Chapter 298: Heir to the Sun God
This was Finesse Wein's dream. The young lady had fantasized about it countless times: if she ever leveled up to a G-cup herself someday, she'd absolutely dress just like the woman standing in front of her.
If she ever had a G-cup, she'd wear nothing but cleavage-baring outfits from that day on!
But a fantasy was still just a fantasy, a size that existed only within the limits of Finesse's meager imagination. Seeing the real thing in person was still enough to leave her utterly floored.
Losing to a G-cup really was a terrifying thing.
If even Finesse, a girl, was left this stunned, there was no need to even mention what it did to Amano, a guy.
Also, seriously, she was standing way too close.
Celestia, hands still tucked in her pockets, crossed straight through the crowd until she was standing right in front of Amano, leaning in face to face to study him.
By simple relativity, if she was studying his face up close, Amano could naturally see hers just as clearly in return.
Her deep tan, wheat-brown skin was rare even in a melting-pot post-apocalyptic utopia like Eden, giving her a distinctly exotic look.
With her face this close, her most eye-catching G-cup was out of view, which left her golden eyes, seeming to shimmer under the newly risen morning sun, as the most striking thing about her.
Even her pupils were different from an ordinary person's. Rather than round like a normal human's, Celestia's pupils were more like a snake's, elongated and oval.
"W-what does this woman want?"
Saotome Rei looked like she was bracing for an attack, but the sheer presence coming off Celestia's chest was simply overwhelming. Put it this way: everyone in this villa combined wouldn't add up to even half of hers.
Couldn't be helped, really. Everyone here was on the smaller side. Between two middle schoolers and Finesse, only shopkeeper Yui and Kikawayu in her true female form really counted as having any combat power in this particular arena.
After studying him for a good long while, Celestia finally spoke, slowly. "Looking at you like this, you really do resemble him... Amano Rei?"
"Yeah, that's me."
[Celestia] [Affection: 52]
So this woman was also a skill target selected by the Duel King System.
"Let me ask you something. What's your relationship to Amano Yuichi?"
?!!
There was no way Amano could have expected this woman, whom he'd only just met, to bring up the name of his own late father.
"That's... my father." Amano admitted honestly.
"I knew it!" Celestia's golden eyes shifted faintly in the sunlight. "The moment my club dug up your name last night, I had a feeling!"
"Feeling. What feeling..."
The next second, everything went dark in front of Amano's eyes. His head seemed to be pressed between two cloud-soft spheres as Celestia pulled him into a crushing hug.
"Hey?!" Faced with Celestia's sudden, no-holds-barred move, everyone at the villa cried out in shock at once. "What are you doing?!"
"I've finally found you, Amano boy!" Celestia pulled Amano in even tighter.
[Celestia] [Affection +30] [Affection: 82]
[Affection has crossed the 70-point threshold. Dueling skill "Mark of the Heir" unlocked.]
[Affection has crossed the 80-point threshold. Dueling skill "Heir to the Sun God" unlocked.]
What was going on here?
Affection had suddenly rocketed, on their very first meeting, from 52 straight up to 82, high enough to unlock two Romance skills at once.
This was the first time Amano had run into anything like it since the system had first awakened.
Speaking of which, now that the system had absorbed its third Puzzle fragment, it had apparently finally stopped pretending and dropped the act, calling these card-battle skills "Romance skills" outright.
But Amano didn't have time to check the skill effects right now.
As pleasant as being wrapped in something as soft as a water-filled cotton ball felt at first, after too long, all that was left was the agony of not being able to breathe.
So death by chest really was a real thing.
"Wait, Celestia!" Amano struggled to break free from the terrifying grip strength of the woman in front of him, gulping down the long-missed fresh air around him.
"What exactly is going on here? Why would you bring up my father's name, Celestia?"
"Calling me by my full name is so distant." Celestia smiled brightly. "You can just call me Tia from now on."
"T-Tia?"
"Aww, sweetheart~"
Huh???
What in the world was happening?
"Y-you, you called Rei what?" Kikawayu looked ready to short-circuit completely. "This woman's insane! Who does this on the first meeting? Rei, get away from her right now, don't let a bad woman corrupt you!"
"I'm not insane. I've got a contract to prove it!"
"A contract?"
"A contract my grandfather left me before he passed. Or more precisely, I guess you'd call it a marriage contract."
As she said the words "marriage contract," a faint blush crept across Celestia's deep-brown face, mostly hidden beneath her skin tone. The fact that she'd actually blush bringing this up meant she wasn't quite as brash as she looked on the surface.
Celestia activated the Eva terminal on her wrist, projecting the contract's interface in front of Amano and the others.
In the bottom right corner, the contract signatory's name was clearly displayed: Amano Yuichi. It really was his own father's name.
Why did this whole scene feel so familiar?
Finesse and Amano exchanged a look.
Some inexplicable stranger showing up out of nowhere with a contract his father had signed. Wasn't this exactly the same setup as back in District 32, when the Wein family had come collecting on that debt?
Back then, the Wein Group's contract had been for a loan of 100,000 Eva Points.
The contract in Celestia's hand, though, read Deck Loan, signed thirteen years ago.
"My grandfather told me that thirteen years ago, Amano Yuichi borrowed one of the two Forbidden Decks our tomb-keeper clan has passed down for generations. And it's all spelled out clearly right here in the contract."
Celestia's tan fingertip pointed to the very end of the contract's text.
[If the Deck is not returned within ten years, as compensation, my son shall marry into the tomb-keeper clan after turning 18, wed to Celestia. Signed, Amano Yuichi.]
"That dead deadbeat dad!" Seeing the exact wording of the contract, Shio beat Amano to it, ranting first about their thoroughly unreliable father. "Isn't this basically selling off big brother?!"
Since the contract had been signed thirteen years ago, the ten-year deadline had obviously already been blown past.
"So, Amano boy, according to the contract, you're my fiance now." Celestia declared, righteous and matter-of-fact. "It's not too much for me to call you sweetheart, is it?"
What a bombshell!
Amano Rei's fiancee?
Having the first-move advantage of a G-cup was one thing, but if he let G resolve all the way through too, what would even be left for him to work with here?
Not only were Finesse and the others at the villa feeling deeply conflicted, even the recruiters from the other professional clubs standing nearby were stunned speechless.
No wonder the very first thing Celestia had said upon arriving was, "What kind of poaching operation is this supposed to be?"
When it came to poaching talent, she was the ruthless one after all!
Pulling out a marriage contract and a fiance, who could possibly out-recruit that?
Even though the contract really did say that, its terms were so bare-bones that Amano still hadn't fully wrapped his head around the situation.
"Tia, you said my father borrowed a Deck your tomb-keeper clan has passed down for generations? What Deck exactly? And what does your tomb-keeper clan even do?"
"You're actually calling her Tia now?!" Off in an unnoticed corner, Kikawayu had bitten her lip nearly bruised.
That his own father might have been a duelist was something Amano had already gotten a glimpse of, way back with that very first duel contract from the Wein family.
But since so few people knew anything about it, whether he asked around District 32 or asked Finesse, there'd never been any other leads, so Amano hadn't given it much more thought.
He never expected his own father to have gotten tangled up with the tomb-keeper clan on top of everything else.
Also, the tomb-keeper clan... were there even any tombs left in Eden for them to guard?
The tomb-keeper clan was, in the Yu-Gi-Oh! DM anime, the family that had guarded the Pharaoh's tomb for generations.
But where in Eden was there still a Pharaoh's tomb to guard?
Wasn't the entirety of Eden Tower rebuilt by the mainframe Eva, on top of a continent of ruins wiped out by post-war radiation?
"About the Deck Amano Yuichi borrowed..." Celestia glanced back at the crowd of eager onlookers behind her. "Would it be alright if we talked inside?"
"Sure."
"Then, pardon the intrusion."
With the villa's front door shut and the other professional clubs locked out, Celestia settled herself onto the villa's plush sofa.
"Please, help yourself to some tea." Yui, whose years running the shop had honed her hosting manners to a fine polish, politely brought out the tea.
But while pouring, sneaking a glance at Celestia on the sofa, even Yui couldn't help swallowing hard.
Sitting down somehow only made her presence more overwhelming. As magnificent as her upper half was, Celestia's exposed, deep-tan midriff didn't carry a single ounce of extra softness even seated on the sofa, showing instead the clearly well-trained lines of an athletic core.
Even with all the mastery of a seasoned shopkeeper, Yui had to admit she'd lost this round badly.
"Thanks, you're such a sweetheart, little sister." Celestia smiled as she took the tea.
She'd probably noticed by now that, aside from Yui, everyone else in this villa seemed to be harboring some inexplicable hostility toward her.
Proof enough that her fiance here was fairly capable in his own right.
Made sense, really. He was a man capable of commanding gods, after all.
"Well then, about the tomb-keeper clan, let me start by introducing myself."
Celestia took a sip of her tea and realized that, in the dead of winter, she'd been served iced mint tea while everyone else got black tea. Yui clearly wasn't someone to be trifled with either.
"Our tomb-keeper clan has, for generations, guarded Decks that the mainframe Eva has sealed away as forbidden, unusable anywhere in Eden. My grandfather's branch of the family was responsible for guarding two of those Forbidden Decks. One of them was the one Amano Yuichi took."
So the tomb-keeper clan inside Eden had gone from guarding the Pharaoh's tomb to guarding Forbidden Decks.
"So which Deck exactly did my father take?"
Amano was thinking that if he had any leads on that Deck, or could actually pull it together and return it to Celestia, then even three years past the deadline, he might not necessarily have to go through with marrying into the tomb-keeper clan per the contract.
Everything was negotiable, after all.
Celestia bent forward to set down her tooth-numbingly cold mint tea, her golden eyes tilting up slightly to fix on Amano, and spoke the Deck's name.
"The Tearlaments."
"Pfft!!" Tea sprayed straight out of Shio's mouth.
"The Tearlaments?" As a card veteran transmigrated from the 21st century, Amano had obviously heard of Tearlaments' reputation.
A Deck the mainframe Eva had ruled forbidden, unusable anywhere in Eden?
Somehow, that didn't feel unfair in the slightest.
"Tia, can I ask one more thing? What's the other Forbidden Deck?"
"The Angel Who Reverses This World and the Underworld."
...
Great, just great. So sealed away in a tomb is an earthbound angel of tears, is it.
Well, your Eden tomb-keeper clan's job really is pretty important then. Please make absolutely sure those sealed Decks never crawl their way out of that tomb, ever.
Forget returning the Forbidden Deck, Amano had never even laid eyes on it.
"Shio, any idea where Dad might've stashed the Deck after he borrowed it?"
"I, I don't know..." Shio's eyes darted away instinctively. "Thirteen years ago I was barely one year old, how would I possibly know something like that, you idiot big brother, brainless, dumb as an ox!"
Did she have to lay into him that hard?
Their own father had borrowed a Deck that powerful and, over more than a decade, accomplished absolutely nothing with it, before finally working himself to death.
And to think his own name shared the very character for "game" with the King of Games himself.
If Tearlaments had been handed to him, he'd have steamrolled the entire competition by now!
But looking at it this way, Amano genuinely had no options left.
The contract was right there. If there was no way to return the Deck, was he really going to have to... let her G go all the way through?
Finesse suddenly spoke up. "Wait. I want to look at the contract again."
"You can look at it as many times as you want, the contract's terms aren't going to change."
Celestia leaned back against the sofa, crossing one leg over the other, and casually flicked the projected contract over into Finesse's hands.
The contract was still just a handful of lines, stating that if the Deck couldn't be returned, Amano Yuichi's son would have to marry into the tomb-keeper family after turning 18, wed to Celestia.
"Just to be safe, let me confirm this one more time." Celestia's golden eyes locked firmly onto Amano. "You're definitely Amano Yuichi's son, and you don't have any other brothers, right?"
"Right." Amano nodded.
"And you've already reached the age of eighteen and enrolled in the upper division today."
"Right." Amano nodded again.
"Good. Then according to the contract, from now on you belong to me. In a bit, you're coming back with me to the Chosen of the Gods Alliance."
"No, that's wrong!" Finesse slammed a hand on the coffee table. "Objection!"
"Oh? What is it?"
Just as Finesse had suspected, this contract Amano Yuichi had signed was the exact same type as the debt contract he'd once signed with the Wein Group.
And Amano had used the special nature of that exact kind of contract to flip the outcome, once before.
At the very bottom of the contract, the symbol "Duel" was clearly displayed.
A Contract Duel.
"Inside Eden, you can tear up the terms of a Contract Duel by winning a duel!"
Finesse stressed it seriously, then turned to grip Amano's hand tightly.
"Amano, you don't have to force yourself to marry this big-chested woman. I know you don't like big ones."
"Uh, well..."
"You don't like big ones, right?!"
"Anyway, the young lady's right. What era do you think this is? Contract marriages are unacceptable! Since it's a Duel Contract, I'm obligated, as a duelist, to correct my own father's foolish decision!"
"Big brother, you're dodging the question." Shio narrowed her eyes.
"He really didn't give a direct answer there." Saotome Rei sighed.
"So he really does like big ones after all." Yui nodded.
"Typical man." Kikawayu secretly gloated, relieved that she herself wasn't exactly small either.
This was actually the first Celestia had ever heard that a Duel Contract could be torn up this way.
But more surprising to Celestia than the contract being breakable was the fact that Amano was actually turning her down.
After all, even the men from the Upper District chasing after her formed lines that stretched down several streets.
No man could resist the big ones, after all. Even if one seemed to refuse, it had to be an act.
"A breach-of-contract duel, huh. Interesting. If I don't show off a little strength first, you wouldn't be satisfied even if you did marry in, would you, Amano boy?"
Celestia suddenly stood, and along with her, the G-cup on her chest bounced up and down.
"A-are we starting the duel right now?" Amano's own eyes tracked the motion up and down, completely against his will.
"No rush. Even for a Contract Duel, we professional duelists can't just accept one on a whim, or the pro league slaps us with a suspension. As for the actual timing, I think the weekend works out perfectly."
"The weekend?"
Amano vaguely recalled that this weekend had already been spoken for.
Just yesterday, he'd made plans with Rin Seiya to head to the Riding Duel Arena this weekend for a Riding Duel challenge match under the new rules.
"I don't have time this weekend, actually."
Celestia said, "I know you don't. The New Riding Duel Invitational, right? I was invited to that one too. After all, the Riding Emperor, the tournament's grand prize opponent, is a member of our Chosen of the Gods Alliance too."
Chosen of the Gods Alliance, a name that sounded god-related just from hearing it. And with the Riding Emperor holding the anime's DIVINE-Attribute Synchro cards for all three Egyptian Gods, it made sense he'd join a professional duelist club like the Chosen of the Gods Alliance.
"By the way, Amano boy, setting the marriage contract aside for now, would you consider joining our Chosen of the Gods Alliance?"
"Chosen of the Gods Alliance, does that mean you have to own a God Card to join?"
If that were the entry requirement, it seemed a little steep.
So does your club even have anyone besides you and the Emperor?
"Actually, there's no rule that it has to specifically be a DIVINE-Attribute card. Our club's requirements are pretty relaxed, honestly. As long as the card's name has 'God' in it and you're strong enough, we'll take you."
Just needs "God" in the card's name, huh. That does open things up considerably.
After all, Earthbound God, Valkyrie, Timelord, cards like that all have "God" in the name too. Heck, maybe even his own Chaos Summoning Beast would technically qualify.
"Well, in professional competition, strength is everything. Everything else is just a gimmick."
"Of course, I watched your duel too, Amano boy. Your strength is more than enough. I'm not making some special exception just for you either. If you want to join, you could come report in with me today."
"I'll pass. I'm not considering going pro right now."
"Then you're probably in for a rough time ahead. You're likely the single most talked-about person in all of Eden right now. Even with a clear refusal, in an age like this, all kinds of pestering are basically unavoidable."
Finesse cut in. "You don't need to worry about that. I'll have my people make sure Amano's protected!"
"Ha, that's exactly the young lady's style, isn't it." Celestia shrugged. "Such a shame, though, that the young lady isn't big where it counts."
"Grr, grr, grrrr!"
This was probably the first time Amano had ever heard Finesse grind her teeth this audibly.
"Well then, let's settle on the weekend's Riding Duel tournament for our Contract Duel, Amano boy. Try not to get eliminated before you even reach me."
Celestia rested a hand on Amano's shoulder, leaning her mouth close to his ear, and breathed softly. "You're the black sun, and I'm the true one. The two of us are the ones fated to be together. This marriage contract isn't something you can break."
"Whatever kind of sun you are, when it comes to a duel, I'm not losing."
"Oh? I'll be watching closely, then~"
Celestia seemed thoroughly satisfied with Amano's response, smiling as she pushed open the villa's front door and left.
"Big brother, you absolutely cannot lose!" The instant Celestia was gone, Shio pumped a furious fist. "I do not want someone like that as my sister-in-law!"
"Amano..." Finesse's gaze was still fixed on the spot where Celestia had left, clearly deeply shaken by the encounter. "Do you think it'd be dangerous to get surgery to make them bigger?"
"Don't, please, young lady, you're perfectly fine the way you are!"
If his own young lady ever leveled up to a G-cup too, Amano didn't even dare imagine what her hero-transformation routine in that black bodysuit before every duel would look like.
"Honestly, I really don't like big ones."
"Oh, so you don't like big ones~" Kikawayu shot him a sly, teasing look and gave Amano's backside a sharp pinch.
The morning's chaos finally wound down. The recruiters from other clubs still waiting outside, apparently figuring they couldn't compete with Celestia, had mostly scattered and dispersed.
Everyone at the villa needed to start heading to Duel Academy too.
On the way there, Amano finally had a spare moment to check the two skills he'd just gotten from Celestia.
82 affection points on their very first meeting, was that because of the whole fiancee thing?
Either way, a free skill was still worth checking out.
[Mark of the Heir] [After winning a duel, randomly obtain a copy of one card from your opponent's Deck, including their Extra Deck. This skill only takes effect once per individual target.]
This skill could apparently copy cards outright.
As a fellow member of the tomb-keeper clan, Marik from the anime had indeed been a master of forged-card duplication techniques too.
He'd even been able to produce a forged copy of Winged Dragon of Ra itself, though of course, only if you could survive the god's own divine punishment first.
But since this was a system-issued skill, it presumably wasn't producing forgeries.
After all, Amano had already gotten plenty of cards from the system before, and without exception, every one of them had been a fully legitimate card recognized by the mainframe Eva.
[Heir to the Sun God] [When your Deck contains an "Egyptian God" monster card, you may choose to add the related support cards specifically named for that God Card.]
Even though the skill was named Heir to the Sun God, it actually supported the entire Egyptian God lineup.
For Amano, who'd only just gotten Slifer the Sky Dragon, this skill turned out to be pretty useful.
Amano tried it out right then and there, slotting Slifer into his Deck and activating the skill.
Sure enough, a handful of Spell and Trap cards related to Slifer the Sky Dragon appeared in his Deck.
Right after he finished looking over the brand-new skills Celestia had brought him, the system's upgrade-complete notification chimed in.
[Duel King System upgrade complete]
[Limited Link Zone: Available Link Summons per duel raised to 3.]
[Brand-new system acquired: "Spacetime Hacker." By connecting to Eva's network, you can obtain partial access to the mainframe Eva's system permissions.]
System, you're really getting ahead of yourself after absorbing that third Millennium Puzzle fragment.
Not only had it started openly calling itself the Duel King System, now it could hack into the mainframe Eva's own permissions too?
After all, inside Eden, Eva represented the highest level of authority there was.
From academy admissions at the bottom to arrests by the Security Bureau at the top, everything ran through Eva's judgment in practice, and even figures like Principal Leiden or Security Bureau section chief Kirigakure Shomei were, for the most part, playing the role of Eva's enforcers.
What did it mean, suddenly handing him a piece of the highest authority in all of Eden?
A yellow robe draped over his shoulders? The power of a king?
System, please don't be the death of me here.
Also, the extra Link Summons the system had just unlocked, he wondered if they'd actually be usable in this weekend's Riding Duel.
If there was an Extra Monster Zone available, Link Summoning would actually suit a Riding Duel pretty well, even more conveniently than Synchro in some ways.
It wasn't really the duel itself that worried Amano. What actually worried him more was that Rin Seiya would also be at this weekend's Riding Duel, and he couldn't help but wonder whether Senior Little Thunder wouldn't end up jealous of Big Thunder.
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