Although Noah still had some complaints about his new body, since he had essentially come back from the dead, he didn't have much room to argue.
Out of both familial sentiment and Mokuba's suggestion, Seto Kaiba decided to bring Noah into KaibaCorp afterward. After all, Noah's genius mind could bring considerable benefit to the company.
Previously, because Seto had lost his way and built a murder-themed amusement park to seek revenge on Yugi Muto, KaibaCorp's stock prices had once plummeted; Hopefully, Noah's involvement would help turn that situation around.
More than that, Youmi was more concerned about the upcoming Battle Tower free-for-all that would determine the order for the semifinals.
Because of her interference, the four semifinalists of Duel City were Seto Kaiba, Yugi Muto, Joey Wheeler, and herself. The three Egyptian God Cards—[Obelisk the Tormentor], [Slifer the Sky Dragon], and [The Winged Dragon of Ra]—were held by the first three, respectively.
It seemed a bit embarrassing that, as a traveler from another world, she had never managed to obtain a single God Card.
Sitting in the Duel Airship's lounge, Youmi once again began to organize her Deck.
Although her spare Deck now included both [Mikanko] and [Trickstar] cards, due to Duel City's rules and her own desire to make the duels more interesting, she chose only part of the [Mikanko] set and set aside the [Trickstars].
However, while sorting through her cards, she found two blank-faced ones.
As she picked them up, the card images gradually surfaced.
[Knightmare Corruptor Iblee] and [Crowned by the World Chalice].
"Eh?"
The cards suddenly glowed, and from them emerged a girl dressed in black.
Youmi was more than familiar with her—she had even borrowed her form not long ago.
"Yo, ally~"
[Iblee] crossed her arms as she sat on Youmi's bed, crossing one leg over the other. "You borrowed my power before, didn't you? Now I'm here to collect a little interest. Let me hang around for a while, will you?"
Youmi stared in shock at the suddenly appearing [Iblee], then knocked her left hand against her right and said in realization, "So that's why [Ib] didn't come with you, but [Girsu] and [Avramax] drew their weapons and tried to chop me up… you hitched a ride inside me and came out of the virtual world together!"
A burst of static flickered over [Iblee]'s body, and she transformed into [Crowned by the World Chalice].
Sitting upright with her hands on her knees, she looked embarrassed. "S-sorry about that. It was [Iblee]'s idea. I just wanted to come out and play too, so I went along with it."
"You two pulling something like this… are you sure that's okay?" Youmi pressed her fingers against her temples, feeling a headache coming on. "Or do you have your own way to get back?"
Seeing Youmi's troubled look, [Ib] quickly pulled out a card—[World Legacy - "World Key"]. "It's fine. We still have a means of anchoring to our original world's coordinates. We mostly just wanted to play here for a few days. As for how to explain our appearance to your friends…"
[Iblee] took over [Ib]'s body again and said, "Didn't you already bring a dead guy back as a card spirit? Besides, your friends have already seen me like this in the virtual world. You can explain it however you want. Stop overthinking it. Also—"
[Iblee] pointed at the [Knightmare Corruptor Iblee] card in Youmi's hand.
"If you use my power, you should be able to easily seal off your opponent's Special Summons, right? I'm giving you quite the advantage here, aren't I?"
Saying this, Iblee crossed her legs again.
"That's true, but my ideal kind of duel is actually…"
...
After glossing over the explanation of [Iblee] and [Ib]'s presence to Yugi and the others, who had long accepted that Youmi possessed some sort of mysterious background and power, no one pressed her for answers. They simply avoided the topic, with Seto Kaiba muttering, "This is just a phenomenon that can't be explained yet. It must be science."
"Now then, we'll determine the semifinal order through a battle on the Duel Tower," said Roland, the KaibaCorp staff member in charge, as he directed the four to take their positions and ready their Duel Disks.
"The rules are simple: all four duelists will battle on this tower. The first two to reach the top will be the first-round opponents. The Decks used in this preliminary battle are the same forty-to-sixty-card Decks prepared for the knockout stage. Once the Decks are placed into the Duel Disks and the connectors are inserted, the screens in front of you will display your Deck compositions."
Pushing his sunglasses up, Roland continued, "The duel proceeds in turns. During your turn, you may attack any of the other duelists. All other players are considered opponents, but any card that inflicts damage may only target one chosen duelist. This is how we'll determine the semifinal match order."
"I see. That makes it easy to decide the match order, and losing this duel won't affect much, right?" Téa Gardner, who didn't know much about dueling, spoke up.
She only knew that anyone who had made it this far was a strong duelist, but she didn't grasp the mind games hidden within this preliminary battle.
"Not necessarily," said [Iblee], who had somehow gotten hold of a bucket of popcorn. She walked over to Téa, popped a few kernels into her mouth, and added, "This preliminary duel is packed with psychological warfare."
Duke Devlin also stepped forward. "Just as Miss [Iblee] said, this duel is a mental battle. With careful strategy, a duelist can arrange who faces whom in the semifinals—pair themselves against a preferred opponent, and hand troublesome ones off to someone else."
"And considering that three of the four here hold the so-called 'God Cards,' if someone has built their Deck to counter them in advance, they could swiftly eliminate one opponent, self-destruct immediately afterward, and still ensure their setup for the finals, easily taking another's God Card." [Iblee] smirked and pointed at Youmi.
"That's you, isn't it, Youmi? Don't tell me you're going to make it all the way through without getting a single God Card?"
"You talk too much, [Iblee]..."
Youmi was the only duelist among the four without a God Card.
On the bright side, since the others would likely prioritize obtaining one first and use the advantage of holding two to win the finals, she probably wouldn't be targeted right away.
However, that also meant she was at a disadvantage—if she reached the finals, she'd inevitably face two God Cards at once. They weren't the weak OCG versions either, which gave her a bit of a headache.
"If they're looking for an easy target first..." With one hand pressed against her nose bridge, Youmi looked across at Seto Kaiba. "I guess I'd still rather…"
...
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