In the vast arena, there stands a majestic ancient castle within the dueling hall. Even though the competition hasn't started yet, the audience seats are already packed.
Yugen, along with his senior brother Sato Koji from the dojo, arrived outside the venue. Upon getting out of the car, he immediately noticed the Black Mage sculpture standing at the entrance.
Though the appearance rate of the Rare Card Black Mage has sharply declined in official matches since Muto Yuugi's retirement, as the trump card of the former Duel King, it still serves as a symbol in many competition venues.
"I'm going to prepare for the pre-match now. The preliminaries should start soon."
Sato Koji said to him.
"Junior brother, you should also prepare as quickly as possible."
"Alright. I look forward to facing you on the battlefield again," replied Yugen politely.
But upon hearing these words, his senior brother's expression turned peculiar, as if he wanted to say something but then stopped.
Honestly, I don't want to meet you again at all...
But in the end, he couldn't say it out loud.
Parting ways with his senior brother, Yugen received his participant credentials and badge number from the young lady in charge of registration at the front desk. He looked at the badge number, which was a striking number 39.
To card enthusiasts, it's quite a lucky number. Yugen pocketed the badge, nodding with satisfaction.
It seemed like he was having good luck today; he ought to have a successful start.
"The quality of this year's Moonlight Cup feels really high."
As soon as he walked into the venue hall, he heard voices of spectators chatting.
"I think I just saw that guy Kajiki Sei from the Telekinesis Flow Dojo. Looks like he's also participating in this competition this year..."
"Kajiki? That rising duel genius from Telekinesis Flow? Oh, this is definitely worth watching..."
Then, he heard someone say, "I'm not really interested in the Telekinesis Flow dueling; I just hope that my buddy playing the Mage Race makes it through..."
"Do you really want your buddy to advance? Pah, I'm embarrassed to call you out; you're just hoping to see him summon the Magical Valkyrie, aren't you?"
The Magical Valkyrie, with a cool mage outfit similar to the "Black Mage Girl" in the legendary card deck of the tales, has a pure face, delicate little arms, yet surprisingly bears a weight in certain areas that her small build shouldn't bear, and is one of the favorite maiden cards among gentleman duelists.
Upon being called out, the man instantly blushed: "But she's really big!"
A few companions stopped arguing upon hearing that and nodded.
"Indeed, it's true."
"It's certainly difficult to refute."
"..."
As Yugen walked through the venue, he quickly heard a young girl exclaim.
"Oh my god, really? Are you sure you didn't see wrong?"
"Absolutely! The girl beside her said with great certainty," There's no mistake, that's Ryuzaki! The legendary duelist!"
Upon hearing this, Yugen's steps slowed.
Ryuzaki? That one from "Yu-Gi-Oh! DM"?
When he first appeared, he was portrayed as a master-level character and once was the national runner-up in the duel tournament... That was before the likes of Game, Kaiba, and a series of big shots from DM's later stages didn't participate.
"Really? But isn't the Moonlight Cup supposed to be a non-professional, secondary competition? Why would a legendary duelist like him..."
"I heard that Ryuzaki secluded himself for further training for several years and stayed out of the public eye. Now that he's finished his training, this is his comeback match."
"Oh man, the contestants in this year's Moonlight Cup are doomed, running into the Great Demon King."
"Indeed, this surely means the champion is predetermined."
"..."
Yugen tried to recall. He didn't have a strong impression of Ryuzaki, but he did remember Ryuzaki's close buddy, Insect Moth, in the animation. Both were despicable characters willing to do anything to win, although Ryuzaki was slightly stronger than Moth. After all, the latter even went as far as dumping Game's Dark Mage "Exodia" card set into the sea…
...However, from a certain perspective, his actions could be seen as the savior of all bosses in the latter stages of DM.
Imagine if Old Ai's five-piece set hadn't been dumped by that guy; with the Ousama (Dark Game Atum) later on having that "close your eyes and get whatever you want" cheat-level divine draw ability, the Three Phantom Gods and Legendary creatures Orichalcos would all have had to step aside.
No less than three kowtows from Malik Dazi and Dark Mopang to Moth would be absolutely reasonable.
However, since they both lost to Ousama and Mortal Bone Joey Wheeler respectively, they seem to have transformed from competitive players into entertainment comedians, constantly moving their playstyles into more comedic directions.
Speaking of which, Joey's Soul Card "True Red-Eyed Black Dragon" was even won from Ryuzaki. Since then Ryuzaki really hasn't won a single match.
DM never explained what happened to him in the end, and neither did he reappear in the sequel GX animation. But now that I think about it, the timeline setting for GX was just eight years after the DM conclusion, so meeting him now isn't exactly surprising.
Although the Ousama has returned to the Underworld, characters from the DM era like Joey should still be around in this era, just that it hasn't been explained where they have gone or what they are doing.
As one of the old figures from the DM era, Ryuzaki, bearing the title of "having faced Joey Wheeler" has even mixed himself into becoming known as the "legendary duelist"...
These days even the former minor fishes that were once overtaken by Game dare to proclaim themselves as legends, some even managing to live quite prosperously off this kind of hype.
Some may truly have strength, but there are also those who are just fishing muddily, akin to boasting about "having fought the First Hokage in the past" next door.
Neither Moth nor Ryuzaki appeared in GX, so it's hard to say what their current strength might be. However, Yugen kept it in mind, thinking if he encounters them in the later matches, he should show some basic respect and make some strategic adjustments to his card deck.
Yugen bought a cup of milk tea, found a spot to sit down, and casually looked through the list of registered contestants.
The contestants here generally have higher levels than in the Dueling Hall, so by competing in this tournament, I should be able to smoothly level up to Four-Star, which would satisfy the Academy's requirements.
Scanning through the list, aside from Ryuzaki Kyoryu, most of the names were unfamiliar...
...Hmm?
Yugen's gaze fell on a somewhat familiar name.
Chazz Princeton?
That eternal runner-up from GX, who managed to reverse his ranking from elite to laughingstock within a year?
He took a moment to check Chazz's personal information.
Elite Academy at the Duel Academy Middle School department, expected to be directly admitted to the Duel Academy High School department this year.
Hmm... If we're talking about entry age, the main group from GX should be the same age as me.
Not a big issue.
He then checked his first-round match in the preliminaries.
Nakamura Tsubasa, Duelist Level 4...
Seems like it should be pressure-free.
...
...
In fact, when Nakamura Tsubasa walked onto the preliminary duel arena opposite Yugen, he thought the same thing.
Fujiki Yugen, Level 1, no tournament experience, no awards, résumé completely blank...
In those few lines of personal info, Nakamura found himself repeating just two words.
Free win.
Sometimes, with a bit of luck, you run into opponents like this in competitions. Such individuals are called "charitable duelists" in the scene. They're ridiculously bad but insist on playing, basically giving away free points.
This one's in the bag.
But what Nakamura didn't know was that when Yugen stood across from him, he looked at his opening hand of five cards, and internally apologized to his opponent.
Sorry, buddy, but I'm about to win.
This match, it seems only one of us will be playing Yu-Gi-Oh!
It's Yugen's turn to go first. So he played a Magic Card "Detention," spending 1000 Life Points to look at the opponent's hand and discard a card. Then came a "Strongly Summoned Soldiers," examining the hand and choosing a card to return to the deck. Followed by a "Mischievous Twin Fairies," spending another 1000 Life Points for a third combo, randomly discarding one card from the opponent and then having the opponent discard another, totaling two more of the opponent's cards discarded...
The legendary Hand Destruction three Divine Artifacts, played in a single burst.
The opponent hadn't even gotten their turn yet, and standing there, they were left with just one card in hand.
And because he'd seen the opponent's hand, Yugen knew very clearly that the only card left in their hand was the Magic Card "Double Magic." By discarding a card from their hand, they could use a Magic Card from the opponent's Graveyard.
Not very useful.
The three-move combo executed flawlessly, then Yugen didn't summon even a single monster, set a back row, and ended his turn in style.
Finally, he gracefully gestured "please."
I'm done, take your time.
Nakamura Tsubasa was flustered.
He hadn't even gotten his turn and was down to one card; what the heck could he play?
But sticking to his principles as a duelist, he didn't give up. Nakamura Tsubasa steadied himself and drew a card from his deck...
...Only to see his opponent dramatically flip open a Trap Card, "Fallen."
The card he just drew hadn't even gotten warm before it was sent straight to the Underworld...
Nakamura was in chaos.
Is he seriously determined to prevent any play?
No choice, with only "Double Magic" in hand, there's no card he could discard as a cost for activation. Helplessly, he ended his turn.
He felt like his turn had ended as soon as it started, wondering if it was just an illusion...
Then it was Yugen's turn again. Yugen activated the Magic Card "Reinforcements," allowing him to fetch a Warrior Race monster from the deck. Yugen picked a "Leader - Zargul," then normal summoned Zargul to attack directly.
Then, triggering Zargul's effect, causing battle damage allows the discard of an opponent's card from their hand...
Nakamura Tsubasa: "..."
Now he was completely without cards in hand.
Wait a minute...
What kind of terrible karma did he accumulate last life to be matched with this suffocating opponent?