"Hey! Are you okay!?"
Judai Yuki ran the long way down the cliff, panting hard. Even he had not expected a card duel to send someone flying off a cliff. Sho Marufuji and Hayato Maeda were just as stunned, unable to understand how a hologram impact could throw someone that far.
Could this become a problem for the Student Council?
The three of them rushed down after Judai Yuki, breathing heavily, and finally found the unlucky duelist sprawled on a rock near the waves. Sho Marufuji and Hayato Maeda had half expected to find a mangled corpse, but what they saw was something else entirely.
At the bottom of the cliff, there was only shattered metal, snapped wires, and electronic parts strewn everywhere. All three froze for a moment. Was this a robot?
Yes. The one hidden beneath black clothes and a mask, the one who had called himself Beta, had never been flesh and blood at all. He had a mechanical body, and now his head and torso had broken apart and rolled in different directions, exposing a dense mass of circuits and chips inside.
The joints of the mechanical arms had split open, and the hydraulic tubes had burst. Oil had seeped into the dirt, spreading into dark stains. Sho Marufuji and Hayato Maeda exchanged a glance.
"So big bro was dueling a robot just now?" Sho Marufuji said.
"But who sent it? And what was it doing at Duel Academy?" Hayato Maeda asked, sounding just as bewildered.
"I don't know."
Judai Yuki shook his head, his expression grim. He was once again thinking about that strange impact during the Duel, the one that had felt almost like a Shadow Duel.
They still had no idea where it had come from or what it wanted, but one thing was certain. This thing was not friendly. Judai Yuki looked at the wreckage one last time, then turned away.
"Let's report this to the school first," he said.
The other two nodded immediately. This deserted stretch of shore and the broken machine remains gave both of them a bad feeling.
The three turned to leave, but after only a few steps, Judai Yuki suddenly stopped. The other two had already run ahead a short distance before realizing he was no longer behind them, and they quickly turned back.
"What is it, big bro?" Sho Marufuji asked.
Judai Yuki said nothing, but Yugen's serious face suddenly flashed through his mind, and his voice seemed to echo in his ears. "In the hands of evil people, Card can become weapons that hurt others, and as duelists of justice and sunlight, we cannot stand by and watch our beloved Duel Monsters be misused!"
"If we leave it alone, what if that villain's allies come back, recover it, and use it as a weapon again?"
"..."
Judai Yuki thought for two seconds, then quickly turned around and ran back to the scattered remains of the robot. He dug through the heap of metal scraps, found the smashed Duel Disk, and pulled the Deck out of it.
He even muttered a quiet apology under his breath. After slipping the Deck into his pocket, he turned and jogged back to catch up with the others.
Sho Marufuji said nothing. Hayato Maeda said nothing either.
This was bad. Big bro seemed to be taking on the shape of the Big Bad too.
The Cultural Festival was nearly over. Night had already fallen, and Yugen stretched as he walked away from the Student Council grounds.
"Today's Duel event was pretty fun. I had a great time. The prizes were too stingy, though. Just two Rare Card and one custom keychain. The Duel Department is really cheap..."
Walking beside him, Daichi Misawa and Asuka Tenjoin both stayed silent. He had definitely enjoyed himself, but not everyone could say the same.
At this rate, if they held the Cultural Festival again next year, the Duel event might need new rules. Otherwise, it might damage everyone's enthusiasm and motivation for dueling. By then, a new rumor might even spread around Duel Academy, about the man who single-handedly changed the long-standing rules of the Duel Academy Cultural Festival.
"Speaking of that, the custom keychain can apparently be made with any Duel Monsters design you want. Have you decided what you want yet, Yugen?" Asuka Tenjoin asked.
"Take a guess." Yugen smiled.
Daichi Misawa tested the waters. "Lava Golem?"
Asuka Tenjoin actually considered it seriously. "If it's Yugen, that wouldn't be impossible."
"What about you, Daichi Misawa? With the duel points you earned, you should be able to redeem a keychain too, right?" Yugen asked.
Daichi Misawa put on a proud expression, like a stern warrior. "I don't need that kind of thing."
"I see." Yugen nodded. "'White Magician Pikeru,' right? Understood."
Daichi Misawa's expression changed instantly. "How do you know that!? No, I mean, don't say weird things!"
"Relax, we all already knew," Yugen said with a grin. "Ask Asuka Tenjoin if you don't believe me."
Daichi Misawa stared at Asuka Tenjoin in shock, and she nodded. "Yeah. Yugen said you sometimes secretly take White Magician Pikeru out in the Alchemy Laboratory to do private research. You want to bring out this card's full potential, right? Because you really like her?"
Daichi Misawa turned red. "No, I don't, I..."
Yugen patted him on the shoulder. "It's fine. This is normal. We all understand."
There was nothing strange about a man liking a loli Spirit. And she even had twin tails.
Daichi Misawa fell silent. He had thought this was his greatest secret, but it had already been seen through long ago.
He grew dejected, and for quite a while after that, he did not say another word. When they reached the woods, Asuka Tenjoin suddenly pointed at the sky.
"The moon is really full tonight."
All three looked up together and stopped walking without thinking. Yugen gave a small nod.
"It really is."
They stood there for a moment, then simply sat down on some stones beside a creek in the forest and gazed at the moon. After a while, Asuka Tenjoin spoke again.
"Actually, before I came to Duel Academy, and even when I had just arrived here, I was always alone. It's not that I had no classmates around me, but I always felt like I couldn't truly fit in. I think maybe that's because I came to Duel Academy with a purpose from the very beginning."
The moon seemed to stir up old memories, and she spoke in a quiet voice. Her eyes remained fixed on the sky as she continued.
"The biggest secret behind why I came to Duel Academy is my brother. His name is Fubuki, and he disappeared from this Duel Academy. After that, I made up my mind to find him, and a big reason I came to Duel Academy was because I hoped to uncover clues about his disappearance."
"After my brother vanished, I stopped caring much about anything else. Getting along with the people around me, making friends with classmates... that was why I always had such a hard time becoming part of any group."
She looked away from the moon and gave a faint smile. Then she turned to the two beside her.
"But now, being able to come to this Alchemy Laboratory, being able to spend time with you two, the two most important friends I've had since coming to this Duel Academy, and being able to accomplish things I never would have imagined before... I really think that's wonderful."
She smiled at Daichi Misawa. "What do you think, Doctor Misawa? Are we friends now?"