Who Let Him Play Yugioh? (Re-Upload)

[Necromancer, LP 0]

Necromancer stumbled and knelt on the ground, his face still full of unwillingness even as his LP hit zero.

It was so close.

He had reached the final turn of Destiny Board’s activation. He only needed to survive until the end of this turn, and if he could trigger the final message of death, victory would be his.

If only he could reach the End Phase…

But that tiny difference became an eternal chasm. That End Phase would never come; he would never see the moment Destiny Board was completed.

Even in his last moments, Necromancer’s eyes glared fixedly at the Necroid Shaman on Jaden’s field.

Necroid Shaman.

It was this damned Elemental HERO that tributed his unbeatable Marshmallon, stealing away his chance at victory.

Sacrificing an Elemental HERO, can you believe it?

Is that really what an Elemental HERO is supposed to do?

As the barrier closed in, Kira stepped forward, smiling as he lightly bumped fists with Jaden.

”Not bad, Jaden,” Kira said with a smile. ”Looks like you’ve understood what I meant.”

”Haha, it’s because I’ve seen your ’Lava Golem’ a few times, Kira, so I thought of it right away…”

Jaden’s eyes sparkled with excitement.

”But this card really is amazing. I think I’m starting to understand why you like ’Lava Golem’ so much, Kira. Even monsters with this level of defensive resistance can be dealt with easily—it’s really fun and gives a great sense of accomplishment.”

Necromancer, whose soul was already being drawn away by the shrinking barrier, heard the two chatting just before he passed, and felt his blood boil—

—Sense of accomplishment, your ass.

In that instant, Necromancer understood. The joy of dueling is always built on the pain of your opponent; accomplishment is built on your opponent’s frustration.

For every bit of happiness you have, the other side has an equal bit of depression.

Necromancer let out a long, bitter sigh.

Oh, gods, forgive me. I really did my best.

If, in his dying moments, he had any last regret or wish,

it would be that the so-called ”bottom dweller of the Red Dorm,” Blackflame, who boasted so much, would hurry up and get sent here to accompany Lord Serpent.

Bottom dweller? Last place? That jellyfish-haired guy?

F*ck you!

”…”

Necromancer collapsed facedown, completely lifeless.

Jaden looked at the person lying on the ground, at a loss for words.

”What’s wrong?” Kira smiled, stepping forward and patting him on the shoulder. ”Don’t you think that was an interesting duel?”

”Ah, well…”

Jaden glanced uneasily at Necromancer, who was now completely unresponsive.

”Umm, how should I put it. Although I felt the fun of dueling, and it was an interesting duel in itself, I just feel like… maybe this isn’t the right time to say so.”

Kira was surprised.

Wow, you actually know when something’s not appropriate to say?

He’d always thought that was Jaden’s natural taunting skill.

”Dueling should be fun after all; it should be something everyone can enjoy together.” Jaden shook his head. ”But duels where someone has to pay with their life…”

Kira glanced sideways. Are you going to say this isn’t even a real duel?

Actually, Kira didn’t feel too strongly about Jaden’s ”dueling should be fun” philosophy. After all, in the world of Yu-Gi-Oh, dueling is inherently cruel—across generations, there have always been duels with heavy burdens, and perhaps such things have always been brutal rituals to determine victory.

And even putting that aside, even just as a card game, Kira realized early on that this was a harsh game.

How harsh?

So harsh that only one person ever really gets to play, and the other just gets played.

What kind of ”everyone’s happy together” duel is that?

Jaden looked at Kira and suddenly declared, ”Kira, we have to defeat this organization and stop them from going any further!”

”Of course.”

Kira nodded firmly.

”For the sake of protecting what dueling stands for, and the future of the dueling world, this dangerous organization with these wrongheaded ideas must be crushed.”

With a smile, he bent down and pulled Necromancer’s deck from his duel disk.

As someone using dark powers, Necromancer’s deck could never be allowed to remain. Even if Kira didn’t take it, the management—KaibaCorp—would come and confiscate it.

Once confiscated, the deck would naturally go to KaibaCorp. Given his relationship with Mokuba, Kira figured that if he asked, getting such a deck would hardly be an issue.

So by doing this, he was just saving everyone some trouble.

When the cleanup crew arrived, they wouldn’t have to confiscate the deck, nor do inventory, registration, etc. Kira wouldn’t have to apply, and the staff would be spared extra work.

The result was the same; the process was just streamlined. Everyone wins.

At the same time, Kira found a puzzle card on the corpse, representing entry to Duel City.

But he didn’t keep this card—instead, he handed it to Jaden.

Jaden had won this duel, so the puzzle card naturally belonged to him.

”And here are the rare cards,” Kira said, spreading out the deck he’d just taken. ”Pick whatever you like.”

Jaden shook his head. ”I don’t want any of them.”

”Well, the tournament rules say otherwise. If you really don’t want to, just pick one at random, eyes closed.”

After some polite pushing, Jaden drew one at random to satisfy the rules.

Though interested in the Destiny Board deck, he only cared to face it as an opponent. He himself was a die-hard HERO user, never once considering changing his main deck.

”But I really didn’t expect it—they were after me, but even targeted you.” Kira frowned.

Jaden asked curiously, ”Why are they after us?”

”I have something they want,” Kira replied. ”I guess they think we’re close, so they tried to use you against me.”

”That’s scary!”

Jaden sucked in a breath.

He didn’t care much about himself—even a shadow game with his life on the line could be fun, to him. But if his friends were involved, he became immediately anxious.

”Yeah.” Kira shook his head repeatedly.

”Truly shameless—stooping so low just to deal with two completely ordinary Duel Academy students…”

”Exactly!”

Jaden was indignant.

”To use such tactics on ordinary students—can those really be called duelists?”

”Right? That’s why letting these people run amok is too dangerous. Fortunately, I’m working with KaibaCorp, and we already have leads.”

”Then let’s go, let’s go together!” Jaden agreed. ”We can’t just let people like that have their way!”

PS: 2 Bonus chapter at 1000 PS.