Yugi Muto left You Show School and accompanied Declan Akaba and the others to Leo Corporation.
They didn't actually give Yugi Muto a hard time.
Although they were now quite certain that Yugi Muto was absolutely not some "ordinary game designer," but rather a powerful duelist difficult to describe in normal terms, they didn't feel deceived because of it.
After all, they had tested Yugi Muto's personal game design and card design abilities, and knew he genuinely was a game designer. He simply had an additional identity beyond that.
What they found harder to accept was that an overly powerful duelist like Yugi Muto, one who could generate "dueling energy" even from summoning ordinary monsters, might influence the development of the people in their world. So they hoped Yugi Muto wouldn't duel casually.
Since the duel was over, it was naturally a moot point.
Yugi Muto had no objections to Leo Corporation's words and strategy. After all, he wasn't a human of this dimension, so he had no right to question this world's operational strategies and other considerations. More importantly, Leo Corporation was actually quite reasonable.
Regardless, Leo Corporation still hoped KaibaCorp would coordinate and rearrange personnel for visits.
In a sense, it was an order to leave, though not particularly forceful. If Yugi Muto promised and acted to no longer duel, he could actually stay.
But in the end, Yugi Muto still contacted KaibaCorp. Not because he had lost interest in this place, but because he felt a bit embarrassed.
After all, he had originally agreed to visit merely as an ordinary designer. Yet because he saw an interesting junior, combined with the birth of a new summoning method, his hands itched and he couldn't resist holding a duel.
Although Leo Corporation didn't mind, and was instead quite interested in a powerful duelist like Yugi, he had ultimately broken the agreement. So Yugi decided to return to his own dimension afterward, and visit other dimensions for inspiration and painting later.
Many days later, after both sides had exchanged information, Yugi Muto sat in Leo Corporation's reception hall, idly taking the opportunity to look over the lesson plans and curricula of Leo Duel Academy and Leo Duel School.
A tiered teaching syllabus for the three major summoning methods, Deck tactics R&D courses including modern dueling subjects, Life Point management courses covering advanced techniques like the 2000-point critical-value trigger skill...
What was that last one?
He felt a bit lost.
Just then, he heard Leo Corporation's contact person tell him that the Fusion Dimension's liaison had arrived. Only then did he put down what he was holding and bid farewell to the people here.
It was a bit of a shame that he hadn't gotten to keep talking with that boy.
He wasn't good at reading other things, but reading duelists, he was spot-on.
He could tell that the boy called Yuya Sakaki wouldn't have his inner knot resolved by a single duel.
But with the Kuriboh he'd given him, he should have some companionship at least...
He greeted a few of the designers who had come here. Seeing him, those designers cheered excitedly and asked for autographs, which further convinced Leo Corporation's people that this man called Yugi Muto was no ordinary person. After that, Yugi Muto returned to the Fusion Dimension.
The moment he appeared in the Fusion Dimension, he drew the usual crowd of nearby staff. But beyond that, he actually spotted a few acquaintances.
"Ah, Rex? Mr. Odion? It's you two?"
"Yugi? Tch..." Rex Raptor felt a little uncomfortable upon seeing Yugi Muto.
"Is something the matter again?" Yugi was a bit curious.
"Ah... it's the Xyz Dimension. Something about the Xyz Dimension." Rex Raptor stuffed his hands in his pockets, pursing his lips, seemingly not wanting to get involved in this matter, but in the end he told Yugi Muto everything.
The Synchro Dimension's World Duel Carnival?
"The Synchro Dimension's World Duel Carnival?"
In Duel Academy's conference room, the students listened to Crowler's words, and many voiced confusion. "What does this have to do with us?"
Indeed, no matter how grand or momentous the Synchro Dimension's affairs were, what did they have to do with them?
"Actually, it's like this." Beside him, Coach Napoleon took out a pre-prepared display board and explained the various relationships in detail.
Until now, the Xyz Dimension had distrusted the Fusion Dimension because of the Fusion Army. The Synchro Dimension's WRGP welcomed everyone to participate. The Xyz Dimension had heard this news and decided to field its own team at that competition, then use the opportunity to re-establish contact with the Fusion Dimension in that neutral territory.
"Wonderful!" Serena cried out excitedly. "Then can Lulu go home?!"
Hearing Serena's words, Lulu couldn't help clasping her hands together, looking expectantly at Professor Crowler.
"Mm!" Crowler thought the same. "This is a rare opportunity. If we let the Xyz Dimension know we once rescued an Xyz Dimension girl and proactively sent her back, our relationship should thaw from its frozen state. That would be a good thing too..."
"Wonderful!" Serena cheered.
A few girls close with Lulu cheered along too.
Although they were reluctant to part with Lulu, such a clever, beautiful, and capable companion, Lulu's home wasn't here after all. Besides, there would be chances to meet again in the future. In fact, if Lulu wanted, she could perfectly well study abroad in their dimension. Their dimensional transfer was already quite mature, so Lulu could become a "diplomatic star."
The good news was finished. Next came the more serious matters.
Crowler took a deep breath. He hesitated for a long time, steeling himself two or three times, and finally forced the words out with difficulty.
"It's reported that our Duel Academy's outstanding graduate Zane Truesdale, and our outstanding second-year student Bastion Misawa, have gone missing in the Xyz Dimension."
"What did you say?!" Syrus directly slammed the table and jumped up in fright.
Not just him. Jaden, Chazz, Atticus, Hikaru, and everyone else close with the two, or who respected Zane, were all greatly shocked.
"Calm down!!" Hikaru was the first to compose himself, raising his voice to tell the students to settle. Then he quickly raised his hand and asked, "Professor, what happened?!"
Crowler held a handkerchief, somewhat unable to control his emotions. Wiping away tears, he spoke.
It was roughly what KaibaCorp had reported. During a duel in the Xyz Dimension, while spectating, the two had been caught in a dimensional rift. According to estimates, they had most likely ended up in the Synchro Dimension. That was precisely why KaibaCorp had informed the students of all this.
Missing in the Synchro Dimension?
Many faces stiffened.
That was an entire dimension!
Although the Fusion Dimension mainly communicated with "City," that didn't mean it was truly only the size of one city. City was simply the most powerful city and nation in that world.
How could they find two people on an entire planet?!
Syrus felt his head spinning, his body involuntarily collapsing. Beside him, Dennis quickly caught him and asked, "Professor, then can we only wait?!"
Crowler hurriedly said that wasn't the case.
In the upcoming Synchro Dimension duels, KaibaCorp had already prepared a trio to participate in the competition and engage in exchange duels.
At the same time, KaibaCorp had also arranged matters allowing Duel Academy to select students to follow along.
"Me! Please let me go!" Syrus hurriedly spoke up.
Crowler nodded, indicating it was fine.
One more person meant one more bit of strength. Moreover, Syrus was Zane's own younger brother. If there were any secret brotherly signals or telepathy, there might be a chance to find Zane.
"Then, Professor, can I go along too?" Dennis raised his hand and asked.
"KaibaCorp has a personnel limit," Crowler said. "More precisely, the Synchro Dimension has a cap on the total number of visiting personnel. So even KaibaCorp can't let us all go searching."
Sigh.
This was reasonable. Otherwise, what if a traitor or spy was hidden among them? Wouldn't that be disastrous?
The students could understand.
"Acting Principal Crowler, how many people can go in total?" Professor Strongman asked offhandedly from the side.
That was the key point.
"Syrus and Lulu don't count toward the limit," Crowler started with the good news.
Because of these two, one was the missing Zane Truesdale's own younger brother, and the other was an Xyz Dimension lost child. The Synchro Dimension wasn't stingy either. If those two wanted to go to the Synchro Dimension, they could pass through unimpeded.
But...
"Aside from them, accompanying personnel are capped at five."
"Only five?"
Just Jaden, Hassleberry, and Dennis alone wouldn't be quite enough!
And counting the others...
"I'm going." Atticus raised his hand, his expression grave, his tone firm. "Zane searched for me for so long. I have to bring him back too!
And I don't want to lose a second friend."
Clearly, Atticus was someone who absolutely wouldn't stay behind.
So that meant at least Dennis and Atticus Rhodes were going.
On top of that, Serena couldn't rest easy leaving Lulu on her own.
This was precisely why Crowler hadn't told Hikaru and the others earlier. The personnel were genuinely hard to decide.
Not only that, there was another person whose scalp went numb hearing the limited number, who couldn't help frantically rubbing his hair: Jesse.
"Eh eh eh, only five people can go?! I promised Yusei I'd duel him after getting Rainbow Dragon. If I miss this chance, what do I do next time?"
Another person unwilling to abandon a promise.
After thinking it over, Hikaru raised his hand again. "In that case, Professor, I'll just not go."
"Huh? Hikaru?" "This is a rare opportunity—" "Hikaru's not going? This..." The Fusion Division students could hardly believe it.
They never imagined that Hikaru, first in grades and first in performance, would willingly give up such a dimensional exchange opportunity.
"Rather than exchange and study, it's better to let the more important people go."
Everyone looked at Hikaru, feeling both sorry for him and unable to help thanking him.
Of course, that was what Hikaru said aloud.
But in his heart, he had already begun thinking about preparing and then finding a way to smuggle himself into the Synchro Dimension.
It wasn't the first time anyway.
With Yusei and Zone to hide his tracks, it would be fine.
Besides, rather than running around the Synchro Dimension like a headless fly, he'd rather go directly to find Zone in the Synchro Dimension and ask whether he'd gathered any intel on the two. That was far more useful than searching on-site.
Without Hikaru, that decisive, unshakeable competitor, the remaining students began discussing. Even setting aside Hikaru's friends, just the chance to visit the Synchro Dimension was well worth competing for.
Of course, what mattered more was finding Zane Truesdale... oh, and Bastion Misawa.
To compete, in the end, several duels were held, laying a foundation for what had been a relatively calm class day.
Finally, all personnel were confirmed.
First were the diplomatic escorts, Syrus and Lulu, who didn't count toward the number.
Next, the support personnel, Dennis and Serena, each assisting one of the escorts. They were non-dueling participants, as well as friends and sisters of the two escorts.
Finally, Jaden, Atticus Rhodes, and Chazz Princeton. Atticus's goal was finding Zane. Jaden, after listening for a while, felt like no one cared about Bastion Misawa, so he hurriedly dragged Chazz along to search with him. In other circumstances, he might have helped Jesse strategize and duel Chazz. But this concerned the life of his good friend Bastion Misawa, which couldn't be taken lightly, so he had to painfully set aside the idea of traveling with Jesse.
Chazz naturally had no reason to refuse.
Regrettably, Jesse therefore couldn't go to the Synchro Dimension, which felt quite a shame. But on second thought, he figured it was no big deal.
As long as you're a duelist, you'll meet sooner or later. Besides, Yusei might be preparing to enter the WRGP. He was a local of the Synchro Dimension, so he'd probably be more drawn to that kind of competition. Going to disturb him now, if it affected his condition, would be bad.
There would be a chance sooner or later, whether through interdimensional duels or some other competition. That opportunity would always come.
In any case, this time there was a joint tournament of three dimensions. Although the teams from other dimensions were few, there would surely be massive competitions in the future. Dueling Yusei then wouldn't be too late.
As for Aster, Jim, and Adrian, they didn't pay much mind to this matter. For one, they weren't really close with Zane or Bastion Misawa. Aster was perhaps slightly more familiar, but not particularly friendly, so there was no need to fight for the chance. For another, Aster and Adrian were more interested in finding the "evil remnant" in the Reverse World, while Jim and Axel Brodie had recently become absorbed in "excavating the Reverse World." So they had no compelling reason to go, which actually saved Jaden and the others some trouble.
"Oh right, Professor." After the personnel were selected, Chazz remembered a key point and hurriedly asked Crowler. "So which duelists make up our team this time?"
"Huh? Oh, let me see." Crowler opened a notebook, moistened his finger with saliva, and flipped two pages. "Ah, found it."
"Our White Dragon Team members... let me see.
Position 1, the dinosaur duelist, Rex Raptor. Position 2, the Gravekeeper's solid shield, Odion Ishtar... Wow, two legendary duelists.
Eh, and last is, ah—Mr. Mokuba Kaiba?! I didn't expect him to participate too.
As for the substitute... ah, it's Ms. Ishizu Ishtar."
After Crowler finished reading the roster, the many students gasped in amazement.
Wow, what a luxurious lineup.
At least three legendary duelists, plus the renowned Mr. Mokuba Kaiba!
"Phew, that's a relief." Hikaru and Chazz both let out a sigh of relief together.
"Why?" Jaden didn't quite catch on.
"Idiot, if they were randomly picked duelists who got eliminated early, where would we find the time to search for people?!"
"Eh, right, right!" Jaden belatedly came to his senses.
The others were hard to say, but Hikaru trusted Rex Raptor quite a bit.
After all, with these few months having passed, since he could return alive from the DT spirit dimension, he must have plenty of upgrade cards.
"That's all for today. Everyone digest this and prepare yourselves..." Coach Napoleon sighed.
Zane and Bastion Misawa going missing had left him unable to think about tea or food. These were genuine top students of their school, the bedrock of the academy's growth and strength, yet now they were lost in an unfamiliar place.
Crowler also sighed repeatedly. Although he had finally told the students this difficult matter, he remained deeply worried, afraid they wouldn't be able to bring the people back. After the meeting ended, he left the conference room directly, clearly heading back to the principal's office to phone KaibaCorp about the situation again.
Hikaru watched the two teachers leave one after the other, wanting to help but not knowing what to say to console them.
And at that moment.
In his ears, that once-familiar sound rang out again: a strange, otherworldly dragon's roar!
Hikaru froze.
The Crimson Dragon was summoning him again!