Chazz collapsed on the ground, suit disheveled, eyes blank, his expression dazed.
He'd prepared so much, gained new power, and even felt pretty confident before coming here today.
But in the end, the result didn't seem much different from before.
If the first time he met Kira at the Moonlight Cup could be blamed on underestimating him or bad luck, this time he didn't even have an excuse to convince himself.
Standing opposite, Kira was already putting away his duel disk, still carrying that casual attitude. Throughout the whole duel, Chazz never felt the sharp edge of fighting spirit you'd expect in a duel, nor any sense of tension.
It made Chazz feel once again like he was just a background character.
His fists clenched unconsciously.
"Well then, congratulations to Kira for winning this year's Freshman Cup," the busty-senpai stepped forward with a smile. "As this year's club Rookie of the Year, is there anything you'd like to say to the club?"
Kira thought for a moment and replied casually, "I'm not much of a speaker... So, I just hope everyone can continue to enjoy dueling together."
As soon as he said this, those students who'd played against him before all shuddered instinctively, as if their bodies were reacting on their own.
By now, the new students in the club had reached a consensus:
Watching this guy duel is fun, but playing against him yourself? No thanks. Turns out, the joy of dueling is built on someone else's pain...
Kira had wanted to comfort Chazz after the duel—he'd performed pretty well after all, but now looked like he was about to have a breakdown.
But when Kira turned around, Chazz was already gone.
He could only shelve the thought for now.
Hopefully, Chazz was okay.
Beating Chazz with VWXYZ left Kira feeling strange. It was like the protagonist committing a crime right under the victim's nose—and the victim didn't even know it.
Still, from how things were going, he had a feeling Chazz's evolution was only beginning.
This duel featured both Light End Dragon and Dark End Dragon, but not the famous Light and Darkness Dragon, known for its half-black, half-white design. Card players joked it looked like a panda.
In the original, Panda Dragon also had a spirit—and a powerful one at that—it was Chazz's ace.
Of course, in the anime worldline, Chazz's signature spirit was the Ojama Trio, which instantly made things a lot more comedic.
Chazz first met Ojama Yellow after a crushing defeat and deciding to leave Duel Academy. He was shipwrecked at sea, and then the headmaster of the North Academy gave him Ojama Yellow.
Now, even though the timeline was different, Chazz seemed to be heading toward a similar depression. If he left the Academy at this point, it wouldn't be surprising.
But for him personally, maybe that wasn't a bad thing. Without those experiences, he might never have improved.
For now, though, it didn't concern Kira. He claimed his club tournament reward points and, led by the busty-senpai, headed to the club's card stock room.
Which card should he pick?
There weren't many cards he wanted, but there were a few that could be useful—mostly general-purpose ones.
For example, one that caught his eye immediately:
Effect: As long as this card is face-up on the field, Spell Cards cannot be activated, and all Spell Card effects on the field are negated.
This was the monster used by Alister, one of the Doma Three Swordsmen, in the DM anime. It immediately made Kira think of an ancient meta deck—Ojama Canceller.
The name says it all: the deck revolved around "Ojama" and "Spell Canceller."
Ojamas were famous for locking down the opponent's field, while Spell Canceller countered the overpowered Spell Cards that ran rampant in the meta at the time: Pot of Greed, Card Destruction, Raigeki, Heavy Storm... In the face of Spell Canceller, all were equal.
Back then, most banned Spell Cards were must-haves in every deck, and running into Spell Canceller often meant your best Spells got stuck in hand, unusable.
Of course, Spell Canceller's attack was only 1800, its main weakness. But the Ojama cards could cover that—blocking the opponent from summoning monsters, or using "Gravity Bind" and other lockdown backrows to create a total lock. The opponent couldn't attack or play Spells, and could only watch helplessly as they lost.
In short, this was a pure stall-and-lockdown deck, the pioneer for countless future anti-social deck builders.
So, with respect for these pioneers, Kira decisively picked out several components for an Ojama Canceller deck.
The whole deck wasn't expensive—most of the cards, including Ojamas, were dirt cheap in this world. Only the "Spell Canceller" was rare, but the club just happened to have one available, along with two rare traps.
So Kira put together a top-tier vintage deck that suited his style, and for almost no cost.
Especially in the anime world, the Ojama trio had an inherent taunt factor—their attack animation involved jumping up and butt-bumping the opponent. Kira could already imagine how much fun his future opponents would have facing this ancient anti-social meta deck.
"Alright, I'll take these."
Kira happily collected his chosen cards.
The busty-senpai checked his picks, a question mark practically appearing on her forehead.
"You're sure you just want these?"
She looked at him strangely.
She thought the club's stock had some pretty impressive high-level monsters, all rare cards.
Usually, when members won the chance to pick a rare card, they'd go for the expensive, powerful high-level monsters.
Yet Kira's only pick above level four was Spell Canceller, and at level five it only had 1800 ATK. While its spell lockdown effect is good, most people think 1800 for a level five is just not enough.
Plus, Kira's Ojama cards were ones he'd bought himself earlier, so what he picked now were just random deck parts, making his choices even harder for outsiders to understand.
But the busty-senpai knew this underclassman always had ideas no one else could imagine, so she didn't try to persuade him.
Still, as she packed Kira's chosen cards into a box and handed it over, she couldn't help but ask, "Kira-kun, can I ask if you're developing some new strategy with these cards?"
"You've got good intuition, senpai," Kira replied cheerfully.
"Can you tell me what it is?"
She just couldn't hold back her curiosity. ᴛʜɪs ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ɪs ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ʙʏ novel·fıre·net
Kira smiled at her for a moment.
"I do!" She nodded fervently.
She wanted to know so bad.
"Then make sure you watch next week's tag duel."
Kira put away the card box, smiling.
"You'll see for yourself."
With that, he waved goodbye and left.
Busty-senpai stomped her foot in frustration, her bosom tremble a little.
He just had to keep her in suspense.
Now she was even more curious.
But as for next week's tag duel...
She had a sudden premonition.
It looked like another unlucky pair was about to get completely steamrolled.