[Itagaki, LP 4000 → LP 3000] “With Archfiend of Gilfer dropped from Level 6 to Level 4, I can Normal Summon it without a Tribute.” Itagaki had already slapped the card down onto his Duel Disk as he spoke.
“I Normal Summon the newly Level 4 Archfiend of Gilfer!” [Archfiend of Gilfer, ATK 2200] Yushin recognized this monster right away, one of the ones Yami Yugi had used regularly back in the original anime.
The lackeys behind Itagaki immediately started cheering.
“Archfiend of Gilfer on the very first turn!” “Boss is really on form today, that kid’s in for it, ha!” Itagaki seemed pleased with his lackeys’ well-timed flattery, and waved a hand.
“Straight to the Battle Phase.
Let’s see what garbage monster you’ve got set.
Go!
Archfiend of Gilfer, attack the Defense Position monster!” Archfiend of Gilfer spat out a vortex of darkness from its mouth, and the set card flipped up under the blow, revealing a dragon wearing a golden mask.
[Masked Dragon, DEF 1100] Masked Dragon was smashed to pieces in a single hit, though since it had been in Defense Position, Yushin took no damage.
Yushin said, “Masked Dragon’s effect activates.
When this card is destroyed by battle and sent to the Graveyard, I can Special Summon a Dragon-Type monster with 1500 or less ATK from my Deck.” He paused, pulling out a card the deck’s search function had automatically ejected, and held it up.
“Masked Dragon itself has 1500 or less ATK, so I’ll Special Summon a second copy of Masked Dragon straight from the Deck.” [Masked Dragon, ATK 1400] This was exactly why last-words monsters had been so prized in the early era of Yu-Gi-Oh!.
Being able to pull itself back out when destroyed was practically the same as having three lives.
That meant a last-words monster stood a good chance of leaving a monster behind on the field even after being attacked, one that could then be Tributed the following turn to summon a higher-Level monster and seize control of the board.
“Your defense is stubborn enough, I’ll give you that,” Itagaki muttered.
“I’ll set one card in the back row.
Turn end.” Yushin: “My turn, draw.” Thanks to Masked Dragon’s last-words effect, he had a Tribute waiting on the field, which meant he could finally counterattack this turn.
“I release Masked Dragon on the field!” Yushin declared.
“Tribute Summon, Level 6, a skeletal demon that commands thunder through the power of darkness— —Summoned Skull!” Golden bolts of electricity gathered into a flash of lightning, outlining a suit of skeletal armor.
The demon descended, wreathed in thunder.
[Summoned Skull, ATK 2500] Itagaki’s expression shifted.
“A Tribute Summon this strong, on the second turn?” This might not have meant much among duelists in the main city, but in the Satellite, it was already the mark of a strong player.
How had he never noticed a kid with this kind of skill living under the Fang Gang’s turf before?
Yukine was a little taken aback too.
That wasn’t right.
From what she remembered, her brother had always been terrible at dueling.
Why did he suddenly seem this good?
“Battle,” Yushin said.
“Summoned Skull, attack Archfiend of Gilfer.
Descending Thunder!” The demon began charging up, sparks of electricity crawling across every bone in its body.
“Finding a counter to Archfiend of Gilfer this fast is worth some credit,” Itagaki snapped.
“But it’s not enough against me!
The instant you declared your attack, I activate my set card, the Trap Card Energy Absorption!” The Trap set in his back row flipped up.
At the same time, all four cards in Yushin’s hand began radiating waves of energy, streaming steadily into Itagaki’s Trap.
“Energy Absorption lets a monster I control absorb energy from my opponent’s hand!” Itagaki said.
“Every card in your hand raises my monster’s ATK by 200!
You’ve got four cards in hand, so Archfiend of Gilfer’s ATK goes up by 800!” [Archfiend of Gilfer, ATK 2200 → ATK 3000] “As expected of the boss!” one lackey chimed in right on cue.
“Now it’s got ATK to rival the legendary Blue-Eyes White Dragon!” The other lackeys who hadn’t spoken up in time all looked visibly annoyed with themselves for missing such a perfect chance to suck up.
Archfiend of Gilfer, which had been trailing behind a moment ago, was suddenly on track to overtake Summoned Skull.
Watching from the side, Yukine’s heart leapt back up into her throat.
As far as she understood things, once a powerful ace monster like Summoned Skull, one you’d finally managed to summon, got knocked down like this, there’d be almost no way to turn it back around.
But right at that moment, Yushin calmly pressed a button on the back row of his Duel Disk.
“In chain, I activate my set card, the Trap Card Amanojaku’s Curse,” Yushin said.
“Once this card activates, every effect that raises or lowers a monster’s ATK or DEF this turn is reversed, until the End Phase.” Itagaki and his lackeys, together: “Wait, what?!” In the instant the two demons clashed, the balance of power swung wildly back and forth, and in the end, Summoned Skull came out on top.
Archfiend of Gilfer’s huge boost, twisted around by Amanojaku’s mischievous curse, turned into a debuff instead, and it visibly deflated on the spot.
[Archfiend of Gilfer, ATK 3000 → ATK 2200 → ATK 1400] Summoned Skull, counter-kill!
[Itagaki, LP 3000 → LP 1900] This wasn’t a Shadow Game duel, but the damage still came with a decent jolt of holographic impact.
Itagaki instinctively threw an arm up to guard his head and face, and once the shock passed, his expression was pure disbelief.
Summoning a monster strong enough to overpower Archfiend of Gilfer in a single turn, and even turning his own Trap back against him…
Something was off.
Definitely off.
Where had a kid this good at dueling come from, right under their own turf?
Watching her brother pull off such a clean counter-kill, Yukine was thrilled, but unsettled all the same.
She barely recognized him right now…
Amanojaku’s Curse was just another mediocre card he could have dug out of any Satellite trash heap.
Obviously, most people preferred cards that directly raised or lowered a monster’s ATK over some acrobatic gimmick like “reverse every ATK/DEF change.” But in that brief exchange of attack and defense, Yushin had already picked up on something.
He looked up at Itagaki across from him for a moment, then said, out of nowhere, “So, uh…
your dueling’s kind of weak, isn’t it?” Itagaki’s eyelid twitched, his face turning grim instantly.
“Kid, what did you just say?” “I said your dueling’s kind of weak,” Yushin said, sounding genuinely doubtful.
“This is the Fang Gang’s top talent?
Your whole gang can’t actually be that strong, huh…” He wasn’t just talking trash for the sake of it.
He genuinely meant it.
Because Yushin figured that if he’d been in Itagaki’s position, he could easily have kept Amanojaku’s Curse from ever going off in the first place.
In Yu-Gi-Oh!, monster battles broke down into two distinct steps: the Attack Declaration and the Damage Calculation.
The Damage Calculation step in particular was special.
Generally, only Trap effects that raised or lowered a monster’s ATK could even be activated at that specific timing.
So Itagaki’s Energy Absorption could have been activated during Damage Calculation, but Yushin’s Amanojaku’s Curse couldn’t.
Itagaki had activated Energy Absorption right during the Attack Declaration step, which was exactly why Yushin had been able to chain Amanojaku’s Curse into it for the counter-kill.
But if Itagaki had waited until Damage Calculation to activate it instead, Yushin’s set card would have missed its window entirely and never gone off.
It sounded like some pretty deep-cut rules-lawyer technicality when you spelled it out, but in the real world, most serious Yu-Gi-Oh!
players knew the difference without even thinking about it.
But Itagaki across from him had fumbled a detail like that…
actually, no, “fumbled” might be too generous, because he genuinely didn’t seem to know the Attack Declaration and Damage Calculation steps were even different timings at all.
Or maybe this wasn’t just an Itagaki problem?
Yushin looked thoughtful.
Was it possible that in this world, or at least here in the Satellite, most duelists’ actual grasp of the game was just…
kind of weak?