A Bishop Capture
Chapter 2
That girl had made two rookie mistakes already. Reducing her hand to zero in the very first turn and not using her Fairy Cheer Girl's ability to draw a card, especially in the situation she'd left herself in. Sure getting an Xyz monster out on the field on the very first turn was no small feat, but that was a waste if she couldn't back up her move.
That depended on her face down now. Whether they'd been tossed down in desperation or there was some method to it. And what was that Artifact Deathscythe? How could she just set a monster in her magic/trap card zone like that? And what would it do while it was there?
The boy was likewise confused. 'What were you thinking, Sayaka?' he scolded. 'Why didn't you use Fairy Cheer Girl's effect to draw a card?'
'I – I forgot,' the girl – Sayaka – stammered. 'I just –' She buried her face in her hands.
'It's fine.' The boy's tone softened, though his face was still tense. 'You've got a plan, right.'
She didn't answer. Maybe she didn't. The Academia soldiers certainly seemed to think she didn't because they whipped out a monster straight away. Armoured Dog Cannon Boxer. And went to use it's effect to special summon Armoured Dog Bull Copter from her hand.
Quick and easy and could bring out a powerful monster quite quickly. Bull Copter's ability would add Fusion to her hand, and that would lead to Full Armoured Dog Bull Fortress. And that's exactly what the girl meant to do.
Two thousand attack points, and that would be before it even used it's effect.
But where was the monster? It was still Cannon Boxer alone on the field. Roget blinked. The girl in the Academia uniform blinked too.
'Use your eyes,' the Resistance boy snapped.
Sayaka gave a shy smile. 'I used Artifact Ignition. It destroys one magic or trap card on the field, and I chose Artifact Deathscythe.'
And Roget thought for a moment that she would have targeted the more sensible choice: Fusion, when it appeared. Unless the girl couldn't read that far ahead.
Except the girl wasn't done. 'Artifact Deathscythe's monster effect. When it's destroyed during my opponent's turn, I can special summon it from my graveyard and you're not allowed to special summon this turn. And I can also set one Artifact monster from my deck, thanks to Artifact Ignition.'
The Academia girl scowled, blind sighted. Now she had a 1900 attack point Xyz monster and a 2200 attack point level five Fairy to deal with and just her 1400 attack point Cannon Boxer to do it with. And at least two cards in her hand she couldn't use this turn. Then she smiled and turned her head slightly. The pair from the Resistance missed her signal. 'Turn end,' she said, and the boy next to her was already drawing her card.
The Resistance girl might have made a clever manoeuvre, but that effect was over now. And the boy was grinding his teeth so hard it was a wonder, Roget thought, that he couldn't hear them from his hiding place.
But now he'd seen what the Artifact monsters could do, and they were slippery little devils, even if they did have far too many holes to poke through. That depended on the girl though. Why was she even wasting her time with a monster like Fairy Cheer Girl? Didn't she have a rank five monster in that deck of hers? The ability to draw cards was an advantage, but not with the amount of cards it cost to get that monster on the field. A silly reason like wanting a cheerleader on the sidelines – he could easily guess what type of girl she was. And even if her cards weren't half bad and her strategy would've worked just fine if it wasn't a Battle Royale, she had no experience in handling the situation she found herself in and was floundering because of it.
And absolutely nothing was stopping the Academia boy from summoning out his Bull Fortress, powering it up and then crushing the other boy who still didn't have a single defence on his field.
And that was partially his fault, as well. Gallantry was all well and good and maybe it was smarter to have the inexperienced girl take the first move so she could get some semblance of a defence in but that didn't mean he had to be the gentleman and let Academia take the next move. It also didn't mean he couldn't have worked out a signal with her beforehand (considering they'd already snuck past soldiers and should have been prepared for an eventual fight). And then to let the second Academia soldier have his turn before him. He sounded more experienced than the girl, but he hadn't shown it yet.
And he was about to take 4000 points of damage.
Time to step in.
.
'Due to the loss of many of LDS's top duellists…' Nishijima began on the podium. The rest of them were spread out in the rows of seats in the hall, like a common assembly. But it wasn't a common assembly. It was a pseudo-graduation, a pseudo-promotion. Nobody who advanced would expect to stop studying. None of them would be professionals – which, in normal times, would have been a prerequisite they'd never waive. But necessary now. Younger people adapted better to new things. The older pros barely used Fusion, or Xyz, or Synchro, and adapting Pendulum would be just as difficult and rare. But the new generation… They'd be the ones who'd bring these new styles to the main stage and to the battlefield as well.
Nishijima continued his speech. Yaiba yawned, but he was still gripping his wooden sword with both hands. Masumi wasn't paying that much attention either, but she was gripping the pendant she wore. Likewise, the students on either side of her were waiting anxiously for the speech to end and the names to be called. She thought she'd done well… But would that be good enough? It was the final stretch of waiting, and that was the hardest part.
'… and Toudou Yaiba.'
Yaiba grinned, before frowning and glancing at Masumi, whose arms shook. Why not me?
'Finally, the highest scoring student advancing to the Lancers and the valedictorian, Kotsu Masumi!'
Oh. Her mind was numb for a moment, before that registered. She had passed, after all. And passed with the highest score to boot.
But how did that work? Didn't she and Yaiba have the same score? 'Must have been You Show,' Yaiba whispered to her. 'You did win that one, and all I did was draw.'
She snorted. Winning by half a point, then. And because of an opponent she lost to later on. And who knew if she'd have won the first time round if Hiiragi Yuzu had been properly focused instead of distracted by that Sakaki lookalike.
Yaiba poked her. 'Hey, valedictorian. Get up there and do your speech.'
'Speech?' Now she had nerves for an entirely different reason. 'I don't have a speech!'
But there was an expectant silence. They were waiting for said speech, and she walked quickly up to the platform and accepted the microphone from Nishijima and thought about what she could say. What she should say. What she wanted to say.
It was going to be a haphazard speech, but really, they should have expected that when they didn't give her any advanced warning. Especially after scaring her like that.
But that didn't matter now. She was a Lancer. She'd made it. 'I'm a Lancer,' she began. 'I've wanted to be a Lancer since the moment they were revealed at the championships but, even before that, I wanted to hunt down the enemy on the streets. That's because people I know have been targeted. Have been hurt. Have been turned into cards. People from my school I only knew by name and reputation, at first. But then it was the teacher that taught me the core of my duelling. And then one of my best friends.' And Hokuto would be pleased to hear himself referred to as such – though neither she nor Yaiba would do that to her face. 'It turned out that the person who'd attacked all of them weren't the same, and weren't even on the same side… But before I knew it, I'd been pulled into a war. We'd all been pulled into a war.'
Kurosaki Shun was probably the one responsible for Professor Marco. And they hadn't even gotten to know him once he joined LDS to forgive him on the basis of being friends. They weren't by any description of the word. Kurosaki was just a duellist beyond the rest of them. Not in the Xyz courses though he could blow Hokuto out of the ballpark if he wanted to. On the fast track to becoming a pro, they heard whispers tell, but they rarely saw him. He was unmoving and cold and unforgiving in a duel, and aside from those and the opening ceremony where Sakaki and Hiiragi had stared openly at the odd scene they must have made (and now their incredulity made sense; they had known at least part of the tale and their memories hadn't changed to cover it up).
Still, Kurosaki only did it because of Academia. Because of whoever had been snatched on him. That vicious cycle that never seemed to end until they cut the head off the king beast and Kurosaki seemed to think that was Akaba Leo. Sounded like Akaba Reiji thought so too. Which put Academia far ahead of the line.
'And we're not the only ones. People who strike back because they've been hurt, because they've lost things. That rippled down to us too. People who were blamed for things that had nothing to do with them.' Sakaki Yuuya… And they really did owe him an apology, after Hiiragi explained the truth. But Sakaki and Hiiragi were gone now too. Fighting a battle somewhere else. On another battlefield. 'And now that's spread even further. Academia keeps on popping up on our streets and we've driven them back but we lose more and more people doing that. One side will run out of people soon enough and we don't want that to be us. We're the ones who want the people we've lost back, and LDS is the ones working to make that a reality.'
She was really running her mouth, wasn't she? Well, that was what happened with no preparation. She took a deep calming breath, then continued. 'I want to be a Lancer because I want to fight this head on. And now I am and I'm gonna fight this head on. I lost in the first round of the Junior Youth Championships. I'm still here and I'm proud to say I've worked hard and haven't lost since. I did it. Anyone can do it if they want to badly enough and they try.'
Silence echoed a moment before the applause. 'Where's the hidden script?' Yaiba mouth at her. Masumi rolled her eyes… but she was grateful. She'd made it through. She was a Lancer now: a fighter recognised for her fighting and now she could do more than just run where the bells sounded in groups of six that hardly ever showed up. They trusted her. She trusted herself. She'd gotten stronger and here was the proof. They'd stop chipping away at the loose ends and start cutting into the root of the problem. That was what Akaba Reiji had planned, after all. Why he'd left. But he couldn't be everywhere. They were other places in the four dimensions that could bring them closer to the ultimate goal of cutting off Academia's head. Fusion itself, but not until the Lancers united under one banner: an army instead of just a punitive force.
But for now, they were another punitive force. And there'd probably been a lot of discussion higher than them about whether it was important to keep the bulk of their strength here if Academia attacked in earnest or to send them to the Synchro and Xyz.
Well, the original Lancers were in Synchro and that answered the first question.
And Academia's strikes were costly but, for the time being, manageable. Once the higher ups cracked the code of the carded, Academia would find the tide against them. And if they lost what they'd hoarded up as well, they'd be screwed. It was the ideal. It was what they were heading towards. And if the higher ups still believed in it...
'They'll be taking up positions on the front line to drive off the invaders,' Nishijima announced. 'So we can continue to reduce our casualties and start pushing back and regain the ground we've lost.' Some duel schools, not as famous as LDS or Ryozanpaku School or even You Show Duel School. Some small shops (but not the big plaza in the centre of town. And other small places that they could do without, but were part of Miami City nonetheless. Academia couldn't manage big jabs yet, so they settled for small ones and set up camp, knowing full well the people of Miami city had more important places that couldn't be left without protection. Sending out feelers and sending duellists scurrying there… It just gave them more time to set up behind the scenes.
'Too bad we're not launching an all-out attack,' Yaiba grumbled, once Masumi had taken her seat beside him again. 'Guess we should wait for Hokuto before doing that, right?'
'Guess we should.' The carded deserved their chance for vengeance too, and they'd enable them.
.
'Intrusion penalty: 2000 points.'
They all spun around, except the Resistance boy who'd on a knee after having lost all his points. The man who'd interrupted was tall and in dress pants and shirt that didn't fit the image of the Resistance at all. So he must be Academia. Except he wasn't in their uniform and the Academia people stared as blankly as the Resistance pair.
The man shot a smile towards the pair, and then turned to the Academia members.
They're too slow to stop him drawing a card and starting his turn. Too dumbstruck to card the Resistance member they've so cowardly taken out, as well.
Sayaka is unmistakingly relieved – and so horribly guilty, because if only she hadn't messed up her own turn…
'I summon Puppet Pawn.'
It was cute, Sayaka thought. Level 3. 800 attack points. 1200 defence points. Cute, but no way was it going to stand up to a 4000 attack point fusion monster.
'I'll then sacrifice Puppet Pawn through the magic card Promotion to special summon Puppet Queen from my hand.'
…and that was one of the fastest promotions she'd ever seen in a game involving chess. Even if chess really wasn't her forte… Or really anyone's that she knew well.
That didn't matter. 2200 attack points were quite a bit more powerful than 800. But still not enough. Still nowhere near enough.
'Next, I activate Pawn Exchange. By removing a monster with "Pawn" in its name from my graveyard, I can summon another monster with "Pawn" in its name from my deck. I select Hell Pawn Daemon.'
Hell Pawn Daemon was nowhere near as cute as its Earth-based counterpart. In fact, it was downright creepy – and none of them knew which side the man summoning them was on quite yet.
'I equip Axe of Despair to Hell Pawn Daemon.'
Now the queen and the pawn had the same attack strength. How strange. How disconcerting, really.
'And my last card is this.' He flipped it, so Sayaka could only make out the green of another magic card. But the Academia students gasped in horror.
'Equipment magic card: Falling Down. Since I have a Daemon monster on my field, I can take control of an opponent's monster.'
And he pointed at Bull Fortress.
Sayaka's knees almost caved with relief. He was helping them. For whatever reason, he was helping them. Thank goodness.
Four thousand points of damage to the guy who hadn't gone yet. 4400 to the girl who'd gone after Sayaka. That only left the boy who'd summoned Bull Fortress in the first place.
'Your turn,' said the man, nodding to her and standing back.
Her target was the 4000 life point Academia soldier in red. She took a deep breath. Right. She could do that. That was easy, even, with Fairy Cheer Girl and Artifact Deathscythe already on her field. They totalled 4100 attack points together.
She considered the rest of the field for just a moment. There were no face down cards. No hidden traps.
'Fairy Cheer Girl! Artifact Deathscythe! Direct attack!'
It was over. They were safe. Almost.
Her hand shook on her duel disk. She had to catch them, before those duellists got away to change any more cards. She had to but now the three looked terrified, on their hands and knees and staring at two children they'd thought would be easy to beat and an adult who'd come out of nowhere to save them. Her hand shook because she'd never had a duel like this, never won a duel like this. The last duel she won, she'd given Ruri her Little Fairy card – and Shun had slapped it out of her hands and handed it back. Nothing like this.
Allen crawled to his feet but he'd lost the duel. His duel disk was locked.
The man stepped forward again. Three flashes of light and the Academia soldiers were sealed into cards.
'You,' he sighed, turning back to Sayaka, 'aren't ready to be fighting a war.' Then to Allen. 'And neither are you, really. Letting those Academia soldiers ahead of you in the queue? I can understand you being the gentleman for your friend here, but that's no reason to let Academia get a strike in before you.'
'I realise that,' Allen snapped, flushing red because it's the truth. He knew he'd been too slow. 'I was – ' He shook his head. 'I was just distracted.'
'A moment's distraction in a war can cost someone their life,' the man scolded. 'You're lucky I was nearby.'
'And who are you? Allen shot back. 'Because we know every duellist in the Resistance and you're not one of them. And no-one from this place dresses as well as that.'
'…Jean,' said the man, after a pause. 'And I'm from another dimension. Not Fusion. I'm… well, I suppose you could say I'm lost.'
Sayaka pulled on Allen's elbow, before he could continue his suspicions. 'You know a lot,' she observed. 'About Academia, and the Fusion Dimension…' As far as they knew, no-one outside the Academia members and the Resistance knew about the existence of dimensions other than their own.
'My world is under attack too.' Emotions danced across his face, at odds with the nonchalant shrug. 'Honestly, I think only Fusion is safe, and that's only before someone gets the force to take the war back to them.' He looked back at the taps. 'Granted, I hadn't expected to leave one battlefield and wind up on a new one.'
'And how did you wind up here?' Allen's tone was a little tamer now, a little more sympathising. He could understand a world torn apart by war. He lived in one himself.
'Something blew up,' shrugged Jean vaguely. 'Couldn't tell you more than that. Wound up in a school here crawling with Academia soldiers and there were far too many to take on at once.' His eyes dart around uncomfortably. 'We're still exposed like this. Anywhere better?'
Sayaka and Allen look at each other. 'Well, you did save us,' Allen said finally. 'The least we could do is take you back to our shelter.'
.
They didn't know where the mole was as of yet: within the public, or within the Lancers, but better to keep it out of the ears of the public either way.
Masumi had to admit that was a clever bit of misdirection, splitting the new graduating Lancers. There'd be enough of them to showcase themselves and the records for the rest could be forged.
What she wasn't happy about was being taken away from the front lines.
'Wouldn't it make more sense for me to stay?' she asked. 'You had me give a big speech. People will be expecting me.'
'People will be expecting to see your face plastered all over the city,' Nishijima countered, 'but that does not necessarily mean you need to be there. In fact, it's safer you're not. The more they search for you, the more they leave their backs open to others.'
She snorted. 'So you're turning me into an Akaba Leo. That's a pretty bad insult you know, given the current climate.'
'They're your words,' Nishijima shrugged.
Damn. Can never get a raise out of him.
'So what?' Masumi fell back onto the couch. At least Akaba Reiji had good taste and good manners, even if Nishijima insisted on standing. Which was fair enough, probably. He couldn't imagine himself in his boss's chair and that was a good sign of loyalty, even if Akaba Reiji wasn't around to see it. 'I lead a force in the Xyz Dimension, teaming up with the resistance, protecting any cards they've managed to horde and hoarding more and thinning Academia numbers as best we can without taking unnecessary risks, teaching them all Pendulum summoning and maybe even regular duelling depending on their skills and waiting patiently while you crack the card code and revive everyone en masse? Sound about right?'
'It's a test of sorts, as well,' Nishijima explained. 'Your Fusion summoning skills are strong. Maybe not on par with the power levels of the Academia soldiers yet but you'll keep on getting stronger. Your investigation skills and intuition are quite strong as well. After all, it was you who discovered Kurosaki Shun.'
'So it's okay for us to remember now?' Masumi asked coolly. 'That wasn't very nice, sealing our memories.'
'It was necessary,' Nishijima replied. 'The president needed his assistance, and his strength.'
'Yeah, he was in a different league…' She wondered: where they still in different leagues or had she closed the gap? 'So I found Kurosaki Shun in the end. Didn't help much.'
'Oh, it helped a great deal.' Nishijima looked like he knew more than he was telling, and as a spokesman he only knew what he was told. The Akabas made all the executive decisions after all. That was Akaba Himiki, in Akaba Reiji's absence. 'Regardless, you've shown promise and so we're putting you in the field, where your skills can shine the most. We can make a poster girl of you without you here. But we've lost most of our agents. We need Lancers in Xyz and the president's group will be busy enough convincing Synchro.'
'Lancers doing what exactly?' Masumi asked dryly. 'Since there won't be an need to raise an army when returning the carded to normal should overwhelm Academia with numbers alone.'
'Numbers, perhaps,' Nishijima agreed, 'but their morale will be a different story. And it'll do no good if we don't have access to those cards – or at least know where they are.'
'So I find the cards, and make friends with the Resistance and keep them alive and kicking while Academia slowly chokes them to death,' Masumi surmised. 'Because it doesn't sound like you expect me to make much of a dent – or are giving me enough to do it with.'
Nishijima pushed a bag across the desk to her. She opened it. Pendulum cards. The ones that had been scattered around in the Battle Royale. That didn't fit into any one archetype but for any particular attribute, or card type. More versatile. Less special. A dime a dozen, some would say.
'For the Resistance members?' Masumi asked. 'Tools for boosting morale and stopping them from being wiped out entirely?'
'At this point, we can't stop the news of Pendulum spreading,' Nishijima sighed. 'Sora Shuiuin… And the president suspects another spy within the Lancers or those who watched the Battle Royale. Or both. Too many people to control information that's been made public. And now the Lancers are in Synchro and that's another world where they can't control what they reveal.'
'So if we can't stop it, we may as well encourage the people we do want to give an advantage to – or at least negate their disability, if Academia develops their own Pendulum cards.'
'Exactly that.'
They fell silent, staring at the horde of Pendulum cards.
'There's also a data chip in there,' Nishijima said finally. 'Once you've made sure all the spies are weeded out – because the president has no doubt there are a few at least – then you can give this to a card designer and they can make archetype specific Pendulum cards, to aid them further.'
'Weeding out spies on top of going on a treasure hunt and boosting morale.' Masumi listed them off. 'This job is getting more and more complicated – but you don't need a good duellist. You need a good –'
'Covet agent. We know. But most of ours were taken out by Kurosaki, if you recall.'
'Funny how he's on our side now.' Masumi frowned. 'On top of that, we're orchestrating a rescue for his world, after he called so much trouble in ours. He better behave now that he's a Lancer.'
'Oh, I'm sure the president can handle him. Him and Sakaki both.'
'Sakaki?' Masumi echoed. 'Why does he need managing?'
'Ah, I suppose you didn't see.' Nishijima fiddled around under the desk and turned on the screen. 'You recall this duel, correct?'
'Against Strong Ishijima? Of course. Who doesn't?'
It was playing the first moment Sakaki Pendulum summoned.
'Look at his eyes.' Nishijima gestured.
Masumi squinted. 'The pupils are a little constricted. So what?'
The scene changed, to Sakaki's second round match against Kachidoki. And this time, the pupils were pinpoint and the irises glowing. Bright red if that wasn't a camera trick. She'd felt the cold and silence sweep through the arena in the duel but she hadn't seen that. Hadn't noticed that at all.
Then a third duel, against three Academia members in the ruins of Wonder Quartet that hadn't been broadcasted. And the eyes were red and pinpoint again.
And that dragon he summoned out. As if the Pendulum scale was made for it.
He'd done the same thing against Ishijima. Pendulum cards made to set the perfect field and let nothing his opponent threw through. There were holes, but no-one exploited them. It was pure luck and yet it all fell into place without fail. Cards made for the situation. A monster made for the situation and who wiped them all in a single shot.
She didn't recall seeing that monster in the footage they revealed afterwards. An ace in the hole, perhaps, that wouldn't do a bit of good if there was a spy amongst the Lancers but maybe that was the point.
'Akaba Reiji,' Masumi mused. 'He's sure set up a complicated board. Tell me something. Why was Sawatari the only one to get a bonus round?'
'Sawatari was the only one to seek it out.' Nishijima frowned. 'I was not pleased with that myself, to be honest. He's hardly what we look for in our elite forces.'
'And yet I am.' Well, she certainly wasn't that impulsive. 'I prefer to let my actions speak for me.'
'Which is why you're here. But someone with actions and no words are nothing more than mules.'
'How sad,' Masumi said dryly. 'I didn't realise you had a sense of humour, Nishijima-san.'
.
Roget followed behind Sayaka and Allen, walking so stooped he was sure his back would twinge in the morning. After all, he wasn't young and small like them. But he'd earned at least a little of their trust and respect and that was all he needed, for the moment.
Sayaka, her voice too soft for this world, pointed out different things they went past and what they used to be. It was easy enough to imagine the once vibrant city that had stood there. Card shops within walking distance of each other. Schools dedicated to duelling and in friendly competition with each other. Big stages where duellists performed and that was one thing Fusion didn't have. Duelling wasn't a big display. It was a weapon.
Here, it was once their entertainment before it became the only way they could survive.
They tensed and fell quiet every time they saw someone in red, yellow or blue. They waited with baited breaths until they passed. Then continued their way. And Roget played close attention to his surrounds and the tour he was getting of them. The world was still new, after all, and knowledge was power. Knowledge and the cooperation of the people and Tenjoin Asuka had outmanoeuvred him on both. He'd ignored a potential well of information.
Not this time. Though it would be tricky to reach feelers into the Academia of this dimension, he couldn't have done it himself regardless. Some opportunity would present itself, though. Not everyone was uniform in Academia and they crawled with students, with warriors. The Resistance was so much smaller, and closed, and seemingly powerless at first glance but the Commons had been too: taken for granted until they showed off their power once the stage and the way up were facilitated for them.
So he was going to give that a try here, and wait for other pieces to come by.
He was playing with a relatively empty board at the moment, but he'd fill it slowly up. And this time, he wouldn't disregard any small corner of the board as he had before.
'Jean.' Sayaka was softly hailing him. 'We're here.'
Tucked away on the corner of the hill, one of the hideouts of the Resistance. Or maybe their only one.
.
'Naturally, they'll distrust you the moment they see you Fusion summoning,' Nishijima said.
'Naturally.' Masumi traced her deck case. 'My deck is far too dependent on it, though. You want me to argue the know thy enemy angle?'
Nishijima gestured at the case again. Masumi stared at it, saw nothing but pendulum cards, and removed the top layer. Oh. Fusion cards. Generic ones that could be used in different decks. Fusion monsters made for different types, different attributes… All of them Xyz support or requiring at least one Xyz monster as fusion material.
'Of course, you're facing a climate very much against Fusion summoning.'
Masumi ran her fingers over the stack of Fusion spell cards. 'I love Fusion enough for that to not matter,' she said, and her voice came out softer than she'd meant it to. 'I'll do this. Somehow.'
'Kurosaki himself proved that Xyz isn't enough to stand against Fusion.' He played another clip. Kurosaki's rematch with Shuiuin Sora, and he lost. 'Fusion doesn't stop adapting. Xyz has locked themselves in a box. Kurosaki was too stubborn to accept Pendulum at the time but he accepted it eventually.
Another clip. A duel against Academia soldiers. Tsukikage and Hiiragi and Sawatari and Gongenzaka and Kurosaki. Sawatari Pendulum summoning – with another new deck. Seriously? – then Gongenzaka taking those Pendulum cards and handing them to Kurosaki. Then Kurosaki using them to Pendulum summon his Raid Raptors. 'Defeat is a valuable tool,' Masumi hummed. 'Then again, that depends on numbers. I don't fancy beating an entire world full of people just to prove I can without carding them and Academia's going to do worse.'
'That's up to you,' Nishijima shrugged. 'And whoever you take with you.'
'Yaiba,' Masumi said without hesitation. They'd worked together on most of those Academia soldiers. They'd worked together to track down Kurosaki too. And also… 'And Hokuto.'
Nishijima blinked. 'Shijima? But he's –'
'I know he's a card right now.' Masumi forced herself to roll her eyes there. The two of them were her best friends after all. 'Still, there's no-one I'd trust and can depend on as much as the pair of them.'
'Anyone else?'
She considered, but shook her head. 'You know I don't get along with my classmates. They think I have too sharp a tongue. Which makes it a wonder you're sending me to do diplomatic work.' She smirked.
'It's a lesson for your sharp tongue,' he shrugged. 'Or perhaps your results with Hiiragi speaks for itself, in this instance.'
Hiiragi who'd taken on Fusion summoning after that frustrating loss to her. Hiiragi who'd managed to defeat her with that Fusion monster.
'If you are taking Toudou with you, then I suggest looking at the final layer.'
Masumi did so, and snorted. Synchro monsters and tuners and other supports. And like the Fusion ones, supporting Xyz or building from them. Allowing Xyz to stay as the cornerstone. The way they might accept it. The way she'd accept it too, when they tag duelled. And the way she considered Pendulum now. Not removing or fundamentally changing that core, but expanding on it. Making it more versatile, and stronger too.
'Are we setting up LDS in the Xyz dimension? It sure looks like it.'
'Well, the president is also a businessman,' said Nishijima frankly.
Which was true, and said president also thought their generation held the future so sending the three of them wasn't far out of the ballpark either.
.
Jean watched Sayaka as she worked with her students. It was a little uncomfortable, as though he knew far more than her and was assessing the breadth of her own knowledge – and maybe he did. She'd been a student herself before their world fell apart. She'd been a good student, perhaps, but a student nonetheless.
Good enough to teach the basics, she thought. But not good enough to handle Academia.
'How much do you know about Fusion summoning,' Jean asked her, once the new duellists were practicing amongst themselves.
'Not a lot,' Sayaka admitted. 'It was almost unheard of here, until Academia invaded.'
'How it's done?' Jean persisted. 'Surely you've seen enough duels to know that much.'
'The magic card Fusion.' Sayaka dropped her voice, so they weren't accidentally overheard. 'And two or more monsters combine to summon a more powerful one from the Extra deck.'
'The threadbare basics,' Jean sighed. 'There's a little more to it than that. Have you looked at the Fusion monster cards?'
'…no,' she admitted. 'Honestly, we've wanted nothing to do with them. We leave the cards and carded behind, taking back only our own.'
Jean raised an eyebrow. After all, she hadn't managed to card her opponents.
She flushed. 'I haven't gone out, much.'
'So you play maid inside a refuge. Though it's a good idea, to make sure everyone can duel.' His green eyes swept over the others. 'But if you don't know your enemy, you can only do rudimentary things against them. Defences that are easy to predict. Like the way you sealed special summons for a turn. All they need to do was get the next turn as well as your move became useless. And they've trained to reach here. They know how to counter Xyz monsters of all kinds. In contrast, you can only cast a wide but flimsy net and hope to catch them.'
'You're right,' Sayaka sighed. 'But those cards took so much from us so fast we couldn't bear to even look. Our terror and our grief have been tied to those cards, to those monsters. Willingly looking at them and holding them –'
Jean's hands twitched before he clasped them. 'Regardless, your strategies are too limited, especially if the rest of the Resistance duels like the pair of you.'
'Like Allen, maybe,' Sayaka admitted. 'Not like me. That was my first time out since Ruri…' She clamped up immediately, though it didn't really matter. Jean wouldn't know who Ruri was, or why that topic –
'Ruri?' Jean asked.
'That's…' Sayaka stared at her lap, tears pricking. 'My best friend. Ruri. She was fetching water – before we began the buddy system – and she got stuck in a duel with someone from Academia. I was nearby. I saw the end of the duel but I didn't interfere. And then he just picked her up and vanished and I still didn't interfere!'
The tears began to fall in earnest then, and the others began to crowd her and pat her awkwardly. 'Back to work,' she demanded, but her voice was so watery no-one listened.
'Back to work,' Jean echoed, more forcefully. 'I'll take care of her.'
'You made her cry,' one protested.
Somehow, he sent them away despite that. 'I used to be a teacher,' Jean admitted. 'And in our world, we use all sorts of summoning methods. I'm sorry for bringing up painful memories but I'm just trying to help. So you sit there and compose yourself, and I'll go help these people, and we'll talk more about this after, okay?'
She managed a nod and watched him flitter from one pair to the next, giving them instructions and watching them for a moment before moving on to the next. Sometimes, he'd take their deck into hand and go through them as though searching for something that was or wasn't there. Or perhaps he was trying to see how those cards fit together. Sometimes he'd even take cards from the other decks and switch them.
Sayaka stood up and asked to look at one of the decks he'd changed and asked how it had been before, as well. And it did make sense. Those changes. And he was managing that far faster than she could. The familiarity of teaching, perhaps. Familiarity with lots of different decks and strategies.
Maybe he did have a point in that they had a resource they hadn't used, and they should have been using it.
Maybe…
It'd still be hard.
Note #4 - Roget can't use his Academia deck in front of the Resistance members, of course. That's not to say it won't show up, but the deck he used in this chapter is a mix of Archfiend (Daemon in Japanese) and Chess archetype. Both have cards representing chess pieces, and seeing as the chessboard made lots of visits in the anime... Why not?
