Yu-Gi-Oh! The Pitfall Hero

He took the initiative to greet the three people in front of him: Yusei, Asuka, and Rei.

"Uh...who are you?"

"That uniform...is it for a teacher at the Duel Academy?"

Looking at the long-haired teacher in front of him, Yusei, who couldn't recall his name for a moment, scratched his head and fell into a state of deep thought.

Following the principle of taking it easy whenever possible and avoiding any effort when possible, he basically only attended some required courses during his three years at the Duel Academy.

Therefore, Yusei had virtually no impression of the teacher in front of him, only vaguely remembering that he had appeared at the opening ceremony and was regarded as an NPC in the background.

"...Sato-sensei? What are you doing here?"

Seeing that the conversation had reached a stalemate, Asuka sighed and walked over to Yusei's side.

Instead of slacking off like Yusei and Rei, who just enrolled this year, Asuka, an excellent student, took the initiative to help them out by calling out the teacher's name.

"Ah, as expected of Asuka, the top student, she even remembers the name of someone like me..."

With a sigh that seemed to express self-pity, the man whom Asuka called Teacher Sato reached out and touched his forehead: "Of course I came to see you because I was worried about you. The new principal entrusted me to give you a good helping hand."

"Everyone, come with me. I just found a safe path."

No, you're lying.

Upon immediately recognizing it as fake, Yusei's expression changed instantly upon hearing these words, and he denied what Sato-sensei had said.

"Oh?"

Subconsciously raising her eyebrows, Ms. Sato did not offer any explanation, but instead adopted a listening posture.

“We are here with a specific purpose, and this task was directly assigned to us by the principal. No teachers were allowed to accompany us…”

Squinting at the man who had suddenly appeared beside them, Yusei remained silent for a moment before pointing out the flaw in his words: "Besides, Duel Academy is currently in a state of being unable to take care of itself due to a large number of students fainting. The teachers simply don't have the energy to do anything else, let alone come and help."

While he wouldn't dare to be too absolute about other aspects, Yusei undoubtedly trusted Miss Yui completely, who had helped him countless times and was like a mother to him.

Tiangong Jie held similar thoughts towards him.

If that were really the case, she would definitely have informed Yusei, instead of launching this surprise attack like this.

In a place that's practically the enemy's lair, the sudden appearance of someone is less of a surprise and more of a shock...

"...Sato-sensei, who exactly are you?"

At this point, Yusei shook his head slightly and changed his tone: "No, I should ask this: Professor Sato, are you an assassin specially sent by Professor Cobra to stop us?"

"...Hehe, Yusei-kun, what are you talking about?"

Upon hearing Yusei's name, Sato-sensei smiled and spread her hands: "After all, as a teacher, I couldn't possibly be an assassin coming to attack my students, could I?"

Rei: "...You didn't deny your connection with Professor Cobra."

Asuka: "Sato-sensei...you?!"

Yusei: "That's enough. There's no need to keep pretending. Just tell me your purpose."

Teacher Sato: "..."

Realizing the flaw in her words, Ms. Sato shrugged slightly, tilted her head to the side, and looked thoughtful.

Realizing that the three had become wary of him, he simply gave up on his pretense and openly admitted his purpose: "As expected, I'm not good at pretending. The students saw through me right away... Well, it's pretty much what you think."

"The door to the deeper parts has been locked by a special device. If you want to continue your mission and go deeper, the only way is to defeat me."

"For me, who has dedicated everything to duels yet remains unknown, this place is my home."

At this point, Mr. Sato adjusted his glasses, raised his Duel Disk in front of him, and glanced at the three of them: "What do you say? You all come at me at once?"

"No need, I can manage on my own."

He shook his head slightly, waved to the two girls beside him to stand aside, and Yusei also raised the Duel Disk on his arm, intending to settle the current conflict in the manner of a duelist.

Behind this Mr. Sato lies the road leading to Professor Cobra, whose role, as he himself said, is that of the gatekeeper of the deepest level.

Only by defeating this obstacle could they continue their journey and confront the culprit.

Then there's nothing to hesitate about.

"……let's start."

"Ah, that's how it should be."

"...Duel!" ×2

As both sides simultaneously shouted the start of the duel, the duel between the teacher and the student officially began.

(Yusei LP: 4000)

(Sato-sensei's LP: 4000)

"I'll attack first. It's my turn. Draw a card!"

As the duel began, Mr. Sato seemed to have regained his lost confidence, quickly drawing a card from the top of his deck and gaining the first move in the duel.

After glancing at his hand, he smirked and slammed it onto the deck of the Duel Disk: "I summon [Scarred Scale Knight] in Attack Position (Attack: 0)!"

"A monster with 0 attack power? What's going on with this monster?"

A blue demon, its body shrouded in black mist, emerged from the darkness with a roar and stood before Mr. Sato.

Looking at the monster that exuded an ominous aura, the girls watching the battle couldn't help but show puzzled expressions.

This was the first time they had ever seen a monster with such a dark aura.

"Since I can't attack in the first round, I've set up two cards to ambush you. Turn ends."

Sato-sensei, having covered his hand with his cards in the back row, calmly ended his turn: "Alright, Yusei, it's your turn now."

"There's not much time to waste here, let's end this duel quickly... My turn, draw!"

Having made his decision, Yusei swung his arm and drew a card from the top of his deck.

At that moment, as Yusei entered the preparation phase, Sato-sensei also flipped over a face-down card in the back row: "At this instant, I open the face-down card in the back row and activate the Continuous Trap Card - [Graveyard of Ancient Creatures]!"

Yusei: "This card...?!"

The artwork on the Trap Card depicts a scene of countless giant monsters frozen in ice.

Just as the name of this card implies, with the appearance of this card, the bodies of those high-level monsters will be frozen, losing their original abilities.

"The effect of this Trap Card is: While this card is face-up on the field, monsters Special Summoned that are Level 6 or higher (including Level 6) cannot attack or activate their own effects."

Mr. Sato, adjusting his glasses, smiled slightly as he looked at Yusei: "Yusei, this way, even if you intend to fuse and summon some powerful hero monsters, you won't be able to activate their effects, let alone attack me."

"..."

It seems that Mr. Sato has done some research on the renowned Yusei and knows where his biggest weakness lies.

After sealing off the high-level monsters, Yusei's combat power will undoubtedly be greatly reduced, putting him in a state of being restricted and constrained.

"When your opponent has more monsters on their field than you do, this card can be Special Summoned directly from your hand."

Holding a card in front of him, Yusei shouted, "...Special Summon, come forth! [Dinosaur Wrestler Pankrasin Ceratops] (Dinosaur/EARTH/Level 7/ATK: 2600/DEF: 0)!"

A green Triceratops, with a muscular, angular body and dressed as a boxer, appeared on the field as Yusei shouted.

Although it is a Dinosaur-type monster, belonging to a different race than the Warrior-type hero, this monster, which exists as a general-purpose removal card, was also added to Yusei's deck.

To put it simply, this monster's effect is like a smaller version of the Destroyer Phoenix, which can destroy a card on the field by releasing itself.

While it doesn't possess the immortality of the Phoenix, this card still offers considerable suppression and removal capabilities for most duelists.

"A Level 7 monster with 2600 ATK? But, due to the presence of Trap Cards, it can't activate its effect."

"That's true."

As Pankrasin Ceratopsian appeared, a layer of ice with a binding effect rose from its body.

Yusei glanced at the Pankrasin Diablos in front of him, realizing that its effects had been blocked, and sighed slightly.

The effect of 【Graveyard of Ancient Creatures】, although it only targets high-level monsters on the field, actually blocks the activation of monster effects and the act of attacking, rather than negating the effects of monsters themselves like 【Skill Drain】.

Therefore, even though [Dinosaur Wrestler Pankrasin Ceratops] made its appearance through its own effects, it could only be used as a large-scale meat shield.

Yusei can neither use this monster to launch an attack nor activate its effect.

"...In that case, I'll summon this card in Attack Position. Come on, [Summoner Aleister] (ATK: 1000)!"

No normal summons have been performed this turn. Without knowing the opponent's monster patterns, Yusei decides to send the scumbag to scout ahead first.

As a dark blue magic circle lit up, the Great Sage of Law, clad in white robes, holding a staff of twin serpents and the Holy Scripture of Law, appeared before Yusei's body.

Aleister, whom we haven't seen for a long time, seems to have accumulated even more of the "peach blossom curse" (a term referring to malevolent influences or negative energy) around him.

"When the effect of [Summoner Aleister] is activated, if this card is Summoned or Flip Summoned, I can add one [Summoning Magic] card from my Deck to my hand."

The indicator light on the Duel Disk flashed, and a card automatically popped out of it.

Yusei added the Fusion Spell Card "Summoning Magic" to his hand and then entered the Battle Phase: "Battle begins! [Summoner Aleister] (ATK: 1000) attacks [Scarred Scale Knight] (ATK: 0)!"

Only monsters Special Summoned at Level 6 or higher can be blocked by the effects of Trap Cards.

Aleister, who appears through a normal summon and has only 4 stars, is not subject to this restriction.

698 Aleister, you traitor!

Due to the effect of the Continuous Trap Card "Graveyard of Ancient Creatures", all Level 6 and above monsters that are Special Summoned will be unable to activate their effects or declare an attack.

Therefore, after Yusei played the [Dinosaur Wrestler Pankrasin Ceratops] (ATK: 2600) in the front row, it was frozen by the effect of a trap card and could only be used as a large tank for the time being.

However, this effect does not include the 4-star monster that appears in the normal summoning mode - [Summoner Aleister] (ATK: 1000).

As Yusei waved to enter the battle phase and issued the attack command, the unrestrained Aleister also raised his Twin Serpent Staff without hesitation and hurled a magical sphere containing explosive energy at the monster with 0 attack power on the opposite side, the [Scarred Scale Knight].

As the sphere collided with the monster, a violent explosion, accompanied by a large amount of smoke, appeared in the center of the arena between the two.

(Sato-sensei's LP: 4000→3000)

"Huh? This is it?"

Looking at the black shadow of the demon still standing in the same place, Yusei narrowed his eyes, and the thought "I see" immediately came to mind.