Who Let Him Play Yugioh? (Re-Upload)

Although Tenma was originally introduced as a villain in the original series, Kira’s first impression of him in person was pretty good.

He was polite and courteous, and most importantly—generous.

After their duel, Tenma didn’t hesitate or waste time. He simply handed over a limited-edition, ultra-rare card personally recreated by Pegasus: Thousand-Eyes Restrict.

This card was a legendary monster. Not only was it the ace of the very first story arc’s boss in the Yu-Gi-Oh! anime, but the sense of mystery and pressure it brought when Pegasus first used it had a huge influence on later villain monsters.

From a card pool perspective, this was the first Fusion Monster in history to be banned, spending a whole decade in the forbidden room until it was finally released in 2016.

Its effect, which let it ”absorb opponent’s monsters as Equip Cards,” was also, in a sense, the prototype for many future monsters with similar abilities.

Overall, Kira was quite pleased with this haul.

KaibaCorp and Tenma Yako had also temporarily formed an anti-hacker alliance. Tenma suspected the incident was caused by an AI far ahead of its time; KaibaCorp was skeptical, but after discussion, both sides decided to cooperate and form a united front against the AI.

Of course, the bigwigs would handle that part. Having finished his duel and received his reward, Kira boarded a helicopter arranged by Mokuba and flew straight back to the academy.

By the time he returned, it was already late at night. Tired from the day’s dueling and with class early the next morning, Kira just washed up and went to bed.

And so he returned to his routine of diligent study and joyful dueling at Duel Academy.

This trip to KaibaCorp only reinforced his belief that his current approach to school and life was working. His duel with Tenma made him realize that his time at the academy so far had not been wasted. As a duelist and in terms of deck strength, his growth was visible to the naked eye.

But the more he improved, the more he realized the road ahead was long, and there was still plenty of room for growth. If he wanted to reach the top and become one of the elite, there was still a long way to go.

As Kira focused on his studies and training, things were developing at the academy as well.

In the past two days, he’d heard people mention that Chazz Princeton seemed to have gone missing.

It looked like the timeline was converging: even if the process was different, Chazz was still heading down a similar path of growth.

The poor kid was elite for the first half of his life, but since coming to Duel Academy, he’d been getting beaten up so much that he’d become withdrawn. The students who used to respect him became increasingly cold as his reputation with the professors plummeted.

Chazz, furious, went to see Professor Crowler, trying to request a rematch with Jaden to restore his honor, but the professor refused.

The reason: ”If you go, you’ll just lose again. Instead of worrying about challenging a dropout, you should focus on your grades. At this rate, you’ll be sent down to the Ra Yellow dorm.”

This news hit Chazz like a bolt from the blue.

Falling to Ra Yellow? Him—a top elite?

He couldn’t accept it!

The next day, Chazz was nowhere to be found.

When Kira heard, he figured Chazz had probably taken a boat off the island. He’d likely encounter a shipwreck, wash up at the Northern Branch of Duel Academy, and there, his fate would be further disrupted by a mischievous spirit.

Yep, that’s how the timeline converges—this was bound to happen.

Had nothing to do with him.

Meanwhile, Jaden was as enthusiastic as ever. Hearing that Chazz was missing, he ran around the nearby forest searching. Partway through, he ran into a monkey wearing a Duel Disk. Amazed to discover he could duel with the monkey, Jaden promptly forgot about his missing friend and started an enjoyable duel instead.

The anime said the Duel Academy island had a research institute devoted to ”whether monkeys have greater spirit affinity than humans.” So the researchers’ main job was teaching monkeys to play Duel Monsters.

You’d never imagine what strange facilities are hidden on this island.

...

Kira’s daily routine was now classes, card printing, and spending his free time in his lab with colleagues, learning and doing research—he even roped in Lyman as a supervising teacher.

He was also focused on card draw practice. He felt his luck and technique had noticeably improved since entering the academy; drawing cards was also part of the duelist’s bond with their deck and spirits.

Of course, just practicing against the wall was all theory—real duels were essential. So Kira scheduled at least one real duel per day as part of his training.

But there was a small problem with finding sparring partners.

His first choice was the Duel Club since that’s what the club was for.

But as he kept showing up for duels every day, something strange happened.

Whenever he found an opponent to duel, a crowd would immediately gather, pointing and laughing, like spectators at a street performance. The atmosphere was light and cheerful.

But every time Kira’s opponent put on the mask of despair and got flattened, and Kira, satisfied with his daily training, turned to find his next victim—ahem, worthy opponent—the crowd would vanish in a flash.

Soup to tend, girlfriend calling, laundry to fold—everyone would disappear in the blink of an eye.

Kira started to reflect—maybe it wasn’t right to keep picking on the same batch of sheep. Maybe he should expand his pool of targets.

One day, during his daily lab work, he chatted about this with two colleagues.

”These new students at the academy… I don’t even know what they’re here for,” Kira shook his head.

”If they don’t want to duel, why come to Duel Academy? Not motivated at all…”

Misawa and Alexis exchanged glances.

To be honest, they felt Kira made a good point, but at the same time, if he was the opponent, they couldn’t blame people for not wanting to duel him.

”But actually, it doesn’t have to be the Duel Club,” Alexis said. ”This is Duel Academy—there are lots of clubs, but most of them are open to any challenge. For example, the tennis club had an internal tournament last week. Oh, and I heard the student council had an internal competition too. Their rare card stash is pretty impressive, and their extra credits and management privileges are higher than other clubs.”

Kira sprang to his feet, startling her.

”What’s up?”

”Alexis, you’re a genius,” he said seriously.

Alexis: ”?”

Uh… am I?

He’d suddenly become so serious, that she felt a little embarrassed.

”N-not really…”

But Kira ignored her, already packing up his things.

”By the way, where’s the student council office? Are they recruiting?”

”Uh, it’s on the second floor of the classroom building, left side—there’s a sign,” Misawa replied, his expression a bit odd.

”Thanks. I’ve got something to do, so I’ll head out.”

Kira smiled at them.

”See you tomorrow.”

His figure disappeared out the door.

Misawa and Alexis exchanged glances again.

Suddenly, Alexis had a strange feeling.

Did I just say something I shouldn’t have…?