“You…
Amanojaku’s…” The Dark Ritual Officiant’s breath was down to a thread; he could barely get words out anymore.
Amanojaku’s Curse was nowhere near a powerful, rare card.
An effect that only reversed ATK/DEF changes for a single turn was, in the eyes of Satellite duelists, far less practical-feeling than a support card that simply boosted ATK outright.
Yes, it wasn’t some powerful card.
It was simply a card whose timing had been perfect, and that alone had decided the whole outcome of the duel.
He couldn’t accept it.
He’d had the clear advantage.
He’d been the one dominating the field.
And yet, out of nowhere, some baffling little card had ended him instead.
If he’d had a choice, he would rather have gone down to some hulking, high-ATK monster’s axe.
But no amount of refusing to accept it was going to give him a second chance.
A Shadow Game decided both the outcome of the duel and the fate of one’s life.
In his final moments, he summoned every last bit of strength he had left to ask, “What exactly…
are you…?” He genuinely wanted to know just what kind of unknown being had decided to make an enemy of his faith.
“That’s something I’d love to know myself.” Yushin sighed.
If he could just figure out who his real body actually was after transmigrating, he might finally understand what that temple trapping him even was, and maybe even figure out how to get out.
“Anyway, it’s fine.
I’ll find the answer eventually.” Yushin walked over to the dying man, crouched down, and pulled the Duel Disk and deck off him together, saying earnestly, “Don’t worry, I’ll put your deck to good use.
Go in peace.” “You…
you, you…” The man spat up one last mouthful of blood.
And then passed away, not remotely peacefully.
Yushin took his newly acquired Duel Disk and deck and continued on his way home.
Yushin mulled it over.
This cult had actually tracked him down for real.
So they really did know the sacrifice’s identity, then?
Which meant, predictably enough, that even though he’d handled this one, there was no ruling out the cult coming after him again down the line.
Well, but from the sound of it, this Dark Ritual Officiant had already been fairly high up in the cult’s hierarchy.
If that was the level of their leadership, having them keep coming after him didn’t actually sound like such a bad deal.
Case in point: Yushin had only taken over this body a single day ago, and he’d already made out like a bandit.
And it wasn’t even like he’d gone looking for trouble either.
People just kept lining up to deliver it to him, one after another.
This right here felt exactly like that internet meme of the tiger, sprawled out and stuffed to bursting: no more, please, I’ve already eaten too much.jpg.
Back home, he pushed open the somewhat battered door.
Yushin had just changed his shoes and was putting away his newly claimed spoils when a slender figure came hurrying out from inside to meet him.
Yukine said, worried, “Big brother, why are you so late today?” “Oh, it’s nothing.” Yushin brushed a bit of dust off his sleeve, his tone light.
“Just chatted with Uncle Rude a bit longer than usual, took a look at his new stock while I was at it.” “You never used to come home this late.” Yukine muttered under her breath.
“I was actually about to head over to Uncle Rude’s shop to look for you.” Yushin said, his expression turning serious, “What are you talking about?
Absolutely not.
What did I tell you?
It’s way too dangerous outside this late at night.
You’re never to go out alone, understand?” Nighttime in the Satellite was never a gentle thing.
Forget an underage girl, even a grown man rarely walked these streets alone after dark.
Yushin, of course, was an exception to that.
After all, he wasn’t exactly human.
“I was just worried about you, that’s all…” Yukine mumbled.
Yushin said, “What was that?” “N-nothing.” Yukine shook her head, switching to an obedient smile.
“I already heated your bathwater, big brother.
Go ahead and wash up.” Yushin nodded and turned toward the cramped little bathroom.
Hot water poured down, its warmth wrapping around every limb, washing away the fatigue clinging to his whole body.
The setting might have been crude, but the shower still gave him a comfort he hadn’t felt in far too long.
Even though Yushin could sync with this body’s senses, it still wasn’t his actual body.
It felt a little like an immersive VR game: the visuals were realistic, and it could give back some sense of touch to a degree, but a game was still a game at the end of the day.
It fell just a little short compared to the real thing.
When Yushin finished washing up and stepped out, he found Yukine carrying his discarded clothes over toward the wash basin.
Yushin stopped her.
“No need.
I can handle it myself.” Yukine blinked, a flicker of surprise crossing her clear eyes, before her expression softened into a smile.
“Brother, you’re being weird today.
Haven’t I always been the one who does the laundry?” Without waiting for a response, she gave his back a gentle push, steering him toward his room.
“Alright, you must be tired coming home this late, brother.
Go get some rest already.
Leave the rest to me.” Shut inside his own room, Yushin felt a small pang of something.
A girl Yukine’s age would have still been in middle school, back in his past life.
She was mature enough that it was almost a little painful to watch.
The two siblings had relied on each other to survive in these ruins, abandoned by urban civilization, and their bond ran deep because of it.
Except, if this demon from beyond named Yushin hadn’t shown up, her real brother would never have been coming home at all, not today, not ever again.
Back in his room, Yushin went through his usual routine of counting up his spoils.
Tonight’s delivery boy had brought him a whole Undead deck.
Yushin skimmed through it roughly; a handful of the cards were genuinely decent quality, but the deck’s overall build was still pretty rough around the edges.
Partly that was because the pool of cards available in the Satellite was limited to begin with; partly, he figured, it was because duelists in this world just hadn’t fully matured in their understanding of deck-building.
Even in the anime, you rarely saw a deck that actually held up as “sound” from a competitive standpoint, let alone in an environment like the Satellite.
The single most valuable card in the pile, in his eyes, was obviously Vampire Fraulein.
For one thing, it was currently the only hand trap he had access to, which alone already made it valuable enough.
Not to mention the second effect, sacrificing Life Points to massively power up an Undead monster, an ability that was even stronger in the anime environment than it would be in reality.
Because in anime-style dueling, you generally couldn’t just casually check an opponent’s monster information.
If the opponent had no idea what Vampire Fraulein’s effect actually did, they could easily charge straight into it without any idea what was coming.
Vampire Fraulein’s base DEF was already 2000, and paying 3000 Life Points could send that rocketing straight up to 5000 DEF in one go.
In a world where 4000 Life Points was the standard starting total, there was a decent chance that could catch an opponent in a completely unexpected kill.
The problem was, the man had apparently called this card some kind of “cursed card.” And judging by how the man had used it, it really did seem like he’d genuinely been paying with his own life to wield it.
So if Yushin used this card himself, would he end up having to pay with his own life too?
Yushin looked down at the card in his hand, a faint unease stirring in the back of his mind.
Looked like he’d need to find a chance to test it out first before deciding whether he could actually use it.
Vampire Fraulein was still a genuinely valuable card in his current card pool, for now at least.
Yushin put his deck away and lay down on the crude little bed, closing his eyes to rest.
But even as this body of his, here in the Satellite, lay peacefully at rest, his real body, far away in that unknown temple, opened its eyes and slowly sat up.
Having discovered today, for the first time, that he could remotely control this body’s actions, he’d gotten so absorbed in it, the way you’d grind away at a brand-new game for hours on end, that his real body had been sitting motionless in the temple the entire day without moving once.
Might as well get up and stretch his legs on this end while that body rested and recovered its energy.
The vast temple was empty and desolate, steeped in ancient stillness.
With nothing else to do, Yushin wandered idly through the layered halls and corridors he’d long since come to know by heart.
He wandered without any particular purpose into a chamber that looked like some kind of bedchamber.
He’d been here plenty of times before, and it had always been completely empty, nothing in it at all.
But the instant he wandered in today, his breath caught in his chest, his pupils contracted, and it felt like his breathing had stopped entirely.
Because lying on the stone bed that had always been completely empty before, there was now a girl.
A girl with delicate, finely wrought features, her skin pale to the point of near-transparency, her long golden hair spread out across the stone pillow, dressed in a solemn, coldly elegant Gothic gown.
A closed parasol leaned at an angle against the side of the bed.
Her eyes were gently closed, as if she’d been asleep for a very long time.
It was Vampire Fraulein.