The soft click of the lock came to an end, and the door quietly swung open.
A young girl stood outside.
She wore a simple homespun shirt that had been washed until the fabric had faded almost white.
The material was thin and inexpensive, but everything about her was neat and clean.
She was small and slender, with the soft, youthful features of someone still in middle school, and in the worn-down poverty of Satellite, her fresh, tidy appearance stood out all the more.
She carried a bag of cheap groceries she had just bought.
When she spotted Yusuke inside, a flicker of surprise crossed her eyes.
“You’re home early today, Brother.
You must be starving, right?
I’ll make dinner now.” With that, she hurried straight into the kitchen like a little bird returning to its nest.
Yusuke once again dug through the broken, chaotic fragments of memory left behind in this body.
It took him a while, but he finally managed to match the girl in front of him with a name.
Fujishiro Yukine.
She was Yusuke’s younger sister.
The two siblings had depended on each other for survival in the abandoned wasteland of Satellite.
Soon, the kitchen filled with the light clatter of bowls, utensils, and an iron pot.
Yusuke watched Yukine move around like a whirlwind, quick and practiced, never letting her hands remain idle for more than a second.
He offered to help.
The look of complete astonishment on her face told him immediately that he’d done something unusual.
Only then did Yusuke piece together from the original body owner memories that Yukine had always handled practically every household chore, from cooking to laundry.
Her brother voluntarily stepping into the kitchen was already strange enough.
Hearing him actually offer to lend a hand was apparently unheard of.
Yukine practically ushered him back out.
“You already work hard enough outside, Brother.
Go sit down and rest.
Leave the cooking to me.” Then she turned around and went straight back to work.
It took Yusuke another moment to remember what exactly she meant by “work.” The city they lived in was New Domino City, which had been divided into the main city and Satellite following a major disaster many years ago.
The polished residents of the city proper had no desire to live beside heavy workshops, factories, recycling facilities, and other dirty industrial operations, much less work in them.
Yet the city couldn’t function without those facilities, so most of them had been pushed out into Satellite.
The poor residents of Satellite took on the hardest and dirtiest jobs while earning the lowest wages.
That had been Yusuke’s livelihood.
He took temporary labor wherever he could find it, moving from factory to factory depending on who happened to be hiring.
The pay was barely enough to keep himself and Yukine fed.
Not long afterward, Yukine emerged from the kitchen carrying a tray and set a simple meal on the table.
There were cheap root vegetables and greens boiled in water, a few thin slices of inexpensive preserved fish, and coarse rice steamed together with mixed grains.
By Satellite standards, it was already a reasonably good meal.
There were no elaborate seasonings or expensive ingredients, but to Yusuke, it was the first proper cooked food he had seen in what felt like an eternity.
He immediately picked up a bite with his chopsticks and put it into his mouth.
Warmth and flavor spread down his throat and through his entire body.
The craving that had built up during his endless confinement in the silent temple finally eased, and the simple sensation of eating freshly cooked food almost made his nose sting.
‘Hot food.
Finally!
I actually get to eat something hot!’ Yusuke began shoveling rice into his mouth while praising the meal with complete sincerity.
A faint blush appeared on Yukine’s cheeks, and she grew visibly embarrassed under the compliments.
It was just vegetables boiled in water, yet her brother was praising them as though she had prepared some kind of gourmet feast.
He was acting really strange today…
More importantly, there wasn’t the slightest hint of empty flattery in his voice.
Every word sounded completely heartfelt.
Delighted to have her cooking appreciated so much, Yukine happily pushed more food into his bowl.
“If you like it, then eat more.” Yusuke shook his head.
“You’re still growing.
You need to eat more too.” Yukine proudly puffed out her chest.
“I’m growing just fine!
You’re the one who works hard every day to support us, so you need the extra food.” They continued eating for a while before Yukine brought up another topic.
“Oh, right.
Final exams are next month.
Ugh…
I really don’t feel confident this time.
I might actually drop in the rankings.” ‘Final exams?’ She was still going to school?
Yusuke instinctively found it strange that children in Satellite had access to formal schooling at all, so he searched through his memories again.
When he finally found the relevant information, he couldn’t help blurting out, “You go to Duel Academy?” Yukine gave him a puzzled look.
“What’s wrong, Brother?” Yusuke took a slow breath.
“No…
nothing.” A Duel Academy.
Here.
In Satellite, where plenty of people struggled just to get enough food to eat.
The more he thought about it, the stranger it sounded.
If Yusuke remembered Yu-Gi-Oh!
5D’s correctly, the Satellite from the anime shouldn’t have had a Duel Academy like this.
Then again, the anime had never mentioned a cult kidnapping people from Satellite and sacrificing them through Shadow Duels either.
Clearly, he couldn’t assume this world followed the anime perfectly.
It might be a Yu-Gi-Oh!
world that strongly resembled 5D’s while differing from it in important ways.
Yukine’s brows knitted together.
“My theory grades are already among the best in the class, and I’m especially confident in Duel Monsters history.
But I’m terrible at practical Dueling, and practical results make up most of the exam score.” She sighed.
“If I want a chance to enter the city, I need to rank at least in the top ten of my year in practical Dueling.” Yusuke looked at her in surprise.
“You can get into the city?” He vaguely remembered that, in the 5D’s anime, Satellite residents weren’t normally allowed to enter New Domino City at all.
At the beginning of the series, Yusei Fudo had secretly entered the city through a waste pipeline, which was why he ended up getting arrested afterward.
“Of course.” Yukine gave him another strange look, apparently wondering why her brother kept asking questions with supposedly obvious answers.
“If you pass Duel Academy’s examinations and earn official duelist status, it’s one of the few ways someone from Satellite can move up in society and qualify for citizenship.” So being good enough at card games could literally let someone climb the social ladder.
Yusuke’s interest was immediately piqued.
“Then could I take the exam?” If he could get into the city, they would have a better place to live and better food to eat.
More importantly, there would undoubtedly be far more opportunities to obtain stronger cards.
And if events eventually followed anything close to the original anime, Satellite would later become a battlefield for increasingly absurd supernatural conflicts.
Getting into the city would probably be safer too.
Yukine laughed.
“Why are you asking so many weird questions today, Brother?
You’re already over the age limit.
Duel Academy won’t accept you.” Yusuke frowned.
‘What kind of garbage academy is that?
Age discrimination?
So what if I’m a little older?
If I can Duel, why should that matter?’ Still, the very existence of a Duel Academy in Satellite was suspicious enough, especially one that only allowed students within a certain age range to take examinations that could grant them access to the city.
Yusuke couldn’t shake the feeling that there was more going on behind the academy than it appeared.
This world clearly differed from the Yu-Gi-Oh!
anime he knew in several important ways.
He needed to gather more information.
Then something occurred to him.
“Wait.
You said you’re pretty good at Duel Monsters history, right?” Yukine immediately looked a little proud.
“Of course.
There aren’t many people in my class who score higher than me.” “All right, then I’m going to test you.” Yusuke looked at her.
“Where did the modern game of Duel Monsters originate?” Yukine brightened.
This was clearly a question whose textbook answer she knew by heart!
“That’s way too easy.
More than thirty years ago, Maximillion Pegasus, the creator of Duel Monsters, discovered ancient tablets depicting the game in Egypt.
He recreated what was shown on those tablets as the Duel Monsters cards we know today, bringing the game from ancient Egypt three thousand years ago into the modern world.” Yusuke nodded.
Good.
That part of history matched what he remembered from the anime.
So he continued.
“Then who was the first King of Games?” “Of course it was the legendary duelist Yugi Muto.” Yukine’s expression immediately filled with admiration at the name.
“He defeated Pegasus at Duelist Kingdom and earned the title of King of Games.
Later, during Battle City, he defeated the legendary Seto Kaiba and Marik Ishtar, and gathered all three Egyptian God Cards, which stand at the very pinnacle of Duel Monsters.
That only cemented his status as the King of Games.” Yusuke nodded again.
Good.
That matched what he knew too.
Then he asked one more question.
“So when did Yugi Muto retire from Dueling?” “Retire?” This time, Yukine looked completely lost.
She blinked her large, jewel-like eyes and tilted her head in confusion.
“He didn’t.
Yugi Muto, the King of Games, is still active on the world stage even now.
Who told you he retired?” Yusuke stared at her.
“…What?”