Chapter 143: The Galaxy Surge That Inherited His Will
"I set one monster face-down in Defense Position, then set one card face-down. Turn end."
With a hand full of high-level monsters she had no way to summon, Chiha played the only cards she could and hoped it was enough.
"Hiding behind face-downs. You've got nothing."
Tojima had been doing this long enough in District 35 to read a deck on sight. Whatever patchwork collection this girl was running, he could already see the ceiling.
"The moment you end your turn, I activate Continuous Trap: Solemn Wishes!"
Solemn Wishes. Continuous Trap Card. As long as this card remains in the Spell and Trap Zone, each time you draw a card, restore 500 LP.
"My turn! Draw!"
As Tojima drew, a warm light settled across his shoulders.
Tojima LP: 4000 to 4500.
"This turn, Normal Summon in Attack Position: Alexandrite Dragon!"
Alexandrite Dragon. Level 4 LIGHT Dragon Normal Monster. 2000 ATK / 100 DEF.
A winged dragon gleaming with violet and emerald light, identical ATK to Gene-Warped Warwolf.
"Next, I equip Gene-Warped Warwolf with Equip Spell: Fairy Meteor Crush!"
Fairy Meteor Crush. Equip Spell. When the equipped monster attacks a Defense Position monster, inflict piercing battle damage.
The moment the card activated, something like burning heat gathered around Gene-Warped Warwolf's fists.
"Gene-Warped Warwolf! Attack the face-down monster!"
"Fang Gale Fist!!"
The wolf's fist came down and shattered the face-down card underneath it.
Monocycroid. DEF: 100.
"Trash, just as I thought! Piercing damage for the difference between ATK and DEF!"
The force of the punch punched through the Monocycroid and kept going, catching Chiha directly in the blast and sending her small body into the crumbling wall of the building behind her.
Kaiba Chiha LP: 4000 to 2100.
"That hurts!" She bit down on the pain.
This was just a standard duel. How could it hurt this much.
Was this what she had been pestering Karl to take her to? The underground dueling scene she had romanticized from the outside?
If she had known it felt like this, she would never have asked him.
And yet. This pain from a duel, this specific shape of it, felt familiar in a way she could not place. She had no memory to connect it to. But the pain pulled something up, a face surfacing in her mind without invitation. A girl's face. Strikingly beautiful.
Who was that?
She felt like she had seen that face somewhere.
Just picturing it made her spine go cold.
"Can you take what comes next? Alexandrite Dragon, direct attack!"
Light gathered in the dragon's open mouth and fired at Chiha's empty field.
Kaiba Chiha LP: 2100 to 100.
She had made promises about handling this. She had said she would take care of it for Keshin and Yuigen. And now, one turn in, she was at 100 LP.
The extreme physical feedback was doing something strange to her thoughts. Her life flashed in a rapid sequence she had not asked for. The comfortable existence she had always taken for granted. The careless decisions she had made without consequence. Losing to Amano Rei and his trash cards. Being thrown out of her own home. Being deceived and pulled into something dark and painful, something that had hurt in ways that ordinary dueling did not reach.
That had been real pain. Pain that had carved itself into her somewhere she could not exactly point to.
Compared to that, what she was taking right now was almost manageable.
Kaiba Chiha stood back up.
The crowd watching her was surprised.
Tojima laughed.
"You're short and you hit harder than you look, little girl. But I'm ending this turn."
"The moment you end your turn!" Chiha reached everything she had toward the face-down in her back row and flipped it. "Trap Card: Human Wave Tactics, activate!"
The ten cards Amano had left for Yui were not a pure stack of useless monsters. He had included one card that worked with weak monsters specifically. Leaving only junk creatures as a parting gift would have been too careless even for a casual keepsake, so he had tucked in one copy of Human Wave Tactics to make them functional.
Human Wave Tactics. Trap Card. At the End Phase of each turn, Special Summon from your deck a number of Level 2 or lower Normal Monsters equal to the number of Level 2 or lower Normal Monsters that were destroyed by battle this turn.
Chiha found this deeply ironic.
Not long ago, she had been beaten by Amano Rei using this exact strategy. Weak monsters supported by trap cards, layered and patient. The approach she had dismissed as beneath consideration.
And now she was the one depending on it to survive.
"I Special Summon Dancing Fairy from my deck in Defense Position!"
Dancing Fairy. Level 1 WIND Fairy Normal Monster. 300 ATK / 200 DEF.
Amano had included this one because it was cute. A slender girl spirit swaying as it materialized on Chiha's field.
"My turn! Draw!"
She had never in her life wanted so badly to draw a weak, low-level monster.
Please. Not another high-level Galaxy-Eyes. Not one more unplayable hand piece.
"Good. I Normal Summon Skull Servant in Defense Position."
Skull Servant. Level 1 DARK Zombie Normal Monster. 300 ATK / 200 DEF.
A skeleton that looked like a strong wind would scatter it materialized on Chiha's field. She set nothing and passed.
"Turn end."
Tojima could not help himself.
"You've already lost, haven't you?"
Yui, watching from the side, was equally confused. What was this girl doing? She had her own cards. Why had she been using only the ones Yui gave her from start to finish?
"My turn, draw! And the moment I draw, Solemn Wishes restores my LP!"
Tojima LP: 4500 to 5000.
He looked at his position. Life points ahead, field advantage, opponent at 100 LP. He sacrificed the Alexandrite Dragon and moved up.
"I Tribute Alexandrite Dragon to Tribute Summon a Level 6 monster from my hand! Descend, Dark Driceratops!"
Dark Driceratops. Level 6 EARTH Dinosaur Effect Monster. 2400 ATK / 1500 DEF. When this card attacks a Defense Position monster, inflict piercing battle damage.
A six-star monster with 2400 ATK and built-in piercing. Yui had handled cards for years at the shop. The Nikaido who had ruled District 32 before was the strongest duelist she had seen up close. Tojima's deck was running above that level.
"Now you're finished! Dark Driceratops, attack Skull Servant!"
The massive dinosaur's foot came down and ground the skeleton to dust.
"2200 points of piercing battle damage. You lose!"
The shockwave radiating from the ground toward Chiha swallowed her whole.
"Chiha!" Keshin called out.
She had rescued this girl. If Chiha died here because of a fight she had entered for Keshin's sake, the rescue would have been a disaster.
The dust settled.
A faint glow was still present where Chiha was standing.
She was still on her feet.
"Impossible." Tojima stared. She had no face-down cards left. "A hand trap!"
There was no other explanation. The last thing anyone expected from a duelist who had been running nothing but trap cards and junk monsters was a rare hand activation.
"I activate Photon Kuriboh's effect from my hand!"
Photon Kuriboh. Send this card from your hand to the Graveyard. Pay half your current LP. All damage you take this turn becomes zero. Can be activated during the opponent's turn.
Kaiba Chiha LP: 100 to 50.
She had discarded the photon family's own Kuriboh, holding on at the absolute limit, and the weak monsters had shown her a path through.
"You're just delaying death by one more turn! Gene-Warped Warwolf, attack Dancing Fairy!"
Dancing Fairy: destroyed.
Tojima left Chiha with nothing on the field and ended his turn.
"The moment you end your turn, Human Wave Tactics activates! Two of my monsters were destroyed by battle this turn, so I Special Summon twice from my deck!"
Heart Key Fairy. DEF: 300.
Volcanic Rat. DEF: 500.
She recognized these cards. She had lost to these exact monsters in Amano Rei's hands. The creatures she had looked past as completely beneath notice were the ones she had been on her knees begging strangers for.
She was beginning to think she had been wrong about something foundational.
"My turn! Draw!"
Tojima sneered.
"Summoning more trash doesn't change anything, little girl!"
"It changes everything!" She had not imagined, until this moment, that she would say what she was about to say and mean it. "Weak monsters matter."
She remembered something Amano Rei had told her.
"Without them, I wouldn't be standing here dueling you at all!"
She had changed the first word, but the sentiment was his.
"The light gathered from weak monsters will become a blazing star that illuminates the entire galaxy!"
That line was also his. She had adjusted it to fit her own delivery.
"Tojima. You're the one who's losing!"
The Tribute Summon light erupted from Chiha's field and shot straight up, hitting the 648-meter dome that formed District 35's ceiling and reflecting back down like a false sky had finally acknowledged something real.
"I Tribute Heart Key Fairy and Volcanic Rat! Tribute Summon!"
"Galaxy of darkness, become the light of hope and dwell within me! Embodiment of light, descend now!"
"Appear! Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon!"
Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon. Level 8 LIGHT Dragon Effect Monster. 3000 ATK / 2500 DEF.
The galaxy dragon descended into District 35's lawless streets, and its light filled the dark in a way that had no precedent here.
"3000 attack points." Keshin looked up with her whole face. "That's the same as the legendary Blue-Eyes White Dragon!"
Tojima took a step back.
"3000 attack points! How does someone like you have a monster like that? Who are you?!"
"I am..."
Chiha started to announce herself. She stopped.
"Nobody right now. I'm just a duelist passing through. A duelist who owed a debt to someone who saved her life, and came out here to settle it. That's who I am, Tojima!"
The summoning light had not finished.
Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon was on the field, and as long as it was present, it was not alone.
"I activate Galaxy-Eyes Afterglow Dragon's effect from my hand!"
When you control a Galaxy-Eyes monster, you can Special Summon this card from your hand in Defense Position.
Galaxy-Eyes Afterglow Dragon appeared beside the Photon Dragon, two eight-star monsters overlapping their fields in Chiha's zone, the light they produced compounding.
"I overlay Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon and Galaxy-Eyes Afterglow Dragon, both Level 8, to build the Overlay Network!"
"Emerge, Number 62: Galaxy-Eyes Prime Photon Dragon! Light and darkness wandering the cosmos, sleeping within the void between them, sorrowful dragons! Gather your power and open the gate to truth!"
"Xyz Summon! Rank 8! Number 62: Galaxy-Eyes Prime Photon Dragon!!"
Number 62: Galaxy-Eyes Prime Photon Dragon. Rank 8 LIGHT Dragon Xyz Effect Monster. 4000 ATK / 3000 DEF. Overlay Materials: 2 Level 8 monsters.
"Beautiful," Keshin said softly. She had never seen anything like this in her life. The galaxy light filling the district's permanent dark was beautiful enough to make her feel, for the first time, that there might be something worth hoping for in whatever came next.
"Number 62: Galaxy-Eyes Prime Photon Dragon's effect!" Chiha drove her fist forward.
As long as this card is face-up on the field, all monsters on the field except Xyz Monsters are treated as having a Rank equal to their Level.
Every monster on Tojima's field was now Ranked. Gene-Warped Warwolf became Rank 4. Dark Driceratops became Rank 6.
"Entering the Battle Phase! And during the battle, I detach Overlay Material Galaxy-Eyes Afterglow Dragon to activate its effect!"
Once per turn, when this card battles, detach one Overlay Material. Increase the Rank of every monster on the field except this card by 1. During damage calculation only, this card's ATK increases by 200 times the total combined Ranks of all monsters on the field.
Every monster's Rank went up by one. Gene-Warped Warwolf became Rank 5. Dark Driceratops became Rank 7. Number 62 stayed at Rank 8.
Total Ranks on the field: 5 + 7 + 8 = 20.
"Galaxy-Eyes Prime Photon Dragon gains 4000 ATK from the combined Ranks!"
Number 62: Galaxy-Eyes Prime Photon Dragon ATK: 4000 to 8000.
"8000 attack points?!"
"Not finished yet! When Galaxy-Eyes Afterglow Dragon is detached as an Overlay Material during the Battle Phase, double the ATK of all Number monsters I control!"
Number 62: Galaxy-Eyes Prime Photon Dragon ATK: 8000 to 16000.
"16000 attack points?!"
Tojima's mind had stopped processing. One turn ago, Chiha's field held monsters with a few hundred attack points. Now he was looking at 16000.
"Repent for what you've done in the light of the galaxy, Tojima!"
"Number 62: Galaxy-Eyes Prime Photon Dragon! Attack Gene-Warped Warwolf!!"
"Galaxy Surge: Ultimate Dragon Emperor's Roar!!"
The beam of light rose from the impact point into a column that punched straight through District 35's ceiling and kept going. From the mid-district floors directly above, people felt it. A flash they could not explain. The galaxy at its absolute limit, igniting from the bottom of the tower.
Gene-Warped Warwolf: destroyed.
Tojima: "AAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!"
Tojima LP: 5000 to 0. (-9000 overkill.)
Standing in the light that had protected Keshin's family, Kaiba Chiha felt something she had not felt after any duel in her life before this one. The satisfaction of winning did not usually feel like this. It had never felt like this.
"Amano Rei. You were right."
She looked up at the galaxy still fading in the dome overhead.
"The light gathered from the lowest places really can reach all the way to the top."
[Kaiba Chiha] [Affection +30]
****
50+advance chapters at patreon.com/Eatinpieces