Half an hour later, the two of them finally sat down at the table and finished listening to Yugi’s explanation of everything that had happened.
“Ehhhhhh?!”
Having just enrolled and already being told she had to duel a senior at LV7, Elsie couldn’t help but show a terrified expression that screamed “Me fighting Sukuna?!”.
“Ota Yukiko, when she first enrolled, she displayed talent on par with Kaiba Ayatsuki.
The two were even once hailed together as twin pillars.
But in the most crucial duel, her Little Blue dumped three key cards into the graveyard, causing her to lose to Kaiba Ayatsuki.
After that, she fell into a downward spiral.”
Jounouchi Mai sighed.
“She stopped being optimistic and diligently training, and instead began suppressing and bullying weaker duelists.
Through duel spirit plunder challenges, she seized many people’s hard-earned duel spirits.
She’s practically a nightmare for freshmen.
Elsie, you need to be careful.”
After all, she wasn’t that close to Yugi yet.
Worried that saying it too directly might anger him, she tried to persuade him indirectly by warning Elsie instead.
“You mean you don’t want us to fight her, right?
After all, freshmen have a one-year protection period.
As long as we don’t initiate a duel, Ota Yukiko can’t really do anything to Elsie.” Yugi immediately picked up on the unspoken meaning.
“That is indeed what I mean.
Even though you’re very strong, the other side is still an LV7 duelist.
If you were to lose…”
Jounouchi Mai hesitated and ultimately couldn’t bring herself to continue.
In this world, most duel spirits were more inclined to follow stronger duelists.
If Yugi was dissatisfied with Elsie’s weakness and wanted to seek another path, this would indeed be a perfect opportunity.
If that really was what he intended, she had no standing to stop him.
Survival of the fittest and the law of the jungle were the lowest-level logic of the duelist world, something not even the Duel King could change.
“Your concerns aren’t unreasonable.” Yugi shrugged and turned to look at Elsie.
“Then what do you think?”
“Umm…
wah…” Clearly not good at thinking about such complicated matters, Elsie’s eyes started spinning in circles after a short while.
There was even smoke practically rising from the top of her head, she had clearly entered a system crash state.
“I- I’ll listen to Mr.
Yugi.” In the end, the little girl resigned herself in a rather self-abandoning manner.
Hearing this, Jounouchi Mai couldn’t help but feel her heart sink, but before she could speak, she saw Yugi flick Elsie on the forehead.
“That won’t do.
As a duelist, how can you let others decide such an important duel for you?
Even if I’m your duel spirit, that’s still not okay.”
cough, cough, I mean, if you can’t analyze the pros and cons for the moment, then follow your own heart.
Calm down, face your soul directly, and ask it whether you really want to fight this duel.”
“This guy, he was about to call her an idiot, wasn’t he?”
Jounouchi Mai shot him a sidelong glance and muttered inwardly, but her expression softened.
Although she still didn’t know what kind of die; spirit Yugi really was, the way he was acting now didn’t resemble an Ancient Warriors traitor, Lu Feng-type turncoat.
After all, the one calling him “Godfather” was Elsie.
“I…”
After hearing this, Elsie fell into deep thought.
Finally, she raised her head and spoke with firm resolve.
“I want to take this duel!”
Elsie’s answer didn’t surprise Yugi much.
He lazily smiled.
“The reason?”
“I think that duel spirit is very pitiful,” Elsie said honestly.
“And I feel like she’s a lot like me.
If I hadn’t met Mr.
Yugi, I’d probably be very scared and helpless right now too.
So…”
She took a deep breath.
“Even though I’m very useless, I still want to reach out and help her.
With Mr.
Yugi here, I’m sure, surely, we can make her shine just like me!”
“I really can’t do anything about you.” Jounouchi Mai sighed, knowing full well that this silly girl’s personality had already been completely wrapped around Yugi’s finger.
“So…
is there anything I can help with?”
“Hmm, if you don’t mind, could you lend us a <Feather Duster> on the day of the match?” Yugi made a suggestion.
“How do you know I have a <Feather Duster>?” Jounouchi Mai was startled.
“Did Elsie tell you?”
“I guessed.” Yugi shrugged.
That name just sounded like the kind that would pull out a Feather Duster by hand.
“Even if you’re borrowing a card, you don’t wait until match day to do it.
Of course, you should take it a few days early to get familiar with it.” Jounouchi Mai sighed as she drew a card from her deck and handed it over.
“Since you’ve already made up your mind to fight, then you absolutely have to win.”
With the expression of a worried mother, she added, “Elsie…
I’m leaving her in your care.”
Before long, the entire school knew that an ignorant freshman had actually dared to challenge an LV7 senior to a duel spirit plunder battle.
For the next few days, wherever Elsie went, she was met with looks of shock or disdain.
Yugi felt a little embarrassed about it, but Elsie herself was already completely fired up, swearing to rescue Little Blue from the depths of misery.
“Is this the mutual sympathy between deadweights?” Yugi sighed helplessly, then continued listening attentively in class, while Elsie, exhausted from training her spiritual power, had already fallen asleep on her desk.
It was mainly to figure out exactly what kind of duel spirit he was, and how he could be used in duels.
“Awakening soul power, peering into the light of one’s heart…
this sounds ridiculously complicated.” Closing his notebook, he wore a pained expression.
This kind of theoretical knowledge was absolute torture for a poor student like him.
Still, since he had caused this trouble himself, he had to take responsibility and win the duel properly.
After all, a duelist couldn’t run away on the battlefield.
Even though he didn’t really count as a duelist right now, not running away was still the right thing to do.
“My, you look quite nervous.” Just as Yugi was about to try activating his soul power, an elegant voice sounded beside him.
“If you’re so unwilling to become that woman’s duel spirit, how about pledging yourself to this young lady instead?”
“Huh, who are you?” Yugi’s mind was full of transformation methods, and the words slipped out the moment he looked up.
“You b*stard!” Kaiba Hanatsuki instantly exploded.
“After doing that kind of thing to this young lady, you’re actually pretending you don’t recognize me?!”
“Don’t say it in such a misleading way.
All I did was “steal” your Blue Eyes.” Although Yugi knew that stealing the Kaiba family’s Blue Eyes was indeed enough to make her furious, he was genuinely busy right now and really didn’t have time to deal with this Kaiba second miss who was overflowing with things to complain about.
“Hmph, it’s normal for a powerful duel spirit to have a bit of a temper.” Kaiba Hanatsuki muttered softly, not sure whether she was talking to Yugi or comforting herself.
She quickly adjusted her mood and cleared her throat twice.
“Bang!”
She slapped a finely crafted chip onto the desk.
“This is a precious recording of the duel between Ota Yukiko and my elder sister back then.
Take it and use it as reference.”
Yugi: ?
?
?
What’s going on here?
He stole the Kaiba family’s Blue Eyes, and now this girl is actually coming over to help him?
He wracked his absurdly overdeveloped brain, yet still couldn’t come up with a reason for her actions.
Seeing the confusion in Yugi’s eyes, Kaiba Hanatsuki turned her little head aside.
“D- Don’t get the wrong idea.
I’m not trying to court you or anything.
But since you’ve already beaten this young lady once, before I get my revenge, I won’t allow you to lose to anyone else.”
“Wow, that’s textbook tsundere.”
Yugi shrugged and casually pocketed the chip.
“Thanks.”
As for the whole “courting him” thing, even though Kaiba Hanatsuki was indeed attempting it, Yugi still hadn’t realized that he was the kind of existence people would lust after.
As a result, everything she had just done was basically like batting her eyelashes at a blind man.
In the end, acting tsundere in front of a straight steel man was, by nature, highly likely to result in becoming the losing heroine, no matter the context.