A certain city, K District.
Here stood the city's largest underground dueling club. The hall was thick with smoke and dazzling lights. Gamblers shouted hoarsely, and scantily-clad bunny girls wove through the crowd—the place was buzzing with activity.
A burly man stood guard at the door, yawning listlessly, his gaze lazily following the swinging hips of a bunny girl walking by.
Until a soft cough interrupted him.
The man blinked and turned his head, only to see that a new guest had appeared at the door without him noticing.
This guest was dressed rather oddly. He wore a loose white robe and a half-curved, dark glass mask that hid his face behind its decorative surface, making his appearance impossible to discern.
But the guard wasn't surprised. Out of every ten people who came here, seven or eight liked to wear masks to hide their identity—including duelists.
He quickly noticed the dueling disk on this person's arm and immediately straightened up, putting on a fawning smile. "Sir, you're here to gamble with cards, right? This way, please."
The person in white, masked, was Kira. He had decided to follow the advice of that Orichalcos cultist after all.
He coughed politely and said, "Thank you, but that's not necessary. I'm not here to play."
He cleared his throat and said seriously:
"I'm here to challenge the club."
He gave this weirdo a once-over, but didn't bother to report anything—he just snorted and muttered, "Nutjob."
"Well, I tried to resolve things peacefully," Kira shrugged, raising his arm and unfolding his duel disk.
Black energy suddenly burst out in the hall. Another one of the club's bouncers had his life points reduced to zero and was sent flying by the impact of real damage, rolling several times before crashing into a corner, unmoving.
The hall immediately descended into chaos. The gamblers hastily stopped, and the bunny girls screamed, covering their mouths as they saw the fate of the unlucky bouncer.
Things escalated quickly, and soon the club's boss arrived in person. He was a burly man with a round belly and a gold chain, with lackeys lighting his cigar as he entered—an intimidating presence.
"I'm Kurozaki, the boss here."
He clamped his cigar between his lips, sauntered over to Kira, and looked him up and down.
"Good, very good. It's been a long time since anyone dared to make trouble on my turf. What's your name, punk?"
"My name? You can call me Revolver."
"Revolver...? Never heard that name in the underground. Are you new?" Kurozaki muttered. "What club are you from, pink?"
He was, after all, the local kingpin, and couldn't believe that a challenger came with no backing. Surely someone powerful was behind him.
"A club?" Kira frowned, thinking, The rules of the underground are really a hassle. He casually answered, "It's called the Knights of Hanoi."
"Hanoi?" Kurozaki was confused. He didn't recall hearing that name either.
"Yeah, a new organization. Right now, it's just me." Kira glanced at the crowd. "But don't worry, I'll be recruiting soon."
Kurozaki was taken aback, then burst out laughing.
So this was just a naive upstart.
He must've recently come into some dark power, thought he'd discovered a new world, and now felt invincible, eager to make a name for himself.
But the fact that he'd taken out so many of Kurozaki's henchmen meant he wasn't completely useless.
Kurozaki threw his cigar to the ground and extended a hand to the side.
A lackey hurried to hand him a new cigar, but was promptly kicked over by Kurozaki.
"I said, give me a duel disk! The cards!"
The lackey, bruised and battered, scrambled to get a duel disk from a companion and handed it to the boss.
Kurozaki put on the duel disk and grinned at Kira.
"Looks like you won't know your place unless I teach you. I won't take your life, though. Let me think... Alright, here's the deal." Discover more novels at novel·fire.net
He narrowed his eyes and licked his lips.
"The loser must unconditionally obey any request made by the winner. Got it?"
"Agreed," Kira replied eagerly. That was his plan all along.
The man's life was of no use to him—he needed Kurozaki's cooperation for his plan to work.
"No more words. Let's do this!"
"I'll go first. Draw." Kira said, "I activate the Quick-Play Spell 'Hand Destruction.' Both players discard two cards, then each draws two."
Kurozaki snorted, glanced at his hand, and picked two cards to discard.
"Next, I Normal Summon this card."
Kira slapped down a monster card.
"Amazoness Swords Woman, in Attack Position!"
A wild-looking female warrior leapt onto the field, wielding a long blade, with fiery red hair, dark skin, and rippling muscles.
[Amazoness Swords Woman, ATK 1500]
The Amazoness deck first appeared in Duel Monsters, used by Mai Valentine. It's a classic old-school archetype that also appeared in GX and later anime series.
Kira had gotten this deck earlier—it wasn't particularly rare. Recently, a project team in his lab had produced some new Amazoness cards.
He'd wanted to try it out, but the opponents in Battle City were too tough to test a new deck, so he'd set it aside.
Now, in disguise, it was the perfect chance.
And Amazoness is actually pretty fun to play.
He figured Kurozaki would soon experience that for himself.
Kira: "Set one card face-down. Turn end."
"You're using Amazoness, huh?" Kurozaki grunted. "My turn! But I won't draw!"
As he spoke, flames erupted in his Graveyard, coalescing into a flaming tiger on the field.
"The effect of 'Flame Tiger' in my Graveyard. If I have no monsters on the field, during my Draw Phase, I can Special Summon this card instead of drawing."
"Come on out, Flame Tiger!"
The flaming tiger landed, roaring as if spewing fire.
[Flame Tiger, ATK 1800]
"Next, I activate 'Graceful Charity.' Draw three, discard two."
Kurozaki discarded two cards, then grinned.
"Heh heh... Hahaha! My ace is ready. The setup is complete. Punk, you don't realize it yet, but you're finished!"