It clearly wasn’t much of a secret that random background characters in anime worlds tended to be bad at dueling.
It only took Yushin a moment to work out why.
In a backwater place like the Satellite, most people’s understanding of the game clearly came from picking up cards and figuring it out as they went.
Knowing the basic rules was usually good enough.
In a district where even basic education was hard to come by, how could you possibly expect anyone to have any deep understanding of the rules-lawyer-level card interactions?
Not to mention, actually getting your hands on good cards in a place like this was far harder than it had ever been for Yushin back in his past life.
Powerful cards were rare enough in the world of Yu-Gi-Oh!
to begin with, and the Satellite was a backwater falling far behind the main city.
A duelist here might go their whole life only ever seeing a handful of cards, and getting even a glimpse of the current card pool was already a rare stroke of luck.
So of course, dueling knowledge here couldn’t hold a candle to real-world card game addicts who had easy access to the full card pool and decades of accumulated game theory to draw on.
But this guy Itagaki, weak as he clearly was, didn’t seem to agree with the assessment at all.
“I’ll admit you’ve got some tricks up your sleeve,” Itagaki said darkly.
“But it’s way too early to get cocky over something like this, kid.
You’ve got my attention now.
That was just the warm-up.
Now I’m getting serious.” Yushin didn’t bother responding.
“I’ll set one card.
Turn end.” Itagaki: “My turn, draw!” His muscular arm swung with such force that it looked like the draw itself kicked up a small whirlwind.
Honestly, Yushin had never really understood why people felt the need to make such a production out of drawing a card.
Did drawing harder somehow make it more accurate?
The lackeys behind him were already whispering among themselves.
“Uh oh, boss is getting serious now.” “Haven’t seen the boss look this serious in a long time…” Itagaki declared, “I activate the Spell Card Dark World Dealings.
Both of us draw one card from our Decks, then each discard one card from our hands.” He drew, discarded a card from his hand, and immediately slapped down a Monster Card.
“I Normal Summon Mimic Illusionist!” [Mimic Illusionist, ATK 0] The lackeys immediately perked up.
“There it is, the boss’s ace!” Yukine looked confused at that.
“His ace?
But it’s got 0 ATK…” Yushin said, with the weight of hard-earned wisdom, “Yukine, you should remember this: the scariest monsters in Duel Monsters are always the ones with zero ATK.” “I-is that…
how it works?” Yukine said, bewildered.
Itagaki barked, “Mimic Illusionist is a monster with a copying ability.
Watch!
Look what’s reflected in its mirror!” Sure enough, Mimic Illusionist turned the mirror built into its face toward the skeletal demon on Yushin’s field.
Summoned Skull’s reflection appeared clearly in the mirror, and then the demon’s shape rose right out of the glass, the mirror-holding mage’s form shimmering and shifting until it became a second Summoned Skull.
Yukine gasped.
“It turned into a copy of brother’s Summoned Skull?!” Itagaki laughed loudly.
“Exactly!
On Summon, it takes on the original ATK and DEF of any monster on my opponent’s field.
The stronger the enemy, the stronger it gets!” [Mimic Illusionist, ATK 0 → ATK 2500] Itagaki went on, “I’ve already used my Normal Summon this turn, but I’ve got a monster in hand that can Special Summon itself.
Dark Elf Luna can Special Summon itself from my hand by banishing a DARK monster from my Graveyard.” A card slid out of his Duel Disk’s Graveyard slot.
He held it up briefly, then tucked it into a card case behind him.
“I banish the DARK monster Reaper of Cards, discarded earlier by Dark World Dealings, to Special Summon Dark Elf Luna!” [Dark Elf Luna, ATK 1600] Itagaki said, “Now, straight to the Battle Phase!
Mimic Illusionist, attack Summoned Skull!” Yukine startled.
“The same ATK?
Is he trying to trade hits and take them both down together?” “Trade hits?” Itagaki laughed loudly.
“I don’t bother with half-baked tactics like that.
Take a good look at your brother’s monster, little girl.” “Brother’s monster…” Only then did Yukine notice something wrong with Summoned Skull.
“What?!” A half-transparent shape had appeared behind Summoned Skull, and at some point had wrapped itself tightly around the demon’s arms.
It was unmistakably Archfiend of Gilfer, the monster that should have already been destroyed last turn!
“Archfiend of Gilfer’s special effect!” Itagaki said.
“When this card is sent to the Graveyard, it can attach as an Equip Card, dropping one monster’s ATK by 500!” So Archfiend of Gilfer’s effect had already gone off last turn, right when it was destroyed.
This was one of the big gaps between dueling in the anime and dueling in the real world.
In real life, both players could check the field state and every card’s effect text at any time.
In the anime, they couldn’t.
Which was exactly why the anime was full of characters quietly activating effects without telling the other side.
Like how the original Yugi never announced it whenever he used Archfiend of Gilfer’s effect, leaving his opponent to realize only after walking straight into it: “Wait, why did my monster’s ATK just drop?” Or how Yusei Fudo would routinely activate Traps under cover of the smoke from a monster’s battle explosion, leaving his opponent to eventually go, “Wait, when did that Trap even show up back there?” Even good old thick-eyebrowed, big-eyed Jaden Yuki had secretly activated a Trap during his duel against Yubel once, staying dead silent about it and even having Neos physically block it from view, so Yubel never even noticed…
So this counted as one of this world’s own peculiar little dueling techniques, apparently.
This guy Itagaki was clearly playing the same game.
Summoned Skull had already taken Archfiend of Gilfer’s ATK debuff last turn; Itagaki had just kept quiet about it.
[Summoned Skull, ATK 2500 → ATK 2000] “Mimic Illusionist copies the opponent’s ‘original ATK.’ Even with your demon’s ATK dropped, its ‘original ATK’ is still 2500,” Itagaki laughed.
“Which means my copy is actually stronger than your real thing!” This was one of the combos Itagaki was proudest of.
The Illusionist’s copied Descending Thunder overpowered Summoned Skull, and the skeletal demon, however unwilling, finally went down beneath its own borrowed lightning.
[Yushin, LP 4000 → LP 3500] “Now, Dark Elf Luna,” Itagaki said, “direct attack!” [Yushin, LP 3500 → LP 1900] Watching her brother take both hits square on, Yukine couldn’t help calling out in concern.
“Brother!” But Yushin just turned his head and gave her another smile.
“Don’t worry, I’m fine.” For some reason, seeing that smile made Yukine relax again, almost against her will.
“Turn end,” Itagaki sneered.
“You’ve got time to comfort your little sister?
Might want to worry about yourself instead.
Next turn, Mimic Illusionist’s attack is going to seal my win for certain.
You’d be better off spending that time figuring out how you’re going to scrape together 4000 DP.” With that, he threw his head back and laughed, and his lackeys chimed in right on cue with mocking laughter of their own.
Yushin still didn’t bother reacting.
“My turn, draw.” He glanced at the card he’d drawn, and a small smile crossed his face.
The winning formula was finally complete.