Content warning: homophobia, voyeurism, sexism

Once again, I find myself at Akihabara Station or what once was Akihabara Station. "Why?" one might be prompted to ask. At least I know I am asking myself that. Especially given, that once we arrived there it started to look even worse than the first time, and I would barely have believed, that such a thing was possible, if I didn't see the scene with my own eyes.
"No wonder, that Yuri has been missing lately." Ryouko kicks around some of the rubble, that remained from the station. Though given that the thing itself is now just a big pile of that, one could hardly tell that her actions even changed anything.
"Ain't no train going to depart from here." Chris explains, that this train station was pretty much the only thing that connected "this region" with the rest of New Domino City, emphasis being on the past tense as it is no longer operable. "Where to next?"
"Let's visit the Kanda Shrine. It's a sanctuary for those who live here after all."

Off to the Kanda Shrine we go. Upon arriving, we find a group of young idols performing some old Momoiro Clover Z song. We aren't even that far into the future for shrine maidens and idols to be considered the same thing… wait, wrong idol group and wrong anime. Though to be honest, while schoolgirl space pirates does sound like an interesting plot, that would also allow for a decent amount of "plot", idol space guerilla was much more exciting, at least in my opinion. In an interesting twist, however, the number of performers on stage was neither five nor nine, but eight, and their colours where all over the rainbow.
My attention is drawn to the girl in yellow as the song ends and she starts MCing. "You're a great audience. By the way, isn't it getting bigger as we sing?"
"You're probably just hallucinating, Hikari," the girl in green responds. "Let's count them. One, two, three…"
I wasn't expecting them to form a comedy duo on the spot…
"How long do you want to delay your introductions?" The girl in turquoise has a quite serious glare with her ice-blue eyes and she also seems pretty tall. From the top of my head, I would only recall few taller women, like Chris or Katyusha… oh and Katyusha is about as tall as Sherry, so slightly less than Europe-sized? Yeah, let's go with that for now. "You're the only ones, who haven't done theirs yet."

"Right, our introductions." Despite having part of her name already revealed, Hikari was still somewhat fidgety. Standing on a huge stage like that does not seem to be her forte. In the end, she reveals not much more than her surname, which was Kagayaki. She really could have done that before singing as well, why did they even have to delay it? Perhaps it's because no one with the surname Kagayaki would really name their child Hikari… could this be the result of an unfortunate remarriage? No, wait, was there even a Kagayaki family to begin with?
"And I'm Dokidoki Kokoro." Together with the girl in green, Hikari really could form a comedy duo, if she wanted to. And if Hikari went missing at any point, it'd make for a solid entry in the Kingdom Hearts series. Come to think of it, their names don't seem all that unfamiliar when put together, though. Of course, they're Crow's kids! Well, not his own, the children he took care of, but… Kokoro really has the same hair as in the anime. Hikari on the other hand seems to be wearing a blonde wig with a messy bun, probably because it fits her image colour better.

Now time for some maths. Hikari's and Kokoro's age in the anime was about eight and six years old respectively, or at least that's what I would personally assume. Adding the eight years, that have passed since then and Kokoro is now fourteen – yep, the idol industry is definitely cursed, even in this world.
Let's play another game. Which of those lovely eight idols might not be underage? Pink looks kinda sus in that regard. Red and orange are out. Turquoise, blue and purple also seem closer to sixteen than eighteen. Wait, are they all jailbait? Pink's straddling that line really hard…
"It's there!"
Just as Ryouko announces the arrival of… I don't really know, what arrival she announced, sorry. Either way, "Everyday, Katyusha" started blasting out of the speakers. I remember liking that song back when it was super popular, but in my defense, I don't remember its lyrics being so gay. In addition to that, befitting their name of Naughty Eight, they spiced up the choreography by exchanging headbands as if they were wedding rings.
"I've also spotted Yuri," Chris announces. Wait, also? Did I miss something?

The idols sing some more songs before finally wrapping up the concert in the late evening. Crap, did I spend much time listening to them. Or no, actually it was already late when we arrived, maybe that's why.
I naturally follow Ryouko and Chris as they naturally sneak backstage and naturally we see naturally underage girls naturally undressing and naturally feeling up each other's natural boobs as they naturally would in such a natural situation. Wait, why were we watching them undress again?
"This woman in purple has a death wish, groping my Yuri's breasts in front of my eyes."
Oh, right, we have a Yandere on our team, I forgot. Equipped with that hint, I finally make out, that Pink indeed was and is Koizumi Yuri herself. Great, that's one mystery cleared up: We now know where she is.
Ryouko tried to make her way into the changing room, but Chris somehow managed to stop her, so now we're eagerly waiting for her to them to come out in order to then bombard them with questions. Or rather, the two of them continue their, uh, close observation, whereas I am forced to idle for what seems to be at least an hour while they dress up.
"I'll be leaving first. See you in the café!" Finally, Yuri exits the halls of jailbait and we're able to talk to her.
"Before that…" Ryouko quickly draws her attention towards us, as we all have our questions. What happened to the station? What's with her idol getup? When will she come back to work? And most importantly, what café?

Chris quickly points out, that Yuri's home used to be a maid café, and it is somehow rationalized, that she still uses it for its intended purpose, even if her main job is elsewhere. I have to wonder how she does that, but it's not that important a question to dwell too long on.
Yuri unsurprisingly knows little about the station itself, other than that it collapsed quite recently and those, who would be in the power to fix it or provide an alternative to those, who needed it, are unwilling to do so. As Chris has said so eloquently once already, trains really did seem to have been for lowly commons in this world. And fate would have it, that busses did not exist, at least not for the people in post-apocalyptic Akihabara. Without any help from outsiders or… cars or D-Wheels, I guess… they are now stuck in that weird part of the city, that no one but us seems to visit ever.
"You know, I'd really like to drive to work in that limousine I bought the other day, but my chauffeuse caught a cold, so…" The idea, that a maid like Yuri would be able to afford a limousine and a chauffeuse, was of course ludicrous, yet she presented it without a hint of irony in her voice. One would have to guess from the context, that the thought of owning a car was as unimaginable to the people of this area, that this was her way of mocking my suggestion, but at the same time we're supposed to believe, that they could create an offshoot of the most successful girl groups ever to exist under such conditions? Well, at least it's not the first time, that weird logic is used in a world ruled by Duel Monsters. Who knows, maybe her chauffeuse did simply catch a cold, and we'd see Yuri again soon enough.

With all our questions cleared up, we could sleep safe and sound again and wait for Monday, where I would formally be acknowledged into the research team. And Monday was just two days away from Wednesday – the day, that we would finally get to see, what Kaiba Corporation made out of my Xyz Summoning idea. Of course, time does not simply pass that quickly, but forgive my joyful anticipation.
On said important Wednesday, we got ourselves some booster packs to unpack, already knowing, that each card of them would have their rank indicated on the left side of the card.
Incidentally, releasing Xyz monsters without special support is very doable, because many of the cards, that work well with Xyz in our world, already exist here as well. Just not those, that mention the mechanic by its name, but even in Archetypes like Raid Raptors, there are cards, that don't do that. It sorta feels as if this world has already been preparing for Xyz Summoning for a long time, much longer than we had to wait for them in the real world. Though clinging to the notion, that somehow my world is the real one and the one I'm currently inhabiting is mere fiction, has become a little harder in the one month I have by now spent in it.

Chris is the first one to open up a pack. She goes through the cards, one by one, only to end up disappointed with a sigh. "Sadly nothing for me."
I open up a pack as well. Funnily enough, the first card that I draw is Utopia, not that it fits into my deck. Now that I think about it, I've already set myself up for the same disappointment Chris has already experienced by playing such a Synchro-heavy strategy. I'm not exactly leading by example. The next card is… Traptrix Rafflesia. I shall keep that one for Yuri, otherwise she's going to complain, that we haven't printed enough cute girls. Next up we have… Shy NEET Magician, another cute girl. Yuri would curse me for my pulls. After that we have… Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon. Finally, a normal card again. And Number 17: Leviathan Dragon, nice. "Some good pulls, but I don't have the cards to go with them."
"Way to hype up the audience." Ms. Nakano opens up her pack, but given that Synchro is already "too new" for her taste, she doesn't find anything valuable in a pack of Xyz monsters either.
We all await the epic gamer move Kazuko is going to pull. We gulp as she slowly rips apart the packaging, drawing five cards from it. She fans them apart and looks at all of them at once. "Yes, that might work." She puts them in her Extra Deck. "Duel me, Chris!"

"Fine, I guess I have to." After Chris accepted her challenge, the two of them position themselves on opposite ends of the meeting room. Funny, how those meeting rooms can be used for improptu dueling just like that. Was that a concern in the labs' architecture?
"I start." Kazuko draws no card for turn. I'm not sure if she forgot or the rules have changed since, but she should have gotten a card. "I Summon The Phantom Knights of Ancient Cloak in Attack Position and place four face-downs. Your turn."

"My turn, I draw!" Chris draws a card from her deck. "I Summon Magical Musketeer Caspar in Attack Position!" Caspar has 1200 ATK compared to Ancient Cloak's 800. She probably wants to run over her monster for the intense 400 points of damage, just like in the anime. "Go, Caspar, attack Ancient Cloak!"
Yep, we're playing caveman Duel Monsters apparently. Though Chris's card would allow her to…
"Not so fast," shouts Kazuko. "I activate Phantom Knight's Wing. With that, my Ancient Cloak gains 500 ATK and…"
"You really think, that will work?" Chris didn't even let her finish spelling out her effect. How rude, you have to do that, especially if it's Pot of Greed. "From my hand, I activate the Counter Trap Magical Musket – Last Stand. It negates the activation of your trap and destroys it."
Ahh, now I get to finish my sentence from earlier. Thanks to her Musketeer Caspar she gets to activate Spells and Traps from her hand during either player's turn. Pretty broken if you ask me, but I didn't design those cards.
"Now, since I activated Last Stand in Caspar's column, I can further…" Oh yeah, they do have additional effects like that as well.
"I activate Phantom Knight's Fog Blade. Your Caspar's effect is negated and it can't attack."
"Darn it." Chris ends her turn after that.

"My turn again." Kazuko draws for turn. "Since I control a 'The Phantom Knights' monster, I can Special Summon The Phantom Knights of Silent Boots from my hand. I then overlay it with my Ancient Cloak to Summon The Phantom Knights of Break Sword."
There it is, our first recorded Xyz Summon, and it's not Utopia! On the one hand, that's a bit sad, but on the other I sure am glad this isn't ZeXaL. "Card games on motorcycles" was a way better joke than "card games in space".
"Break Swords' effect. I detach one overlay unit and destroy one card on my side on the field and one on yours. Those cards will be my Fog Blade and your Caspar." With this, Chris' field is wide open for a direct attack. "Since I detached Ancient Cloak for this, I can now use his effect. I banish him from the GY to add The Phantom Knights of Cloven Helm from my deck to my hand, which I then Summon." This looks really bad for Chris. 2000 ATK from Break Sword and 1500 from Cloven Helm. If she survives this, she'll better prepare for a big anime moment.
"You can do this, Chris! Believe in the heart of the cards!" At least, that's what I'd like to shout, but her situation is quite dire.
"I now activate The Phantom Knights of Mist Claws, through which I can add the banished Ancient Cloak back to my hand. And now that it is sent to the grave, Cloven Helm's ATK rises by 500."
"I take everything back, you're doomed."
"Thanks, I can see that," Chris snorts. The direct attacks from both of Kazuko's monsters hit her and the duel is finished.

Of course, one duel is not enough to get scientific™ data, so they repeat that experiment about 100 times for statistical relevance. The result? Chris won slightly more often than usual, as you'd expect if only one side was buffed. "Was that really necessary?" one might be prompted to ask. I feel in this circle, the response will be a resounding "yes". Proving Xyz monsters to have a positive effect in one matchup is just the first step towards proving, that they will have an impact on the meta.
Sadly, we won't be able to aim for the complete proof anytime soon, as the end of the day slowly, but surely draws near. "Finally, you're done." A sigh comes from Ryouko, who has been meaning to ask something of Chris hours ago, but couldn't thanks to her constant dueling against Kazuko. Apropos the two working together, I have no idea when that started either. It seems to have been some time after Yuri's debut, not that that would have anything to do with it.
"I guess not everyone can enjoy a good duel." Ciel shows up at the least opportune moment, saying one of the worst thing he could say in such a situation. And it didn't even make sense. Sure, had it been just one duel, his complaint might have been justified, but the same matchup 100 times? Who seriously enjoys that? "Perhaps you should stay at home instead. Your favourite maid seems to have done that. Could she have found a husband?"
I doubt that. For one, Yuri is gay, but also relationships are prohibited for idols. That being said, the risk that Yuri would one day stop working here in order to pursue a career as an idol appears quite real, at least right now. How would Ryouko react if she were to do that?
"Put those words back into your ass, I don't need them." Ryouko was rightfully pissed, but reacting like that would not make it better. Just like Ciel perpetuated a system of bullying in spite of hating bullies, she did little more than add fuel to a fire.

"I'm just saying the truth, though. At least I would not want to associate myself with someone, who looks and smells like a French brothel." In my personal recollection, Yuri didn't even wear that much makeup or perfume. It rather seemed as if she was going for the #nomakeup aesthetic, not that that would actually be accomplished without wearing makeup, while at the same time she'd appear overly feminine mostly by virtue of her youth. Her smell varied depending on her mood and I still have no clue how she does that, however. "And with regards to dueling, there isn't even a debate. Tournaments all over the world show, that the field is dominated by men and has been for a long time."
"And where do you want to go with that statistic?" Until now Kaito had just been leaning against the wall aloofly, but he too doesn't take an insult towards his partner, let alone his princess, lightly.
"Well, there aren't that many possibilities, are there? They're not being discriminated against, so either women simply don't want to participate, which would make them uncultured, or they are just bad in it, but that wouldn't be the case if they were as intelligent as men."
"Defining 'culture' as an appreciation for card games. How uncultured can you be?" Ryouko flaunts her hair and gives us her best ojou-sama laugh. "Everyone knows, that culture is best defined through one's taste for thighs."
"Thighs?" I ask.
"Yes." She pulls out a picture of Yuri in her school uniform. Or rather, her absolute territory as she's wearing that uniform. It's sad, how I know exactly, that it's her thighs she's talking about and what clothes she's wearing based on the pattern of her skirt.
"Wh-what's so special about them?"
"Indeed. What's so special about them?" Ryouko smirks, then turns towards Ciel once again. "Even if I explained it, I could barely expect an uncultured swine like him to understand, could I?"

Naturally, this conflict couldn't be resolved through debate alone, meaning that a children's card game had to decide who was right and who was wrong. I think I'm starting to see a dangerous pattern here. As already pointed out, for some reason women are underperforming in this card game and yet every petty dispute is to be solved in terms of them. Over a long series of petty disputes, this would inevitably lead to women being effectively discriminated against. Consider that duel between Mai Kujaku and Jean-Claude Magnum, that had her hand in marriage as wager. How many women were forced into unhappy marriages through such methods?
Luckily for us, Ryouko's hand in marriage wasn't on the table and she didn't even have to duel. Kaito got himself to be Ciel's opponent using a sneaky little trick I shall term "What's wrong? Can you only win against statistically inferior opponents?" Not the most clever one in the book, but it worked just fine.
Anyway, the duel between the two is on. "Don't worry, I'll save you from a lot of embarrassment later on. I'll even let you go first." Kaito continues to taunt Ciel. I'm not really sure, what purpose taunts serve now, but probably that's just the way men act. Men other than Yusei, because Yusei is perfect.
"You'll regret that," Ciel announces. "I activate Solar Recharge. With that, I discard Wulf, Lightsworn Beast to draw two cards and then send the top two from my deck to my graveyard." He does as he stated.
"Of course, you humans are always so quick to discard beasts," Kaito mumbles to himself.
"Next, I summon Lumina, Lightsworn Summoner. And with her effect I discard Felis, Lightsworn Archer just to summon her back." Lumina is a level 3 non-Tuner, whereas Felis is a level 4 Tuner… that means Ciel is going for a Synchro Summon. "See how far men have evolved! I tune Lumina to my Felis to synchro summon Michael, the Arch-Lightsworn!"
Wow, his deck sure is working fine without those nasty women. Lumina sure was the buffest of dudes, just like Felis, I mean Felix.
"I set a card and end my turn. During my End Phase, Michael sends three cards from my deck to my graveyard. Let's see… Lightsworn Judgment, Ryko, Twilightsworn Fighter and March of the Dark Brigade. And since Lightsworn Judgment was sent to the graveyard, I can add a Judgement Dragon to my hand."

"Nice setup," Kaito congratulates him for his menacing first-turn board. "Too sad you'll never summon him." He draws his card. "I Summon Seal, Strategist Fur Hire. And through his effect Recon, Scout Fur Hire. And through her effect Helmer, Helmsman Fur Hire, also I destroy your set card. Then I use Helmer's effect to summon Bravo, Fighter Fur Hire, further I discard Sagitta, Maverick Fur Hire to draw a card."
"You sure talk big for a man who puts all his power into one draw," Ciel taunts. Kaito has only one space left on his field to fill through Bravo. Since he discarded Maverick, that means he likely has to draw into the card he needs to beat him – which is either Rafale or Dyna if I can at least do maths correctly.
"You know nothing about true combat," Kaito retorts. "In true combat, you use everything you have to subdue your opponent quickly. Yes, that includes the Pot of Desires I just drew." Kaito banishes the top ten cards of his deck to draw two. "And wouldn't you look at it? It's my old friend, Dyna, Hero Fur Hire. I use Bravo's effect to Summon him. At that moment, two effects activate. Bravo gives all my monsters 500 ATK and DEF, whereas Dyna banishes all the materials you would have used to summon your Judgment Dragon."
And with that Ciel has already lost. It just takes an attack from Dyna, Seal and most insultingly the female Recon to finish him off with his life points hitting exact 0.
"You call that a win? Pure luck!" Ciel shouts as if that made his loss any less real. "If you had any less luck at drawing, or if I had an Honest…"
"I have already put my life on the line of my draws many times and it was your superior intellect, that commanded you to not put Honest into your deck. You lost against yourself."
Ciel falls to his knees, his world view shattered… probably not with regards to respecting women, but at least Kaito won.
"No, Ciel is right." Why would Ryouko of all people say something like that? "You should make that a statistically significant win through 99 rematches. Please excuse myself and Chris while you do that." The two of them exit the room.

Come to think of it, we never went back down again to the reactor. Last time I saw it, we noticed severe damages. Wondering what has happened to it since then, I decide to take a look while Kaito and Ciel are busy dueling.
Panzer tape? Chris decided to fix it using Panzer tape?
"Oh, Inoue-kun, is that you?" Yusei is hanging from the ceiling like a spider crab. No, I did not make this up for a cheap joke, he really is. Also holding Panzer tape. So this was his idea?
"What are you doing up there?"
"I think the computer science side of this lab would call it a 'patch'." He slaps some of the tape onto a broken part of the reactor. "Finally, this was the last one." He descends majestically using some piece of rope I forgot to mention earlier. "When I wrote Fortune, I wasn't considering the material this reactor was made out of."
"Which means?"
"We have to build a second one. Quickly, before this one completely breaks down." Yusei shows me a blueprint with some light commentary. The basic idea is the same as with the reactor we already have, but the glass is made thicker and overall he tried using sturdier material for everything. I would have made the suggestion of perhaps not fixing it to the ceiling, but apparently that decision has already been made against my favour. "By the way, I noticed a Synchro Summon was going on nearby just recently. Didn't your new cards arrive already?"
"Yes, but not everyone is using them yet." Indeed, there seems to have been another one while we were talking. So it's Ciel's turn currently. "I'm afraid it will still take some time for them to spread."
"Is that so?" For a brief moment, it appears as though Yusei smiled, but he quickly goes back to his usual serious expression. "Keep up the good work then, I'll have some phone calls to make."
Looking at the reactor like that and how you can clearly see Momentum fluctuate as a Synchro Summon is performed, I must wonder whether Yusei was really safe during the installation of his "patch". His hair appeared the same, as did his face and most definitely his abs, but I couldn't help but worry about him.

This reactor really is a ticking time bomb and it announces itself at the worst possible opportunity, just after God has sent some angel to deal with a corrupting entity. I pray to him, that everything will go fine.
Come to think of it, how is this fight against corruption going? I have abstained from sinning for the past ten days, but I've not seen any angel so far, let alone one calling himself Daniel. Perhaps this source was already quite far away from me, but still, not hearing anything is kinda worrying in its own right. Is this the way it is supposed to be? Should I have faith in God even if I can't see him?
No, I shouldn't have such thoughts. I must trust him, that everything is alright as long as I keep obeying his orders. Yusei has shown his nice side to me as well and I've been making friends with others as well. Things will definitely play out well for me.
Probably.
Maybe.
…