After a pause, Mokuba Kaiba smiled.
"By the way, what a coincidence. Do you remember Yugen Fujiki, the first year student at Duel Academy?"
"I remember," Seto Kaiba said calmly.
"When it happened, I was demonstrating Link System to him. This time it was thanks to him again. He represented our company in the Duel and defeated the professor under Yako Tenma."
"Mm," Seto Kaiba replied. "Hmph. Yako's subordinates may have some skill, but their limits are obvious.
If he could not even handle that level of opponent, he would not be worth my attention."
"I thought the same, so I left the Duel to him without worry. But…"
Mokuba Kaiba paused, as if searching for the right words.
"I watched his Duel. How should I put it? It gave me a subtle feeling."
"What? You think he is very strong?"
Mokuba Kaiba scratched his head.
"It is not about whether he is strong or not. He is really that kind of very special…"
For a moment, he found it hard to describe the feeling in words.
"…Anyway, I have the recording. If you are interested, brother, you can take a look. I think his Duel was quite interesting."
As he spoke, Mokuba Kaiba seemed to recall Kirk Dixon Dixon's expression during the Duel, the look as if he had swallowed Sho Marufuji. The more he thought about it, the funnier it seemed, and he could not help but laugh.
"In any case, no matter what, at least I found it quite entertaining."
Whether he was truly strong or not, he did not know. But as a spectator, he had enjoyed it thoroughly.
"Oh?"
The moment the topic turned to a Duel, Seto Kaiba's interest was piqued.
"Alright. Send it to me."
Mokuba Kaiba once again generously showed Yugen the rich inventory currently stored at headquarters. When the password lock disengaged and the heavy alloy door slowly opened, even Yugen had to admit the sight was striking. As far as he could see, there were cards everywhere.
Calling it a duelist's romance would not be an exaggeration. It was his first time seeing such a vast space completely filled with a sea of Duel Card, like a treasure cave waiting to be explored. Tall display cabinets lined both walls like solemn guards.
Inside them were countless varieties of Card, arranged by year and category. From the earliest versions created after Maximillion Pegasus uncovered the stone tablets and developed Duel Monsters, to the newer releases born from each year of research, and even the many entries of the LV Series. Rather than a warehouse, the place felt more like a library.
What stood here was not just a collection of cards, but the record of time itself. Each cabinet preserved a different era of Duel Monsters, marking the steps of countless explorers who had pushed the game forward. The weight of that history was visible in every row.
Mokuba Kaiba did not set a limit on how much he could take and simply told him to help himself. Even so, Yugen knew he needed some restraint, since clearing out someone's entire stockpile would be shameless. He decided to prioritize what he truly needed from his list.
Not even Kaiba Corporation had everything in regular stock, since Card in this world were extraordinary items. Still, this place was already a sanctuary that countless Duelist dreamed of. Many long out of print pieces, things even the Academy Department could not easily obtain, were preserved here.
One example was a trap famously used by Seto Kaiba during the DM era, the ancient forbidden card Crush Card Virus. The version Seto Kaiba used differed slightly from the real world print. The old print effect required tributing a DARK monster with 1000 or less ATK to Destroy all monsters with 1500 or more ATK in the opponent's hand and on their field for three turns.
That effect was so strong it was banned, only returning in 2015 after being weakened. The anime version used by Seto Kaiba was different again, activating only when his DARK monster with 1000 or less ATK was destroyed by battle, then Destroying all monsters with 1500 or more ATK in the opponent's hand, field, and Deck.
By modern standards it was not necessarily stronger than the old print. The trigger condition of being destroyed by battle was inconvenient, and sending every qualifying monster from the opponent's Deck to the Graveyard could backfire badly against strategies that treated the Graveyard as a second hand. In earlier environments, however, when Graveyard use was limited, the raw power of wiping an entire Deck was overwhelming.
For someone like Seto Kaiba who preferred direct pressure, it was a rare but memorable tactic. Yugen thought it over and decided to take the card. Used carelessly it could ruin its controller, but in the right situation it could decide a Duel on the spot.
Most of his later choices were less dramatic. He mainly expanded his stock for a Polymerization based Deck, though none of his current main builds centered on Polymerization. These were preparations for a system built around the Spell Card Metamorphosis.
The remaining picks were cards useful in certain builds or rare enough to resell at a good price. In this era, without Summon restrictions, many Polymerization monsters were mediocre, taken mainly so common Levels in the Chaos mutation Phoenix God Deck could use Metamorphosis to transform.
One Rare Card that caught his attention was a Spirit monster, Tsukuyomi. It was Level 4 with 1100 ATK, and when Summoned it could flip one face up monster face down. After being Summoned, it returned to its owner's hand during the End Phase.
In other words, it was basically a Once Per Turn version of Book of Moon, though it consumed the Normal Summon. In early formats it had been extremely strong and was eventually limited due to its frequent appearance in top Deck. Its rise in usage lowered the value of monsters with strong effects but less than 1100 DEF.
The most criticized were the Emperor monsters of the LV Series. These High-Level Monster boasted powerful effects, yet all had 1000 DEF, a humiliating 100 points below Tsukuyomi. An opponent could flip an Emperor face down and destroy it in battle, while Tsukuyomi returned to hand to repeat the process next turn.
From a resource perspective, trading one Normal Summon for an opponent's Tribute monster was efficient. No matter how he looked at it, this trip to Kaiba Corporation had been rewarding. His Chaos build moved closer to completion, and he had secured key ritual materials that greatly strengthened his end board.
He did recall another crucial monster from that build, a powerful finisher once banned for its oppressive and simple stealing effect. Thousand Eyes Restrict, Maximillion Pegasus's ace during the Duelist Kingdom Arc, and a rare Level 1 Polymerization monster. With 0 ATK and 0 DEF, it clearly hid something dangerous.
Its signature effect absorbed an opponent's monster as an equip card and gained that monster's ATK and DEF. It was not only core in Chaos Deck strategies, but also widely splashed in competitive Deck of the time. Unfortunately, even this warehouse did not seem to have it.
Yugen asked Mokuba Kaiba, who shook his head. After all, it was Maximillion Pegasus's personal ace, printed by the creator of Duel Monsters himself. It was not surprising that others did not have copies.
"However, I recall Maximillion Pegasus released reprints as tournament prize cards," Mokuba Kaiba said after thinking. "There is a chance Industrial Illusions might have one."