Even the Duel King’s deck lost to the Big Villain from Yellow Dorm.
Within a single day, the news had spread throughout the school.
The entire duel had been recorded by students watching live, and by the next day practically everyone had seen it.
While the students gained both knowledge and enjoyment from the video, many couldn’t help but ponder deeply.
Dimitri did a fairly decent job piloting the Duel King’s deck, but even so, he couldn’t get a single attack through, let alone damage his opponent’s Life Points.
Even the Duel King’s deck couldn’t withstand the Big Villain. What hope is there for the future of dueling...?
But not everyone felt so pessimistic.
"Dimitri’s performance was excellent, and he showed us the true splendor of the Duel King’s deck."
The academy’s famous Zane Truesdale commented during a chat, and those present quickly spread his remarks.
"But no matter how skillfully you use it, it’s not your deck. Only a duelist’s personal deck, built with their heart, can show its full strength. The King’s deck can only truly shine in Yugi Mutou’s own hands."
This sentiment won widespread agreement—even Professor Crowler gave it a like.
Of course, most students today probably don’t realize the deck lost to shadow games years ago...
After the duel, Dimitri returned the deck and conducted a thorough review, eventually identifying two critical mistakes.
First, he shouldn’t have discarded Kuriboh in the opening turn. When activating Royal Straight Slasher’s effect to send monsters from Level 1 to 5 to the grave, he chose Kuriboh as the Level 1.
And then, throughout the duel, he suffered repeated divine punishment from the Kuriboh.
Second, his willpower wasn’t firm enough—he was so tempted by the chance to use the Duel King’s deck that he wavered from his original path.
In the end, the only right way is to resolutely study the dueling style of Fujiki Kira!
Upon further reflection, he realized that his previous imitation wasn’t thorough enough. He’d only copied tactics and mentality, but that wasn’t enough. He should imitate everything from the outside in—appearance, hairstyle, even habits.
Soon, rumors spread that there was now a double of the Yellow Dorm Big Villain roaming around campus.
As for Dimitri returning the deck so quickly, Jaden was a little annoyed.
He felt a weird sense that his cards had been snatched again.
But it didn’t matter. The next day, a transfer student arrived in Red Dorm, but Jaden quickly discovered it was a girl disguised as a boy—her name was Blair Flannigan.
When her disguise was exposed, Blair pleaded with Jaden to keep her secret, and Jaden grinned devilishly.
"Blair, you wouldn’t want anyone to know you’re cross-dressing, right?"
Blair tensed up. "What do you want?"
Jaden smiled confidently, pulling out his duel disk.
It means I’m itching for a duel—you have to play cards with me.
Blair: "..." Thᴇ link to the origɪn of this information rᴇsts ɪn novel•fire.net
And so, with a new dueling partner, Jaden soon forgot all about Dimitri and happily immersed himself in school life.
That same week, the Chancellor mentioned at the school assembly that there would soon be a tournament with a sister academy.
"Last year, Zane Truesdale, a second-year, brought honor to the academy by winning," Chancellor Sheppard said with a smile. "This year’s representative hasn’t been decided yet—any student could be chosen. Everyone, keep working hard!"
"Alright!" Jaden pumped his fist. "Let’s aim to be the representative and give it our all!"
"No, even if it’s my big bro, I think the rep will still be my brother this year," Syrus said with unusual confidence.
Kira remained silent. But he knew, according to the original story, that the Northern Academy would deliberately send a first-year to avoid facing Zane, and the main school agreed to send a first-year as well.
So, it would likely come down to a showdown between him and Jaden for the spot.
And their opponent would probably be Chazz Princeton, who’d returned after traveling since leaving the main campus.
He figured his duel with Jaden for the rep spot would happen within a week or two. The third week would be the actual tournament.
Kira could sense it. The last time he dueled Chazz, he’d already improved a lot compared to before the entrance exam. After his travels, Chazz would surely be even stronger.
But Kira had also made rapid progress in his half-semester at the academy—he felt he’d reached a whole new level.
The most obvious sign: when tweaking his deck, he now worried less about "will this brick my hand?" and more about "when would this be useful?"
Not only had his skills grown, but his card collection had also expanded. He kept up with the academy shop’s new arrivals and even got some rare cards through the Industrial Illusions Company.
For example, some rare cards Gekko used in his duel—like the "Learning Elf" that lets you draw when sent to the grave, or the original version of "Angel O7," both limited cards only obtainable through special channels.
And he found a super-valuable rare card: Raiza the Storm Monarch.
[Raiza the Storm Monarch, Level 6, ATK 2400]
Effect: When Tribute Summoned, return one card on the field to the top of the owner’s deck.
Even modern duelists who never lived through that era have probably heard of the Monarchs’ former glory. After Chaos decks’ triple World Championship win, the next era was dominated by Monarch Control.
And the Monarchs even appeared in the GX anime.
But this deck is pretty rare; Raiza was Kira’s first Monarch. Back then, even just one Monarch could anchor a solid deck.
Now that he had Raiza, Kira expanded his future card list and quickly drafted some new deck ideas.
If he could collect the remaining Monarchs, building a full "Monarch Control" deck would be fun.
From hand destruction to Chaos to Chaos Phoenix, and maybe Monarchs next...
He realized he was unintentionally heading toward the "collect all World Champion decks" achievement!