Yu-Gi-Oh! Slum Duelist Chapter 153

"Amano Rei? Amano Rei, what's wrong?!"

Karl stared at the figure in his passenger seat, who had gone completely limp the instant he landed. He assud the jump itself had done sothing.

"Co on, Amano Rei, stay with ! Don't you dare die in my car!"

No amount of calling was going to get a response. Amano's soul was already back in the Dark Ga Riding Duel.

"What kind of hellish twenty-four-hour training schedule is this. The Dark Ga intensity is completely unreasonable."

Complaints registered and noted. He still imdiately spread out Finesse's deck the mont he had control of her body.

The Field Spell High-Speed World was already active. There was no ti to go through the deck carefully card by card.

The only option was quick and decisive: strip all the normal Spell Cards out of Finesse's deck.

In High-Speed World, the cost of using a normal Spell Card was too steep to justify. What he needed in their place were Speed Spells.

Amano worked both angles simultaneously, pulling normal Spells out of Finesse's deck with one hand while ntally activating a system skill.

Finesse's deck had no Speed Spells. But Amano had a skill that covered exactly that.

A skill from Rin Seiya-senpai.

ROMANCE SKILL: "CLEAR MIND STATE"

GRANTS: Top-tier D-Wheel piloting. Unlocks "Formula Synchron" in the Extra Deck. Unlocks any Speed Spell for exchange during Riding Duels.

Any Speed Spell, exchangeable during a Riding Duel.

During his previous Riding Duel, the Speed Spells had been on loan from Rin Seiya, which was exactly why he had held back from activating this skill then. The system's Speed Spell exchange rate was a flat five thousand Eva Points per card, which was steep enough that Amano had not wanted to burn through that budget unnecessarily.

But this was Finesse's body. That ant it was Finesse's money.

Amano: "Finesse, how much are you working with right now?"

Finesse: "My... savings? Not much left, actually."

He had miscalculated. He had forgotten that Finesse's financial situation was not as comfortable as her family na implied.

He had just pulled ten normal Spell Cards from the deck. If her balance was not enough to exchange for ten Speed Spells, he was going to have to put so of the normals back.

Finesse: "About eight hundred thousand, give or take."

Amano: "..."

Wealthy people and their definitions of "not much."

Eight hundred thousand Eva Points was enough to push everything he had saved to date flat onto the ground. For a family heiress it genuinely was not a large sum. Converted to card value it was roughly the cost of one Monster Reborn with a little extra. But for purchasing Speed Spells it was more than sufficient.

Amano moved through the system interface and selected nine Speed Spells, spending forty-five thousand Eva Points. Adding the one card he had already slipped in from his side box, that brought the replacent count to exactly ten, filling in every slot left by the removed normal Spells.

"That will have to do. No more ti."

How to duel with a HERO deck stripped of normal Spell Cards in a Riding Duel environnt was a problem for once the duel actually started.

The road ahead was curving into the first corner, which marked the formal beginning of the Dark Ga Riding Duel.

"I'm taking first turn!"

The man on the opposing D-Wheel swept through the bend a fraction ahead of Amano. The Moonlight Butterfly's performance was excellent, but the opponent's machine was clearly no ordinary model either. The speed reduction from Amano's jump off the D-Wheel before the transfer had cost him ground, and with it, the first turn.

SOUL BINDER LP: 4000 / Speed Counters: 0

vs.

FINESSE LP: 4000 / Speed Counters: 0

Amano read the na on the duel interface and his brow tightened.

After the Puppeteer and the Soulswindler, now a Soul Binder?

How many different roles did this organization of dark duelists actually have? It felt like there was no end to them.

Finesse: "Six, I think."

Amano: "Six?"

Finesse: "That's what the Wein family's investigation turned up. Based on the lead you gave us, people with burn marks around their left eye within the past two weeks."

When Finesse had been investigating alone in the shadows with limited resources, progress had been painfully slow and she had hit walls everywhere she turned. But the mont the Wein family formally took ownership of the investigation and committed the full weight of their connections and intelligence network to it, the pace of progress had accelerated dramatically.

Originally, Finesse working alone had struggled to cover even the academy's student population. Tonight, with the full family behind the effort, the sweep of the entire mid-district had produced results.

Burn marks around the left eye. Two-week window. Students only.

Statistically, under normal circumstances, you would expect to find perhaps one person in several million with that specific characteristic. The probability was negligible.

Except the probability had not been normal.

Scanning the mid-district population had produced six matches.

And while all six were students, most of them were also the sons or daughters of major corporations or comrcial houses.

That fact alone probably explained why the Wein family had faced interference and obstruction from multiple directions during the early phase of the investigation.

Finesse said with certainty: "We don't have definitive proof yet. But those six people are connected to the dark duelists. I'm certain of it."

Amano: "Whether they're connected or not, tonight might answer that."

According to what the Soulswindler had said, the Puppeteer's identity card appeared to be damaged. On top of that, Amano and Rin Seiya had defeated the Soulswindler tonight, and Amano had even absorbed the Soulswindler's identity into his system.

If he could defeat the Soul Binder here as well, three of the six would have lost Dark Gas.

Assuming the Wein family's six identified targets were genuinely all connected to the dark duelists, none of them could realistically erge from tonight without consequences.

Three consecutive Dark Gas in a single night was not a comfortable prospect for his body or his mind. The fatigue compounded in ways that did not add neatly.

But the thought that everything he had been fighting toward across all these Dark Gas might finally be producing real results was enough to push a second wind through him.

"Let's crack this thing open tonight."

"My turn, draw!" The Soul Binder pulled his opening card and imdiately slamd a face-down onto his D-Wheel field. "I set one card. Turn end."

A characteristically sparse first turn in a Riding Duel. With Speed Counters at zero, the options were extrely limited.

"My turn, draw!"

Speed Counters: 0 > 1

As Amano's first turn began, his Speed Counter rose by one. Not enough to activate any Speed Spell yet. But the rising counter ant the D-Wheels were accelerating.

On a dedicated Riding Duel circuit, that acceleration was exhilarating. On densely trafficked city streets at ten in the evening, it was a significant problem.

Finesse: "Amano! Watch out, oncoming car!"

He had to play cards and navigate traffic simultaneously. The road they were on was full of vehicles driving directly toward them. How was this entire stretch running the wrong way?

Amano used Finesse's body to execute an ergency swerve around an oncoming car, then finally had a mont to scan the six cards laid out on his D-Wheel field.

Finesse's deck had picked up several new Destiny HERO monsters since he had last seen it. So additions she had clearly made recently.

Whether she had paid to pull them or earned them through the Fusion Academy's assessnt system was unclear. Either way, having stronger HEROes available was welco news in the current situation.

Amano selected one of the new additions and sent it to the monster zone.

"I Normal Summon in Attack Position: Destiny HERO - Drawhand!"

DESTINY HERO - DRAWHAND

DARK / Level 4

Warrior / Effect

ATK: 1600 / DEF: 800

At sixteen hundred attack points, Drawhand sat among the stronger lower-level HERO monsters in terms of raw ATK. The white-suited figure materialized on the road, dark scarf trailing behind it in the wind, vaulting from rooftop to rooftop of the oncoming vehicles as it charged forward.

"Entering the Battle Phase. The opponent has no monsters. Destiny HERO - Drawhand attacks directly!"

Following the attack command, the Destiny HERO leveled a finger-gun at the black D-Wheel racing ahead and fired a D-shaped bullet of fate energy toward it.

In the instant before impact, the Soul Binder flipped his set card.

"Trap Card: Offering to the Earthbound!"

OFFERING TO THE EARTHBOUND

Trap Card: Activate when the opponent declares a direct attack. Negate that attack. Special Summon 2 "Offering Stone Tokens" (Rock / EARTH / Level 1 / ATK 0 / DEF 0) to your field. Add 1 card with "Earthbound God" in its na from your deck to your hand.

A massive black heart, pulsing with dark energy, appeared over the Riding Duel course. It absorbed the incoming bullet cleanly, and in the Soul Binder's field, two strange stone monunt tokens materialized.

"And from my deck, I add Earthbound God Ccapac Apu to my hand!"

The brow of Finesse's face pulled into a frown as Amano processed the read.

Not just consecutive high-intensity Dark Gas tonight. They were consecutive god battles as well.

First the Wicked Gods. Now an Earthbound God.

Earthbound Gods were not strictly in the sa tier as the three Egyptian Gods, but in the permanent High-Speed World environnt of a Riding Duel, their suppressive power was every bit as overwhelming. The reason was built into their nature: Earthbound Gods required a Field Spell to exist, and in a Riding Duel, High-Speed World was a permanent fixture that could never be removed. The conditions that made Earthbound Gods nearly unstoppable were baked directly into the format.

"This is going to be complicated."

On one side: a Riding Duel specialist fielding an Earthbound God. On the other: a HERO duelist who had just had all her normal Spell Cards stripped out. He could see exactly why the Soul Binder had chosen to force Finesse specifically into this Dark Ga. Her investigation was a threat to the organization's existence, yes, but beyond that, the HERO archetype's toolkit was structurally compromised in a Riding Duel environnt. The matchup had been chosen deliberately.

Amano set two face-down cards.

"I set two cards. Turn end."

"My turn, draw!"

The black heart over the course beat louder and harder as the Soul Binder's turn opened. Even with the constant horn noise of traffic all around them, the dark heartbeat cut through everything.

"Now let this city ignite and beco our battlefield. Girl who calls herself a hero, let see how many people you can save."

He freed the two Offering Stone Tokens from his field and offered them up.

"I offer two monsters as Tribute for an Earthbound God!"

"The god who uses the mountains as a cutting board and cities as a asuring stick, redrawing the world in darkness!"

"Hear the pulse of the earth's arteries!"

"TRIBUTE SUMMON! EARTHBOUND GOD CCAPAC APU!!"

The Earthbound God that had been retrieved by Offering to the Earthbound last turn descended at the first opportunity.

EARTHBOUND GOD CCAPAC APU

DARK / Level 10

Fiend / Effect

ATK: 3000 / DEF: 2500

If there is no face-up Field Spell on the field, this card's effects are negated and it is destroyed during the End Phase.

This card can attack the opponent directly.

The opponent cannot target this card for attacks.

This card is unaffected by the opponent's Spell and Trap effects.

When this card destroys an opponent's monster in battle, inflict damage to the opponent equal to that monster's ATK.

The pulsing black heart ascended to the highest point of the sky. From sowhere deep beneath the road, a vast dark energy surged upward and condensed into a colossal blue-black giant materializing above the Soul Binder's D-Wheel.

Finesse: "ATK 3000, DEF 2500. Those numbers are the sa as..."

The Soul Binder raised one arm toward the towering figure above him.

"With a Field Spell card in play, Ccapac Apu's full effects are activated!"

In Quechua, Ccapac Apu ant great authority, the lord of the mountain summit.

As long as a Field Spell was face-up on the field, the Earthbound God's three core immunities and abilities ca online in full.

This card can attack the opponent directly.

The opponent cannot target this card for attacks.

This card is unaffected by the opponent's Spell and Trap effects.

Three thousand attack points matching Blue-Eyes White Dragon. Full immunity to Spells and Traps. Direct attack access with no ability for the opponent to fight back. If only the Earthbound God remained on the Soul Binder's field, Amano could not even declare an attack.

"With the flas of the Nazca Lines, ignite Eden completely!"

In that instant, blue fire poured from the enormous black giant's body and spread outward to both sides of the road, burning the path forward into a dedicated fla circuit for the Dark Ga Riding Duel.

Viewed from directly above the mid-district, the fire would have looked like a colossal drawing burning itself into the surface of the city, lines of fla etching a vast image across the streets.

Every vehicle on the road that had been running against traffic found its path suddenly blocked by walls of fire on either side. Engines stopped. Drivers had no choice but to pull over and wait.

Eden provided no dedicated course for unsanctioned Riding Duels. The Earthbound God had simply built one out of burning city streets.

"Receive judgnt from the god, girl who calls herself a hero!"

Taking the Soul Binder's command, Ccapac Apu entered the Battle Phase without hesitation.

The colossal dark fist of the Earthbound God ca down toward the D-Wheel carrying Amano and Finesse like a hamr aid at sothing it intended to flatten completely.

****

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