"This was the last message we received from the professor we sent three days ago." The latest_epɪ_sodes are on_the novèlfire.net
In a sealed conference room, an image of Tenma Yako sat at one end, looking grave.
"We’ve been investigating the AI hacker incident, and the trail led us to Kazehane City," Yako said seriously. "One of our card professors went to investigate but encountered unexpected resistance.
"Was he attacked?" Mokuba asked, frowning.
Seto Kaiba replied, "Understood. KaibaCorp will investigate as well."
"No, that’s just it, President Kaiba," Yako said, lowering his voice. "Before he disappeared, our card professor’s last message mentioned certain dark duelists.
Assassin-duelists for hire, the kind who take jobs for money."
"So your man was taken out by a killer?" Mokuba asked.
"That’s what we believe. We cross-checked his last message, tracked the money trail, and unexpectedly found out who was paying..."
"Who?" Mokuba pressed.
Seto Kaiba’s eyes narrowed slightly.
"Impossible," Mokuba said. "We’ve never done anything like that!"
"I believe you," Yako nodded.
Mokuba was taken aback.
"There’s a traitor inside KaibaCorp."
Kaiba said quietly, with a contemptuous smirk, as if it was nothing.
"I’ll handle this personally," Kaiba said coldly. "I have a score to settle with the one behind this."
"Sounds like you know something?" Yako asked.
"Just a hunch. I’ll let you know when I’m sure," Kaiba replied.
"I understand." Yako nodded. "Good luck, President Kaiba."
With that, his hologram vanished.
Mokuba stood up. "So, we’re going to Kazehane City?"
"Yes. We need to take care of this ourselves," Kaiba replied calmly.
Mokuba thought for a moment.
"But I promised Kira I’d let him know if we made progress—after all, he’s a target too. Should we bring him in?"
Kaiba thought for two seconds.
Then gave a dismissive chuckle.
For Kira, the duel with Jaden wasn’t just a match. Jaden didn’t care much about being a representative, and neither did Kira. What mattered most was the duel itself.
He’d already expected this duel would give him new insights—maybe even a breakthrough after all his study and practice this semester.
And he was right—maybe even more than he hoped.
During the duel, he felt infected by Jaden’s passion, as if he couldn’t help but immerse himself more deeply in every draw, every attack and exchange—not just calculating each move, or focusing on winning or losing.
All the theories in the world can’t match the lessons of real dueling. This mysterious feeling can’t be taught in class, or by any master—it has to be experienced, with heart and body.
He had no proof, but Kira felt like he’d just broken through a limit as if his skills had leveled up. Even his bond with his Duel Spirit felt closer.
It even led him to a new idea—maybe it was time to try something he’d never dared before:
—Mixing different archetypes together.
Maybe that’s the step you need to become truly top-tier in this world. Combining archetypes brings more possibilities, raises a deck’s ceiling, and reduces the chance of being locked out of a duel.
Of course, a deck that "can out anything" is still impossible—only with custom cards could you get that, and that’s another level altogether.
For now, it was just an idea. He’d need time to test and build it.
But only a day after this idea, his friends greeted him with fiery enthusiasm.
"Take my Tutu!" Alexis waved her Tutu at Kira.
Not an actual tutu, but a card—ATK 1000, and can attack directly if all opposing monsters have higher ATK.
"Kira, you like direct attackers, right?" Alexis said. "Use this! Direct attackers are a different kind of power!"
It’s not a rare card—he could’ve used it already if he wanted. But honestly, it’s not as good as Invincible Submarineroid.
Misawa handed him his ace card: "Take my Water Dragon. It’s a killer against FIRE monsters—if you face any, it’ll be a game changer!"
Bro, have you read your Water Dragon’s summoning conditions?
"This card can only be Special Summoned by the Spell Card ’Bonding H2O.’"
Bonding H2O: Tribute two "Hydrogeddon" and one "Oxygeddon" to Special Summon one "Water Dragon."
In real play, it’s almost impossible. Even with perfect combos and luck, why would I ever summon this?
It’s the classic "resource-intensive and hard to summon, but still kind of useless" card.
But for Misawa’s sake, Kira didn’t say it aloud.
Seeing their enthusiasm, Chumley joined in: "Take my Koala, too..."
Syrus wanted to offer his roid: "Take my roid—"
Then realized, wait, Kira already plays roids and is more famous for it than me.
Especially Submarineroid and Cycroid—they’re known as his Ra Yellow Dorm trademarks.
Kira laughed: "Maybe I’ll just shuffle all your decks together and play whatever I draw?"
To his surprise, his friends’ eyes lit up.
"That’s a great idea," Misawa said, already analyzing. "With our decks combined, we’ll have offense and defense, every possible tactic covered..."
"Yeah!" Chumley pounded his palm. "With so many styles mixed in, no opponent could ever predict your next move. Kira, what do you think? Would it work?"
He realized his thinking was too conservative. He’d dismissed the idea as ridiculous, but his friends were seriously considering sending him into the representative duel with a hodgepodge deck.
But then he remembered. Back in the day, Yugi once took Kaiba’s deck, shuffled it into his own mid-duel, and actually pulled off a win.
Yugi’s deck was always a mishmash of engines, and Kaiba’s too. Nobody else could have made that work, but Yugi did.
Kira realized—his perspective was too narrow.
"I see," Kira mused. "A real duelist can make any deck shine in their hands..."
"Exactly!" Alexis said eagerly. "So, you’ll use my Cyber Tutu?"
Misawa: "And my Water Dragon."
Chumley: "And my Koala."
Kira gave them a polite smile.
"All right, leave Kira alone about his deck,"
Jaden appeared, clapping him on the shoulder with a smile.
"Being school rep isn’t the point. The duel’s about having fun."
He gave Kira a thumbs-up.
"You’ll show us another awesome duel, right?"
Jaden—always reliable.
Just then, his terminal beeped.
He checked—it was a message from Mokuba.
["There’s been progress on our last case. Want in?"]
PS: Next Bonus Chapter at 300 Power Stone.