Who Let Him Play Yugioh? (Re-Upload)

Kurozaki stared a little blankly at the new boss in front of him, feeling for a moment that this was beyond absurd.

A madman.

This guy is definitely a madman.

Of course, he only dared think that in his heart, not say it aloud. He kept his voice carefully lowered. ”So, boss, what are we doing now—”

”Oh, you head back first. Remember to sniff around about ’Alchemy Stars.’” Kira said offhandedly. ”Give me all the intel you gather.”

”Okay, will do.”

Kurozaki nodded, then couldn’t help asking:

”And you?”

”I won’t go back just yet.” Kira smiled. ”I’ve got a few loose ends to tie up.”

…

….

The moon hid behind thick clouds, stingy with a single drop of light. Wind laced with bone-deep chill threaded through the narrow alleys, groaning like a wounded beast.

The stall owner bolted down the lane for his life, glancing over his shoulder now and then as if fleeing something unspeakably terrifying.

He ran until he was gasping, legs too heavy to take even one step more. He stopped, braced a hand against the wall, and panted hard. Sweat tinged with fear slid down his pale cheeks and dripped to the ground, swallowed at once by the night.

He cautiously peered back the way he came, only to see no one for a long stretch—just darkness pooled in the pitch-black alley.

”Didn’t chase me...?”

The taut string in his heart finally loosened. He steadied his breath and slowly turned his head back—

—and almost screamed on the spot at what he saw.

Him.

The man in white, real face hidden behind dark-tinted glass, his coat flaring like a cloak in the icy wind, stood there calm as you please.

Revolver!

”Jasper Abis—that’s your name, right?” Kira said evenly. ”I just took a quick look at your resume. Quite a dazzling list.

Originally an underground duelist in New York, joined a local dueling gang. After a turf war you drifted through several countries. Participated in sixteen human trafficking cases big and small. Your research into using dark duels for soul enslavement is quite advanced...”

He finished reading the sheet in his hand and looked up at the man before him.

”Truly a talent.”

Jasper ground his teeth. ”I have no quarrel with you or your Knights of Hanoi. Revolver, why are you hounding me!?”

”Oh? And those you sealed into cards and sold—did you all have deep blood feuds with them?”

”It was just business,” Jasper said. ”That’s how the world works. It’s not like I’m the only one doing it.”

”True, true. That’s how it is.”

Kira nodded, unfolding his Duel Disk without hurry.

”So I thought it over carefully. A dark duelist like you with such... specialized skills is worth far more than grabbing some old, weak, and women and children. If I make you into a card, I bet it’d sell nicely. Or I could keep you as a dueling slave in our Knights of Hanoi. That’s not bad either.”

Kira mimicked his tone with a mocking lilt.

”And by the way, this is just business too. Nothing personal. That’s how the world works. It’s not like I’m the only one doing it. Don’t take it to heart.”

”You—”

Jasper exploded.

”Revolver, don’t push me too far! You think I’m afraid of you!?”

He snapped his Duel Disk open.

Kira smiled and opened his as well. ”I was afraid you wouldn’t ask.”

…

One minute later.

Kira sauntered forward, deftly removed the deck, and picked up the card that now held a soul—Jasper’s face frozen in a hollow, toyed-with stupor.

”Like I said, nothing personal.”

He smiled faintly at the Soul Seal Card.

”Don’t take it to heart.”

Jasper: ”...”

….

…

After a very productive weekend, Kira wrapped up and returned to Duel Academy.

No sooner had he gotten back than Jaden was camped outside his dorm room, grabbing him to head back into the Spirit World. Jaden was like someone who’d found an intoxicating RPG—he wanted to be online twenty-four hours a day and rush maps while dueling.

A quiet night passed, and on Monday it was back to regular classes.

Except this day wasn’t so regular.

A bombshell of an announcement detonated across Duel Academy—

—the Academy was about to be acquired by the Princeton Group.

The whole school blew up in an instant.

Everyone knew Duel Academy was currently under the KaibaCorp umbrella. KaibaCorp is recognized worldwide as the top dueling corporation. Its robust support and management of Duel Academy had long been widely praised.

But the Princeton Group was a different story. While the Princeton Family was comparably wealthy, they were just that—rich. Their reputation in the dueling world was middling.

Almost every student instinctively opposed the idea—no one wanted the Academy to fall into the hands of a pure capital conglomerate.

Chazz and the other students were likewise stunned, and he contacted his two older brothers.

They replied with a matter-of-fact tone.

”Isn’t it obvious?” said his eldest brother, Slade. ”Our Princeton Group decided long ago—we’ll stand at the very top of politics, business, and the duel world.

And since you, our tail-end little brother, are useless, we’ll do it ourselves.”

”What?” Chazz blurted. ”What are you going to do?”

”We’ve reached an agreement with the Academy’s board. The Academy’s ownership will be decided by a duel against a student representative. And the chosen representative is you, my foolish little brother.”

Slade laughed.

”Let’s decide the Academy’s fate with a duel!”

”A duel against my brothers!?” Chazz was shocked.

”That’s right. Of course, you’ve trained in dueling since childhood, while your brothers are only beginners. So naturally, we’ll impose a balancing restriction.”

Slade said:

”The deck I’ll use will be a super-rare powerhouse built with cards acquired at great expense.

And as an unfavorable restriction, in this duel you’re not allowed to use any Effect Monsters—only Normal Monsters!”

In the anime, the restriction for that match was ”no monsters with over 500 ATK,” but here it’s no effects allowed.

Obviously, this restriction is even nastier than the original. In the original, you couldn’t use high-ATK monsters, but everyone knows 0-ATK monsters tend to be broken—plenty of low-ATK monsters have powerful effects.

Chazz even used ”Chaos Necromancer,” whose ATK increases by the number of monsters in your GY, casually pushing over 3000 for lethal. The ATK cap barely mattered.

But banning effects is like dueling under a permanent Skill Drain—difficulty spikes by a tier.

Chazz started. ”No monster effects?”

”Correct—and that Kaiba Seto has already agreed to the condition,” Slade barked. ”Since you refused the family’s help, face your brothers with Duel Academy as the wager!”

PS: Bonus chapters at 2000 PS