Chapter 45: The Package for the Game

On the second day, the Domino High School Cultural Festival officially commenced, and the school itself was opened for public visitation by everyone in Domino City.

The students, who had been looking forward to this day for a long time, could not wait to showcase the various projects they had prepared, ranging from acrobatics and magic to handmade jewelry stalls, fortune-telling booths, and haunted houses, displaying the youth and vitality of the students of Domino High.

Among all the projects, two were the most eye-catching.

At Hayato's suggestion, Goro Pig, the Class D Cultural Festival Executive Committee member, reached a partnership with the Class B Executive Committee member. The two classes merged their adjacent venues to co-construct a large-scale amusement area and set up food stalls at the entrance and exit of the game carnival.

Class B's location happened to be at a corner of the cultural festival venue's entrance/exit, making it highly convenient for external trucks to transport supplies amidst the heavy foot traffic. This was precisely why Goro Pig had tried to seize Class B's venue the day before.

By pooling the strength of both classes, the business project of Class B and Class D achieved a result greater than 1+1. Not only did they earn back all the activity funds originally allocated for the festival, but they also surged to 1000% of the original amount. Everyone in both Class B and Class D received a large sum of money, and they were even singled out for praise by the school.

The other project, or rather, performance, was the show prepared by that fellow Manjoume Sho for the festival—he brought out the Duel Disk he had used once on the rooftop before, disassembled its components, and installed them onto a performance stage to find an "ordinary passerby"—his rival Honda—for a duel.

Although the two were evenly matched in dueling skill, both being at the level of "noobs pecking at each other," the fact that the Duel Monster cards were materialized by the holographic system attracted significant attention from those interested in Duel Monsters, and the performance received a very positive response.

The final winner of the duel was Manjoume, who possessed superior deck quality. Relying on a collection of "Noble" monsters he had re-acquired, Honda lost to him by a margin of only 100 Life Points.

However, despite winning the match, when Manjoume Sho took the microphone to confess to "Little Ribbon" Miho Nosaka, he was miserably rejected. The reason given was that "the expression on Sho-kun's face when summoning Duel Monsters is too terrifying."

This left Honda quite delighted and Manjoume extremely frustrated. He thought the Duel Monsters would help him win, but instead, he was rejected because of them? Believing that his tendency to make "facial expressions" (gao yan) while playing cards was something Honda had infected him with, Sho and Honda continued to argue incessantly.

Nevertheless, although Little Ribbon rejected Manjoume's confession, Honda did not gloat for long. Stimulated by Manjoume's public confession, Honda approached Little Ribbon privately after the festival ended and presented the confession puzzle he had been hiding for nearly a week.

He was met with the words, "You're a good person." That afternoon, both Honda and Manjoume cried quite bitterly; after both "rivals" suffered heartbreak simultaneously, they ended up hugging each other, only recovering after Hayato treated them to a meal of Yakiniku.

Then, the very next day, they were at each other's throats again.

Not long after the cultural festival ended, Grandpa Yugi Muto, whose health had recovered well, was discharged from the hospital. Hayato, Jonouchi, and the others went to help him that day. After being discharged, Grandpa Yugi fulfilled the promise he had made to Jonouchi and began teaching him the ultimate secret of Duel Monsters: "The Heart."

Which was, in essence, shuffling. Under Grandpa Yugi's devilish training, Jonouchi did nothing but shuffle cards every single day, not stopping even when his hands cramped, a process that lasted for an entire month.

One month later—

"To the ten million Duel Monster fans across the country, the moment has finally arrived for the national selection tournament to decide the ultimate winner!" the host's passionate voice rang out from the television. "Out of the two hundred players selected from the regional tournaments, who will ultimately become the National Champion of Japan?"

"Now, please welcome the contestants to the arena!"

Watching the two contestants—whose dueling skills were currently unknown and whose age and height were virtually identical—enter the arena on Duel Disks, Jonouchi, sitting in front of the TV, punched his thigh in frustration. "Damn it! I should be the one standing there dueling!"

"You've already worked hard, Jonouchi," Anzu said, glancing at him. "Didn't you train under Grandpa Yugi for a full month? As long as you gained something, that's what matters."

"If shuffling every day counts as training..." Recalling those hellish days, Jonouchi couldn't help but shudder.

Sitting beside him, Hayato patted his shoulder. "At least you're much stronger than before, and didn't you make it into the top eight of the selection tournament? Even if it was just the Domino District selection."

"Hayato, you didn't have to add that last part." Jonouchi sighed and lowered his head, letting his yellow hair cover his face. "My 3 million yen prize money has gone down the drain, and I feel like I have no face to see Grandpa after he trained me for a whole month."

"Hey, Jonouchi, what did you say about me?"

Speak of the devil, and he shall appear. Yugi Muto was standing behind the sofa directly facing the TV at some unknown moment, tilting his head as he questioned Jonouchi. He was holding a large cardboard box in his hands.

"Ah, Grandpa! I'm so sorry!" Seeing Grandpa Yugi's arrival, Jonouchi hurriedly stood up and bowed. "You trained me for a whole month, yet I..."

"What are you talking about, Jonouchi? You performed quite excellently," Grandpa Yugi interrupted with a smile. Jonouchi couldn't help but look up at the smile on the old man's face. "To be honest, at first, I really thought that with your strength, you would have difficulty even making it through the selection tournament. You have worked very hard."

"Gra... Grandpa!" Tears of emotion welled up in Jonouchi's eyes as he lunged toward Yugi for a hug, but Yugi Muto nimbly turned and dodged, leaving Jonouchi to faceplant onto the floor.

"Ah, Yugi, I received a package for you."

"Eh, mine? Who sent it?" Yugi was somewhat puzzled. His friends were all from Domino City; if they wanted to give him something, they could just walk over, so there shouldn't be anyone sending packages.

Yugi shook his head. "I'm not sure. The sender's name isn't written on the package."

"That's a strange package indeed," Honda said, watching Yugi take it. "If there's no sender, how was it even sent?"

"Why don't we open it first and see?" Hayato calculated the days; today was the final battle of the National Duel Monster Tournament, so surely, what was inside that package was *that*?

Thinking of this, Hayato couldn't help but glance at Yugi.

The fate of the [Millennium Host] was about to descend once more.

Duel Kingdom Arc, countdown initiated.

Finally, the fun of "improvisational logic" can begin.

(End of Chapter)