There was no time to be moved by Hikaru and Serena's duel. Coming up next was Yusei Fudo versus Rin.
When the audience saw an identical person driving back out onto the field, quite a few doubted their eyes. But seeing the completely different name, and Serena leaving the track on the other side, they didn't dwell on it too much.
Sigh. Just people who look the same. Nothing to make a fuss over.
Looks like they must be twins, since they look identical.
As for one being a Fusion user and the other a Synchro user, or twins or whatever else, that wasn't in the audience's range of consideration.
Dueling Yusei Fudo also had Rin extremely excited.
On one hand, as a duelist, she certainly wanted to duel more outstanding duelists. On the other, for Rin and Yugo, Yusei Fudo occupied basically the same position for them that Hikaru did for Serena.
Only, Serena truly considered Hikaru her master, whereas Yugo and Rin merely respected Yusei Fudo.
But actually, Yusei Fudo really was the young couple's "teacher."
Both Yugo and Rin were actually very sharp, especially Yugo. Although he came across as a bit of a goofball in daily conduct, on the scientific side his mind was extremely outstanding. In the original series, he and Rin had built a D-Wheel by themselves out of junk.
In this world, with Yusei Fudo by his side, whatever he couldn't figure out he could just ask. It could be said his growth was much faster than in the original.
Of course, only in "technical level."
Yugo himself still admired Jack Atlas more, and preferred Jack Atlas's dueling style. So on the dueling side, it was Rin who studied more seriously.
In any case, being able to duel Yusei was, for Rin, both exciting and motivating, especially since watching Serena just duel her own teacher and even accomplish a "breakthrough" made her all the more excited.
By the time Hikaru and Serena returned to the starting point, Yusei and Rin were already prepared. Hikaru and Yusei high-fived as they crossed paths, then Hikaru slowly slowed down and stopped in front of the base.
Only during this window could the various teams in the competition have any exchange, so Hikaru had come here specifically to talk with Serena.
Actually, Hikaru was especially satisfied with Serena's performance today.
Extra Deck Fusion wasn't a very difficult thing. In fact, Serena's "Lunalight Fusion" could do exactly this. It was only that previously she hadn't had good opportunities to use it.
But the "Heavy Polymerization" Serena had used today was a completely different concept.
At a glance, both were Fusions, both were Extra Deck Fusions, seemingly no different. But actually, they were entirely different concepts in terms of understanding of Fusion.
Lunalight Fusion came from Serena's innate "Moon" ability, a special ability she could possess in the first place.
Heavy Polymerization, meanwhile, was completely pure Fusion!
Through study and effort, Serena had used alchemy herself to create a Fusion Spell that belonged to her, one that could perform Extra Deck Fusions, and a Fusion Spell that could be given to any other person to use.
This alone was already very impressive.
Hikaru and Serena chatted for a long time. Serena also took the chance to ask about some recent difficult points in alchemy she didn't understand. Hikaru answered them one by one. When she'd about finished asking, Hikaru pulled out a spare card.
"Master, this is?"
Looking at the card Hikaru handed her, Serena's breathing grew a bit quicker.
This was a card, a monster card.
A Pendulum Monster card!
Lunalight Tiger!
Lunalight Wolf!
Pendulum Monsters.
And the effects were very strong!
She looked at the cards, stared blankly for a moment, then gradually understood.
With the birth of Pendulum Monsters, brand-new "Fusions" would gradually appear too. She could actually master and use more and more monsters, could have more variations in duels, could accumulate more Fusion Materials!
"Pendulum Monsters, you should know about them too." Hikaru held the two monster cards, thinking as he spoke.
Serena had already known about Pendulum Monsters as far back as Hikaru's duel with Leo Akaba. But because Pendulum Summoning "didn't exist," even Hikaru had no way to use them.
It wasn't until recently, when Pendulum truly existed in the world, that Pendulum Monsters began to be born like a bursting well.
These two cards, Hikaru had actually prepared long ago. After all, the Pendulum Monsters Leo Akaba had used originally were created by gathering the power data of Serena, Rin, and Lulu, using his "father" identity to bring them into being.
So whether Serena or Rin or Lulu, all three had long since adapted to the power of "Pendulum." It was just that Hikaru himself didn't know what kind of Pendulum Monsters they could use, so Hikaru couldn't help them either.
In contrast, the Pendulum Monsters Serena used, Hikaru did know about. So he could try to refine them.
"These two cards, I'd originally prepared to give to you as gifts at a better moment. Like a birthday, or the beginning of the next school year, or some kind of holiday. But after today's duel ended, I thought... today is the best moment."
"Yes!" Serena wasn't good with words, but looking at the cards, she understood Hikaru's feelings. Since that was so, there was no need for her to be affected. That wasn't her personality. She decisively took the cards and continued to Hikaru: "Master, I'll definitely work hard. Next time, please duel me again!"
"However many times, I'll be happy to, Serena." Hikaru smiled, waved, and parted with Serena.
Serena watched Hikaru's back for a good while before finally shaking her head. Looking at the two brand-new cards in her hand, she cheered "yeah!" excitedly, punched the air, thrilled beyond measure.
Hikaru returned to his team's logistics room. Over there, Crow was serving as temporary logistics, watching the match. Seeing Hikaru come back, he called out a "good work," then beckoned him over to watch the duel.
Toward the duel with Team Moonwind Bird, Team 5D's had always been very calm, very relaxed, as if this match weren't a match at all.
But this actually wasn't because Team 5D's thought Team Moonwind Bird wasn't strong enough. It was that this side simply understood the other side too well.
Hikaru understood Serena very well. Yusei and Crow, meanwhile, especially understood Rin and Yugo. Aside from Lulu, everyone on that team was intimately known to this side.
Nothing else needed saying. Yugo and Rin had basically grown up in Yusei's sight, and Serena's dueling and alchemy had all been taught by Hikaru.
Yugo really was very smart. From an inventing-and-creating perspective, he was an absolute genius. But people had to be compared with people.
Yusei was older than him, more experienced than him, smarter than him, had learned earlier than him. In every aspect he was a super-sized Yugo. So although Yugo respected Yusei too, he never looked forward to dueling Yusei.
After all, it was dueling with a completely identical style. Playing it out was, for Yugo at his age when he preferred to play, honestly rather taxing on the brain. So he looked forward more to dueling flashy duelists like Jack.
By the same token, Rin also understood clearly.
Dueling Yusei, this super-enhanced version of Yugo, or dueling this multiply-enhanced big brother, without using her head there was no way to win.
So she'd gone all-out from her opening first turn, determined to shave off all of Yusei's Life Points on the first turn through her Windwitch's effects.
But at that very moment, Yusei pulled off a trick many people had never seen.
Effect Veiler!
The card "Effect Veiler," by discarding itself, could target 1 Effect Monster on the opponent's field during the opponent's Main Phase and negate that monster until the end of the turn.
Because of this card, Rin's tactic was ultimately jammed at the crucial point. She had no way to shave off Yusei's Life Points, giving Yusei room to breathe and duel.
Next turn, Yusei performed consecutive tunings and easily leapt over Rin's blockade.
A similar scene repeated itself, but this time the opponent and operator had switched.
Third match. Jack wasn't there. Crow volunteered to take the field. Yugo was elated, ready to "avenge" Rin and win this duel. And then he received Crow's "warm welcome."
Black-Winged Assault Dragon!
A member of that "unbeatable combo" that had once driven Shinji to despair, that even Hikaru had found tricky, and that many duelists cried out was invincible after seeing it!
Every time the opponent activated a monster effect, place 1 Black Feather Counter on this card and inflict 700 damage to the opponent.
However, upon seeing Crow bring out this monster with the first move, Yugo wasn't tense. On the contrary, he was very confident.
He laughed and claimed he'd long since had a way to defeat Black-Winged Assault Dragon. Only 700 per monster effect looked strong, but efficiency-wise it actually wasn't as quick as Rin's burn. Yugo had dueled Rin plenty of times, and though he lost more than he won, he had experience.
"Idiot..." Hearing Yugo's silly-sounding words, Crow was somewhat speechless. "Have you been spacing out lately or something?"
Indeed, in terms of LP-shaving, Black-Winged Assault Dragon wasn't really that invincible. But that didn't mean Black-Winged Assault Dragon only had one effect. Black-Winged Assault Dragon could, on the opponent's turn, tribute itself with 4 or more Black Feather Counters to activate. All cards on the field are destroyed.
This was an effect that had never successfully been activated before, and one Crow hadn't often used. Even in the preliminaries, he hadn't used this effect, keeping it hidden all along.
After all, ordinary preliminaries only needed the use of Blackwing monsters. He couldn't really bring out Black-Winged Assault Dragon or straight-up Earthbound Immortals, could he? He wasn't out to kill anyone.
And precisely because of this, he'd hidden this effect very deep. Almost no one knew about it.
When Yugo heard this, he got a huge scare and nearly couldn't drive steadily.
But fortunately, Yugo's Synchro Dragon was strong enough, so he was able to withstand this effect. But even so, cold sweat streamed down Yugo's brow.
Almost got instantly killed by Big Brother Crow!
To prove his ideas and tactics, he'd used almost all his cards. If the whole field had been blown up, next turn Crow could easily use the Blackwings' sustained-play ability to Synchro out a row of monsters all over again.
"Amazing..." Bommer watched Crow in the duel and couldn't help sighing in admiration. "So amazing, they..."
Halldor nodded.
Hikaru, Yusei Fudo, Crow Hogan, each of them was quite outstanding. Not only on the dueling level, but on other levels they had unique qualities as well.
Bommer hadn't paid much attention to people other than Yusei and Hikaru before. Now, seeing that Crow was also especially popular during duels, and the online people slandering and belittling Team 5D's rarely spoke ill of Crow, it made all the more clear that this man who "promoted renewed contact between the upper and lower classes" wasn't just filler.
"A hero who rescues children." Dragan didn't hold ill will toward Crow. Especially knowing that this was someone who really had saved children, he held even less ill will.
Halldor nodded too.
The Nordic trio had one consensus, and that was "children are the hope of the future."
Even Dragan, the more stubborn one, wouldn't have any other thoughts on this. Bommer, moreover, had specifically sought the power of the Aesir in order to raise his own adopted children.
Meanwhile, on the other side...
Declan Akaba watched the match and sank into deep thought.
Rin, Serena, and that Yugo.
They should be Ray and Zarc's "counterparts," shouldn't they?
In other words, like Zuzu Boyle and Yuya Sakaki in his world, they were special beings possessing the "Adam Factor."
Their ages should be about the same. Looking at "power," it also seemed like there wasn't much difference. Only Serena was clearly a cut above the rest. As for the others, whether Rin or Yugo, they were at least slightly ahead.
In other words, Yuya Sakaki and Zuzu Boyle in their world were just barely at this level too. Perhaps Yuya Sakaki's power was somewhat higher, but not by much.
Their world had started too late. After Yuya awakened the power of Pendulum, he hadn't experienced any duels worth mentioning. Although there was that Mr. Yugi Muto's enlightenment, it was only his own personal realization. His actual strength hadn't grown much, only his mindset. The whole world, aside from Declan himself, had no idea of the "vastness" of other worlds.
"It seems... this match can only be about purely accumulating experience." Declan Akaba said thoughtfully.
Behind him, in the window, in the reflection, Sophia's brow tightened slightly.
If it had been last month, before she came to this world, hearing Declan Akaba say this, she might have questioned his judgment. But now she could understand his line of thinking.
Not enough time.
Too soon.
This wasn't beating one's own drum down and building up others. It was fact.
The Pendulum Dimension's people lacked genuine great battles, while people from other dimensions had long since gone through all kinds of things. Whether Synchro, Xyz, or Fusion, all kinds of things and even crises had happened in their own worlds. And the Pendulum Dimension, under LDS Corporation's protection, on the contrary had never come into contact with crises, and had fallen behind because of it.
Even if Team Pendulum could push into the WRGP's main event, wanting to seize the "One God" throne was an especially difficult task.
Unless...
Unless every opponent Team Pendulum faced was precisely just a bit stronger than them, one that could push out their strength without leaving them unable to cope.
But clearly, even Sophia, this god who didn't understand human hearts, could see that the WRGP officials had deliberately arranged opponents for them that fell into two categories: "opponents completely inappropriate for this point in time" and "opponents essentially here as tourists." Clearly they felt this team was there for the sake of joining in the fun, and considering the Pendulum Dimension's diplomatic relations, they hadn't eliminated them during the preliminaries.
The likes of Hikaru or Team Despair were opponents Team Pendulum's members completely could not defeat right now. Aside from these people, their team's opponents were entirely head-count duelists. In Sophia's view, dueling them felt worse than dueling a passing spirit in the DT Dimension.
Where was there a chance to grow, a chance to break through oneself, to fight and grow through fighting?
In other words, the team she was on, her "God's Chosen," was destined to have difficulty catching up to Tierra's team.
Declan Akaba himself could accept this. He knew that no matter how hard he tried, he alone couldn't play a whole team. He instead began thinking during his spare time about how to use this match to make people of his own world aware of the crisis and grow because of it, strengthening his own world's power to cope with other dimensions.
Clearly, the perpetual motion machine and Solid Vision technology were the best pairing. As for the risks within... the current situation of their world seemed to leave him no room to hesitate anymore.
Of course, when it came to dueling, he still had to go all-out. Even if it really was 1-versus-3, he wouldn't back down. Otherwise, how could he call himself a duelist?
But Sophia couldn't accept this.
Although she wasn't a "duelist," she had one thing she absolutely couldn't accept.
That was that she absolutely could not accept defaulting to admitting, without even fighting, that her choice was surely not as correct as Tierra's choice.
No. Not even in death!