Not Even Close!
10: Chapter 10: A Candle in the Wind?
Not Even Close!
Joey had ended his turn so quickly that Jamie found himself slightly uncertain.
‘Isn’t everybody in the anime supposed to draw perfectly?
What’s Joey planning with those three cards he’s been sitting on?’ Jamie looked at his next draw, thought for a moment, then continued following the plan he had already laid out.
“I Normal Summon Breaker the Magical Warrior!” A warrior clad in red-and-gold armor appeared on Jamie’s field, sword in one hand and shield in the other.
“When Breaker is Normal Summoned, I place one Spell Counter on him, and he gains 300 ATK for each Spell Counter he has.
But that’s not the important part.
I can remove one Spell Counter from him to target and destroy one Spell or Trap Card on the field!” Breaker dragged his sword across the surface of his shield.
A streak of crimson energy erupted from the impact and shot directly toward Joey’s only remaining face-down card.
The Trap shattered.
“Kunai with Chain…” Jamie murmured after seeing it.
“Good.
The equation for victory is complete.” He raised one hand.
“Breaker, enter the Battle Phase and attack that Sheep Token!
Magical Sword Slash!” Breaker cut through the leftover Token without difficulty, removing another layer of protection from Joey’s field.
Losing his last face-down card clearly bothered Joey, but after comparing the monsters currently on the field, he gradually relaxed again.
With no Spell Counter remaining, Breaker the Magical Warrior had only 1600 ATK.
Rocket Warrior had 2100.
Joey also had one last Sheep Token to block another attack and a completely untouched 4000 Life Points.
Even Blue-Eyes White Dragon appearing out of nowhere would not be enough to finish him in one blow.
More importantly, one of the cards equipped to Rocket Warrior had an additional effect that could produce an unexpected advantage in battle.
As long as his next draw was a Normal Summonable monster with at least 600 ATK, Joey was convinced he could win.
“My turn!
Draw!” He looked at the card.
His face fell immediately.
Joey’s luck was normally exceptional, especially whenever gambling was involved, but apparently Lady Luck had decided to take the day off.
“I Normal Summon Swordsman of Landstar.” [Swordsman of Landstar — ATK: 500] Joey suddenly missed Panther Warrior, currently stuffed inside his pocket, more than he ever had before.
He was so distracted by that thought that he failed to notice Jamie’s hand briefly hovering above one of his Set cards before moving away again.
“Whatever.
Whether I win this turn or the next doesn’t really matter.” Joey reassured himself almost immediately.
‘If it takes one more turn, I might even get the chance to summon my ace, Red-Eyes Black Dragon, and finish him with that.
Wouldn’t that prove how strong I am even better?’ His imagination ran wild until the murmuring spectators finally dragged him back to reality.
The Duel was still going.
“Battle Phase!
Rocket Warrior, attack Breaker the Magical Warrior!” Rocket Warrior charged.
Just before his blade connected, Joey immediately jumped in with the traditional Duelist privilege of explaining an effect while time politely waited for him.
“I activate Metalmorph’s other effect!
When the monster equipped with Metalmorph attacks another monster, it gains ATK equal to half the ATK of the monster it’s battling during damage calculation!
Breaker has 1600 ATK, so Rocket Warrior rises to 2900!” Once Joey finished explaining, several spectators looked at him with open admiration.
Twenty-nine hundred attack points.
Only one hundred below the legendary Blue-Eyes White Dragon!
Rocket Warrior’s blade came crashing down.
Breaker the Magical Warrior was overwhelmed, and the shockwave from the collision struck Jamie hard enough to carve away another chunk of his Life Points.
[Jamie St.
James LP: 1900 → 600] “Now Swordsman of Landstar attacks directly!
Man, you’re lucky.” [Jamie St.
James LP: 600 → 100] Joey was not the only one disappointed that Jamie had survived with a sliver of Life Points.
Several spectators had clearly expected the Duel to end there.
Others, however, were beginning to look forward to something very different.
Jamie barely noticed either reaction.
The System had suddenly appeared again.
[Achievement Unlocked: A Candle in the Wind?
Not Even Close!] [Additional content has been unlocked.
Please review it at your convenience.] Jamie had entered this Duel mostly because it sounded entertaining, so unlocking another achievement along the way was a pleasant surprise.
‘I’ll worry about that later.
First I need to finish this Duel.’ He looked back at Joey.
“Joey, how has this Duel felt to you?” Joey blinked.
“Felt?
What do you mean?
I guess…
pretty good?” “Then let me put it another way.
How much of your actual ability do you think you’ve managed to use?” “Well, obviously I’ve been—” Joey wanted to say that he always gave every Duel one hundred percent.
Then he looked at the three cards still clogging his hand.
The words died in his throat.
Ever since returning from Duelist Kingdom, he had rarely suffered from serious dead hands.
Today, however, the problem had become impossible to ignore.
Jamie watched him quietly.
“Sometimes, the scales of victory are already tilted before a Duel even begins.
A sufficiently strong Duelist can force those scales back into balance through skill and judgment, but not everyone can do that so easily.” The lesson was meant for Joey.
It was also meant for Jaden.
Both of their Decks were, to put it kindly, chaotic.
Joey’s was practically a pile of whatever cards had caught his attention.
Jaden’s future HERO Deck had its own infamous habits: burning through half an opening hand to summon one monster, surviving on a tiny handful of reliable archetypal cards, and then somehow producing an absurdly specific answer at exactly the right moment that no reasonable person would ever have included in the first place.
Just remembering some of those Duels was enough to make Jamie’s blood pressure rise.
“You say some really complicated stuff,” Joey admitted, looking thoroughly lost.
“But this Duel isn’t over yet.” “No.” Jamie calmly accepted the turn from him and drew what would be his final card of the Duel.
“It already is.” Joey stared.
“Even with a 2100-ATK monster on your field, those 4000 Life Points of yours look like a candle in the wind from where I’m standing.” Jamie turned toward Jaden.
“Jaden, you’re a genius.
There honestly isn’t much I can teach you, so remember what I said earlier and pay close attention to what comes next.” Jaden immediately straightened.
Jamie looked back toward Joey.
“And Joey, if you want to go much farther as a Duelist, you should watch carefully too.” His fingers moved toward the card that had been waiting in his back row.
“First, I activate the Trap Card I’ve kept hidden all this time—Ferret Flames!
I can activate it when the combined ATK of all face-up monsters you control is higher than my Life Points.
You must shuffle face-up monsters you control into the Deck until the total ATK remaining on your field is no greater than my Life Points.” Jamie’s Life Points were sitting at exactly one hundred.
Rocket Warrior had 2100 ATK.
There was no choice.
“Because I only have 100 Life Points, it doesn’t matter how overwhelming your field looked a moment ago.
If you can’t stop this Trap from resolving, everything you’ve built is meaningless.” Rocket Warrior was forced back into Joey’s Deck, leaving behind only a lonely Sheep Token with 0 ATK and 0 DEF.
Jamie glanced toward Jaden again.
“There is rarely only one solution to a problem.
When everything looks hopeless, keep looking until you find the possibility that turns despair into hope.
Remember that, Jaden Yuki.” Then he continued his turn.
“I Normal Summon my second D.D.
Warrior Lady.” Another warrior stepped onto the field.
“Next, I activate the Quick-Play Spell The Flute of Summoning Kuriboh from my hand and Special Summon one Winged Kuriboh from my Deck.” A familiar little creature appeared beside her.
“Then I activate Monster Reborn and Special Summon Kuribohrn from my Graveyard!” In the space of moments, Jamie’s nearly empty field had filled with three monsters, even if two of them happened to be Kuribohs.
Jamie looked toward Jaden.
“No one can accomplish everything alone.
Learn when to borrow someone else’s strength.” He raised his hand sharply.
“Battle Phase!” Téa blinked in confusion.
“What is he doing?
He’s going into battle with two Kuribohs.
How is that supposed to win the Duel?” Yami Yugi had quietly taken over at some point.
His gaze remained fixed on Jamie’s cards.
“He still has cards in his hand.
As long as those possibilities remain unknown, we can’t assume we’ve seen everything he can do.” Jamie pointed toward Joey’s last Token.
“Kuribohrn, attack the Sheep Token and clear the path for your partner!” “Kuri!” Kuribohrn rushed forward and gave the little sheep a surprisingly gentle smack before carrying it off the field.
“D.D.
Warrior Lady, direct attack!
Open the road for the one who comes after you!” Her sword flashed.
The impact forced Joey two steps backward.
[Joey Wheeler LP: 4000 → 2500] Jamie turned toward the last monster on his field.
“And now for the final attack.
Winged Kuriboh!” Joey’s eyes widened.
Jamie still had another card.
“When you rely on someone else’s strength, don’t trap yourself into thinking there’s only one way to use it.
I activate the Quick-Play Spell Berserker Crush!” He revealed the card.
“I banish one monster from my Graveyard.
Until the End Phase, the ATK and DEF of one face-up Winged Kuriboh I control become equal to the ATK and DEF of that banished monster.” Yugi’s eyes narrowed.
“It’s coming…
but I don’t remember seeing any particularly powerful monsters enter his Graveyard.” Jamie smiled.
“The monster I’m banishing is Perfectly Ultimate Great Moth!” For an instant, the entire area went silent.
[Winged Kuriboh] ATK: 300 → 3500 DEF: 200 → 3000 “Great Moth?!” Téa exclaimed.
“Isn’t that Weevil’s card?” “When did he ever send that to the Graveyard?” Tristan asked.
Yugi’s expression changed as the answer occurred to him.
“At the beginning…” Within their shared mind, Yugi and Yami Yugi reached the same conclusion.
It must have been discarded by Morphing Jar.
Both of them found themselves looking at Jamie differently.
They had only met this strange card-shop owner today, yet there was already a certain curiosity pulling at them, the kind that naturally formed between people who truly loved Dueling.
Duelists had a way of finding one another.
Winged Kuriboh, meanwhile, was enjoying treatment it had never received in its life.
After borrowing the overwhelming power of Perfectly Ultimate Great Moth, the tiny creature now possessed enough strength for one little punch to send Blue-Eyes White Dragons flying.
Joey was considerably less durable than a Blue-Eyes White Dragon.
“Winged Kuriboh—finish it!” The tiny fist came down.
Joey was blasted backward so violently that he would probably have hit the pavement if the crowd had not become an improvised human cushion behind him.
KaibaCorp would have had another front-page incident to explain tomorrow.
[Joey Wheeler LP: 2500 → 0] Jamie folded his Duel Disk away and walked over to Joey.
“This Duel was average at best, and right now, I’d say your ability is about the same.” Joey looked up at him, visibly offended.
Jamie smiled and patted him on the shoulder.
“But I like your potential.
You’ve got a future worth betting on.” He picked up the spare Duel Disk and handed it over.
“So this is yours.” …
Elsewhere, inside KaibaCorp, an employee stared at a monitor filled with abnormal readings.
“Master Mokuba, we’ve detected an extremely powerful data spike.
The combat output exceeded the recorded value of Blue-Eyes White Dragon!” Mokuba spun toward the screen.
“What?!
Someone produced a Duel attack stronger than Blue-Eyes?
Hurry!
Send me the Duel data from both players!” The technician hesitated.
“About that…
I’m sorry, sir.
Something seems to have malfunctioned.
We can only retrieve data from one side—the Duelist who lost.
There’s no data at all from the person who caused the spike.” Mokuba frowned.
“What kind of malfunction is that?” After a moment, he shook his head.
“Forget it.
Send me whatever data you managed to get.
I’ll take it to Seto.
He’ll figure something out.” “Yes, sir.”