Chapter Ten: You Have to Shout Aloud for the Card to Answer You

“During this brief duel, I’ve come to realize something,” Hayato said, placing his hand on his deck without drawing a card. He felt he should trust his intuition this time. “The more you try to bypass a problem using anything other than strength, the further you stray from your true goal. Taking shortcuts often leads you on a longer path.”

“Huh?” Yugi didn’t understand why Hayato suddenly said that.

“In other words, what we call a detour is actually a shortcut. That ‘Dark Knight Gaia’ on your field—I’m going to defeat it head-on!”

“Draw! Then summon this monster!”

Hayato drew the top card from his deck, skipping the usual glance at it, and summoned it directly onto the field. The card was—

“Dark Knight Ga—ia!!!”

Hayato’s sudden, powerful shout didn’t scare Jounouchi and the others because what concerned them more was:

“T-There are two Gaias!? Two monsters with 2300 attack points!” exclaimed Jounouchi, though Hayato mistakenly thought Jounouchi was Kaito Kid.

“Hayato actually has such powerful monsters too? This duel’s getting interesting,” said Honda. Hayato’s cautious defense had made the duel somewhat dull, but the appearance of the second Gaia injected new excitement.

As for Anzu, she thought, “Did Hayato just summon that card without even looking at it?! Does he have some kind of clairvoyance?!”

Though Yugi showed slight surprise, he wasn’t completely shocked. Smiling, he looked at Hayato and said, “Two Gaias appearing simultaneously—what a rare occurrence. However,” Yugi paused, pointing to his own Gaia on the field, “both Gaias have 2300 attack points. If you attack me with Gaia, it will be mutual destruction. And by the rules, you’d lose at the end of the turn.”

The early rules of Duel Monsters differed greatly from the later ones. Not only was life points set at 2000, and tribute summoning unnecessary, but the victory conditions were different. One condition was reducing the opponent’s life points to zero; the other was if a player had no monsters on the field at the end of their turn, they would lose.

Correspondingly, monsters could not attack players directly.

Although Hayato had summoned “Dark Knight Gaia,” recklessly attacking would indeed lead to the outcome Yugi described.

“Of course I considered that, Yugi-boy!” Hayato said, drawing another card from his hand and revealing it. “But I still have this card!”

The blue-bordered Spell Card was placed on the field, crackling with lightning—the Divine Sword’s mark engraved upon it.

“Killing Dragon Sword,” its effect boosts a Warrior-type monster’s attack by 700 points and absolutely suppresses Dragon-type monsters!

“Gaia’s attack power has risen again—to a full 3000 points!” Jounouchi exclaimed at the perfect moment, even Yugi’s face showed genuine astonishment.

Compared to the usual 800 or 900 attack points monsters had, “Dark Knight Gaia” with “Killing Dragon Sword” boasting 3000 points was like the difference between heaven and earth.

“‘Dark Knight Gaia,’ attack the opposing ‘Dark Knight Gaia’!” Hayato declared—a phrase that would confuse outsiders—then launched his attack on Yugi’s long-taunting Gaia.

Just as easily as Yugi’s Gaia had destroyed Hayato’s other monsters, Hayato’s Gaia effortlessly defeated Yugi’s. Gaia sent Gaia to the graveyard.

“Then, my turn ends.”

[Hayato: 1600 LP, hand size 6 → 7 → 5]

[Yugi: 1600 LP → 900 LP, hand size 6]

“It’s my turn; draw.” Despite his life points dropping below 1000, Yugi wasn’t panicked. He glanced at the monster he drew but didn’t rush to summon it. Instead, he asked Hayato, “‘Dark Knight Gaia’ combined with ‘Killing Dragon Sword’ is quite a powerful combo.”

“Of course, this is the ace combo of my deck. Among Warriors, there’s none stronger,” Hayato said. At least, up to this point; new cards released later couldn’t compare.

“Looks like you’re taking this duel seriously, Hayato,” Yugi nodded knowingly, speaking calmly. “Then I’ll use my strongest combo too.”

Though his tone was calm, Hayato could see the seriousness in Yugi’s eyes.

“I’m going to summon this monster. Come forth—”

“Summon of the Demon!”

A 2500-attack-point Skeleton Demon appeared on Yugi’s field. Before Hayato could point out that 2500 was still less than 3000, Yugi played another card.

“Then I activate this Spell Card, ‘Force.’ I target your Gaia and my ‘Summon of the Demon.’”

“What!? How do you even have that card?” Hayato’s eyes widened. “You’re unbelievably lucky—you have every comeback card!”

Gaia, which had just reached 3000 attack points, instantly had its attack cut to 1500 due to the effect of “Force.” The drained power surged into Yugi’s Skeleton Demon, raising its attack from 2500 to a staggering 4000 points!

“4000 points!?” Jounouchi, always the one to react dramatically, didn’t disappoint. “That’s five times the attack of my ‘Shadow Flame Ninja’!”

“Then I’ll attack your ‘Dark Knight Gaia’ with my ‘Summon of the Demon,’” Yugi said lightly.

With those words, the drugged-like “Summon of the Demon” administered an over-the-top electric shock to the exhausted Gaia. The 2500 points of damage instantly emptied Hayato’s life points and spilled over.

“Phew, that was close. Almost lost,” Yugi said, gathering the cards on the table and shuffling them back into his deck, humbly addressing Hayato.

“Cut the act, Yugi. I saw that ‘Summon of the Demon’ in your hand the whole time, didn’t I?” Hayato said. Yugi didn’t have the habit of rearranging his hand after drawing, so Hayato knew that both “Summon of the Demon” and “Force” had been in his hand all along.

Technically, Yugi’s comeback wasn’t pure luck; he had always held the means to counter, just hadn’t used them yet.

If Hayato had kept defending, no matter how many strong monsters Yugi summoned, the duel wouldn’t end quickly. But if Hayato used Gaia as bait to attack, Yugi could wipe out his life points with the “Force” and “Summon of the Demon” combo.

One had to admit, Yugi was already showing the seeds of the strategic depth he would develop later—actually playing tactics. How devious.

Yugi just smiled sheepishly, trying to play it cute and let it slide.

After returning Gaia to the deck and storing the cards safely in the metal box, Hayato recalled the strange feeling he had when drawing Gaia earlier. Before he could ponder it further, a strong voice echoed from the room: “I found it!”