The footage of Sakaki Yuya's Xyz Summon played on an endless, silent loop across the main tactical array of the Leo Corporation briefing room.
"No Xyz cards in his registered database," Reiji Akaba stated, his tone a cold, clinical rhythm. He stood with his arms crossed, the blue light of the screens reflecting off his glasses. "No Xyz Duel Disk signature prior to this afternoon. No history of Xyz instruction. Whoever provided the Xyz card deliberately avoided registration."
He paused, letting the silence stretch until Nakajima shifted uncomfortably behind him.
"Therefore," Reiji continued, "something external interacted with Sakaki Yuya. Someone who avoided registration won't seek official assistance. They will be operating within the city's unregulated margins."
"What kind of interaction, President?" Nakajima asked, tablet poised. "Should I have security teams pull the public transit CCTV logs for a two-kilometer radius to track down the duelist?"
"Don't search for a duelist," Reiji interrupted calmly. "Search for a refugee. People without records still need somewhere to disappear."
Nakajima blinked, a sudden understanding clearing the confusion from his face. "Just like ghosts need somewhere to sleep as well."
"Understood. I will immediately narrow the perimeter sweeps to low-tier commercial zones—unregistered shelters, freight stations, clinics, and cheap motels."
"Move now," Reiji commanded.
# Motel
A fleet of black LDS transport vans glided silently to the curb outside the rundown motel. Within seconds, uniform-clad security personnel flooded the perimeter.
Inside the lobby, the reception desk clerk sat up straight, his face draining of color as the heavy glass doors swung open. Guests lingering near the vending machines turned their heads, murmuring nervously at the sudden presence of armored guards.
The manager hurried out of the back office, his hands raised defensively. "Is—is something wrong, officer? Did one of my guests do something?"
"Routine investigation," the lead LDS officer replied, cutting him off without a shred of warmth. "We require your guest ledger or anyone who visited of the last forty-eight hours. Now."
Upstairs, a tactical team moved down the dim hallway with absolute precision. They stopped outside a wooden door marked: Room 204.
The lead officer held up three fingers.
Three.
Two.
One.
The master key card clicked. The door burst open, guards flooding the room.
The room was completely empty.
An officer swept the bathroom, weapon drawn. Empty. Another yanked open the wardrobe. Empty.
On the nightstand, a glass of water sat undisturbed. In the corner, the television was still on, humming with the quiet murmur of the post-duel talks. The lead officer walked over to the small kitchenette and lifted the lid of the small kettle resting on the stove.
A thin, fragile ribbon of steam still escaped into the cool air. He touched the metal. Warm.
The officer pressed his radio. "The area is clear. But the water is still hot. We just missed them."
The officer looked around the silent room. One bed was still unmade. The television continued. A mug rested beside the kettle.
...
A kettle whistled softly on the small stove. Vance turned off the flame just as the receiver in his pocket vibrated once. A short, sharp pulse.
Vance looked down. One word glowed against the dark screen: Leave.
His expression changed instantly. He slipped the device away. "We're leaving."
The mysterious boy looked up from the edge of the bed, his brow furrowed, his head still aching from the residual weight of the sudden vision. "...Now? What happened?"
Before Vance could answer, the door to the hallway swung open. Razz stepped in, full of restless energy. "Hey neighbour! Got anything to eat? I swear this area around only sells noodles." He looked more clearly on the person. "...Vance? Here you are! I thought you went out to have a peek at the beutiful girls of the city! Nut you were next door the whole—"
He stopped dead. Something in Vance's face erased the words before they could be fully spoken. Razz tossed his thoughts aside.
"What happened?" Razz asked instead, his voice dropping instantly.
"We're leaving," Vance said, his voice flat, already reaching for their light duffel bags in next room.
"What happened?" The boy repeated, standing up.
"No time," Vance commanded.
That was all Razz needed to hear. He didn't ask another question. "...Then let's move."
He darted to the door, not wasting any more time the telivision still on, and checked the peep-hole. "Service stairs lead down to the laundry corridors. We go out the maintenance alley."
They moved quickly and quietly, slipping down the narrow stairwell just as the heavy thud of tactical boots echoed in the front lobby. They moved with ordinary, practiced calm—no panic, no rushing—passing beneath a delivery window just as a laundry cart rolled by, completely obscuring them from the street-level security teams.
By the time the LDS guards breached the room upstairs, the three of them were already blending into the heavy foot traffic two blocks away.
...
The afternoon sun was scorching, casting hot rays across the crowd. The three of them walked in a loose formation, blending into the heavy flow of late-afternoon crowd. Vance kept his pace steady, his eyes rhythmically scanning the upper floors of the buildings, tracing the reflections in the storefront glass.
The mysterious boy kept his head down, matching Vance's stride.
"You trusted one word?" The boy asked quietly, his voice barely carrying over the ambient noise of the street.
Vance didn't look back. He maneuvered around a group of adults. "Yes."
They walked in silence for half a block, crossing a minor intersection before the boy spoke again. "...Only one word?"
"That's Ryo-san," Vance said, his eyes scanning the perimeter as they turned down a slightly quieter secondary avenue. "If he says 'Leave,' it means he already thought about everything else."
The boy remained silent for several steps, surprised by the certainty in someone barely older than himself. They passed a crowded bus stop before he asked, "Who is this Ryo? Why is he helping me?"
"Someone you can trust," Vance answered honestly. He paused, steering them away from a wide, reflective display window. "As for why he's helping you... I don't know. Ryo-san never explained."
They reached the end of the block. Vance caught Razz's eye, and Razz gave a slight nod, checking their rear before they slipped into a quieter, tree-lined residential lane.
"Why would anyone care about me?" The boy asked, his voice dropping lower in the quiet of the side street. "Let alone try to catch me?"
"Because you exist outside everything he can verify," Vance replied, his pace perfectly disciplined. "Reiji Akaba doesn't tolerate blanks in his data."
The boy pulled his white hood a fraction lower. "Is Ryo against him?"
"They're not enemies, they're brothers." Vance said softly, a faint, weary expression passing over his face.
The boy halted for a fraction of a second before catching up, his brow furrowed. "...Brothers?"
"They just don't believe in the same path."
"But why are they on different sides?"
Vance was silent for several steps.
"Sometimes having the same blood doesn't mean staying together," Vance replied. He looked straight ahead. "Being family doesn't mean walking the same road."
Vance didn't slow his pace. Razz kept his eyes fixed on the path ahead, remaining silently focused.
Unconsciously, the boy reached for his bare wrist.
His fingers stopped halfway. Something should have been there. Something that had once felt as natural as his own heartbeat.
Nothing.
He lowered his hand.
"...Why does it feel like I've lost something?"
Ignoring the strange boy's talk, Razz asked a legitimate question.
"Oi, but where are we gonna go?" Raz asked.
"A place where Reiji Akaba and no one of his people will find us." Vance said. "Just believe me. It is the safest place right now... Come to think of it, wasn't today your match, Razz?" Vance asked.
"Oh, yeah it was. I won..."
"You don't look happy. What happened?"
"Haah... This one just feels hollow." Razz said genuinely.
# LDS
Back at Motel, the thorough search had yielded nothing. The LDS security details began pulling back to their transports, leaving the manager trembling in the lobby.
Inside the VIP observation lounge at LDS Headquarters, Nakajima stepped forward, his head lowered slightly as he held up a tablet showing the live data transmitted from Room 204. "President... District 4 sweep is complete. No sign of the target. We confirmed the occupant left a freshly boiled kettle on the stove. The residual temperature suggests..."
Nakajima hesitated.
Reiji didn't look angry. He didn't even look surprised. He stood by the massive glass window, staring down at the sweeping neon lights of Maiami City. The cold, calculated lights reflected across the lenses of his glasses.
"Five minutes," Reiji said quietly, his voice cutting through the tension of the room.
Nakajima blinked. "Sir?"
"We were five minutes late," Reiji adjusted his glasses, his posture perfectly rigid. "He won't return to a compromised shelter. Remove the sector from the active search parameters. He has already adapted."
He looked back out into the endless grid of streets.
"Adjust the search model. He escaped because we searched for where he was, not where he would be." Reiji paused, his tone entirely devoid of emotion. "We reacted to his movement. Next time, we'll predict it."
Reiji stood up, going to the monitering room.
# Stadium No. 2 – Duel Arena
The roar of the crowd echoed throughout Stadium. As holographic projectors illuminated the field in waves of vibrant color. Spectators filled every seat, eagerly awaiting the next match of the Maiami Championship.
At the edge of the competitors' entrance, Yuzu Hiragi adjusted her Duel Disk and took a slow breath.
Across the waiting area, Yuya sat quietly in the row of audiance, along with Youshow's people. His eyes were fixed on the arena, but they lacked their usual sparkle. Even as the audience cheered around him, his thoughts seemed to be somewhere far away.
Yuzu frowned.
"He's still thinking about that duel..."
Ever since the appearance of the mysterious Xyz Monster, Yuya had barely spoken. He answered questions with a smile, but she could tell it wasn't genuine.
She clenched her fist, determination replacing her concern.
"I'll snap you out of it."
If words couldn't reach him, she would have to use the language they both understood best.
She began walking toward the stage, passing directly by Yuya's seat. When he finally raised his head, she smiled and gave him a sharp, confident wink.
"Watch my duel and don't blink eyes," she said softly.
She turned and marched onto the field without looking back.
Nico Smiley's voice boomed through the speakers. "Ladies and gentlemen! The next match of Maiami championship second round is about to begin!"
The crowd erupted into applause.
"From the Youshow Duel School... Yuzu Hiragi! And from Duelie club, Naname Mikiyo!"
Another wave of cheers followed.
The two duelists stepped onto opposite sides of the arena as holographic platforms rose beneath their feet.
Yuya's eyes followed Yuzu onto the field.
Yuzu caught sight of him from across the stadium.
She smiled.
"Watch carefully, Yuya. I'll remind you why dueling is supposed to be fun."
The duel disks activated simultaneously.
"Duel!"
#LDS Headquarters – Main Monitoring Room
The room was bathed in a deep, geometric blue. Dozens of analysts sat at recessed terminals, their faces illuminated by the rapid cascade of diagnostic data, systemic reports, and live security feeds covering every square meter of the Maiami Championship.
Reiji Akaba stood on the elevated central platform, his hands resting flat against the edge of the primary console. He did not look at the screen displaying Hiragi Yuzu's duel. His eyes were fixed entirely on a secondary window displaying the tournament's previous results.
Match : Shijima Hokuto vs. Razz
Result: Victory by Default (Razz).
"Explain this," Reiji said. The quiet precision of his voice easily cut through the ambient clicking of keyboards.
Nakajima stepped up to the platform, adjusting a data tablet with a visibly tense grip. "We have tried contacting Hokuto through his primary Duel Disk, his personal receiver, and his residence. There has been no response. His GPS signature dropped off the network exactly forty-two minutes before his scheduled match."
"Hokuto is not a truant," Reiji said calmly. "He does not miss matches, and he does not turn off his tracker. A high-ranking LDS student doesn't simply vanish in the middle of our own city."
"We've deployed a local retrieval unit to his last known coordinates near the canal district," Nakajima added quickly. "But President, with the search for the unregistered target ongoing in District 4, our reserve security forces are already highly strained—"
"Recall them," Reiji interrupted.
Nakajima froze. "Sir? We were only minutes behind the target at the motel. If we pull the active sweeps now, we lose the pressure we've built."
"The pressure was already bypassed," Reiji said, not breaking his gaze from the terminal screen. "They escaped because they had prior warning. That indicates a leak, or an intelligence network operating with a systemic oversight that rivals our own. Continuing a manual sweep of the outer blocks is a waste of power."
He tapped the screen, closing the default notice and opening a structural map of the Maiami Championship venue.
"Hokuto's disappearance is not a separate event. It is a new data point." Reiji continued, his voice cold and analytical. "The unregistered target and the force protecting this anomaly are operating within our blind spots. And right now, our largest blind spot is the tournament itself."
Nakajima's eyes widened. "You think they're here? Inside the stadium?"
"If you are being hunted across a chessboard, the safest place to stand is directly behind the opponent's attacking piece," Reiji said. "They are utilizing the noise of the crowd to mask themselves. Nakajima, redirect all local stadium sensors to flag any Duel Disk signatures that do not match registered tournament participants. Do it silently. I do not want the spectators panicked."
"Understood, President." Nakajima turned to relay the orders, but before he could touch his console, a sharp, crimson warning light began to pulse on the perimeter threat array.
A high-pitched tone cut through the hum of the room.
"President!" An analyst called out, fingers flying across their keyboard. "We've got an anomalous energy spike. Sector 3, near the transit turminal."
"Is it an Xyz signature?" Nakajima asked.
"No, sir. It's..." The analyst hesitated, staring at the reading. "It's a localized thermal surge. Like a high-density Fusion summon, but the wave pattern is completely non-standard. It's matching the unregistered signature database we flagged during the incident last week."
Reiji's eyes narrowed behind his glasses. He leaned forward, the red warning light reflecting sharply across his lenses.
"Pull up the security feed," Reiji commanded. "Now."
The main screen flickered, trying to compile the local visual data, but the feed came up static. "The local cameras in Sector 3 are unresponsive, sir. They've been hard-looped."
Reiji didn't raise his voice, but the air in the room grew noticeably colder. "They aren't just hiding anymore. They've begun purging our eyes."
# LDS Sub-Level 3 – Private Archives
While the monitoring room above shifted into disciplined emergency response, Ryo stood before a terminal tucked deep within the architectural archives of the building. The air here was cool and smelled of static and metallic dust. On his Duel Disk's screen, a live diagnostic of the stadium's sub-level energy grid flickered in quiet green lines, overlaid with the red alert warnings propagating from the floor above.
A series of systemic alerts flashed across the secondary monitor:
ENERGY INTRUSION DETECTED: SECTOR 3
SIGNATURE: FUSION ANOMALY
SENSORY FEED: OVERRIDE / BLACKOUT
Ryo stared at the raw data. His breath caught in his throat.
"...Fusion?" He murmured.
He analyzed the wave patterns on the terminal, matching them against the archives. A heavy pause hung in the cold air.
"...Academia."
If that signature belonged to Academia... then Hokuto's disappearance wasn't a coincidence.
They had entered Maiami. That alone changed every calculation.
Ryo's fingers moved across his Duel Disk with tight, rapid precision. He didn't execute a magic, total bypass. Instead, he forced a manual diagnostic override on a single local junction box—Junction 4-B.
A progress bar ticked upward sluggishly:
APPLYING SYSTEMIC DELAY... 18 SECONDS REMAINING.
He wasn't erasing the target. He was tricking the system into thinking the sensor array in Corridor 4-B was merely undergoing a routine self-calibration. It was a flimsy shield, a trick that Reiji's system would flag as an anomaly in less than five minutes. But five minutes was all Vance and the boy needed to slip completely underground.
The progress bar cleared, and the diagnostic screen settled into a glowing blue. Ryo slowly let out his breath, his hand resting on the edge of the cold metal terminal.
"You're adapting quickly, Reiji." Ryo murmured to the dark room. "But you're still solving the wrong problem."
He shut down the terminal, the screen fading to black.
The heavy security door hissed open. Cold, damp air drifted up from the deep underground transit tunnels.
Ryo stepped through into the darkness without looking back, his fingers resting lightly against jeans' pockets. Behind him, the steel door sealed with a heavy, final click.