"Tch... say whatever you want."
Daigorō curled his lip, completely unmoved by Crow's condemnation. Instead, he turned to Ushio with an ingratiating look.
"Right, Officer? What matters is locking up dangerous people like this and maintaining public order!"
Ushio stayed silent.
Arresting lawbreakers was his duty, yes, but the way this informant talked and acted made it very hard for him to feel any goodwill toward him.
Forcing his attention back onto the duel, Ushio declared, "After Search Striker's effect resolves, it changes to Defense Position at the end of the Battle Phase."
On the field, Search Striker sheathed its blades and shifted into a defensive stance.
"And until the End Phase of my next turn, it can't change its battle position."
"At this moment, I activate my Trap Card—Burial of Repose."
Dio spread his Deck slightly.
"I send 1 monster from my Deck to the Graveyard. During the turn this effect is activated, I cannot activate the effects of the monster sent to the Graveyard by this effect, or cards with the same name."
"What is that supposed to do?" Daigorō could not make sense of it at all. Ushio was equally baffled. Just sending a monster to the Graveyard, and then not even being able to activate its effect?
Crow, however, looked thoughtful.
So he's sending something to the Graveyard to set up another card's effect? But Dio doesn't have anything he can tribute right now...
Still not understanding, Ushio continued with his turn.
"Then I change Big Shield Gardna to Defense Position."
"My turn ends."
"Then it's my turn."
Dio placed his fingers on top of his Deck.
"Draw."
He added the drawn card to his hand and glanced over it without much reaction.
Then he activated the other card that had been face-down on his field the whole time.
"I activate the Trap Card Descending Lost Star!"
"Target 1 Synchro Monster in my Graveyard. Its Level is reduced by 1, its DEF becomes 0, and it is Special Summoned in Defense Position. A monster Special Summoned by this effect has its effects negated, and cannot change its battle position."
Light surged from the Graveyard, and a figure struggled back onto the field—
Scrap Archfiend.
But it now looked even more battered than before. Its parts rattled loosely, the red light in its eyes had dimmed, and its huge body could only barely kneel on Dio's field in a defensive half-crouch, as if it might collapse at any moment. It had plainly lost all of its former power and vitality.
Scrap Archfiend: Level 7 → Level 6, DEF 1800 → 0 (effect negated)
"He brought it back again? But its DEF is 0, and its effect is negated..."
Ushio looked even more confused.
"He's using so many bizarre cards..."
Was this really how the guy had dueled his way this far—with all these strange, almost nonsensical-looking cards?
"It's normal that you'd find it confusing."
Dio had seen straight through what he was thinking, and he nodded calmly.
"Because every card I use was picked out of a garbage heap."
"What?" Ushio froze. "You've been using cards pulled out of trash heaps... to oppress other people?"
He had borrowed Daigorō's wording, but there was already some uncertainty in his voice.
"If you call it oppression," Dio replied evenly, cutting straight through Daigorō's false narrative, "to publicly defeat, in fair and open duels, people like the piece of trash standing next to you—people who go around causing trouble and preying on the weak—"
"Then yes. I admit it."
Ushio did not know how to answer.
Only now did it occur to him that he had never actually stopped to consider whether the people here were good or bad. He had heard a report and simply rushed over, smashing things and making arrests first.
The informant standing beside him was obviously no decent person.
Damn it, did I really wrong innocent people today?
And why had his seniors all just rushed in the same way without even warning him to think twice...?
Dio paid no attention to the guilt surfacing on Ushio's face. His voice gradually rose, firm and certain.
"My cards may have been thrown away into trash heaps, as insignificant as scrap metal—but they still have their own purpose and value."
His eyes sharpened.
"I will pick up whatever still has use, pull it out of dust and oblivion, piece it together with care, and forge it into a perfect future."
"And now—watch."
Dio slammed a card from his hand onto the Duel Disk.
"I tribute the Scrap Archfiend on my field! Tribute Summon—Scrap Golem!"
Crow clenched his fist.
Just as I thought!
Scrap Archfiend dissolved into particles of light, and in its place appeared Scrap Golem, with its giant refrigerator-shaped body.
Scrap Golem / Rock / EARTH / Level 5 / ATK 2300 / DEF 1400
"I activate Scrap Golem's effect!"
Dio raised his voice.
"Once per turn, I can target 1 Level 4 or lower 'Scrap' monster in my Graveyard and Special Summon it to either my field or my opponent's field!"
"Huh?" Daigorō blurted out in surprise. "He's bringing back a full Scrap Archfiend already?!"
"Of course not," Dio said. "Scrap Golem can only revive Level 4 or lower monsters. So I'm choosing the monster I sent to the Graveyard earlier with Burial of Repose."
He raised a hand and pointed at Ushio's field.
"I Special Summon Scrap Searcher to your field in Attack Position!"
"On my field?"
Ushio stared blankly as a strange metallic bird flapped into existence above his side of the field. Its body was made of many jagged metal plates, and beams like searchlights swept across the battlefield before locking onto Ushio's two monsters.
Scrap Searcher / Winged Beast / EARTH / Level 1 / ATK 100 / DEF 300
"Why? What's the point?"
Ushio genuinely could not understand what Dio was trying to do.
"You can read Scrap Searcher's effect," Dio said flatly.
Ushio hurriedly looked down at the effect text displayed on his Duel Disk, and his face changed instantly.
"When this card is Special Summoned, destroy all face-up monsters on its controller's field, except 'Scrap' monsters?!"
"What?!" Ushio and Daigorō shouted at the same time.
Before the words had even finished leaving Ushio's mouth, the metal plates on Scrap Searcher's body shot outward, striking both Big Shield Gardna and Search Striker on Ushio's field.
Two explosions rang out in succession.
Both of Ushio's monsters blew apart into motes of light, and his field was wiped completely clean.
"H-how can a monster have an effect like that?!"
Daigorō cried out in disbelief.
But very quickly he forced himself to calm down and shouted with hollow bravado,
"I-it's fine! All you did was clear the officer's field! Your own monster only has 2300 ATK—you can't possibly finish off an officer who's still at a full 4000 Life Points! Once the officer draws next turn—"
"There won't be a next turn."
Dio cut him off in a voice cold enough to be almost merciless.
Then he revealed the last card in his hand.
"I equip this Equip Spell to Scrap Golem—Megamorph!"
An ancient-looking sigil fused into Scrap Golem's body. The Golem let out a deep mechanical rumble, and its massive frame swelled to twice its original size.
"Megamorph's effect: if my Life Points are lower than my opponent's, the equipped monster's ATK becomes double its original ATK. If my Life Points are higher, that monster's ATK becomes half its original ATK."
Dio LP: 1500. Ushio LP: 4000.
"In other words," Dio said, slowly lifting his head to meet Ushio's eyes, "Scrap Golem now has 4600 ATK."
Scrap Golem ATK: 2300 → 4600!
"How is that possible?! 4600 ATK?!"
Daigorō screamed, his face full of disbelief.
"A card that powerful... that rare... and you found it in a garbage heap?! What kind of joke is this?!"
"Sometimes," Dio said, one hand unconsciously rising to the back of his neck as he tilted his head slightly—a habitual gesture of his whenever he sensed something off, "the things we think of as priceless and unattainable are, in someone else's eyes, nothing more than trash to throw away."
"And it is precisely that discarded trash, when combined and used the right way, that becomes the key to turning defeat into victory. Someone like you, who only knows how to cling to the powerful and bully those weaker than yourself, will probably never understand that."
"Exactly!" Crow pumped a fist in the air. "Show them what duelists from Satellite—the ones they call garbage—can really do! Dio, finish it!"
"Battle."
Dio said no more.
He gave the final attack order.
"Scrap Golem, attack Scrap Searcher!"
Scrap Golem, now empowered by Megamorph, advanced in silence. The giant industrial fan mounted on its arm began to spin, and the violent gale tore toward the Scrap Searcher still sitting on Ushio's field.
The little bird dodged nimbly out of the way.
All the remaining force of the storm slammed straight into Ushio instead.
Daigorō, clearly having learned nothing from Dio's words, had nothing left on his face but terror.
Ushio, however, had listened—but what he heard was something else entirely:
Why did the people of Satellite hate the security police—and the people of the city—so deeply?
Then the giant fist swallowed everything.
Ushio LP: 4000 → 0
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