Chapter 100: There’s No Duelist More Compassionate Than Me

"No!"

Chazz's expression crumbled the moment he saw five pairs of red underwear come flying out of the collapsing vortex. The memory of what that meant hit him before the underwear did.

He tried to dodge.

He was already too late.

"Each Ojama Token destroyed deals 300 points of damage to you. Dark Hole just destroyed five of them. Chazz, take this five-hit combo for a total of 1500 LP."

The five pairs of red underwear landed on Chazz's face in rapid succession, each one detonating into a puff of smoke. When the smoke finally cleared, Chazz was still standing, staring into the middle distance with the hollow expression of a man who had been forced to reconsider several fundamental assumptions about his life.

He had simply been pelted into a stupor.

[Ding! Chazz's Emotion Points +100!]

His Life Points, which had already been clinging to 1000, dropped to zero.

...

"Cut the broadcast! Don't air that last part!"

The TV crew that Chazz's brothers had arranged scrambled into action, killing the live feed before the final moment could reach viewers across the dueling world. The channel switched over to a weather report.

Though by the time Dark Hole had hit the field, most people watching already knew how it was going to end.

The cut saved Chazz's dignity by a margin too small to measure.

"Chazz lost to Rowan's Ojama monsters in the end... literally pelted to defeat by flying underwear," Bastion said, watching Chazz's blank, vacant silhouette with an expression of genuine sympathy.

Alexis and the others nodded slowly in shared understanding.

If Chazz had nightmares tonight, they all knew exactly what would be in them.

Jaden and Syrus had already clasped their hands together in solemn tribute.

May there be no red underwear in heaven.

...

"With that, I declare the outcome of this year's Duel Academy versus North Academy competition duel! The winner is Rowan!"

Chancellor Sheppard rose to his feet with barely concealed delight, raising a hand to make the official announcement.

Which also meant the mysterious prize from the competition this year was as good as his.

...

"Chazz!"

Before Rowan could even think about arranging a suitably dramatic post-victory speech at Chazz's expense, Chazz's two older brothers called out to him in sharp, commanding voices.

Chazz's expression went heavy immediately.

"I apologize. I've brought shame to the Princeton name. I failed to keep my promise."

His brothers' response was not what anyone expected.

"Your opponent was those people... that completely unreasonable bunch. This loss falls entirely within the range of things we can understand."

As he said it, Chazz's older brother took an actual step back and glanced over at Rowan.

Rowan stared back, a string of exasperation forming visibly over his head.

Him? Unreasonable? He, Rowan, a model young man of sterling character?

The man had stepped backward. Like Rowan was something to be cautious of.

Rowan had a strong urge to grab him by the collar, shake him, and ask whether there was a single duelist in the world with more genuine warmth and generosity than himself.

Clearly not. The answer was obviously not.

"Chazz, your brother and I will invest in acquiring some stronger rare cards for you. But next time, failure will not be acceptable."

Chazz's second brother followed up before anyone else could get a word in.

This exchange landed surprisingly on everyone present, Chazz most of all, who had braced himself for a thorough dressing-down.

Rowan, too, found himself mildly caught off guard.

He remembered how the original story went. In the canon timeline, after Chazz lost to Jaden in the inter-school competition, his two brothers had come down on him hard. It took the combined vocal support of both schools' students rallying around Chazz to get them to ease up even slightly.

But here, having lost to Rowan instead, Chazz hadn't received a single word of criticism. He'd gotten encouragement. And a promise of rare card funding.

Genuinely baffling.

Rowan was a little stunned by it himself.

Still, it wasn't a bad outcome by any measure.

He decided not to press Chazz about the bet yet. The live broadcast had captured everything on camera. The Princeton Group couldn't back out even if they wanted to, and Chazz, for all his bluster, wasn't the type to weasel out of a wager he'd made himself.

So Rowan stepped off the dueling platform and walked toward Alexis and the others, who were already making their way over.

"Congratulations on winning the duel against North Academy," Alexis said with a smile.

"And doing it on live television, no less," Bastion added with a grin. "Quite a few people across the dueling world just got a good look at your style."

"You might actually have more name recognition now than either me or Chancellor Sheppard's teacher," Zane said, which from him was practically a speech. He gave a single nod of agreement.

As someone who had used a Cyber Dragon deck and studied under Chancellor Sheppard before enrolling at Duel Academy, Zane had a decent sense of how well known the chancellor was in dueling circles. He'd been a recognized figure in his day, heir to the Cyber Style.

But after tonight's unplanned broadcast, courtesy of the Princeton Group's accidental generosity, Rowan's name was probably going to be the most widely recognized one at all of Duel Academy.

"Honestly, I could do without that kind of fame," Rowan said, sounding genuinely pained by the idea.

He was already running low on people at Duel Academy willing to duel him and provide Emotion Points. If his reputation spread across the entire dueling world and people out there started refusing to duel him too, where exactly was a dedicated, selfless provider of joy and laughter supposed to go for his income?

Rowan maintained that he only wanted to be a humble, anonymous contributor to the happiness of others.

He did good things. He just preferred not to be credited for them.

In fact, if he could temporarily duel-induced amnesia Syrus and half of Duel Academy into forgetting the past few months and start fresh, he reflected, that would be ideal.

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