After the long-delayed vacation, Hikaru had Team 5D's friends stay in the Fusion Dimension's base to rest for a while. He himself followed Syrus and the others toward City Hall.
Yusei originally wanted to go along, but after mentioning it a couple of times, Jaden directly pulled him back and told him to rest properly.
"Though Hikaru is a Team 5D's member, this duel belongs to our world, Yusei." Jaden had a smile on his face, no excess explanation.
Yusei hesitated for a moment, didn't force it, nodded.
For Team 5D's, this duel wasn't needed. Before the duel started, Hikaru had already met City Hall team's Yuto and Shay Obsidian. Later, Yusei had also met them. So this duel didn't really need acknowledgment.
Even if acknowledgment was needed, what was needed was acknowledgment from two unknown people.
And those two people were friends the Fusion Dimension was collectively searching for, needing to recover.
Zane Truesdale, Bastion Misawa. Though it currently couldn't be 100% confirmed that "Polaris" was Zane, there was no information from other places. Duel Academy could only place hope in this duel.
So the main force of the duel could only be Duel Academy, Fusion Dimension members!
The participation method was still joint duel. Team 5D's and the Fusion Dimension team would jointly face the City Hall team. Still three rounds, two wins.
But actually, those mainly participating in the duel were Syrus, Atticus Rhodes, and Mokuba Kaiba who'd come along.
Mokuba Kaiba actually took this duel very seriously. For one, this was his first world-class major duel. For another, as the current executor of nearly 99% of Kaiba Corporation's strategies, with outstanding students and graduates of the subsidiary academy disappearing in another world, this was also an unshirkable responsibility for him.
Not long after, Hikaru and the others arrived before City Hall. Mokuba Kaiba showed his identification. After the guards checked, they opened the path.
"The Fusion Dimension's diplomatic team already pre-booked today's duel and meeting," the patrolling Public Security Officer said into the walkie-talkie. "Please send someone over immediately to guide them."
In a few minutes, Jack's old acquaintance, one of his pursuers, strode up quickly. After saluting Mokuba and the others, she led them inside.
Days ago, Mokuba Kaiba had already communicated with Rex Goodwin and arranged to come to City Hall today to duel with City Hall team members.
"Morning."
After a bit more time, Mokuba and the others finally arrived at City Hall's dueling arena.
Hikaru spotted Yuto and Shay at a glance and greeted them.
Yuto lightly nodded. Shay Obsidian beside him looked slightly embarrassed, his eyes flickering briefly, responded with a sound.
And besides them...
Hikaru looked at the man sitting on the long bench to the side, reading a book.
Bastion Misawa.
"Ah, Misawa!" Syrus also saw Misawa.
Misawa heard the voice, was startled for a moment, raised his head to glance at Hikaru and the others, furrowed his brow, tried to greet them, then his brow furrowed deeper, his expression grew bad. He couldn't help lowering his head.
This scene stunned the Fusion Dimension companions.
"Tania, what's going on?" Hikaru asked.
This out-of-nowhere question left Shay Obsidian and the others somewhat baffled, not understanding who Hikaru was asking.
Tania?
Who was that?
Fusion Dimension dialect?
Only Yuto could vaguely understand his meaning.
He followed these people's gaze toward Misawa's side.
Actually, ever since he'd met Misawa, he'd always felt there was something strange around Misawa. At first, he'd thought it was his own illusion. Later he'd realized it was a ghost-like existence.
But at that time, he didn't understand the specific situation, only knew it was a strange spirit body. Now he already knew that was...
A spirit.
Tania.
A spirit of the Amazoness tribe, and also Misawa's lover. Ever since Misawa lost his memories, she'd stayed by his side, not budging an inch.
Seeing Hikaru and the others appear, especially seeing Hikaru, Tania finally let out a long sigh of relief.
She began explaining to Hikaru and the others.
Ever since Misawa came to this world from the Xyz Dimension, he'd unexpectedly lost his memories. Not only that, each time he tried hard to recall the past, he'd feel intense pain and dizziness.
More importantly, due to unknown reasons, Tania's voice couldn't even reach Misawa's ears. It was as if he himself had been cut off from the connection with spirits, from recognition of them.
As if he couldn't recognize spirits!
Not only that, even when Tania tried to use physical touch to make Misawa realize her existence, she'd ultimately fail due to various reasons.
Now, Tania was physically and mentally exhausted. The heart to protect Misawa from harm was what supported her to keep going.
"What about the other one?" Atticus Rhodes anxiously asked.
Regardless, Misawa had been found. This was a good thing.
But where was Zane!?
Where had Zane gone!
"Calm down, friends of the Fusion Dimension."
In that moment, the dueling arena's giant screen suddenly lit up. A gentlemanly middle-aged man appeared on the screen. He was precisely City's first President, Rex Goodwin!
At this moment, his hands were clasped with ten fingers interlocked. He sat upright in a chair, looking straight ahead, softly saying: "Apologies, everyone. Though I very much want to fulfill everyone's request, the City Hall team isn't the President team. So I can't make the entire team consist of Presidential Palace members.
And Mr. Polaris is a member recommended by the nobles. To this day he's still in the Noble Elder Council. If everyone doesn't have a good performance, he won't appear."
He spoke words that to Hikaru sounded like complete nonsense.
"You mean, we must first complete two rounds before possibly meeting Zane?" Atticus furrowed his brow, shouting at the screen.
"As you think, Mr. Rhodes." Goodwin's reply affirmed Atticus's thinking.
"Ha, if that's the case, then let's go!" Mokuba Kaiba was very interested.
In this grand tournament, he basically appeared whenever he could, win or lose, never tiring.
Now with a chance to duel with Synchro and Xyz duelists, he was very excited.
Misawa lowered his head to look at the book in his hands, clearly not interested in the first round. Shay Obsidian and Yuto exchanged glances, hesitated for a moment.
"Duel with full force." Hikaru said with a smile from the side. "Only full-force dueling can make the nobles send out the final duelist, right?"
The two exchanged glances again, nodded.
"Alright then, I'll go."
Yuto proactively took on the first duel.
So the others cleanly stepped aside, letting Yuto and Mokuba stand in the center of the dueling arena.
Hikaru's group sat in the audience seats, sizing up the two.
Hikaru knew the deck Mokuba Kaiba used.
A Thunder Dragon deck centered on Thunder Dragon Colossus, equipped with 3 Thunder Dragon Colossus, three Twin-Headed Thunder Dragons, and one main-deck Thunder Dragonduo, combined with Thunder Dragons' Hundred Thunders and Thunder Dragon Discharge plus plenty of other Trap Cards, a Monarch-type deck using restricted search for resource trading.
In the past month, Mokuba Kaiba had dueled this dimension's duelists several times, performance quite good.
But in the game of Yu-Gi-Oh, there was a wonderful rule mystery. It was precisely this rule mystery that made all duelists absolutely never underestimate their opponents.
"The deck Yuto uses is Phantom Knights, right?" Hikaru asked.
Beside him, Shay Obsidian lightly nodded.
"Then his ace card is?"
Hikaru was curious.
Yuto hadn't merged with Yuya Sakaki, was still a separate individual. So what was his ace card?
Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon?
If it was only that, dueling Thunder Dragon Colossus would be a bit strenuous.
"Heh, it'll appear soon, no need to rush." Shay Obsidian actually started teasing.
But just as he said, Yuto was about to use his ace monster.
"Using the three monsters on the field as Xyz Materials, conduct an Xyz Summon!"
Yuto's face grew slightly pale. A few drops of sweat fell from his forehead. A strange symbol appeared on his forehead.
Hikaru slowly widened his eyes.
"Number 16: Shock Master!"
With Yuto's call, a strangely shaped purple crystalline angel rumbled onto the ground.
"Shock Master, once per turn, can detach one Xyz Material, declare one card type to activate. Until the end of the opponent's second turn after this effect is activated, declared type of the opponent's cards' effects are negated!"
"I declare, Monster Cards!"
Holy!
He activated it!?
Hikaru couldn't help sitting up to watch. Atticus Rhodes and Syrus were even more shocked, eyes widened.
"Two-turn one-way negation?" Atticus was stunned.
"And it's a continuous effect. Even if a card like Share the Pain resolves this monster, the negation will still continue?" Syrus muttered to himself.
A few days ago, the Team 5D's and Xyz Dimension duel against Team Despair, they'd naturally watched. Heroic Champion Rhongomyniad and Heraldry Crest's terrifying effects, even now, they couldn't forget.
After all, each one of those was an absurdly strong monster.
Originally, they'd thought this kind of monster should be relatively rare, powerful monsters, impossible to encounter again in a short time.
But...
Didn't expect that within two days of going up themselves to duel, they'd encountered one!
Two-turn negation was too absurd!
Hikaru furrowed his brow.
Shock Master?
Why would it be in Yuto's hands.
Shock Master, one of many absurd lockdown Forbidden cards among Xyz Monsters, possessed a simple appearance method and absurd lockdown effect.
The real card Shock Master could detach one material to declare a type of card. Both sides couldn't activate it, but continuous effects could still be used.
But the original work's Shock Master not only had one more turn of continuous effect, but became a one-way effect. It wouldn't affect itself! Even more, it was negation. That is, even continuous-effect monsters, like battle-destruction-resistance type effects, would be negated.
"This is really unlucky." Hikaru stroked his chin, muttering.
Though under the original Shock Master's effect, Mokuba Kaiba could activate Thunder-Type monster effects in his hand, their effects would be negated. And even if he Normal Summoned a monster to become Thunder Dragon Colossus, Thunder Dragon Colossus's lockdown effect would instantly disappear. Even the sub-destruction effect would be removed.
More importantly, Shock Master was a Number monster. It would only be defeated by Number monsters.
Even if Thunder Dragon Colossus was summoned, it would be beaten to the ground by Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon.
Truly tragic.
Hikaru raised his brow, watching Mokuba sweat cold while trying his best to think of methods.
This might be one of dueling's pleasures.
Or dueling's wonderful rule mysteries.
When you use a specific rare deck, you just happen to encounter an equally rare deck. Even more terrifying, the opponent's deck happens to counter you.
Not that they're targeting you, just very unlucky.
Like playing Lightsworn or Infernoid, opponent Sets 2 in hand. During your turn you drop a Maxx "C", you instinctively use Called by the Grave, result opponent flips Where Arf Thou? Game is dead.
Even more terrifying, this kind of thing actually isn't rare.
Nearly every player who plays niche or rare decks always encounters this situation in MD, YGO, or offline card shops.
Of course, the current situation actually isn't that close.
After all, a card like Shock Master is purely kicking everyone.
"Fortunately, there's only one Shock Master in the world." Atticus Rhodes slowly exhaled.
He'd just thought a bit and found Shock Master was a very terrifying card, especially in decks that could multi-Rank-4-Xyz. Like the Heraldic Beast deck Hikaru had used could easily summon multiple Shock Masters.
If three Shock Masters were Xyz Summoned, even Hikaru couldn't possibly handle it.
"Did Yuma not recover this card?" Hikaru had some curiosity.
In his impression, this card appeared around episode 10-something in the original work, recovered very early. Why was it in Yuto's hands?
"It was the Fusion Army..." Shay Obsidian heard Hikaru's question, furrowed his brow, sighed, and roughly explained.
This world ultimately changed in many ways because of the Fusion Army and dimensional exchanges.
When Yuma started collecting Number cards, the Fusion Army also launched attacks. At that time, Yuma's main energy was divided by the Fusion Army. Some Number card holders went berserk. To obtain power to fight the Fusion Army remnants, to stop the Number holder's berserk, Yuto was forced to duel Number 16's holder, forcibly taking Number 16.
Yuto, relying on his own will and fighting spirit, forcibly held off Number 16's mental corrosion. Since then, he occasionally felt pain.
Later, when Yuma wanted to recover Shock Master from Yuto, Yuto was already planning with Shay Obsidian to find a way to smuggle to other dimensions, and didn't go participate in Heart Garden's dueling tournament.
He wasn't interested in other Number monsters. He only wanted to find Ruri. Even Shock Master, he actually didn't particularly care about. He just had to have Number power to deal with those spirits controlled by the Fusion Army.
Now, he'd already found Ruri. Next, he just wanted to finish this WRGP tournament with Shay Obsidian and Ruri. Later, when returning to the Xyz Dimension, he'd apologize to Yuma.
But regardless, since the duel was to be full-force, it had to be full force.
The result was Mokuba Kaiba, though trying very hard to struggle, ultimately failed. He sighed helplessly, finally losing the duel.
A bad start, but still fine.
"Sorry for not winning the first round."
"No problem, Mr. Kaiba. You dueled very well." Atticus Rhodes, when not courting death, was quite agreeable. Seeing Mokuba give up, he stood up to go on stage.
"Let me take over next."
He hadn't gone to the Star War dimension to get Dragonmaid. So he decided to give the chance to duel Zane to Syrus, who was more suitable. But before that, there had to be a chance to meet Zane.
So Atticus Rhodes decided to take the second slot and duel Misawa.
Regardless, Misawa was also his cute junior. Leaving him alone like this wasn't right.
Misawa glanced at Shay Obsidian, noticed Shay was motionless, furrowed his brow.
"I lost to the person next to me before." Shay said very frankly at this time. "You're okay with letting me go up?"
Misawa closed the book with one hand, furrowed his brow, slowly stood up, then looked at Atticus Rhodes.
Atticus laughed and waved at him.
But Misawa only nodded at him, then looked at Shay Obsidian again.
Shay raised his brow.
"I see." He understood.
Misawa hadn't refused the second-round appearance from start to finish. The reason he looked over twice had only one meaning.
"I want to duel him." Misawa pointed at Hikaru.
"Oh?!" Atticus Rhodes, hearing this, didn't feel the slightest displeasure at losing attention. Instead, his eyes lit up, you could even say his eyes flashed with golden light.
"You want to duel Hikaru!? Misawa!"
At this moment, who still cared about duelist's bearing and self-respect. Atticus Rhodes never cared about these things.
Compared to these, Misawa producing a desire not belonging to his current state was the more exciting point!
"You're the strongest among this group, right?" Misawa calmly said. "I've heard you're the Strongest Fusion Duelist, the Absolute Fusion User."
"Also, there seems to be an echo in my heart reminding me, I must defeat you."
Hikaru was startled for a moment, slightly pursed his lips, the corners of his eyes slightly moist. Then he suddenly stood up, laughing: "Alright, Misawa. For this final exam, without you, the gold content of my first-year ranking was slightly affected."
Though he couldn't remember what Hikaru was talking about, an extremely annoyed mood had already risen in Misawa's heart.
Tania looked at Hikaru excitedly: "Hikaru!"
"I understand." Hikaru lightly nodded.
With him standing up, Atticus Rhodes laughed and ran to Misawa's side, wildly patting his back, laughing: "Do your best, Misawa, I support you!"
?
Aren't you teammates?
Looking at Misawa's puzzled expression, Atticus Rhodes smiled without speaking.
Though he now more hoped Hikaru would win so Zane would come out, the lives of duelists belonging to Hikaru, to Misawa shouldn't be disrupted like this.
Though he'd lost his memories, though he'd seemingly lost his deck, though he couldn't even hear his girlfriend's voice, Misawa still wanted to defeat Hikaru in his heart. That duelist's instinct was the most important.
If Misawa could defeat Hikaru, then what was mere memory loss?
He'd find it back sooner or later!
So the Fusion Team and Team 5D's second duel against City Hall team was decided like this.
Hikaru versus Misawa!
Hikaru shook his left hand. The Duel Disk auto-activated, starting to rotate as always.
"Misawa, I'm quite looking forward to this duel."
Misawa furrowed his brow, puzzled.
"Though classmates and even many teachers, when hearing about your disappearance, the first and continuing concern was Zane. But for me, you're all friends I can't lose."
Hikaru casually loaded his deck into the Duel Disk and smiled: "So compared to seeing Zane, I'd rather see you."
"Because you're not some dispensable person. You're an important member of our Fusion Club!"
Fusion Club?
Shay Obsidian and Yuto furrowed their brows together.
Atticus Rhodes and Syrus couldn't help excitedly clapping.
Those at the Fusion diplomatic team base watching the specially sent broadcast also couldn't help cheering.
This was Hikaru!
This was Hikaru!
Misawa furrowed his brow. A familiar absurdity rose in his heart. Only this familiarity, before it had risen for long, dispersed in an instant. He shook his head and placed his deck into the Duel Disk.
Things had come to this, duel first!
"Duel!" ×2.
Misawa, LP: 4000.
Hikaru, LP: 4000.
Syrus and Atticus Rhodes grew silent, watching the duel on stage.
What Misawa's deck was, they still weren't quite clear.
Though Misawa appeared three times in the preliminaries, all three times he used different decks, even none that he'd used before.
In those three duels, Misawa didn't use a Synchro deck.
But if he was like Zane, then very likely he also had a special Synchro deck!
This kind of deck that hadn't appeared before might very well put out an impressive performance. Needed intense concentration.
"First turn is mine!"
Misawa flung out a card: "Continuous Spell Card, Card of Safe Return!"
Classic Forbidden-card opener.
Hikaru watched Misawa play a Continuous Spell Card and couldn't help shaking his head.
No matter which world.
No matter what deck he assembled.
There was one thing that would never change about Misawa.
That was if there was a good card, he'd absolutely use it.
"So long as this card is on the field, when a monster is Special Summoned to my Graveyard, I can draw 1 card from my Deck."
Faint golden light enveloped the field, making Misawa's figure appear somewhat gold-shimmering.
"Activate Spell Card, Mayakashi Return."
Mayakashi?
Everyone wondered at this brand-new name.
Hikaru couldn't help raising his brow.
This was...
Mayakashi deck?
Fit Misawa's situation.
Hikaru remembered the manga Misawa seemed to use a yokai deck.
As expected, Goodwin had prepared a suitable deck for Misawa too.
He glanced at Card of Safe Return.
No wonder Card of Safe Return was played. So it was a Mayakashi deck. That wasn't strange then.
Just didn't know if it was pure Mayakashi or came with Shiranui.
"Mayakashi Return can only be activated once per turn. By its effect, I can add 1 Mayakashi monster other than Mayakashi Return from my Deck to my hand or send it to the Graveyard.
"I send Hajun, the Winged Mayakashi to the Graveyard, then Spell Card, Monster Reborn."
"Revive 1 monster in the Graveyard, revive Hajun."
A strange-looking yokai holding a monk's staff emerged from the Graveyard.
"Hmm." Syrus grew puzzled. "Since you can add to hand, why send to Graveyard, wasting Monster Reborn? Could it be the hand's missing tactical components?"
"Very likely." Atticus Rhodes lightly nodded.
Yuto also analyzed along with Shay Obsidian: "From the thinking standpoint, if the Graveyard was Hajun, no need to go through all this trouble. So this Monster Reborn was probably to make Card of Safe Return activate its effect, drawing 1 card."
"Not only that, it can save a Normal Summon." Shay Obsidian snorted. "This guy is still so good at calculation."
Good at calculation. This was something most duelists excelled at and had to master as a basic ability.
But like Misawa, calculating everything in a duel, single-mindedly designing decks and tactics specifically around calculation, was very rare.
Even Astral, who talked about math at every turn, wasn't like this. Astral might actually prefer playing giant robots.
"Revive Hajun. According to Card of Safe Return's effect, draw 1 card. Activate Hajun's effect, activate when this card is Normal or Special Summoned. Special Summon a Mayakashi monster other than Hajun from my Deck. Special Summon, Level 1 Tuner monster, Dakki, the Graceful Mayakashi."
Dakki, huh?
Hikaru watched the purple phantom nine-tailed fox and lightly nodded.
Seemed he was going to do continuous Mayakashi Synchros.
"Draw a card." Misawa placed his hand on top of the Deck, slightly narrowed his eyes.
A faint dragon's cry echoed in the room. A pitch-black and suffocating power resonated in the room.
Hikaru furrowed his brow.
This was...
"Draw!" Misawa drew a card from the Deck. He glanced down, pupils suddenly contracting.
Here it came!
Everyone, watching his expression, guessed he must have drawn a very important card.
"Normal Summon in Defense Position, Level 3, Soul-Absorbing Bone Tower!"
Rumble!
Beneath the ground, a bone tower composed of countless skeletons slowly rose. A pitch-black bone tower that seemed to pierce the sky.
Soul-Absorbing Bone Tower. Level 3, DARK Attribute, Zombie-Type. DEF 1500.
"While this card exists in the Monster Zone, each time a Zombie-Type monster is Special Summoned, activate. Send 2 cards from the top of the opponent's Deck to the Graveyard!"
Huh?
The four watching froze on the spot.
"Using Level 1 Hajun and Level 2 Dakki, tune!"
"Synchro Summon, Level 3, Oboro-Guruma, the Wheeled Mayakashi!"
A fire-wheeled cart with a demon face rumbled out from the dark grave.
Oboro-Guruma, the Wheeled Mayakashi. Level 3, EARTH Attribute, Zombie-Type. ATK 800.
"At this instant, Bone Tower's effect activates. Send the top two cards of the opponent's Deck to the Graveyard!"
"At the same time, Dakki's effect in the Graveyard activates. While this card is in the Graveyard, when a Mayakashi monster is Special Summoned from the Extra Deck to my Deck, activate. Special Summon this card. On the turn this effect is activated, I can only Special Summon Mayakashi monsters from the Extra Deck."
"Revive effect!?"
"And it's Zombie-Type."
Almost instantly, the four dueling spectators and those watching the broadcast simultaneously understood Misawa's tactic!
Revive, draw, mill the deck!
"If Mayakashi can keep Synchro-ing..." Crow watched the scene, couldn't help growing tense.
Continuing like this, milling out the deck would be easy!
Because just one Synchro could mill 4 opponent deck cards!
Not only that, due to Card of Safe Return's effect, that duelist named Misawa could also draw cards from his Deck.
If he drew any key milling cards, then the scale of victory would wildly tilt toward Misawa!
At the scene.
Everyone watching this scene had somewhat bad expressions.
Seemed... a bit unsolvable!
Hikaru's hand didn't react, meaning he didn't have a card like Effect Veiler. So in this case, how could he deal with the current situation?
Under this worry, Yuto and Shay Obsidian couldn't help furrowing their brows.
But beside them, Atticus Rhodes and Syrus couldn't help being amused, then even burst into laughter.
This transformation left the two unknowing Xyz Dimension people somewhat bewildered.
What was happening?
They really didn't care about winning or losing?
Wasn't Syrus still looking for his brother?
On stage, Hikaru's expression gradually shifted from shock to calm, then to shaking his head.
Yu-Gi-Oh often ran into strange scenes that made your head spin.
Like first-turn hand being all hand-traps, dropping Maxx "C" on second turn and opponent definitely having Ash Blossom, drawing Maulcat only useful for banish or Graveyard Special Summon when facing Thunder Dragons, drawing Ash Blossom that was useless when facing Marincess...
Dueling was this kind of strange and inexplicable thing, like a rule mystery.
As if no matter what you did, the opponent just happened to have cards targeting you.
Just like now.
Deck destruction deck, encountered Hikaru.
"As expected, Misawa, your memory loss really affected your state."
"What do you mean?" Misawa was puzzled.
Though he'd lost his memories, after his study and calculation during this time, this deck going first against most decks had extremely high win rates! Not a deck to be casually dealt with!
Hikaru slowly smiled, slightly narrowed his eyes, raised a finger and shook it, saying: "If you still had your memories, you absolutely couldn't use this kind of deck against me!"
"Oh?" Misawa still didn't understand.
Hikaru smiled.
"Mm, thinking about it this way, maybe it's a good thing. Let this duel awaken your sleeping memories!"