Chapter Nine: A Package for the Game

The next day, the Domino High School culture festival officially commenced, and the school itself was opened to visitors from all over Domino City for the day.

Students, who had been looking forward to this day for a long time, eagerly showcased their long-prepared projects to the visitors—ranging from acrobatics and magic tricks to homemade accessory shops, fortune-telling booths, and haunted houses, fully displaying the youth and vitality of Domino High School students.

Among all the projects, two stood out the most.

At Hayato's suggestion, Class D's culture festival executive committee member Goro Inogashira reached out and formed a partnership with Class B's committee member. The two classes connected their adjacent areas directly, cooperating to build a large amusement zone while setting up food sales points at the entrance and exit of the game carnival.

Class B's location happened to be right at the corner of the festival grounds' entrance and exit. While enjoying a high volume of traffic, it also provided great convenience for outside delivery trucks to transport goods in. This was precisely why Goro Inogashira had tried to seize Class B's location yesterday.

Combining the efforts of both classes, the 1+1 business venture of Class B and Class D achieved results greater than 2. Not only was the entire activity budget for the culture festival recouped, but profits also surged to 1,000% of the original amount. Both Class B and Class D distributed a large sum of money to every student, and they even received a special commendation from the school.

As for the other project—or rather, performance—it was the show prepared by that fellow Masaji Mazarashi: he brought out the Duel Platform he had used once before on the rooftop, dismantled it into parts, reassembled them on the performance stage, and found an "ordinary passerby"—his romantic rival, Honda—to duel.

Although the dueling skills of the two were evenly matched, both hovering around the level of amateur clumsiness, the Duel Monsters cards were materialized by the holographic system, which still managed to attract the attention of quite a few people interested in Duel Monsters, and the reception of the show was quite favorable.

The ultimate victor of the duel was Mazarashi, whose deck quality was somewhat superior. Relying on a bunch of "aristocratic" monsters he had re-collected, he defeated Honda with a mere 100 Life Points difference.

However, despite winning the match, when Masaji Mazarashi used the microphone to confess his feelings to "Ribbon-chan" Miho Nosaka, he suffered a cruel rejection. The reason was that "Masaji's facial expression was far too terrifying when he summoned Duel Monsters."

This left Honda immensely amused and Mazarashi utterly distraught. He had thought Duel Monsters would help him achieve victory, yet he was rejected precisely because of Duel Monsters? Convinced that making distorted, intense facial expressions while playing cards must be something Honda had infected him with, Mazarashi and Honda continued to bicker endlessly.

Still, although Ribbon-chan rejected Mazarashi's confession, Honda didn't get to feel smug for long. Stimulated by Mazarashi's public confession, after the culture festival ended, Honda approached Ribbon-chan in private and personally handed over a confession jigsaw puzzle he had spent nearly a week hiding.

In response, he received a polite, "You're a good guy." That very afternoon, he wept bitterly. Both Honda and Mazarashi—the two romantic rivals—suffered heartbreak back-to-back and directly hugged each other in sorrow. They only recovered after Hayato treated them both to a round of yakiniku.

By the next day, they were already at each other's throats again.

Not long after the culture festival concluded, old man Sugoroku Mutou, whose health had recovered remarkably well, was finally discharged from the hospital. That very day, Hayato, Jonouchi, and the others all went over to help. True to the promise he made to Jonouchi prior to his discharge, Sugoroku began teaching him the secret essence of Duel Monsters' "heart."

That is to say, card shuffling. Under Sugoroku's demonic training regimen, Jonouchi spent every single day doing nothing but shuffling cards, continuing even when his hands cramped up, for a full month straight.

A month later—

"One million Duel Monsters fans across the country, today has finally arrived—the moment of ultimate decision for the national qualifiers!" the passionate voice of the host echoed from the television. "Out of the two hundred selected in the national regional tournaments, who on earth will ultimately become the champion of all Japan?"

"Now, let us welcome the contestants to the arena!"

Watching the two contestants—whose dueling strengths were currently unknown and whose age and height were a matched pair—board the duel platform and enter the arena, Jonouchi slammed his thigh in frustration in front of the television set. "Damn it! The one who should be standing there dueling is supposed to be me!"

"You've already worked hard, Jonouchi," Anzu glanced at him. "Didn't you train under Grandpa Sugoroku for a whole month? As long as you gained something from it, that's what matters."

"If shuffling cards every day can even be considered training," Jonouchi recalled those hellish days and couldn't help but shiver.

Hayato, sitting beside him, patted his shoulder. "At least you're much stronger than before, and you even made it into the top eight of the qualifiers, didn't you? Although... it was just the Domino regional qualifiers."

"Hayato, you really didn't need to add that last part," Jonouchi sighed, lowering his head and letting his blonde bangs shadow his face. "My three million yen prize money went down the drain, and honestly, I feel too ashamed to face old man Sugoroku, who spent a whole month specially training me."

"Say, Jonouchi, what about me?"

Speak of the devil. Sugoroku Mutou appeared out of nowhere behind the sofa facing the television, tilting his head as he questioned Jonouchi. He was holding a large cardboard box in his hands.

"Ah, Grandpa, I'm so sorry!" Seeing the old man's arrival, Jonouchi hurriedly stood up and bowed deeply. "You gave me a month of special training, yet I..."

"What are you talking about, Jonouchi? Didn't you perform quite splendidly?" Sugoroku interrupted with a smile, causing Jonouchi to raise his head and look at the grin on the old man's face. "To be honest, at first I really thought that with your skill level, even making it through the qualifiers would be a struggle. You've worked extremely hard."

"Gran—Grandpa!" Tears of genuine emotion welled up in Jonouchi's eyes as he lunged toward Sugoroku for a hug, but Sugoroku nimbly sidestepped, causing Jonouchi to miss completely and crash flat onto the floor.

"Oh, Yugi, I received a package addressed to you."

"Eh? For me? Who could have sent it?" Yugi asked, puzzled. All his friends should be residents of Domino City; if anyone wanted to deliver something, they could just walk over in a few minutes. It didn't make sense for anyone to be mailing a package.

Sugoroku shook his head. "Not sure. The sender's name isn't written on it either."

"What a strange package," Honda said, watching Yugi take the parcel. "If there's no sender, how was this thing even mailed in the first place?"

"Why not just open it and see?" Hayato calculated the date in his head. Today was the final battle of the National Duel Monsters Championship, so presumably, what was inside that package must be... that thing.

At this thought, Hayato couldn't help but cast a glance at Sugoroku.

The destiny of the [Millennium Hostage] was about to descend once again.