking at once would have created a scene that no amount of explaining would have resolved cleanly.
Based on the flame-wrapped feet, Amano had a good guess about which card this was.
Kurigalzu, the Timelord.
That explained the skill name: Burning Timelord.
And Kurigalzu's ability to Special Summon itself by releasing opponent monsters also fit perfectly with Kuroshio's personal affinity for the Kaiju archetype.
Even though the spirit had appeared, Amano still opened the system to confirm the exact skill content.
[Burning Timelord]
[Gain the card Kurigalzu, the Timelord. At the start of a duel, optionally add up to 3 Lava Golem cards to the Main Deck.]
So that was the burning part.
Not just the Kurigalzu spirit: even Lava Golem could be added to the deck. A card that dealt a steady thousand points of damage per turn to the opponent. That was genuinely burning.
Kurigalzu folded her arms with a small huff. "Well. Setting other matters aside: now that I've arrived in your deck, Amano Rei, you had better make sure I get to eat plenty of strong monsters."
Amano gave a quiet thumbs-up.
Easy enough. Whenever there was an opportunity to consume an opponent's monster, Kurigalzu's share would absolutely not be forgotten.
Unlike Kaijus and Lava Golem, which got sent to the opponent's field, Kurigalzu actually converted the consumed monster into raw ATK on Amano's own side.
[This card's ATK increases by 1500 for each monster Tributed to Special Summon it.]
Base ATK of 1500. Eat one monster and it matched Blue-Eyes White Dragon. Eat two and it reached Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon's ATK.
"Junior, I really cannot anymore. Let's go home." Rin Seiya had finally run completely out of energy and was no longer putting any effort into pretending otherwise. "Ride me back on your D-Wheel. I have genuinely nothing left in my legs."
Classic behavior: full of confidence going in, complete wreckage coming out.
"No problem. Get dressed first."
As the words left his mouth, Amano heard footsteps in the hallway outside. Fast ones, moving away.
"Who's there?" He called out on instinct.
Rin Seiya's club room was in the innermost corner of the corridor. No one had any reason to pass by.
"I didn't hear anything. You're imagining it."
Given Rin Seiya's current state of consciousness, she probably could not have heard a fire alarm. But it was probably his imagination.
Though out of caution, Amano checked the corridor once they were dressed.
"Ow!"
From inside the room, Rin Seiya heard the distinctive sound of Amano hitting the floor.
"What happened, junior?"
"Some terrible person spilled water all over the doorstep out here, it's completely slippery! Don't let me find out who did this!"
The following evening. Academy City Duelist Service Center.
Amano was sitting with Nanki'in Sakuya, waiting to be called. More precisely, Nanki'in Sakuya was waiting to be called and Amano was sitting beside her.
Unlike the old, nearly-empty service center in the lower districts, the Academy City version had newer equipment in greater numbers, but the larger pool of duelists waiting for gene identification meant the queue time was significantly longer. The lower districts averaged twenty minutes. Academy City was pushing close to an hour.
"Pl... please don't be nervous, Young Miss!"
Ryuuma opened a water bottle with trembling hands and extended it toward Nanki'in Sakuya with great care, nearly sloshing it in the process.
"You're the one who's nervous, Ryuuma." Sakuya accepted the bottle, took a small sip, then passed it to Amano. "You drink too, Amano."
She was completely unbothered, and in a moment like this she still remembered to pass her half-drunk water to him.
But Ryuuma's nerves were understandable. As the Nanki'in family's loyal retainer, watching the young lady he served prepare to abandon the inherited Shiranui deck in favor of a higher-risk gamble was emotionally complex even if there was nothing he could say to stop it.
Especially with the recent Jinguuji family situation.
After handing the bottle to Amano, Nanki'in Sakuya smoothed her school skirt and slowly stood. "I think we still have a while. I'll go to the restroom first."
Watching her walk away, Amano seized the opening.
"Ryuuma. I want to ask you something. Is there a reason Sakuya is in this much of a rush for the gene identification? Has something happened recently with the Nanki'in family?"
The question of whether to awaken her gene field required deep consideration. Even if she had made up her mind, she could have waited until the weekend. Instead she had skipped evening study hall the very next day and come here at speed. The urgency suggested something Amano was not aware of.
"The Young Miss didn't tell you, Young Master Amano? That's strange. I assumed you would definitely know, given that you personally fought and defeated that Jinguuji Ryoushuu."
"This is connected to Jinguuji Ryoushuu?"
"To the entire Jinguuji family."
Given that it touched on family matters, Ryuuma leaned closer and lowered his voice.
"The Jinguuji family has officially announced their intention to sever ties with the Nanki'in family. And the head of the family, Muramasa-dono, has consented."
"I had a feeling something like this was coming."
Amano had never been naive enough to think that defeating Jinguuji Ryoushuu in a duel would prevent the Jinguuji family from acting on their intentions. Ryoushuu's rank as a student was high, but he was still a student. The one who actually controlled the Jinguuji family was the current head, Jinguuji Domitsu.
What had surprised Amano was that Muramasa had agreed so readily.
"A fruit that cannot be sweetened by force, and a person who cannot be kept by force. The head of the family saw Jinguuji's divided loyalties long ago, so he did not say much this time." Ryuuma added, "But consenting to the severance does not mean the Nanki'in family will simply allow themselves to be walked over. There is more yet to see in the family dispute ahead."
"What does that have to do with Sakuya wanting to awaken her field so urgently?" Amano pressed.
"I see the Young Miss truly told you nothing. In families like ours, when two houses sever ties, there is a tradition: a Farewell Banquet. At the banquet, each family sends a representative to duel as a formal parting match. The date has been set for this Friday evening."
"A farewell duel. Does that mean..."
"Yes. The Nanki'in family's representative is the Young Miss."
"And the Jinguuji representative? Is it Ryoushuu?"
"No. On the Jinguuji side, the representative is the family head himself. Jinguuji Domitsu."
At the name, Card Spirit Ecclesia's voice surfaced at the edge of Amano's awareness.
Ecclesia: "So Domitsu has finally moved. That old creature is not to be underestimated. Be careful, Amano."
The duel is not mine to fight. What am I supposed to be careful about?
Though Amano recalled that Ecclesia had warned him previously about the Death Prison Realm's corruption spreading through the Jinguuji family. If Jinguuji Domitsu was behind that corruption, he might very well be a Death Prison Realm deck user himself.
Against an opponent like that, a Shiranui-only Sakuya would struggle considerably.
Though whether a Sky Striker deck with no Link capability would solve that problem was a separate question entirely.
"Does losing the farewell duel have any material consequences for the Nanki'in family?" Amano confirmed.
Ryuuma shook his head. "None at all. A farewell duel is essentially an exhibition match. If there is any consequence, it would only be a matter of family reputation."
Reputation was genuinely important. But from what Amano understood of Nanki'in Sakuya, her motivation seemed to extend beyond family face. On the day of the Academy Challenge Tournament, Jinguuji Ryoushuu had publicly condemned the Nanki'in family as a relic that could not evolve with the times.
That was probably the real reason for the urgency: Sakuya wanted the farewell duel to be her answer. Proof for the family, and proof for herself.
Though jumping directly from Synchro-aligned Shiranui to Link-aligned Sky Striker, rather than following the evolution of the times, might be skipping past the times entirely. Awakening a Link archetype with no Extra Deck Zone to use it in.
Nanki'in Sakuya returned from the restroom to find Ryuuma not only sitting in her seat but apparently in the middle of an intimate leaning-conversation with Amano. Something that could not really be described as visible flickered in the corner of her otherwise expressionless face.
You are the head of her personal guard. Sitting shoulder-to-shoulder with the young lady's person of importance in a public space is not a dignified look for a retainer.
"Ryuuma." The voice was flat, but the anger threaded through it was unmistakable.
"Y... Young Miss!" Ryuuma stood immediately. Having just spent the last few minutes sharing family intelligence he was not supposed to share, he was visibly and genuinely flustered.
"You will accept your punishment when you return." The words landed with cold precision. Nanki'in Sakuya sat back down next to Amano without elaborating further.
"Yes, yes... understood, Young Miss."
In that moment, Amano distinctly registered the authority of a legitimate heir to a major family. This was not performance.
Even Amano sat a little straighter and found himself reluctant to say anything unnecessary for the next few minutes, sitting quietly next to Nanki'in Sakuya as the service center continued its queue announcements.
Though Amano was not only waiting for the gene identification number to be called. He was also watching a system upgrade countdown.
The Millennium Puzzle fragment he had found in his pocket yesterday had triggered the upgrade notification, and the countdown had been running since this morning. The system was doing a live upgrade that did not interfere with normal function, but Amano could not help checking periodically what new capability it would deliver.
The progress bar had been crawling toward completion all day. It was nearly there now. But as everyone who had ever installed software knew: the last stretch of any progress bar was always the slowest.
At that moment, the service center called Nanki'in Sakuya's number.
The Academy City gene identification terminals used the same enclosed single-room design as the lower districts. Privacy measures were thorough, though whether the soundproofing was better than the lower-district version was an open question.
"Go on in, Sakuya. Whatever the result is, receive it with an open mind."
"Come in with me, Amano."
"Me? That room only fits one..."
Before he could finish the sentence, a cool hand closed around his wrist and pulled him firmly through the door.
This was Amano's first discovery that the gene identification room could technically accommodate two people without triggering a violation.
His function inside the room, to be clear, was observation only. He could not influence the identification result.
"It's a bit crowded. That's fine." Nanki'in Sakuya activated the terminal.
The enclosed space was not large. Even with Sakuya's slight build, two people in it inevitably meant physical contact, pressed close together.
Since Sakuya did not object, Amano did not object to the side of his face resting against her dark hair and the faint clean scent of shampoo.
When the recognition expansion system activated and the space opened into a field of drifting pale-blue data, the crowded feeling vanished instantly.
Countless cards floated in the data space, each one representing a possible future direction for the duelist.
Amano was reminded of his own gene identification. He had flipped two Elemental HEROs and assumed the HERO archetype was his field, then flipped a third card and found it was Kuriboh, resolving into the Vanilla field instead.
The ten starting bound cards that represented Nanki'in Sakuya's Duel gene were already materializing before her.
Without any apparent hesitation, Sakuya reached to flip them open.
"You're not nervous at all, Sakuya."
Even Amano's own hands had been trembling when he flipped his first identification cards.
"I'm not nervous. Whatever field I identify, this is the path I chose to walk. And with you here, I'm not afraid of anything."
Class President, that is a very confident line. But if the cards turn out to be something with no Extra Deck Zone compatibility, the disappointment would still come regardless of how composed she was.
The only hope was in Eden's unusually broad definition of what counted as a field.
Nanki'in Sakuya flipped the first card. As expected: a young woman standing with a tachi in hand, dressed in a black and white uniform.
[Sky Striker Ace - Raye]
[Level 4 DARK]
[Warrior / Effect]
[ATK: 1500 / DEF: 1500]
She turned the second. The companion piece, another tachi-wielding young woman in a dark uniform.
[Sky Striker Ace - Roze]
[Level 4]
[Warrior / Effect]
[ATK: 1500 / DEF: 1500]
The same two cards named in the Inheritor of Shiranui Style skill, Sky Striker Ace Raye and Roze. The first two results pointed squarely at a Sky Striker field.
Amano's assessment remained what it had been. Sky Striker was an extremely powerful archetype; in competitive play from his previous life, it had consistently held a place in the top tier. But a Sky Striker deck with no Links, especially awakened right before a critical duel, was not a favorable situation for Sakuya.
Apparently not yet registering the implications of the result, Nanki'in Sakuya reached for the third card.
Eden's gene field awakening rule worked like Tarot cards: the first three cards revealed determined the field, their combination establishing the duelist's destiny.
At the moment the young woman who had accepted her fate and chosen to challenge it reached for the third card and flipped it, Card Spirit Ecclesia's voice rang out sharply.
Ecclesia: "It's here!"
Amano: "What is?"
Ecclesia: "The sword!"
Amano: "What?"
The glory carried through a bloodline. When the young woman gathered her courage and reached for the third card that would either free her from old chains or prove the risk had been miscalculated, the moment the card turned over, Amano realized he had underestimated Nanki'in Sakuya entirely.
The third card was fate's own gift to the courageous.
[Swordsoul of Mo Ye]
[Level 4 WATER]
[Wyrm / Effect]
[ATK: 1700 / DEF: 1800]
Field Awakened: "Blade and Sword."
Sky Striker and Swordsoul had combined to form Nanki'in Sakuya's field: Blade and Sword.
The two archetypes were completely unrelated at a glance. But the awakening of Blade and Sword, combining Sky Striker and Swordsoul, meant Nanki'in Sakuya had access to both Link Summoning and Synchro Summoning in her toolkit. She would not be reduced to a non-functional deck the moment an Extra Deck Zone was absent.
The still-processing Sakuya had not yet had time to read the card effects carefully. She turned to look at Amano.
"What do you think, Amano?"
"You won, Sakuya."
At that same moment, the system upgrade completion notification chimed.
The progress bar had finally cleared its last stretch. A freshly updated system interface appeared before him.
[Millennium Puzzle (2/4)]
Along with the updated fragment count, just as with the first upgrade, a new built-in system skill had been added.
System Skill: [Limited Link Zone]
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