Chapter 10: You Must Shout Loudly for the Card to Respond to You

“Yugi, I’ve realized something during this brief duel.” Hayato rested his hand on his deck without drawing a card, feeling that he should trust his intuition for once. “The more you try to avoid problems and take shortcuts by means other than raw power, the further you drift from your goal. Taking a shortcut is just taking the long way around.”

“Huh?” Yugi didn’t quite understand what Hayato meant by that sudden remark.

“In other words, taking the long way around is actually the shortcut. Your ‘Gaia the Fierce Knight’ on the field—I’m going to defeat it head-on!”

“Draw! And summon this monster!”

Hayato pulled the top card from his deck, skipping the step of flipping it over to look at it, and summoned it directly to the field. That card was—

“Gaia the Fierce—Knight—!!!”

The spirited shout Hayato suddenly let out didn’t startle Jonouchi and the others, because they were more concerned with something else

“N-no way, there are two Gaias!? Two monsters with 2300 attack points!” This was Jonouchi, though for some reason, Hayato hallucinated Jonouchi as Kaito Tenjo.

“Hayato actually has such a powerful monster too? The duel is getting interesting again.” This was Honda. Previously, Hayato had stayed on the defensive, making the duel a bit dull, but the appearance of a second Gaia undoubtedly brought new excitement to the match.

Anzu’s thought was—*Did Hayato just summon that without even looking at what he drew!? Does he have X-ray vision!!*

Although there was a hint of surprise on Yugi’s face, he wasn’t completely shocked. He looked at Hayato with a smile: “Gaia, of all things. It’s rare to see the same monster appear at the same time. However,”

Yugi paused, then pointed to the Gaia on his own field, “Both Gaias have 2300 attack points. If you use your Gaia to attack mine, the result will just be mutual destruction, right? And because of the rules, you’ll lose at the end of the turn.”

The rules of early Yu-Gi-Oh! were vastly different from later versions. It wasn’t just the 2000 Life Points or the fact that monsters didn’t require tributes to be summoned; it was the victory conditions. One condition was reducing the opponent’s LP to zero, but another was that if a player had no monsters on the field at the end of their turn, they would also lose the match.

Conversely, there was a restriction preventing monsters from attacking the player directly.

Although Hayato had summoned “Gaia the Fierce Knight,” if he attacked recklessly, the outcome would indeed be as Yugi described.

“I’ve naturally taken that into account, Yugi-boy!” Hayato drew another card from his hand and displayed it. “But, I still have this card in my hand!”

He placed a blue-bordered Spell Card onto the field, the image of a divine sword crackling with lightning engraved upon it.

“Dragon Capture Jar,” its effect was to increase the attack of a Warrior-type monster by 700 points, and it provided absolute suppression against Dragon-type monsters!

“Gaia’s attack power actually increased again, all the way to 3000!” Jonouchi exclaimed right on cue, and even Yugi’s face showed genuine surprise.

Compared to the 800 or 900 attack points of average monsters, the 3000 attack points of “Gaia the Fierce Knight” equipped with the “Dragon Capture Jar” was like the difference between heaven and earth—a massive gap!

“‘Gaia the Fierce Knight,’ attack ‘Gaia the Fierce Knight’!” Saying something that would be incomprehensible to anyone who hadn’t seen the state of the battle, Hayato launched an attack against the Gaia that had been acting arrogant on Yugi’s field for so long.

Just as easily as Yugi’s Gaia had destroyed Hayato’s other monsters, Hayato’s Gaia finished off Yugi’s. Gaia sent Gaia to the Graveyard.

“Then, I end my turn.”

[Hayato: 1600 LP, Hand 3→4→2]

[Yugi: 1600 LP→900 LP, Hand 6]

“My turn, draw.” Even with his life points dropped below 1000, Yugi didn’t feel panicked. He glanced at the monster he drew but wasn’t in a rush to summon it, instead asking Hayato: “The combination of ‘Gaia the Fierce Knight’ and ‘Dragon Capture Jar’ is truly impressive.”

“Of course, this is the ace combo in my deck. Among warriors, there’s nothing stronger than him.” At least up until now; anything released later doesn’t count.

“It seems you’re taking this duel very seriously, Hayato.” Yugi nodded in understanding and said calmly, “Then, I’ll use my strongest combo as well.”

Although his words were calm, Hayato could see the seriousness in Yugi’s eyes.

“The monster I’m summoning is this one. Come forth—”

“Summoned Skull!”

The skeletal demon with 2500 attack points was summoned to the field by Yugi. Before Hayato could point out that 2500 < 3000, Yugi played another card.

“Then I activate this Spell Card, ‘Force.’ I’ll target the Gaia on your field and the ‘Summoned Skull’ on mine.”

“Nani! Why do you have this card!”

Hayato’s eyes widened. *Are you a top-decking god? How do you have a comeback card for everything!*

The Gaia, whose attack had finally reached 3000, had its attack power instantly slashed to 1500 due to the effect of “Force.” The stolen power surged into the “Summoned Skull” on Yugi’s field; 2500 + 1500, its attack power soared to a full 4000!

“It’s actually 4000!” Jonouchi, who was in charge of being shocked, didn’t let anyone down and exclaimed, “That’s five times my ‘Shien’s Shadow Warrior’!”

“Then, I’ll use ‘Summoned Skull’ to attack your ‘Gaia the Fierce Knight’.”

Following Yugi’s lighthearted words, the supercharged “Summoned Skull” gave the wilted Gaia an excessive electric shock. The 2500 points of damage not only wiped out Hayato’s life points instantly but also dealt significant overkill.

“Phew, that was close. I almost lost.” The winner, Mutou Yugi, said modestly to Hayato while returning the cards on the table to his deck.

“Don’t try to humble-brag to me. I saw it a long time ago—that ‘Summoned Skull’ of yours seems to have been in your hand the whole time, right, Yugi?” Yugi didn’t have the habit of shuffling his hand after drawing, so Hayato knew clearly that both “Summoned Skull” and that “Force” card had actually been in Yugi’s hand all along.

Theoretically, Yugi couldn’t be considered a top-decking miracle worker, because he had the means to respond in his hand the entire time; he just hadn’t used them yet.

If he had stayed on the defensive, no matter how many powerful monsters Yugi summoned, he wouldn’t have been able to end the battle quickly. But if Yugi used Gaia as bait to trick him into attacking, Yugi could use the “Force” and “Summoned Skull” combo to wipe out his life points in one go.

I have to say, the current Yugi already has a hint of that later-era “heavy trap” style. He’s actually playing tactics—his heart is truly dirty.

To this, Yugi just smiled “hehehe,” trying to get by on “cuteness.”

After returning Gaia to his deck and placing the deck into his metal box for safekeeping, Hayato recalled that inexplicable feeling he had when he drew Gaia earlier. But before he could think too much about it, he heard Grandpa Sugoroku’s booming voice from inside the room: “I found it!”

Well, the duel was over, ending with the victory of the invincible Little Yugi.

The worldview of this book will primarily follow the most widely circulated animated version, but like the director who appeared earlier, it will also incorporate some plot points from the manga.

There’s no need to say what kind of card he went to see Grandpa for, right? The protagonist won’t participate in the upcoming Kaiba battle, but will instead separate from Yugi and the others to pursue his own storyline.

By the way, a quick rant: the manga version of the Pharaoh is way too ruthless. He cast an illusion on the bullying Ushio to turn him into a mental patient and turned that director’s eyes into mosaics whenever he looked at anything.

Although none of the people punished by the Shadow Games were innocent—Ushio tried to extort 200,000+ from Yugi and wanted to kill him with a knife, and the director beat up Jonouchi and Yugi while planning to film a snuff movie.

Ah, I ranted for quite a while without realizing it?

Anyway, please recommend the new book—!!! (Voice cracks)

(End of chapter)