"Kira! Kira! Major breakthrough!"
The next day, as Kira walked into the lab after classes, Misawa came charging up to him, face flushed, gasping for breath. He staggered to a stop in front of Kira, hands on knees, wheezing so hard he couldn't speak.
"Don't rush—calm down and talk," Kira said. "You've made progress?"
Since the latter half of last semester, Misawa had fallen hopelessly in love with research.
This urge to probe the essence of the card world, to explore hidden possibilities in the future—seemed to eclipse even his addiction to dueling. He'd barely played at all in the latter half; you couldn't find him at the duel arena. As soon as class ended, he was buried in the lab day and night. Research was pretty much all he lived for.
Even Kira sometimes felt he'd found his true calling. Compared to dueling, the straight-A Misawa's talent for R&D was on a different level.
Especially after a full semester of exploration and study, Misawa's research-learning ability had skyrocketed. If Kira pointed him in the right direction, the team he led worked far more efficiently than Kira could on his own.
And this time, Kira had handed him a heavyweight project:
Field Spell – The Seal of Orichalcos
Only one "The Seal of Orichalcos" can be activated per Duel. When this card is activated, destroy all Special Summoned monsters you control. You cannot Special Summon from the Extra Deck. All monsters you control gain 500 ATK.
While you control 2 or more Attack Position monsters, your opponent cannot attack the monster with the lowest ATK.
Once per turn, this card cannot be destroyed by card effects.
That's right—this was the nerfed version of The Seal of Orichalcos, which, upon being printed as a real card, was localized as the Orichalcum Barrier.
What Kira gave Misawa was the research into the Orichalcos series he'd obtained from the Arbiter.
Of course, compared to the anime original, the printed Seal was neutered across the board. But the value of this card's development lay in severing the link between the Seal and the Serpent God itself, turning it into a card that could be used normally—and doing so without the forced "loser's soul gets sucked out" effect that compelled a fight to the death.
Naturally, with the link cut, the Seal no longer contained that immense supernatural power, and activating it no longer granted any boost in Destiny Power. In that sense, compared to the anime version, it had lost its greatest function.
But that sacrifice was only sensible. The Destiny Power from the Seal was borrowed from the Serpent God. If you sever the connection, you can't just mooch its power.
Even so, the progress was exciting.
First, it meant The Seal of Orichalcos had transformed from a forbidden card into something usable. And with the Seal as a foundation, the other cards obtained from the Arbiter that needed the Seal as a core also had a place to shine.
For example, the strongest—Orichalcos's Second and Third Seals.
As Kira discovered during research, things like soul absorption, Destiny Power amplification, and the link to the Serpent God were all written into the deepest layer—the First Seal of Orichalcos.
The Second and Third Seals both say: "This card's name is treated as 'The Seal of Orichalcos', and it gains all effects of 'The Seal of Orichalcos' that was sent to the GY as this card's activation cost."
In other words, using their real-card First Seal as the cost, you could still activate the Second and Third Seals. It's just that the Second and Third Seals activated this way would only inherit the weakened effects of the printed version, not the Arbiter's anime-original power.
But it was more than enough to restore the Orichalcos deck to normal operation.
"And you mentioned those other cards had rework potential—you were right about that too."
Misawa grew more and more excited, pulling up his research on his terminal to show Kira.
"I even think that Divine Serpent Geh might—"
"Let's put that on hold."
Kira hurriedly cut him off.
"That one's a god. Let's study something else first—don't go poking the Serpent God."
In the anime, Divine Serpent Geh was legitimately a Divine attribute, Divine-Beast Type. While Kira knew it could theoretically be printed in nerfed form, KaibaCorp's and the Industrial Illusions's blood-and-tears history with the three Egyptian Gods proved it: printing god replicas in this world is too dangerous.
A careless designer invites divine punishment. One day you're walking down the street and—pow—random heavenly thunder leaves you a vegetable.
So while he had ideas for the Serpent God, Kira decided to shelve it. If the project ever kicked off, he'd contact Franz.
Franz, after all, was their chief designer; he'd studied the God Cards for years and, presumably, was a pro at keeping himself alive. Handing it to him would be reassuring on many fronts.
Kira sat down at his spot in the lab. He turned—and saw the newly joined Vampire Fraulein already standing by in spirit form, looking at him with astonished admiration.
"What is it?"
"N-no, nothing. It's just…"
She hesitated.
"…do you even make your own cards?"
Her eyes couldn't hide their shock and awe.
Kira realized what she meant.
To a spirit like her, who had lived long in the Spirit World and never visited the Duelist Dimension, card-making must be something unimaginable, right?
He smiled. "Some of them."
"And that… the scientist and the catapult turtle…"
Naturally, she thought of the combo he'd used to spectacularly obliterate Zure.
When she'd seen that beyond-reason combination, she had been stunned. Now, learning that he might have printed it himself, her admiration for her new master turned to near-deification.
That's practically godlike, isn't it!?
"That one's not mine," Kira smiled, a touch mysterious. "That's the wisdom of our predecessors."
The famous Magical Scientist + Catapult Turtle—an OTK built from just two cards. With luck, it even FTKs—First Turn Kill—finishing before the opponent ever gets a turn. For a time, it was called "the strongest deck in Yu-Gi-Oh! history."
Kira always said it: he only stood on the shoulders of giants and thus saw farther. He never thought he was anything special, or some genius duelist.
Fraulein only blinked, seemingly not getting it.
"Just the Master's routine modesty. Don't mind it."
Jinzo appeared behind her again.
"There's only one thing you need to remember."
She tilted her head, puzzled.
"Of everyone you will ever meet, Master is the most unprecedented, never-before-seen, never-to-be-surpassed—greatest genius duelist."
Jinzo said it in earnest.
Fraulein fell silent, then looked again at Kira, already bent over his desk and working intently. The sunset glow brushed the boy's profile, and the vampire girl found herself lost for a moment.
Caius drifted out again, silently, and stopped beside Jinzo.
Jinzo frowned. "Now what?"
Almost every time Caius showed up with him, it was to pick a fight.
But not this time.
"Nothing," Caius said, also watching Kira. He pondered a moment, then added to Jinzo:
"Just this once… I think you're right."
PS: Bonus chapter at 300 PS