Ryoho moved like a shadow, cutting through the twilight streets of Maiami City. The sky above was a deep, bruising orange—the final bleeding remnants of the sunset casting long, distorted shadows across the pavement.
The heavy air of the harbor clung to his skin, growing thick with the scent of saltwater as he neared the docks. His forearm band flickered a sharp, restless amber—a silent warning that he was approaching a massive, volatile concentration of localized dimensional energy.
"Masumi is out there," Ryo thought, his jaw tightening. "If she tries to play the hero against someone who literally turns war into cardboard, she's done for..."
Up ahead, the towering, rusted silhouettes of shipping containers loomed against the darkening sky. The eerie quiet of the seaport at dusk was deafening, broken only by the distant, rhythmic lap of the tide against the concrete barriers. But as Ryo rounded the final corner into a blind spot devoid of any prying eyes, the silence shattered.
A sharp, explosive crack of energy echoed through the shipyard, casting a brilliant, unnatural flash against the metal crates.
"I told you," a cold, detached voice rang out from the center of the clearing. "Every single Fusion user pays the price."
Ryo slid to a halt behind the edge of a massive crane structure, his eyes narrowing as he took in the scene under the fading evening light.
There she was. Masumi Kotsu was on her knees, her breath coming in ragged gasps, her duel disk sparking weakly as her Life Points ticked down to zero. Standing over her, a coat and red scarf fluttering in the sea breeze, was a young man with a fierce, vengeful aura. His arm was extended, his duel disk humming with a dangerous, dark light as his fingers hovered over the interface, ready to seal her away.
Ryoho didn't hesitate. He stepped out of the shadows, his own duel disk snapping open with a sharp, lethal click that echoed across the concrete.
"Step away from her," Ryo said, his voice dropping to a dangerous, icy register. "If you want a fight with someone who can actually push back, your target is right here." A sharp smile spread across his face, showing his sparkling teeth as his eyes sharpened like swords. "Let's finish that unfinished duel."
The young man in the red scarf, his eyes shadowed by sunglasses, paused, his thumb hovering over his dark-glowing duel disk. He snapped his head toward Ryo, his aura burning with instant, lethal recognition.
Before either could make a move, the sound of hurried footsteps echoed from the opposite side of the shipping containers.
"Wait! Stop right there!"
Yuzu Hiragi and Sora Shiunin burst into the clearing, completely out of breath. They had been relentlessly pursuing a metal-masked figure clad in a heavy, shadowed cloak.
Ryo's eyes shifted rapidly between the two intruders. "The masked one..." He thought, his mind racing back to the night at the storage house. "I thought it was a hoodie back then, but it's a dark cloak. The darkness of that place must have tricked me."
"What is this?" Sora asked, his usual playful demeanor vanishing as his gaze swept from Masumi on the ground to the tense standoff between Ryo and the mysterious duelist. "Looks like we stumbled into a crowded party."
The young man with the red scarf glared at Ryo, completely ignoring the newcomers. "You," he spat, his voice laced with pure venom as his duel disk flared to life. "I don't care who interferes. If you stand in the way of my vengeance, you fall next—"
The tense atmosphere fractured the moment the young man in the red scarf caught sight of Yuzu.
His hostile posture vanished instantly, replaced by sheer, breathless shock. He took a step toward her, his eyes wide behind his sunglasses. "Ruri...?" he breathed, his voice cracking with an intense mix of disbelief and overwhelming relief.
Before Yuzu could even process the name, the young man was already shaking her with his hands like he wanted to know, a barrage of desperate questions spilled from him. "How are you here?! How did you escape from Academia?! Did you find a way out of the Fusion Dimension on your own?! How did you get to the Standard Dimension?!"
Yuzu stood frozen, completely at a loss for words. Her mind scrambled in utter chaos as she stared back at this fiercely emotional stranger, who was looking at her as if she were a ghost or long-lost family. "I... I don't know what you're talking about," she stammered, stepping back, breaking the attechment. "My name is Yuzu!"
Beside her, Sora's playful demeanor didn't just vanish—it inverted. The moment the Xyz duelist mentioned "Academia," Sora's entire body went rigid. His eyes narrowed into a dangerous, sharp glare. By pure instinct, Sora took a calculated step backward, a cold sweat breaking out. It was the primal reaction of a predator suddenly realizing they were the ones being hunted, cornered by a vengeful survivor who loathed everything Sora represented.
The cloaked figure took advantage of the sudden emotional chaos. Moving like a ghost, they lunged forward and delivered a hard, grounding punch straight to the red-scarfed duelist's jaw.
The force of the blow snapped the young man out of his frantic trance, sending him staggering backward. Shaking off the daze, his gaze darted from a panicked Yuzu to a guarded Sora, and finally to Ryo.
The masked person murmured a few words to the red-scarfed youth. Instantly, the young man vanished into the shadows of the darkening harbor. But the masked person stayed behind, ready to stop anyone who tried to pursue his comrade, and prepared to vanish himself once his ally was safe.
Despite not caring about the masked man's intentions, Ryo took a stance and advanced with force. The cloaked figure turned his duel disk on, a dark light gleaming on its blade's border, and lunged at Ryo. Ryo did the same.
The cloaked figure's duel blade and Ryo's blue-bordered duel blade clashed. A new, vibrant, and blinding light erupted from the collision.
The impact threw the cloaked figure's hood back. Ryo's eyes flashed. A sudden surge sprouted within him, completely obscuring his red eyes. A blinding white hue took over, turning his eyes completely pale. Multicolored lines raced accross his eyes.
For a split second, Ryo saw something—a fractured image composed of multiple scenes together, like a photo on page from a massive photo album.
A young man roaring through his city. A young woman walking with depression, stripped of her strength. An old man with a grim look, wanting to act but unable to move a muscle. It was just one photo of many pages. Ryo caught a glimpse of numerous other images on that single sheet, but before he could see everything clearly, his body reacted as if he had been struck by a massive bolt of lightning.
He roared, his scream echoing across the open harbor. Blood erupted from his mouth like reverse water, and blood streamed from his eyes as well, as if they had stored far too much pressure. Slowly, his irises regained their natural red color, while his pupils, eyelids, and sclera also gotbathed in crimson.
An obscuring light began to emanate from Yuzu's bracelet, leaving even her confused.
Ryo collapsed to the ground, completely defenseless and powerless. The cloaked figure had also vanished, leaving no trace that he was ever there.
"Yuzu! Sora!" A sudden shout echoed, heavy with concern.
"Yuya?!" Yuzu gasped.
Sora stood frozen in confusion.
Masumi was still unconscious on the ground. Everyone rushed to Ryo's side while Sora checked on Masumi. She was going to be okay, but Ryo was not. He needed urgent medical help, just as the sound of arriving LDS security sirens began to wail in the distance.