Chapter 64

"Two thousand points. Which means Titan contributed about 1700 last night."

Rowan looked at the system panel with quiet satisfaction.

He'd had 300 Emotion Points left after buying the Stealth Bird deck the previous day.

Now the counter sat at 2000. The extra 1700 had come entirely from Titan, who had continued generating points even while unconscious on the floor of a collapsing Shadow Game ritual space.

Remarkable work ethic.

By the patterns Rowan had observed so far, a duelist of Titan's profile, no great fame, no exceptional power, limited appearances in the original timeline, shouldn't have been worth more than Syrus.

But the Shadow Game context seemed to have applied some kind of multiplier. An unexpected bonus.

The only mildly disappointing aspect was that the duel had been so one-sided that his Life Points had never taken a single point of damage.

Which meant he still hadn't had a chance to test what the Red Dragon's protection actually felt like from the inside.

He shook his head faintly. Something to look forward to another time.

He scrolled to the system shop, which should have refreshed today.

System Shop (randomly refreshes every two days, four options per refresh)

Today's options:

Deck: Vehicle Deck (Syrus Edition) — 500 Points

Deck: Disruption Deck (Soul-Crushing Edition) — 1500 Points

Deck: Shadow HERO Deck (Soul-Crushing HERO Edition) — 1500 Points

Skill: Superior Still Water Clarity (Once per duel: draw any card you personally own, even if it's not in your current deck. Prerequisite: Still Water Clarity) — 2000 Points

"Superior Still Water Clarity."

The corner of Rowan's mouth pulled upward and stayed there.

The original Still Water Clarity gave him one guaranteed draw per duel from within his current deck.

This upgrade removed the "current deck" restriction entirely. Once per duel, he could pull any card he personally owned, regardless of what was sleeved up.

He sat there for a moment, appreciating the implications.

This was essentially the ability to reach into his entire collection on demand.

Not quite printing cards out of thin air, since it was limited to what he actually possessed, but close enough that he felt comfortable invoking the name of Seto Kaiba's more morally flexible alter ego.

He spent the 2000 points without hesitation.

The new decks could wait.

The tag duel tomorrow would generate fresh points anyway, and the Stealth Bird deck hadn't even shown its full depth against Titan.

A tag duel format, where Life Point drain played out across two fields simultaneously, was exactly where that deck would shine.

Whatever Chancellor Sheppard's "legendary tag duelists" were expecting, Rowan intended to send them home with a very warm and therapeutic experience.

The newly acquired skill settled into him without any particular fanfare.

Maybe it was just the afternoon sun, but he didn't feel much of anything different.

"You really know how to relax."

A familiar voice, lightly amused.

Footsteps, soft on the grass.

Rowan tilted his head up to find Alexis already standing nearby, one hand on her hip, looking down at him in his sunbathing arrangement against the tree with an expression somewhere between amusement and mild exasperation.

She was wearing the standard Obelisk Blue uniform, white and blue, the short blue skirt catching the breeze.

"I didn't expect you to come alone," Rowan said, sitting up slightly. "I figured your two friends would be attached."

"Jasmine and Mindy got pulled away by Professor Ayukawa again, called to help out in the infirmary."

Alexis sat down a short distance away, her expression shifting to something slightly guarded as she corrected him.

"And they're friends, not attendants."

She straightened up a little as she said it.

"Besides, we're here to discuss tag duel tactics. It wouldn't exactly be appropriate to have them listening in."

Professor Ayukawa.

Rowan turned the name over and recalled, after a moment, that this was the health class teacher from a few days ago.

The one with the very... prominent... very white...

He stopped that line of thinking.

"I don't know what you're thinking, but whatever it is, stop."

Alexis's voice came from beside him with uncanny timing.

There was something in it that suggested she was, somehow, mildly irritated, though she seemed slightly confused herself about why.

"I was thinking about something pleasant," Rowan said, face going slightly red. He cleared his throat and changed direction immediately.

"Speaking of which, I may have picked up a little information about your brother."

"You know something about my brother?!"

Alexis turned toward him at once, the sharpness in her voice replaced entirely by urgency.

The subject change had worked perfectly.

In truth, discussing Atticus was part of why Alexis had wanted this meeting in the first place, alongside the tag duel planning and, though she hadn't quite admitted it to herself, some other reason she hadn't fully examined.

After witnessing everything that happened in the abandoned dorm with Titan, she'd noticed that Rowan seemed to carry considerably more knowledge about Shadow Games and the surrounding lore than anyone his age had any obvious reason to possess.