VII
Earlier
Somewhere deep in the city, inside a long and winding alleyway, Dennis and Herman finally stopped running. The younger of the pair slumped against a brick wall to catch his breath, shrugging a still-unconscious Yuzu off his shoulders as gently as he could.
"I … need a moment," he panted. "That girl's … heavier than she looks. Either that … or I'm out of shape … "
"It doesn't matter," muttered Herman; Sakaki Yūya splayed over his broad shoulders. He was looking behind him furtively, making sure he hadn't been followed. Eventually he shrugged in satisfaction; all he heard was the thuds and booms of distant battle. "I don't think anyone saw us—but let's not take chances. Go around that bend there."
They turned a corner in the alley, Dennis cradling Yuzu's limp form beneath his shoulder. Herman looked around once more, ensuring no one was in pursuit—before he finally sighed. With a single shrug of his shoulders, Yūya's body slumped off Herman's back and onto the road. Yuzu was placed next to him moments later.
"Thank you for your services, Mr. McField," Herman grunted. "But the Ædonai will not need them any further."
Dennis half turned as Herman raised his briefcase. It was the last thing he saw before the impact knocked him out.
He caught the boy in his arms before he hit the wall, laying him against a nearby rubbish bin. Deftly he raised two fingers to Dennis' neck, feeling for the carotid artery. Good: there was a pulse. He was alive—if unconscious.
It pained him to do something so harsh to a former student—but then, as he'd said, Dennis had served his purpose; he was expendable to everyone but the people to whom he'd have to desperately prove his innocence now.
The Kämpfer rose to his feet, brushing off his suit. His plan had gone off almost without a hitch: everything he had done from the moment he had departed LDS Broadway to the final moments of Yūya's Duel against Yuzu had been part of his grand design. Well, perhaps not entirely his—but the meat and potatoes of it all had come about through a combination of his military genius and the resources to which his career and prestige had allowed him access.
Yes: the interview he'd conducted with the two children had been a ruse, as had his emotional outburst when they'd regained consciousness. Everything that had happened then, and during the Duel after—he had indeed expected it all … counted on it all. It certainly hadn't hurt that a simple command from his portable computer—just one of the many wonders of technology cleverly concealed inside his briefcase—had very slightly amended the protocols that randomized the cards of each Duelist's Deck before their Duel, and had forced them to prioritize the cards he knew were necessary to prove his success. Cheating it might have been, but the Kämpfer had not been interested in which of them had won or lost—from the instant the first Fusion Monster had been Summoned, he knew he alone had won.
The appearance of Yūya's Venom Dragon had been the cherry on top. The irony was that its appearance had been a happy accident—but even now, the Kämpfer felt a tingle in his spine when he thought of how such power could be used against their enemies. And the transformation Yūya had undergone when he'd Summoned it … He could not resist a shudder of anticipation, knowing what it meant for the future towards which his colleagues toiled …
Only the other girl he'd met at You Show—the LDS student; Masumi, was her name?—had shown any semblance of suspicion as to what he'd done. Too suspicious, thought the Kämpfer; she would likely have to be dealt with if she tried to interfere again. But therein had emerged his genius, the plan that every single soldier in this city was following to the letter—his plan, he thought with a smile. Enough military force to take the heat of any suspicious parties off his back, force them to focus their attention elsewhere—and divide them further still by turning his forces into more targets than they knew where to turn.
He took a small tool from his briefcase, resting it against the kids' necks. Then, he checked the readout with care, and frowned; serotonin, adrenaline, and dopamine levels were all plateauing—but he knew it wouldn't last long.
This, too, had been according to his design.
The Kämpfer now reached into his briefcase, and now produced the bulk of the technology it stored: an enormous, arrowhead-shaped Duel Disk, large enough for a normal-sized teenager to use it as a small shield. The bronze body, trimmed with steel that had been laser-sharpened into a cutting edge, glinted with a mirror-polished finish as he secured it to his forearm.
"Jetzt liegt alles an dir," he murmured, fiddling with the screen of his Duel Disk. He leveled it at Yūya and Yuzu—
CRASH.
He saw enough of the man who'd been tossed against the dumpster—so hard that the metal had actually dented—to realize it was one of his soldiers. His face was bloodied, but he saw the Kämpfer clearly enough to attempt a salute.
"He's … coming," he was barely able to cough out. "Held … him off … Finish the mission … You can do it … !"
And before the Kämpfer could say anything, the soldier had pressed his keypad; one flash of violet light later, there was nothing left of him but the card into which he'd sealed himself.
He nodded—nothing would be gained by tarrying now. As he heard footsteps rapidly approaching, he turned back to the kids—raised his Duel Disk, its golden blade coalescing along his forearm—
"Stop—NO!"
But the blue light of a dimensional transmission had already encased both boy and girl. It shimmered over their skin for a long moment, coalesced—and winked away into nothingness.
The deed done, the Kämpfer adjusted his tie, and turned to address the newcomer. "It's been a long time … Yūshō."
Sakaki Yūya's father looked as though he'd just run miles. His outfit was ruffled and dirty; his top hat was askew, and his purple Duel Disk had already been ignited before he'd even rounded the corner.
He leveled the yellow blade straight at the Kämpfer. "Give them back," he growled. "Give them back right now!"
"I plan to," was all that the German said in reply. It was simple, matter-of-fact—no hint of a lie—but his voice was different now. "But there is much work to be done before that happens."
Yusho did not relax or lower his Duel Disk—not even an inch. "It was you from the start, wasn't it?" the pioneer of Entertainment Dueling asked him. "I thought you might have died—or that you at least had the decency to retire."
He took a step forward. So did the Kämpfer. "Old soldiers never die, Yūshō," he said. "Nor do they retire—they just wait until they are needed to fight once more. And that need to fight is now greater than ever."
He pulled at something under his jaw. Then, with a shimmer, the high-tech holographic mesh that had concealed his face from the moment he'd boarded the plane to Maiami City now slid neatly into his hand.
The face beneath was, if possible, even more lined and weathered than the facsimile he'd worn in the interim. Gone was the mustache and the deep blue eyes set above them; cast away was the jolly, booming, avuncular voice that carried the weight of many years. Stubble lined his jaw, and there was enough silvery hair atop his head that something of a crew cut could be seen. But the most evident difference was the old scar that sliced down from left cheek to chin, framing a pair of gray-blue eyes quickly reminiscent of a stormy sea.
Yūshō took a deep breath. "I have beaten you before," he grunted defiantly.
"You only escaped me," corrected the Kämpfer in his rough baritone, "you and all the traitors that you would call your students. But we will see all our scattered children reunited under the banner of the Ædonai, Sakaki Yūshō. Dennis McField was only the latest of them to join us—and more will follow his path in the course of time."
"I think we both know that Dennis would never join you of his own free will," Yūshō shot back. "What did you do—force him to act like he knew the man he only thought you were? Just what did you do with the real Herman von Stadion, Kämpfer?! Did you make him one of your pawns, too?"
A shrug. "Even pawns have some usefulness," he said simply. "von Stadion outlived his a long time ago."
Yūshō blinked. Then, fury creased his face, and he bent his knees in a classic Dueling stance. "That man was a dear friend to me," he growled, every syllable dripping with rage. "For his sake, and for my son, I will make sure you regret everything you did today. All the people you've crossed—the innocent men, women, and children your so-called army has hurt—they will watch you in your last breath, and curse the day you were born!"
As one, they drew five cards apiece, and LP gauges set themselves to 4000. "Let's go! DUEL!"
At once, the alley began to shift and morph around them. The brick walls either side retreated into nothingness, replaced by a wide street lit up with so many billboards and lights that it would not have looked out of place in Times Square. The Kämpfer—standing at a sidewalk on the other end of the street from Yūshō, was seen to nod at this, perhaps recognizing it from some long-forgotten memory of his.
"Action Field: Magical Broadway," he murmured. "Yes … I did remember seeing this a few times while I was in New York. It was your favorite, if I recall correctly. You were always about how things looked—the glitz and the glam, the pop and the presentation. And I'm sorry to say that's your weakness, Yūshō. You are so concerned with how you want the world to look—how you want it to be—that you fail to see it for what it actually is.
"I Set one card," continued the Kämpfer, directing his attention to the Duel at hand, "and end my turn." He looked at Yūsho silently—saying nothing but seeming to spur him into action. As if he had all the time in the world, he took out a pair of dark blue gloves from a pocket, unrolled them, and put them over his hands, one at a time.
"My turn, then. Draw!" Yūshō drew his card with all the theatricality of a sword-and-sandals movie star pulling out his blade. "I'll start by using my Scale 1 Entermate Smile Magician and my Scale 5 Entermate Laugh Maker to Set the Pendulum Scale!" He plucked a pair of cards out of his hand, and placed them on opposite ends of his blade.
The effect was immediate: spotlights flickered on all over the holographic city, whirling and weaving until they came to rest atop the pinnacles of two skyscrapers. A tall man stood atop each one; one, a blond in a top hat, white coat, and dark tails; the other was garishly dressed with purple hair, twirling a baton in one hand, and a deck of playing cards in the other.
"With this, I can Special Summon as many monsters from my hand as I please, whose Levels range from 2 to 4!" said Yūshō. "PENDULUM SUMMON! Come forth, my monsters! Entermate Revue Dancer, Entermate Sky Pupil, and Entermate Pendulum Magician!"
As if swinging from an impossibly high trapeze, Laugh Maker and Smile Magician jumped down from their perches, gliding towards the field in the same wide arc. They met in the middle—and kept on going—but in doing so had revealed three new monsters so quickly it was as though they'd popped out of the ground. All of them were dressed in outfits of many vivid colors: a gymnast in an elaborate leotard (Level 3: ATK 800/DEF 1000), a masked jester with a pair of golden hoops (Level 3: ATK 800/DEF 800)—and between them, a young man with blue hair and a red-and-silver top hat and tuxedo (Level 4: ATK 1500/DEF 1000), all posed together in an elaborate formation that, for good measure, lit up every street sign behind Yūshō in an eye-popping display.
"Impressive," was all that the Kämpfer said. "I wonder if your son knows you've been stealing from his toy box?"
"You wouldn't understand what it's like to pass on your gift to your own flesh and blood," snarled Yūshō. "All you did was steal children and force your so-called "gifts" on them without even giving them a choice! That's right—I know why you attacked my school … and it wasn't just because your minions wanted to play with their new toys."
The Kämpfer nodded. "I see. So you did spirit the girls away, then."
"Even I don't know where they are now." Yūshō managed a smirk. "And that's the point. You'll never get them back—not as long as I draw breath. Even Leo's favorite doll won't be able to bend them to her will.
"Pendulum Magician's effect!" he cried. "By targeting and destroying up to 2 cards on my field, I can add that many Entermate monsters with different names from my Deck to my hand! I target and destroy my Laugh Maker and my Smile Magician!" He extracted a pair of cards from his Deck with a devilish smirk; meanwhile, the two men on trapezes, having alighted on the same towers that each other's partner had occupied before, took a bow in tandem before bursting into photonic dust.
"My Revue Dancer's effect allows her to be Released twice for an Advance Summon!" Yūshō went on, "and so I'll use her to Advance Summon my Entermate Sky Magician!" With a graceful backflip, Revue Dancer whirled out of existence, replaced almost immediately by a monster in an impeccably white, billowing cape and cap, twirling a number of rings in its hands that glinted like any one of the signs surrounding it (Level 7: ATK 2500/DEF 2000).
Yūshō took a precious few seconds to admire the view of his iconic monster. "Next, by Releasing a non-Pendulum Entermate monster, I can Special Summon Entermate Sleight Hand Magician from my hand through its own effect! So I Release Sky Pupil!"
The lad flipped his rings upon hearing his name, contorted himself through them as they fell—and for a moment, it seemed as though he'd simply disappeared inside them. But a moment later, the rings landed one on top of the other with a clatter, and a tall figure whooshed from inside with barely a sound: somewhere between a knight and a jester, with a meter-long shard of intricately cut crystal where its legs ought to be (Level 7: ATK 2500/DEF 2000).
"Finally, I activate the Continuous Spell: Magician's Encore!" said Yusho, gesturing flamboyantly as his twin aces struck a pose. "Once and only once, while it is face-up on my field, I can target and Special Summon a Level 3 or lower Spellcaster-Type monster from my Graveyard! I Special Summon Sky Pupil back to my field!"
Sky Magician juggled its rings, tossing them one at a time to Sleight Hand Magician, who caught each one around his baton and twirled them all in a mesmerizing dance. Then—as if he had never left—Sky Pupil rocketed out from the ensemble, even taking the time to snatch a few of Sky Magician's rings right off Sleight Hand Magician's baton along the way with a crafty giggle (Level 3: ATK 800/DEF 800).
"Sky Magician's effect!" cried Yūshō. "Once per turn, if I activate a Spell Card, it gains 300 ATK!" A sudden wind billowed through the alley from out of nowhere, making Sky Magician's cape flutter about noisily as its ATK grew to 2800. "Now for its second effect—during either player's turn, I can target a Continuous Spell I control, return it to my hand, and then activate another one from my hand! I target, return, and then reactivate Magician's Encore—and that means I can use its effect once more! This time, I'll revive my Entermate Revue Dancer!"
As if springing from a trampoline, the monster in question leaped out from behind him, quite without warning. She cartwheeled in a high and graceful arc through the air, before landing smack in the middle of Yūshō's full troupe of monsters, slashing her club-tipped ribbon every which way like a whip (Level 3: ATK 800/DEF 1000).
"That's it for the headliners—now let's move on to the main event! It's time for Act One!" cried Yūshō, holding a finger to the sky. "Battle Phase! Revue Dancer and Sky Pupil! Attack the Kämpfer's Life Points directly!"
This time, it was their turn for a juggling act; Sky Pupil tossed its rings to his partner, who caught each one with both ends of her baton. Revue Dancer contorted on the ball of her foot, building up momentum as she twirled and twirled them above, below, and all around her—before loosing them all at the Kämpfer. They struck home an instant later; one hit him full in the chest, and another on the arm that held his Duel Disk—but aside from a brief twinge of pain on his face as he watched his LP gauge slip to 2400, the German giant gave no sign that he'd been harmed at all.
"Act Two!" Two fingers this time. "Entermate Pendulum Magician! Attack directly!" The scarlet-clad monster produced a pendulum from within its sleeve, uncoiling the long chain that bound it to its arm. Then, it lashed out at the Kämpfer, its metal edge singing through the air—and striking him in his hip, sending his LP tumbling to 900.
"Now—Act Three!" Yūshō crowed: "the grand finale! Sleight Hand Magician and Sky Magician! Finish him off!"
His twin monsters were little more than blurs now; rings flew hither and thither in a display of juggling so intricate and breakneck that an ordinary eye would have lost track of them in seconds. But seconds later, each ring was fired straight at the Kämpfer, whizzing across the field far too quickly for someone of his size to dodge them—and in the midst of them was Sleight Hand Magician, its leg-crystal pointed straight at him like a spear—
"You will not prevail!" shouted the German. "Gladial Beast Noxious' effect! Should my opponent declare a direct attack, I may Special Summon it from my hand and make it the attack target instead!"
Something blue and gold leapt in front of the Kämpfer, catching Sleight Hand Magician's attack between its paws: a leopard-like creature clad in dark purple armor, growling defiantly at the struggling monster it held at bay. The slashing edges of armored claws glinted in the streetlights, looking far sharper than they already were (Level 5: ATK 0/DEF 1000).
"Noxious' second effect prevents it from being destroyed by the attack that it absorbed," said the Kämpfer, "and its third effect allows me to send a Gladial Beast monster from my Deck to the Graveyard if it should be Summoned by a Gladial Beast's effect—including its own!" he added, sliding a card into his Graveyard slot.
"You're forgetting one thing," smirked Yūshō. "Noxious might have survived that one battle, but I still have one more monster with which to attack! Maybe next time you should put up more of a defense! Right, Sky Magician?"
BOOM.
A cloud of dust blew through the Action Field, forcing Yūshō to cover his eyes and his mouth to avoid choking. "So—you ready to tell me where my son is now?!" he shouted at the cloud, where he knew the Kämpfer stood—
He took a step backwards. " … W-what?!" The dark silhouette he'd just seen was far too big to be his opponent.
"Not yet," said the Kämpfer from somewhere inside the cloud. He emphasized each word with a grave and gravelly finality. "Quick-Play Spell: Gladial Beast United. By activating this card during the Battle Phase, and shuffling Gladial Beast monsters into my Deck from my Graveyard, field, or hand, I can Special Summon a Gladial Beast Fusion Monster that lists those monsters as material from my Extra Deck—ignoring its Summoning conditions! From my hand, I shuffle Gladial Beast Alexander, Gladial Beast Dimacari, and Gladial Beast Laquer!"
A massive fist—as big around as both of Yūshō's own twice over—punched through the cloud, covered with orange fur, striped with black like a tiger. Yūshō suppressed a gulp; the clawed hand held Sky Magician's rings as though it had just caught them like so many toys—
"Fighting beast of the jungle that lived in ancient times! Merge with the souls of gladiators and become a warrior of legend!"
Yūshō was barely aware of taking another step backward—then a third and a fourth—as more of the monster began to show itself in the fading dust: a segmented golden shield, wider than he was tall; dark pebbled skin and muscles that bulged underneath pristine armor; a majestic auburn mane, whipping in the wind—
"Triple Contact Fusion!" chanted the Kämpfer. "Come! Gladial Beast Herakleinos!"
An enormous axe blade of bright, deep gold whirled through the air, dispelling the dust, and the monster revealed itself at last: twenty feet tall, clad in pristine armor, and snarling as though it had just been loosed from whatever chains had held it at bay (Level 8: ATK 3000/DEF 2800). Sky Magician's rings still dangled from its claws—and then, with a snort of utter contempt, Herakleinos crushed them all in his hand as if they were made of tin. Their remnants fell to the street, shattering in front of Yūshō—and were trampled further still by the Gladial Beast's bulk.
The Kämpfer brushed the last remnants of dust off his suit jacket. "You see, Yūshō?" he said, as Herakleinos closed the distance between them. "This is where we differ in our views. The world you want to believe in is nothing more than just another illusion your monsters can conjure; it serves only to dazzle the eye, and nothing more. It is only in strength—the complete and total embracement of who we are at our base self—that the world can be truly changed.
"Who are you at your base self, Sakaki Yūshō?" he goaded. "Is your veneer of the entertainer another one of your illusions? Or do I see you for what you are now—a showman whose act has ended, but refuses to leave the stage? Admit it!" Herakleinos roared from beside him, as if to underscore the verbal assault. "The man you are at the core is nothing compared to the man I am at mine. I am a warrior—a fighter! Ich bin ein Kämpfer der Ædonai!"
"You're a misguided fool, is what you are," spat Yūshō, suddenly tense; he'd just seen a glint of light barely meters away. "The show must go on, as the old saying goes—no matter what happens to the cast or the crew! That is who I am at my base self! I am a man who will not quit, until his job is done!"
He made a dash for the Action Card, swiping it up without further ado. "When you Summoned Herakleinos, you triggered a replay—and that means my Sky Magician can still attack again!"
"Then you have a choice to make," the Kämpfer said simply. "Will you attack my Noxious, knowing full well that to do so will leave me still alive, and with the more dangerous threat on my field?" He gestured to his Herakleinos. "Or do you still think that your last gasp of wishful thinking will give you the card you need to defeat it? What is more important to you—your survival, or my defeat?"
Yūshō drew himself to his full height. "Neither of them," he responded defiantly, "not when weighed against the survival of my son!" He made a dash for another twinkle of light, and slipped it into his fingers moments later.
"Sky Magician! Attack Gladial Beast Herakleinos! And this time," he added, "he's going to add a little more pizzazz to the show, thanks to this Action Card: High Dive! I can target a monster on the field, and make it gain 1000 ATK until the end of this turn!" The white-clad magician surged forth, ready to deliver the final blow—
SMASH.
Herakleinos had swiped out with its heavy axe, toppling the façade of a nearby theater with a clamorous noise of shattering glass and splintering wood, instantly burying Sky Magician under a tsunami of wreckage. The collapse of the building shook the earth enough to make Yūshō stumble, and to send several tiny rectangular lights dislodged from their hiding places. One of them fluttered right into the Kämpfer's waiting palm.
"Herakleinos' effect," he grunted. "By discarding a card, I can negate the activation of any one Spell or Trap, and destroy that card! I discard this Action Card: Illusion Fire to negate and destroy your High Dive! And since the monsters on our fields have not changed, the attack cannot be redone … and your Sky Magician is destroyed."
The Kämpfer cracked his neck. "Now, as that was the last of your monsters to attack, you have no reason to remain in your Battle Phase," he said to a shell-shocked Yūshō—his Life Point gauge now at 3800. "And now my Noxious' final effect activates: at the end of a Battle Phase in which it battled, I may shuffle it into my Deck, and Special Summon another Gladial Beast in its place! Tag Out—Gladial Beast Murmillo!"
He threw out his hand, and Noxious shimmered with light, its lithe and sinewy form mutating into something sleeker and broader at the shoulder. Then, the light dimmed, and revealed a blue-skinned and -scaled fish-man, with a pair of conch shells half its size on either shoulder (Level 3: ATK 800/DEF 400).
"Murmillo's effect activates if it was Special Summoned by a fellow Gladial Beast's effect," said the Kämpfer, "and allows me to target and destroy a monster on the field! I target your Sleight Hand Magician!"
Without warning, a pair of missiles erupted from the conches Murmillo carried, zooming straight for the monster—Sleight Hand Magician sprang away, attempting to evade them—
—and Yūshō, somehow, snapped out of his funk for long enough to rush for another Action Card. "I activate—"
"You will not!" bellowed the Kämpfer, and Herakleinos began to lay waste to more of the Action Field, leaving gashes and craters in the street and the stages either side with the blade and butt of its axe. Occasionally, more Action Cards fell to the ground, but the German paid them no mind—save for the one that landed nearest him.
"I can activate Herakleinos' effect during any player's turn, at any point in their turn—and as many times that turn as I wish!" the German shouted as he slipped the card he'd purloined into his Graveyard slot. "I discard the Action Card: Illusion Dance! Whatever card you hold in your hands is useless now! Useless—USELESS—USELESS!"
As if to drive the point home, a particularly solid piece of debris slammed into Sleight Hand Magician's skull, hard enough that it shattered the crystal top on which it hovered. The rest of it shattered soon after, pulverized into dust.
The Kämpfer knew Yūshō's big mistake had been wandering into the false sense of security he had created. Perhaps he'd anticipated that the single card he'd Set would have devastating effects, and so had attempted to play around that by maximizing the amount of monsters he controlled, and ordering them to attack from weakest to strongest in a ploy to bait him into using that card. But Yūshō had gotten too greedy, the Kämpfer knew—too blinded by his own failure to save his only son—and the emotions that stemmed from that attachment had become his undoing. Add that to Herakleinos being tailor-made to turn the very concept of Action Duels against any Duelist who thrived in them, and their battle might as well be over already.
He did not even wait for the man to end his turn before drawing his card—he knew there was nothing more to be done. "You cannot win, Yūshō," he said—not even daring to gloat, but merely stating a fact. "The glitz and glamour you call entertainment mean nothing to me—only strength and the thrill of battle.
"Since I control a Gladial Beast monster, I may Special Summon Slave Tiger from my hand with its own effect! And then"—the Kämpfer paused to watch an armored tiger leap next to Herakleinos (Level 3: ATK 600/DEF 300)—"I Release it to activate its second effect: by shuffling a Gladial Beast I control into the Deck, I can Special Summon another one in its place as though a Gladial Beast had Special Summoned it instead—and so I shuffle my Murmillo! Tag Out—Gladial Beast Darius!"
As Slave Tiger shattered with a yowling roar, Murmillo began to shimmer in much the same way as Noxious had before it. There was a flash of light—and then something huge and muscular stomped onto the field in its place—a purple-skinned, horse-headed behemoth roughly a head taller than its Summoner (Level 4: ATK 1700/DEF 300).
"Darius' effect!" bellowed the Kämpfer. "If a Gladial Beast monster's effect Special Summoned it, I can target a Gladial Beast in my Graveyard and Special Summon it with its effects negated, then shuffle it into my Deck when Darius leaves the field! I revive the Gladial Beast I sent with Noxious' effect—Gladial Beast Octavius!"
A shadow covered the Action Field just then—just long enough for Yūshō to look up and see the armored eagle land next to Herakleinos with a THUD. It spread its wings wide, revealing golden-brown feathers the size of sword blades, and bright green armor plating its clawed arms and legs (Level 7: ATK 2500/DEF 1200).
The Kämpfer curled his gloved hands into fists; Yūshō saw them crackling with electricity. "BATTLE PHASE!" thundered the German. "Gladial Beast Darius—attack Sky Pupil! Gladial Beast Octavius—attack Revue Dancer!"
The two monsters took one look at the monsters rampaging right towards them—and turned to run too late. Darius charged down Sky Pupil before it had gotten ten paces, butting it into another theater with enough force to leave a crater in the wall—and leave very little behind of Sky Pupil. Octavius' talons snatched Revue Dancer in its iron grip, and did much the same to her a moment later as Darius had done to Sky Pupil. The last that was seen of the luckless gymnast was her body being buried under a collapsing billboard; the shockwave that followed struck Yūshō full-force, ravaging his LP gauge until it stood at a mere 800.
The Kämpfer looked him full in the eye. "Show's over, Yūshō," he growled. "Thus always to the foes of the Ædonai, and those who betray them! Herakleinos, destroy Pendulum Magician—Herculean Charge!"
And with a bellow, the monster was off, holding its shield high and rumbling down the field like a fully loaded freight train. Herakleinos plowed straight through Pendulum Magician, barely even stopping or slowing down as photonic viscera bounced right off its armor—
WHAM.
The Kämpfer had crossed his arms against his breast, and his gloves had sparked again: at that precise moment, his Fusion Monster had slammed right into Yūshō—and kept on moving, crushing him between the Solid Vision of the Action Field, and that of the shield he bore. The building man and monster had careened into began to crumble from top to bottom, collapsing on top of them both.
Even before the field began to shimmer out of existence—Yūshō's Life Points now fully depleted—the Kämpfer knew that his monster's final attack had affected their physical surroundings. Already he could see the crater in the building behind where his luckless opponent had been standing, the shattered glass of windows and progressively larger bits of brick littering the alleyway.
Yūshō himself was sprawled inside the center of that debris, unmoving and clearly unconscious, his clothes and top hat completely ruined and torn. Blood leaked from a gash on the back of his head, more of it stained the breast of his jacket, and his arms and legs were riddled with a dozen scrapes and wounds apiece.
The victorious Kämpfer looked at the grisly sight, shaking his head sadly, before turning in the opposite direction. "Kämpfer to all points," he muttered into his Duel Disk. "Situation is fiver-zero. Primary objective complete—withdraw and regroup to pursue secondary targets. Out."
He fiddled with his Duel Disk until the bright blue sphere of a dimensional portal shimmered before him, and he stepped through without looking back at the chaos and destruction he had wrought—whether by the hand of his forces, or his own.
Throughout the city, soldiers would be disengaging their attacks, pulling back and retreating back to their various bases in the Fusion Dimension. Their victory was far from complete—but all that mattered to the Kämpfer was that his mission had been successful. The survivors would rest, and spread the tales of what they had done to the rest of their fighting forces—invigorating them for when the next battle came.
As the Kämpfer disappeared from the Pendulum Dimension, he hoped that his victory would be the first of many …
Leo Duel School
Akaba Himika's office was rarely host to so many people. Six out of seven members of the LID were present to the left of her desk, standing between her and the monolithic slab of Angel-IQ's mainframe. All were scuffled, winded, and—in Fuyu's case—mildly bloodied. But he'd washed the worst of it off before coming in; aside from his badly torn jumpsuit, he looked no more or less unhurt than the rest of his team.
To her right, the four members of the Lancers who'd managed to respond to the Chaos Giants' assault lounged in chairs, all utterly silent. Masumi's gaze traveled from Shiun'in Sora, sullen and bruised, to Gongenzaka Noboru, stiff as a ramrod and arms crossed so tightly they reminded her of a former teammate in China. Kurosaki Shun's arms were crossed as well, but he was slightly more relaxed, and an ugly grimace was flickering across his face. Lastly was Sawatari—Masumi still could not believe Rika's story of how he and his friends had taken out five of those Chaos Giants between them. But he'd backed his story up so well that she couldn't find any hint of embellishment, and over time, her aloof attitude towards the boy had morphed into a sort of grudging respect.
All of them had traded their stories of battle, compared their accomplishments with their teammates, related stories awesome, grisly, and even mysterious. Sora had found Masumi's tale of the two girls she'd seen after her Duel with Yaiba particularly engaging, but when she pressed him as to why, he hadn't said anything.
That had been five minutes ago. But the victorious mood had gone out the window when Himika entered the room, and projected a split series of images on the windowpane behind her that had stunned both Lancers and LID alike.
On the left side of the screen was live video of Akaba Reiji—his fingers steepled under his chin, his ubiquitous scarf still wrapped round his neck, and sitting down God-only-knew-where. To the right was Dennis McField, supine and unconscious on a hospital bed, his head bandaged so thoroughly that not a single frizzed orange hair could be seen—and in the center of them, laying on an identical bed, was the broken, bloodied form of Sakaki Yūshō.
Himika commenced her report without any preamble. "Emergency responders found him in an alleyway," she said, gesturing to Yūshō. "Seven cracked ribs—five of them broken, three in multiple places—internal bleeding in the diaphragm, a collapsed lung, and enough blunt force trauma to cause hairline fractures in his lumbar vertebrae. We suspect he was Dueling, but that the safety systems had been disengaged without his knowledge or his consent."
Masumi felt herself cringe with every successive injury the headmistress listed. How could anyone survive that?!
"The ERs found Dennis with him, out cold," Himika went on. "Blunt force trauma to the head. Maiami General is stabilizing Yūshō as we speak so the police can question them both, but I don't want to wait that long."
She stood up. "Reiji and I have been scanning surveillance footage for any sign of who could have attacked them like this," she told them. "There weren't any cameras inside the Duel site, so I'm afraid all I have is external video. This is what we've found so far."
The images of all three men disappeared, replaced by a grainy feed of a street from slightly overhead; Masumi guessed it was coming from one of the Solid Vision projector nodes that had been used for Wonder Quartet.
Then—her breath caught—four familiar figures raced down the sidewalk before ducking into an alley. Or at least, her mind amended, two familiar figures, carrying one more apiece over their shoulders. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Sora lean forward, looking suddenly less sullen than before as he took in the sight.
"There's Yūya and Yuzu," Rika piped up from next to Hotene, "and Dennis, too! But … who's that with them?"
"That old strongman who teaches at LDS Broadway," Masumi murmured. "Herman von Stadion."
"Probably looking for a place to hide," said Yaiba next to her. "But something feels off about that. None of them strike me as somebody who'd run away from a fight. More than that, you'd think he'd actually want the three of them to fend off any attackers, if he was interested in their Dueling abilities like Masumi here was saying."
Reiji's picture blipped onscreen again to one side of the video. "I have a suspicion that he was interested in more than that," the sixteen-year-old wunderkind mused out loud. "There—Yūshō is going in after them. Probably to have his Duel." And indeed, the red jacket of the man was unmistakable as he sprinted into the same alley.
Reiji suddenly produced his mobile. "I was afraid of that," he sighed. "LDS Broadway just answered my message. They did have a staff member named Herman von Stadion, and he was a strongman as well as a teacher there."
Hotene frowned. "Was?" she chirped.
"Was," echoed Reiji heavily. "Someone tipped off the NYPD—said he'd been acting strangely—and the NYPD tipped me off in turn. They searched his office, and found a Duel Monsters card in his desk drawer. It contained a picture of him. Only him."
Masumi felt a deep pit yawn open in her stomach. "They sealed von Stadion," she murmured, unable to believe it. "Before they even attacked Maiami City … " She felt an acid taste in her mouth, and bit her tongue to ward it off. "Dennis told me he'd flown in with him from New York—he could've been attacked at any time over there."
The dam burst. "Dennis knew who he was," she growled. "He knew we'd be attacked—and he didn't say a word!"
Gongenzaka was shaking his head. "How did we not hear about this until just now?"
"I asked the police in New York the same thing when they contacted me," said Reiji. "I am … still waiting for an answer. I can only imagine how embarrassed they must feel that this happened right under their nose."
"But there's no way that ruse could've held water for long!" Hokuto blurted out. "Sealing an innocent man is one thing. Posing as him is another!"
"Precisely," said Himika. "Whoever attacked von Stadion didn't want it to hold water for long—just long enough. We're assuming von Stadion's assailant either looked a lot like him, or was using a disguise of some sort."
"Then that settles it." Masumi pounded a hand into her fist. She had to bite her lip to stop herself from swearing. "This attack on the city was just a diversion—all of it! Just so that guy could kidnap Yūya and Yuzu. Yūshō must've caught him in the act, tried to stop him … Ugh!" She kicked a nearby chair, suddenly so very angry that she didn't even register the sharp pain in her big toe. "I knew something was off about that old man!" she raged.
Himika was quite unperturbed by her outburst. "I'm checking every camera in every RSV generator we have in the city, and I've sent to scour any points of interest. So far we've found nothing."
Yaiba groaned loudly. "Tell me we at least have a name. American police can't be that bad at their job, can they?"
"This was not an American's doing," said Reiji. "And as Kurosaki Shun has already stated, this attack was only the latest of several. I have some associates in the other Dimensions who have been sending me updates, in addition to Kurosaki before he escaped the attack on Heartland Tower in the Xyz Dimension. The former Executive Council in the Synchro Dimension was able to send out a general distress call before all contact with the City was lost. I have also been advised of multiple coups-d'état within the Fusion Dimension's foremost world power, the Kingdom of Misgarth—including inside their capital city, as well as their branch of the You Show Duel School that was headed by Sakaki Yūshō. All of my sources have claimed these assaults were coordinated by—"
"Markus Streiter."
Everyone spun in the direction of Sora. The boy didn't immediately see that all eyes were on him.
"I … I know who that is," he said hesitantly. "He wrote just about everything I had to read for my military engagement classes at Academia. The man was a tactical genius when it came to war—a modern-day Sun Tzu. And he could hold his own in a Duel as well—most of my professors who went to the school with him called him the Kämpfer."
He sighed. "Trust the child soldier here. He's the only man I could think of that'd have the brains and the stones to stage an attack on all four Dimensions at the same time. And if he did … " He swallowed, and shook his head.
Shun was muttering curses through his clenched teeth. Yaiba, if it was possible, looked even less happy than he did. " … You know, I'm starting to think we suck at this whole 'judging a book by its cover' thing, Masumi," he said scathingly. "This is, what, the third person you've met who was actually a bad guy?"
The Fusion Duelist glared at him. "I'd clobber you," she huffed, "if I didn't think you were so very right."
"But how did Yūya and Yuzu not know who he was?" Noboru looked completely lost, and needed a moment to explain himself. "Sora just said this Markus Streiter person not only went to Academia, but wrote entire books that the school used in their curriculum. The Fusion counterparts of Yūya and Yuzu went to Academia as well—so why did they not recognize him like Sora did just now?"
"I didn't know Yūri as well as I should have," answered Sora grimly. "But I can only guess he was a lot less interested in the theory of Duel Monsters as he was in its practice. I don't know enough about Serena to tell you if she was the same way. In any case," he shrugged, "Streiter was 'old guard'. He'd made his mark on Academia before you and I were even born."
Himika tapped at her keyboard. "Reiji pulled Streiter's file on one of his excursions there a few years ago. It took him quite a bit of time and effort to decrypt it, but it came with the picture that most of his textbooks had on their covers." Moments later, that picture materialized beside Reiji's own—a black-and-white image depicting a tall, muscular old man in a crew cut. Masumi was quick to note the facial similarities between him and Herman von Stadion—but von Stadion had never borne such an ugly scar across his face … or such a dangerous glint in his dark eyes.
"Graduated Academia at sixteen," said Himika, perhaps reading an annotated version of Streiter's accomplishments, "semi-pro Duelist until eighteen when he joined the self-defense forces of the Kingdom of Misgarth. Even before then, he had gained a reputation for being a fighter who didn't back down; it was one reason why they called him Kämpfer. He worked his way up through the ranks, slowly but surely, disappeared from public knowledge bit by bit—and by the time he apparently decided to return to his old school on a whim, and become one of its highest-ranking personnel, he had attained the rank of Colonel in the kingdom's intelligence division without hardly a peep."
Kurosaki was nodding. "He was the supreme commander of Academia's entire military might," the Xyz ace said gruffly, "answerable only to their headmaster. And he was careful about it, too. This is the only picture of him I've seen in my life—same for Yūto and Ruri, and everyone else in the Resistance. But he made sure to drip enough info about himself that we knew he wasn't just a wild-goose chase in the making. A lot of us wanted a crack at Edo Phoenix back when he commanded the forces that invaded Heartland—we thought he was the only person in Xyz who'd ever seen Streiter's face, and so we thought defeating him would have found us a way through to his master."
"According to my sources," said Reiji, "Streiter—like most of the school's senior personnel—was forcibly retired after the Interdimensional War to avoid standing trial for war crimes. He's been out of the public eye since."
" … Until today," Fuyu murmured.
"Yes." Himika grimaced through grinding teeth. "It would seem his fight's not over yet. And as for Edo Phoenix," she added, "Reiji has told me that he was inside You Show Fusion when it was attacked. He has since been declared missing in action. Most survivors of the attack agree that he was captured, and quite possibly sealed."
"But why are they doing any of this?" Hotene was clutching at her messy hair helplessly. "If Academia isn't around anymore, then there's no reason for Markus to fight for them still. Is he fighting for someone else?"
Mother and son traded the same uneasy glance. "I've been listening to various media chatter and corroborating everyone else's stories with Reiji," said Himika after a short silence. "The timing and coordination of these attacks suggests the existence of an organization that is just as expansive, well-staffed, and ambitious as the original Academia. The rumors I've been hearing in the time since seem to confirm that existence is true."
"They call themselves the Ædonai," Reiji explained, "from an old Hebrew word for 'lords'. On the surface, they appear to be a dissident movement based in the Fusion Dimension, but the truth is somewhat more complicated than that. Most of their membership was formed from the bulk of the Obelisk Force and several well-connected loyalists of the old Academia, which is why so many of them were seen today using Antique Gear Decks. It also has to be assumed they've been not only stockpiling the same technology that allows them to traverse the dimensions and seal human beings into cards, but improving on it as well."
"If it's true—and I'm sorry to say it looks that way—it constitutes a violation of the treaty that officially ended the Interdimensional War," said Himika. "You've all heard the breaking news updates on the way over. Two hundred forty-nine citizens of Maiami City sealed—men, women, children—and that doesn't count the soldiers who sealed themselves. Three hundred twenty-seven injured, a hundred and thirty-two critically, in the ensuing chaos—human stampedes, car accidents, and God knows what else. All because the blades of the Duel Disks these Ædonai possess can now seal any object they pierce into a card. Even if it's a human being—and even if it's outside of a Duel."
Masumi felt a dull thud in her chest with every triple-digit number she heard. She was no stranger to massacres and terrorist attacks by now. Only a few months ago, she'd been a casualty in an attack that had left more than thirty people dead and many more injured. But this … this had been a full-scale battle, the plans of an entire group of people rather than only one or two of them.
"They're not even bothering with honorable battle this time," Noboru snorted. "Whatever they want, they're even more desperate to make it happen than Academia was back then."
"I do not believe they are acting out of desperation, Gongenzaka," said Himika, "but rather out of devotion. What makes the Ædonai so dangerous in my eyes is not the improvements they have made on existing technology, or their intent to cause even more chaos and destruction than their predecessors. It is the simple fact that my son has stated with certainty that they view Fusion Monsters as superior to all other monsters that are Summoned from the Extra Deck. To them, it is more than just method, but an entire ideology—and Fusion Summoning is how they practice that ideology. For lack of a better term," she said, grimacing, "they consider it a philosophical calling … or even a religious duty."
She looked round at all the faces that stared at her as if she'd gone mad. " … No, I don't understand it any more than you do. But everything I have seen and heard of them today suggests that they are not simply a standing army, but a multi-tiered and -celled organization—a cult, I would even say. They have their own tenets of purpose, goals for establishing themselves in common society, rewards for success—and, as we have all seen today, punishments for failure. And it is also my understanding," she added, "that an old friend of yours may be among their ranks."
The chairwoman was looking right at Masumi. A horrible feeling of familiarity had settled into the Fusion user's heart. A low moan escaped her lips. "Please tell me you're about to mention some other old friend." Any other old friend, she added in her head. Someone—anyone besides who I think she's talking about—
But her thoughts ended with a long mental curse; Himika had pressed a switch, and another image shimmered in between the video of Reiji and the black-and-white image of Markus Streiter: a tall, lithe female with long hair as green as her eyes. A thin smile played at the edges of her mouth, almost gloating at everyone present in the room.
Gasps and mutters rippled through the LID, and even some of the Lancers. A suddenly fearful Hotene was gripping Rika's arm so tightly that her knuckles were bone-white. Fuyu had paled completely, Hokuto had bared his teeth, and Yaiba's hands had curled into fists. Masumi felt her blood boil at the mere sight of this woman—the memory of everything she had done, all the ways she had violated her mind … her friends' minds, even their selves …
"I gather that not all of you know who this woman is." Himika was looking right at Sora now; the ex-soldier's green eyes were wide open in recognizance and disbelief. "Her name is Gwendolyn Grimm. Until the ill-fated Maiami Championship that introduced the Lancers to the world, she was a low-level counselor inside the Leo Duel School, virtually unknown among the hundreds of employees who work inside this building. What she did not know until a certain point in time was that she was a Psychic Duelist—a warrior of extraordinary mental prowess that she could utilize to enhance her Dueling abilities—and that when she watched Sora's Duel versus Kurosaki in that tournament, it triggered a memory recall that caused her to remember who she was, and what she was there to do. She began forcing herself inside the dreams of my students, and enslaving them into her puppets by beating them in Duels."
Kurosaki and Sora traded glances of identical surprise. Sawatari's eyes bugged with equal horror and wonderment. "She could Duel people while they slept?!" he murmured. "Make them dream about her, Freddy Krueger-style?"
"Something like that," Yaiba said angrily. "She was sick. Twisted. The things we saw her do to Hotene and Fuyu were just … " He shuddered, looking abnormally green. "I'm never going to forget the screaming … never … "
"Dr. Grimm was here—in Maiami City?" Sora had finally found his voice. "All this time, right over my shoulder … and I didn't even know about it?!" He exhaled, and sat down. "Wow. She covered her tracks pretty well."
"Not well enough," Masumi told him. "I was one of the Duelists she tried to ensnare. It was because I was so good at Fusion Summoning that I landed on her radar in the first place. But I got too smart—too curious … too far in. I'd made some friends along the way, and with their help, I blew her cover and forced her to flee. That's how the LID was formed in the first place—almost every one of us had a hand in beating her at her own game."
She gestured to them all, one at a time: Hotene waved back, giggling; Fuyu inclined his head shyly. Hokuto—who'd been the literal heart and soul of them all during that fateful Duel—couldn't resist a smug grin, and Yaiba crossed his arms as if defeating a Psychic Duelist was a badge of honor. It probably was to somebody somewhere, Masumi thought—but the knowledge of what that fight had nearly cost her didn't make it feel honorable at all.
Sora, for his part, was regarding them all with what Masumi thought might have been the same respect she'd given Sawatari. The rest of the Lancers had varying degrees of appreciation written on their faces as well. Noboru certainly looked respectful enough—even sympathetic. Kurosaki, meanwhile, was looking them up and down one by one; Masumi wondered if he was sizing them up, deciding which of them was the most powerful for being able to stand against a Psychic Duelist. She decided he could wait to find out it didn't work that way—Decks and Dueling styles didn't matter against unknown quantities like Dr. Grimm, but heart and soul certainly did.
"Yes, well," sighed Himika, "we … never did manage to track her down after that. Our assumption was that she'd gone into hiding, or simply fled back to her masters—but she played a secondary role in the Infernoid incident that nearly destroyed Maiami City a few months ago. When Academia was brought down, there weren't any sightings of her then, either. No one ever remembered seeing her in real life or in their dreams—she just … disappeared."
"How do you know she's with these Ædonai people, then?" asked Hokuto.
"She is a powerful Fusion Duelist—you yourselves have told my mother as much," said Reiji. "And power tends to gravitate towards other, higher powers. There was always the possibility that more advanced Fusion Duelists than Gwendolyn Grimm existed in her dimension, and that she would seek them out if Academia ever went defunct."
"And now she's used these powers of hers to turn Yūya and Yuzu into puppets?!" Shun's teeth looked halfway to powder, so intently was he grinding them. Masumi thought she knew why; having the last remnants of his sister being enslaved into a servant of the very thing he'd sworn to defeat was bad enough. Being forced to go through it again …
But Sora shook his head. "She doesn't work like that. Someone like Grimm prefers the shadows, where less people can see her. Maybe she had something to do with what Masumi told us happened to them both in their Duel," he admitted, "but it's more likely that she taught Markus a few of her tricks, and he used them on Yūya and Yuzu at You Show. He was alone with them long enough over there that he definitely had a window of opportunity."
"So you think Grimm's working with this Markus guy?" Masumi felt faint. Dealing with one élite Fusion Duelist had been trouble enough. Having to deal with two at the same time …
"The notion that she might be is not what concerns me," said Himika. "What troubles me more is that Grimm and Markus might be working together … but taking their orders from someone else."
There was a long silence. "Who?"
Himika's eyes alighted briefly on Rika. "I wish I knew. Reiji and I are still attempting to reach out to the various intelligence sectors. But I do know someone who might give us a more timely answer. Before that, however, we must make preparations for if and when the Ædonai strike back at us with greater numbers."
"About that?" Sora had stepped forward. "I've been doing some thinking on this, and I don't like where my train of thought's been taking me."
Himika frowned. "Explain."
Sora gulped. "You mentioned that Edo Phoenix was declared MIA, correct?" Reiji nodded. "Okay. Well, first it was him. Then we found Dennis in that alley—so he must've been attacked next. Now it's Yūya and Yuzu that've been kidnapped," Sora went on. "Do you know what they have in common?"
"They used Fusion Monsters." It took several moments before Masumi realized that had been her voice—and that Sora was looking right at her. " … Um," she added hastily, "I was just guessing off what I knew … "
"Not just any Fusion Monsters," the former soldier said. "Fusion Monsters that came from the Fusion Dimension. These tend to be a lot more powerful than your Gem-Knights, Masumi—and from what I've seen and heard of those," he added hurriedly, seeing the Fusion Duelist raise a testy eyebrow, "I don't say that lightly. That's not meant to sound like an insult, either; this is a known fact of any monster that's Summoned from the Extra Deck outside of its home dimension. Kurosaki's Raid Raptors are a good example of that. Ditto for my Des-Toys.
"And that's why I'm so worried." He unwrapped a fresh lollipop with trembling fingers, and stuck it in his mouth. "If the Ædonai are targeting people that use high-energy Fusion Summons—like former students of Academia—then it's very possible that I could be the next guy on their list."
Silence. "Think about it," Sora told them all, his lollipop stick dancing in his lips with every word he spoke. "What good does it do the Ædonai to attack Maiami City if they don't have a way to attack us? That must've been why Markus went for Dennis first—he knew Dennis had experience as an infiltrator, especially when he was with the Lancers. Either one of them could have gotten to me next if this attack had gone on for long enough!"
Noboru stepped forward. "You know the noble Gongenzaka will not let them capture you, Sora," he said resolutely.
Shun and Shingo approached him, too. "Right," said the former. "You've been pretty tough to get along with—"
"—and kind of a jerk—" added Shingo.
"—but you're a damned good Duelist," finished Shun, smiling slightly. "We'd hate to lose you to those bastards."
Sora smiled. Masumi could tell it was genuine—it was the same smile she herself had worn when her friends had reassured her in her most perilous moments. "Thanks, guys," he said. "I mean it."
"If that is all," said Himika, "we must return to the matter at hand. Reiji—you will take command of the Lancers and make sure that Sora is well protected. Have some of the senior LDS staff assigned to guard Dennis as well. If Sora's instincts are correct, then Dennis' actions today may not have been of his own accord. We should therefore take every action in making sure he remains out of harm's way until he recovers and is properly questioned."
Reiji nodded. "Understood."
"What about Yūya and Yuzu?" Noboru asked, clenching his fist. "Are we simply to forget that Markus Streiter and the Ædonai still have them both in their clutches?"
"That is your second priority," Himika replied. "Reiji will speak with you once he has found a lead on where they might have gone. As for the Ædonai … if and when they strike again, we must be prepared. We have faced graver threats to Maiami City than a few handfuls of soldiers—and with less of a membership, I feel the need to add."
"There was one other thing." Masumi stepped forward. She told Himika and Reiji about the sight she and Yaiba had seen after their Duel, of the girls with colorful hair and strange Duel Disks who looked like Yuzu.
Reiji frowned. "I do not know who they are," he said. "But I may know where they are from—and so may Yūshō. Their Duel Disks are similar in design to those used by the students of You Show Fusion—"
"—which the Ædonai also attacked," mused Yaiba. "You think those girls managed to escape them?"
"Possibly." But Reiji didn't sound convinced. "It's equally likely these girls were why the Ædonai attacked at all."
Murmurs and mutters filled the room. "My mother has told me her theories about why they attacked—they hoped to spread our forces too thin, and seize the fragment of the ARC-V reactor we possess. Since this fragment makes our Interdimensional Travel technology far more stable than the transit functions encoded within the Lancers' Duel Disks, losing control of it—in addition to Synchro and Xyz losing theirs, as appears to be the case—all but cripples that technology for anyone without such a fragment. The Ædonai would hold a monopoly over dimensional travel.
"However." He stiffened in his seat. "When the Ædonai attacked LDS and breached it, they showed a remarkable knowledge of its floor plans and inner workings. I strongly believe that Gwendolyn Grimm, or the accomplice she had in the Infernoid incident, gave them that information during their time in LDS. This knowledge would likely have included Angel-IQ and many of my plans to integrate her into the school. And yet"—Reiji tented his fingers again—"the number of soldiers they sent to breach the building and retrieve our fragment of ARC-V was rather minuscule, in comparison with the army that the Lancers and the LID helped to engage. We already know they weren't retreating—they were regrouping. But what if they were doing something more than that? What if they were covering ground instead—searching for a pair of lambs who'd strayed out of the pasture?"
"They had Yuzu's face." Masumi crossed her arms as if that would make him accept this as fact. "The same face. Something tells me they're a little more important than lambs."
"But not as important as Yuzu herself," said Himika smoothly. "Two children who escaped an attack and appeared out of thin air—or two children who escaped an attack and vanished into thin air? Rescuing Yūya and Yuzu are more important to us right now.
"Now—Masumi." The Fusion user stiffened; Himika was standing up. "You and the LID will be coming with me."
"Where to?" Fuyu looked suspicious—the LID didn't like it whenever the chairwoman got secretive on them.
"I'm afraid I'm not at liberty to say," said Himika smoothly. "The Ministries of Justice and Foreign Affairs—under orders from the United Nations Security Council—have advised that our destination not be publicly disclosed until further notice. There will be procedures we must all follow; I'll explain those once we leave the city limits."
That threw Masumi for a loop. Leaving the city limits? "What are we doing outside of Maiami City?"
Himika sniffed. "We are going," she elaborated, "to interrogate a war criminal."
All the air went out of the room. Every other jaw but Reiji's bounced on the floor.
Hokuto recovered first. "A war criminal?!"
"Of course," Himika said, staring at them as if the answer had been in plain sight all this time. "The Ædonai take much of their membership from the old Academia. And who better to tell us about who leads the Ædonai … than the man who once led Academia?"
She turned to her son. "Alert the Fūma clan chieftain," she told him. "They must be prepared for our arrival."
Reiji nodded without a word. His image disappeared from view a moment later.
The headmistress crossed the length of the room, pulling out her phone. "We'll reconvene in twenty-four hours," she spoke to everyone assembled. "That will be all." Then, into her mobile: "Nakajima—meet me in the garage."
Masumi swayed where she stood, hardly registering the Lancers and the LID filing out of the room after Himika. The very notion of speaking to a criminal of any kind—to say nothing of a war criminal—felt alien to her.
And it felt even more so when this war criminal had given his name to the exact same Duel School she attended.
A/N: And another one for good measure. My own personal NaNoWriMo—such as it ever was—is now complete.
I first conceived of Markus' character shortly before Sanders and the Battle Beast became a thing in ARC-V—so back when I'd first laid the groundwork for (æ)lohim. How time flies. Given how long the Gladiator Beasts have been around, I thought it made sense to give them a Duelist who'd been kicking around longer than either of them. Hopefully this guy's Duels will be a little less, um … divisive.
Okay—this is where updates might be a little less frequent; we're switching gears from action to exposition, and guess which of the two I write better? Don't worry—any questions I didn't manage to answer here should be addressed over the next chapter or so. By then we'll be back to the action, so no worries.
Thanks for reading! – K