Bastion POV
Click. Click. Click.
The repetitive tapping of my pen echoed through the silent room, a mechanical rhythm that had become the soundtrack of my week. No… it wasn't just this week. It had been many sleepless nights since that duel.
Kai Yuri.
Even now, just thinking of that name sends a ripple of frustration through my chest—a strange and unfamiliar emotion for someone like me. I'm not the type to lose composure, not the type to fear another duelist. But this wasn't fear.
It was… uncertainty. The fear of every duelist.
Ever since my crushing defeat, my mind had been consumed by one question: how do you beat someone like Kai Yuri?
I'd always believed every duel had a formula—an equation that, when solved correctly, leads to victory. That was my edge, my pride. Jaden Yuki, for example—his deck is built on chaos, fusions, and a reckless, intuitive playstyle. But even that could be mapped, categorized, solved. He might be reckless, but he's also predictable. Cursed Seal of the Forbidden Spell—that was the equation I developed for him. Shut down his Fusion, and he crumbles.
Alexis Rhodes? Her deck was harder to pin down. A cocktail of Rituals, Fusions, and even Normal Monsters. It's unorthodox, wild even… but underneath the surface, it's emotional. She doesn't mind taking damage if it means dealing it back. A duel with her is a duel of wills. So the equation is simple: break her before she breaks you. Fast, overwhelming offense. Solid defense. Keep your resources intact. A challenge, yes, but solvable.
Syrus Truesdale? The weakest link among them. His Machine deck has potential, sure—it can scale quickly, buffing attack points faster than you'd expect—but the duelist behind it is too hesitant, too nervous. A strong deck in the hands of someone afraid to use it properly becomes fragile. Not that much trouble if I am being honest.
But then there's Kai.
And the numbers just don't make sense.
A Ritual deck unlike anything I've seen. Djinn monsters that lock you out of special summons. Nekroz cards that seem to have an answer to everything—negation, banishment, recursion. And then that card—Quintet Magician.4500 attack and defense. A full board wipe on summon. Possibly more effects we didn't even get to see before the duel against Chancellor Sheppard and Dr. Crowler was over.
He doesn't just win.
He demolishes and makes you lose all will to duel him.
And he does it in less than three turns.
Click.
I stared at my notes. Dozens of pages, scrawled with data, probability matrices, counter-strategies, and deck archetype breakdowns. But every time I reached the same conclusion:
He is unbeatable.
At least, with what little we've seen. Maybe if I had access to his full deck list, I could begin to decipher a counterplay. But as of now, the most terrifying part isn't the power of his deck—it's the unknown. What more cards can he have in his deck?
I turned toward the Ra Yellow dorm's shared terminal, logging into the KaibaCorp database. Every registered duel disk automatically logs cards used in official matches. Every duelist deck has a profile, a record, a trace.
Surely, his would be there.
I typed in the request. Searched through the duel logs. Scrolled to the last registered match. And then—
"The card you are searching for does not exist."
What?
I blinked.
I double-checked the spelling. Nekroz of Brionac. Cursed Seal. Djinn Releaser. Quintet Magician.
Again—
"The card you are searching for does not exist."
I stared at the screen, heart rate beginning to pick up—a rare thing for someone like me.
Could it be a glitch? I rebooted the terminal, reconnected to the KaibaNet servers, and ran diagnostics. Everything checked out.
Nothing.
His cards… don't exist in the system.
I leaned back in my chair. The dull hum of the computer fan felt suddenly much louder, a static whisper pressing against my skull.
They weren't counterfeit. I saw them in the duel. KaibaCorp's upgraded Duel Disk systems would instantly flag and disable fake cards. So what the hell was this?
Was he using cards that haven't been released? Custom prototypes? Hidden archives?
No, in some rare cases, the KaibaCorp's tend to not include extremely rare cards. For example, you can't search Seto Kaiba deck or Yugi Muto deck due to how rare it is. It was nothing weird.
I stood up and paced. My thoughts spun in chaotic spirals—an unsettling thing for someone who prides himself on logical clarity.
Kai Yuri… no, The Destroyer. That's what they've started calling him. And he fits the name. Every duel he enters ends in absolute ruin. Like a mathematical black hole—an equation with no solution so far.
If no one stops him, he won't just become the number one student at Duel Academy—he already is.
There's only one person left who might stand a chance.
Zane Truesdale.
The King of the School.
The Kaiser himself.
If anyone can put this monster to the test, it's Zane. His Cyber Dragon deck is the pinnacle of evolved Machine strategies—precision, power, and no wasted moves. A duel between them would be one of the most tactical masterpiece, this academy may see.
I have to see it.
I have to make it happen.
Because if there's any hope of understanding how to beat Kai Yuri, I need to observe someone who can survive past Turn Three. And Zane, based on what I have heard about him, is the only one who can survive more than 3 turns and maybe even beat him.
But how will I make them duel each other…? There must be a way. The chances of me meeting Zane are near zero, so it's pointless trying this way. I guess I should just ask Kai itself directly. If I can convince him, then everything will be perfect.
Until then…
Click. Click. Click.
I sit back down and start the cycle again. There has to be an answer. There must be.
Even if I have to redefine everything I know about dueling—I will solve the equation.
Even if it's an equation that doesn't exist, I will create it. Tomorrow the first thing I will do is talk to him about challenging Zane and if possible ask to see his deck.
This was the only way.