Tenjo Hikari gently rubbed his temples in the room, while Tierra casually tossed him a piece of bread.
With his eyes closed, sensing something being thrown at him, he caught it with closed eyes, then opened his eyes, smiled, tore open the package, and started eating.
It's a good thing the finals are tomorrow, otherwise Tenjo Hikari might really be unable to hold on.
Even though it was an ordinary duel where neither side used supernatural powers, the high-intensity mental exhaustion and the challenge of standing firm and drawing cards in the storm at high altitude demanded extremely high physical strength.
If you don't take a break and eat something, it feels like you can't even stand steadily on the ship's deck.
"By the way, there's one more thing."
Beside him, Tierra suddenly reached out as if pulling something from the dimensional gap. After a while, she pulled out a spirit from the Great Cosmic Workshop.
It was the Glow-Up Bulb.
No...
Only then did Tenjo Hikari notice that the Glow-Up Bulb, starting from a small bud, had grown significantly.
Has it bloomed?
Tenjo Hikari gently blinked his eyes and raised his hand to greet the Glow-Up Bulb. The little flower blinked back and then swooshed back into the Great Cosmic Workshop.
This is the convenience of spirits, Tenjo Hikari doesn't have a way to open a book outside school and return to the workshop, otherwise Alchemy wouldn't be such a hassle.
Tenjo Hikari opened the "Emerald Book," flipped through it for a while, and indeed found the "Glow-Up Bloom."
It seems the bulb's evolution into Aroma isn't far off.
"This little guy is much more serious than those two Flame Sword brothers." Tierra shrugged beside him and said.
The two Flame Sword brothers stayed in the Great Cosmic Workshop for so long, and eventually, only with the help of Tenjo Hikari and Tierra did they completely evolve through Alchemy, while the Glow-Up Bulb is different; it absorbs the power of the Philosopher's Stone diligently every day, without any slack.
Tenjo Hikari even only used the Glow-Up Bulb twice for synchro, yet it has already evolved a brand new card with the help of duel energy.
Its only problem might be that it's really too shy. Seeing the elder sisters from Aroma visiting this time, it wanted to come out and be spoiled, but ended up hiding when seeing a bunch of other spirits.
It didn't even show Tenjo Hikari the "Glow-Up Bloom" card.
But Tierra, being observant, noticed everything every moment. She first pulled the little bulb over, then explained the situation.
Looking at the card, Tenjo Hikari thought for a while and softly said to the card, "Thank you for your support, rest assured, I won't waste your efforts."
The evolved Glow-Up Bulb, now the "Glow-Up Bloom," is still a tuner monster, still LV 1, but now its attribute has changed to dark, and its type to Zombie-Type.
Tenjo Hikari opens his deck and quickly takes out the "Vampire Vamp."
Don't be fooled by Tenjo Hikari's calm demeanor during duels, his deck is actually meticulously calculated.
Despite Tenjo Hikari's increased control over Super Polymerization, not all cards get directly fused even if there is no fusion monster protection, it doesn't happen immediately.
But that doesn't mean it won't happen.
Therefore, every monster in Tenjo Hikari's deck needs to be carefully selected each time it's played.
Cards like Vampire Fraulein and Vampire Vamp can be used as fusion material for "Netherworld Dragon," but they aren't part of the mainstream fusion faction; leaving them in the deck for too long is risky.
Another issue is that although Tenjo Hikari hasn't had cases of dead draws in official duels, what if one day Vampire Vamp jumps into his hand? Wouldn't that be troublesome?
So as a precaution, Tenjo Hikari decided to remove Vampire Vamp and another tuner monster, and include Glow-Up Bloom into his deck, then reconfigure it.
It's worth mentioning that Glow-Up Bloom can even search for LV 5 or higher Zombie-Type monsters, and in critical moments can fetch Gold Card Kuriboh, making it very versatile.
Moreover, it can become a new tuner in Tenjo Hikari's deck, synchronizing with Netherworld Dragon.
All possibilities.
The duel with Manjome can't employ the same strategies as with Marufuji Ryo, so Tenjo Hikari is preparing to adjust his deck a bit.
There's a whole night ahead to adjust the deck, but taking advantage of this rest break to make minor adjustments might save Tenjo Hikari some effort later.
However, while he was checking and swapping some components of his deck,
right at that moment, a thunderous boom erupted outside.
Tenjo Hikari paused in his actions, quickly packed up his deck, grabbed a chocolate, took the duel disk, and walked out of the break room.
Just as he stepped out of the room, he saw, in the distance, the duel had already started.
"Am I late?"
"No, just in time, Tenjo."
Mitsuzawa waved to Tenjo Hikari from the other side, he nodded, tore open the chocolate packaging, casually ate while walking forward.
Caesar's coat has returned to its normal black, focused intently on watching the duel.
Although he lost, witnessing an excellent duel unfold before him can't be missed.
At least almost all the duelists here are worth "respecting" in his view.
Besides, watching semifinals and experiencing duels different from those here is quite interesting itself.
Kaiba Seto stood at the bow of the ship, watching as the duel unfolded.
He hadn't explicitly taught much, but Kaiba Seto had always watched over Manjome Jun.
From Manjome's participation in elementary competitions to last year when he entered Duel Academy to prove himself, only to lose to Yuki Judai, feeling despondent afterward.
Manjome has been working hard, trying to mimic him since childhood, but he—Kaiba Seto—isn't something to be mimicked.
However, last year, Manjome met different friends in Duel Academy, dueled with different people, grew in different ways, and even started his own company, striving purely towards his goals, so Kaiba Seto is very pleased.
His only dissatisfaction is Manjome Jun's deeply-rooted "fear."
Admiration, idolization, imitation, these aren't what's needed by a true duelist.
"Jun, let me see your growth."
And this moment, the duel progressed to the next instant...
Manjome took a look at the Polymerization and the three Ojama Monsters in his hand, displaying a slight smile.
"Hey!" "Big bro!" "Here we go!"
If it were the old Manjome, seeing these ugly, bizarre creatures making noise, he would certainly scold them.
But now it's different.
Manjome figured it out.
If you aspire to be the strongest duelist, you shouldn't disdain any card.
"Ready, I activate the Spell Card, Polymerization! Fusing three Ojama monsters in my hand to Fusion Summon, Ojama King!"
"Roar!"
A massive Ojama Monster descended from the sky.
"Next, the effect of the card in the deck!"
"Deck?" the quarterfinalists exclaimed.
Everyone thought that Hikari and Caesar had showcased everything, surprising that there's still something up your sleeve?!
"Transform! Mecha Ojama King! This card can be added to your hand if there's a face-up Ojama King on the field!"
"Then activate, use the Ojama King on the field as a sacrifice to Special Summon a Mecha Ojama King from your hand, deck, or graveyard!"
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