Hikaru was half-slumped in a chair, boneless like a ragdoll, in the Duel Academy lounge.
Professor Crowler, just returning from a meeting with Zane and another student, spotted him immediately.
Seeing the messy booster packs strewn across the table, the three instantly understood what Hikaru had been doing.
"Mamma Mia, Hikaru, you skipped the KaibaCorp meeting, saying you had a cold, just to open booster packs here?" Crowler wore a disappointed expression. "You've been duped, Hikaru."
"Heh..." Even Zane chuckled and shook his head. "Hikaru, the professor's right. Just now, KaibaCorp's rep warned us not to buy X-Dimension booster packs casually.
Many stores there just bring over leftover packs from their own world. The odds of pulling a rare card are basically zero. And even if you do get a powerful rare, like one exclusive to the X-Dimension, you might not even be able to use it in our world. You've been scammed."
"Of course I knew that." Hikaru sighed, snapping back to his senses. "It's not like I was expecting to pull an XYZ Monster. I just didn't think I'd get anything but Commons and Rares. Am I really that unlucky?"
His goal from the start hadn't been to pull an Xyz Monster.
Even if he did, Super Polymerization would just remind him what 'Fusion' really meant.
Though if he did pull one, maybe he could fuse it into an Eldlich?
What he really wanted was to get cards their world didn't have, so he could use them as fusion material.
In fact, he'd managed to pull two cards from the Ninja series, perfect for using as fusion material with Super Polymerization well worth the money spent, maybe even beyond expectations.
"Huh? You already knew?" Zane was a little surprised. "That's right, our opponent uses something called the Xyz Summon method."
Then he furrowed his brows, visibly puzzled. "Apparently, you just need monsters of the same Level to Xyz Summon. KaibaCorp explained it clearly, but I still don't quite get it."
Naturally.
For someone like Zane, who grew up in the GX world, from age five or six till now, he'd never seen any Extra Deck summoning beyond Fusion. Even with KaibaCorp's explanations, it was probably too much to take in at once.
As for the contact with the Xyz World, Hikaru wasn't surprised. In Yu-Gi-Oh! Arc-V, the first world the Fusion Army invaded, was the Xyz World.
Even though this wasn't Arc-V, it had similarities. So connecting to the Xyz World didn't feel strange.
"The tournament starts in five days, one grade per day: first-years, then second-years, and so on. Besides our Academy, there'll be KaibaCorp duelists, two pros, and a dimensional summit.
Your duel's on Day 10. One week from now."
After the flight to KaibaCorp, a full-body checkup and spirit aptitude test took another day.
One more day to arrive in this world, and the rest of the time was basically 'tourism'.
Incidentally, KaibaCorp confirmed Hikaru's Duel Spirit compatibility as Five Stars, no longer a four-star low-rank spirit user but now a dignified mid-level Duel Spirit tamer.
Hikaru nodded.
'Didn't expect it to be so soon.'
As days passed, Hikaru spotted people from other worlds here and there, but none were familiar.
One week later, he was still worried about Jaden and the others, worried that the Shadow Games might be putting too much pressure on him. Yet, Hikaru couldn't afford to dwell on it as his duel was about to begin.
The duel arena was on the top floor of a skyscraper, and according to the staff, it was modeled after the site of the legendary duel between Yugi Muto and Seto Kaiba; it sounded just like a Duelist Kingdom-style stage.
Thump, thump, thump.
Lights blazed from all directions onto the stage, making Hikaru squint. Countless cameras linked to the dimensional gates started broadcasting.
Meanwhile, back at Duel Academy, Jaden, now with a few new scrapes and bandages, shouted with excitement. "Ooooh! It's starting, it's finally starting!"
Ten days had passed, and new Shadow Riders had attacked the Academy, making him a little roughed up.
For something of this global magnitude, the Academy had naturally canceled classes so everyone could watch. An opportunity like this was once in a lifetime, who knew if their Academy would be picked again next year?
Back in the arena, Hikaru saw his opponent step onto the stage, but he didn't recognize him at all.
His hairstyle was, pretty plain.
"Hello, I'm Amagi Hikaru, a first-year at Duel Academy."
"Ama...Amagi?" the other student blinked, then shook his head. "Didn't expect to hear a familiar name in another world. I'm Haruto Kunigawa, a first-year student from Shinson Duel Academy. Pleased to meet you."
After a brief greeting, Hikaru equipped his Duel Disk while Haruto pulled a monocle-like device from his pocket and put it on.
A D-Gazer.
"Duel!" ×2
[Hikaru, LP: 4000]
[Haruto, LP: 4000]
"My turn! Draw!" The coin toss to determine turn order had been handled by Professor Crowler and a man named Mr. Shinson from the X-Dimension. Hikaru was second; Zane had gone first.
Worst possible coin toss.
"I Normal Summon Rescue Rabbit! Then activate its effect, banish it to Special Summon two Level 4 or lower Normal monsters of the same name from my deck! They'll be destroyed during the End Phase."
"I banish Rescue Rabbit to Special Summon two Evilswarm Heliotrope!"
'Whoa…'
Hikaru's eyes lit up.
Such a classic opener; it made him a little nostalgic.
He reflected inwardly.
Camula had been right. Even though his world's development had outpaced the original timeline due to Dimensional Exploration, it was still too 'primitive.' Connecting to a truly 'future world' like this was incredibly dangerous.
Maybe this 'buffer dimension' wasn't just Kaiba losing interest; it might've been created to hide and protect their world.
Otherwise, they'd be facing a reverse invasion from the Xyz World.
For Kaiba, maybe Fusion vs Xyz didn't matter. But for regular duelists, the gap was enormous.
Elsewhere, students were still confused, what was the point of that effect?
Sure, he summoned two Level 4 monsters with 1950 ATK each, but if they get destroyed at the end of the turn, wasn't it pointless?
"Hehehe, don't blink!"
"With two Level 4 Fiend monsters, I Overlay them to perform an Xyz Summon!"
"Overlay!?"
"Xyz Summon??"
Haruto stacked the two cards on his Duel Disk horizontally, then pulled a card from his Extra Deck and slammed it down.
"I Xyz Summon! Come forth, Evilswarm Bahamut!"
An ice dragon resurrected from the shadows. Black armor encased it as it let out a terrifying screech. Dark mist poured from its body like a vision of hell!
[Evilswarm Bahamut] Rank 4│DARK│Dragon│2350 ATK
"That," Several Duel Academy students watching the stream were struck dumb.
"One card summoned a 2350 ATK monster," someone muttered in disbelief.
"X...Xyz..." Bastion was so shocked that he almost fell out of his chair.
"So cool! No Fusion, just straight Special Summon!?" Jaden jumped up, full of excitement. "Dueling really is the best!"
He hadn't been this hyped since the Shadow Rider incident.
"Heh, how's that? This is the power of next-gen Dueling!" Haruto said confidently, setting one card face down. "Compared to your classic style, this is progress!
For years, our world has always been the victor. Before I came, Mr. Shinson told me, even as newbies, our duelists will always be stronger! I'll definitely win!"
"Progress, huh..."
Hikaru drew a card.
He had to admit, Xyz Monster endboards could tear through the banlist.
But that was because the Monsters were strong.
"Then, it's my turn."
"First, let me introduce myself properly. I'm a first-year in Ra Yellow at Duel Academy, Amagi Hikaru. I'm also in the Fusion Club."
"And now—"
His eyes narrowed. With a swift movement, he drew out a Spell Card at lightning speed!
"Oooh! It's happening, it's happening!!" Jaden cheered from the stream.
"Here we go!" First-years from the Fusion Club jumped to their feet while Leo Akaba, observing from somewhere else, scowled.
"Hah..." On the spectator bench, Crowler wore a Pot of Greed-level grin, while Zane just smiled and shook his head.
And at that moment, across this dimension, and through the livestream, Everyone joined Hikaru in shouting the same phrase:
"Fusion is the noblest summoning method!"