Enormous mecha descended from the sky, and crimson-red light pierced through the entire city.
Everywhere was gunsmoke, everywhere were vicious, wildly laughing invaders.
Under the purple light, family, friends, and classmates turned into scattered cards. Pain and blood flowed through every corner of Heartland.
That day, he had watched with his own eyes as his little sister was abducted by those bastards in purple uniforms.
"Lulu!!!"
Shay Obsidian roared as he jolted upright, his forehead drenched in cold sweat.
He gasped for breath, coming back to himself, and found that he seemed to be lying in an unfamiliar room. Around him were things he wasn't at all familiar with. Now and then he could spot a few photographs, which seemed to be pictures of Yuto and Lulu together. Except the scenes in those photographs weren't any scene from his memory, and besides, Lulu wasn't the type to go for a joyride in a racing jacket.
"Big brother, are you awake?"
Just as he was staring blankly, a girl outside the door heard the sound and ran in, looking at him as she asked.
Shay Obsidian's eyes went wide.
Not a dream.
Not far off, Serena and Rin, having heard the commotion over here, snuck a peek too.
Lulu's big brother, and a real, blood-related big brother at that!
For them, this kind of thing was also something quite out of the ordinary.
Although before this, they had all imagined at some point whether they had family or not, they now all knew that they were, in fact, the same person from different dimensions, "split" from one origin.
Because of this, their imaginations about their "father" had stopped short there. They couldn't exactly imagine that one day Leo Akaba would turn into a kind old gentleman.
Precisely for that reason, they had basically given up imagining they had "family." So now, that Lulu Obsidian actually still had an original, genuine, blood-related big brother, how could that not both delight and astonish them?
So even after the "split," you could still have normal family relations?
Meanwhile, Hikaru glanced over a couple of times and didn't keep watching that side. Instead, he checked over his own Deck.
After the duel, once Shay Obsidian had passed out, Hikaru and the others had come to Rin's base, which was the nearest.
Of course, calling it a base was generous, it was really just the inspection and maintenance space provided by the WRGP officials. But even this small bit of private space, for Yugo and Rin, was something they'd dreamed of before.
After all, for kids from downtown, being able to get a private garage in the upper city was already pretty exciting.
For that reason, they'd put a lot of decorations up in the place, dressing it up like a home of their own. It looked warm and inviting, someone who didn't know might think this place would be theirs once the tournament ended.
But even if they'd have to clean up and hand it back when the competition was over, Hikaru figured the two of them would still enjoy every bit of it.
As for Shay Obsidian's extreme hostility toward Fusion duelists, in Hikaru's view it was no big deal at all.
It wasn't that Hikaru himself had turned indifferent to the outside world.
The real reason was that Hikaru could understand and grasp Shay Obsidian's mental state.
Watching family, friends, and loved ones "die" before his own eyes, and doing everything he could to rescue his abducted little sister, Shay Obsidian had gone to every length he possibly could. In the original series, Shay's early performance looked pretty much like part of the "Xyz army" himself, turning people into cards at the drop of a hat.
But this problem wasn't his fault.
Yes, Shay Obsidian's behavior was extreme in a way that looked much like the Fusion army, but these were two different things.
The Fusion army were genuine invaders, perpetrators. Shay Obsidian, meanwhile, was a victim reacting under this invasion.
You couldn't say that because Shay Obsidian had been driven to extremes by the Fusion army, he and the Fusion army were both bad. That wasn't logic.
What Hikaru could do was one thing: get him to calm down, then explain everything openly and clearly.
Fortunately, on his side, besides his own mouth, he had a "secret weapon." That was Shay Obsidian's little sister, the sister he had dreamed of finding, Lulu Obsidian.
Hikaru flipped through his cards and saw a card slowly blinking.
Heavy Bomber Raptor - Bomb the Undead Demon Bird.
Hikaru rubbed his chin.
Actually, over this recent stretch of time, he'd been getting new cards fairly regularly. After nearly every duel, he could extract some cards from the dueling energy. Some of them he consolidated and used, and some he set aside temporarily as backup.
On top of that, although the "power" of Super Polymerization had become even stronger, in the end he had gradually mastered the power of Super Polymerization too. On most days, he was using the duel energy obtained through Super Polymerization for directed creation of Fusion Monsters. So he hadn't put much study into changing his deck.
But today was different.
He truly hadn't planned to duel someone in the middle of the road, much less run into someone like Shay Obsidian.
So he was quite curious what kind of cards would appear today.
He hadn't expected the result to be Heavy Bomber Raptor - Bomb the Undead Demon Bird.
This card, compared to the overall impression Shay Obsidian had given him in the original series, had a rather large gap. But if you compared it to Shay Obsidian as he was now, then it was actually quite close.
The one thing that stood out most was that this monster, whose title said Raptor and whose name said Bird, was essentially a FIRE-Type Fusion Monster.
This card was quite outstanding in both its Fusion conditions and its effect. The Fusion conditions were a Machine-Type and FIRE-Type monster, which meant Hikaru could reserve two extra Main Deck slots for different Types of cards.
And its effect was a bit "terrifying."
During his own Main Phase, he could inflict 300 damage to the opponent for each card on the opponent's field. This effect couldn't attack the turn it was activated. This effect could only be used once per turn.
This was an extremely powerful effect.
At first glance, it looked ordinary. But actually, this card's effect was exceptionally exaggerated. In the "Master Duel" format Hikaru was quite fond of, the manga version of Crimson Dragon's final form could, during Main Phase, Special Summon equal numbers of Dai Grepher Evil God Tokens on both fields as much as possible. With just a little preparation, it could instantly finish off an opponent, making it an excellent FTK component.
Of course, in this world "Crimson Dragon" clearly wasn't a card just anyone could use, so this card's actual value in play wasn't especially high. But even so, this kind of simple, efficient LP-shaving component was still very nice.
All in all, with this card, Hikaru was quite satisfied.
Flutter, flap. A series of soft dull sounds rang out. Hikaru glanced at the rest room and put away the things in his hand.
Shay Obsidian had already learned everything from Lulu Obsidian.
At first, he hadn't believed it. He'd even suspected his little sister had been brainwashed.
But as Lulu Obsidian continued to explain, and as he recalled the process of the duel, he gradually began to believe.
Other things could deceive people, but a duelist's performance in a duel could absolutely not lie. As a duelist, as someone with a will of iron, as someone who performed "Rank-Up" through his own will, everything in a duel was something you could trust.
Only, before, he'd been so hostile toward Fusion duelists that even though Hikaru had several times indicated he had no ill intent, he had instinctively been unable to trust him.
Once everything had come to light, Shay Obsidian even learned from Lulu that she had sent letters home before. As a result, Shay Obsidian, who had already secretly left the Xyz Dimension long ago, had had no way to find them.
On this point, Kite Tenjo could vouch for her. Shay Obsidian could refuse to trust Hikaru, but the character of that Kite Tenjo from his own world, he trusted absolutely.
With verifiable information like this, Lulu had all the less reason to lie to her own brother. Combined with the two other "Lulus" nearby explaining the recent competition, he had gradually come to understand what they were doing.
So they were participating in the WRGP tournament.
However, in spite of all this, Shay Obsidian was still very unhappy. Because between the lines, he could hear the admiration Lulu Obsidian had for Hikaru.
He was her big brother, and even he had never earned this much respect from Lulu.
Shay Obsidian came before Hikaru. His straight back was, like his soul, unbending.
But the moment he opened his mouth...
"My deepest apologies!"
He bowed to Hikaru, doubling over in a formal apology.
"Thank you so much for saving Lulu!"
He finished his first shout, then immediately followed with a second.
"Uh, no need, no need. Really not necessary." Hikaru waved both hands, indicating there was no need for such solemnity.
But for Shay Obsidian, no degree of solemnity was excessive.
Shay Obsidian even said that so long as it wasn't a matter of harming his own compatriots, whatever Hikaru asked of him, even if he ended up turned into a card for having offended him, he wouldn't mind.
"Brother!!" Lulu beside them was extremely unhappy.
She'd told him not to trouble Amagi.
In this dimension, Amagi still had many things to attend to, still had to find his own friends, when did he have time to waste on you?
At this moment, Lulu was feeling an inexplicable sense of embarrassment.
That embarrassment was probably like the kind at a school parents' meeting, where your own family member says something nonsensical in front of a friend's family, and it's both awkward and mortifying, and you wish you could crawl into a crack in the ground.
"There's no need to be so serious..." Hikaru shook his head.
"That said, there are actually some things I'm quite curious about, some things I really hope you can help with."
Shay Obsidian grew wary.
Clearly, although he was very grateful to Hikaru, he would still judge Hikaru's requests. If it were something unjust, he absolutely would not agree as easily as he'd said out loud.
"I want to know what actually happened in the Xyz Dimension." Hikaru looked at Shay Obsidian, his tone serious. "You know, don't you? The Xyz Dimension has two Fusion duelists who went missing. They are my senior brother Zane Truesdale and my friend Bastion Misawa. What exactly did they encounter? Why did they go missing?
What actually happened, this is very important to me!"
What had actually happened to Zane Truesdale and Bastion Misawa in the Xyz Dimension was extremely important to Hikaru, and it was something he'd been puzzled about for a long time.
How did those two just so bizarrely end up in trouble?
"Zane Truesdale and Bastion Misawa..." The wariness on Shay Obsidian's face slowly dissolved, then he began weighing his words carefully.
"Where Zane Truesdale is exactly, I don't know. But Bastion Misawa, he's currently on the City Hall team, and he's on the same team as me."
City Hall team.
Wasn't that the team Syrus believed his "Zane" was on?
"He's lost his memory." Shay Obsidian thought about it, then chose to speak the truth. "It seems that because of forced dimensional teleportation, he took a severe shock. Currently he's been taken in and looked after by Goodwin, the president of this dimension's City. He works in Goodwin's City Hall.
Because whenever the subject of the past comes up, he shows extreme signs of pain, so we haven't had any way to try to awaken his memory.
However, when he's dueling or watching duels, this condition can be slightly relieved, and he can even recall a few things."
Hikaru's brow knit deeply.
Judging by the sound of it, Bastion's condition really wasn't good.
Amnesia?
Just recalling causes him pain?
Was it the body's natural defensive mechanism, or something else?
Hikaru hadn't forgotten what Yusei had said before.
He'd investigated nearly every place in this world and hadn't been able to find any trace of Zane Truesdale and Bastion Misawa. Either they had deliberately hidden their information, or there was some especially high-ranking existence covering up their existence.
Goodwin.
That guy definitely had additional plans.
"What about the other one? Polaris, the one on your same team!"
Hikaru hurriedly pressed further.
"I don't know." Shay Obsidian silently shook his head.
Although in appearance he too felt that person did resemble Zane Truesdale a little, whether it was in dueling or in aura, they were completely different.
That Polaris, inexplicably gave off a feeling of being "a native of the Synchro Dimension."
So he just treated that Polaris as someone with a build similar to Zane Truesdale's.
And more importantly, he had no way to have a conversation with that person either.
"Huh, why not?" Lulu cut in. "Aren't you and he on the same team?"
"About that..." Shay, when facing his little sister, was especially gentle and patient. "Although Goodwin calls himself the president, he isn't really someone who can control the whole City. For the City Hall team, as the government team, being able to slot in three people is already the most he could push for. The remaining contestant is a duelist recommended by the nobles, who also lives in the noble quarter under normal circumstances."
Deliberately kept apart!?
Hikaru's brow furrowed even tighter.
Goodwin...
Not only had he deliberately dispersed the various teams from each other at an isolation-tier level, even within a single team, there was this kind of arrangement?
What on earth was he trying to do?
Hikaru thought it over.
He didn't believe the nobles could sit down and have it out directly with Goodwin. That was absolutely impossible. The nobles had already died twice over. No matter how "core-benevolent" Goodwin was, the surviving forces among the nobles were absolutely no longer as vast as they had been. So the current situation was either that Goodwin was letting the nobles act this way on purpose, or that this was how he had arranged for it to be done.
Either way, it meant Goodwin absolutely had his own plans.
He drew a deep breath.
This matter had to be discussed not only with his companions from the Fusion Dimension, but also with Yusei afterward.
Seeing that Hikaru had finished thinking, Shay Obsidian had also finally worked out his own thoughts.
And this was something that both Hikaru and Lulu were extremely curious about.
The Xyz Dimension, what exactly had happened there?
"The Xyz Dimension..."
"All the chaos was because of that person."
"That Goddess of Despair..."
When he raised this name, an expression more ferocious than the one he'd shown at the sight of the Fusion army rose onto Shay Obsidian's face.
"E-Ra!"
...
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