I placed the last bolt of the chair into place and stood up, surveying the room proudly. In just a single morning, Yugo and I had completed nearly two-thirds of the IKEA furniture, and the remaining pieces were largely unnecessary, being bookcases and a nightstand. The speed at which Yugo worked was impressive; it had taken my roommate and I nearly a full day to do the same amount of work back home. He just had such an intuitive understanding of how to put things together, and worked at such a fast pace that I often found myself struggling to keep up.

"That should be enough for now," I said. "Any preferences for lunch?" Last night's dinner had been a hastily scraped-together meal of instant noodles and leftovers, the food of graduate students. Well, that and whatever's offered for free at colloquia. Yet Yuto had dug into it like a starving man, finishing multiple platefuls in the span of minutes.

"Anything's fine," Yugo said dismissively. Right, being an orphan in the less-nice parts of the City, he'd probably be happy with basically any food.

"Okay then..." I said hesitantly, a mental shopping list forming in my head. "I'll be back

"I'll be back in half an hour," I said as I exited the apartment. "Don't trash the place!"

"I'm not a kid!" Yugo yelled back. I chuckled softly, but said nothing.

I'm not the best cook. While I can follow simple recipes and make basic foods, anything more difficult than 'put a bunch of stuff in a pot and let it sit' is something I wouldn't normally touch. Most of my meals were composed out of rice, legumes, and eggs—cheaper foods that were easy to prepare and kept well. Yet I wanted to at least try and make something more impressive than 'grad student food'. Thus why I was currently hunting across Maiami City's shopping distruct for breadcrumbs. I'd gotten several odd looks before realize that I was still in Japan, where breaded meat was far less common. Thankfully, the city hosted a large number of foreigners, as it was essentially the dueling capital of the world, and a few quick google searches lead me to my prize.

I triumphantly carried the ingredients for schnitzel into the apartment. Yugo sat at the table, his deck spread out in front of him. Perhaps his loss to me last night had shaken him and caused him to question his strategies? I supposed it was a good thing, as Speedroid was already worse than rogue, and his poorly-constructed pile was beyond jank.

Cooking the dish took not more than fifteen minutes, and the repetitive motions gave my thoughts time to wander. I couldn't stop them from circling back to my duel last night, not the one against Yugo, but the Herald of the Supreme King. How did he have a meta build of Floo available to him, complete with all the right Extra Deck staples? As far as I knew, Wind Pegasus shouldn't be able to exist in this timeline, as it was related to something involving Vrains lore. And he'd played well—not perfectly, but he played like someone who knew the deck. Hell, he'd given me a hard time, someone nobody in this world had really been able to do.

As confident as I'd acted during that duel and as much as I mocked him, I was truly scared of him. Full power Floo was nothing to scoff at, and the fact that his motivations were completely unknown meant that he was even more dangerous.

Well, perhaps not completely unknown. He'd called himself the "Herald of the Supreme King" after all, and he seemed to want Z-ARC to be reborn once more. Why someone would want that, I had no idea. The last time Z-ARC had been whole, he'd destroyed the world. Perhaps he was simply batshit insane, which was also quite scary. With a sane person, you can predict their moves. But an insane person is going to show up with the stupidest table 500 jank that you can't counter because you built your deck to beat meta. Okay, that metaphor was getting a bit out of hand.

Could the Herald be another person pulled from my world, like me? The fact that they knew that Yuto could've died there seemed to point to it, yet they also could've noticed that Yuto and Yuya were in close proximity by whatever magic they used and just acted upon that. That was another thing—how were they able to perform an old-school shadow duel and spontaneously cancel it. Nobody did shadow duel shit since GX (or 5Ds, I guess, but I think it was something different), and literally no villain in any series had the ability to cancel one of those.

And if they were from my world as well, I wanted a refund, because I didn't get magic powers when I was sent here.

I turned my attention back to the schnitzel as I tossed the breaded chicken into the frying pan full of hot oil. Wouldn't want to burn myself, after all. I fried the breaded poultry at high heat, no more than two minutes on each side, batch after batch, before turning off the stove and plating the dish. I'd made far more than was necessary for a two-person lunch, as the only thing better than a good meal is a good meal with leftovers. After preparing a simple salad of arugula, lettuce, spinach, and radicchio (my mother would show up at my doorstep to skin me alive if she heard that I'd made a meal without vegetables), I walked into the living room, which wasn't really separated from the kitchen except by a single doorway.

"Food's ready," I called. Yugo jumped up at the mention of food, leaving his deck scattered on the table he'd been using.

"Food?" he echoed. "All right! Let's eat!"

Just as we were about to dig in, there was a knock at the door. I motioned for Yugo to continue eating, manners be damned and went to answer it.

"Yuzu!" I said happily. She stood at the threshold, wearing the same clothes she always did, bracelet affixed to her wrist. "What brings you here?"

"I want answers," she demanded. "There's something going on here!"

"RIN!" Yugo yelled, jumping up from his seat, the meal he'd been shoveling into his mouth just moments prior completely forgotten. I held out an arm to prevent him from grabbing Yuzu and freaking her out.

"Yuya?!" Yuzu said, only now acknowledging my guest.

"Both of you are incorrect," I said. "Yugo, sit back down. Yuzu, why don't you take a seat as well? We're in the middle of lunch."

"Fine, but you're going to tell me everything," Yuzu grumbled, grabbing a plate and a piece of schnitzel. I noted that she'd taken the seat farthest from Yugo.

"Thanks," I said. "Well, everything is quite a bit. I guess we could begin with the construction of the natural numbers—"

"Stop screwing around!" Yuzu yelled, readying her fan.

"Got it, got it," I said, holding up my hands in a gesture of surrender. "Let's start from the beginning. First off, what I am about to say does not leave this room. Tell no one. Understood?"

Both Yugo and Yuzu nodded vigorously, prompting me to continue.

"This world is one of four dimensions—Fusion, Xyz, Synchro, and Standard. We live in Standard, which is capable of using all summoning methods, while the inhabitants of the other dimensions can only use their dimensions' eponymous summoning methods. Yugo, for example, is from Synchro."

"That makes sense," Yugo said through a mouthful of food. "Everyone uses Synchro in the City."

"Yuya told me as much," Yuzu supplied. "He also said that Fusion invaded Xyz."

"That's correct. In addition, for both of you specifically, there's someone who has the same face as you in each dimension," I continued. "Rin is the Synchro counterpart of Yuzu, while Yuya is the Standard counterpart of Yugo. This is not a coincidence."

"What do you mean?" Yuzu asked. "There are people with the same face as famous movie stars and they're unrelated."

"The four dimensions were once one," I explained. Now to speedrun explaining the plot of Arc-V. "Within that original dimension, there were two people: the Supreme King and Ray Akaba."

"Akaba?" Yuzu questioned. "Like Reiji Akaba?"

"Correct," I said. "Ray would be... I guess Reiji's half-sister, if she were still alive. Now, the Supreme King was a duelist corrupted by his own darkness, and he attempted to destroy the original dimension. Ray saved the world by splitting the dimensions, as well as herself and the Supreme King, into four. The four shards of the Supreme King's soul were sealed within Yuya and his counterparts... while the shards of Ray's soul were sealed within you and your counterparts."

"I've got part of some kill-everything bastard in me?" Yugo yelled. "No way in hell!"

"You each are your own person," I said. "However, under moments of extreme emotional duress, the fragment of the Supreme King's can attempt to take over. This effect can also be induced by dueling one of your counterparts."

"That explains why you told me not to let Yuya duel anyone who looks like him," Yuzu said. "But why'd you send me away from the part later?"

"Do you know what the function of your bracelet is?" I asked. Yuzu shook her head, so I continued. "You and your counterparts each have a bracelet that will prevent Yuya and his counterparts from coming into contact. If two people who bear shards of the Supreme King's soul are near you, one of them will be teleported away."

"So you sent me away to prevent Yugo from vanishing," Yuzu summarized. "I see... wait, how'd you learn all of this! It doesn't make any sense!"

"I'm getting to that," I said calmly. I took a bite of my own schnitzel, not wanting to let it get cold. "When I attempted to find Sora that night, I was stopped by a duelist known as the Herald of the Supreme King."

"The same Supreme King?" Yugo asked, having finished his food. I glanced over to the large plate I'd put at the center of the table to see how much was left, and... holy shit, Yugo had eaten both lunch, dinner, and tomorrow's breakfast! I quickly placed schnitzel into my mouth before Yugo made the next logical move and tried taking from my plate.

I nodded and filed the worries about leftovers aside. "The very same one. The Herald of the Supreme King told me this as he attempted to duel me to the death." Okay, I was lying through my teeth right now, but I needed a plausible explanation. I took a few more bites to buy time to come up with one, clearing my plate in the process.

"Apparently, I was the only one with a good chance to prevent Yuya and Yuto from dueling," I continued. "Thus he attempted to stop me. I beat him, of course, but that's why I gave you those instructions. The first one, I gave to you and Gongenzaka when I was panicking and trying to control damage. The second I gave when Gongenzaka told me he'd made it there and had the situation under control, and realized that you teleporting Yuto and Yugo away would be counterproductive."

"That... makes sense," Yuzu said. "I guess he gave you his motivations because he assumed he'd kill you?"

I clasped my hands and walked across the room to the window. This floor-to-ceiling pane of glass let in much natural light and provided an ample view of Maiami City below, with its greenery, orderly houses, bustling streets, and shining bay. It was a nice, idyllic city. Soon, I would have to leave it all behind, and before that, it would be invaded by Academia, invaders coming with plans to card as many people as possible.

I sighed. "Yes. And he came far closer than I'd like."

"Do you want to—"

"I don't want to talk about it!" I snapped, which I instantly regretted. I hadn't realized just how tense I was. "Sorry," I apologized. "The last day has been a bit... stressful."

"I..." Yuzu began. "You can't close yourself off now!"

I sighed again and strode towards the door. "I need a walk." I locked the door behind me, as I usually did, and practically raced down the stairs and out of the building.

"So, do you think Joshua realized he locked us in here?" Yugo asked.

Rin—no, Yuzu, not Rin—shrugged. "I don't know," she said. "I've never seen him like that before. He's always composed, so whatever happened last night must've really shaken him."

Yugo walked over to the living room table and scooped up his deck. "Hey, do you want to have a duel? Joshua kicked my ass last night, so I've been trying to make my deck stronger!"

"O...kay," Yuzu said hesitantly, pulling out her duel disk. "I'll duel you."

"All right!" Yugo exclaimed happily, clambering into his motorcycle that was propped against the apartment's wall. The Synchro duelist revved the bike's engine as he activated the duel disk. "Let's do it! I'll take the first move!"

"Wait!" Yuzu yelled. "Don't ride that thing in here!"

"Huh?" Yugo said, before looking around and realizing that the dimensions of the apartment were not conducive to cycling. "Oh... yeah, I, uh, didn't think about that."

"How stupid do you have to be to not realize that?!" Yuzu yelled, pulling out her trademark fan. "Seriously!"

"Sorry, sorry!" Yugo said, waving his hands in front of him to ward off the dreaded instrument of blunt-force trauma. He then pressed a button on the motorcycle, and the duel disk popped off cleanly. With a small flourish, he attached the duel disk to his wrist. "Let's try that again. I'll take the first move! Since I control no monsters, I can Special Summon Speedroid Terrortop from my hand! When this monster is Special Summoned, I can add one Speedroid monster from my deck to my hand! I—"

"I activate Effect Veiler!" Yuzu declared, discarding the named card. "By sending this card from my hand to the graveyard, I can negate the effects of one target monster you control until the end of this turn!"

"Dammit, I really needed that!" Yugo said. "Fine! I Normal Summon the Tuner monster Speedroid Red-Eyed Dice and activate its effect! I target one other Speedroid monster I control and declare a level from one to six. Until the end of this turn, that monster becomes that level. I'll make Speedroid Terrortop level six!"

"A Synchro summon..." Yuzu muttered.

"Spread those wondrous and beautiful wings, and strike down your enemies at the speed of light! Synchro Summon! Appear now! Level 7! Clear Wing Synchro Dragon!" Yugo declared as the named dragon roared, spreading its wings and allowing the light to create intricate patterns on the wall behind it.

Yuzu glanced at the monster's effects. "Okay, targeting effect negate and high-level monster negate. That... shouldn't be an issue."

"I set one card and end my turn!" Yugo declared. "All right! I got Clear Wing on my first turn!"

"Draw," Yuzu said. "I activate the field spell Rikka Konkon, and then I'll activate Rikka Glamour! By tributing a plant monster, I can add one Rikka monster and one plant monster of the same level from my deck to my hand!"

"But you don't have any plant monsters to tribute," Yugo pointed out, scratching the back of his head. "Am I missing something?"

"Rikka Konkon allows me to tribute your monsters as if they were plant monsters!" Yuzu declared. Petals fell from the sky around Clear Wing, and soon small flowers started to grow from its back and wings, before it was torn apart into a storm of petals.

"What?!" Yugo yelled in shock. "My monster turned into a bunch of flowers?!"

"That's... how Konkon works," Yuzu said as she took two cards from her deck. "I'll add Primula the Rikka Fairy and Rikka Princess from my deck to my hand!"

"I summon Lonefire Blossom and activate its effect," Yuzu said. "By tributing one plant monster, I can Special Summon one plant monster from my deck. I'll have it tribute to bring out Rikka Petal! Now, I'll use Rikka Petal's effect to add Snowdrop the Rikka Fairy from my deck to my hand, and in addition, Primla's effect will trigger! Since a monster was tributed, I can Special Summon it from my hand."

Yuzu paused for a moment to consider her lines, before nodding and continuing her combo. "I activate Snowdrop's effect! By tributing one plant monster, I can Special Summon both it and one other plant monster from my hand. Come, Teardrop and Mudan!" The elegant woman spun around, twirling her parasol, as Rikka Petal faded from the field. Soon, Snowdrop was joined by a similar-looking young but younger girl.

"Since Mudan was summoned by the effect of a Rikka card, I can add one Rikka spell or trap card from my deck to my hand. I'll add Rikka Flurries. In addition, I can Special Summon Rikka Princess from my hand! Snowflower, blooming in the cold winds of winter. Open your petals and blossom! Xyz Summon! Rank four! Rikka Queen Strenna!"

Yuzu barely paused as the summoning animation played out. "Snowdrop's effect. I target one plant monster on the field, and until the end of this turn, all plant monsters' levels become equal to that monster's, so all my plants will become level eight! Elegant lady of the winter flowers, emerge in full bloom! Xyz Summon! Rank eight! Teardrop the Rikka Queen!"

Teardrop was similar to Snowdrop, though her dress was far longer and had more frills. Her hair was also longer, and flowed down her back instead of being tied in twin-tails. Similarly, Strenna looked like Primula, but her hair was held in place by an ornate headband.

"By detatching one Xyz material from Strenna, I can return one Plant monster or Rikka card from my graveyard to my hand," Yuzu said, taking the Rikka Glamour back.

"Battle phase!" Yuzu declared. "Strenna attacks you directly!"

"When you declare a direct attack, I can activate Speedroid Menko!" Yugo proclaimed. "I Special Summon this card from my hand and change all monsters you control to defense position!"

Yuzu briefly pondered using Princess to negate the effect of Menko, but upon realizing that it wasn't a once-per-turn effect and she wouldn't be able to push an OTK through regardless, decided against it. "Speedroid Menko resolves. Second main. Since I control a Rikka monter, I can use the effect of Rikka Konkon to set a Rikka spell or trap card from my deck. I set Rikka Sheet and end my turn."

"My turn, draw!" Yugo yelled. "All right! I Normal Summon Speedroid Tri-Eyed Dice!"

"On resolution of the summon, I activate Rikka Sheet! By tributing one Plant monster, I can take control of one monster you control until the end phase, but its effects are negated! I tribute your Menko to take control of your Tri-Eyed Dice!"

"I end my turn," Yugo growled as Tri-Eyed Dice was freed from the influence of Rikka Sheet and returned to his field.

"Draw," Yuzu said. "Battle phase. Rikka Queen Strenna attacks Speedroid Tri-Eyed Dice!

With a flourish of her parasol, Strenna sent a blast of petals at the strange die, which vanished in a shower of pixels as Yugo shielded himself from the wind with his arm.

[Yugo: 4000 - 2300]

"Teardrop attacks you directly!"

"I activate the effect of Tri-Eyed Dice in my graveyard!" Yugo said. "By banishing this card from my graveyard, I can negate your attack!"

"I chain Rikka Princess! By shuffling this card from my graveyard into my deck and tributing a plant monster, I can negate your effect!"

Tri-Eyed Dice was blown away by a flurry of wintry petals emanating from a spectral image of Princess as Teardrop's attack connected with Yugo.

[Yugo: 2300 - 0]

[Yuzu: WIN]

"Good game," Yuzu said, extending a hand. Yugo brushed himself off and refused the handshake.

"Dammit!" Yugo groaned. "First yesterday, and now this... I thought my deck was good! I thought I could take on anything, even the King! But now I realize... am I really that weak? Even with my partner Clear Wing... how am I beaten this easily?"

"Stop pitying yourself!" Yuzu yelled. "While your deck may have been strong where you were from, here, things have evolved. I... do you want help?"

"Eh?" Yugo said. "Help with what?"

"Getting stronger," Yuzu explained. "We can probably get you some new cards to boost your deck!"

With that, she strode over to the door and attempted to open it. Yuzu slapped her forehead with her palm.

"I forgot the door was locked," she admitted sheepishly.

"...the Supreme King and Ray Akaba," the monitor in Reiji's office sounded. It was the third time that afternoon that Reiji Akaba had replayed Joshua's conversation, and the revelations became increasingly disturbing each time he watched it. It was tempting to dismiss it as madness, but Joshua Cohen had been accurate about many other things that a normal person would no nothing about. This was a veritable treasure trove of information, and it had been a good idea to install those discrete cameras in Joshua's apartment.

Reiji paused the recording and spun his chair around, hands steepled below his nose. Ray was his half-sister? Through which side? As soon as he asked himself the question, it was obvious. The only one within his family with ties to other dimensions was his father, and he'd run off to another dimension like a madman, in pursuit of some mysterious goal.

"That can't be..." he breathed as the pieces of the puzzle fell into place. Was his father attempting to raise Ray from the dead? Was the whole invasion plan just a facade, a smokescreen so he could capture the pieces of his daughter and bring them together again. It was madness, and yet... it made a frightening amount of sense.

And what did this imply of Yuya? And Yuto, and the new arrival Yugo? Each of them apparently contained fragments of some world-destroying monstrosity, something Reiji wished to dismiss as mere fancy, yet he couldn't bring himself to. One word kept returning to his mind, unable to be banished, like a flea buzzing around him—pendulum. The creation of a new summoning method was known to be nigh-impossible, and yet Yuya, through some eldritch power, had managed the feat. Even more curiously, the boy had no recollection of the time he'd done it—something that seemed absurd, but what if it hadn't been Yuya?

What if the Supreme King was the true creator of Pendulum?

What might that imply?

Reiji shook his head. Conjecture was no use to him at this point. Speculating about a world-destroying threat was useless for his current goal—stopping his father's madness.

"Reiji, sir," Nakajima said. Somehow the man had crept up behind him while he was deep in thought. "We've detected a number of strong summoning energies throughout Maiami city. There's an extraordinarily strong Synchro signal—"

"Where?" Reiji said. Nakajima showed him the map, and Reiji shook his head. "That one is not important. What else?"

"Fusion. It's far stronger than anything that can be produced by an LDS student, and it's accompanied by a weak Xyz signal."

"Fusion and Xyz..." Reiji muttered. Could it be? "Show me the location."

"I'll get you the camera feed. She recently defeated Hokuto Shijima" Nakajima tapped at his tablet a few times, causing the screens in Reiji's office to flicker to life. A small figure wearing a cloak stood in what appeared to be one of the stadiums' backroom facilities, glancing around. The figure was around a head shorter than Reiji, and had a feminine physique. When the person finally faced the camera, the CEO's eyes widened in shock.

Standing there was someone who looked very much like Yuzu, but with purple hair instead of pink. He'd seen that exact person once before, three years ago. That time when he'd gone to the Fusion Dimension to get answers from his father...

Serena.

"What's she doing here?" Reiji muttered to himself. "Nakajima, secure the area. I'll deal with this myself." With that, he rose from his chair and headed towards the door, not waiting for a response. This was too valuable a chance to let slip away.

"There's someone heading there already, sir," Nakajima stated, switching cameras. One of the Youth students was walking to the stadium at a leisurely pace.

"Let him," Reiji said, stepping through the doors. "Close off the area when I give the signal."

"Yes, sir," Nakajima called, following the CEO out of the room.

I had wandered around directionless for several minutes before finally deciding on a destination. Yugo and Yuzu were nice, but they didn't have the resources to really do anything with the information. They weren't the ones who could monitor the entirety of Maiami city. They couldn't deploy a number of mooks to slow down invaders or travel between dimensions. Well, Yugo could, but it wasn't exactly controlled.

I needed to get this information to Reiji. He needed to be in the loop. I didn't know if it would help, but considering that my plan hinged on the Lancers being formed and being able to travel across dimensions, he would at least need to be able to defend himself against the Herald.

And to top it all off, I was truly scared. The Herald of the Supreme King had a good chance of taking on literally anyone here and winning, which meant that we wouldn't be encountering almost zero resistance like I'd expected. The good news was that he'd still struggle against multiple opponents, so if the worst happened, we could always just gang up on him.

Unless he had allies.

The question of whether the Herald was allied with Academia was still up in the air. Nothing seemed to point towards it, but he was positively insane, thus there was no telling where his allegiances may lie. Was he just one crazy guy, or was there a whole cult devoted to the Supreme King? There were so many questions, and so little evidence to go off of that one interaction. The more I analyzed it in my head, the more it seemed that his whole doomsday villain schtick was just a façade, and act to obfuscate information.

I shook myself out of my thoughts as I approached the Leo Corporation tower. Baseless theorization would do me no good right now.

By some miraculous coincidence, I arrived just as Reiji himself was exiting the building. I said a silent prayer to the guiding hand of the plot and walked over to him, falling into step next to him. He was walking quite quickly, with a strong sense of urgency.

"There's something you have to know," I began, before getting cut off.

"The Herald of the Supreme King?" Reiji asked. Wait, how did he know? Did he—

"You bugged my room," I said. It was an accusation, not a question. That... made a surprising amount of sense, and I couldn't really blame him for it. "Never mind. I have reason to believe that the Herald may be from my world."

I wasn't looking at him, but I could picture the look of shock on his face. "Your world?" he repeated.

"Indeed. He used what is probably one of the strongest decks where I'm from, and dueled similarly to how I do."

"That is a disturbing revelation," Reiji said. "As you are still here, I take it you won the duel. Thus there should be nothing to fear, no?"

"It was far too close for comfort," I responded, recalling how I'd been won at a mere 500 life points and the fierce back-and-forth we'd had. "Dueling him was like walking a razor's edge. We're evenly matched, and had I made one more mistake or drawn even slightly differently, I would've lost. Hell, he could've won if he'd played slightly better."

"I see," Reiji said. Though he attempted to hide it, I could hear the hint of fear in his voice.

Reiji turned, walking directly into a small alley, and I followed. Just where were we heading in such a hurry? I soon got my answer as we headed into a building that connected to one of the dueling stadiums I'd been in yesterday, within which two people stood. One was a tall, muscular man with an eyepatch, the other a short girl with purple hair. Barrett and Serena, then.

"You're not Xyz," Serena said. "Don't interfere."

I glanced across the room and noted the other person there. He looked positively bland compared to the other two people in the room.

"Run," Reiji ordered.

"What?" the other guy asked. "She challenged me! I'm not going to back down from this!"

"You dueled well, but you are no longer needed," Reiji stated. "Leave now."

The guy turned to leave, and Serena attempted to pursue him, but was stopped by Reiji grabbing her arm. "Let go!" Serena yelled, struggling in Reiji's grip. "Fine! If you're going to interfere, I'll just deal with you first!"

"Leave that to me, Miss Serena," Barrett said, shedding his overcoat and brandishing his duel disk. "The Professor asked me to keep you safe."

"The Professor..." Reiji repeated. "Do you mean Leo Akaba?"

Serena gave no response.

"Very well, then," Reiji said, readying his own duel disk. "Nakajima, close off the area."

"I'm going to duel today." Serena stated firmly, then pointed at me. "You! I'll duel you now."

I shrugged and strapped on my duel disk. "If you insist. You want to go first?"

Serena nodded as we drew our opening five. "I activate summon Lunalight Kaleido Chick and activate its effect! By sending one Lunalight monster from my deck or Extra Deck to the graveyard, Kaleido Chick copies its name! I send Lunalight Panther Dancer from my extra deck."

My opening five consisted of Longyuan, Blackout, Instant Fusion, Ashuna, and DRNM. DRNM probably wasn't useful here, but just Longyuan and Blackout was enough to OTK off an empty board. Ashuna opened up some interesting lines if I found a way to banish the Blackout.

"I activate Polymerization! The beast lurking in jet-black darkness! The lively white rabbit illuminated by moonlight! The cat prowling in the azure darkness! Swarm in the vortex of moon's gravity and become a new power! Fusion Summon! Come forth! Elegant beast dancing in the moonlit wilderness! Lunalight Leo Dancer!"

The ultimate Lunalight fusion flourished its sword as it descended, glowing with an otherworldly light. I glanced at my duel disk screen to read this new fusion's effects. Wait, this thing was a goddamn Towers monster in the anime? In the TCG it only had Dragoon levels of protection, if I remembered correctly. Regardless, Chengying would still be able to beat over it if I banished a few cards and Psychic End Punisher could crash.

"Lunalight Kaleido Chick's effect! Since it was used as fusion material, I can recover Polymeization from my graveyard. I set one card and end my turn!"

"I end my turn," Serena proclaimed. Of course, as she was empty-handed, there was no chance she'd be able to do anything on the crackback. All I needed to do was out Leo Dancer and I'd win.

"Draw for turn, standby, main," I said. Taia was perfect here. "I'll start out by specialing Ashuna from hand, then let's go for Longyuan pitch Blackout. Let's see... I'll make Baronne here, and I won't use the Longyuan burn. Baronne effect, pop the backrow."

Baronne held her blade in the air as another sword made of glowing light impaled the set card, destroying it. It looked to be some kind of irrelevant Lunalight trap that wasn't worth the cardboard it was printed on.

"Normal summon Taia," I continued. "Taia banish Blackout, make token, Blackout trigger, make token. Synchro for eleven into End Punisher, synchro for eight into, I don't know, Chixiao. Taia dump Mo Ye, Chixiao add Sacred Summit. Activate Instant Fusion for Norden."

[Joshua: 4000 - 3000]

Now that my LP was lower than Serena's, End Punisher would be able to beat over Leo Dancer. At this point, I'd basically won, but I wanted to style a bit.

"Norden effect, bring back Mo Ye, overlay for Redoer."

"An Xyz Summon?" Serena questioned. "I knew it! You are an Xyz refugee who came to Standard!"

"There are so many things wrong with that deduction," I deadpanned. "Anyway, enter battle phase?"

Though I'd phrased it as a question, I didn't expect an answer. Thus I continued. "At the start of the battle phase, Psychic End Punisher gains attack points equal to the difference in our life points. I'll swing over your Leo Dancer with End Punisher."

[Serena: 4000 - 3000]

"Baronne attacks for game," I finished.

[Serena: 3000 - 0]

"Impossible!" Serena yelled as Baronne's sword slash knocked her against a wall. "I'm an elite Academia soldier! I can't lose to some random Xyz user!"

"Oh, I'm not just some random Xyz user," I said with a grin. "But that's a story for another time. Why are you hunting down Xyz users, anyway?"

"Academia has a noble goal of unifying the four dimensions," Serena said, as if reading out of a textbook. Come to think of it, that phrase probably was in the textbooks there. Maybe they were used in Commiting Genocide 101.

"In order to achieve this goal, all Xyz duelists must be carded," she continued. "Only then can order be brought to the world."

"To clarify, it's just the duelists that need to be carded, right?" I asked, though I knew the answer.

"That's correct!" Serena agreed. "Carding a non-duelist would be extremely dishonorable."

"When Academia invaded the Xyz dimension..." I said, pausing for dramatic effect, "...they carded everyone. Man or woman, old or young, duelist or not... all of them fell at Academia's hand. I assume you weren't there?"

"I was forbidden from going on the front lines, but you have to be lying!" Serena accused. "You have to be! There's no way the noble Academia would stop that low."

"I wasn't there, as I'm not from Xyz, but I do know some people who are. I could call them, if you like." I glanced over at Reiji's ongoing duel with Barrett, where Reiji was slowly grinding through Barrett's ridiculous levels of recursion. Okay, we did have some time.

"I want answers," Serena stated firmly.

"All right then," I said, punching in Yuto's number to my duel disk. "Yuto! How goes it!"

"Joshua? Why are you calling right now?" Yuto asked. It seemed that he was chewing a mouthful of food.

"I have someone who wants to ask you a few questions about what happened to Heartland. Is that all right?"

"I suppose so," Yuto responded. "Let me just take this a bit more private."

"He's all yours," I said, handing the duel disk to Serena. After taking out my deck, of course. A few moments of silence later, Yuto's voice came through the duel disk.

"What kind of questions did you have?" he asked.

"When Academia invaded," Serena began, pausing to chose her words. "Did they only card the duelists, or... did they really kill everyone?"

"What kind of question is that?!" Yuto yelled. "Everyone knows that Academia carded everyone they saw! I remember the day they came. The city burned within minutes, and some streets were covered with people sealed within cards for weeks! They committed atrocities!"

"Academia took everything from us," another voice said. I recognized it as Shun's. "Our families, our friends, our city... they took my sister! They took Ruri from me!"

"...I was mislead," Serena admitted, hanging her head. I looked over at Reiji and saw him finally establishing lethal.

"Looks like we're a bit low on time," I said. "Got the answers you needed?"

Serena nodded wordlessly, handing me back my duel disk.

"Thanks for that, Yuto. Sorry I made you recall all that."

"I... it's fine. I can't change the past," Yuto said, before hanging up.

I saw Reiji's Flame High King Genghis deal the lethal blow against Barrett as I pocketed my duel disk. The muscular man stabbed a button on his duel disk as he fell to the floor.

"I apologize, Miss Serena," he said. "But I am under orders to keep you safe." With that, he vanished in a flash of blue light, presumably transported back to Academia.

"He called for a deployment of the Obelisk Force," Serena explained. "They're Academia's elite soldiers, and they'll be here in two days."

"If they're 'elite' in the same way you're 'elite', I doubt we'll have much trouble," I snarked. Upon retrospection, I found my statement to be a bit harsh.

"S-shut up!" Serena yelled. "That was a fluke!"

I shrugged. "If that's what helps you sleep at night."

"As entertaining as this is, we need to focus," Reiji said, stepping between us. "How many soldiers will Academia be sending?"

"I don't know the exact number, but at least twenty," Serena said. "They won't care who gets in their way, as long as they get me back. There's also a chance they'll send Yuri."

"Who exactly is Yuri?" Reiji asked.

"He's the Professor's personal enforcer, and it's said he has an extreme sadistic streak," Serena explained, beginning to pace across the room.

"I see," Reiji said. "Perhaps this will be the perfect test for my Lancers."

"Oy vey," I groaned. "Please tell me you don't plan to send kids with zero untrained combat experience into battle with Academia's elite."

"There's no need to worry," Reiji said. "If, like you predicted, the Obelisk Force is weak, then surely a duelist with the strength to make it into the top cut would be able to defeat them. On the other hand, if you're wrong, it's better we get this information now, rather than when we mount our invasion of Academia. Either way, we'll gain valuable information."

"You know what? Sure," I conceded. "It's not like I can do anything to stop you regardless. However... would it be possible for you to add carding technology to my duel disk before the invasion event?"

Reiji nodded. "It is. Based on the Xyz Dimension duel disks, we have a prototype, and it would be good to test it in a more controlled environment. We'll send you the experimental duel disk tomorrow."

"Perfect," I said. This way, I could just take down Obelisk Force on my own, before anyone else had a chance to get hurt. Piece of cake.

I turned to face Serena. "Do you have a place to stay in Standard?" I asked.

Serena shook her head. "No," she admitted. "I didn't think that far ahead."

I sighed. "You can crash at my place for a few days. I should have room."

"Are you planning to house all eight under your roof?" Reiji asked.

"How did you know about Yugo—oh, right, hidden cameras," I responded. "Only if you're willing to supply me with the space."

"Then I suppose the matter is settled," Reiji said. "Let us part now. I need to prepare."

I jiggled my keys into the lock of my apartment. Had I locked it when I'd left? I genuinely couldn't remember.

"Hi guys," I greeted brightly as I entered the apartment. "Anything happened while I was gone?"

I then surveyed the place, spotting Yugo and Yuzu glaring at each other over a pile of cards on the table. Upon closer inspection, those cards were Speedroid cards. I had a pretty clear image of what had happened.

"Never mind," I said, not wanting to cause an explosion of vitriol from either party. "We'll sort this out later. Yugo, Yuzu, this is Serena. Serena, these are Yugo and Yuzu."

"Really, Joshua? You leave for an hour and bring home a girl?" Yuzu snarked.

"Ha ha," I said. "She's your age. Far too young for me."

"She has the same face as Rin," Yugo pointed out. "If Rin's from Synchro and Yuzu's from Standard... she must be from Xyz!"

"Fusion," I corrected. "Long story short, she found out that Academia isn't as glorious as their propaganda said and she's defecting. You'll be rooming with her for the foreseeable future."

"I can't do that!" Yugo sputtered. "She's, well, a girl!"

"You lived with Rin," I pointed out. "How's this different?"

"Rin was, well, Rin! And we never shared a bed!"

"There are only two rooms and I'm not sharing mine," I said. Was it selfish? Yes, but it was completely justified. "Decision's final, sorry."

"You guys can sort this out, I'm heading home," Yuzu said, apparently having had enough of our inane arguments. "Thanks for lunch, Joshua."

"It was no problem," I said. "Come around anytime."

I turned my attention back to Yugo and Serena. "You two can go get to know each other, explore the place, whatever. I need to work on my deck."

"What happened?" Yugo asked. "Is it about her or the Herald guy?"

"The latter," I responded absentmindedly. "It's not enough that my deck is strong, it needs to be perfect."

"You're worrying too much," Yugo said. "I haven't known you for that long, but... it seems like you're a strong duelist with a good handle on things! Besides, you don't have to do it all yourself!"

I sighed and shook my head. "I don't want to risk letting any of you get hurt." The sensation of my body evaporating rushed back to me unbidden. I remembered the pain I'd felt that night. A single tiny mistake and it would've been much worse.

The Herald of the Supreme King was my problem to deal with. I couldn't risk any of my friends to his shadow games.

Author's Note: Thus concludes Chapter 9! A bit more fillerish than my usual style of chapter, but the next one will be the start of the Battle Royale, which will be either two or three chapters long, depending on how I want to divide it.