Manjome considers himself a dueling genius - everyone around him has told him this since childhood.
But even so, he has never been slack. Especially after meeting the Legendary Duelist Kaiba Seto as a mentor, he's never let up on his efforts, working ten times harder than others in both learning and training.
So why should this jellyfish head, leisurely fishing here, be his opponent?
Maruteng Xiang was the first to spot him: "Eh? Isn't that Manjome?"
"Oh, it really is." Judai stood up and waved enthusiastically at him, "Hey~ Manjome, are you here to fish too?"
Manjome's forehead was marked by a rising "井" symbol.
You're fishing for bigheaded ghosts!
Maruteng Xiang said: "How could it be? If you're fishing, you'd bring equipment, right?"
"That's true, haha..."
Manjome's face was stern: "You guy, still got the mood to leisurely fish here?"
Judai yawned: "Stayed up too late last night. Today, I wanted to come out and enjoy the sun and relax no matter what."
"Hmph, even for someone like you, is it possible you actually put in some effort at crucial moments?"
This made Manjome feel a little balanced inside.
Turns out Yuki Judai isn't playing all day, and today maybe he's just relaxing once in a while after putting in some effort...
"Effort? Not really." Judai exchanged a smile with Xiang and said with a chuckle, "It was the newly released game these past two days. It was so fun that unintentionally I played it late into the night in the dormitory..."
Manjome: "..."
Mr. Lightning's anger gauge kept rising.
"You guy!" His face turned gloomy again, "The selection tournament is coming up, aren't you nervous? Even if it's just practicing your card draw feel..."
That's Manjome's daily mandatory practice. Although it sounds a bit mystical to say, card draw practice is indeed very important and helps maintain one's feel, so one doesn't draw a dud in crucial duels.
However, Judai was even more confused: "Practice card drawing?"
That bewildered expression seemed to say—
—Isn't it enough just to have hands?
No duelist would draw a card they don't want, right? Surely not, surely not?
But Judai didn't mean to be sarcastic; he was genuinely puzzled.
Since childhood, Teacher Youyu has never mentioned needing to practice card drawing, right? What's there to practice?
"Hmph↓!" Manjome was fuming, letting out a heavy grunt, "Yuki↑ Judai↓! Just wait, by this weekend, I will defeat you to prove to that person that I'm stronger than you!"
Though he couldn't figure out what act Manjome was on, Judai, with a simple mind, never bothers over details. He automatically filtered out who "that person" was and why Manjome wanted to take him down, directly responding with fervor: "Alright, I won't lose if it's a duel! Then we'll meet on the battlefield!"
Manjome turned away, his gaze growing colder as he walked, his mind already planning his training regimen and tactical planning for the following days.
But soon, he heard Judai's voice from behind: "By the way, Xiang, let's go exploring in the back mountain this afternoon!"
"Eh? But aren't you supposed to prepare for the competition?"
"Ah, stuff like that can be done when we get back in the evening..."
Manjome nearly vomited blood on the spot.
That boy... Does he completely disregard me, Mr. Lightning!?
...
In Manjome's observations, in the few days leading up to the competition, Yuki Judai still seemed to be in that unhurried and casual state.
Going on adventures as he should, fishing as he should, still dozing off in class, sometimes lying on the lawn basking in the sun, completely devoid of any sense of urgency.
While it infuriated Manjome, he also felt more confident.
With your state, can you really beat me?
Over these few days, Manjome seemed possessed and often during lecture breaks would casually eavesdrop on what Yuki Judai was doing, then coldly smirk like a villain.
His underlings even saw their brother Manjome in a bad mood in the classroom, coldly smirking and muttering to himself "Yuki↑ Judai↓".
His underlings exchanged glances but dared not speak up.
This state persisted into the weekend's elimination matches.
The initial rounds of the elimination matches were pretty much uneventful. Maruteng Ryo and Tenjouin Asuka both forfeited, and among the remaining "top students," there were few whose strength was truly up to par.
Judai and Manjome advanced through the rounds without any obstacles, easily securing victories in each match.
The only slightly stronger competitor was Mitsuzawa Daichi—after enrolling, he also received considerable guidance from his mentor, but the school year was too short and Jeha didn't have much on hand, so he couldn't gift too many powerful cards, only making some optimizations to Mitsuzawa's deck construction within its existing framework.
This level of adjustment was certainly not enough to handle a divine draughter. Mitsuzawa unfortunately ran into sunny boy Yuki Judai in the second round, and before making much of a splash was hammered down by Judai.
In the end, Judai and Manjome both advanced to the finals, facing off for the final qualification slot on Sunday.
At noon, the Duel Academy's school journalist cornered the two highly anticipated finalists separately in the Red Dormitory and Blue Dormitory cafeterias.
The journalist interviewing Manjome asked, "How do you feel right now?"
"Feel? I've never been better."
"So you're very confident in the finals then?"
"Of course." Manjome scoffed, "There's only one winner in this duel, and that's certainly me!"
"..."
Meanwhile, the journalist also asked Judai the same question: "Judai, how do you feel right now?"
"Ah?" Judai, who was chewing on fried shrimp, turned around, "Feel? I feel the fried shrimp in the Red Dormitory is super delicious!"
The journalist: "..."
With about an hour left until the match, Judai received a text message. It was from Youyu, with just a short sentence.
"Come to my office."
He always paid attention to his teacher's words. So Judai promptly set aside what he was doing and headed to Youyu's office.
"Teacher Youyu?" He greeted probing as he entered.
Youyu turned around from his chair.
"There's a match to play this afternoon?"
"Yes." Judai nodded.
"How's your preparation?" Youyu paused, "Although I do want to ask... I guess you haven't prepared much, right?"
Judai awkwardly scratched his head.
"You're not really the type to be good at thinking too hard, keeping a steady mindset isn't too bad... but I must remind you, this time your opponent might be a bit different than the students you've dueled before."
"Manjome, right?" Judai said, "He indeed feels a bit different... seems like a really formidable guy, huh?"
Mentioning this made Judai excited again.
"Oh oh, the thought of dueling against a guy like that makes the blood boil!"
Youyu chuckled: "Having fighting spirit is good but don't underestimate him."
"Rest assured, teacher, I won't lose!"
"Although I do think you'll be fine, just to be sure..."
Youyu fished out a card from beneath the table and slid it across the desk.
Judai picked up the card, and hesitated.
Nani? Wouldn't inserting something like this cause a dead hand?
Oh wait, I won't dead hand it, never mind then...
But speaking of which, why does the teacher keep inserting odd things into my Hero Deck?
"Take it." Youyu said, "You might find it useful in this duel."
"Oh... Oh, if teacher thinks so..."
Judai didn't ask further, just quietly added the card to his deck.