As a duellist that made it into the top four in the regionals, Yutaka had his own VIP room. That was how he could avoid the embarrassment of other people seeing his manic state once he woke up. The other duellists were staying in a common area together, and that was where Yutaka was currently heading.
Once he arrived, he saw the participants sitting around and showing the cards in their hands and trading with each other. He even saw someone trading a Right Leg of the Forbidden One... wasn't that supposed to be a very rare card according to Yugi's Grandpa? Anyway, it was worthless to him since he didn't have any Exodia cards, and he was doubtful he could complete it even if he traded for it.
Yutaka also sat down and opened his card binder.
"Hey, is that Yutaka Minami? The 4th in the nationals. Is he trading anything?" Some of the people in the common area started to whisper to each other, which surprised Yutaka. He didn't think he was famous. After all, he had only come in fourth. Was that anything to brag over?
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Soon someone approached him for trading cards.
"Umm, are you trading that Crawling Dragon?"
[Crawling Dragon] [EARTH]
[LV: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ]
[DRAGON / NORMAL]
[This weakened dragon can no longer fly, but is still a deadly force to be reckoned with.]
[1600 ATK / 1400 DEF]
"Sure, of course! Do you have any Pot of Greed or Graceful Charity?" Yutaka replied excitedly. He wasn't 100% certain, but he hoped these 10,000-year-old banned cards that he had named would be up for trading.
[Graceful Charity] [SPELL]
[SPELL CARD]
[Draw 3 cards, then discard 2 cards.]
---
[Pot of Greed] [SPELL]
[SPELL CARD]
[Draw 2 cards.]
"Really? But why would you want those trash cards?" The guy asked in confusion. Everyone knew that those were trash cards without any value. Pot of Greed was still okay, as it could help with hand incidents, but Graceful Charity was completely useless.
"Oh, for collection value." Yutaka said as he waved his hand.
"Is that so? Well, I don't want to take advantage of you, so how about I trade these three Graceful Charity to you for the Crawling Dragon?" The guy was confused, but he didn't think about it much. After all, this trade was advantageous to him; even though he gave three cards, he still felt like he was making a profit.
"Deal!" Yutaka replied excitedly.
Who knew he would make such a profit for trading such a trash card? Crawling Dragon was just a level 5 1600 ATK normal card. Basically, it was useless. Who would even waste a tribute summon just for bringing out such a weak monster? If you wanted to tribute summon, you might as well use Summoned Skull. It was a normal card, but it had 2500 ATK and could be retrieved from the deck with Witch of the Black Forest.
[Summoned Skull] [DARK]
[LV: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ]
[FIEND / NORMAL]
[A fiend with dark powers for confusing the enemy. Among the Fiend-Type monsters, this monster boasts considerable force.]
[2500 ATK / 1200 DEF]
"Anything else you want to trade for? You can also check my binder." The guy made the offer while showing his cards. At first, Yutaka took it excitedly, trying to find other gems, but he was soon disappointed. Most of the cards were normal monsters without any effects; well, at least he also found three Pot of Greed that he could pocket, but that was about it. The guy didn't even have any trap cards in his deck.
That was when a particular card caught his eye. Remembering the cards in his deck, he found a combo that could win him any duel.
"I want this one."
And so the trading continued well into the night. Yutaka also achieved his goal of getting three Baby Dragons and three Kunai with Chains, but there was no sight of Gearfried anywhere. So he still needed to find Joey and get at least one copy from him. Speaking of which, where were the main duo anyway?
"Here, Joey, this is the common area. See, the duellists here are trading cards to strengthen their decks for the upcoming tournament. Since all of the people here are strong duellists specifically invited by Pegasus, they must have strong and rare cards that would be difficult to find on the market. That's why they are trading with each other and making final adjustments to their decks." A short boy with starfish hair walked into the common area while explaining something to his blonde friend who was wearing a green jacket.
"Really, Yug? Then I better get trading!" The blond boy replied excitedly as he clenched his fist. He needed to make his deck as strong as possible if he wanted to save his sister.
"Hey you, wanna trade?"
Yutaka was surprised, but he was soon overjoyed, as the one Joey wanted to trade with was none other than himself.
"Sure, what do you have?"
Soon, they got into a heated debate. Joey did not have a smart head on his shoulders, but he was not exactly dumb either. Due to his father's antics, he had developed enough street smarts to know when something was valuable. He noticed Yutaka's particular interest in his Gearfried the Iron Knight; however, despite its significant drawback of not being able to equip items, he had no intention of trading it, as it was currently one of the strongest monsters in his deck.
Seeing that he could not fool Joey with the so-called 'rare' cards, Yutaka changed his approach.
"How about this one then?" Yutaka handed over a card he had separated for his deck, but now that he got that particular monster through trading, it wasn't that important to him. In fact, this card might even suit Joey better than himself.
"Really? You want to trade such a strong monster for my Gearfried?" Joey was excited, as the moment he held this card, he felt like it was made just for him. 'What was it that Yugi said again? Right, heart of the cards! I can feel the heart of this card resonating with me!'
But seeing the effect of the monster, Joey felt troubled. Even though he had a connection to this card, its effect worried him.
"Of course not, but if you throw in that Grave Robber trap card of yours, we can make a trade."
Joey thought for a moment, clearly torn; on the one hand, this monster was too handsome; on the other hand, he would rather not have anything to do with its effect. Grave Robber was not a problem for him since he had multiples, and he didn't mind trading one of them. After all, it was such a terrible card where you needed to wait for your opponent to play a card first before stealing it. Such a defensive card was not in line with his personality.
"Deal!"
Joey and Yutaka shook hands and traded their cards.
"What's your name? I am Joey Wheeler, and this guy is my friend Yugi Muto," said Joey as he pulled over Yugi and introduced him to Yutaka.
"Yutaka, Yutaka Minami"
"The guy who came fourth in the nationals?" Yugi replied in surprise while Yutaka scratched his nose awkwardly.
"What? You were such an awesome guy? Why didn't you tell me?" Joey looked aggrieved and said jokingly.
"Well, it's only fourth; nothing much to talk about now, is it? In fact, I think Yugi is better since, if I am not wrong, he is the guy who beat Seto Kaiba, right?"
"Hahaha, he is right, Yutaka is just a loser!" A nasal voice interrupted their discussion.
"Oh my god! That's Rex Raptor! The runner-up of the nationals!" The cannon fodders in the room started whispering amongst themselves while Yutaka started to clench his fists, which were shaking.
"What? Still upset about losing your Red-Eyes Black Dragon to me, loser?" said Rex as he pulled out his Red-Eyes card and showed it to Yutaka.
However, Yutaka started to breathe even more heavily.
"I heard, in the quarterfinals, Yutaka and Rex made a bet over this card, and Yutaka lost his ace as a result. So even though he was a favourite for the champion position, once he lost his dragon, he lost to Mako Tsunami, coming in fourth!" The peanut gallery didn't forget to chime in.
"Red-Eyes Black Dragon? What's that?" Joey asked, confused.
"It's a dragon on par with Kaiba's Blue-Eyes White Dragon, Joey. While Blue-Eyes represents power, Red-Eyes represents potential," said Yugi, explaining the origin of the card.
"So strong!?" Joey replied exaggeratedly while waving his arms.
"Yes! And it is now MY dragon!" said Rex as he waved the card in front of Yutaka's eyes.
"Oh, if it isn't Yugi Muto." Soon a boy with green hair walked into the room following Rex.
As the plot moved forward like it did in the anime, Yutaka was trying to process the information he had just heard. Red-Eyes Black Dragon actually belonged to him? And his host actually lost it to Rex in a bet? This kind of explains why Rex had the card in the first place. After all, why would someone known as the Dino Duellist add a dragon card to his deck? Especially when there were stronger dinosaur cards out in the market. That must mean Rex did it to spite the original host.
The fact that the original host was actually a contender for the championship spot also made sense. After all, how could anyone wielding Red-Eyes Black Dragon be weak? Of course, as he thought, Yutaka selectively ignored its previous holders, Rex, Joey and Atticus, who were heralded as strong duellists but actually had terrible track records in the anime.
"Don't worry, Yutaka, I am sure you will get your card back," said Joey as he patted him on the shoulder, which broke Yutaka's train of thought, bringing him back to reality.
Since he was clenching his fists and breathing heavily, he must have thought Yutaka was furious or something. On the contrary, Yutaka couldn't be any happier at the moment. He was shaking because of his excitement, as his words meant that he could get his hands on Red-Eyes legitimately and not NTR Joey Wheeler.