"Your English is wonderful. Me? I don't understand a thing," Hayato quipped. To be fair, compared to Pegasus, the fake foreigner who said "subarashii" more smoothly than "you" or "me," this little blonde girl's English was 1000% better.
"A gentleman shouldn't keep a lady waiting, but unfortunately, I'm no gentleman, and you, little kid, aren't quite a lady," Hayato said, gathering the cards on the table and, like a magic trick, pulling out another Deck from his coat.
Although the "buy card packs for a chance to duel" rule limited the number of daily duels, the number of people Hayato and Yugi had to face each day was still quite staggering. While many of these duelists were fodder whose entire Decks were filled with (Normal Monster)s without a single Spell or Trap Card, occasionally a couple of skilled duelists would show up.
It was for this reason that Hayato had taken the initiative to come and help Yugi deal with the duelists who came knocking. A few days ago, Hayato's DP Balance was just over 2000, but after the last two days of hard work, it was back up to over 6000.
However, as a consequence, Hayato's and Yugi's Decks had been thoroughly analyzed by those duelists. After all, a Deck only has about forty cards with their specific uses. Those duelists had even begun to consciously tech their Decks with counter cards.
Because of this, Hayato now basically rotated between his three main Decks. One match it would be (*Armed Dragon LV7*), the next he would bring out a (*Gaia the Dragon Champion*), and the one after that would be a swarm of small animals ganging up on the opponent. Even Yugi had Yugi Muto and Yami Yugi taking turns.
But just as Hayato set down his replacement Deck, the girl sitting opposite him proudly lifted her head, revealing a swan-like, slender, and fair neck. "You must be Hayato Kobayashi, right? Hmph! I have no desire to Duel you."
"The person I'm looking for is Yugi Muto!"
"Yugi Muto" turned his head to look over. "Huh? You're looking for me? But Hayato and I are the same; we're both Duelist Kings."
"Oh? So you're Yugi Muto?" The little blonde girl glanced at Yugi with disdain, looking him up and down. "Hmph, just like in the picture. Your hair is styled like a sea star that's absorbed too much Fukushima water. You don't look like a good person at all."
"S-Sea star!?" Yugi was a bit taken aback. "It's not my fault. Everyone in my family has this hairstyle. Grandpa, and Grandpa's Grandpa, they all had the same hairstyle."
"What's going on? What's happening?" Just then, Tristan also arrived in front of the Kame Game Card Shop. In his hands were several drinks, probably something like milk tea.
Hayato spread his hands innocently. "This 'Lady' says she doesn't want to Duel me, but wants to Duel Yugi instead. She also said Yugi's hair looks like a sea star and that he doesn't look like a good person."
Tristan was stunned for a moment, then subconsciously looked at Yugi's hair. He hadn't noticed it before, but now that it was pointed out, he realized Yugi's hair really did look like a sea star. Unable to hold it in, Tristan burst out laughing. "Pfft-hahahaha, it's true! Yugi, your hair really does look like a sea star."
"Yugi Muto, I challenge you to a Duel. However, I'm not interested in your Duelist King title or anything like that." The little blonde girl stood up from her seat, and only then did Hayato notice she was also holding a stuffed teddy bear. He vaguely remembered its name was "Teddy" or "Terry" or something; either way, it was a famous and expensive brand of teddy bear.
"After I beat you, you must return the card your grandfather stole from me!"
"Grandpa stole a card?" Yugi was completely bewildered, saying uncertainly, "Grandpa isn't that kind of person, is he?"
"Hmph, stop playing dumb! Your grandfather—Solomon Muto—stole that Super Rare Card of the Duel Monsters world from America—the (*Blue-Eyes White Dragon*)!"
Upon hearing the words (*Blue-Eyes White Dragon*), Hayato whipped his head around to look at the little girl. A considerable amount of time had passed, so Hayato's memories of the plot from his previous life were a bit hazy, but he had a pretty strong impression of the scene where someone "demanded the (Blue-Eyes)".
In that case, this little girl must be—
"My name is Rebecca-desu. I made a special trip from America to Domino City just this morning," the little blonde girl—Rebecca—introduced herself. "The (*Blue-Eyes White Dragon*) was originally an incredibly powerful American card. It's only natural that it should be given to me, America's No. 1."
"Huh? This little girl is America's No. 1?" Before Yugi, Hayato, and the others could say anything, a punk-looking guy standing behind Rebecca in line started to laugh. "If you're going to joke, at least make it believable. Calling yourself America's No. 1..."
Before he could finish, the punk froze. "Y-You can't be!"
He frantically pulled a rolled-up newspaper from his pocket, compared a photo printed on it with Rebecca's face, and then suddenly left the line in a panic, apparently giving up his Duel with Hayato.
Hayato casually picked up the newspaper he had dropped, glanced at it, and handed it to Yugi. Yugi looked at it and said with understanding, "So it is you, Rebecca. The champion of the recently concluded All-American Duel Monsters Championship. I thought you looked familiar."
The newspaper featured an article titled: *The All-American Duel Monsters Championship Concludes Successfully! The 'Bandit' Vanishes, and the Champion is... Her?* It stated that the new All-American Champion's name was Rebecca, and there was a photo of her.
It seemed that Bandit Keith, having been kicked out of Duelist Kingdom for attacking Pegasus, hadn't been able to participate in the tournament. In previous news, you could always see him hunting for prize money from one tournament or another.
"Anyway, hurry up and Duel me, then hand over the (Blue-Eyes)!" Seemingly running out of patience, Rebecca's pretty eyebrows furrowed. Without giving Yugi a chance to refuse, she grabbed his hand and started dragging him outside. Despite being seventeen, Yugi was easily pulled away by the twelve-year-old Rebecca, unable to even get a word out about how Kaiba had already torn the card.
"Hey, Yugi!"
"Let go of Yugi's hand!"
Joey and Téa quickly stood up and chased after them. Tristan also hurriedly put down the milk tea in his hands and followed.
Hayato remained in his seat, watching the drama unfold with great amusement, taking a long, satisfying sip of his milk tea.
Rebecca, full name Rebecca Hawkins. Her grandfather was Professor Hawkins, who had given the (*Blue-Eyes White Dragon*) to Grandpa Muto back in the day. The two were very good friends. However, Rebecca didn't know about this and had misunderstood, thinking Grandpa Muto had stolen her grandfather's card, leading to this confrontation.
However, at the end of her Duel with Yugi, Rebecca would win because Yugi let her, only to embarrassingly discover the truth. Overwhelmed with shame, she would end up falling for Yugi, who was four years older than her.
"What's this about? Why did they run off?" "I had to buy a hundred packs just to get a ticket to duel!"
The commotion in the line brought Hayato back to his senses. Yugi, Joey, and the others were gone, but the dueling station was still set up.
Looking at the remaining seven or eight duelists, Hayato stood up, stretched his limbs, and switched the Deck he was planning to use. "There are still so many of you. Dueling one by one will take too long. I'm in a hurry to watch the show. All of you, come at me at once!"
From a perspective invisible to the duelists, a burly dragon whose entire body was covered in blades let out a roar behind Hayato.
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Author's Note Preview: First, a heads-up: there won't be many Duels in the updates for the next few days.
Next, I plan to write about three main things—first is the current Rebecca storyline, but I don't plan to write about Yugi and Rebecca's Duel in detail. You can consider it a slice-of-life section.
Then third, it's Duke Devlin. Monster Dice Roulette is pretty interesting. When I was in elementary school, I mistakenly thought this game had been made into a real one, just like in the show. Because of that, I learned how to make dice out of paper, and I provided all the dice for the whole class when we played cards. I only found out later that Monster Dice Roulette was never actually made, which is a real shame.
As for the second, it's a relatively major plotline—the Duel Monsters Grand Adventure, the part with the Ultimate Dragon Knight and the (Five-Headed Dragon). I plan to write this part in detail.
After all this, we'll get to the second major arc of Yu-Gi-Oh—Battle City.
(end of chapter)