Who Let Him Play Yu-Gi-Oh! novel Chapter 396

Chapter 396: Chapter 395: As a Champion

Cough, cough, cough—

On the Duel Ship, in the competitors’ lounge, Hibiki Koyo clutched the wall, coughing hard.

He took out a tissue, wiped his mouth, and got up to leave. Passing a full-length mirror in the room, he paused and looked at his reflection.

He saw a man there.

A thin, frail man who looked like a gust of wind could blow him away. His pale face was like snow that had never seen sunlight, with no color at all, and faint shadows under his eyes.

He looked less like a duelist, more like a patient.

He took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes.

"Honestly, this is pathetic." He laughed at himself. "In front of my most important kouhai, I need to show what a duelist looks like..."

He adjusted himself, took a deep breath, and put his glasses back on.

But when he turned, he found his sister, Hibiki Midori, was already standing at the door, blocking the only exit.

"Sis," Koyo said softly.

A few seconds of silence.

"So you never really recovered, did you?" Midori said. "Ever since that duel..."

Koyo thought for a moment, then nodded.

"Yeah."

That was last year.

It was the night he won the world championship in America—a mysterious duelist appeared before him.

"Congratulations, World Champion Koyo."

The man said, then gave a strange smile.

Then he raised his duel disk and inserted a deck.

"Will you accept my challenge?"

The duel was sudden. But Koyo was a true card fanatic like Jaden, and still basking in the joy of victory. He didn’t think much of it.

He felt that as champion, it was his duty to accept challenges. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

So he did.

And that was the start of a nightmare.

The man’s dueling was beyond imagination—not just strong, but bizarre.

That was Koyo’s first encounter with the shadow duel. Every time he took damage, every time he lost life points, he felt his real life force drain away, as if a black hole was sucking out his soul.

Then he lost.

Or rather, he should have lost.

In the final turn, all his resources were gone, his life points a dying ember, his consciousness fading.

He couldn’t see his opponent, only heard the man’s sinister laugh: "As expected of a world champion—much stronger than most duelists today.

So, I’ll gladly take your soul and your Terra."

But at that moment, two beams of golden light shot in, the roar of a motorcycle approaching.

The man’s face changed.

"Damn, you even chased me here... Persistent bastard. Whatever—my power hasn’t recovered enough, it’s not the time."

He packed up his duel disk, gave Koyo a cold look.

He sneered.

"You got to keep your life, champion," the man said coldly. "But don’t celebrate too soon. You’ve already lost to me—this life is just on loan, but it’s mine.

From now on, every time you duel, your life will drain away with your deck—your very soul. It’s a bit abstract, but you’ll understand soon enough."

His face was shrouded in shadow.

"You’ll understand soon."

Koyo lost consciousness, collapsing.

As his awareness faded, he heard the motorcycle stop nearby, and someone running over.

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