Chapter 5
"Now that your performance is over, Goldilocks-mushroom-head, I believe it's my turn."
Rowan smiled, relaxed as ever, and raised his hand over the deck on his Duel Disk.
"My turn. Draw!"
In that single instant, both Jaden across the field and Chazz further back in the stands felt something stir.
A flash of something they could not quite name, a pressure, brief and sharp, that passed through the air the moment Rowan's hand touched the deck.
"What was that...?"
Both of them murmured it to themselves without realizing it.
"I think this duel is already decided, Goldilocks-mushroom-head."
Rowan barely glanced at the card he had drawn before looking up at Crowler with a lazy smile.
"It is not Goldilocks-mushroom-head, it is Chief of Practical Examinations, Professor Crowler!"
Crowler yanked at his own hair and snapped the correction across the field.
Then he composed himself, a thin smile returning to his face.
"But it seems you've already accepted your defeat, Rowan-boy. Perhaps go home, spend another year studying, and try the entrance exam again next time."
He never finished the sentence.
His life point display, which had read a clean 4000 only moments before, began ticking downward with a rapid series of beeps and landed on zero.
"Mamma mia, what... what just happened?!"
Crowler stood there, completely blank.
The rest of the arena was not much better.
"Is it a malfunction? Hey, someone get the maintenance crew, what are they doing?!"
The group of blue-uniformed students who had been mocking Rowan were already shouting toward the technicians.
"No, there is no malfunction." One of the Academy's technical staff checked the instruments and looked up.
"Examinee 111 appears to have fulfilled a special victory condition. On his very first draw."
"A special victory condition. Fulfilled the instant he drew on turn one..."
Bastion went quiet, turning it over in his mind.
Then something clicked. He, Chazz, and Alexis all arrived at the same realization at the same moment, and the color shifted in all three of their faces.
"Don't tell me..."
Crowler, still rooted to the spot, had just reached the same conclusion. He stared at Rowan.
"That's exactly what it is." Rowan's smile was calm. He raised his hand and spread all six cards from his hand in a wide fan.
Four of them had been there from the start: the Right Leg of the Forbidden One, the Left Leg of the Forbidden One, the Right Arm of the Forbidden One, and the Left Arm of the Forbidden One.
The sixth card was what he had just drawn.
Exodia the Forbidden One.
Level 3 / DARK Attribute / ATK: 1000 / DEF: 1000 When this card and all four of its sealed limbs are assembled in your hand simultaneously, you win the duel immediately.
This effect cannot be negated.
Light erupted from all five cards at once.
A colossal dark sorcerer, his body bound by golden chains, took shape above the field. Then the chains shattered.
He reared back and drove his fist straight into the Ancient Gear Ultimate Golem across the field.
The machine exploded in a wall of fire and smoke.
A massive gear was sent flying from the blast and came down squarely on Crowler's head, dropping him to his knees on the dueling field.
The sorcerer dissolved into light, fading along with the debris of the ancient machine, until both were gone.
What remained was Professor Crowler, kneeling on the field, staring at nothing.
He could not find a single word to describe how he felt right now.
He had poured everything into this duel, fused together his legendary ace monsters, constructed an airtight board specifically to shut this infuriating failure out of the Academy forever, and he had lost again.
Not just lost. Lost like this.
Who was he?
Where was he?
How could a human being be this lucky?
...
Bastion, Syrus, and the others said nothing.
Chazz, Alexis, the upperclassmen, the supervising teachers, every last person inside that arena stared at the scene with the same blank, unreadable expression.
Then they looked at Rowan.
Was this what they called a legendary draw?
He had opened with a perfect hand and sealed the game before it even started.
The King of Games himself, Yugi Muto, might not have walked away with a win from that position.