"Professor, how's Amagi doing!?"
In a haze, Hikaru seemed to hear a girl's voice.
"Even Amagi went down? Guess that proves it, Shadow Duels really are dangerous." That was an overly dramatic male voice.
"Shadow Duel."
Hikaru struggled to open his eyes and looked toward the bedside.
"I already told you, Amagi just fainted from extreme exhaustion. Shadow Duel? Are you kids seriously still believing in that kind of thing?" The school nurse in charge stood with one hand on their hip, clearly baffled by the students' beliefs.
"Well..." Bastion looked unsure how to respond, but before he could say anything, Jaden had already noticed Hikaru waking up and leapt to his side.
His brow was furrowed, and gone was the usual carefree smile. He looked unusually sharp and serious as he asked, "Hikaru, how do you feel?"
"See? I told you all to keep it down. Now you've gone and woken the patient." The nurse scolded them with a frown.
Hikaru rubbed his head, slowly regaining clarity. He felt a bit parched. Glancing around, it was Alexis, ever attentive, who reacted first and handed him a glass of water.
"Thanks." Hikaru took a sip. "I'm alright. Nothing too serious, I think."
As he drank, Hikaru quickly pieced together what had happened.
He knew his own condition better than anyone.
He hadn't fainted from damage taken during a Shadow Duel. Sure, it hurt like hell, but his body had already been enhanced by Super Polymerization, and when he took that direct hit from fire, Captain Crystal had shielded him. The pain was nowhere near as bad as what Joey Wheeler suffered from Ra's flames, it shouldn't have knocked him out.
What knocked him out was the sheer volume of fusion energy.
Even if Darkness was using an alt, it was still a manifestation of ultimate darkness. That kind of energy, even partially absorbed, was enough to overwhelm him.
Of course, he couldn't tell anyone that.
Getting isekai'd into this world and even having an actual Super Polymerization card, there was no way he could casually explain any of that.
"What about your brother, Rhodes?"
"The nurse said his injuries weren't too serious. He'll need a bit of recovery time, but then he'll be fine." Alexis still seemed a little shaken.
She couldn't understand it, why she'd done those things, things she'd never do under normal circumstances. How could she have hurt others, just for her brother's sake?
Once Jaden was sure Hikaru was okay, he breathed a sigh of relief, then turned to the others with a serious expression.
"Alright, everyone, let's go. Let Hikaru get some rest."
His voice was firm, totally unlike his usual self. The classmates who had come to check on Hikaru exchanged glances and, realizing there was no need to stay any longer, all nodded.
"Rest up, Hikaru." Bastion had even brought a gift, which Hikaru politely accepted.
Though they all wanted to know more about the Shadow Duel, they figured they could always ask Alexis later. They left behind some fruit and followed Jaden out.
Still, their expressions were somber.
Even Hikaru couldn't handle the power of a Shadow Duel without collapsing; what about the rest of them?
Especially Jaden, his heart was weighed down with responsibility as he walked faster and faster, ignoring Syrus calling out from behind.
Once everyone else had gone, Alexis remained behind, as a caretaker, perhaps?
She was incredibly grateful to Hikaru for saving her brother. Zane had Syrus to take care of him, so she wasn't worried there. Jaden and Bastion had both offered to help, but Alexis had insisted on staying.
"Rhodes, you don't need to feel guilty about what happened." Hikaru reached for his Duel Disk, took out his Deck, and glanced at her.
"If I'm not wrong, that guy had some sort of memory-reading or mind-control ability. Otherwise, he couldn't have imitated your brother so perfectly or known things only the two of you would know."
As he spoke, Hikaru started shuffling through his Deck quickly, checking each card one by one.
Midway through, his eyes lit up.
'Winda, halfway complete already!?' That was way faster than he expected!
Even more surprising, his Deck now included an 8-star Fusion Monster: Meteor Black Dragon.
'Wait, this thing's useless, isn't it?'
'No… It's useful!' He suddenly remembered something.
"Huh?" Alexis blinked, then gave a faint smile. "Thanks, Hikaru. I didn't expect you to be this good at comforting people."
She still looked like she was wrestling with guilt.
'Oh well…' Hikaru shrugged.
"What about that soul-sealing card that guy mentioned? You brought it back, right?"
"Ah, here." Alexis quickly dug it out and handed it over.
Hikaru took the card. There was no text on it, only an image of Darkness's mask, bound in chains.
In the original, Atticus could even use that thing on himself to transform into Dark Atticus and wield the Red-Eyes deck exclusive to Darkness.
Basically, once mastered, it was like a Kamen Rider transformation device.
But in his hands?
Totally different.
Hikaru's face lit up with excitement, making Alexis shudder unconsciously.
She rubbed her arms.
The grin on his face was too sinister, like someone who just stumbled across a weapon of mass destruction.
Because… that's exactly what it was!
This was a clone of Darkness!
Just dueling it had released so much energy, so what about this card?
To Hikaru, this wasn't a card.
It was a battery.
A Philosopher's Stone.
Material for Super Polymerization.
Hell, it might even help him forge Red-Eyes Black Dragon itself!
…
Hikaru stayed in the infirmary for two days. After confirming there were no lingering issues, he was finally discharged.
The moment he got out, he raced straight back to his dorm to begin his grand alchemy.
For days, with the help of several spirits, Hikaru worked tirelessly to forge new cards.
And in that time, he confirmed several things.
First, he really could print cards using Super Polymerization. His spirit energy still wasn't that strong, but with effort, and a little help from Darkness, he was finally seeing results. He now had hope.
Second, if he tried to perform targeted fusions on his own, the result would always be low-level monsters. When he tried to fuse bigger ones, Alchemist would stop him, calling it suicide. So for now, he had to let Super Polymerization handle it randomly.
Third: handcrafting cards was freaking awesome!
Looking at the newly created "Predaplant Chlamydosundew," crafted from all his saved materials, Hikaru couldn't be prouder.
Even if the card was totally useless, now Hikaru could truly call himself an alchemist.
One day, he'd craft the Philosopher's Stone with his bare hands!
He was practically giddy with excitement.
And this was just the first of the Seven Shadow Riders, there were six more to go!