Yu-Gi-Oh! Arc V: The Six Dimensions

by BlaiseCandell

Before the invasion of the Xyz Dimension, scans done by the Fusion Dimension reveal two more dimensions. The Ritual Dimension, and the Link Dimension. Within those two dimensions, Chiaki, Yuji, Miharu and Yuno have their lives turned upside down, and are tossed into a vicious war. Also, why are there five people with the same faces as them?

36. Chapter 36: The Balm of Gentleness

Starting Notes:

Welcome back! This chapter starts with a pretty odd scene, but I think you'll pick up some things as you read along. We have the end of the Friendship Cup's first day today—and we're certainly going through the calm before the storm now. Round 1 is a lot more relaxed, so the next eight or so duels after this will be more relaxed as well. Round 2 onwards is a very different story. And I can't wait :D

---

Chapter 36: The Balm of Gentleness

"Hey!" The young woman sitting on the park bench looked up, blinking as she saw the young man with green and silver hair running towards her. "I want a rematch!"

The young woman tilted her head. "Again?" She asked. "Didn't we duel last week? And the week before that?" It wasn't like she minded, but she felt like it was a little out of the blue.

"It doesn't matter! You're the strongest duelist I've ever met!" The young man said with a bright smile. "No one's ever beaten me so soundly before you! So I'm going to keep challenging you and keep improving until I become stronger than you!"

A fond smile found its way onto the young woman's face.

I'm not supposed to have friends. In reality, I shouldn't even be here.

And yet it warms my heart so much that I can't stay away.

"Alright, Z_," she said, dropping the man's name in a rather deliberate manner. "If that's what you want, I suppose I can spare some time from my busy schedule for you." She smiled gently at him. "Let's see if you win this time then."

"Busy schedule?" Z_ scoffed, sounding amused. "I've never seen you do anything except come to this park—"

"So this is where you were, Z_!"

"Hello, R_," Z_ said sheepishly. The red-haired young woman had showed up, her hands on her hips. R_ turned over to look at the young woman who had just raised her duel disk.

"So you're that super strong duelist that he keeps talking about," she said.

"… I'm not that strong," she said, hiding her face behind an arm.

"She is," Z_ mock-whispered.

"What's your name?" R_ asked, and the woman blinked, slightly doe-eyed. Um. She didn't have any preparation for this, but she knew very well that she wasn't supposed to give out her name to others. She had given it to Z_ in a moment of weakness and emotion, but she couldn't repeat the same mistake again.

Her mind spun through random names quickly, before she blurted out a name. "Hanako Yamada."

Z_ facepalmed.

"... out of all the fake names you could have made, you could have picked a name less generic," R_ said, raising an eyebrow. The newly named 'Hanako' shrugged. Someone else might have been sheepish about being caught with an alias as obvious and generic as Hanako Yamada, but she had never been particularly embarrassed by anything. "But yes, hello, Hanako Yamada. Is there a reason that you don't want others to know your name?"

"... I'm not supposed to talk to people," she said, and she saw R_ bristle for a moment.

"Well, that's just rubbish! Everyone should have friends." R_ stepped forward, holding out a hand. She was clearly a rather righteous person. The woman going by Hanako didn't dislike that. "I'm R_. I'm Z_'s friend too."

"... nice to meet you." Slightly uncertain, she held out a hand, shaking the other woman's hand. "... Z_ talks about you a lot."

"I suppose he does, huh?" R_ glanced over at Z_. "Well, he can take a break. I'm dueling you."

"What?" Z_, predictably, raised his head and loudly protested. "Wait, but R_—"

"Sit down," R_ said with a grin. "Right, Hanako?"

… well, 'Hanako' wouldn't pass down the chance to mess with Z_. "Sure," she said. "Sit down, Z_."

"You two—"

R_ laughed. 'Hanako' found herself laughing too.

---

In the Synchro Dimension:

"The tournament is progressing according to my plans right now," Roget said to himself. "So far, we have two of those Lancers separated from the rest. And if we pick them off slowly…" He chuckled. "Well, no one will be able to stop me." He walked across the room. "Though there are some other annoyances in this tournament. Like the leader of the Arcadia Movement… and those prisoners. And Dennis." Who was clearly the most difficult to deal with out of all of them. Roget had no idea how the boy had assimilated so well, but all that he could pray for was that Dennis would be too busy assimilating to properly approach Roget and ask about things before he was disposed of.

Which he absolutely would be.

However, there was another annoyance. Someone that would be of no importance to the Lancers really, but was troublesome for him. The Council was making another bid for the King's throne, and thus, they had entered their strongest duelist into the tournament. Mitsuba Taki was a woman around Arisu's age, and while she wasn't nearly as strong as the rest of the Security Officers, she was still rather strong—and loyal to the High Council, considering that her granduncle was a member. It was entirely propaganda—to show that they had strong duelists working for them too.

So, how did he sabotage that?

… there was a very good way to do that. One way to stop the High Council from exerting control over the Friendship Cup, and thus interfering with his plans.

And thus, the seventh match of the Friendship Cup was decided.

---

"First!" Melissa Claire called. "We all know this woman—another Pro Duelist, and one that works for the High Council!" That earned some boos from the Commons in the crowd, and Melissa quickly moved on. "Let's welcome Mitsuba Taki!" A grey-haired woman drove in on an extremely fast D-Wheel. "And on the other side, another member of the Lancers, Miharu Kogami!"

Miharu rode out, and Melissa let out a sound of surprise.

"Oh? She looks a lot like Yuzu Hiiragi! Maybe the two of them are related? But anyway, she's just as cute as Yuzu, so let's see if she's just as good! Alright, now—three, two, one! Let's go!"

The two D-Wheels took off, but Miharu was far slower than Mitsuba, for obvious reasons. Thus, she didn't bother, simply letting the grey-haired woman have the first turn.

[DUEL!]

Miharu Kogami: 4000LP

Mitsuba Taki: 4000LP

[Turn 1: Mitsuba] [H:5]

"You're quiet," Mitsuba commented. There was something curious to her expression. "You're one of those Lancers that Roget doesn't like, right?"

"... yes," Miharu said.

Mitsuba frowned. "So he's put us against each other to eliminate me or you quickly," she said. "That's interesting. I will start then—I'll discard a card from my hand to Special Summon Fabled Marcosia from my hand!" An avian demon wearing a green mask appeared, with long pale claws and black robs. Two long brown feathered wings flapped through the air. The monster floated in front of her as they zoomed along.

[Fabled Marcosia (4*/1700/0/LIGHT/Fiend/Effect)]

"And since I discarded The Fabled Cerburrel, I can revive it!" A red, three-headed puppy appeared on the field, rather cute in its appearance. It had a black imp with green eyes attached to it on a chain, grinning mischievously.

[The Fabled Cerburrel (2*/1000/400/LIGHT/Beast/Tuner/Effect)]

"I'll then tune the Level 2 The Fabled Cerburrel to the Level 4 The Fabled Marcosia! Now, ghastly warrior with dark wings, rise. Cast your curse. Synchro Summon! Level 6! Fabled Andwraith!" A white-haired, white-skinned fiend appeared, wearing blue and gold armour. Two long, black-feathered wings spread out, as wide as the field was tall. Long black claws emerged from under the armour, with long blue claws emerging from the black, like overly long nails. The demon was holding onto a long black sword with a golden hilt.

[Fabled Andwraith (6*/2400/1900/LIGHT/Fiend/Synchro/Effect)]

"With Fabled Andwraith's effect, when Special Summoned, I can draw two cards and discard a card. You can send a card from your hand to the graveyard to negate this effect."

… it would benefit her opponent either way. Hmm… she knew nothing about her opponent's effects, but so far, she could tell that her opponent benefitted from discarding her own monsters.

"I will choose to discard a card," she said. "I will discard Aromage Laurel. And when Aromage Laurel is sent to the graveyard, I gain 500 life points." Her life points shot up by a small amount as a green glow surrounded her.

Miharu: 4000 + 500 = 4500LP

"Since a monster was sent from my opponent's hand to the graveyard," Mitsuba continued, seeming unaffected. "I'll use Andwraith's effect! I can Special Summon that monster to my field!" Laurel appeared on Mitsuba's side of the field. "However, that monster's effects are negated."

[Aromage Laurel (1*/800/0/WIND/Plant/Effect)]

"Next, I will discard a monster from my hand to Special Summon The Fabled Chawa from my hand." A beige-coloured chihuahua-like creature appeared, with a yellow imp riding on its back.

[The Fabled Chawa (1*/200/100/LIGHT/Beast/Tuner/Effect)]

"I will then activate the effect of The Fabled Ganashia." A purple elephant-like creature appeared on her side of the field. "I'll revive it since it was discarded from my hand, but it is banished when it leaves the field."

[The Fabled Ganashia (3*/1600/1000/LIGHT/Beast/Effect)]

"I'll set a card facedown," Mitsuba said, emptying out her hand. "And I'll tune the Level 1 Chawa to the Level 3 Ganashia and the Level 1 Laurel! Now, light fiend of the desperate, rise here and let loose your raging soul! Synchro Summon—Level 5! Fabled Ragin!" A gold-skinned demon wearing black armour appeared, with demonic leathery wings spreading out behind it. Two imps, one blue and one black, floated around it.

[Fabled Ragin (5*/2300/1800/LIGHT/Fiend/Synchro/Effect)]

"Since Ragin was Synchro Summoned, I can draw until I have two cards in hand." Mitsuba swiped up two cards from the deck. "I end my turn."

… a deck based around hand advantage then. Interesting.

[Turn 2: Miharu] [H:5]

However, not something that Miharu was unused to.

"Draw," she said quietly. She glanced at her hand. "I'll Normal Summon Sunseed Genius Loci." The familiar seed in a chalice of plant roots appeared in front of her.

[Sunseed Genius Loci (1*/0/600/EARTH/Plant)]

"And I'll open the future circuit that lights up my path. Arrowhead confirmed. The conditions are one Level 4 or lower Plant monster. I will set Sunseed Genius Loci in the Link Markers. Appear now, young tree beginning to bear fruit. Circuit Combine. Link Summon. Link 1—Sunavalon Dryas."

Dryas appeared in the left Extra Monster Zone, as per normal.

[Sunavalon Dryas (L1/0/EARTH/Plant/Link/Effect/↓)]

"So this is that Link Summoning that I saw from above," Mitsuba commented. "Interesting."

"Since Dryas was Link Summoned using Sunseed Genius Loci as Link Material, I can add a "Sunvine" Spell or Trap from my deck to my hand," Miharu explained. She calmly took out a card from her deck. "I will add and activate Sunvine Sowing." She revealed the Spell Card. "I'll Special Summon a "Sunseed" monster from my deck, like Sunseed Twin." The blue and pink-themed fae appeared, vines wrapping around them.

[Sunseed Twin (2*/0/800/EARTH/Plant/Effect)]

"Then, I take 1000 damage," Miharu continued. A small shockwave hit her, but she didn't lose her balance. (Thankfully, she had only ever been hit by a small amount of force, not by actual electric shocks. Some of her effects resembled those shocks aesthetically, but she herself had never had to deal with being shocked by electricity in her own duels.)

Miharu: 4500 - 1000 = 3500LP

"I will then activate Sunavalon Dryas's effect," Miharu continued. "Once per turn, I can gain life points equal to the damage that I took, and Special Summon a "Sunvine" monster from my Extra Deck." A healing glow surrounded her. "I will Special Summon Sunvine Healer from my Extra Deck." The pink, flower-like monster appeared on her field, right behind Sunavalon Dryas, such that the two of them were co-linked.

[Sunvine Healer (L1/600/EARTH/Plant/Link/Effect/↑)]

Miharu: 3500 + 1000 = 4500LP

"Sunseed Twin's effect. I will revive a Level 4 or lower Plant Normal Monster." Sunseed Genius Loci reappeared on her field. "And Sunvine Healer's effect. I gain life points equal to the Link Rating of a "Sunavalon" Link Monster I control, times 300." She gestured to Dryas, and her life points shot up by a small amount.

Miharu: 4500 + 300 = 4800LP

That settled the large avalanche of effects that she had set up with Sowing. She gestured to her field. "Open, the future circuit that lights up my path and sows the seeds to my future. The conditions are two or more Plant monsters, including a Link Monster! I'll set Sunvine Healer, Sunseed Genius Loci and Sunseed Twin in the Link Markers! Appear now, beautiful woman of the ash tree! Circuit Combine! Link Summon! Link 3! Sunavalon Melias!"

The beautiful woman made of tree bark appeared, green leaves sprouting from her 'skin'. She was behind Dryas, and co-linked to her.

[Sunavalon Melias (L3/0/EARTH/Plant/Link/Effect/←, ↑, →)

"When Sunavalon Melias is Link Summoned, I can Special Summon Sunseed Genius Loci from my graveyard." Once again, the seed in a golden chalice reappeared on her field.

"And you still have four cards left in your hand, even with that many Special Summons?" Mitsuba said, sounding rather surprised.

"Yes," Miharu said bluntly. "Since I control a Plant Normal Monster, I can Special Summon Sunseed Shadow from my hand." The darker form of Sunseed Genius Loci appeared to the right of Melias. With Sunseed Genius Loci on the left and Sunseed Shadow on the right, her field almost seemed mirrored. "And I will open my circuit again. Arrowhead confirmed. The conditions are two or more Plant monsters. I will set Sunseed Genius Loci, Sunseed Shadow and Sunavalon Dryas in the Link Markers. Let the shadow beneath the tranquil tree begin to take its own form. Circuit Combine. Link 3. Sunavalon Dryanome!" The large tree bloomed on the field in front of her, in her Extra Monster Zone. It was a mildly amusing sight to see a supposedly rooted tree gliding along the road.

[Sunavalon Dryanome (L3/0/EARTH/Plant/Link/Effect/↙, ↓, ↘)]

"I will end my turn with a set card," Miharu said calmly.

"Hmm?" Mitsuba blinked. "You're… that's… two monsters with 0 attack points?"

Miharu shrugged.

"Alright then…" Mitsuba drew a card, clearly confused.

[Turn 3: Mitsuba] [H:3]

"Draw," Mitsuba said. "And I'll Normal Summon The Fabled Abanc!" A blue, squirrel-like creature appeared, holding a squirming orange imp between its paws.

[The Fabled Abanc (2*/1000/600/LIGHT/Beast/Tuner/Effect)]

"And I'll tune the Level 2 Abanc to the Level 6 Andwraith," Mitsuba declared. "Valkyrie with black wings! Winds beneath the fiend's ashen gaze! Now, stir up chaos with the power within your immortal frame! Synchro Summon! Level 8! Fabled Valkyrus!"

A fiend with pale green skin appeared, a black mask over his face and twin black wings jutting out behind him. He was wearing elaborate black and gold armour, with long red curls going down his back.

[Fabled Valkyrus (8*/2900/1700/LIGHT/Fiend/Synchro/Effect)]

"Valkyrus," Yuto murmured from above. "Isn't that the same as… Kyorin's?"

"I will then activate Valkyrus's effect. Once per turn, I can discard a Fiend monster and draw a card." A card slipped from Mitsuba's hand into the graveyard, and she cycled it out. "Since I discarded another copy of Marcosia, I can add a "Fabled" Spell or Trap from my deck to my hand. And I'll now activate my set card, the Trap Card, Fabled Treason. I can discard a card, and target a "Fabled" monster in my graveyard and a card on the field. I can then revive the monster I targeted, and destroy a card on the field. I will target Fabled Andwraith and revive it!" The monster from before reappeared on Mitsuba's side of the field—a third Synchro Monster. "And I will destroy Sunavalon Dryanome!"

"If a Plant Link Monster I control would be destroyed by battle or card effect, I can banish Sunvine Sowing from the graveyard to protect it," Miharu said. A green barrier protected Dryanome. Mitsuba arched an eyebrow.

"Since Andwraith was Special Summoned, I get to draw two cards and discard one," she said. "Unless you would like to discard a card?"

"I will discard the Trap Card, Sunbloom Doom," Miharu said calmly. "And I will negate your effect."

"... smart," Mitsuba acknowledged. "But I still don't understand your deck. Valkyrus attacks Sunavalon Dryanome!"

"... Dryanome cannot be targeted for attacks, but it does not prevent you from attacking me directly," Miharu explained. "And Melias has the same effect."

"Interesting." Mitsuba pointed at her. "Then, Valkyrus attacks you directly!"

Above, Yuno chuckled, while Hitoda smirked in her own room. Yuto also couldn't help but smile.

It was funnier when it wasn't happening to them, after all.

The attack hit, and Miharu steadied herself against the shockwaves.

Miharu: 4800 - 2900 = 1900LP

"When I take damage," Miharu said unflinchingly, "Sunavalon Dryanome's effect triggers. I can gain life points equal to the damage I took, and Special Summon a "Sunvine" monster from my deck. Restoration Fruit!" One of the fruits split open. "Come, Sunvine Healer!" Another copy of Healer appeared on the field next to Melias.

Miharu: 1900 + 2900 = 4800LP

"I will then use Healer's effect," Miharu continued. "I will gain life points equal to Dryanome's Link Rating times 300." Another short burst of light surrounded her.

Miharu: 4800 + 300 x 3 = 5700LP

"But that monster can be attacked!" Mitsuba said, and above, Yuno quietly said a prayer for her. "Attack Sunvine Healer, Ragin!"

"I will use the effect of Sunavalon Dryanome," Miharu replied. "When you declare an attack that targets a monster that Dryanome points to, I can negate that attack and move the monster you targeted to another Main Monster Zone." She didn't move Healer far though—simply from the leftmost Main Monster Zone to the centre Main Monster Zone, where Dryanome still pointed to it.

"Is that a once per turn effect?" Mitsuba asked.

"... yes."

"Then Andwraith attacks that monster!"

The demon charged forward and destroyed Healer. Miharu's life points dipped down slightly once again.

Miharu: 5700 - 1800 = 3900LP

"Unlike Dryas's effect, Dryanome's healing effect is not once per turn," Miharu elaborated. "It triggers thrice per turn. Thus—I can use it again. Restoration Fruit!" Her life points shot up again.

Miharu: 3900 + 1800 = 5700LP

"And with the effect of Dryanome, I will Special Summon the knight that guards the sacred tree from my Extra Deck—Sunvine Thrasher." The knight in green armour appeared to Melias's left.

[Sunvine Thrasher (L1/800/EARTH/Plant/Link/Effect/↓)]

"Sunvine Thrasher's effect triggers," Miharu continued. "It gains 800 attack points times the Link Rating of a "Sunavalon" Link Monster I control." Thrasher glowed, drawing upon the power of Sunavalon Dryanome and boosting its own attack points.

[Sunvine Thrasher: 800 + 800 x 3 = 3200ATK]

"... what?" Mitsuba stared at the monster in disbelief.

Miharu shrugged.

"I will set a card facedown and end my turn," Mitsuba said.

Miharu silently drew a card.

[Turn 4: Miharu] [H:3]

"That boost to its attack points is permanent?" Mitsuba said, sounding offended by the very thought.

"Yes," Miharu said, not exactly comprehending her opponent's confusion. "I will activate the effect of Sunavalon Melias. I will grant a monster that it points to the ability to attack once this turn for each "Sunavalon" monster I control. That will be two—Power of the Forest." Thrasher glowed, being the obvious target considering that Miharu didn't exactly have another monster with attack points in the first place. "Attack Fabled Valkyrus."

She hadn't bothered to play any more cards since she wanted to take things slow—the longer the duel went on, the stronger her deck became, after all. The stronger Synchro Monster was destroyed by a swing of the knight's sword, slashing directly through it.

Mitsuba: 4000 - 300 = 3700LP

"Since it destroyed a monster you control by battle, I can Special Summon that monster to a zone of mine that a Link Monster points to," Miharu explained. "But its effects are negated."

"So you weren't just aiming to take out two of my monsters, you wanted all three—" Mitsuba gestured to her set card, which flipped open. "Another copy of Fabled Treason! I will discard a card and revive Valkyrus from my graveyard, stopping you from taking control of it—and then I will destroy Sunavalon Dryanome!"

The large tree was bombed by a gigantic sphere of light, destroying it.

"... if a "Sunavalon" Link Monster I control leaves the field by a card effect," Miharu said, "Sunvine Thrasher is destroyed." The green knight shattered to pieces, and Mitsuba grinned, seeming remarkably happy with her own move. Clearly, she had just been getting rid of the ability Miharu had to negate attacks, without knowing about the debilitating side effects of some of her cards. "I will enter my second Main Phase."

She was still going to maintain some card advantage. But she had always been good at making the most of her resources, regardless. Her opponent still had three Synchro Monsters on the field—therefore, Miharu simply had to be able to protect herself from Mitsuba's attacks, and she could easily bring out another copy of Thrasher the next turn, when she was about to battle again.

"I will Normal Summon Lonefire Blossom," she said, the flaming sapling appearing in front of her.

[Lonefire Blossom (3*/500/1400/FIRE/Plant/Effect)]

"I will tribute it with its own effect to Special Summon a Plant monster from my deck. I will Special Summon Angel Trumpeter from my deck." A flower appeared in front of her, bright orange, with leaves that formed the shape of a rather messy-haired head and wings, resembling a fairy.

[Angel Trumpeter (4*/1900/1600/EARTH/Plant/Tuner)]

"I will open my future circuit once again," Miharu continued. "Arrowhead confirmed. The conditions are one Plant Normal Monster. I will set Angel Trumpeter in the Link Markers. Guardian of the beautiful sunbathed tree. Circuit Combine! Link Summon! Link 1—Sunvine Gardna!" The large wooden golem appeared, holding up his arms to shield her field.

[Sunvine Gardna (L1/600/EARTH/Plant/Link/Effect/↑)]

"I will end my turn," Miharu said.

"Only a single monster with attack points again…" Mitsuba frowned. "Alright. My turn, then."

[Turn 5: Mitsuba] [H:1]

"Draw," Mitsuba said. "Since I control a "Fabled" monster, I can discard Fabled Grimro from my hand to add another "Fabled" monster from my deck to my hand. I will then use the effect of Fabled Valkyrus. I will send a Fiend monster from my hand to the graveyard to draw a card."

She revealed the card that she had discarded with Valkyrus's effect.

"Since Fabled Krus was discarded, I can Special Summon a Level 4 or lower "Fabled" monster from the graveyard. Return to the field—Marcosia!" The winged demon reappeared. "And I will Normal Summon The Fabled Chawa from my hand." The beige-coloured demon appeared. "And I will tune the Level 1 Chawa to the Level 4 Marcosia and once again Synchro Summon Fabled Ragin!" The Level 5 Synchro appeared again. "And with its effect, I will draw cards until I have two cards in my hand!"

She drew her two cards. Miharu stared at her, keeping a straight face. Up above, Hitoda had given up on the pretence and had already started laughing.

"Fabled Ragin attacks your Sunvine Gardna!"

"The damage I take from a battle involving Sunvine Gardna is halved if it is linked to a Sunavalon monster." Which, considering that it was in her Extra Monster Zone and Melias was pointing to it, certainly applied. Gardna was chopped up into pieces of wood by the demon, and Miharu finally took damage without gaining any life points.

Miharu: 5700 - 1700 / 2 = 4850LP

"And then, when Sunvine Gardna is destroyed," Miharu continued, "the Battle Phase ends."

Crickets began to chirp in the distance.

"Ahahaha!" Hitoda was laughing so much that she was quickly losing air.

"Oh, that's awful," Nue said, though she was unable to suppress the smile on her face. And really, she had no right to talk about being a painful opponent for others in the slightest.

Shun pinched his nose, the PTSD of dueling either of the Kamisoka siblings returning to him in an instant. In her own room, Serena was suffering from the memory of having to duel this, an annoyed look on her face.

"Oh," Yugo said, wide-eyed. "Oh, I don't want to duel that at all. I don't think even Kitedrake and Clear Wing could push through those defences… jeez, is she some kind of defence expert?"

Mitsuba finally responded dryly after a moment. "I will set a card and end my turn then. Over to you."

[Turn 6: Miharu] [H:3]

"Draw," Miharu said. "I will Normal Summon another copy of Sunseed Genius Loci. And I will open my circuit again. Arrowhead confirmed. The conditions are a Plant monster. Appear now, young tree beginning to bear fruit. Circuit Combine. Link Summon. Link 1—Sunavalon Dryas." Another copy of Dryas appeared in her Extra Monster Zone. "I will use Dryas's effect to add another "Sunvine" Spell or Trap to my hand. I will then activate the Continuous Spell, Sunvine Cross-Breed. By tributing a Link Monster I control, I can revive a Plant monster with its effects negated. I will revive Sunavalon Dryanome by tributing Dryas."

The larger tree reappeared on her field.

"With its effects negated, you know that I can attack it, right?"

"I am well aware," Miharu said. She placed down another card. "I'll activate another copy of Sunvine Sowing. Come from the deck again, Sunseed Twin." The pair of fairies reappeared. "And I'll take 1000 damage."

Miharu: 4850 - 1000 = 3850LP

"And with Sunseed Twin's effect, I can revive a Level 4 or lower Plant Normal Monster in my graveyard. I will once again revive Sunseed Genius Loci." She gestured forward. "I will open my circuit again! Arrowhead confirmed. The conditions are two Plant monsters. I will set Sunseed Genius Loci and Sunseed Twin in the Link Markers. Circuit Combine! Link Summon! Link 2! Lush green leaves of the laurel tree—Sunavalon Daphne!" A pale woman whose skin resembled grey-white bark appeared, her hair being long green vines that wrapped around her, ending in branches of fresh laurel leaves. She almost looked like she was wrapped in a cocoon with her long hair.

[Sunavalon Daphne (L2/0/EARTH/Plant/Link/Effect/←, →)]

The monster had been summoned to the left of Melias.

"It still has no attack points."

"That's alright," Miharu said placidly.

Yuno laughed. "It's almost like they're trying to tell Miharu how to play her deck."

"I will banish Sunseed Shadow from my graveyard, and target a linked Link 2 or lower Plant monster I control. Then, I can Special Summon a monster with the same name from my Extra Deck with its effects negated." Another copy of the beautiful green woman appeared in Miharu's Extra Monster Zone. "And I will once again open my future circuit. Sow the seeds that lead me to the future! Arrowhead confirmed! The conditions are two or more Link Monsters!"

Yuno frowned. He… didn't know this monster. It was an odd feeling.

"I will set my two Link 2 Sunavalon Daphnes in the Link Markers! Bloom, springtime's loveliest tree, the loveliest memory with the traces of malice! Circuit Combine! Link Summon! Link 4! Lovely flowers scattered in the wind—Sunavalon Dryatrentiay!"

A beautiful cherry blossom tree bloomed in front of Miharu, and Yuno gawked at it from his window.

… it suited her so much.

[Sunavalon Dryatrentiay (L4/0/EARTH/Plant/Link/Effect/↙, ↑, ↓. ↘)]

"So, does this one protect you four times per turn?" Mitsuba quipped.

"Not quite," Miharu replied. "Since Dryatrentiay was Link Summoned, I can add a "Sunavalon" Spell or Trap from my deck to my hand. Then, I will activate Dryatrentiay's effect. Once per turn, I can tribute a Link Monster she points to, and destroy cards on your field up to the Link Rating of the monster I tributed. I will tribute Dryanome!" The smaller tree dissolved into particles of light, even as Mitsuba blanched. "Dryanome's Link Rating is 3. I will destroy your set card, Fabled Valkyrus and Fabled Andwraith. Dazzling Spring Blossoms!" The two monsters and set card exploded into pink flower petals that promptly scattered. Mitsuba still had the two copies of Ragin on her field, but it was far from the offensive force that she'd had just moments prior.

Miharu didn't hesitate in continuing on.

"I will activate the Continuous Spell, Sunavalon Cursed Reborn. I can revive a "Sunavalon" monster, and its effects are negated. It cannot attack or used as Link Material for the rest of this turn. However, its attack points become its Link Rating times 1000. I will revive Sunavalon Dryanome." Her ace reappeared.

[Sunavalon Dryanome: 0 → 3000ATK]

"I will then activate my set card. The Continuous Trap, Sunavalon Bloom. Since I control a Link 4 or higher monster, the effects of all face-up monsters you currently control are negated. And when a Plant Link Monster battles, it gains attack points equal to the combined attack points of all monsters it points to until the End Phase." She pointed forward. "Sunavalon Melias attacks Fabled Ragin. And she gains attack points equal to Dryanome's."

[Sunavalon Melias: 0 + 3000 = 3000ATK]

The fiend was destroyed by brown roots that tore it to pieces.

Mitsuba: 3700 - 700 = 3000LP

"And Sunavalon Dryanome will attack your second Ragin." The other monster was destroyed as well.

Mitsuba: 3000 - 700 = 2300LP

"... is that the end of your turn then?" Mitsuba asked, arching an eyebrow.

"It is," Miharu replied. "Over to you. Melias's attack points return to normal."

[Sunavalon Melias: 3000 - 3000 = 0ATK]

"Alright then."

[Turn 7: Mitsuba] [H:1]

"Draw." Mitsuba glanced at the card. "I'll discard a card to Special Summon The Fabled Abanc from my graveyard, but it is banished when it leaves the field!" The blue, squirrel-like creature appeared on her field again, scampering about. "Then, since I discarded Fabled Krus, I can revive another Level 4 or lower "Fabled" monster! I will revive my other copy of Krus!" A dark-haired demon who was covering her face with her hands appeared, demonic wings keeping her floating in the air.

[Fabled Krus (2*/1000/800/LIGHT/Fiend/Effect)]

"I'll then tune the Level 2 Abanc to the Level 2 Krus! You who predict the events of calamity, be born in this moment! Synchro Summon! Level 4—The Fabled Kudabbi!" A veiled bovine creature appeared, leathery brown fur covered by red fabric that was acting as a saddle, with a white veil over its forehead. It was sat down in Defense Position.

[The Fabled Kudabbi (4*/2200/1100/LIGHT/Fiend/Synchro/Effect)]

What would be the purpose of bringing out a monster like that now?

"I end my turn," Mitsuba said.

[Turn 8: Miharu] [H:2]

"Draw." Miharu glanced at the monster. "... I will activate the effect of Dryatrentiay. I will tribute Sunavalon Melias." It might be overkill, but… "I can destroy up to three cards you control. I will destroy The Fabled Kudabbi. Dazzling Spring Blossoms!" The cherry blossom petals shot forward.

Mitsuba smirked. "While I have no cards in my hand, Kudabbi cannot be destroyed by battle or card effects."

Oh.

Well, that was fine.

Miharu held up a hand calmly. "Manifest, the circuit that sows the seeds to the future! Arrowhead confirmed! The conditions are two or more Plant monsters. I will set Sunavalon Dryatrentiay and Sunavalon Dryanome in the Link Markers! Circuit Combine! Link Summon! The one who protects the ancient forest, with the lifeblood of nature in its veins! Link 4—Benghalancer the Resurgent!" The humanoid wooden golem covered by leaves and moss appeared, ruby red veins running through its body.

[Benghalancer the Resurgent (L4/2500/LIGHT/Plant/Link/Effect/←, ↑, ↓, →)]

"Benghalancer's effect," Miharu continued. "I will take damage equal to your monster's attack points, and return it to the hand. Wrath of Nature!"

"Not destroy?" Mitsuba's eyes widened. Vines wrapped around Kudabbi, flinging it into the sky and ridding the field of it.

"And thus, your monster returns to the Extra Deck," Miharu said, her life points falling by a large chunk.

Miharu: 3850 - 2200 = 1650LP

"Benghalancer," Miharu declared. She held out a hand. "Tectonic Strangler!"

And Benghalancer struck with long, verdant vines, finally ending the duel.

Mitsuba: 2300 - 2500 = 0LP

Winner: Miharu Kogami!

Miharu came to a stop, and Yuno watched from above.

"You're so strong, Miharu," he murmured. "Though I always knew that."

From above, Aki watched, her gaze slightly amused.

… for all that you don't share Rin's fire, you share her determination.

---

"... hmm. So it's as I expected."

Roget, of course, knew about the agreement that the Fusion Dimension had made with the Link Dimension. He also knew about the importance of the girls with the same face to the Arc Area Project, even if he personally did not know why they were so important.

All of this led him to understand one thing.

All three of the girls with the bracelets were important bargaining chips. But unlike what he had expected, Serena was not the strongest one.

Very interesting.

He pulled up the screen that showed the list of Lancers' names. Some of them had already been sorted into the categories of 'threats' and 'useful'. Under the category of confirmed threats were Reiji Akaba and Dennis Mackfield. Meanwhile, the members of the Resistance from Xyz had been placed under 'useful', as had Yuno Sugisaki—if necessary, they could certainly be manipulated to help to fight Academia, or to unknowingly help him with his plans.

He clicked on Miharu Kogami's name, and shifted her to the 'useful' category.

Very useful indeed.

Roget laughed to himself. Outside in the corridor, Arisu came to a stop, holding a report in her hands. She turned towards the office for a moment, glancing in through the door, catching a glimpse of the screen. She narrowed her eyes.

She spun around, walking off.

---

And then, it was time for the eighth and final match of the day. So far, Yuno, Kiryu, Reira, Sherry, Yuya, Yuzu and Miharu were the ones that had made it to the next round, which honestly set a good record for Lancers, considering that only two of them had been eliminated, one by another Lancer's hand and one by Sherry's.

Still though, there were quite a lot of them that had not dueled yet.

… Nue did not want to duel another Lancer, considering that they were her comrades. She especially did not want to duel either Yuto or Shun. And yet, the more that the other participants dueled, the more she felt like she might have to. Out of the eighteen participants left, including herself, exactly half of them were Lancers. It was pretty improbable that every Lancer would face a Synchro Dimension resident, meaning that it was likely that some Lancers would face each other.

If she ended up facing the other Lancers…

I don't sacrifice myself for others.

However, it looked like she could put off thinking about that for now.

After all, she wasn't part of the last duel of the day.

---

"Oh! Your arm's so cool!"

Mion blinked. The green-haired boy that had entered the garage before her, but for some reason hadn't left on his D-Wheel yet, was staring at her prosthetic. She raised her arm, before she reached it out, pulling up her sleeve to let him see the full extent of it.

"So cool!" The boy said, wide-eyed, and Mion chuckled. It might not be something that she was particularly proud of—she always associated it with that car accident that had caused it in the first place. Still though, kids only saw the surface appearance of the metal arm, and not what had caused it. She wouldn't ruin the magic for him.

"Thanks." She leaned down. "So you're my opponent, huh? I'm Mion Myojin. Nice to meet you."

"I'm Rua Sagiri!" The boy smiled enthusiastically. "I'm going to be the best duelist in this city someday, you just wait! Just like my sisters!"

Oh. He was quite confident. A little like Shingo. He definitely seemed to idolise his sisters more though.

She smiled at him. "I'm sure you'll be," she said. "You always have the chance to grow, after all. Now, I think that they might get impatient with us if we don't go out soon!" She held out a hand. "Let's have a good match. Shake on it?"

"... you're not looking down on me for my age." Rua grinned widely. He shook Mion's hand enthusiastically. "You really are so cool! Let's go!"

They both got on the D-Wheels and drove out. Mion kept up well enough with Rua—after all, she had been riding motorcycles ever since she was a young delinquent.

D-Wheels were much the same thing.

The announcer above spoke, but Mion was just worriedly looking at Rua, afraid that he would fall down. Luckily, the kid seemed to be skilled enough. That spoke volumes about how common D-Wheels were here.

Because she was so concerned, Rua passed the corner first, and she followed right behind.

From above, Sawatari frowned. "Mion's better than that," he muttered. "She should have beaten that kid down there… what gives?"

[DUEL!]

Mion Myojin: 4000LP

Rua Sagiri: 4000LP

[Turn 1: Rua] [H:5]

"I'll start!" Rua crowed. "Yes! I'll Normal Summon Morphtronic Scopen!" A large microscope appeared in front of him, floating next to his D-Wheel.

[Morphtronic Scopen (3*/800/1400/LIGHT/Machine/Tuner/Effect)]

"And when Scopen is in Attack Position, once per turn, I can Special Summon a Level 4 "Morphtronic" monster from my hand, but it is destroyed during the End Phase! Meet Morphtronic Staplen!" A large red stapler that was wide open appeared, its metallic sheen reflecting the light near it. It had hands and legs that were sticking out of its body on long curling wires.

[Morphtronic Staplen (4*/1400/1000/EARTH/Machine/Effect)]

"I'll tune the Level 3 Morphtronic Scopen to the Level 4 Morphtronic Staplen!" Rua declared. The large microscope dissolved into three rings, and Staplen flew through it, dissolving. "Docking strength with courage to protect the earth's peace! Dragon with the potential to open up the world of the future, open up the world that I want to reach! Synchro Summon! Level 7! Envoy of love and justice, Power Tool Soundwave Dragon!"

In front of him, a large dragon made of golden metal appeared. It had a long cross-shaped set of wings behind it, golden and bright. From the bottom of the long metal streaks, long tube lights of various neon colours—cyan, magenta and white—came down, creating the shape of proper, full wings, as opposed to just a cross. The dragon had long, curling wires that formed its limbs, similar to Staplen's limbs. There was a long green screwdriver on one hand, and the other hand was a blue, dark crowbar with a microphone's speaker at one end and the sharp part on the other. Around it, long circular lights spun, and there was something splendidly colourful to it. Its long silver tail swiped through the air, stray sparks flying through the air.

[Power Tool Soundwave Dragon (7*/2300/2500/EARTH/Machine/Synchro/Effect)]

What an… interesting dragon. Very fitting.

"I will equip Double Tool C&D to Power Tool Soundwave Dragon!" Rua put down the Equip Spell. "And it has several effects, but for now, they don't apply! Then, Power Tool Soundwave Dragon's effect triggers! Since I activated an Equip Spell, I can revive a Level 4 or lower monster from my graveyard! Reverberation Revival! So come back in Defense Position, Morphtronic Staplen!" The set of staplers reappeared, though it quickly snapped itself together—almost like a jaw snapping shut. "I'll end my turn!"

Mion nodded, drawing a card.

[Turn 2: Mion] [H:6]

"Draw!" She declared. "I'll Normal Summon Royal Magical Library." Her most reliable draw engine appeared, the three black obelisk-like objects spun around each other, glowing with a bright green light from within them.

[Royal Magical Library (4*/0/2000/LIGHT/Spellcaster/Effect)]

"Royal Magical Library gains a Spell Counter when a Spell is activated," she explained. "I will activate the Spell Card, Terraforming. With its effect, I will add a Field Spell from my deck to my hand. I will add and activate the Field Spell, Magical Citadel of Endymion. Then, I will activate the Continuous Spell, Arcane Barrier." She nodded to her monster. "I will activate the effect of Royal Magical Library. I will remove the three Spell Counters from it to draw another card." She revealed another card in her hand. "I will then activate the Quickplay Spell, Mythical Bestiary. I will send the top card of my deck to the graveyard, and place up to two Spell Counters on a card I control that a Spell Counter can be placed on. I will place them on Arcane Barrier."

The two Spell Counters appeared, hovering on Arcane Barrier.

"I will activate the Spell Card, Spell Power Grasp. I will place an additional Spell Counter on Arcane Barrier, and add another copy of Spell Power Grasp to my hand. I will then remove three Spell Counters from my Magical Citadel of Endymion to draw another card by substituting Royal Magical Library's cost." She swiped up another card from her deck. She chuckled. "I'll set the Scale 2 Servant of Endymion in the Pendulum Scale. And now, my Royal Magical Library has three Spell Counters again. I'll remove them to draw another card."

Rua blinked. "Is your entire deck just a draw engine?" He said. "You might be the only person I've met who might deck out just by cycling her cards out!"

Up above, Sawatari collapsed in laughter. Reiji hid a smile, staying completely neutral.

Mion chuckled. "Maybe," she said. "That's a good way of describing my deck, come to think of it… but hand advantage is the most important thing, don't you think? I'll send a Spellcaster monster I control along with Arcane Barrier from my field to the graveyard, and draw cards up to the number of Spell Counters that were on Arcane Barrier while it was on the field. Thus—three cards."

She drew the three cards, increasing her hand to seven cards.

"I will now complete my Pendulum Scale with the Scale 8 Endymion, the Mighty Master of Magic," Mion called. "And now, with my current Pendulum Scale, I can Pendulum Summon monsters from Level 3 to 7!"

"... I don't understand," Rua said with a frown.

Mion chuckled. "It's alright," she reassured him. "Essentially, Pendulum Monsters have a Pendulum Scale. I can Special Summon monsters from my hand or face-up in my Extra Deck—though that takes a whole other explanation—to the field, as long as their Level lies between the Pendulum Scales."

Rua wrinkled up his nose.

"I—I think I might get it?"

"You'll get the hang of it. It took me a moment too," Mion said reassuringly. "I guess I'll show a demonstration? Pendulum Summon! Come from my hand—Mythical Beast Jackal King! Mythical Beast Bashilisk! And Mythical Beast Medusa!" The three monsters appeared on the field—the experimental beasts. Jackal King let out a roar, misty parts of its fur rising up in the shape of serpents. Bashilisk was a hybrid of a large wolf and a reptilian creature. Finally, Medusa was a tentacled, dark octopus-like creature.

[Mythical Beast Jackal King (6*/S4/2400/1400/DARK/Spellcaster/Pendulum/Effect)]

[Mythical Beast Bashilisk (4*/S4/1800/500/LIGHT/Spellcaster/Pendulum/Effect)]

[Mythical Beast Medusa (4*/S4/1500/1500/LIGHT/Spellcaster/Pendulum/Effect)]

"Three monsters at once?" Rua called, looking shocked.

"Yup," Mion said. "Jackal King will attack your monster!" The beast leapt forward towards Power Tool Soundwave Dragon. "Mythical Claw!"

The dragon was cut down sharply by Jackal King, without any hesitation. Rua let out a cry, and Mion immediately whirled over—but thankfully, he seemed fine.

Rua: 4000 - 100 = 3900LP

"Since you battled a monster that was equipped with Double Tool C&D, your monster is destroyed during the end of the Damage Step!" Rua shouted excitedly, gesturing to Jackal King, who was immediately destroyed. "Then, during either player's turn, I can banish an Equip Spell from the graveyard to revive Power Tool Shockwave Dragon! Reboot Remake!" Power Tool Shockwave Dragon reappeared, swirling around the field, defiantly protecting Rua's life points.

"... fair enough," Mion said. She had three Spell Counters on the field, but even if she halved Power Tool's attack and defense points with Medusa's effect, since Power Tool was in Defense Position, she wouldn't be able to defeat Rua this turn. She might as well save them for later. "Medusa attacks Staplen!"

"While Staplen is in Defense Position, it can't be destroyed by battle!" Rua called. The red stapler held up against the blast of magic from Medusa. "And after it's attacked, I can change a monster you control from Attack Position to Defense Position, and change Staplen to Attack Position! I'll change Bashilisk to Defense Position!" Staplen stood back up.

Mion nodded. "I'll end my turn for now," she said, giving Rua a reassuring smile.

[Magical Citadel of Endymion: Spell Counter(s): 2]

[Servant of Endymion: Spell Counter(s): 1]

"R-really?" Rua pumped an arm in the air. "That's great! That means I stopped you right in your tracks! Haha!" He looked rather happy, and Mion smiled, amused by his reaction. "Here I go!"

[Turn 3: Rua] [H:3]

"Draw!" Rua glanced at the card. "... great! I'll Normal Summon Morphtronic Celfon!" A yellow, robotic creature appeared on the field in front of him. It was clearly based on a phone, with a keypad on the front of the robot's body with the different numbers on it.

[Morphtronic Celfon (1*/100/100/EARTH/Machine/Effect)]

"And I'll use Celfon's effect! Since it's in Attack Position, I can roll a dice! Then, I can reveal cards from the top of my deck, up to the number that I rolled, and Special Summon a Level 4 or lower "Morphtronic" monster from among them!" A dice shot across the ground, rolling a '3'. "Alright! I'll reveal three cards!"

Two of the cards ended up being Spells, but the third was a monster, so Rua placed it down on the field.

"Come on out! Morphtronic Remoten!" A large white, rectangular creature appeared, with buttons on it, looking like a television remote.

[Morphtronic Remoten (3*/300/1200/EARTH/Machine/Tuner/Effect)]

"I'll then use Remoten's effect. Since it's in Attack Position, I can banish a "Morphtronic" monster from my graveyard and add a "Morphtronic" monster of the same Level from my deck to my hand! I'll banish Scopen and add a Level 3 "Morphtronic" monster from my deck to my hand! And now, I'll tune the Level 3 Morphtronic Remoten to the Level 1 Celfon! Appear now, pale, small enigma! Synchro Summon! Level 4! The dazzling pair of music-themed internet stars! Morphtronic Earfon!" A pair of white fairy-like monsters appeared, one highlighted in blue and the other in yellow, with rather cute expressions, and translucent holograms of earphones floating behind them.

[Morphtronic Earfon (4*/1200/1800/EARTH/Machine/Synchro/Effect)]

"And then, since Earfon was Special Summoned, I can target a face-up monster on the field and treat it as a Tuner until the End Phase! I will choose my Morphtronic Staplen!" He grinned. "And I will tune the Level 4 Morphtronic Staplen to the Level 4 Morphtronic Earfon! The green lines run across the screen. Now, rise up, detector of danger! Synchro Summon! Level 8! The super cool Morphtronic Radaron!" A large rectangular screen appeared, with a long antenna on the top of it. It was glowing and giving off lightning bolts from around it. Black criss-crossing lines ran across the green screen. Robotic arms and legs of wires flicked outwards, and the monster seemed to dance around in front of Rua.

[Morphtronic Radaron (8*/2500/2000/EARTH/Machine/Synchro/Effect)]

"Radaron's effect! I'll reveal the top three cards of my deck and add an Equip Spell from among them to my hand!" He only revealed a single Equip Spell, so he added it back to his hand. "And then I'll return the other cards to the top of my deck!" He revealed the Equip Spell. "Moon Mirror Shield!" A large shield was equipped directly to Power Tool Soundwave Dragon. "And with Soundwave Dragon's effect, I will Special Summon Morphtronic Celfon in Defense Position. Then, I'll use the effect of Morphtronic Earfon in my graveyard! I can equip it to Power Tool Soundwave Dragon!" The white machines appeared behind the yellow dragon, looking like spirits. "I'll then have Radaron attack Mythical Beast Bashilisk!"

"I can remove 2 Spell Counters from my field to use the effect of Mythical Beast Medusa. I will remove one Spell Counter each from Medusa and Bashilisk." After all, the activation of Rua's Moon Mirror Shield had given all her cards one more Spell Counter. "Then, I will halve the attack and defense points of a monster on the field. I will halve Radaron's attack and defense points! Petrifying Lash!"

"What?" Rua yelped. His monster was weakened immediately.

[Morphtronic Radaron: 2500 / 2 = 1250ATK; 2000 / 2 = 1000DEF]

His monster was then destroyed by a roar from Bashilisk.

Rua: 3900 - 550 = 3350LP

"When Radaron is sent to the graveyard, I can Special Summon a Machine monster from my graveyard, as long as it's not a Synchro Monster! Come in Defense Position, Morphtronic Staplen!" The pair of red staples appeared on her field, the four limbs dangling outwards around it. Mion chuckled.

Rua pointed forward confidently.

"But you can't use that monster's effect again! So you can't stop this! Power Tool Soundwave Dragon! Attack Mythical Beast Medusa!" The second attack hit, the soundwaves shaking her monster and destroying it.

Mion: 4000 - 100 = 3900LP

"Why did you only take 100 damage?"

"Your own Moon Mirror Shield," Mion said. She knew what that card was, after all. They had that card in Standard as well. "During damage calculation, your monster's attack and defense points became the higher value between Medusa's attack and defense points, plus another 100. Thus, you only dealt 100 damage to me."

"Oh! I didn't know that." Rua frowned, before he quickly recovered. "But guess what? The monster equipped with Morphtronic Earfon can perform two attacks on monsters per turn! Attack Mythical Beast Bashilisk!" The attack hit, destroying Mion's other monster as well—however, due to Rua's Equip Spell, she still only took 100 damage.

Mion: 3900 - 100 = 3800LP

"I'll end my turn!"

Mion tilted her head. "... would you take any advice from me?" She asked.

"Hmm? Advice?" Rua pondered it for a moment. "... sure!"

"You should have equipped your Moon Mirror Shield after the Battle Phase," Mion explained. "And attacked with Power Tool Soundwave Dragon to take out my two monsters first, because if Radaron's first attack had gone through, you wouldn't make full use of both attacks. If you had done those two things, you would have inflicted 1400 damage to me instead."

Rua frowned, before he nodded after a moment. "You figured that out so quickly?" He said with a gasp.

Mion cracked a smile. "I like thinking about the ways that others duel," she said. "You have talent, but you do make careless mistakes. That's alright though. My turn."

[Turn 4: Mion] [H:4]

"Draw," Mion said.

She constructed a perfect turn in her head—one that could immediately win this turn without allowing for any wiggle room—and dismissed it immediately. She couldn't bear to do that—to crush a child so mercilessly. It would be one thing to fight someone in war and fight them with her full power, but to crush an innocent person under her feet…

Was she trying so hard to encourage Rua, and sabotaging herself—slowing down in the process? There was a part of her that didn't want to crush a child's dreams—a part of her that couldn't let go of compassion at all.

She would, at the very least, make sure that she took him down by acknowledging his cards.

"Pendulum Summon," she said calmly. "Return from the Extra Deck. Mythical Beast Jackal King. Mythical Beast Bashilisk. Mythical Beast Medusa." Her three monsters reappeared on the field.

"Aww! You can bring them all back?"

"Yup," Mion said. "I'll activate the Spell Card, Spell Power Grasp. I will place an additional Spell Counter on my Magical Citadel of Endymion, and all my cards gain a Spell Counter except Jackal King, who gains two. Then, I add another copy of Spell Power Grasp from my deck to my hand."

[Magical Citadel of Endymion: Spell Counter(s): 5]

[Servant of Endymion: Spell Counter(s): 3]

[Mythical Beast Medusa: Spell Counter(s): 1]

[Mythical Beast Jackal King: Spell Counter(s): 2]

[Mythical Beast Bashilisk: Spell Counter(s): 1]

"I will activate the effect of Servant of Endymion in my Pendulum Scale," Mion called.

From above, Reiji raised an eyebrow. The simple play is to simply remove six Spell Counters from her field and Special Summon her Endymion, the Mighty Master of Magic from her Pendulum Scale. She would then have six cards on the field that a Spell Counter could be placed on. With that effect, she could wipe out up to six cards on Rua's field immediately. Enough to take out his dragon, Staplen and Celfon, and even his backrow, which would be destroyed anyway since Power Tool would be leaving the field.

… you are too afraid of being cruel, Mion.

"I will remove three Spell Counters from it, and then Special Summon it from my Pendulum Scale. I can then Special Summon a monster with at least 1000 attack points from my deck which a Spell Counter can be placed on. Come from my deck. Come—Reflection of Endymion!" The blonde woman dressed in white robes appeared, a refined smile on her face.

[Reflection of Endymion (7*/S2/1850/2700/LIGHT/Spellcaster/Pendulum/Effect)]

"Then, a Spell Counter will be placed on both Reflection and Servant," Mion explained. "I'll then use Reflection's effect. Since she was Special Summoned, I can return a card I control with a Spell Counter from my field to the hand, and return a card you control to the hand as well! I will choose Power Tool Soundwave Dragon and Servant of Endymion!"

"What?" Rua blinked. "And if you return Power Tool to the Extra Deck—"

"It cannot revive itself by banishing an Equip Spell from your graveyard," Mion concluded. "Mystical Mirror!" The two monsters vanished from the field. "And Reflection gains the Spell Counter that Servant had on it."

[Reflection of Endymion: Spell Counter(s): 2]

"I'll then set Servant of Endymion in the other Pendulum Scale again," Mion concluded. "I will Normal Summon Hallohallo." She had waited until she was done with Servant's effect to summon her other monster. A pumpkin with large black hole-like eyes appeared, wearing a cute black witch's hat.

[Hallohallo (3*/S2/800/600/DARK/Fiend/Pendulum/Tuner)]

"I will tune the Level 3 Hallohallo to the Level 4 Mythical Beast Bashilisk," Mion explained. The first monster dissolved into three spinning black rings. "Powerful arcane sorcerer standing at the top of the school of wizardry. Guide the world and advance with the magic that glows within you! Synchro Summon—Level 7, Arcanite Magician!" A pale-skinned, white-haired sorcerer appeared, dressed in white robes with swirling purple trim, and holding onto a long staff in his left hand.

[Arcanite Magician (7*/400/1800/LIGHT/Spellcaster/Synchro/Effect)]

"400 attack points?"

"Yes," Mion said. "Because Arcanite Magician gains 2 Spell Counters when Synchro Summoned. And it gains 1000 attack points for each Spell Counter on it."

[Arcanite Magician: 400 + 1000 x 2 = 2400ATK; Spell Counter(s): 2]

"I will then use Arcanite Magician's effect," she said. "I will remove a Spell Counter from my field to target and destroy a card you control. I will remove a Spell Counter from Reflection of Endymion and target Stapler. Shattering Arcane Blast!" The large shot of magic flew out, destroying the monster.

[Reflection of Endymion: Spell Counter(s): 1]

"I will move to my Battle Phase," Mion said, and Sawatari choked on his water in his own room.

"She brought out the fully automatic rifle and she only used it once?" He muttered. "What the fuck, Mion. Do you want people to think that you're weak?"

"Arcanite Magician's effect is not once per turn," Nue noted. She had sparred with Mion once or twice back in Standard. She had seen what that card could do. "She had sixteen Spell Counters in total on the rest of her cards other than Arcanite Magician. She could easily have wiped out his entire field. What is she doing?"

"Mythical Beast Medusa attacks your Celfon." Celfon was wiped out, leaving Rua's field empty.

And Mion was still hesitant.

"Hey!"

She glanced up, meeting Rua's gaze.

"It's alright to win against me," Rua said. "Because you encouraged me!" He shrugged. "I wish I could have lasted longer, and I hope that Ruka gets to have more fun while she's still in the tournament—but I'll be more offended if you choose not to win against me!"

Mion looked at him.

She took a deep breath.

This was enough, right? To him, it would look like it was just a matter of circumstance. He wouldn't feel all that outclassed. He would feel like he had a chance.

That was the most that she could offer.

"Arcanite Magician and Mythical Beast Jackal King attack directly," she declared.

Rua: 3350 - 2400 - 2400 = 0LP

Winner: Mion Myojin!

They came to a stop.

Mion reached out, gently ruffling Rua's hair.

"Take care," she said.

"It's alright," Rua said. "I'm not scared! Just make sure you take care of Ruka, okay?"

Scared? Was there something to be scared of?

What was going to happen to him?

Mion watched Rua get led away.

---

And from above, Kaname Mizuchi watched her quietly from the window. Her eye almost seemed to glint, before she spun around, walking off.

And then, she stopped in a corridor as a pair of Lancers were walking through it, chatting. The first Lancer's gaze slid over her as though there was nothing there.

Yuto Kamisoka, Threat Level 2, Affiliation of The Resistance, Possibly Useful, shrugged. "I'm glad to not have to duel today," he said. "It's nice to scout out the abilities of the people in this dimension."

"That's fair. It's good to have access to more data," Miharu Kogami, Updated to Threat Level 1 as of an hour ago, Affiliation of The Lancers, Useful, said. "I'm... personally optimistic about the skill level of duelists here—there is something we can work with here."

"You're quite practical," Yuto said, cracking a smile.

"I am." Miharu stopped in the corridor. "You can go on first. I want to take a moment."

Yuto nodded, giving her space and going.

Miharu's gaze landed directly on Kaname.

"You must be Yugo's sister," she said quietly.

Kaname, quite obviously, did not respond.

"You and Yugo's other sister arrested Yuno and another one of my comrades." Miharu raised her head slightly. "Correct?"

Kaname inclined her head.

"I hacked into Security's database. Your name is Kaname Mizuchi."

Kaname blinked.

… but it seems that you have not yet identified father for who he is.

How odd.

"... my brother would never abandon me, no matter what," Miharu said. "And you? Why did you leave yours behind?"

The Ghost shrugged. She raised her hands in a half-hearted attempt to use sign language—before stopping, considering that the person she was talking to might not know about it. However, Miharu simply nodded. Kaname made eye contact with her, and then looked away immediately. Her hands moved.

You, explanation, not. Owed.

Miharu tilted her head as well. "You're not explaining to me. You don't owe me an explanation," she interpreted. "That's fair. But…"

She glanced away. Kaname hid her hands right behind her.

"... be kind to him," Miharu said quietly.

Kaname turned around and walked away.

I—

Do you think I need you to tell me that?

… it's so difficult to be honest, when I can't speak at all.

---

Shinji stopped by the corner of a corridor, hearing someone crying. He frowned. It sounded like a child. He carefully looked around the corner.

Sitting in the corridor, her head tucked into her knees, was the green-haired girl that he had spotted the day before.

Right.

Her brother had just lost. And they knew what losing meant in a city like this.

She was a Tops kid. But, no matter how much Shinji despised the Tops…

She was just a crying girl, afraid, and how could he be cruel to someone like that? He couldn't ignore her either. The girl was sitting far away from the rest of the rooms, but…

Shinji pulled out a piece of candy from his pocket, and he hesitantly walked forward. The girl peeked up at him.

"Hey," he said, trying his best to be gentle. "Sagiri, right?"

"... yes," the girl said.

He held out the piece of candy, and she took it after a moment.

"Do you want soup?" He said after a moment when neither of them talked. "I can cook some."

"... I want soup," the girl agreed. She was still sniffling a little. Shinji sighed.

"Well, come on. I'll carry you there."

"Huh?"

"If you're high up, no one can see that you're crying," Shinji explained. "Come on."

She nodded, and Shinji gave her a piggyback ride straight to the kitchen. Crow was there, and the two of them communicated with each other with silent glances.

She's upset over her brother's loss?

Yeah. You talk to her. I'll prepare food.

Sure.

Crow walked over to the girl. "Hello," he said with a smile, even as Shinji busied himself with getting the ingredients for soup. "You're Ruka Sagiri, right?"

That was her first name—Ruka. Of course. Shinji had admittedly forgotten it—he had never been good at keeping others' names in mind.

"Yes," Ruka said.

"Well, just take a moment to breathe, yeah? Your brother's a Top, after all. He's not going to get hurt by anyone, really." There were some layers of resentment and anger that were hidden within that sentence. But none of that was directed at Ruka or her brother—it was just something seething beneath the surface, an ugliness within them that they weren't showing to the girl.

After all, even if she was one of the Tops, it would be ridiculous to argue that she or her brother were culpable for anything.

They were just children.

And, Shinji thought, no matter what, when the day for revolution came, he would never hurt a single child. He would be kinder than the Tops in that regard.

---

"You don't see a lot of Fusion Summons of monsters that are very strict on requirements," Serena was explaining to Yuzu as Yuya walked into the room. "For example, there are some really weak Fusion Monsters that are the fusions of two Normal Monsters, but those are usually underwhelming and a waste of resources. Your summon of Bloom Prima, however, was very impressive."

Yuzu blushed. "It wasn't that much, really—"

"It was impressive," Serena emphasised. She turned her gaze to Yuya, who suddenly felt like he was being stared down by a predator. "Right, Yuya?"

"Uh, yes. It was really good, Yuzu." Yuya scratched the back of his neck. "And I really mean that. You did well."

"Um." Yuzu's face got slightly more red, and she pressed her hands together in her lap. "Thank you, Yuya."

Serena looked between the two of them, as though trying to piece together a very difficult puzzle. Then, she said: "Aren't you two supposed to kiss now?"

Yuya tripped, his face hitting the ground. Yuzu choked, nearly dropping the cup of water that she was holding onto.

"What do you mean?" Yuya sputtered.

"Well, I've seen that characters in books kiss to show their affection," Serena said bluntly and somewhat obliviously, unaware of the crisis that she was currently causing in both Yuzu and Yuya.

"Yes, but we're not dating!" Yuzu exclaimed, looking like she wanted to dig a hole and never leave it again.

"I know," Serena said. "It's not just a dating thing, right? I read that forehead kisses and cheek kisses could also be exchanged between friends and family. It's affection."

"Yes, but it's still deeply personal!" In an attempt to deflect Serena's focus away from her, Yuzu gestured out frantically. "I mean, would you kiss your friends?"

"If they didn't mind?" Serena leaned back in her chair. "Yes, then. I don't see why we should shy away from showing people that we care for them. There's a few too many social norms for me to care about other people being offended."

There was so much to unpack there—and Yuya found himself actually agreeing with some of it—that Yuya just decided to throw away the entire topic from his brain.

He then felt a gentle pressure against his cheek.

He turned around. Yuzu fled the room, her face still rather red. It didn't take a genius to understand what had just happened.

Yuya touched his cheek, slightly baffled.

"Was that a 'best friend' kiss or…"

"Don't ask me," Serena said blasely. "I'm the one person that wouldn't know."

---

"Hey."

Yuto and Yugo looked at each other for a moment. Yuto eventually sat down next to him, holding onto a cup of instant ramen. Yugo nodded approvingly.

"That's the best cup ramen brand in the city," he said.

"It's very good," Yuto agreed. "It's a little more familiar too."

"Huh?"

"I spent a few months eating nothing but canned foods and instant food," Yuto said after a moment. "I'm not used to foods that are… a bit more rich or well-cooked, admittedly. They upset my stomach. Nue says that it'll take a while for us to get used to normal food again."

"Oh." Yugo nodded. "Well, I don't really know what normal food for you is, but if you ever need it, I can cook up some soup for you! Free of charge!" The kind offer immediately made Yuto smile.

"That sounds good," Yuto offered. "Once this war is over, I can come over and make some meals for you and the kids at the orphanage too—consider it an exchange or celebration?"

Yugo grinned. "Hell yeah. I'd like that." He held up a fist, and they fistbumped. "Anyway, that serious girl. She's your sister?"

"Nue?" Yuto nodded. "She's my sister, yes."

"Wow. You two don't give off the same vibe at all."

"You and your sisters don't give off the same vibe either, from what I've heard." Yuno had told the rest of them about his experience with being arrested, after all, and the two intimidating sisters that Yugo had seemed very different from this laidback boy. Yugo blinked.

"Huh? You know about them?"

"Do you mean that it's not common to know about them?" Yuto said, blinking.

"… kinda?" Yugo waved a hand through the air. "The thing is, it's not easy for Arisu, you know, to be associated with me! Tops who associate with Commons can be seen as… well, dirtied by us. Corrupted—not quite as good as other Tops. If she wasn't a member of Security, people would probably look down on her because she cares for me, you know? And she keeps telling me that she's going to save up and that she's going to adopt me from the orphanage eventually, so that I can live with her in the Tops—but I'm not sure if I would want that."

Yugo seemed to be rambling on. Yuto decided to let him continue—if only because this seemed like something that Yugo had been wanting to get out for a while now.

"Not that I don't love Arisu—because I do! I really do. And ugh, that makes me sound slightly girlish." Yugo messed with his own hair unconsciously, clearly letting out some of his frustration. "But like, even if I'm adopted by a Top, everyone will always remember that I'm a Common. And they'll treat her worse for it. She might not care, but I do. Care about her, I mean. At the same time, I'm a selfish asshole, you know? If I could just stop reaching out for her, then she'd be able to go on and be respected by everyone, but I can't help but dream that someday, I'd really be able to sit at a table and eat a meal with her and Kaname, without any of the orphanage kids around—a family, not just kids stuck together in a building."

"… you're allowed to be selfish, you know," Yuto said. He reached out, putting a steady hand on Yugo's shoulder. "I won't be an asshole and pretend that I understand what you feel. I don't. But it's worth dreaming for a family. Back then, when I was in the orphanage, I longed to have a family for myself too, not for anyone else."

Yugo blinked. "You were an orphan?" He exclaimed. "But you and your sister look so similar!"

I am still an orphan now, Yuto thought, thinking about his parents, sealed in cards that Nue still held onto—and still stared at, when she thought that no one was looking. But—no. He was trying to help Yugo now—it wouldn't do to get hung up on his own troubles. "My parents used to donate to the orphanage that I was in," he said. "One time, they came to the pet shop opposite the orphanage, thinking about adopting a dog. Nue wasn't too interested in that though. She's a cat person. She came over and saw me at the playground, and we played together for a while. A few months later, her parents, after a lot of convincing, came to meet me and adopted me. The thing is, Yugo, it's not wrong to want people to love us."

Yugo was about to say something, and Yuto waved his other hand.

"No matter what. I wished so much that she was my sister back then—I cursed the world for not letting me be born her brother. And the thing is, it's our choice to love others. If your sister loves you, she is making that choice herself. No matter what she loses for it, no matter what happens to you or her or anyone—she thinks that you're worth it. And you have no right to say that she shouldn't. All you need to think is—what do you want? Not just what you think you should want, but what do you want?"

"… I want to live with Arisu and Kaname," Yugo said. He shook his head. "No—I want to create a world where I am allowed to live with them, and there is nothing special about that. Nothing that stands out. Where we won't be pointed at and judged. Where we are a normal family!"

There was a moment of silence. Yugo blinked, and then he stared at Yuto.

"… oh," he said, with the same tone as someone who had just realised exactly how long he had been monologising for. "That's what I want!"

"Mmm." Yuto shrugged. "That's what you want. To be normal."

"To be normal," Yugo repeated, sounding like a weight had finally been lifted off his back. "Yes! To be normal! To be able to walk in the streets with others without people looking at me. To buy food and eat it in a restaurant. To do the stupidest things and never have to worry about being judged—that's what I want! I want all the things that I've always envied to be normal. For me, for Rin, and everyone else."

Yuto nodded, leaning back. "I don't know what it feels like to be you," he reiterated. "And therefore, I don't know if I'll ever be as passionate as you. But you deserve happiness and normalcy—no matter what anyone tells you. Whether you are a Common or not."

Yugo reached forward and swiftly yanked Yuto into a hug. "Thank you," he said. "Thank you! It's something that I've always thought—but I haven't been able to put into words!"

Yuto, choking from a lack of air, nodded.

Yugo let go. His head was buzzing.

I always thought that I should just let my hopes die. That having what I had was enough. That I shouldn't dare to ask for more. That I should starve on the crumbs of affection and pray that I never lost them, and that I should dread the day when a full meal came, because I would have to reject it with my own hands. That having too much for myself would only hurt those who I was reaching out for—

But that was wrong!

Why should I have to sacrifice something freely given for the sake of a society that doesn't care about me?

But then, it came back to something else.

"Then," Yugo said, "what if they don't love you anymore? I mean, like, hypothetically—"

There was something gentle and sympathetic in Yuto's gaze. It made the rest of Yugo's sentence die in his mouth. "… don't assume that," he said. "If they truly don't care for you, then sometimes, it just happens, but don't assume. It'll ruin things if you do."

Yeah.

… I'm going to get answers.

"Want some more cup ramen?"

"I'm still a little hungry," Yuto admitted.

"I'll get it for you then." Yugo raised a fist, and Yuto returned the fistbump. "Thanks. And you know, a good future—"

"We'll work together to achieve it," Yuto assured him.

---

"Are you going over to talk to your brother?"

Arisu glanced up, shrugging on her black and white fleece jacket, the white fur brushing across her neck. "Yes," she said. "Are you coming along?"

Chino Otobashi looked at her, and then she pinched her nose. "Orders from above," her partner said, sounding rather pained by having to be the one to explain it to her. "We're not allowed to talk to the Friendship Cup participants for the rest of the Friendship Cup. The only exception is Kaname."

"… he's really pulling out the stops now." Arisu tossed her helmet at the wall, where it bounced off with a low thud. "That means that he won't let you see Naoya either, huh?"

"It's not like I want to," Chino muttered, but Arisu knew that her friend was lying.

It was odd. Out of the four strongest members of Security, only Arisu herself was a Top. She knew for a fact that the other three were Commons—and yet, they had been hired anyway in this horrendously unfair city. And more importantly, despite their clear disdain for Security, they had chosen to bow to the same forces that had suppressed them as they were growing up.

And she had never figured out why. Arisu knew her own reasons, but she did not know those of others.

"Chino," she said. "Do you know what is going on? It seems that there is something more awful going on behind the scenes of this tournament—of all of this—"

And she saw Chino wince.

"… you already know," Arisu said flatly. "Does Makoto know? Does Kaname know?"

Chino's lack of response was already a response. So Arisu was the only one that this had been hidden from?

"You already know, but our boss told you not to tell me." Arisu took a step forward. "What exactly is going on, Chino? What are you all hiding from me? Why are you hiding it from me? Do I not deserve to know?"

"Why can't you just stop asking questions, Arisu?" Chino said, sounding slightly pained. "Just stop asking questions. Just follow orders. If you keep on searching and searching for what's actually happening—if you lay eyes on the truth, Arisu, it'll cost you. It'll cost everyone that you love."

"Lower my head and follow orders?" Arisu demanded. "I can't ever do something without knowing why! We were already lied to when we were told to arrest the Lancers, and I think we all know that. The Director wanted them out of the way for a reason that he didn't tell us, and we were used! Why am I not permitted to know what the rest of you know?" She thought about Yuno Sugisaki, who had been so determined to protect others, in the exact same way that her brother was. She thought about Mion Myojin, who had, before anything else, put the child that she was taking care of behind her and protected them with all her might.

Arisu had never felt so sick about an arrest in her life.

"It's because you're like this that we didn't tell you," Chino countered. "You can't act without knowing—and so, if you know, you'll act. None of us want that."

And what exactly did they think that she could do?

She was just one person struggling to put her life together. What did they think that she would do? What would be so awful that they would worry about telling her about it, that they would worry that she would strike out at them for it, when she had been just as culpable in not doing anything as the rest of Security, up until now? (She was not ignorant of the fact that she was alone in her struggles, after all.)

At the same time, she was very aware that Security was not on her side. That right now, she was being watched, and she was alone, because even her friends were so far under Roget's thumb that they could not—and perhaps, would not—help her.

"Fine," she said. "I'll stay out of it."

And they both knew that it was a lie, but Chino didn't call her out on it. She only nodded.

What else was there to say?

---

Once Arisu left, Chino tilted her head back.

Makoto Toyama leaned over the railing above them, having been listening in. Smoke trailed through the air from the cigarette that he seemed to have forgotten, not that he seemed to care. "… looks like it's going to end up how we thought," he said.

"I tried to stop her," Chino said.

"I know. It's not your fault. It's not mine either. And it's certainly not hers." Makoto shrugged. "It's just how it has to be, considering what the boss has already said."

"Who's going to do it?"

They glanced at each other. Neither of them had ever been good at talking.

"... not Kaname," Makoto said after a moment.

"That's a given." Chino fidgeted with her nails. "... she's going to get herself killed. And us with her."

"I know." Makoto dragged his nails across the side of his own head. "... fuck it. I'll do it. You're her partner. You shouldn't have to."

"... alright." Chino did not make eye contact with him. "And we do not tell Kaname."

"... wasn't that obvious already?"

"… she'll never forgive you, Makoto."

"But she'll live." Makoto raised the cigarette to his lips, puffing out a cloud of smoke. "Isn't that all that we can hope for?"

---

There was a quiet knock on the door.

"It's open," Nue called. The door swung open, and Shun Kurosaki walked in, closing the door behind him. He glanced at the table, where Nue was carefully laying out her cards.

"Worried, Ace of Diamonds?" He said, the sides of his lips quirking up slightly—almost unnoticeably. "I haven't seen you sidedeck before a duel in a long time." It was a process that plenty of control duelists went through, after all. They thought about what their opponents would use, and changed out certain cards as they saw fit. How else would Nue have the perfect Trap to deal with certain monsters at certain times?

However, she hadn't swapped out the Traps she was using for a long time. And Shun knew why.

The only opponent that had been in her mind for the last five months was Academia. No one else had even registered as a threat in her mind—no one else to be considered even briefly.

"I was thinking about it," Nue said. "The opponents that are left in the tournament… not all of them seem easy to defeat. And of course, there's you and Yuto to consider."

Shun sat down on the bed, watching her intently. "What do you mean by that?"

"… well," Nue said, "I haven't had to consider you two as opponents in a long time."

Shun stared at her back for a moment, unable to bring himself to respond. Because it was true. They had gone from coming up with strategies to face each other to having only each other to rely on. The idea of dueling her or Yuto right now was unthinkable.

Once upon a time, they had been rivals that clashed constantly.

And now, did he really know what she was like as an opponent?

"Titanocider is a must," Nue murmured. "And I might as well sub in Deep Dark. It was useless back in Xyz, but not so much now, with Synchros… but what if I face Makishima or one of you?" She tapped her fingers against the table. There was something captivating to the action—pale, slender fingers brushing against the dark mahogany.

"You used to play the piano, didn't you?" Shun found himself asking.

Nue blinked, turning back. "I haven't played in a while," she said after a moment. "I haven't… that's an odd reminder. I wonder if my skills have atrophied—hopefully it doesn't sound awful when I play again."

When I play again.

Implying that there would be a chance where they could just sit down and relax, and listen to music.

"I would listen to you play," Shun said, before he realised what he was saying.

Nue's hands stilled. Her gaze slowly turned to him, dark eyes pulling him in like an abyss. "Yeah?" She said after a moment.

"I would listen to you play anything," Shun murmured, unable to look away, but still growing quieter with embarrassment.

"I'd turn you deaf." Nue gathered up her cards, looking back at him, but there was a certain absent-mindedness to it—most of her attention was still on him.

"It'd be worth it."

Her head tilted towards him again. "Would it?"

There was a certain delicate tension in the room, for all that there was still a large amount of physical space between them.

"Of course," Shun said.

He might have said more, but then the door clicked open again and the atmosphere broke. Yuto glanced into the room.

"Shun?" He sounded surprised, but he was still smiling. "This is convenient—I was just about to check on you two before I went to sleep."

"Rest well," Nue said, a smile growing on her face. There was always something more relaxed to the black-haired girl when she was around Yuto—and conversely, there had always been something tense to her when Yuto was not around. "It'll be another long day tomorrow."

"I think the worst part is that we don't know when we'll duel," Yuto said with a sigh. "So we don't even know when we can let our guard down for a moment."

"... I don't like that the losers are separated from the winners," Nue said. "We apparently can't have any contact with them, which is strange, even if you try to justify it as an anti-cheating mechanism. Who knows what Rinsoka or Tsukikage are going through right now?"

"... I'm worried about them too," Yuto confided in them. "If anything happens to them, we have no way of knowing."

"... well, we'll figure it out along the way."

"True." Yuto shrugged. "I would stay to help out with whatever you're talking about, but I'm sorry, I'm a little tired. I think I'm going to rest now."

Nue and Shun nodded, and as he left, they lapsed into silence again.

"... rest well," Shun said. "And if you face us, don't hesitate."

"I never hesitate," Nue said immediately. "... not in my choices, at least."

I wish I could say the same. The idea of fighting you or Yuto, the only comrades that have been by my side this entire time… even I am not that unfeeling.

Shun moved to stand up, and then, a hand wrapped around his wrist.

"... do you remember the day that we met, Shun?" Nue asked, tilting her head. And those eyes—it was always something about those eyes that froze him in place—met his again.

"... you punched me in the face," Shun said with a chuckle. He had seen Nue's usual passive start and commented on it in a way that had offended her, and Nue had responded accordingly—namely, closed fist, scowl and roll of the eyes.

"You were being condescending." Nue shrugged. "And I wasn't exactly much better. I think I made a terrible first impression on you."

"I liked that you stood up for yourself and didn't care what others said about you," Shun murmured. Her grip on his wrist felt warm. "So no. I don't think so. What about me? Did I make a bad first impression on you?"

Nue let go of his wrist, but she leaned forward. In a soft whisper, she said: "No. You were the best. Are the best."

Oh.

He leaned forward slightly. Nue didn't move away.

"Is this alright?" He asked, still somewhat uncertain.

Nue rolled her eyes—and then, she cupped his cheek, and her lips were on his. She was leaning into him, her fingers tangled in his hair, every bit as warm as she had always been. (Some people called her cold and cruel, but she had never been that way in his eyes.) She had that reassuring, familiar scent of gardenia in her hair.

When they finally parted, Nue met his gaze, rolling her eyes again. "It's perfectly alright with me," she said, and if her voice was a little less calm than normal, neither of them commented on it. She turned back to her deck. Shun watched over her shoulder.

It was quiet, but neither of them minded it.

---

Duel 1 Summary: Miharu Kogami vs Mitsuba Taki

Duel Format: Normal Duel

Turn 1: Mitsuba Taki

Mitsuba discards The Fabled Cerburrel (2*/1000/400) from her hand to Special Summon Fabled Marcosia (4*/1700/0) from her hand. Cerburrel's effect revives itself to the field. She tunes the Level 2 Cerburrel to the Level 4 Fabled Marcosia, Synchro Summoning Fabled Andwraith (6*/2400/1900) in Attack Position. She uses Andwraith's effect to draw two cards and discard a card, but allowing Miharu to discard a card to negate the effect. Miharu discards Aromage Laurel and negates the effect. With Aromage Laurel's effect, she gains 500 ATK. [MK: 4000 + 500 = 4500LP] Mitsuba uses Andwraith's effect to Special Summon Aromage Laurel to her field with its effects negated. She discards a "Fabled" monster from her hand to Special Summon The Fabled Chawa (1*/800/0) from her hand. She Special Summons The Fabled Ganashia (3*/1600/1000) to her field with its effect since it was discarded, but it is banished when it leaves the field. She sets 1 card facedown. Then, she tunes the Level 1 Chawa to the Level 1 Laurel and the Level 3 Ganashia, Synchro Summoning Fabled Ragin (5*/2300/1800) in Attack Position. With Ragin's effect, she draws until she has two cards in hand. She ends her turn.

Turn 2: Miharu Kogami

Miharu draws. She Normal Summons Sunseed Genius Loci (1*/0/600) from her hand. She then uses Sunseed Genius Loci to Link Summon Sunavalon Dryas (L1/0/↓) to her Extra Monster Zone. She uses Sunavalon Dryas's effect to add a "Sunvine" Spell/Trap from her Deck to her hand, since it was Link Summoned using Sunseed Genius Loci as its Link Material. She adds and activates the Spell Card, Sunvine Sowing. She activates it, Special Summoning a "Sunseed" monster from her Deck. She Special Summons Sunseed Twin (2*/0/800) from her Deck, and then takes 1000 damage. [MK: 4500 - 1000 = 3500LP] With Sunseed Twin's effect, she Special Summons a Level 4 or lower Plant Normal Monster from her GY. She chains Sunavalon Dryas's effect, gaining LP equal to the damage that she took, and she Special Summons a "Sunvine" monster from her Extra Deck. [MK: 3500 + 1000 = 4500LP] She Special Summons Sunvine Healer (L1/600/↑) She uses Healer's effect, gaining 300 LP x the Link Rating of Sunavalon Dryas. [MK: 4500 + 300 = 4800LP] She then revives Sunseed Genius Loci with Sunseed Twin's effect. Using Sunseed Twin, Sunseed Genius Loci and Sunvine Healer, she Link Summons Sunavalon Melias. (L3/0/←, ↑, →) She uses Sunavalon Melias's effect, reviving Sunseed Genius Loci. She Special Summons Sunseed Shadow (1*/0/400) from her hand since she controls a Plant Normal Monster. She uses Sunseed Shadow, Sunseed Genius Loci and Sunavalon Dryas to Link Summon Sunavalon Dryanome (L3/0/↙, ↓, ↘) in her Extra Monster Zone. She sets 1 card and ends her turn.

Turn 3: Mitsuba Taki

Mitsuba draws. She Normal Summons The Fabled Abanc. (2*/1000/600) She tunes the Level 2 The Fabled Abanc to the Level 6 Fabled Andwraith to Synchro Summon Fabled Valkyrus (8*/2900/1700) in Attack Position. With Valkyrus's effect, she discards a Fiend monster to draw a card. Since she discarded Marcosia, she adds Fabled Treason from her Deck to her hand. She activates her currently set Trap Card, Fabled Treason, discarding a card to target a "Fabled" monster in her GY and a card on the field. She targets and revives Fabled Andwraith, and targets Dryanome to destroy it. Miharu banishes Sunvine Sowing from her GY to protect Dryanome. Since Andwraith was Special Summoned, Mitsuba gets to draw 2 cards and discard one, but Miharu can choose to negate it by discarding a card. Miharu discards Sunbloom Doom to negate it. Valkyrus attacks Miharu directly. [MK: 4800 - 2900 = 1900LP] Dryanome's effect restores her life points and lets her Special Summon Sunvine Healer from her Extra Deck. She gains life points equal to 300 x Dryanome's Link Rating. [MK: 1900 + 2900 + 300 x 3 = 5700LP] Ragin attacks Sunvine Healer. Miharu uses Dryanome's effect to negate the attack and moves Sunvine Healer to the centre Main Monster Zone. Andwraith attacks Healer. [MK: 5700 - 1800 = 3900LP] Miharu uses Dryanome's effect, recovering her lost LP and Special Summoning Sunvine Thrasher (L1/800/↓) to the leftmost Main Monster Zone. Thrasher gains 800 ATK x Dryanome's Link Rating. [MK: 3900 + 1800 = 5700LP] (ST: 800 + 800 x 3 = 3200ATK) Mitsuba sets Fabled Treason facedown and ends her turn.

Turn 4: Miharu Kogami

Miharu draws. She uses the effect of Sunavalon Melias, granting Thrasher an attack for each "Sunavalon" monster she controls. Thus, Thrasher can attack twice per turn. Thrasher attacks Valkyrus. [MT: 4000 - 300 = 3700LP] Miharu activates Thrasher's effect to Special Summon Valkyrus to her field. Mitsuba activates Fabled Treason, discarding a card to revive Valkyrus and destroy Dryanome. Since Dryanome was destroyed, Sunvine Thrasher destroys itself. Miharu Normal Summons Lonefire Blossom. (3*/500/1400) She tributes Lonefire with its own effect to Special Summon a Plant monster from her Deck. She Special Summons Angel Trumpeter (4*/1900/1600) from her Deck. She uses Angel Trumpeter to Link Summon Sunvine Gardna (L1/600/↑) to her Extra Monster Zone. She ends her turn.

Turn 5: Mitsuba Taki

Mitsuba draws. She discards Fabled Grimro to add Fabled Krus to her hand. With Valkyrus's effect, she discards Fabled Krus to draw a card. She uses Krus's effect to revive a Level 4 or lower "Fabled" monster from the graveyard. She revives Fabled Marcosia. She then Normal Summons The Fabled Chawa. She tunes the Level 1 Chawa to the Level 4 Marcosia to Synchro Summon Fabled Ragin. She uses its effect to draw until she has two cards in her hand. She has Ragin attack Sunvine Gardna. Since Sunvine Gardna is linked to a "Sunavalon" Link Monster (Melias), Miharu takes halved damage from battles involving it. [MK: 5700 - 1700 / 2 = 4850LP] Since Sunvine Gardna was destroyed by battle, the Battle Phase ends. Mitsuba sets a card facedown and ends her turn.

Turn 6: Miharu Kogami

Miharu draws. She Normal Summons Sunseed Genius Loci. She uses Sunseed Genius Loci as Link Material to Link Summon Sunavalon Dryas to the Extra Monster Zone. She then uses Dryas's effect to add another "Sunvine" Spell/Trap from her Deck to her hand. She then activates the Continuous Spell, Sunvine Cross-Breed. By tributing a Link Monster, she can revive a Plant monster. She tributes Sunavalon Dryas to revive Sunavalon Dryanome with its effects negated. She activates Sunvine Sowing, Special Summoning Sunseed Twin from the deck and taking 1000 damage. [MK: 4850 - 1000 = 3850LP] She then uses Twin's effect to revive Sunseed Genius Loci. Using Sunseed Twin and Sunseed Genius Loci, she Link Summons Sunavalon Daphne (L2/0/←, →) to her leftmost Main Monster Zone. She then banishes Sunseed Shadow from the graveyard and targets Sunavalon Daphne to Special Summon another copy of Sunavalon Daphne from her Extra Deck. She uses both copies of Sunavalon Daphne to Link Summon Sunavalon Dryatrentiay (L4/0/↙, ↑, ↓. ↘) to her Extra Monster Zone. By tributing Dryanome, she destroys three cards on the field—Mitsuba's set card, Andwraith and Valkyrus. Miharu activates the Continuous Spell, Sunavalon Cursed Reborn, and revives Sunavalon Dryanome with its effects negated, with ATK equal to its Link Rating x 1000. (SDryan: 0 → 3000ATK) She then activates the Continuous Trap, Sunavalon Bloom. She negates the effects of all face-up monsters Mitsuba currently controls. Sunavalon Melias attacks Fabled Ragin. With Sunavalon Bloom's effect, Melias gains the total attack points of all monsters it points to until the End Phase. (SM: 0 + 3000 = 3000ATK) [MT: 3700 - 700 = 3000LP] Dryanome attacks the second Ragin. [MT: 3000 - 700 = 2300LP] Miharu ends her turn.

Turn 7: Mitsuba Taki

Mitsuba draws. She discards Fabled Krus to revive The Fabled Abanc. She uses the effect of Fabled Krus to revive itself. She tunes the Level 2 Abanc to the Level 2 Krus, Synchro Summoning The Fabled Kudabbi (4*/2200/1100) in Defense Position. She ends her turn.

Turn 8: Miharu Kogami

Miharu draws. She uses Dryatrentiay's effect, tributing Melias to destroy Kudabbi. While Mitsuba has no cards in her hand, Kudabbi cannot be destroyed by battle or card effects. Miharu uses the Link 3 Sunavalon Dryanome and Sunavalon Dryatrentiay as material to Link Summon Benghalancer the Resurgent. (L4/2500/←, ↑, ↓, →) She uses Benghalancer's effect, returning Kudabbi to the Extra Deck in exchange for taking damage equal to Kudabbi's ATK. [MK: 3850 - 2200 = 1650LP] Benghalancer attacks directly. [MT: 2300 - 2500 = 0LP] Miharu wins!

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Duel 2 Summary: Mion Myojin vs Rua Sagiri

Duel Format: Normal Duel

Turn 1: Rua Sagiri

Rua Normal Summons Morphtronic Scopen. (3*/800/1400) He uses its effect. Since it is in Attack Position, he can Special Summon a Level 4 "Morphtronic" monster from his hand. He Special Summons Morphtronic Staplen (4*/1400/1000) from his hand. He tunes the Level 3 Scopen to the Level 4 Staplen and Synchro Summons Power Tool Soundwave Dragon. (7*/2300/2500) He equips Power Tool Soundwave Dragon with the Equip Spell, Double Tool C&D. And since he activated an Equip Spell, Power Tool Soundwave Dragon lets him revive a Level 4 or lower monster from his graveyard. He revives Morphtronic Staplen in Defense Position. He ends his turn.

Turn 2: Mion Myojin

Mion draws. She Normal Summons Royal Magical Library. (4*/0/2000) She activates the Spell Card, Terraforming. She uses its effect and adds the Field Spell, Magical Citadel of Endymion, to her hand, and she activates it. She then activates the Continuous Spell, Arcane Barrier. She removes 3 Spell Counters from Royal Magical Library to draw a card. She then activates the Quickplay Spell, Mythical Bestiary. By sending the top card of her Deck to the GY, she can place 2 Spell Counters on a card she controls that a Spell Counter can be placed on. She places them on Arcane Barrier. She then activates the Spell Card, Spell Power Grasp, placing a Spell Counter on Arcane Barrier and adding another Spell Power Grasp from her Deck to her hand. She then removes 3 Spell Counters from Magical Citadel of Endymion to substitute for the cost of Royal Magical Library, and draws another card. She sets the Scale 2 Servant of Endymion in the Pendulum Scale. By removing 3 Spell Counters from her Royal Magical Library, Mion draws another card. She then sends Royal Magical Library from her field to the GY along with Arcane Barrier, to use Arcane Barrier's effect to draw a card for each Spell Counter on it. She draws 3 cards from this effect. She sets the Scale 8 Endymion, the Mighty Master of Magic in the other Pendulum Scale. She then Pendulum Summons Mythical Beast Jackal King (6*/S4/2400/1400), Mythical Beast Bashilisk (4*/S4/1800/500) and Mythical Beast Medusa (4*/S4/1500/1500) from her hand. She has Jackal King attack Power Tool Soundwave Dragon. [RS: 4000 - 100 = 3900LP] With the effect of Double Tool C&D, Rua destroys Mythical Beast Jackal King. Then, with the effect of Power Tool Soundwave Dragon, Rua banishes Double Tool C&D from the GY to revive it from the GY in Defense Position. Mythical Beast Medusa attacks Morphtronic Staplen. With the effect of Morphtronic Staplen, while it is in Defense Position, it cannot be destroyed by battle. Then, he can change Staplen to Attack Position and change Bashilisk to Defense Position. Mion ends her turn.

- Magical Citadel of Endymion: Spell Counter(s): 2

- Servant of Endymion: Spell Counter(s): 1

Turn 3: Rua Sagiri

Rua draws. Rua Normal Summons Morphtronic Celfon. (1*/100/100) He uses its effect. Since it is in Attack Position, he can roll a dice and reveal cards from the top of his Deck equal to the number rolled. Then, he can Special Summon a Level 4 or lower "Morphtronic" from among the revealed monsters. He Special Summons Morphtronic Remoten (3*/300/1200) from the revealed cards. He uses Remoten's effect. Since it is in Attack Position, he can banish a "Morphtronic" monster from his GY to add a "Morphtronic" monster with the same Level from his Deck to his hand. He banishes Scopen from the GY to add a Level 3 "Morphtronic" monster from his Deck to his hand. He then tunes the Level 3 Remoten to the Level 1 Celfon, Synchro Summoning Morphtronic Earfon. (4*/1200/1800) Rua uses Earfon's effect, treating Morphtronic Staplen as a Tuner until the End Phase. He tunes the Level 4 Staplen to the Level 4 Earfon, Synchro Summoning Morphtronic Radaron (8*/2500/2000) He uses Radaron's effect to reveal the top three cards of his deck and add an Equip Spell to his hand. He adds and equips Moon Mirror Shield to Power Tool Soundwave Dragon. With the effect of Power Tool Soundwave Dragon, he revives Morphtronic Celfon in Defense Position. He equips Earfon from the GY to Soundwave Dragon, allowing it to attack monsters twice per turn. Radaron attacks Mythical Beast Bashilisk.

Mion removes a Spell Counter from Mythical Beast Bashilisk and Mythical Beast Medusa, which they gained during the activation of Moon Mirror Shield, to use Medusa's effect, halving the ATK and DEF of Radaron. (MR: 2500 / 2 = 1250ATK; 2000 / 2 = 1000DEF) Thus, Radaron is destroyed by its own attack. [RM: 3900 - 550 = 3350LP] Radaron's effect allows Rua to revive a Machine monster from the GY when it is sent to the GY, except a Synchro Monster. He revives Morphtronic Staplen in Defense Position. Power Tool Soundwave Dragon attacks Medusa. Since it is equipped with Moon Mirror Shield, its ATK becomes 1600 during damage calculation. [MM: 4000 - 100 = 3900LP] With Earfon's effect, Power Tool Soundwave Dragon attacks Bashilisk as well. Its ATK becomes 1900 during damage calculation. [MM: 3900 - 100 = 3800LP] Rua ends his turn.

- Magical Citadel of Endymion: Spell Counter(s): 3

- Servant of Endymion: Spell Counter(s): 2

Turn 4: Mion Myojin

Mion draws. She Pendulum Summons Mythical Beast Jackal King, Mythical Beast Bashilisk and Mythical Beast Medusa from the Extra Deck. Mion activates the Spell Card, Spell Power Grasp. She places an additional Spell Counter on Magical Citadel of Endymion. She adds another Spell Power Grasp from her Deck to her hand. She activates the effect of Servant of Endymion in her Pendulum Scale, removing 3 Spell Counters from it to Special Summon it from her Pendulum Scale and Reflection of Endymion (7*/S2/1850/2700) from her Deck, placing a Spell Counter on both of them. She then uses Reflection of Endymion's effect, returning Servant of Endymion from the field to the hand to return Power Tool Soundwave Dragon to the hand. It returns to the Extra Deck. She then sets Servant of Endymion in the other Pendulum Scale. She Normal Summons Hallohallo. (3*/S2/800/600) She tunes the Level 3 Hallohallo to the Level 4 Mythical Beast Bashilisk, Synchro Summoning Arcanite Magician (7*/400/1800) in Attack Position. Arcanite Magician gains 2 Spell Counters when Synchro Summoned, and gains 1000 ATK for each Spell Counter on it. (AM: SC2; 400 + 1000 x 2 = 2400ATK) By removing a Spell Counter from Reflection of Endymion and targeting Stapler, she destroys it with Arcanite Magician's effect. Medusa attacks Celfon. Arcanite Magician and Jackal King attack directly. [RM: 3350 - 2400 - 2400 = 0LP] Mion wins!

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OC Cards:

Power Tool Soundwave Dragon

(7*/2300/2500/EARTH/Machine/Synchro/Effect)

1 Tuner + 1+ non-Tuner monsters

This card is treated as "Power Tool Dragon" while on the field and in the GY. If this card is equipped with an Equip Spell, it cannot be targeted by Spell/Trap effects. Once per turn, if an Equip Spell is activated: You can target 1 Level 4 or lower monster in your GY; Special Summon it. During either player's turn, if this card is in the GY: You can banish 1 Equip Spell from the GY; Special Summon this card from the GY. You can only activate this effect of "Power Tool Soundwave Dragon" once per turn.

Trivia: Meet Power Tool's retrain. At this point, this is just the sunk cost fallacy—I didn't use the Duel Dragons for the rest, so using them here felt weird. Soundwave Dragon embraces the idea of being a machine fully—it is a futuristic dragon with some neon lights, etc all around it—exactly what a kid would find cool. If there's lore, it's that Red Dragon Archfiend Scarlight is a very old version of RDA after many fights, Black Rose Calamity Dragon is retired and resting in the peaceful White Rose Cloister, distancing herself from a lifetime of war, Stardust Expiation Dragon is travelling around to bring peace to others, restless and unable to stop trying to save others, and… compared to the others, Power Tool Soundwave Dragon is just vibing, lmao. He's interacting with other monsters, becoming more mechanical and individualistic.

Morphtronic Radaron

(8*/2500/2000/EARTH/Machine/Synchro/Effect)

1 Machine Tuner + 1+ non-Tuner monsters

While you control this face-up card, Machine monsters you control cannot be targeted for attacks or effects, except this one. Once per turn: You can reveal the top 3 cards of your Deck, and if there are any Equip Spells among them, add 1 Equip Spell from among them to your hand, send any other Spells revealed to the GY, and return the other cards to the top of the Deck. If this card is sent to the GY: You can Special Summon 1 Machine monster from your GY, except a Synchro Monster.

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Different Card Effects from TCG:

Sunavalon Cursed Reborn - Anime-only card.

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Chapter 36 Fun Fact:

Before I came up with the Yuri Kaiba idea, Shino was going to be Yuri's older sister instead, with her and Yuri having a similar backstory to what I eventually described for her and Sora in Chapter 20. However, I decided that having that kind of backstory for Yuri wouldn't necessarily justify some of the characterisation I was trying to give him, considering that having someone genuinely care for him for most of his life would undermine the Professor's attempts to make him an ideal soldier. Plus, when I eventually decided on what I have now, it allowed me to draw some similarities and parallels between Yuri and Sora.

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End Notes:

'Yamada Hanako' is the equivalent of Jane Smith—a Japanese name that is extremely generic and used as an alias by people who don't want to be known. It's a placeholder name. R_ (ok, it's obviously Ray.) therefore calls 'her' out on this. Who is 'her', and why am I so insistent that this character's name cannot be said yet? Great question. Um. Bye now.

You all have no idea how hard it was to not insert the 'all according to keikaku' meme when Roget was talking.

Credit to DSpaceZ, who pointed out my logic for Miharu's duel very well—she was going to win anyway, so I just tossed an OC at her so that I could make the other characters' duels better. While I'm a strong believer that duels have to be more than just people playing cards—there has to always be some greater symbolism, etc.

Mitsuba is a cameo of one of my OCs from an old fic. She doesn't have a large role at all—she's just here so that I can write Fabled cards, and explore some internal politics of the Synchro Dimension. :) A lot of you assumed that Miharu would duel Aki, but do you really think that I would make Aki lose in the first round of a tournament?

Since I haven't written a Miharu duel in a very long time, I had to brush up on my Sunavalon knowledge again. Thank goodness though—I do enjoy writing Miharu's duels the most out of my main characters. The way that Sunavalon and Marincess start their turns is also rather reminiscent of each other. But anyway, there was no shot that I was going to be able to make a duel between Miharu and some random OC tense, so I went for making it funny instead, with all of the Lancers pitying Miharu's opponent. Or, as Elise puts it: "if the duel isn't plot-relevant, make it hellish for everyone involved". Like, the Fabled Synchros all just stacking up and her opponent growing more and more frustrated that Miharu is doing nothing to her at all made me laugh when writing it.

However, Rua vs Mion made me far more tired to write, because here's my confession—I know nothing about Morphtronics. For once, I don't know anything about the deck I'm writing about. I had to research a lot for this. I think it came out fine though. So. My biggest question. Why did no one tell me that Morphtronic had no Synchro Monsters except literally Power Tool and Earfon? Why exactly is Morphtronic such a small archetype? 0.o However, it was a duel that was actually planned for a long time. I'll probably explain more about that at the end of the Synchro Arc, if I remember to. But it's the idea of Mion's gentleness being what holds her back, when it comes to dueling an enthusiastic boy who's just in over his head—who reminds her of her brother.

Alright, talking about the other scenes. Yugo and Yuto's scene took me a while to get done, and honestly, it's more because I wanted the two of them to be good friends in this continuity. #giveYugomorefriendsplease and especially, I want him to be friends with the other Yu boys and Bracelet Girls.

Shinji, Crow and Ruka's scene is small, but I thought it would at least be nice to have it there, to establish that idea that while the Tops are oppressors, the children are not to blame—or they have at least not been taught better. I will decline to comment on the Arisu scene for now.

Nue and Shun… ahem. So originally, there was no kiss in that scene at all, because I was worried that it would be a bit too much. Then, a friend of mine, who I'll call Mist, read the scene when I asked her to look it over, and she just stared at me for a moment. For context, the entire scene is unchanged in this draft, except the end. I think you can understand her distress when I told her that it would take until the Ritual Arc for these two to get their shit together. As I quote, "unless they're your main pairing, there's no reason for you to make your readers suffer through a dragged out and overly long arc for them." So I have taken her advice, even if writing scenes that are supposed to be romantic make me skittish. (Unrelated, but the wail of agony that she let out when I showed her the relationship arcs in this fic was hilarious. Special note goes to Yuno/Miharu and Chiaki/Yuji, which made her screech in fury.)

I'll provide a list of the people who haven't dueled yet, for fun. So that's: Shinji, Crow, Naoya, Kaname, Misty, Yugo, Aki, Ruka, Shun, Yuto, Nue, Dennis, Hitoda, Serena, Sawatari and Gongenzaka. (Don't worry, I randomised the order. This is not indicative of the matchups themselves.) I will say that it's not unexpected that it's difficult to guess the matchups for this round. Out of the 16 Round 1 duels, there are unfortunately quite a few filler duels. Most of the non-filler duels (twelve of sixteen) have had some foreshadowing for themselves though. There are a few that I didn't expect anyone to guess because they were kind of the leftover matchups. The later rounds have no such problems, thankfully—no filler at all, full stop.

Review responses!

To cardfan135, thanks for the concern. Interesting guesses, but for now, I don't think I can comment on any of them. Yeah, it just happened that I could tell an engaging story with the duels without OC cards, which was nice. Thanks for the review :)

To the Guest talking about Yuzu, yes, I do intend to give her her own plot relevance. There's a part of me that actively rebels against the idea of making a character just a love interest without any personality/plot relevance of their own.

To DSpaceZ, I can talk about this now that Mion has dueled, but in response to what you mentioned about the 'mysterious chicks' (lmao) needing to duel each other more often, the first round originally had Nue vs Mion. It ended up getting changed with a later draft, but I'm just letting you know that you were very close. I won't comment on the possibility of Hitoda vs Kaname for now, though! In terms of what you said about Tsukikage, I do intend to throw all the Ninja support at him, but since fanfics tend to stick to archetypes, he probably won't get other generic support and stuff. I think in the original draft of the Friendship Cup, Sherry lost in the first round, but I had a feeling that people would shoot me for that, so I decided to let her be cool for a bit. Fun fact for Kyorin vs Yuya—this was actually going to happen in the Standard Arc, with Kyorin basically wrecking Yuya, but it just… never made sense. I was going to slot it into the 'LDS tries to take over You Show' arc, but I realised that having Yuya lose was not a good idea. Now, with stronger monsters, the outcome has been flipped, though I think we do know that Nekroz would still wreck Odd-Eyes irl.

For Carly and Jack, I do have a bit more about them that I'm saving up for now. It'll show up later in the arc. Also yeah, Yuzu having the least summoning methods (not even Pendulum) was definitely quite yikes. I did enjoy reading through your speculations on the next few matches, but I can't comment on them yet. :) Wow, that's a long response! But thanks for the long review, I enjoyed it. :)

To LHOCIN, I always remember being confused at how little Tsukikage got to do! In general, Arc-V got a little too Yuya-focused during the Synchro Arc, and it plagued everything afterwards. So yeah. Tsukikage will never be a major character, but not giving him any screentime felt a little unfair to me. And it helps to develop Reiji's character, so that's nice. I did want to give Yuzu room to grow, but as a small spoiler… for now, she's still the weakest of the Bracelet Girls. She has a long way to go. :D And yeah, initially, I tried to stop Lancers from facing each other, but considering how much I wanted to give the Lancers character development, it caused later rounds to be a lot more messy. So I moved some of those matches to the first round. I also feel that there's more emotional weight to matches between comrades :D Good guesses! I can't talk about them now, but thank you for your review regardless.

To the Guest asking about Yuji vs Serena… I guess I'll give a small spoiler, since it's not that big of a deal. During the main story, there will be quite a lot of duels between the counterparts. I won't directly say whether or not that duel will happen, but it is certainly possible. Plus, I will most likely post an Extra Duels story after the main fic where I put in any additional duels that I wanted to include but couldn't. I assure you, any Yu-boys or Bracelet Girls that don't duel each other during the main story will have a match up there, because I love all their decks too much.

To the Guest asking about Greedy Venom, the answer is very complicated. I think I mentioned this in the responses of a previous chapter, but I'll just mention it here. You remember correctly—I do intend to change Greedy Venom's effect. And yes, I do intend to change Greedy Venom's summoning requirements. :D

To phantomdragons, good analysis as per usual! Especially the part about Bloom Harmonist being a support monster and Yuzu landing the blow herself as Bloom Prima :D I didn't think anyone would get that. You were really close when you put Ruka vs Mion—that was another possibility! But I chose Rua vs Mion because of a certain other matchup in this round, haha. Thank you for the insightful review.

To the Guest asking about ship names, why yes, I actually do! Courtesy of the brain of Elise, I actually do have some ship names for certain characters in the fic. Yuji/Chiaki are Eschatonshipping. 'Eschaton' refers to any event that's known as the 'end of the world', and well, I don't know if I've spelled it out enough yet, but one of the largest inspirations for Yuji and Chiaki's decks and personalities was Ruin and Demise. Meanwhile, Yuno/Miharu is Oasisshipping, since an oasis is a safe haven filled with plants and water, a place to rest. There's quite a few, since she got bored one day and made a whole list, so I'll just drop my favourite one, which is the ship name she came up with for Miharu/Chiaki, AngelTrumpetshipping—aka, a flower associated with angels.

To the Guest that asks how I write duels… uh, my method is not recommended at all. I open a document, start writing the dialogue, and if I write myself into a corner, I delete as far back as appropriate and then restart. It takes a while. But usually I loop the 'battle music' of the major characters involved, yes. The amount of time I spent headbutting a wall over Shino vs Nue & Mion back in Chapter 20 while Spider Dance played in the background cannot be understated. In general, I just read through all the card effects of the archetype and write as though I'm the one playing the cards, accounting for characters' experience and skill level (e.g. Hitoda vs Carly, or Rua vs Mion here.) I know what the result I want is, and I know what the thought process I want for the characters is. I just weave it in as I go along.

To the Guest talking about the trope of strong female characters getting sacrificed for male characters' development, I hate it as much as you. As for parasites… well, I would like to point out how difficult it is for me to not spoil anything and move on from here. Sorry!

To T.V. 2000, thanks for your comments on the duels! Addressing your final question… well, what I will say is that I adore the idea of Link Spells. It's a little too far in the future for me to comment on that, but at the very least, I am considering it.

To Blink (interesting name there), probably yes. Like I keep saying, Twin Dragons will probably start receiving regular updates after I'm done with this, and it's an AU fic with siblings for each of the Yu boys. However, there's actually three other fics that I might post after Six Dimensions. Two of them are basically outlined and ready to go if I ever choose to write them, and one is a vague sketch. The first is a manga-inspired (and I stress the 'inspired' part heavily) spinoff of Six Dimensions. Essentially, it starts off in a similar way but a lot of the plot will be different and the setting itself is different. Can't elaborate too much on that. The second is a VRAINS fic which I've mentioned before, where Yuno and Miharu exist in the VRAINS universe. They're not the main characters of that fic, though they're major supporting characters. And the third, which I've vaguely thought about but haven't fleshed out as a concept yet, is a GX fic with fully updated decks for all the canon characters. It's the one that I'm least interested in though.

After much motivation from my friends, I have decided to put in a Question of the Chapter (QOTC). So here goes nothing.

Question of the Chapter: What has been your favourite duel thus far in the story?

Thank you to everyone for 20k hits (we passed that quite a few chapters ago, but ffnet was not cooperating, lmao) and 300 reviews. Hey, remember when I said that I would be done with the Standard Arc by the end of March? Hahahah. Clearly, I underestimated myself. To hopefully many more chapters! :)