"Evil HERO looked pretty damn cool."
"Mhm, guess it's true—guys just can't resist the darkness, huh?"
Even two days after the duel, students across Duel Academy were still buzzing about Evil HERO Inferno Wing.
Partly because—well—she looked good. But mostly? Because dark is cool.
Hikaru couldn't deny it—back in his old life, he'd loved Black Monkey too. Shame he never got around to finishing it before he got isekai'd.
"Chazz Princeton—here's your score report," the instructor said, handing him a paper with a disappointed sigh.
Chazz stared at the paper like it had slapped him.
Absolutely tragic.
He wanted to slam his head into the floor. He'd humiliated himself in front of his master.
His mind wandered back to two days ago—after his crushing loss to Hikaru.
While Fusion Division students had either cheered or mocked him, Hikaru simply packed up his deck and left him with a calm, cutting remark:
"Your dueling lacks purity. At least, it did that day."
"If you want to defeat Jaden, you'll need more than that.Jaden doesn't just want to beat people.He wants to be the best."
Shame flooded him.He finally remembered what his master had growled when throwing him into that AI training room.
"Fool. If you don't want to become the best duelist, you'll be nothing but a failure. Get that through your head!"
But back then, he'd been too busy stewing over his loss to Jaden and everyone whispering that he was just some rich boy on easy mode.
And that Hikaru Amagi guy…
He glanced at Hikaru across the classroom.
Despite being the face of the Fusion Division, opinion on him was sharply split.Some respected him immensely. Others hated his guts.
The average student was in awe of his strategies and insane fusion builds—but few really talked to him.He was still one of the purple jackets, after all.
"Hey, Jaden, what's your score?"
"Ahaha! I got over 80 in the practicals!" Jaden beamed, then casually folded the sheet to hide his written test score.
Eighty in practicals!?
Chazz nearly choked.
He only got a forty.
[Too reliant on boss monsters. Should've baited traps with low-level monsters first.][Trap usage inconsistent. Brilliant at countering combos one moment, then randomly wasted resources the next.][Lacked focus. Spent entire duel staring at people on the sidelines.][Fixated on HERO archetype, ignored everything else.]
Smack!He slapped himself across the face.
This was pathetic.Was he really about to lose to Jaden in the damn grades too?
Master Kaiba would kill him.
"How'd you do, Hikaru?" Bastion Misawa leaned over from the seat behind him.
Still salty about losing the top spot, he was clearly fishing for intel.
"Ahh, don't ask. Didn't do so hot."
"…Huh?"
"Totally messed up. Should've handled it differently…"
"…???"
Syrus blinked. "Wait, you too, Hikaru?"
"Ahaha! Well then—next time, let's try harder together!" Jaden slapped Hikaru's back with a grin, absolutely delighted at the idea of someone else doing worse than him.
"Wait, Jaden," Bastion started sweating. "We all saw Hikaru's duel. There's no way his score was bad."
"Right, bro! Even I don't believe that!"
"Hikaru must be pulling our leg, right?"
"…What?" Jaden's face fell. "Hikaru, are you lying to me!?"
"I don't have time to lie to you," Hikaru replied, flashing his score sheet."See? Only 97."
"…"
"…Wait, the max is 100, right?"
[Demonstrated immediate recognition of opponent's strategy and monster evolution.Willingly took direct attacks from stronger monsters in pursuit of strategic victory.Exploited opponent's mental state to force a reversal.Executed flawless OTK with zero counterplay window.Near-perfect performance.]
"Sounds like high praise to me…" Syrus mumbled, staring at his own score sheet like it had betrayed him.
"Then why just 97?" Bastion asked, suspicious.
Hikaru sighed. "Professor Hayama docked me for 'poor deck construction. Too few monsters. Not balanced.'All the other teachers gave me full marks."
…
Yep. That tracked.
Normal decks were at least 50% monsters—unless you were some weird stall/control freak.
And Hikaru? His deck was stuffed full of Fusion Spells. He only ran seven or eight monsters—just enough to be Fusion fodder.
No wonder a traditionalist like Professor Hayama docked him.
"Everyone should've received their evaluations by now," the instructor announced at the end of class."This is only the first quarter of your first year, so don't be discouraged. You have time to improve.That said, final rankings are posted on the bulletin board outside.Top 10 students can visit Professor Chronos to apply for scholarship rewards."
Scholarship was a fancy way of saying cash prize.
At the end of the day, dueling was a competition—and Duel Academy students either became pro duelists or instructors.Learning to earn through dueling was part of the curriculum.
After class, Hikaru made his way to the main hall.
The rankings were up.
He scanned the list—Yep. Nailed it. First place.
"Wha—! I'm ten points behind Hikaru! How!?" Bastion stared at the board in disbelief, clawing at his head.
"No way! We had basically the same answers when we compared notes!Was it the damn alchemy exam!?"
He let out a Tom-from-Tom-&-Jerry–level screech.
Bastion had always been #1 in written exams, and a solid contender in dueling too.He was every teacher's dream student.
But this time—he'd been dethroned.
And Hikaru had scored a 96 in practicals!
"Ugh… I've been too arrogant. Hikaru Amagi! I won't give you the top spot next time!"
He stormed off, muttering about seeking extra tutoring from Banner.
Hikaru just laughed.
Heh. Too naive, Bastion.If this were math or chemistry, sure—you'd wipe the floor with me.
But card knowledge?
You're not even close.
He snickered to himself and sprinted to Professor Chronos's office to claim his reward.
It wasn't a huge sum—just the prize for a quarter-term test. Not even midterms.
But Duel Academy was a KaibaCorp flagship institution.So even a "small prize" was enough to feed Hikaru on fancy bread for a year—if he wanted.
Not that he needed it.
Since becoming the Slifer Red rep, word got around that he'd been living off bread and water.Professor Hayama had quietly added him to the Yellow Dorm's food plan out of pity.
So yeah, he wouldn't starve anytime soon.
Which meant that money?
That was going into booster packs…And Fusion Alchemy experiments.
Specifically—
Testing the limits of Super Polymerization.