The Ghouls' Exodia Duel
'So this is Battle City...?'
After school let out, I was walking through the city with Yugi and the others, having entered the Battle City tournament together.
That was when we ran into Mai Valentine and the Rare Hunters—one who used dinosaurs and another with the dark dragon.
They were talking about beating Yugi...
Mai Valentine. She really was stunning enough to make me understand why she’d been one of the most popular female characters in Duel Monsters. I made a firm promise to myself that I would make her mine later.
The three generic male Rare Hunters left first. Mai was the last to go. She took one look at me and asked who I was. When Yugi told her I was a transfer student who had just arrived today and that I was also a Battle City participant, she made a small sound of interest, gave me an appraising look, and said we’d meet again in the finals before walking off.
Just then, a woman’s voice echoed from somewhere above us. A massive airship passed overhead, its giant monitor lighting up.
Duelists, welcome to Battle City!
I will now explain the rules of this tournament!
Every participant gathered in this city is a duelist of level 5 or higher, officially recognized by KaibaCorp!
The Duel Disks you are all carrying are the proof! The stage for this entire competition is Domino City itself! No matter where a duel begins within these streets, the whole city becomes the battlefield!
Each duelist will use the forty cards they brought with them. The loser of any duel must surrender one rare card to the winner!
Those who continue winning will be able to strengthen their cards far beyond their current power!
“A rare card rule, huh...”
“Forcing participants to bet the cards they cherish most… that’s a really cold-blooded rule.”
“It won’t forgive even a single mistake…!”
“This tournament is going to be full of insanely fierce duels, isn’t it?”
According to our reports, there are one hundred and twenty-six participants in total… However, only a maximum of eight may enter the finals!
The location where those finals will be held is… hidden somewhere within this very city!
Hehe… I am also entering this tournament under the exact same conditions as the rest of you. That means even I, the organizer, do not know where the finals will take place.
Once Kaiba’s explanation ended, I turned to Yugi.
“Maximum of eight, huh… We’ll have to watch our backs.”
“Yeah… Huh? Joey?”
Yugi had been about to say something to me when he spotted Joey suddenly sprinting off somewhere. He shouted “After him!” so I followed right behind.
“Let’s see… My first prey is…”
“There you are!”
We caught up just in time to see Joey yelling at some man.
“Joey!”
“Huh? Yugi! And you are…?”
What followed was the story of how the guy had used a copied Exodia deck to defeat Joey and steal his Red-Eyes Black Dragon. Atem was about to appear and get the card back for him, but I stopped him.
“Stay out of this, Yugi. I’ll get it back for him.”
“Huh? Who the hell are you?”
One of the Rare Hunters asked who I was.
When I simply told him I was a transfer student who had become friends with Yugi today, he sneered that they had no use for small fry like me and started ignoring me completely.
Joey looked ready to explode, but I held him back. I pulled out the magic card Lightning I had on me. The Rare Hunter’s eyes widened.
“That’s…!”
“What? You’ve got a rare card too?”
“I’m a participant as well. And since my friend is in trouble, I should step in first.”
Joey gave me a genuinely moved look.
I put the card away again. The Rare Hunter immediately switched targets to me and challenged me to a duel.
“Fine… fine… If I win, you’re handing over that Lightning card.”
“Just start already. I’ll teach you exactly who the small fry is.”
“You arrogant little—! Fine! Duel start!”
The Rare Hunter activated his Duel Disk. The surrounding devices flew out and locked into position. I copied what he did and activated mine as well.
The crowd around us began gathering the moment they saw a duel starting.
And somewhere else, two people were watching my duel through a satellite feed…
“That’s a new face… Who is he? Is he dueling in Yugi’s place?”
Kaiba had noticed an unfamiliar man beginning a duel and started observing my first match with interest.
My deck was a Summoned Beast deck.
“I’ll start things off.”
I drew one card and added it to my hand.
The cards I held now were Aleister the Summoner, two copies of Wonder Wand, one Gemini Elf, and two copies of Power of the Guardian.
“First, I summon Gemini Elf in attack position!”
“Gemini Elf? Not exactly a rare card, is it?”
The Rare Hunter looked at me with clear disappointment after I summoned Gemini Elf.
I activated Wonder Wand and sent Gemini Elf to the graveyard.
“I activate Wonder Wand, sending Gemini Elf to the graveyard. Then I draw two cards.”
I drew two more cards: one Flame Charmer Hiita and one Chain Destruction.
“I set one card and end my turn.”
When my turn ended, the Rare Hunter gave an unpleasant laugh, drew a card, and announced it was his turn.
“Hehehe… My turn. Draw! I activate Graceful Charity. I draw three cards and discard two. Then I summon a monster in face-down defense position and end my turn.”
He ended his turn immediately. Back to me.
“Draw…”
The card I drew was Graceful Charity.
“I also activate Graceful Charity from my hand. I draw three cards and discard two.”
After activating it, the two cards I drew were Invocation, Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring, and Card Destruction.
Graceful Charity… that card is banned in the real world. But this is the Yu-Gi-Oh world, so it’s still legal—like how Manjoume used it in GX.
My current hand was Aleister the Summoner, Wonder Wand, two Power of the Guardian, Card Destruction, Flame Charmer Hiita, and Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring.
I sent Hiita and one Power of the Guardian to the graveyard.
“I summon Aleister the Summoner in attack position!”
“Aleister the Summoner? What the hell is that?”
The Rare Hunter had never seen the card before and asked me what Aleister was.
Since I had already summoned him, I had to use his effect.
“When Aleister the Summoner is normal summoned or flipped, I can add one ‘Invocation’ spell from my deck to my hand.”
I added Invocation to my hand while explaining.
Then I immediately activated Wonder Wand on Aleister the Summoner, sending him to the graveyard and drawing two more cards.
The cards I drew were another Aleister the Summoner and Eria the Water Charmer. Then I activated Invocation.
“I activate Invocation. I fuse monsters from my hand as fusion materials to summon one fusion monster. When fusion summoning a ‘Summoned Beast’ fusion monster, I can also banish monsters from my field, my graveyard, or my opponent’s graveyard as material.”
“What?”
“By banishing Flame Charmer Hiita and Aleister the Summoner from my graveyard, I special summon the fusion monster Summoned Beast Purgatrio!”
Fiend / Fusion / Effect
"Aleister the Summoner" + 1 FIRE monster
①: This card’s ATK increases by 200 for each card your opponent controls.
②: This card can attack every monster your opponent controls once each. If it attacks a Defense Position monster, inflict piercing battle damage.
“Wh-what the hell is that monster?!”
“I can feel… an incredible power coming from that monster…”
Both Joey and Atem seemed to sense something the moment I summoned it.
The Rare Hunter was clearly shaken by the unfamiliar card at first, but he quickly regained his composure and glared at me again.
“According to Battle City rules, a fusion summoned monster cannot attack on the same turn it is summoned. I activate Invocation from my graveyard to return the banished Aleister to my hand, then return Invocation to the deck. I end my turn. Your move!”
When I ended my turn, the Rare Hunter glared at me and drew a card.
He activated Graceful Charity again, drawing three cards and discarding two.
Hehehe… Keep wasting your time attacking my face-down monsters like an idiot… I’ll use that time to gather all the Exodia pieces. You’ll get hit in the back of the head before you even realize what’s happening.
Just one more piece… Once I have all five, I win. All that’s left is the Sealed Left Arm…
The Rare Hunter set another monster in defense position and ended his turn.
Hehehe… These eyes of mine have special lenses made with invisible ink. I can see the top card of my deck… My deck contains three copies of each Exodia piece. The top card right now is the Sealed Left Arm!
When my turn came around again, Joey tried to stop me.
“Hey! Yugi’s friend! You shouldn’t duel these guys! You really shouldn’t duel the Rare Hunters!”
I answered him calmly.
“Don’t worry. I already know his strategy. He’s trying to summon Exodia.”
“What? How did you—?”
The moment I drew my card, the Rare Hunter’s eyes widened in shock and he started laughing.
“Too bad for you… I already have four Exodia pieces in my hand! You have no chance of winning!”
“Is that so?”
“What?!”
The card I had drawn was the Wind Charmer.
I activated a spell card.
“I equip Power of the Guardian to Summoned Beast Purgatrio. Then I set one monster and activate Card Destruction!”
“C-Card Destruction?!”
When Card Destruction resolved, both of us had to discard our entire hands and draw the same number of cards.
I sent Ash Blossom, Eria, the Wind Charmer, and Aleister to the graveyard, then drew.
The Rare Hunter, panicking, discarded his entire hand—including all his Exodia pieces—and drew new cards equal to what he had discarded.
What he drew was one Wonder Wand, one Invocation, one Earth Charmer, and one Wind Charmer.
I activated Invocation once again. This time I banished the Earth Charmer from my graveyard to fusion summon Summoned Beast Megaranica.
Seeing yet another giant monster appear, Atem, Joey, and even the Rare Hunter were stunned into silence.
Since fusion monsters can’t attack during the turn they are summoned under these rules, I ended my turn.
The Rare Hunter drew a card with a trembling hand. It was the Sealed Right Arm of Exodia.
His current hand consisted of two copies of the Sealed Exodia torso, two Sealed Left Arms, one Sealed Left Leg, and one Graceful Charity.
Since I had two monsters on the field, he placed one of the Exodia pieces as a wall, then activated Graceful Charity again—drawing three and discarding two.
But it was all pointless struggling.
“This is my last turn, isn’t it? Draw.”
After drawing, I gave the attack order to Summoned Beast Purgatrio.
“Purgatrio! Attack!”
Purgatrio, now equipped with Power of the Guardian, slammed into the Rare Hunter’s face-down monster. Its attack rose by five hundred to three thousand four hundred. It destroyed the first set monster.
BOOM!!!
“Uwaaaaaagh!!!”
“Summoned Beast Purgatrio’s attack increases by two hundred for each card on the opponent’s field! It can attack every monster the opponent controls once each, and it inflicts piercing damage to defense position monsters!”
“What?!”
The first monster destroyed was the Aztec Statue with two thousand defense, which inflicted twelve hundred points of piercing damage. The next face-down was the Gear Golem of the Moving Fortress, which took thirteen hundred piercing damage.
When the final face-down monster was destroyed, the Rare Hunter was blasted backward and collapsed. He had lost the duel.