Chapter 96: Masked HERO Branch Unlocked
The end of a HERO battle between two Wein sisters detonated the weekly duel arena.
"That was incredible!"
"I've never seen a Battle Phase that intense in my life!"
"Is that what a battle looks like when it's only HEROes fighting?!"
After that blur of action finally stopped, the audience surfaced from pure spectacle long enough to process a secondary realization.
"Wait. The winner was Finesse, right? The younger Wein sister beat Latir?"
"She beat Latir Wein? The one who took a year off school and came back still ranked in the top thirty?"
"Doomsday Phoenix, Dark Law, all those fusions one after another. I can't even imagine what score the academy's Eva system is going to give this."
"You're amazing, Finesse! Were you hiding your strength this whole time? We all thought you could only fuse Vision HERO Trinity."
If Finesse's soul hadn't been tucked inside her own body right now, listening to her classmates deliver what read as thinly veiled backhanded praise, she would have been mortified enough to leave the building entirely.
Yes, that was exactly correct. She could only fuse Trinity. Past tense. That was the old Finesse.
Things were different now.
Amano: "Something's off, Finesse."
After the duel ended, the first thing Amano did was check Finesse's deck.
The Extra Deck had exactly one new card: Destiny HERO - Dominance.
Neither Destiny HERO - Doomsday Phoenix nor Masked HERO Dark Law had transferred over.
Was it only the very first Fusion that kept? No. That didn't feel right based on how it had worked before. When fusing Trinity and Dominance, the process had felt natural, effortless, like drawing out potential that already existed in Finesse's body waiting to be found. But when fusing Doomsday Phoenix and Dark Law, there had been a sensation of heavy expenditure, a feeling of borrowing against something not yet accumulated.
That was why he'd checked the deck immediately after the duel ended.
His original understanding had been incomplete. It wasn't simply that Guardian Spirit mode Fusions automatically stayed. More accurately: even Fusions performed in Guardian Spirit form required the Eva system's recognition to remain. The system evaluated whether Finesse had genuinely grown enough to hold those cards. And apparently, Doomsday Phoenix and Dark Law required growth she hadn't yet reached.
No matter how hard Amano tried to hand Finesse a cheat code, the system wouldn't let him overdraft her potential before she'd earned it.
Amano: "Card printing failed, Finesse."
Finesse: "That's okay, Amano. Like you said, you've already shown me the direction my Destiny HEROes can grow into."
She accepted it more easily than he'd expected.
Finesse: "I didn't know my Destiny HEROes could fuse into something that incredible. Doomsday Phoenix. Phoenix. Finesse. When I think about the name my mother gave me becoming the goal I'm working toward..."
Finesse: "I will get stronger, Amano. Until the day I can earn the system's recognition and summon the phoenix myself. Thank you, for showing me this."
[FINESSE] [AFFECTION +2]
[AFFECTION: 89]
If she wanted to thank him, she could round that up by one more point.
Amano was reasonably certain 90 affection was when the Union of Kindred Spirits skill unlocked. Whatever that meant for their combined dueling capacity, it had to be interesting.
The card printing hadn't worked out, but fighting through that duel with Finesse's heroes had been its own reward. The sheer joy of it, moving from Destiny HERO to Doomsday Phoenix to Dark Law, summoning form after form in a continuous chain of heroic transformation, was a different experience from any duel he'd run with his own deck.
Tag dueling together would probably be even better.
Why was everyone else's deck so appealing?
He had full HERO archetype access and his own deck still couldn't casually produce those sequences. The gap between having a card and having a deck built around it was a real one.
"Well, I lost!"
Latir said it easily, without drama, as if filing a report. Her blue-white hero suit dissolved away. The short pale-crimson-haired girl beneath it, her face so nearly Finesse's own, wore an expression that held no anger, no frustration, none of the wounded pride one might expect from someone who'd just lost a duel.
She looked, if anything, refreshed.
"You actually surprised me, Finesse. One year. You didn't just get stronger, you even got your hands on the Masked HERO's power. When Karl finds out, he's going to dislike you even more."
Karl Wein was apparently the only member of the three Wein siblings who couldn't use HEROes at all. His resentment of Finesse, Latir explained, was entirely petty and self-originated.
"But Karl's opinion isn't my business. What I think is: I acknowledge you, Finesse. I'll tell Father myself. Win against me and you've earned the right to be considered as Wein heir."
She reached into her card case, drew a single card, and snapped it across the field with the practiced flick of someone who'd done this many times before.
Amano caught it out of reflex.
"You've got Masked HEROes in your Extra Deck now, so you should be able to use this. Consider it a big sister's reward for a year well spent."
Quick-Play Spell: Mask Change II.
Effect: Discard 1 card from hand. Target 1 monster you control, send it to the GY, Special Summon from the Extra Deck 1 Masked HERO monster with a higher Level than that monster but with the same Attribute.
The crucial difference from standard Mask Change: the target didn't have to be a HERO. Any monster could be sent for the transformation.
Amano was just about to slot it into Finesse's card case.
Finesse: "Don't put it in my deck yet, Amano."
Amano: "Why?"
Finesse: "I... I don't deserve this card right now. Big sis gave this as recognition for the duel, but it wasn't my duel. I didn't win it."
There was also a second reason, which Finesse didn't say but which Amano recognized clearly: Mask Change II worked on non-HERO monsters. In a Normal Monster deck, a card that could transform any monster of matching Attribute into a Masked HERO Fusion was absurdly powerful. The moment it went into Finesse's deck, a mandatory one-month cooldown on card transactions would prevent either of them from moving it anywhere.
The excuse was adorable. The reasoning underneath was genuinely kind.
Finesse: "Until I earn big sis's recognition through my own dueling, keep this card for me, Amano."
He had to work hard not to laugh.
She was giving it to him. She'd constructed the most considerate possible reason to do it without making it feel like a gift.
Amano: "Alright. I'll hold onto it for you. Though you'll need to hand it to me properly later."
He was still in Finesse's body.
"Finesse." The homeroom teacher's voice reached them from across the arena floor. She was visibly in a good mood, practically glowing. "Your weekly duel evaluation score just came in. Head to the testing terminal whenever you're ready."
Strong duelists in your class meant strong results for your class record. Any Fusion Academy teacher with a student who just beat a returning fourth-year in a weekly duel had good reason to be pleased.
The testing terminal was positioned near the base of the dueling platform for easy access by the Eva system's real-time record processing.
Weekly duels didn't carry ranking points or the placement rewards that accompanied the entrance exams. Beating a substitute opponent, even a senior, wouldn't change Finesse's position in the academy standings. What it produced instead was a performance evaluation, and the stronger the evaluation, the stronger the card reward for the corresponding card slot.
The terminal screen was large enough to read from a distance.
[WEEKLY DUEL]
[SCORE: 5+]
Beyond the score itself, the terminal displayed a full breakdown of the duel's recorded data: damage taken, damage dealt, Special Summon count, monsters destroyed, monsters lost, and a series of additional performance metrics.
[SCORE-BASED CARD SLOT REWARD ISSUED]
[EVALUATION REWARD: ]
In front of Amano, all of the densely packed duel data on the screen began flowing inward toward a single white card-shaped outline at the center. The data converged, and from the outline, a card's details resolved into clarity.
[DESTINY HERO - PLASMA]
[8-Star / DARK / Warrior / Special Summon / Effect]
[ATK: 1900 / DEF: 600]
This was genuine card acquisition. The real kind, Eva system approved, earned through Finesse's actual performance.
And it was, unless Amano was mistaken, the anime version of Plasma's effects.
Finesse's main deck had finally received its first Destiny HERO that could actually carry a fight.
In fact, calling it "capable of carrying a fight" might be underselling it considerably.
***
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