Chapter 92: Remote Connection: Guardian Spirit
Card Effect Theory. Taught by Kondo Tsuyoshi, year director and Class 1-E homeroom teacher.
In this particular class, talking to your neighbor wasn't just frowned upon. Glancing out the window wasn't an option. Even pulling out your Eva terminal to sneak a peek at something qualified as a life-threatening risk.
Kondo had no interest in making exceptions based on family background, academic performance, or social standing. Rules were rules and he applied them with the impartiality of a machine.
So even Nanki'in Sakuya, who would normally find a quiet moment to read her favorite battle manga on the Eva terminal she kept hidden under her desk, sat perfectly upright and kept her eyes forward during Card Effect Theory.
What she was actually doing was using her peripheral vision to watch Amano.
He'd been checking his Eva terminal at roughly five-minute intervals all morning. Not a conversation exactly, more like he was waiting on something. But whatever he was waiting on apparently mattered enough that he kept risking it in Kondo's class, of all places.
The conversation partner had to be Rin Seiya.
That thought sat in Sakuya's chest in a way she didn't particularly want to examine. She was the class representative. She had standards to uphold. Which meant, technically, reporting a committee member for in-class messaging was not only within her rights but arguably her duty.
She had decided against it approximately three times in the last twenty minutes, primarily for reasons related to upcoming homework assignments she would rather not struggle through alone.
Owing someone made you soft. That was simply a fact.
For the record: Amano was not messaging Rin Seiya. He was watching his Eva terminal for one specific notification from Finesse.
Today was Fusion Academy's weekly duel.
Yesterday, he'd run a test. The Hacker Invasion skill had no distance limitation. He could activate it from inside Synchro Academy's buildings and still successfully enter Finesse's consciousness from across the campus divide. The cooldown was twelve hours per use.
He had also confirmed, yesterday, that the awkward part of the process remained just as awkward as the first time.
Two hours of possession. Nothing to actually do during those two hours because they'd been testing logistics rather than dueling. Just existing in the same shared mental space with nothing productive happening.
He was not thinking about that.
Today there would be cards to play. That was the important thing.
The Eva terminal buzzed once, silently, against his palm.
Finesse's message was three words long.
"Almost my turn. Come NOW."
Finally. An entire morning of waiting for those exact words, and now Amano raised his hand.
"Kondo-sensei. I'm not feeling well. Can I go to the nurse's office?"
Kondo looked at him. "Amano. Would you like someone to accompany you?"
Model student. Perfect attendance. Consistent top scores. When someone with that record asked to leave class citing illness, teachers did not typically ask for documentation.
"I'll go! I'll take him!"
"Let me carry you, Committee Rep!"
"I'm right here, I've got good shoulders!"
Half of Class 1-E had already risen six inches out of their seats at the prospect of a legitimate classroom escape route.
Kondo's expression did not change.
"Sit down," he said, to the general direction of the chaos. Then, to Amano: "Go ahead. Just you."
"Thank you, Kondo-sensei."
Amano stood, allowed himself one carefully calibrated moment of looking slightly unwell, and walked out.
Nobody questioned it. The Duel Committee Rep, academic achiever, responsible student, pillar of Class 1-E's collective GPA. Of course he was just genuinely ill. Obviously.
One person was not convinced.
Nanki'in Sakuya watched him go with narrowed eyes.
She had spent the entire morning watching him refresh his Eva terminal every five minutes. And now, at the exact moment he'd presumably received a message from whoever he'd been waiting on, he was suddenly and conveniently unwell enough to leave class.
Playing games on your terminal could not actually make you sick. That was not how biology worked.
She raised her hand.
"Kondo-sensei. I'm not feeling well either."
"You too, Nanki'in?" Kondo's tone carried the slight edge of a man who was not, in fact, a fool. "Are you certain?"
Being the class representative, she had a slightly higher bar to clear than an ordinary student. Kondo was not going to let her walk out on her own recognizance the same way.
Sakuya deployed the one card that functioned in this situation regardless of rank or reputation.
"I've got my period."
Kondo cleared his throat. Twice.
He was a male teacher of a certain age, and whatever advantage his institutional authority gave him, it did not extend to pursuing this particular line of questioning.
"Then... you should also go rest in the nurse's office."
"Thank you, Kondo-sensei."
She left at what could generously be called a light jog. There was essentially no attempt to look unwell. The class watched her go in stunned silence.
By the time Sakuya reached the hallway, Amano had already handled things on his end. He'd spoken to the school nurse, communicated that he needed to rest and shouldn't be disturbed, selected the bed furthest from the entrance, and lay down.
Hacker Invasion, activate.
Entering the data tunnel that represented the connection between consciousnesses was starting to feel familiar. Not comfortable, exactly. Just familiar.
The nakedness aspect remained an evergreen source of personal complaint.
"Switch!" In Finesse's mind room, the transfer happened fast. Amano's consciousness slid in, Finesse stepped back, and the mental handoff completed.
He opened his eyes.
He was standing inside Fusion Academy's duel hall. Around him were students from what had to be multiple classes mixed together for the weekly duel event. Unfamiliar faces in every direction.
Except one.
How is my best friend at Fusion Academy right now.
"You almost fainted just now," Kikawayu Yuu said, watching him with a slight frown. "Are you alright, Finesse?"
Right. Mixed classes. Of course Kikawayu's class was part of the same weekly session.
"I'm fine. It was nothing." Amano touched Finesse's forehead in what he hoped read as a normal, feminine gesture of steadying oneself.
He needed to be careful. The less he said, the fewer opportunities for inconsistencies to surface. Finesse had a particular way of speaking, a particular cadence. He knew it well enough to approximate it, but approximating wasn't the same as matching.
Kikawayu tilted his head.
"Amano?"
You have got to be kidding me.
One sentence. He'd said one sentence. The most neutral possible sentence, delivered with deliberate effort to sound like Finesse. And Kikawayu had tilted his head and said his name.
The man had the instincts of a hunting animal.
"What are you talking about, Kikawayu." Amano reached for Finesse's usual rhythm. "Why would Amano be at Fusion Academy?"
"Ah. Probably my imagination." Kikawayu looked only half-convinced. "For just a second there, the way you were standing felt a lot like him."
Terrifying. That was the only word for it.
Amano decided he was done talking. Silence was the only safe strategy now. The more words he produced, the more material Kikawayu's apparently supernatural intuition had to work with.
He relayed this through the mental channel.
Amano: "Yuu is genuinely frightening. I said one thing and he almost had me."
Finesse: "Kikawayu-kun is sharp. I've noticed that too. Just stay quiet and wait for your turn."
Two duels remained ahead of Finesse in the queue. Manageable.
Amano: "You really did notify me early, didn't you."
Finesse: "Being cautious is never wrong. What if something unexpected happened?"
Something unexpected did happen.
The opponent scheduled to face Finesse today hadn't shown up. A no-show in a weekly duel meant the academy would arrange a substitute, typically a faculty member or an available upperclassman, so the student still had a valid opponent for performance evaluation.
In theory, perfectly ordinary.
Amano had an unpleasant feeling in the back of his mind. A specific variety of unpleasant feeling, like recognizing a card someone had played against him before.
The substitute stepped onto the duel field.
She had pale crimson hair. Not long like Finesse's. Shoulder-length, trimmed to sit just above the collarbone in a cut that was clean and direct and purposeful. The same face, almost point for point, arranged differently. Sharper at the eyes. Less guarded in how she held herself.
Same hair color. Same face. That was not a coincidence.
Finesse's voice came through the mental channel with audible shock for the first time.
"Why -- why is my sister here?"
Amano: "This is your sister?"
She'd said this week or next week. This week, apparently, was the answer.
The eldest daughter of the Wein family. Latir Wein. Currently the most notable HERO user enrolled in Duel Academy by any measure.
She looked across the field with the expression of someone who had arranged exactly this.
"The timing worked out perfectly, so I put my name in as a substitute." A thin, composed smile. "Consider this a welcome-back gift, little sister. Let's see how much you've grown in the year I was away."
What had been set up as a routine weekly duel for card rewards had just become something else entirely.
HERO against HERO.
Latir Wein against whoever was actually standing on the other side of that field right now.
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