He slapped his forehead as something occurred to him. "You're a student of Duel Academy, right? Then letting you see 'that' shouldn't count as breaking the rules."
"Huh?" Yugen froze.
"It's a batch of powerful Rare Card we just finished, the newest release that hasn't gone on sale yet," Mokuba Kaiba said with a smile. "They were originally scheduled to be shipped to Duel Academy."
"This batch is limited, though. Once it reaches the academy, it'll be fiercely contested, and buying even one or two packs would be lucky. Since you're a student there, selling to you first doesn't really violate anything."
Powerful Rare Card scheduled to be sent to Duel Academy. Yugen immediately recalled the opening episodes of GX.
There had been a scene not long after the term began, where an entire naval fleet sailed toward the academy island with fighter jets escorting it overhead. The captain, looking grim, carried a briefcase marked with the Kaiba Corporation logo and insisted it had to be delivered safely at all costs. At the time, Yugen had thought it was absurd, an entire fleet just to guard a box of cards.
Thinking more carefully, it somehow seemed even more absurd. If a real expert decided to target that box, battleships and jets would probably be useless anyway. After all, no matter how strong the cannons were, could they really beat someone at cards?
That box of cards never reached the students, though, because Professor Chronos de Medici intercepted it before classes ended. He bought all of them and gave them to Manjoume, telling him to use that box of Rare Card to put pressure on the failing student Judai Yuki. Manjoume's famous VWXYZ LV Series came from there.
At that thought, Yugen's eyes lit up.
Manjoume's VWXYZ LV Series was actually very strong in this environment. In the anime, he showed many powerful support cards that were never printed, like the Continuous Spell "Different Dimension Hangar," which looked like a prototype of the later "Union Hangar" that appeared in the real card game more than ten years later. Even if the GX-only VWXYZ wasn't as strong as the fully supported real version, it was still outstanding for this era.
As for what Manjoume would do if his Deck got intercepted, that was not Yugen's problem. This LV Series was rare, but probably not on the level of a signature character card. In the anime, when Manjoume drifted to Duel Academy North Campus, his original Deck had been ruined in a shipwreck, forcing him to scrape together a temporary deck at the northern campus.
So in theory, the VWXYZ Professor Chronos de Medici gave him should have been scrapped. He indeed stopped using that LV Series for a while, but later in the story he suddenly pulled it out again. Either he hadn't taken that deck with him when he left the academy, or he later used his family's money to buy a new one.
"I'll let you know when the cards arrive in a couple of days," Mokuba Kaiba said with a grin.
"Thanks."
"No problem at all," Mokuba Kaiba replied cheerfully. "More importantly, you should worry about the competition coming up. If you can get stronger quickly, my brother will probably be happy."
"If you get taken out in just a few moves, he might get really angry," he added with a laugh.
Yugen fell silent.
Just hearing that made the pressure return. Technically, he wasn't required to win the match, but if he lost badly, the president would almost certainly be displeased.
"Oh, right, the head of the research group also has some questions for you."
"Research group?"
"Yeah, the team responsible for studying Ruins," Mokuba Kaiba explained. "The development of Black Luster Soldier has been stuck at a bottleneck in academic circles for a long time, and the leader thinks this is a big opportunity."
"Maybe you'll become the first Duelist to help develop a new power for Black Luster Soldier."
After Mokuba Kaiba finished the questioning and stepped back, a large crowd of experts inside the Ruins surged forward at once. Their eagerness startled Yugen, and for a moment the pressure made him feel like they were about to shove him into a corner. He nearly called Silent Magician out for protection on instinct.
Fortunately, although they looked hungry for answers, no one touched him. Instead, they all started talking at once, asking about what had happened. Their voices overlapped as they pressed him for details.
So Yugen gave a simple account of how he had only touched a stone slab and was pulled into the Spirit World. He described what he saw there, what he heard about the Dark God planning to devour the Spirit World, and then his encounter with Bandit Keith and the Duel that followed. He kept it straightforward and avoided unnecessary details.
Thinking back on it, he realized something similar had happened during the Orichalcos Arc. Back then, Yugi Muto and Atem had entered the Spirit World together, and Dark Magician Girl had asked them to defeat the Orichalcos-aligned Dark God to save the Spirit World. The memory surfaced naturally as he spoke.
The experts were not especially interested in the duel with Keith. Instead, they repeatedly asked detailed questions about the moment when Black Luster Soldier appeared. Their focus was clear and almost obsessive.
"There is one more very important matter," said the group leader with a slightly receding hairline. Dark circles hung under his eyes, the result of many sleepless nights, as he continued in a steady voice. "Did you experience 'Spirit Vision'?"
Yugen froze for a moment. "What is that?"
Several members of the research team exchanged puzzled looks. The leader then seemed to realize something and nodded. "Right, you are only scheduled to enroll this year. Once you enter Duel Academy, this will be covered in class."
He continued calmly. "To put it simply, it is a phenomenon that may appear when certain Duelist achieve a very high level of resonance with a Spirit. Generally, we believe people with strong 'Spirit affinity' are more likely to experience Spirit Vision, but there are confirmed cases without that talent as well."
"So what exactly is it?" Yugen asked again.
"It is a possibility revealed by a Spirit," the leader said, gesturing with both hands. "It cannot be defined precisely. Some people see forms of Duel Monsters from what seems like ancient eras, while others see specific scenes or objects in their minds."
He paused, then went on. "To this day, many instances of Spirit Vision remain unsolved. However, there are also many cases where research teams used the images seen through a Duelist's Spirit Vision to conduct studies, eventually creating new Duel Monsters forms or producing related Spell and Trap Cards based on those scenes and objects."
Yugen felt like he understood. In other words, it was inspiration for making cards.
How to design cards, what new forms monsters might evolve into, and what kinds of support cards would exist all followed that logic. If there was a reference pointing in a clear direction, research progress could be greatly accelerated.
With that understanding, a bold idea formed in Yugen's mind. He clearly had not seen any Spirit Vision just now, but if all the research group wanted was guidance on card creation, then there was room to maneuver.
"Oh, then I think I did see something," Yugen said, frowning as if trying hard to remember.
The entire research team lit up at once. This was the first time anyone had resonated with the Ruins in connection with Black Luster Soldier, and if they could gain clues from a Spirit Vision, they might finally break through a bottleneck that had lasted for years.
The leader hurriedly raised a hand to stop the excited members behind him and took a careful breath. "What did you see? Even vague fragments are fine. Spirit Vision is usually incomplete, and any detail helps."
"I remember seeing two warriors," Yugen said slowly. "They looked a bit like Black Luster Soldier, but in a younger form. From the sword energy they released when they swung, one should be Light attribute and the other Dark attribute."
The experts fell silent. Then excitement spread across their faces.