"Duel!"
Sakaki Yuuya: 4000 LP
Yuki Judai: 4000 LP
"I'm going first again—draw!"
Drawing his card, Yuu glanced at his starting hand. Without hesitation, he selected three cards out of the six. Two of them were inserted into the Spell/Trap zones on his Duel Disk, while the remaining one was placed in the Monster Zone for a summon.
"I summon Elemental HERO Sparkman in Attack Position. Then I set two cards face-down. Turn end."
This time, Yuu didn't set all his cards like in the previous duel. However, even though Sparkman was summoned face-up in attack mode, the two face-down cards that followed still sent chills down the spines of the onlookers—after all, they had seen what happened last time!
But with this setup, Judai probably wouldn't recklessly charge in during his turn, right?
Well, as it turned out, Judai's move was—
"From my hand, I activate the Spell Card Polymerization! I fuse Elemental HERO Burstinatrix and Elemental HERO Avian in my hand!"
Oh wow—starting with the iconic married couple and a Fusion Spell right off the bat! Without any hesitation, he went straight for a Fusion Summon.
"Come forth—my favorite skyscraper-flame hero! I Fusion Summon Elemental HERO Flame Wingman!"
Previously, Yuu ignored summoning conditions to Special Summon Shining Flame Wingman. Now, Judai directly uses Polymerization from his hand to Fusion Summon the base form, Flame Wingman.
"Alright! Entering Battle Phase! Flame Wingman, attack Sparkman on Yuuya's field—Flame Shot!"
As Flame Wingman gently flapped his wings and descended onto his field, Judai immediately entered his Battle Phase. His target: the "Fantastic Four" big brother—Yuu's Attack Position Sparkman.
"…He ignored my face-downs and launched an attack."
Yuu murmured in surprise. Though his set cards wouldn't simply vanish just because Judai didn't attack, Judai's decision to boldly enter the Battle Phase without hesitation still made both the spectators and Yuu himself feel this guy was way too reckless! He was practically the living embodiment of "recklessness"!
"Hehe, it's not like I ignored your face-downs when I attacked. It's because I've already got a card in my hand that can destroy your back row!"
Judai grinned proudly. Seeing Flame Wingman take to the sky, just about to launch an attack at Sparkman, he quickly pulled out one of his remaining three hand cards and activated it right before the attack declaration:
"Quick-Play Spell—Mystical Space Typhoon! I'll destroy the set card by your left foot, Yuuya!"
Mystical Space Typhoon—a simple card for destroying Spell/Trap cards. Though it's just a one-for-one because it's a Quick-Play Spell, any duelist with even a basic understanding of Duel Monsters usually includes at least one copy in their deck.
Under Judai's eager gaze, the selected set card flipped open, revealing a trap card with a magenta border. The card image depicted an orange energy wave being blocked by a blue-and-white semi-circular shield.
"Lucky! I managed to destroy the powerful trap card, Mirror Force!"
The moment he saw the card art, Judai recognized it. Knowing full well how powerful it was, he puffed up his chest proudly.
See that? A one-for-one trade and I hit your strongest trap—Mirror Force! And you still dare to say I only have luck and no skill? Hmph! ╭(╯^╰)╮
While Judai was proudly sticking up his nose in satisfaction, in the audience, duelists with real skill—like Asuka Tenjoin and Daichi Misawa—noticed something strange:
Why didn't Yuuya activate it in a chain? After all, this is the attack declaration timing—Mirror Force could've been activated in response, destroying Judai's Flame Wingman before being destroyed by Mystical Space Typhoon.
Back on the field, seeing Mirror Force sent to the Graveyard, Judai, believing he had no more threats to worry about, immediately commanded Flame Wingman to release the flames it had been charging.
"BOOM—!"
The blaze ignited, and the moment it made contact, it was like a powder keg had exploded. A loud blast and a cloud of gray smoke completely overwhelmed everyone's hearing and vision.
"At this moment, Flame Wingman's effect activates! When it destroys a monster by battle and sends it to the Graveyard, it inflicts damage to its controller equal to that monster's original ATK!"
Judai shouted with a confident smile toward the cloud of smoke. But instead of hearing the life point deduction sound effect, what responded to him was—
—a beam of fiery light slicing through the smoke with a sharp tearing sound, striking straight at the Flame Wingman that had just landed on his field!
"Bang!"
Flame Wingman—destroyed!
"N-NANI?!"
Judai stood there in shock, watching as Flame Wingman was sent to the Graveyard. Was it another face-down card?
As the smoke gradually cleared, everyone could finally see Yuu's field. To his right, a magenta-colored Trap Card stood upright. The card artwork depicted an orange energy wave being blocked by a blue-and-white semi-circular shield.
"Mirror Force?! But I already destroyed it and sent it to the Graveyard! How is it back on the field? Don't tell me—you set two Mirror Force cards?!"
Two Mirror Force set cards? That would be the only logical explanation. Otherwise, how could they explain what was seen being destroyed by the Mystical Space Typhoon? Everyone had personally seen Mirror Force sent to the Graveyard.
"Two cards? No, I only set one."
"Then…"
"What you destroyed wasn't Mirror Force—it was this card."
As he spoke, Yuu reached into his Graveyard and retrieved the card that had been destroyed by the Mystical Space Typhoon. He flipped it to show its true identity: the "Mirror Force" that had been destroyed.
"This… this isn't Mirror Force at all! It's a completely different Trap Card!"
Judai looked closely at the card Yuu displayed. It showed a purple goblin with a single horn, sticking out its tongue while holding a yellow slip of paper that read 「スカ」 vertically.
"This is the Trap Card 'Fake Trap'. As the name implies, when one of my other Trap Cards is destroyed by a monster, Spell, or Trap effect controlled by the opponent, I can activate this card to take the destruction in its place."
"Of course, the other Trap Card that was about to be destroyed has to be revealed to the opponent during this card's resolution, and what you saw—the Mirror Force projection—was just a visual representation of that in actual duel practice."
Judai & the crowd: "..."
Fake Trap… just like its name, it tricked everyone! They all thought the destroyed card was a real Mirror Force, or that Yuu had set two copies. But in reality, it was fake. It was a decoy! And even though it revealed which card would have been destroyed, it still made you believe you'd already gotten rid of the threat, so you dropped your guard and pushed forward.