II
Although no one inside the Leo Corporation's R&D division was aware of it at the time, the events that had taken place inside testing bay three were to have wider-reaching consequences than any of them would have suspected.
The power outage that had disabled the entire complex rocketed upward in an instant—and the entirety of the Leo Duel School, one floor after the other, lost power in the blink of an eye. Classrooms, computer labs, and Dueling arenas alike were plunged into darkness, to the consternation of its many students, teachers, and staff.
At the top floor of the building—inside a stately office with enough square footage to rival a large house—the light emanating from a single lamp flickered and died upon the single desk that furnished that office. Then, almost imperceptibly, the fluorescent illumination set into the ceiling faded as well. It was only imperceptible because one entire wall of that office was constructed of nothing but tempered glass and steel frames; there was more than enough natural light at this time of day, therefore, that a power outage here could easily have gone unnoticed.
The single occupant of the office, however, was perceptive enough to notice the lights in her office go out—and more to the point, the subtle hum of power that flowed into this room to disappear as well. Immediately, she sensed something was amiss, though why and how remained a mystery for the time being.
Regardless, a simple call would provide an explanation for what happened here, she decided. So she took out her mobile—the telephone she kept on her desk would be of little use here; the power loss would have disrupted the land lines—and dialed in a number: a secure line that only one person had access to at any given time.
That time, unfortunately, was not today, as she discovered roughly fifteen seconds and a burst of static later; the call refused to connect. So even the cell network is down as well, she thought, turning round in her chair to gaze out at Maiami City, staring out at the skyline for some time. She couldn't see it, but she had a suspicion that …
Abruptly, she turned round to face her desk, taking out her tablet computer as she did so. Even this, however, proved to be a fruitless venture; a quick look at the icons at the top of the screen told her everything she needed to know. Not even a Wi-Fi connection, she mused. So I can't e-mail or message him, either—
Her eyes flicked to the lamp just then—she'd seen the faintest burst of illumination from the LED bulb inside. Then … Yes, she knew as she watched the light flicker on for good; the power loss had only been temporary.
That was just as well, she thought as she watched the lights in her office come on, one after another. The lack of functioning elevators meant that it would have taken a very long time for her to come down all this way and find out how this had happened—and she had no intention of walking down a hundred flights of stairs just to answer a single question; it was hardly befitting for a woman of her standing.
Quickly, she looked at her mobile, noticing the signal strength had returned to its usual four bars; a second look at her computer showed much the same. Not deigning to waste any time, therefore, she tried a second time to connect the call she'd attempted to place mere minutes ago.
Almost instantly, her efforts were more successful. "This is Nakajima," said a deep male voice on the other side of the line.
"Report." The single word was a sharp bark—a tone that signified she was in no mood for nonsense or delays, only answers.
"I've had word of an incident in R&D," Nakajima said. "Nothing to confirm or deny at this time; I'm on my way to check now."
"Send word when you can." And she hung up. There was no need to ask for elaboration; Nakajima was a trusted sort—dutiful enough to know that sometimes, the urgency of the situation cared little for details, minutiae, or overly long explanations. Those could always come later.
Until then, though, all she could do was wait; considering where Nakajima was going, it would be some time before he would be able to arrive with the news of whatever had happened inside Research and Development.
A sudden thought occurred to her. Maybe, she mused, as she picked up her mobile once more—this time, keying in a different number entirely—maybe it would do to have some outside help in this situation …
3:19 P.M.
Six minutes earlier
"Settle down, everyone—please settle down! We'll be starting in just a little bit."
At the teachers' instruction, several chaperones began the task of hushing the ninety or so awed students that had filed into the planetarium for today's field trip, gawking at the immense size of the dome over their heads. The oldest of them didn't look more than eight—too young to be considered for entry into a Duel School just yet.
As he gazed inside the room from his vantage point in an adjacent doorway, Rokkaku Fuyu couldn't resist smiling at the kids' reactions: the notion that such a building always appeared to be bigger on the inside than it actually was. It was more than simply a way of finding out who'd been inside a planetarium before and who hadn't—in a way, it was also a way to tell which of these kids was interested in the skies that lay beyond the Earth from those whose interest hadn't yet been piqued. That mixture of curiosity and wonder was an emotion to treasure, Fuyu believed—indeed, only three people in his life had had the honor of experiencing more of that particular desire than he.
It was a bittersweet feeling, however; less than a month ago, that three had been whittled down to two—through a series of unfortunate events that Fuyu had been most unfortunate to not be a part of. The Xyz Duelist had fallen into something of a depression ever since finding out that his best friend had been … claimed in the Maiami Championship; Fuyu's body, already pale and skinny to a dangerous degree owing to a prolonged sickness he'd gone through in his youth, became pasty white and bone-thin. After the tournament had been canceled, he'd kept to his room—not even leaving for meals or showers—and had generally neglected himself for the better part of the following week.
It might well have been much longer if not for a chance encounter—and a Duel that would prove to change Fuyu's life forever. His skin was still as pallid as ever—no Duel would change that—but in the weeks since, he'd been starting to leave the planetarium more often, going out for hours at a time, and he'd found that he'd been acting less shy as a result of it. Of course, he had to wear a special suit to make this possible in the first place, otherwise his pale skin would burn within minutes; while sunblock would have been the preferred option, Fuyu detested the smell of it—besides, he thought, he looked and felt cooler inside that suit anyway.
"Okay, everyone," he heard a voice say, and instinctively he jumped; a silver-haired woman in her forties had taken to the floor to speak to the students. "My name is Rokkaku Yuki, and I'm the owner of this planetarium. Thank you all for coming here today; it's a pleasure to see so many of you … "
Fuyu slowly tuned out his mother's voice; he'd heard this preamble a hundred times. She was the face and voice of this planetarium, after all, and the second person that had more of a love for the stars than even he did—the third, of course, being his father, who'd made a living out of being a stargazer before he'd married Yuki and fathered their only child.
"Now," Yuki said to the assembled children, "who here has seen the stars during the night?"
Several hands went up, including Fuyu's—though nobody noticed him standing outside the door. The Xyz user knew why most hands weren't being raised; most of these children lived downtown, where the artificial lighting of Maiami City drowned out any hope of starlight reaching the naked eye.
"Awesome!" Yuki replied with the sort of enthused tone children liked to hear—keeping them on the edge of their seat until the really exciting portion started. "How many of you have ever been camping before during the night?"
All the hands but one lowered. "My family goes to the mountains ev'ry summer," said a boy of about seven, when Yuki called on him.
"Cool!" gushed Yuki. "No, really, it gets really cold up there," she added in a stage whisper, even holding up a palm beside her mouth as if to confide a great secret to the boy. "Make sure to bring a jacket next time." She made an overly exaggerated shiver, and the children giggled.
"Anyway," she went on, "how many stars do you think you saw when you went camping in the mountains?"
Fuyu could almost imagine the boy's brow creasing as he tried to think of an answer. "I 'unno," he eventually shrugged. "Maybe a hundred."
"Wow." Yuki's mouth fell open in a wide, perfectly round O, and some of the kids laughed again at this. "That's a lot of stars!"
Then she smiled. "But … what if I told you that you could see thousands of stars in the sky," she whispered, her eyes wide and voice dripping with wonder, "just with your own two eyes … right now?"
There was complete silence from the children. Fuyu knew it well, and smiled—his mother had hooked them in.
"I'm going to slowly turn off the lights here in a little bit," said Yuki, walking backwards towards the edge of the room. "While I'm doing that, I want you to pretend that you're on a camping trip with this boy. The sun is setting, the crickets are chirping, the fire's beginning to burn low—and maybe you're all telling each other scary stories to pass the time," she added, to yet another brief murmur of laughter.
Fuyu grinned in anticipation. Already he could imagine his father working the controls of the Solid Vision system they'd had installed inside this planetarium. Such a setup served a double purpose: not only did it allow for a more realistic view of the night sky than most other places could manage, but it also served as a training arena for Fuyu to practice Duel Monsters. Since his family lived in a space under the building, that privilege was almost exclusively his own—although it didn't stop kids wanting to challenge each other to Duels when they realized how this planetarium worked.
"Slowly but surely," Yuki was saying to the kids in the meantime, her hand hovering over a series of light switches, "it starts … to get … dark."
And then—in an instant that was everything but slow and sure—every light inside the room went out.
Instantly, chaos erupted. Most of the children were young enough that they wouldn't know better; there were a number of oohs, ahhs, and whoas that rose from the crowds. Several kids, though, seemed to get the feeling that something was wrong—the lady had said she would "slowly turn off the lights", they were saying over and over again. One or two of them were starting to go into tearful hysterics from the suddenness of what had happened.
"Everyone please remain calm!" shouted the chaperones, desperately trying to restore order to the inky darkness that enveloped the room. "Everything's okay—just a power bump! We'll be back on in no time!"
Yuki, meanwhile, could just barely be seen ducking into a side door, which led to the control room for the entire planetarium. No doubt she was trying to find out what had gone wrong, Fuyu thought. It couldn't possibly be a thunderstorm—the sky had been clear as crystal all afternoon; besides, he hadn't heard even a rumble of thunder!
That hadn't stopped the Xyz user, however, from curling up into a ball beside the door and promptly beginning to shiver—an act that he hadn't been driven to do in weeks. Much had happened in the time since then—so he wouldn't admit it to anyone today—but something about this was beginning to scare Fuyu … it was almost like back then, when he'd first heard the grim news about the disappearance of his best—his only friend …
3:20 P.M.
In another part of Maiami City, there lay a small park. It was a beautiful place in the springtime, owing to the cherry trees that lined the edges of the grass, separating it from the city proper to the point that it felt like a whole other world. At any given time, people could be found picnicking under the pale pink blossoms, marveling at the beauty of this hidden space, nestled inside the hustle and bustle of the city around them.
Recently, however, that hustle and bustle had started to trickle into the tranquil park, for a Dueling arena with its own Solid Vision generator had been set up nearby. It was rarely used for several reasons—one being a reluctance to take away from the natural beauty of the park—but merely on occasion, such was the prevalence of Duel Monsters in their culture. The other reason that this arena rarely saw use was that it belonged to a small shrine, and it was inside this shrine that two boys were to be found, resting after an intense session of training. Not many children their age were as athletically minded, but then these two kids weren't like most children.
Tōdō Yaiba was, as a matter of fact, not only the top-ranked Synchro Duelist at the Leo Duel School; he'd also been the representative of the entire Summoning course for more than a year—even though he was only fourteen years old, while the boy sitting beside him was a few years his senior, and considerably more fit than he was. Not for nothing, however, had Yaiba gotten to this point faster than any Synchro Duelist before him; he was one of the toughest kids in the entire school, from a physical standpoint; had he not borne witness to the events of last month, he might even claim to be one of the toughest mentally as well. That honor, however, went to another one of his friends—he was not ashamed to admit that.
He slicked back his spiky brown hair—streaked liberally with the sweat of today's workout—and glanced at the boy next to him. Li Shen was not a part of the Leo Duel School, strictly speaking, but was instead a member of one of its branch schools; he attended the Shanghai school in his native China, and was one of the top-ranked Synchro Duelists there. He could very easily have been the top, Yaiba thought—he'd Dueled Shen enough times to know that he was more than capable of flattening him like Kachidoki Isao had done at the Maiami Championship. But the difference between a boy like that and a boy like Shen was that Shen knew there was more to Dueling than simply wanting to win—a lesson both of them knew all too well after what had happened to them a few weeks ago.
Ever since Yaiba had been medically cleared to restart the majority of his training regimen again—not all of his injuries had resulted from his scrap with Kachidoki—he'd been meeting Shen here almost daily. This was mostly because the two Synchro Duelists had known each other for far longer than the month since their worlds and livelihoods had changed—but it also had to do with the face that Shen practiced a degree of loyalty that few friends possessed … enough to make Yaiba suspect that he was watching him to make sure he didn't overexert himself, lest he end up back in hospital.
"Ten more minutes' break?" he said to Shen. "We can walk back to LDS after that, have a practice Duel there. I think I've done enough swordsmanship for one day—my arms are starting to get sore." He flopped a hand over the tip of the bamboo shinai he always carried over his back.
"I did tell you not to do too much in too little time," Shen said, as he straightened the simple orange tunic wrapped around his tanned, smooth skin. He'd spent long enough in Japan of late that Yaiba had noticed less of the Chinese accent in his words over time—and there was also the possibility that it would disappear entirely; Shen had confided to him that he wanted to transfer to the main branch of LDS full-time for his last year of Dueling education. Of course, even if that happened, no amount of cultural assimilation would ever take away Shen's preference of formal speech—not even while he was in the presence of his best friends.
"It is not simply your body that must be healed," continued Shen, as he gazed at the cherry blossom tree nearest them, "but your mind as well."
Yaiba knew what he meant—and more importantly, what he was implying. "Still, though," he said, "I feel like I'm getting close to my old self now! Hey—a week or two more and I could be even better than where I was before I faced off against him!"
He'd made it a point to not mention Kachidoki within earshot of his training partner; most everything about the Ryōzanpaku School, from its regimen to its general win-at-all-costs attitude towards Dueling, rankled the otherwise unflappable Shen. Maybe he didn't show it as much these days, but the last time he had, Yaiba had had to remind himself just how freakishly strong the Synchro user was. It wasn't easy to crack a half-ton sluice shutter, after all—bare hands or otherwise.
Suddenly, a flurry of movement distracted him: several visitors to the park were clustering together some sixty feet away. Yaiba couldn't hear what they were saying, but the animated way they were moving told him something was up. They weren't alone, either; even as a concerned Yaiba went to ask what was going on, he could see several other groups in the distance, each gesturing outward to the edges of the park … or perhaps, he wondered, were they pointing at the city beyond it? …
"Shen?"
But he had disappeared. Yaiba raised an eyebrow; this was nothing new to him, either. Shen's own athletic training had given him such a physique that he was noticeably faster than perhaps any Duelist his age in all of Japan. He'd seen the seventeen-year-old draw cards so quickly that his arm was naught but a blur, and jump some twenty feet into the air with only his bare feet, only to land without a sound behind some unsuspecting tourist. It made for quite the spectacle—or scare, as Yaiba had had to remind him more than once—but seeing the act in person never failed to leave him in awe.
Several minutes later, Shen reappeared in the plaza, joined by an older man in his fifties who was dressed much like he was; Yaiba assumed him to be one of the people who tended this shrine. Both he and Shen were jabbering away at each other in rapid-fire Chinese; Yaiba could only make out a few scattered phrases.
" … wǒ xiāngxìn, tāmen de shǒujī yǐjīng shīqùle zhāodài huì … "
"He is saying that their mobiles have lost reception," Shen translated for Yaiba. Indeed, now that the Synchro user knew what to look for, he could see that several people in the throngs were brandishing their smartphones into the air as though they were Duel Monsters cards.
Shen turned back to the old man. "Nándào zhǐyǒu zìjǐ de shǒujī?"
A shake of his head: no. "Juédòu cípán." He pointed away from the largest knot of tourists, towards two children of about ten. Each of them were examining their Duel Disks in confusion, tapping at the screen and occasionally slapping it against their leg, as if that would help whatever was going on.
"So it's the Duel Disks and the phones as well?" Yaiba was beginning to get worried. He'd taken out his own Duel Disk upon realizing what the old man had meant, and was currently pressing a few experimental buttons. The screen had activated, but no chevron-shaped blade had appeared—and on the screen, instead of a digital field to display the game state of the current Duel, there was instead a giant NO SIGNAL splashed in the middle.
Shen, meanwhile, was holding another hasty conversation in Chinese with the man. "The Real Solid Vision systems throughout this city are redundant," he explained a moment later, after nodding to his companion. "If one should fail, then another would take its place. That way, it prevents a Duel from being interrupted because of, let us say, a mechanical failure, and potentially losing any data on said Duel as a direct result—therefore forcing a rematch."
Yaiba understood: no doubt this was why so many RSV generators had been installed inside downtown Maiami City prior to the twenty-four Battle Royale of last month's Maiami Championship. A constant state of operation for such an energy-consumptive piece of technology meant that its design capabilities could be severely strained as a result. Having multiple redundant generators, therefore, helped to lessen the burden placed upon each one, which made it possible for them to coordinate their efforts as one, and turn an entire city into an Action Field—or a battleground, as they'd come to learn later on.
If the Solid Vision systems weren't working here, even in this one section of Maiami City, it meant that there was a problem—a very big problem; this was no ordinary power outage.
His Duel Disk suddenly hummed at that point. Yaiba jumped, startled, as a bright green blade lanced out along his forearm. Several people cheered at that point, gesturing at their phones again. Evidently, the power had been restored—the outage, ordinary or no, had only lasted a few minutes. That was a relief to Yaiba, and no doubt to everyone else, he thought, as he watched those two children from before celebrate at the restoration of their Duel—before promptly getting back into the spirit of things and Summoning more monsters to their fields.
Some things never change, Yaiba thought, smiling wistfully as he watched the Duel unfold.
He was just about to motion to Shen and signal that he was ready to go to LDS any time—and then his Duel Disk suddenly began to vibrate. Confounded, Yaiba looked at the device, tilting his head at the new message that had appeared on the screen:
INCOMING CALL
UNKNOWN NUMBER
Yaiba frowned, before warily answering the call a few seconds later. "Hello?"
3:21 P.M.
Four minutes earlier
Kōtsu Masumi hit the trampoline with a grunt and a groan of springs. Stars continued to dance in her eyes from her opponent's latest attack as she rebounded off the mat, skidding to a halt against one of the bright purple pads that covered the springs of the apparatus.
Even as the Fusion user lay there, however, she felt her body begin to slide along its length, as though it was being flipped out from under her in slow motion. That wasn't so very far from the truth, she knew; she'd Dueled in this setting more than enough times to know that the laws of physics as she knew them seemed to have no meaning here.
Shaking her head to clear away the stars, Masumi slowly got to her feet, brushing a stray strand of jet-black hair out of her sweaty face as she felt the trampoline mat continue to shift and sag under her bare toes. She glanced down at her Duel Disk, and bit her lip at the figure revealed on the screen: 900 LP—just inside the danger zone.
"You okay down there, Masu-chan?" chirped a shrill voice from high above.
Masumi spared enough time for a thumbs-up in reply before bouncing around the arena, testing the changes to the artificial environment around her; a few moments later, she found a trampoline that was level enough for her to take a breather without having to worry about losing her footing—or her mind. Not that Masumi was having a rough time of it here—she was indeed feeling okay, but she was also feeling a few other things at the moment; namely, a number of stitches in her chest and sore muscles in her legs that she'd thought she'd come to accept as normal after starting to frequent this place more often.
The Trampo-Land trampoline park—questionable name aside—had become one of her more favored hangout spots in recent days. Not because she was in it to have fun—well, she admitted with a smile, maybe just a little bit of fun—but more importantly, it was because Masumi had felt the need to improve herself both in body and mind since that fateful Duel a few weeks ago. In the twenty-four hours that had led up to it, and the twenty-four hours that had followed, the top-ranked Fusion Duelist of the Leo Duel School had come to the conclusion that she needed to be much stronger—much faster, more alert, and more observant of her surroundings to come out on top—than she'd ever been in the past, if ever she found herself in another Duel that could mean the difference between life and death.
The Action Field that came with this Trampo-Land—and the one that had been active ever since the start of this Duel—had been, in Masumi's mind, the perfect venue to achieve all three of those goals. Gravity Sixteen was best described as the unholy fusion of a trampoline park and a tesseract—being constructed of a collection of Solid Vision mats, each one the size of her bedroom, each one lined with purple and white pads, all folded into a cube-within-a-cube that constantly rotated in four different dimensions, nestled inside a protective sphere of foam blocks, into which the loser of the Duel would often be sent.
Navigating this labyrinthine Field, therefore, was as confusing as it was exhausting; ceilings, floors, and walls were often one and the same—even being able to switch roles in the time it took to draw breath. It was mostly for this reason that Masumi—though she'd already begun to see positive results from coming here every other day since her release from hospital—had yet to stop cursing the inevitable aches and pains that would plague her for the rest of the day every time she came here.
But the place was just so damned fun that the soreness was worth it. If there was ever a moment where she hated coming here to Duel, Masumi thought, then she might as well quit the game outright.
Today, as it happened, was no different; wincing as her fingers brushed over one such aching part of her body, Masumi signaled to her opponent that despite all appearances, she was good to go.
"Awesome!" giggled the girl floating above her. "Then I'll Set a card an' end my turn!"
High above Masumi, the bottom of a face-down card materialized from thin air, soon fading from view to reveal the monumental grin of its owner, who sat atop a spiky, golden bird of prey encased in lightning. The Duel Monster was floating upside down, rider and all, yet the messy blond hair of the latter didn't even move an inch—just one more trait of the impossible geometry that defined Gravity Sixteen, and that only Solid Vision could make possible.
It was impossible to look at Menoko Hotene and see the face of a little girl who, barely a month ago, had undergone excruciating torture at the hands of a Duelist unlike any she'd ever encountered before. Yet that was exactly what the nine-year-old prodigy of LDS' Junior Fusion course had been through; in fact, out of all the Duelists she'd roped into facing that threat, Masumi knew without a doubt that Hotene had suffered the worst of them all. Her young age had required an extra amount of time in hospital—in fact, it was only a week ago that the doctors had allowed her to compete in Action Duels of any kind again, so great was the strain that had been put on her body and mind.
Hotene, however, had bounced back—Masumi couldn't help but feel the turn of phrase was appropriate here—as only a child her age could. She was still as rambunctious, impulsive, and whimsical as she'd been on the first day Masumi had met her; the tiny Duelist's mind was governed by the single, simple desire to have fun. Not even the nightmare she'd had to brave had stopped her from fulfilling that desire after the doctors had given her the go-ahead to come back to her favorite hangout spot … although Masumi didn't doubt it had left a few dents in her psyche.
She analyzed the tiny Duelist's field. In addition to the lightning-wreathed bird that the upside-down Hotene was perched on (Level 6: ATK 1400/DEF 1600), and the card she'd Set just now, another monster hovered either side of her steed—one, a pink, armored dolphin (Level 6: ATK 200/DEF 2800); the other, a huge beast covered in dark red fur and tongues of fire (Level 6: ATK 2600/DEF 400).
Masumi hadn't been able to break through Hotene's defenses in this Duel; the little girl still had all 4000 of her Life Points. However, she didn't have any cards in her hand; she'd expended them all in putting her current field together. Masumi, on the other hand, had five cards in her hand, as well as a Set card of her own—and even now, she could visualize the strategy forming inside her brain as she checked over each one in turn.
"My turn!" she cried out, drawing her card … Yes! the Fusion Duelist thought. I was wondering when I'd draw this!
"I activate the Spell Card: Gem-Knight Fusion!" Masumi called out, "and fuse the Gem-Knight Sanyx, Gem-Knight Amber, and Gem-Knight Iola in my hand for a Fusion Summon!" At once, three large warriors, each clad in sparkling armor of different colors—one of pinkish-red, another a brownish-yellow, and a third in a sort of grayish-blue—all shimmered onto the grid of trampolines on which she stood.
Then, with a mighty leap and another groan of springs, Masumi catapulted herself onto the padded platform in the center of the grid. The three Gem-Knights rose up with her, their paths converging into the hurricane of swirling colors that had suddenly formed above the Duel—and the Fusion Duelist began to chant:
"Gem of crimson fire! Stone of golden ages! Crystal of eternal ice! In a whirlpool of light, combine to bring forth a new dazzling radiance!"
"Fusion Summon!" Masumi declared, as a pure-white light erupted above her. "One who illuminates everything with its supreme radiance! Gem-Knight Master Dia!"
She couldn't resist the smile that broke out upon her face. It was nowhere near as wide as Hotene's—and certainly not as bright as the light that had flared behind her. That light now dimmed to reveal an enormous crystal warrior (Level 9: ATK 2900/DEF 2500), almost three times her height and brandishing a blade that was wider than Masumi was at the shoulder.
"I was wonderin' when you were gonna bring that big guy out, Masu-chan!" Hotene called out from on high. "But you only got one big monster on your field, an' I got three!"
"Oh, I'm just getting started!" laughed Masumi. Gem-Knight Master Dia's effect, after all—as Hotene knew full well—allowed it to gain 100 ATK for each Gem- monster in her Graveyard. Since she'd sent three such monsters to the Graveyard to bring it out in the first place, that meant 3200 ATK—and sure enough, its ATK gauge had just stopped at that precise amount.
"Next, I'll Summon my Gem-Knight Alexand—and then I'll Release it to activate its effect, which lets me Special Summon a Gem-Knight Normal Monster from my Deck! That monster will be … my Gem-Knight Crysta!" This was another strategy she'd borrowed from her first Duel against Hotene—but more importantly, it was one that would work in this situation.
She swiped several cards hither and thither, and several things happened in rapid succession: yet another sparkling knight—this time in silver plate armor (Level 4: ATK 1800/DEF 1500)—materialized briefly onto the trampolines before fading away, only to be replaced by an even larger warrior, almost twice as tall as Masumi (Level 7: ATK 2450/DEF 1950).
The Fusion user now back-flipped off the platform she'd been standing on, feeling the mailed hands of her Crysta catch her mere moments later. The Duel Monster launched himself into the air—and then Masumi made her move.
"Now—Trap Card, open: Doublet Fusion!" she cried, revealing her sole Set card. "This'll let me banish monsters from my Graveyard for another Fusion Summon—even though that monster will be destroyed at the end of my turn. But that doesn't matter!" she said to Hotene, close enough to see her blue eyes widen to the size of teacups as she realized what Masumi might be about to Summon.
"That's right!" cried the Fusion Duelist. "I'm going to banish Sanyx, Amber, and Iola from my Graveyard to Summon this!" Once again, the three different-colored knights faded in and out of existence before disappearing into a second vortex of energy:
"Fusion Summon!" Masumi screamed. "This is my true ace—the dazzling Gem-Knight Lady Brilliant Dia!"
She launched herself out of Crysta's clutches as a second, brighter flash of light filled the Action Field, performing several more gymnastic maneuvers as she did so. By the time she bounced off another trampoline, the monster she'd Fusion Summoned had already appeared on the field: a huge female warrior some fifteen feet tall, its polished armor throwing rays of light in every direction (Level 10: ATK 3400/DEF 2000).
"Now I'll activate my Brilliant Dia's effect!" shouted Masumi at the top of her lungs. "Once per turn, I can Release a Gem-Knight monster I control, then Special Summon a Gem-Knight Fusion Monster from my Extra Deck—and I can bypass its Summoning conditions to do it! So I'll Release my Crysta and bring out my Gem-Knight Zirconia!"
As Master Dia's ATK was quickly adjusted to 3100, owing to the new monsters in Masumi's Graveyard, Crysta then disappeared in a flash of illumination; moments later, a heavy, broad knight had appeared on the trampoline where it had stood. Its fists were nothing so much as giant crystals the size of car tires, smashing through the air this way and that as if trying to break through an invisible wall (Level 8: ATK 2900/DEF 2500).
Now! "Battle Phase!" Masumi yelled, launching herself skyward with a mighty leap, where the armored hand of Brilliant Dia deftly caught her in midair and plunked her on her back. "Gem-Knight Zirconia—attack Hotene's Tamed Spirit Beast Petolphin!"
The piledriver-handed knight obeyed instantly, bearing down upon the pink dolphin like a considerably more mobile freight train. One second later, that freight train had plowed right through Petolphin, shattering its holographic form into millions of hard-light splinters. Fortunately for Hotene, however, the monster had been in Defense Position when it was destroyed, meaning the tiny Duelist wouldn't take any damage from the attack.
"Next! Gem-Knight Master Dia!" cried Masumi, as Brilliant Dia maneuvered its way along the shifting surfaces of trampolines. "Attack Tamed Spirit Beast Apelio!" The broad, jewel-encrusted blade of the monster sliced sideways in a large arc, cutting through the furred bulk of the monster with ease. It, too, vanished into photonic dust—but this time, the shockwave from the attack caught Hotene atop her mount, causing her LP to drop to 3500.
Masumi, however, paid this no attention; she'd seen a flash of light just now—only a brief one—but enough experience playing this game had taught her to recognize an Action Card when she saw one. So she dismounted from Brilliant Dia, plucked that Action Card from where it had been wedged between a trampoline and its thick pad, slapped it onto the fiery orange blade of her Duel Disk, then bounced on the trampoline and back onto Brilliant Dia's back.
All this happened in a matter of seconds; it was a maneuver that the Masumi of a month ago wouldn't even have dreamed she'd be capable of. The more she Dueled here, though, the more she believed this place was beginning to transform her, both in body and in mind. She was improving—but she wasn't where she wanted to be just yet.
"Now I'll activate the Action Spell: High Dive," Masumi explained, "then target my Brilliant Dia to give it 1000 extra ATK until the end of the turn!" The knight sailed downward with a gracefulness that belied its sheer size, rebounding off one of the mats to soar back into the air, sword held at the ready as its ATK gauge rose to 4400—
"Now—Brilliant Dia!" Masumi shrieked as the monster reached the apex of its leap. "Attack Tamed Spirit Beast Kanna—"
And then several things happened without warning.
Masumi felt the hard light of her monster disappear out from under her body at exactly the same time as she noticed all the lights in the arena go out, plunging the entire room into darkness. Startled cries and shrieks from the crowds that had been watching the Duel erupted from below—but Masumi didn't hear them; in the time it had taken for those lights to go out, her mind had just come to a very unpleasant conclusion.
Namely, the fact that the Real Solid Vision generator below them had been deactivated, the fact that almost all the hard-light trampolines that made up Gravity Sixteen had disappeared into thin air—and the fact that at the time the power had gone out, she'd used Brilliant Dia to propel herself some fifty feet upward, near the very top of the arena.
But most importantly, the fact that she had no other means of staying there.
Masumi barely heard herself begin to scream as she plummeted towards the ground, flailing about in the air—her heart had skipped into her mouth, and images began flashing in her darkened vision—
Then, she felt the breath leave her as something caught her in the stomach. She yowled in pain—the recoil of whatever had hit her made her spine feel as though a fully-grown bull had knocked it about. But whatever it was had slowed her descent, if far from gently—and it slowly dawned on her that she wasn't about to die today.
She reached out with her hand experimentally, and felt a thin, flexible grid of cords on her palm, with enough space between each one to wiggle her pinky finger.
Nets? Masumi thought. Must be a safety feature or something. It wasn't hard to guess why they might exist here; in hindsight, Masumi was surprised the notion hadn't occurred to her earlier. No doubt the people that had built Trampo-Land had taken into account that any Duelist who used Gravity Sixteen for an Action Field might be tempted to do the same thing she had, and fly high up into the arena for some dramatic attack or other. But on the off chance the power would cut out at that point—as it seemed to have done now—nets like the one that currently enveloped the Fusion user would be deployed to stop said Duelist from meeting a sticky end—and potentially stop said Duelist's parents from suing the park out of existence in the process, liability waivers be damned.
In the meantime, there was little else Masumi could do but let gravity bear her down towards one of the trampolines inside the arena—one of about two dozen that weren't created by Solid Vision, but had been built into the place for sports like dodgeball, basketball, or volleyball. After what felt like a few minutes, Masumi finally felt the mat give way beneath her, and she began the arduous task of struggling to her feet while inside a huge net at the same time.
"Everyone okay in there?" shouted a voice Masumi couldn't recognize. Most likely one of the park monitors, she guessed, who watched the place in an attempt to make sure that nobody tried anything that might get themselves injured, or worse—much like what she'd tried to do, she remembered with a slight stab of foolishness.
"I'm okay!" chirped Hotene. Masumi heard a whoosh of air; she'd released a relieved breath that she had no idea she'd been holding—she'd forgotten about the tiny Duelist completely. Although, if she remembered right, Hotene had been much closer to the ground when the park had lost power, so even though the nets might not have reached her in time, she might have been close enough to the trampolines that it wouldn't have mattered anyway.
"I'm okay, too," Masumi managed to cough out, reaching out with her free hand, feeling the grip of the unknown attendant clasp onto her wrist, hauling her out of the net and onto her feet. "Thanks for that. What happened here?"
"I couldn't tell you," the attendant replied. "All I can figure is that a few minutes ago, we lost power somehow—but this is no ordinary outage. People are saying their phones aren't getting any reception—so whatever did this knocked out cell service in the area as well. Frankly, I'm glad they give us these radios, or we'd be having to run back and forth to find out what the heck's going on here—ah, here we go—"
The lights had just flared on: the power was back! Masumi's relief was quickly snuffed out, however, by the pain stabbing her eyelids; spending even a few minutes in utter darkness had made the lights even brighter than she'd anticipated. Most of the crowd was cheering at seeing the power come back on; a number of them, mostly kids younger than Hotene, had stormed the arena to jump in the pits of foam that lined either side of the trampoline court.
The attendant quickly excused herself to see to those kids in an attempt to maintain order, which gave Masumi the excuse to check on Hotene. "You sure you're doing all right?" the Fusion user asked.
"Uh-huh!" Hotene piped up, springing to her feet from where she'd been attempting to climb the nets; Masumi now saw they'd appeared from opposite ends of the court, closing in on each other like sliding doors so as to cover as much ground as possible. Why Hotene wanted to climb them was a mystery—but then again, she was only a kid.
That also meant Hotene was a lot more impressionable than she was, Masumi knew, and therefore a lot easier to scare under the right conditions—including the hell they'd all been forced to go through last month. "Are you absolutely sure?" she pressed on, her voice soft.
Before Hotene could reply, a cheery female voice suddenly appeared from the tannoy near the doors that led into the rest of the park. "Attention, all jumpers and Duelists," it said. "Due to unforeseen difficulties, we are closing the park for maintenance effective immediately."
There was a chorus of groans from the children playing in the foam. "If you have half an hour or more remaining on your ticket," the tannoy continued, "please head over to our front desk, where you will receive a full refund of your purchase. Any updates on the current situation will be sent out via email or posted on social media. We appreciate your understanding, and we apologize for the inconvenience. Thank you—we look forward to seeing you again soon!"
The artificial optimism of the synthesized voice was clearly not shared by everyone else present; the kids slowly climbed out of the foam pits and filed out of the arena, still grumbling about their rotten luck. One or two of them stopped to have one last bounce on the nearest trampoline, but the attendants present—and a sharp look from the guilty children's parents nearby—made sure their fun was short-lived.
Masumi couldn't help but feel a stab of pity as she watched them leave—especially since Hotene looked more downcast than any kid here. "Don't worry," she soothed, checking her watch. "We'll get our money back—we only got here twenty minutes ago. We can come back tomorrow, and we'll have another Duel."
"Aw—but I might not win the next Duel!" protested the tiny Duelist, as she followed Masumi out of the arena and down the stairs towards the park's exit.
"Like you were going to win this one?" Masumi smiled wryly at her. The hint of the friendly rivalry both Fusion users shared seemed to perk up Hotene, if only slightly.
The first time Masumi had journeyed to Trampo-Land, and met Hotene for the first time, the diminutive Duelist had issued a challenge to her face. Masumi, deciding to take advantage of the opportunity, had accepted the Duel—and proceeded to lose quite handily. In fairness, she'd had her reasons at the time, but she'd vastly underestimated Hotene's talents all the same.
A week later, while Hotene was still recovering in hospital, Masumi put together a proposition: the moment Hotene was well enough to do so, she would Duel Masumi inside Gravity Sixteen. And so they had; this time, after a hard-fought Duel, Masumi had emerged the victor. However, Hotene was not one to be outdone; the tiny Duelist had challenged her back a few days later—and promptly wiped the trampoline floors with Masumi's Gem-Knights.
From there, the rivalry between the two Fusion users had blossomed into a twice- or thrice-weekly event. Each time, they'd get together, have a few high-spirited, high-flying Duels—with occasional breaks in between—then laugh about it while nursing their sore muscles later on. Or—to be more specific—while Masumi nursed her sore muscles; whether Hotene was just that young, or that used to the maddening properties of Gravity Sixteen, the devious little girl never seemed to get tired, even after hours of Dueling on end. Before today, their record had stood at ten wins apiece; this Duel would have been the deciding battle before month's end.
"You weren't going to beat me that turn, an' you know it!" Hotene shot back, tipping a cutesy wink in Masumi's direction. "Even if that last attack had hit me, I'd still have five hundred Life Points!"
"So you would," admitted Masumi. "But I also had Gem-Knight Lapis and Gem-Knight Lazuli in my hand. I was planning on banishing another Gem-Knight from my Graveyard to bring Gem-Knight Fusion back into my hand, then fusing Lapis and Lazuli together to form Lady Lapis Lazuli."
"Still wouldn't have done you any good, Masu-chan!" Hotene said gaily as she skipped down the stairs. "You wouldn't be able to attack me with it!"
"I wouldn't need to," Masumi smiled at her. "Lapis Lazuli's effect lets me send a monster from my Extra Deck to the Graveyard—then inflicts damage to my opponent for every Special Summoned monster on the field."
She paused for emphasis. "Five hundred points of damage, to be precise."
Hotene looked as though she'd just swallowed her tongue as Masumi's words slowly sank in. "Careful now, Hotene," the Fusion user giggled. "You don't want your face to get stuck like that forever, do you?"
The tiny Duelist blew a very wet raspberry at her in reply, which only made Masumi giggle even louder as they reached the front desk of Trampo-Land, and the teenager at the till who looked as though he wanted to be doing anything but facing a crowd of parents and children looking for refunds.
"So, Hotene," Masumi asked, rummaging in her purse for her ticket, "what would you have done in the face of four Fusion Monsters—two of whom had over 3000 ATK—with no field, no hand and five hundred Life Points to your name? I can't think of any Action Cards that might save you there—but you're welcome to prove me wrong."
From the look on Hotene's face, it seemed as though she was ready to do exactly that—and then Masumi's Duel Disk chose that moment to chime; someone was calling her.
Masumi inspected the screen—neither the number nor the caller ID was listed, which automatically made her suspicious. It was a tactic favored by a robo-callers and scam artists—so was with no small amount of trepidation, therefore, that Masumi eventually allowed the call to connect.
"Hello?" she asked, raising her voice slightly over the crowds that were beginning to gather in front of the increasingly harassed-looking customer service desk.
A soft, cold voice answered her back. "I need to see you and your friends in my office immediately." Before a suddenly uneasy Masumi could reply back, the line had clicked—and went dead shortly thereafter.
The Fusion user stared at the screen, at once filled with confusion and dread. She knew that voice all too well—and the last time she'd heard her speak in that tone, Masumi had been worried she was seconds away from being kicked out of LDS.
"Um … well, then," she eventually managed. "Hotene, we might have to take a rain check on our Duel next time. Chairwoman Akaba wants to see the both of us—and probably the others as well," she added hastily, as she heard her Duel Disk begin to ring a second time for an incoming call.
This time, however, she recognized both the caller ID and the number—and so answered the call considerably more quickly than before. "Yaiba? I was just about to find you."
"She called you, too, huh?" the voice of LDS' Synchro representative crackled out over the speaker. It sounded like he was running a marathon, judging by the way he was breathing. "Guess you're not the only one she wants to talk to, then. Shen's already gone over to pick up Fuyu—he's still not answering his phone. The power bump probably spooked him—what doesn't?—but you never know. Anyway, they'll meet us on campus as soon as they can."
"What do you think Himika wants to see all of us for?" Masumi could understand why the most powerful woman in Maiami City might want to talk to her—and probably Yaiba as well—but the rest of her friends to boot?
"Search me," Yaiba replied. "You didn't go peeking around in any more databases, did you?"
"That was one time, you idiot!" snorted Masumi. "I guess we'll find out soon enough. I've got Hotene with me right now—we'll head over to LDS as soon as we're done here." At least we got here before things really started getting hectic, she thought, gazing at the poor teenager behind the till handing out refunds.
"Right," Yaiba said. "See you there." And he hung up.
A/N: Confession time—I may have written most of this in a single day. On the plus side, I think it means I've rediscovered my creative edge after spending so long in the doldrums. It may also mean, however, that there's likely a bunch of errors in this chapter. I'll give it a once-over as soon as I have a free moment.
This is likely to be the last thing I'll be releasing until around September, since I'll be changing apartments in a couple weeks, which is always a time for adjustment. That doesn't mean I won't try to give you fine people anything sooner, though; I've outlined a few upcoming installments for both this and for Rain's Hand, so that is a possibility.
The next chapter should have the first complete Duel so far in the story. I'm looking forward to writing it. Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoy! – K
