Chapter 330: Yu, the Demon Born From Love
That smooth touch?
Amano Rei felt the situation's badness rating climb instantly.
Back when Kikawayu had tried sneaking into his room that one night, Amano Rei had already braced himself for certain things.
But afterward, learning that Kikawayu couldn't present herself in her normal female form because of the mainframe Eva's surveillance, that was the only reason Amano Rei had counted himself as having "dodged a bullet."
But right now, outside Eden Tower, the mainframe Eva's surveillance simply didn't exist.
It hit Amano Rei like a jolt of electricity straight to the skull, understanding the situation he was in.
"Yu, taking Celestia's place going outside the Tower, was this your goal all along?"
"Rei, how could you think so badly of me... In every sense, I really did save Celestia's life, you know."
"How do you figure that?"
"Rei, you probably still don't know the truth about outside the Tower. They call it exile, but anyone exiled gets their Deck confiscated, and then gets hunted down by Eden's artificial life forms. If it hadn't been me who went out there, if it had been that big-chested woman instead, there'd probably be nothing left of her by now but a corpse. No, not even a corpse, honestly."
If this had been before he'd met Alexis Rhodes, Amano Rei might have doubted something this outrageous was even true.
But the fact about Eden's AIs hunting humans matched exactly what Alexis had told him.
Two people who'd never met each other, telling him the exact same shocking fact, that made it awfully credible.
Sure, Eva would confiscate her Deck, but the Deck Kikawayu had lost was clearly her Sacred Beasts set, not the spirit Yubel.
"I did a genuinely good deed here. Shouldn't Rei give me some kind of reward?"
Pressed up against his back, Kikawayu sank her teeth straight into Amano Rei's shoulder, a jolt of pain mixed with numbness spreading from the sharp bite.
She really was "eating" him. He'd thought that was just a figure of speech.
The indescribable tentacles reaching out of the Dark Game barrier still had Amano Rei locked down tight, no way to break free.
Honestly, up until now, Amano Rei had never once faced a crisis this dire. Dire enough that he wasn't even getting a chance to draw a card and fight back before turning into Kikawayu's plaything.
"Yu, is there any room to negotiate here? Or, how about you put me down first. I won't resist, promise~"
"Rei, you're lying to me again, aren't you? Whenever you lie, your skin temperature goes up by about 0.3 degrees Celsius compared to normal. It's actually pretty easy to tell."
"So you could always tell..."
Amano Rei had actually been quietly proud of himself, thinking that if he ever lied to his best friend, he could keep a perfectly straight face without so much as a flutter of his heartbeat.
Turned out Kikawayu had seen right through him this whole time.
That was mortifying... and pretty hopeless too.
Judging by how things were going, there was absolutely no way Kikawayu was putting him down.
Forced tentacle bondage play? Buddy, did we really need to get this elaborate about it?
"Don't worry, Rei, I'll take care of it myself. I promise I'll feel way better than Finesse does for you~"
"So you really did know, after all..."
"It's fine, I don't mind. Because in a minute, I'm going to make you feel so good you forget Finesse even exists."
That line was straight-up NTR territory. Amano Rei had only ever seen dialogue this explosive in certain corruption-genre doujinshi.
Suddenly, Amano Rei felt a gentle glow brush past his fingertips, and right after, the dark tentacles wound around his limbs abruptly loosened.
His chance!
Amano Rei wrenched his hands and feet free from the restraints with everything he had, rolled, twisted around, and shook off Kikawayu still clinging to his back.
The moment he broke free, Amano Rei didn't hesitate for a second. He tapped his Eva Terminal, deployed his Duel Disk, and loaded the Deck from the card case at his hip.
With the Duel Disk and his Deck backing him up now, Amano Rei finally felt a small measure of security, and turned to look back at Kikawayu.
The moment he looked, blood rushed straight to Amano Rei's head.
The sheer visual impact of that snow-white body was overwhelming. So that smooth sensation against his back a moment ago really hadn't been a misjudgment after all.
"Yu, where are your clothes?"
Without a trace of shyness or any attempt to cover herself, Kikawayu spread her slender arms wide, showing herself off to Amano Rei without reservation.
"Well, Rei? Is my real body pretty?"
It really was an undeniable kind of beauty, one that surpassed every work of art Amano Rei had ever known that claimed to represent beauty.
"It's definitely prettier than Finesse's, right~ I've known for ages that Finesse wears padding whenever she goes out."
So Finesse really did pad herself after all. And even so, you couldn't tell in the slightest. Somehow that made it feel even more heartbreaking.
"This has nothing to do with Finesse! I already told you, for now I'm still..."
"No, I'm not listening! I already told you too, there's nobody who can stop me right now!"
Kikawayu reached her hand forward, and across the floor of the Dark Game barrier, the indescribable tentacles Amano Rei had just broken free from came writhing toward him once more.
That same gentle glow that had helped Amano Rei break free returned, this time wrapping around him entirely, warding off the tentacles like some kind of exorcism, keeping them from getting close.
"How is that possible?" Now Kikawayu was certain that Amano Rei hadn't broken free because of any skill of his own. "This Dark Game barrier should have already sealed off every card spirit's power completely."
Ivaliss: "If you're treating us as ordinary card spirits, that's your mistake, Kikawayu!"
Eve: "So what if you're big? The two of us, a pair of Aces put together, can still send you home empty-handed!"
The truth behind the gentle glow revealed itself: a fully physical Eve and Ivaliss appeared on either side of Amano Rei.
Two flat A-cups stacked together didn't come close to matching just one handful of Kikawayu's size, but pair two Aces together in poker and you get a bomb hand, more than enough to break a standoff.
A flicker of displeasure crossed Kikawayu's finely drawn features. "Eva's proxy executors? This isn't even Eden anymore, and you two are still hounding me like this!"
Eve: "Eva's proxy executors?"
Ivaliss: "I think we've been misunderstood."
Eve and Ivaliss exchanged a glance.
Eve: "We're just loyal card spirits passing through, here to protect Amano Rei's purity from getting tainted!"
Ivaliss: "Trying to get what you want in a Dark Game without actually dueling for it goes against the most basic rules of this world!"
"Thank god you two are here." Amano Rei, having pulled himself back from the brink, raised a hand and pointed straight at the bare Kikawayu standing before him.
"Yu, let's duel again, just like last time! Except this time, I'm not going to hesitate for a second!"
Last time, the shocking truth Kikawayu had revealed had left Amano Rei genuinely conflicted about the power he'd gained through her, which meant he'd spent nearly the entire duel on the back foot.
But this time was different!
"I've already felt your feelings, and I've made my peace with them, the way I should have."
"But using a Dark Game to make me submit, that I won't accept!"
"A duelist should speak with their soul through their cards. I'll take in the entirety of your love, Kikawayu, in the clash of our souls!"
Ivaliss: "Wow, that's such an edgelord line. But I love it."
Eve: "You can't become a top-tier duelist without a healthy dose of edgelord energy!"
Standing perfectly still, Kikawayu's heterochromatic eyes shifted, slowly, from their initial heat into something cold.
And the tentacles crawling through the Dark Game barrier began gathering back around Kikawayu.
The black tentacles climbed up from the girl's pale, delicate feet, over her alluring body, and once they'd wound their way around Kikawayu completely, transformed into an opulent black gown.
Eve: "Whoa, somehow that looks even more indecent than being naked."
Ivaliss: "I have to admit defeat on that one."
His own best friend, even dressed as a boy with short hair, had already been cute enough to outclass a whole crowd of beautiful girls.
Now, changed into a dark-styled dress that suited her this perfectly, she'd reached succubus-tier.
"Rei, I'm actually a little angry this time."
What unfolded across Kikawayu's slender arm wasn't a Duel Disk deployed from an Eva Terminal. It looked forged from her own flesh and blood instead, a demonic Duel Disk that matched her black outfit perfectly.
"I'm going to beat you down until you can't stand back up, and then I'm going to have my way with you for three days and three nights straight!"
"Even if that's how it ends, I'm willing to accept it. Whatever happens after this duel, I won't have a single complaint about it."
Before the duel began, Amano Rei summoned the Millennium Key's data construct and let it merge into the empty darkness around them.
Besides body-snatching immortality, the Millennium Key had another effect too: opening the door to a person's mind room, letting him glimpse the secrets buried deep in someone's heart.
"Let's be completely honest with each other, Yu!"
"Duel!" Times two.
As the two of them declared the duel's start in perfect unison, Kikawayu took the first move.
"My turn, draw! Then I activate the Field Spell Card Nightmare Throne!"
[Nightmare Throne] [Field Spell Card: As a resolution of this card's activation, the following effect may apply. Take 1 Fiend-Type monster with 0 ATK and 0 DEF from your Deck, and either add it to your hand or destroy it.]
"I destroy my own Yubel from my Deck, and when Yubel is destroyed this way, I Special Summon Yubel - Terror Incarnate from my Deck!"
[Yubel - Terror Incarnate] [Level 11 DARK]
[Fiend/Special Summon/Effect]
[ATK: 0] [DEF: 0]
[This card cannot be Normal Summoned. Can only be Special Summoned by the effect of "Yubel."]
A Level 11 twin-headed demon dragon descended in front of Kikawayu right at the very start, summoned through the Field Spell's own effect.
And the instant the monster descended, within the Dark Game barrier now laced with the Millennium Key's power, an image surfaced from both their shared memories.
"Rei, this little one's name is Yu. She lives right next door to us. I bet you two are going to grow up to be really good friends."
This was the scene of the two of them meeting for the very first time as infants, in District 32, brought together by Amano Rei's mother.
Two bare-bottomed babies lay sprawled on the floor, and the one with gray hair crawled right on top of the other, latching onto the black-haired baby's cheek and slobbering all over it.
"Oh my, looks like Yu really likes our little Rei. Well, you two better get along well from now on and look out for each other~ I'm counting on you to take care of our Rei."
And then baby Amano Rei got slobbered on until he cried.
Even though Amano Rei was a reincarnator, he'd been bound by the limits of his infant body, and with a baby's underdeveloped brain, he genuinely had no memory of this period of his life at all.
"I set one card face down. Turn end!"
Having Summoned Terror Incarnate, Kikawayu set a card face down and ended her turn without further ado.
"My turn, draw!" Amano Rei began his turn, drawing a card. "I activate the Spell Card Foolish Anticipation!"
[Foolish Anticipation] [Spell Card: Activate only when you control no monsters. Special Summon 1 Level 4 or lower Normal Monster from your Deck.]
"I Special Summon Priestess Who Receives the Star Chalice from my Deck!"
[Priestess Who Receives the Star Chalice] [ATK: 0]
Yubel monsters' single most iconic effect was reflecting battle damage. The higher your monster's ATK, the more excited she got.
But Eve, famous for her proud defense stat, had a sky-high ATK of exactly zero, and had nothing at all to fear from Yubel's effect. This time, Amano Rei could even openly Special Summon her in Attack Position without a second thought.
"Yu, you're not allowed to kiss me anymore. Every time we play together I end up covered in slobber."
"Uwaa?"
Probably because Amano Rei was a reincarnator, he'd learned to talk earlier than an ordinary child would. At this point, Kikawayu could still only babble, while Amano Rei was already able to warn her out loud.
"I also Normal Summon Ivaliss, Phantom Rupture in Attack Position!" Amano Rei flung his second card onto the Duel Disk.
[Ivaliss, Phantom Rupture] [Level 2 DARK]
[Cyberse/Effect]
[ATK: 0] [DEF: 0]
Another flat-chested zero-ATK monster, leaving Yubel's damage reflection with nothing to work with.
But Amano Rei's goal wasn't to just turtle up behind zero-ATK monsters in front of Kikawayu.
The moment Yubel - Terror Incarnate, her second evolution form, left the field, it would Special Summon her third form, Yubel - The Ultimate Nightmare.
What Amano Rei needed to do was lock down this demon born from love entirely.
With Ivaliss, Phantom Rupture on the field, its controller couldn't perform any Special Summon other than a Link Summon.
And it was only once an Extra Monster Zone existed on the field that Ivaliss's real usefulness would come into play.
"Dummy Yu, you bit me again! I'm gonna get you!"
"Ah, Rei, how could you hit that hard? Yu's about to cry from that... huh, wait, she's not crying?"
"I set Priestess Who Receives the Star Chalice and Ivaliss, Phantom Rupture on my field as Link Markers!"
A royal bomb of Aces, a Summon lockdown built specifically against Yubel.
Flat-chested Eve and flat-chested Ivaliss each generated one arrow, one to the left, one to the right.
[Left Arrow] [Right Arrow]
"Open up, the Link Circuit leading toward the path of stars!"
"Priestess and Rupture, two data streams converge here. Through this Link, let the guardian starlight illuminate the sacred domain!"
"Link Circuit constructed, confirmed: Star Chalice!"
"Link Summon! Link-2, Star Chalice Sacred Dance - Eve!"
[Star Chalice Sacred Dance - Eve] [Link Arrows: Left, Right] [WATER]
[Spellcaster/Link/Effect]
[ATK: 1800] [LINK-2]
[2 monsters with different Types and Attributes]
With Ivaliss, Phantom Rupture on the field, its controller could only perform Special Summons through a Link Summon.
Ivaliss, Phantom Rupture, used as Link Material, would be sent to the Graveyard, triggering her own effect in turn.
[Activate only when this card is sent from your field to the Graveyard. Special Summon this card to your opponent's field in Defense Position.]
"I Special Summon Ivaliss, sent to the Graveyard as Link Material, onto your field!"
Transferred from Amano Rei's field to Kikawayu's own, Ivaliss's Special-Summon-locking effect sealed away the demon born from love.
"Rei, even though you always pick on me, I still really like you."
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