Back in the underground chamber, the Shadow Game ended.
The contract Jamie and Arkana had established before the Duel immediately took effect.
Everything Arkana possessed that was connected to Duel Monsters was stripped away, leaving behind little more than the battered shell of the man himself.
Jamie inserted the newly acquired Locator Card into the conveniently universal storage slot on his Duel Disk.
Arkana’s Deck was automatically registered in the System’s card catalog, and after Jamie selected the handful of cards that were at least somewhat useful, the rest were transferred into the dedicated Deck storage space.
Arkana’s Duel Disk received even less ceremony.
Jamie’s Duel Disk swallowed it whole.
Not a crumb remained.
[Side Mission Completed: If You Can’t Print Support, Stop Pretending You Know How to Play Dark Magician!] [Achievement Unlocked: Defeat Magic with Magic] [Achievement Unlocked: A Little Green Makes Life Better] [Rewards distributed.
Please review them at your convenience.] The System notifications marked the definitive end of the Duel.
Jamie crouched and lifted Arkana’s mask.
Beneath it was a face covered in scars, unpleasant enough at a glance to make most people instinctively recoil.
Arkana had committed plenty of crimes while working for the Rare Hunters, carrying out whatever dirty work his employer demanded.
Now that he had lost a Shadow Game, most of his spirit and will had been torn away.
Assuming he survived, the rest of his life would probably be spent in prison.
That was, of course, assuming his black-hearted boss—the reigning champion of deranged facial expressions, Marik Ishtar—was kind enough to arrange for someone who could barely walk to be delivered to the authorities.
Marik might not care about one expendable subordinate, but an event this significant was still impossible for him to miss.
Jamie had only just started checking his rewards when the supposedly empty shell on the floor suddenly changed.
Another consciousness descended into it.
Jamie immediately understood what had happened.
Marik had taken control of Arkana’s damaged body through the power of the Millennium Rod.
Jamie showed no trace of alarm.
This was a world where practically anything could be settled by playing cards.
The king of heaven himself could come down and demand Jamie’s head, and Jamie would still expect him to win a Duel first.
There was no problem one Duel could not solve.
And if there was?
Play a Match.
“Jamie St.
James, correct?” Jamie turned around with a cheerful smile, still casually shuffling cards between his hands.
“Hey there, kid.” Arkana’s damaged body could no longer manage much physical movement, but Jamie was not interested in taking unnecessary chances with an unknown Millennium Item.
He quietly placed five cards face-down onto his Duel Disk.
If Marik tried anything strange, Jamie was ready to respond immediately.
Among those cards were Mirror Force, Storming Mirror Force, Quaking Mirror Force, Drowning Mirror Force, and Blazing Mirror Force.
Jamie enjoyed tempting fate.
That did not mean he ever did so without preparation.
Proper precautions were the secret to sustainable stupidity.
Only by ensuring that he remained alive afterward could he continue drinking tea and enjoying the show whenever something entertaining happened.
Marik seemed briefly caught off guard by Jamie’s bizarre greeting.
Since Arkana’s damaged body could not produce much expression under remote control, however, the only visible sign was an awkward silence.
“You think that’s enough to anger me?” Marik’s voice remained calm.
Whether that calm was genuine was another matter.
Jamie tilted his head.
“Guess.” “I am Marik Ishtar, leader of the Rare Hunters!” Apparently unwilling to get trapped in an endless cycle of “guess whether I guessed what you guessed,” Marik abandoned the conversational game and went straight to the point.
“Arkana failed.
You defeated him.
That doesn’t matter to me.” His voice became more authoritative.
“What matters is that I want you to join the Rare Hunters and serve me.” Jamie said nothing.
Marik waited briefly before continuing.
“You are powerful, but even the strongest Duelist requires sufficiently powerful cards to become stronger.
The Rare Hunters possess countless rare cards.
Join us, and you may choose whichever ones you desire!” He delivered the offer with tremendous confidence, as though proclaiming that every great talent beneath heaven had already gathered beneath his banner.
Unfortunately, he was speaking to someone whose primary objective was to cause trouble.
Jamie tapped his Duel Disk.
A card projection appeared above it.
The Duel Chronicle System contained information on every card in its records, even though the overwhelming majority remained locked and could only be viewed rather than used.
The reason Jamie had been able to summon the spirit of Maxx “C” earlier was simply because he had happened to use and unlock it through a previous Special Mode Duel.
Jamie pointed toward the projected card.
“You guys have Summon Sorceress?” Marik stared at the unfamiliar blue-bordered card for a moment.
“…No.” What kind of Duel Monsters card had a blue frame?
Jamie nodded thoughtfully.
“Fair enough.
Maybe the Rare Hunters have unusual taste.
How about Galatea, the Orcust Automaton?” Marik paused.
“…What?” “No girls and no machines?
Fine.
Surely you’ve got House Dragonmaid?” Silence.
Jamie stared at him.
“You don’t have this, you don’t have that—are you screwing with me?!” His voice rose sharply, but his expression contained no anger whatsoever.
If anything, his smile only became more obvious.
Even Marik, who had spent most of his life isolated inside tombs and had relatively little ordinary social experience, could tell by now that Jamie was deliberately messing with him.
Still, he asked one final time.
Jamie was simply too mysterious to dismiss.
“You truly refuse to join us?
The Rare Hunters could use someone with your talents.” Jamie immediately smiled.
“Funny.
My evil secret organization could use talent like yours too.” Marik’s voice hardened.
“If that’s your answer…
then don’t blame me for teaching you a lesson.” The Millennium Rod could not simply brainwash Jamie remotely under these circumstances, but sending a burst of psychic force through the connection was still enough to leave an ordinary person dizzy and disoriented.
Unfortunately for Marik, that was exactly the excuse Jamie had been waiting for.
“Oh, you’re actually going for it?
Fine!
Don’t complain about what happens next!” Jamie slapped his hand over his Duel Disk.
“Flip everything!
Eat the full Mirror Force package!” Five barriers erupted simultaneously in different colors.
Before Marik’s psychic attack could reach Jamie, the defensive force reversed course and struck back.
The five streams of light ignored Arkana’s body completely.
Instead, they shot out from the underground chamber, passing effortlessly through layers of concrete and earth before racing toward Marik himself, who had not even reached Domino City yet.
A moment later, Jamie rubbed his chest.
He felt a little tightness, but nothing more.
‘Huh.
Wasn’t I supposed to get hit by a psychic attack?’ Then a scream erupted from Arkana’s body beside him.
Just hearing it was enough for Jamie to imagine Marik producing at least an eight-out-of-ten reaction face somewhere far away.
What a shame he could not see it.
The connection through the Millennium Rod had not completely collapsed yet, and Marik was somehow still conscious despite the counterattack.
Jamie thought for a moment.
Then he leaned closer to Arkana’s ruined body and spoke in an almost conversational tone.
“By the way…
your sister is amazing.” A brief pause.
“I mean, she can see the future while holding an un-errata’d future Forbidden card.
That’s talent.”