The hum of the supercomputers filled the silence of the Leo Corporation command center as the main monitor transitioned from the duel's playback to a complex series of data streams, mapping Razz's energy signatures.
Nakajima said quickly, tablet in his hand. "I will oversee the immediate retrieval of Sawatari's deck for data and code extraction, President. We will begin the mass-production protocols for the Pendulum cards right away." With a swift nod, the aide exited the room, leaving the two alone in the dim, blue-lit office.
Reiji stood up from his desk, walking toward the floor-to-ceiling glass window that overlooked the glittering, sprawling skyline of Maiami City. "Spatial awareness is one thing, Ryo," Reiji spoke, his voice cool and calculating. "But what happened during that final turn goes beyond mere instinct."
Ryo leaned his shoulder against the metallic wall, his arms crossed as he stared at the frozen image of Ritual cards on a secondary console. "So you're saying he didn't just guess where the Action Card was?"
Reiji explained, adjusting his glasses. "It is as if someone—or something—was reading the field in real-time and feeding him the data."
Ryo let out a soft 'hmm,' his sharp eyes narrowing. "An unseen director whispering cues to the lead actor. How theatrical. It seems he is carrying far more baggage than a simple deck."
"We will monitor him closely," Reiji concluded, the glass of his spectacles reflecting the neon lights of the city below. "I called him and his friend to be our allies. But whether he can become an ally or an unpredictable anomaly that needs to be erased, it remains to be seen. But for now, let the championship continue."
...
Far beneath the roaring crowds, in the dimly lit, labyrinthine corridors beneath the stadium, Razz walked alone, his heavy boots echoing against the metal walls ground. The cheers of the crowd above were nothing but a faint, muffled rumble now.
He stopped by a flickering overhead light, pulling his deck from his duel disk. He stared down at the cards, their surfaces still warm to the touch.
"We pulled it off," Razz muttered into the empty corridor, his voice dropping its energetic facade. "But that was way too close. If you hadn't told me about that card under the plank, I'd be looking at a bleak screen right now."
From the deep shadows of an intersecting hallway, a figure shifted slightly, though no footsteps could be heard. Vance's voice echoed, quiet but perfectly clear in the narrow space.
"Sawatari Shingo was predictable. The field favors the desperate," Vance said, his eyes obscured by the gloom. "But do not grow careless, Razz. The eyes of this city's masters are on you now. They aren't watching your cards—they are watching how you move."
Razz slid the deck back into its holder with a sharp snap and offered a confident, lopsided grin. "Let 'em watch. If they want a real show, I'm just getting warmed up."
...
The screens of the Maiami Championship arena flickered with rapid updates. In the central arena, Yuzu Hiiragi stood tall, her breath steady as her Mozarta the Melodious Maestra unleashed a final, resounding sonic wave. Masumi Kotsu's Gem-Knight Master Diamond shattered into glowing pixels, cementing Yuzu's hard-fought revenge for her previous loss.
Accepting the lose Masumi grew respect for Yuzu. She gave her, her special and very important card, Crystal Rose.
...
On the adjacent rocky terrain field, Noboru Gongenzaka stood unyielding like a mountain. Facing his former classmate from the Steadfast Dueling School, Gen Ankokuji, Gongenzaka didn't move an inch. Gen's dirty tactics and brutal offense crumbled against the absolute defense of Superheavy Samurai Warlord Susanowo. With a booming roar of spirit, Gongenzaka claimed victory, proving the true power of his immovable dueling style. And making Gen understand the growth of Yuya.
...
Far beneath the roaring crowds, in a strictly classified sector of the Leo Corporation laboratories, Ryo stood in absolute silence. His fingers moved across multiple holographic interfaces with mechanical precision. He was stabilizing the localized energy grids for cross-dimensional teleportation—specifically mapping the distinct signatures of the Fusion and Xyz Dimensions.
"Fusion and Xyz are locked into the grid," Ryo thought, his eyes tracking each and every surging energy lines. Yet, a deep friction troubled his thoughts. "But Synchro... Synchro remains entirely out of this network."
The Synchro Dimension was a complete wildcard, completely detached from the ongoing invasion and battlefield calculations. Could the residents of that world become allies, or would they serve as a crucial aid to Academia if the fusion forces managed to get their hands on that world? If Academia managed to take over the Synchro Dimension, the balance of power would permanently shatter.
While Ryo calculated variables in the dark, Yuto slipped through the shadows of the city. He was on his own desperate search for answers, trying to uncover how deeply LDS was entangled with Academia. Can the LDS really be trusted and be helpful for their Resistance, their Xyz dimension or not.
His scouting brought him to a giant screen in city, a brutal clash was already concluding: Shun Kurosaki versus Shiunin Sora in the Maiami Championship, on stadium, witnessing by all people of Maiami City.
It was a total slaughter. Shun's Raidraptor - Revolution Falcon tore through Sora's Frightfur monster with absolute, merciless execution. To an outsider or a third party, Shun's relentless assault would look unnecessarily cruel. But in reality, it was exactly what Sora deserved. For everything Academia had done to the Xyz Dimension, for every innocent life turned into a hunting trophy, Shun more than deserved to crush him. Shun raised his duel disk, ready to seal the defeated Academia soldier into a card permanently, but the sudden interruption of Reiji Akaba's forced him to stay his hand and made him exit the stadium from his turminal. In truth, not torturing Sora but just sealing him in a card was in a way mercy to him. Even if it wasn't the intention of Shun.
Up in the primary monitoring room, Nakajima adjusted his tablet and spoke to Reiji. "President, by your direct authority, our R&D department completed the specialized Pendulum cards tailored specifically for Kurosaki's deck. But... he completely refused the generosity."
Reiji didn't look surprised. He adjusted his glasses, watching the playback of Shun utterly dismantling Sora without breaking a sweat. "It is fine. We can test the Pendulum cards anytime. Right now, we needed to see his raw skills—the ones he has sharpened and honed in the fires of actual combat. Confirming if he can become aid or not for us."
Nakajima understood, observing the frozen image of the fierce Raidraptor duelist. "After a victory like that... he will be more than useful for your upcoming plans."
During the duel, a massive uproar had shaken the audiance, but not tech staff, whenever Shun utilized a completely alien mechanic: Rank-Up-Magic. The technicians, Reiji and Nakajima remained perfectly calm.
"President," Nakajima whispered, "can't we reverse-engineer that data and manufacture our own Rank-Up-Magic cards?"
"We cannot," Reiji answered smoothly, his voice devoid of doubt and second thoughts. "To trigger a proper Rank-Up evolution, you require a fundamentally compatible Xyz foundation. We do not have the time, nor do we possess a proper deck designed to sustain that kind of teche and technique. Forcing an anomalous, totally alien card type into a standard deck just for a mere Xyz evolution would do more harm than good. We would need a dedicated, pure Xyz user whose entire strategy is built around it. It's not a matter of capability, Nakajima. All of our resources are currently dedicated to mass-producing and stabilizing Pendulum cards. Ordering our technicians and R&D department to chase an unstable alien card in such a short timeframe would just waste their time and disrupt the entire infrastructure."
Meanwhile, at the local hospital, the medical monitors suddenly flatlined in a asymmetric error codes. Sora had completely vanished from his high-security recovery room. Slipping past the guards, the wounded Fusion duelist dragged his feet down a dark alleyway, following a mysterious figure wrapped in a heavy traveling cloak and wearing a cold, metallic mask.
...
In the deep subterranean lab, a sharp chime echoed. Ryo's primary terminal flashed a brilliant, absolute glow.
"Dimensional transfer and teleportation protocols completed. One hundred percent success rate," Ryo narrated softly to the empty room. He closed his eyes, exhaling a breath he felt he'd been holding for hours. "Every frequency calibrated. The gates to the other dimensions are perfectly stable. Now, the real battle begins."
Seeking to report this face-to-face, Ryo walked straight into the main command center. The moment the automated doors slid open, his eyes narrowed.
Shun Kurosaki was already standing there alongside Reiji and Nakajima. On the massive primary monitor, a chaotic scene was unfolding in a distant park. Yuya Sakaki was there, desperately shouting, alongside the masked individual who had led Sora out of the hospital.
Suddenly, the masked youth reached up and pulled off the metallic visor.
Yuya's breath hitched slightly before anyone else in the room could react. Ryo and Shun remained calm.
The face captured by the camera was more or less identical to Yuya Sakaki's. However, the eyes were a striking, serious. Gray. His thick, sharp eyebrows furrowed deeply beneath spike black hair styled with spike light-purple bangs. When he spoke, his voice carried a mature, heavy seriousness that completely contrasted Yuya's childish personality. It was Yuto.
Yuto accepted Sora's challenge of duel to know information. Yuya interrupted the duel, trying to help Yuya. But when he knew Sora knew nothing, he closed the duel.
Yuto was close to defeat Sora even if Yuya was helping Sora. But Yuto stopped. Closing the duel because he had never need to continue useless duel and waste his time for nothing in return.
On screen, Sora suddenly began screaming hysterically about the glory of Academia before a flash of light enveloped him, causing him to vanish entirely from the field. Yuya cried out in sheer desperation, demanding to know what happened to his friend.
Yuto looked at Yuya, a flash of genuine sympathy softening his harsh expression. Slowly, deliberately, Yuto began explaining the horrific reality. He spoke of Academia, the brutal truth of the dimensional war, and exactly where Sora had been recalled to.
Yuto's gaze locked onto Yuya frame. The silence between the two lookalikes was heavy, thick with a truth that was about to pull the rug out from under everything Yuya believed about dueling.
"You want to know the truth?" Yuto's voice dropped, carrying the literal weight of a ruined world. "Even if it will shatter all your beliefs?"
"I want to know what happened to my friend!" Yuya shouted back, his voice cracking with desperation, his fists clenched tight at his sides.
Yuto closed his eyes for a brief moment, a hollow, bitter smile touching his lips before he looked back at Yuya.
"Your 'friend' belongs to a world where dueling isn't a game. It's a weapon of execution," Yuto began, his phrases sharp, measured, and unyielding. "He comes from Academia. A place that looks at people, at families, at entire civilizations... and sees nothing but targets to be hunted."
Yuya stepped back, his eyes wide. "Hunted? What are you talking about? Dueling is for bringing joy! It makes people smile!"
"That is only for your world. Your peaceful sky," Yuto countered, his tone flattening into a terrifyingly steady calm. "In my home, the Xyz Dimension, we believed that too. We had schools, we laughed, we shared our cards like they were pieces of our hearts. And then, without warning, the sky turned red. The sky opened up, and the Academia duelists descended like a plague.
"They didn't come to talk. They didn't come to play. They came to erase us. They smile. They smiled just like you do—but their smiles came from the thrill of the chase. They turned our friends, our teachers, our families into cold, lifeless cards, right before our eyes. We watched people we loved disappear, trapped forever in pocket-sized graves."
Up in the command center, Shun's jaw tightened, his fists clenching so hard his knuckles turned stark white.
"I lost comrades I trained with for years," Yuto continued, his voice echoing in the quiet park. "I lost people whose names I never even had the chance to learn. Neighbours who I grew watching. My parents who were everything, my life to me. I see their faces every time I draw a card. I see the empty, ruined Heartland City every time I close my eyes.
"I am standing here right now because I have to be. Because when your entire world is torn down to the bedrock, you either learn to stand like iron, or you become another trophy in their collection."
Yuya swallowed hard, the weight of the words pressing down on his chest. He looked at the phantom-like boy before him, his mind racing through everything Yuzu had told him after her encounter with this stranger.
"Is that... is that why you're looking for her?" Yuya asked quietly, his voice barely a whisper. "For Ruri?"
Yuto's gray eyes flickered, but his expression didn't break. He wasn't surprised by the question; he knew Yuya must have heard the name from Yuzu.
"Yes," Yuto said softly, the edge in his voice briefly cracking to reveal a deep, bleeding ache. "Ruri was snatched away by them. She was a light in that dark city, and they took her. Who knows how she is. If she is carded or not. Everyday feels like darkness wins a little more. But I will do anything to bring her back and everyone who we have lost. I will bring everyone back and make Academia taste their own ruined madicine."
Inside the Leo Corp main office, Shun let out a low, visceral growl at the mention of his sister's name, his gaze burning holes into the monitor.
"So don't ask me to treat Sora like a victim," Yuto concluded, his posture straightening back into that of a hardened soldier, his eyes refocusing with fierce, absolute clarity. "He was recalled back to his masters because his failure wasn't permitted. He is part of the group that crushed my home. If you want to save him, Yuya, you'll have to face the fact. You can either look away and keep your childish dreams, or you can open your eyes to the blood on the stage."
Yuto spoke the brutal truth. But deep down, beneath the heavy iron facade, a desperate part of him still wished it were all a lie.
Yuya stared at him, his chest heaving as tears finally spilled over his eyes. He shook his head violently, taking a step forward, completely refusing to let the suffocating darkness swallow everything his father had taught him.
"No! I won't accept that!" Yuya yelled, his voice cracking but filled with a fierce, stubborn conviction. "You're wrong about dueling! Dueling isn't a weapon, and it's not meant for despair! If it's used to hurt people, then that's not dueling at all! My dad taught me that dueling is supposed to bring people together. It's supposed to make the whole world laugh and forget their pain! Even if the sky turned red, even if everything was destroyed... the smiles we create are the only things that can save us! You can't give up on making people smile! I'll make you smile!"
Yuto's breath hitched. He wanted to scream at Yuya. He wanted to throw the harsh reality right in his face, to shatter this fragile, naive fantasy with the cold, unyielding weight of the real world. He wanted to open the window to the actual world—the mirror of life—and force Yuya to see that smiles couldn't stop a fusion invasion, and entertainment couldn't piece together a shattered family or bring back a carded person.
He wanted to reject Yuya's childish dream with everything he had. But he couldn't.
Looking at Yuya's tear-streaked, fiercely determined face, Yuto felt a mirror reflecting, inside his own soul. He couldn't fully reject the dream—because it was the exact same dream he had once believed in. Before Academia rose over Heartland, he had walked through Heartland with Ruri, pursuing that very same light, talking about a future where their duels brought nothing but genuine happiness to the city. They had shared that exact same ideal.
"I used to talk just like him," Yuto thought, a profound, emotionally tragic and nostalgic realization washing over him. "We wanted the same thing."
He still wanted to believe it. Even now, buried under layers of ash, blood, and grief, Yuto desperately craved the luxury of Yuya's childish dream. He wanted to hold onto it, to believe that a card-game could cure a war and bring back his parents. Heartland. But he just didn't know how anymore. The horrific weight of his memories anchored him to reality, leaving him stranded in a gray void where he simply couldn't find the way back to that innocent light.
"You speak of smiles as if they cost nothing," Yuto whispered, his voice trembling slightly, cracking beneath the weight of his envy and his deep sorrow. "I want to believe you. God help me, I want to believe that a card-game can cure a war. But when you've heard the screams of a dying city... when you've lost your home, your neighbors, your parents... I've watched Ruri vanish into the dark... you lose the ability to dream. I can't look at a duel disk and see a toy anymore. I only see a shield. And I only feel a grave where I have crawled up after getting buried and buried numarios times. And after each time, I feel more strong."
In the command center, Ryo watched Yuto's movements with absolute focus. "His eyes... they only focus entirely when it is absolutely needed," Ryo murmured aloud, drawing Shun and Reiji's attention. "But he is always on guard. He is incredibly fierce, completely firm on whether he needs to duel or not. He can read people as if he has already experienced the absolute worst the worlds have to offer. He's a masterful tactical creator and strategist—he knows exactly which card to use and precisely when to use it."
Ryo turned his gaze squarely toward the screen. "In a true battle of survival, Sakaki Yuya cannot defeat him. That Phantom will win, without question."
Shun crossed his arms, his sharp eyes cutting toward the thirteen-year-old boy. "And how can you be so certain, kid?"
"I saw his eyes," Ryo replied calmly, his voice steady. "On the day of the warehouse incident, when he briefly interfered during the duel with Sawatari. I saw his eyes for a mere moment before he turned his head away. That was all I needed to figure out exactly what kind of person he is."
Reiji adjusted his glasses, explaining. "It is one of Ryo's natural gifts, Kurosaki. He has an innate ability to decipher a person's core. He can tell if someone is lying or telling the truth, exactly what they are feeling, and what kind of personality and mindset they possess regardless of the situation—all by simply looking them eye-to-eye. He can read people like an open book."
BEEP. BEEP.
Before the main supercomputers of Leo Corporation could even process a change, a high-pitched, almost no sound like, anomaly signal pinged directly on Ryo's custom, high-tech duel disk. The localized energy spike originated far away from the park where Yuya and Yuto's conversation had abruptly ceased.
Ryo rapidly tapped his screen, bypassing the main LDS grid to check a nearby CCTV feed. On the cracked pavement of an alleyway, a blinding blue light erupted, after it vanished, lay a boy, heavily bruised and suffering from severe, traumatic injuries all over his body.
Ryo cut all the signals so LDS wouldn't know and find the boy.
But before Ryo could even formulate a plan to check it out himself, a blinding flash of pure white light erupted on the camera feed. Through the static, a teenager materialized out of thin air, wearing a sleek white helmet, a white riding jacket, and piloting a massive, roaring white motorbike. The moment the bike revved, the CCTV monitor began to violently blink, tearing the signal into unreadable static waves.
"An intrusion!" Nakajima shouted.
Shun instantly spun on his heel, bolting toward the exit. "I'm going down there!"
"Stand down, Kurosaki," Reiji commanded. Instantly, Nakajima and four heavily armed LDS bodyguards stepped into the doorway, blocking Shun's path.
Shun's eyes flared with absolute fury as he glared back at Reiji. "What kind of play is this, Akaba?!"
Reiji remained entirely unmoved, his fingers laced under his chin. "We need to see how this plays out, and exactly what this new duelist is capable of. Our technical team just confirmed that the radiation and energy coordinates from that white light are purely Synchro—carrying an exceptionally high, volatile output of energy waves."
While attention was locked on Reiji and Shun, Ryo silently moved toward the doorway. Two of the bodyguards stepped forward, hands outstretched to restrain him.
They never even saw him move.
With a fluid, terrifyingly fast sequence of strikes, Ryo swept the first guard's legs while delivering a precise palm strike to the second man's sternum. In a matter of seconds, both grown men were crashing heavily onto the floor, groaning in pain.
The heavy security doors automatically locked down, sealing the command center. Without missing a beat, Ryo pulled his duel disk close, tapped his fingers on the screen several times in just 2 seconds. The digital lock shattered, and the heavy steel doors slid open.
Reiji's calm demeanor cracked, his voice carrying a rare, pissed-off, irritated edge. "Ryo. What do you think you are doing? This data is crucial."
Ryo didn't look back. "I just want to see this one with my own eyes. On the spot. So don't get in my way."
He stepped through, and the heavy doors instantly slammed shut behind him, locking securely once more before a cursing Shun Kurosaki could follow him out. And before anyone could try to stop Ryo.
He exited the building within a tens of seconds.
Ryo sprinted through the exit doors of the Leo Corporation headquarters, bursting into the cool night air. Above him, the heavy storm clouds that had blanketed Maiami City all evening suddenly began to drift apart. The sky cleared cleanly, revealing a radiant, massive full moon that bathed the entire city in a bright, silver light.
The silver luminescence fell across Ryo's skin, making his pale complexion look almost ethereal. He stopped for a fraction of a second, looking up at the celestial body.
"Out of all the nights and times... tonight had to be a full moon," Ryo whispered bitterly to himself, the silver light reflecting deeply in his red eyes. "And you just had to show up now to make me see this. You really don't like me, do you? Or are you just trying to get in my way?"
He stared at the brilliant white sphere, his voice dropping into a quiet, aching hollow.
"Are you mocking me? Peeking through the clouds just to cast your perfect, untainted light on a broken world, as if to remind me of everything that's been ruined? You sit up there, cold and beautiful, watching millions of people bleed, watching people tear each other apart, and you just keep shining.
"You wanted me to see them, didn't you? You wanted me to look at Yuto's ghost-like eyes under your glare, just to prove to me that no matter how fast I run or how much I hack into the machine, I'm still just a slave trapped under your watch... you're just a cruel mirror, reflecting, showing me burden and responsibilities I never asked to carry..." He closed his eyes and cleared all thoughts. Not wasting any more time.
He shook his head, forcing the suffocating weight back down into his chest, and took off into the dark streets.
His movement was a blur, executing a speed that felt entirely inhuman for a thirteen-year-old kid. The wind began to violently howl around him, whipping through his spiked silver hair, sending it flying wildly against the air as he cut through the shadows of Maiami City like a localized gale, racing directly toward the center of the shifting tide.