XV
There was a trend among the younger generation: an unspoken opinion that before they could stand out as a Duelist, they had to stand out as a person. Being children, this often meant that their idea of standing out meant standing out in a crowd—different styles of hair, different colors of hair, and sometimes even with different fashion statements that accentuated the inevitably vivid results, regardless of the dress code of whatever school they went to. Even a number of adults found themselves looking at different ways to show themselves off—what did it matter to kids how much yen someone had spent for the supercar they drove, or the designer, custom-tailored three-piece suit they wore, if they couldn't even bring out a 3000-ATK behemoth and use it to blow their opponent to kingdom come?
Masumi had been happy to count herself among the more conservatively dressed of all her peers in Maiami City—which was perhaps why she was so struck by the appearance of the new arrivals. Yes, arrivals—not just the one; she'd realized as much the moment she'd realized the splash right behind her hadn't been caused by one person.
She barely registered Emina Rika and Angel-IQ in her peripheral vision, hovering slightly behind and above them on their monsters; they hadn't bothered intruding into her Duel with Markus Streiter. Her eyes were locked squarely onto the blue- and red-haired girls that she'd seen once before—entwined not just hand-in-hand as they had been back then, but elbow-in-elbow as well—and so recently that she hadn't yet forgotten the face they shared.
They were much closer to her than before—but Masumi had been closer still to Hīragi Yuzu. And as the two girls came to their feet, Duel Disks ablaze with a scimitar-like blade she'd never seen before, she could distinguish at a glance the little peculiarities that set the two girls apart from the darling of You Show.
The Fusion ace doubted there was an inch or an ounce between her build and theirs, which made their resemblance to Yuzu that much more peculiar; Masumi had considered herself the leaner and more muscular of the pair, though only by way of more Dueling experience—with a bit of help from Hotene. She still stood slightly taller than both these girls, however, owing to the fact that they weren't standing up all the way straight. Wherever they'd gotten their Dueling education hadn't done wonders for their posture and poise in battle, she thought.
Most peculiar of all were their eyes—they matched the hair of their owner, but in different ways. One pair was blue, narrowed, and gazing right at Masumi, though never lingering on the same part of her for too long. The other pair was red—but in the wrong place; the whites of her wide, unmoving eyes were so bloodshot as to suggest a very bad case of conjunctivitis, or some kind of hemorrhaging. The dull, glassy gray that dominated her irises and pupils looked even less natural. The more Masumi looked at them, the more she was certain—
"It's rude to stare."
The Fusion user blinked, caught completely off guard by the brusque greeting. "I—what?"
The redhead was still gazing straight ahead, but her strange eyes had narrowed as well. "I can feel you staring at my eyes," she said. "And I think it's rude. I hope you don't gawk like this at every blind girl you run into."
"I've never met any—wait, blind?!" Masumi's protest was rather abruptly run off the road by how casually this girl had brought this up. All of a sudden, she had no real idea how to respond to this. "I-I didn't mean to—I'm—"
The blue-haired girl was already taking advantage of her stunned silence, however, and had begun weaving her free hand in complex patterns, at several points waving an open, kanji-marked palm in front of Masumi. The Fusion Duelist, intrigued, wondered if this girl was using sign language, and was therefore—
"Deaf? No—Kikyō and I can hear you and your thoughts just fine," said the redhead. "She sees what I can't see, I speak what she can't speak—"
"—and you're psychic enough that it doesn't matter what you can't do."
Masumi whirled around. Markus Streiter had been so quiet after his outburst that she'd almost forgotten about the man. But there he stood, red-faced and seething. So visceral was his sudden anger that she took a step backwards in shock.
"I had hoped to spare you, Masumi," the Kämpfer was fuming, "from meeting them face-to-face. These twins were supposed to be kept a secret—not just from your Dimension, but from Synchro and Xyz, and even most of my own. If you had half the sense and intelligence you pretended to have when Dueling me, you would use every card left in your Deck to overpower them here and now—and I would be more than pleased to assist you!"
The Fusion ace felt her head swivel helplessly towards the two sisters. "What's he … do you all know each other?!" she heard herself say, as though from the other end of the Maiami City stadium.
Both twins looked away, and in different directions. "It's a long story," said the redhead.
"Blödsinn!" snorted Streiter. "If they are too cowardly to say it, then I will!" He took a step in Masumi's direction. "The twins before you are extremely dangerous psi-level Duelists—as dangerous as Gwendolyn Grimm, whom I trained as my own student." He paused long enough to take in the look of blank shock on the faces of Masumi and Hotene. "But unlike her, they do not possess the training and education of even the greenest student of Academia—they are loose cannons who do not know the meaning of 'control', and even less of 'allegiance'! If they were to be left alone and unsupervised for even a minute—"
Streiter paused again, biting his tongue. "You have seen what they did to a single élite Duel School without the aids of their Decks," he said, gesturing to the damage inflicted on Ryōzanpaku. His voice was quieter, but much more strained, like he was biting back incredible fury. "Without the Ædonai, they would have no other purpose in life but to create chaos wherever they went. And where there is chaos, there must inevitably be order."
Masumi's mouth fell open. "So Reiji was right," she murmured, thinking back to the conversation they had shared right after the Ædonai had attacked. "You weren't just here to kidnap Yūya and Yuzu … you were here to kidnap them!" She pointed at the twins, infuriated beyond belief as more and more pieces began to fall into place.
"I was ordered to recover—"
But Masumi didn't even register Streiter's retort. "What's the matter?!" she goaded. "Was that witch you trained not psychic enough for you?! You just couldn't be content to make one monster?! No offense," she hurriedly added in an undertone, glancing at the twins and cursing under her breath at the slip of her tongue.
"None taken." But the redhead's smile looked as authentic as cubic zirconium. Masumi had no doubt that whatever sign language her sister Kikyō was using said and implied the exact same thing.
She was too incensed at Streiter to care about it for long, however. "We're not giving them up," she snarled at him. "Not to the likes of you." Hotene nodded once at the Kämpfer to echo her.
But Streiter, it seemed, could not be deterred. "You think you're the first Dimension they've crawled to for help?" he shot back. "That Ryōzanpaku was the first Duel School who turned them away? They are outcasts and pariahs wherever they walk because of what they can do! They have been looked at as freaks and monsters for as long as they can remember! But we were the first to give them purpose—we gave them a chance at a life where they would not be castigated for the simple crime of existence, but celebrated instead!"
"Yeah, right!" The wet raspberry Hotene blew his way only underscored the little girl's disdain for the Kämpfer. "You just wanna make more Grimms out of them!"
Streiter laughed. "There will never be another like Gwendolyn Grimm, I can promise you that," he said ominously. "She's prepared to tell you herself when she gets here, if you don't believe me."
Something froze inside Masumi's chest. "Dr. Grimm is coming here?!" Her voice was a bare whisper.
"Who better to look for a pair of Psychic Duelists than a Psychic Duelist who exceeds the both of them in strength?" said the Kämpfer in reply. "Of course … you can change all that, Masumi."
"I already told you I'm not giving them up to you, Markus," Masumi said angrily, in spite of her growing terror.
"You don't have a choice," was his casual reply. "You can fight until the bitter end in a Duel you cannot win—and the last thing you and your friends will see before I seal you will be me, taking these twins back under the Ædonai's wing where they belong. Alternatively," he said, and his face took on a thoughtful look that did not suit him at all, "you can surrender them to me—right here, right now—and I will cancel the Duel, and spare you and your friends."
Masumi had to admit it was a pretty good deal. It was a shame that Dr. Grimm had sprung one just like that on her, the first time they'd Dueled face-to-face; perhaps she might have been more willing to entertain it if that hadn't been the case.
Her Duel Disk chimed just then. A second message from Angel-IQ, displayed on the screen, told her that the supercomputer—or maybe even Himika—had anticipated this in some way:
They might just surprise you.
She turned towards the hologram, as covertly as she dared. Angel-IQ's blue eyes were fixed on the twins. Then they flicked to Masumi, and—so subtly that even the Fusion Duelist's keen eyes nearly missed it—she nodded.
She winked back. Then, a second later, she'd turned back to Streiter, and spoke two words—"Turn end!"—as forcefully as she could muster.
The decision had barely taken a second to make. Now all that was left to do was sit back and see if Angel-IQ had been right to bring these mysterious twins back with her.
They stepped forward as one, elbows locked, and LP gauges of 2000 above each of them. Kikyō and her sister had already drawn their five cards, and it was the former who took an additional step forward. Masumi held her breath.
But just as Kikyō was about to play a card, she'd stopped, looked at Masumi, and used her free hand for yet more sign language. More than once her blue eyes had darted towards her Gem-Knight Aquamarine.
"Kikyō wants to know if she can borrow your monster," said the redhead.
"Borrow it?" Masumi had noticed she was still staring straight ahead with those sightless eyes of hers, and so hadn't immediately heard the request. "Borrow it for what? How? We're not playing under Tag Duel rules!"
In response, Kikyõ held up a single card in Masumi's direction—a Spell. The Fusion ace barely saw the gray-and-black icon of a flame in one corner, and realized what she was trying to do right as Kikyō swiped her chosen card across her Duel Disk—without speaking a single word as to what that card was or what it could do.
But the effect was immediate: the moment the blue-haired girl started signing again with her free hand, Masumi's Aquamarine had seized up as though in some sudden, incredible pain. Cracks appeared in its armor, and a sinister hissing noise was coming from within, as though the warrior inside was being cooked alive. Instinctively, she covered her eyes, turning away—
BOOM. Quicker than it took for her to put to words, Aquamarine had been disintegrated, blown apart by whatever force had been birthed by that Spell Card Kikyō had used. In its place stood an ugly, purple-skinned monster clad in white-and-gold armor and a webbed black cape. Perhaps it had been human once; the crimson hair that spilled from its many-eyed head looked uncannily like that of Kikyō's sister (Level 6: ATK 2600 » 1300/DEF 2100). Masumi wondered if this was what her Aquamarine looked like under all that armor—
Aquamarine! Immediately she tabled whatever had just happened for later—she just realized that there might have been a second reason as to why Kikyō had destroyed her monster. She checked her Duel Disk—and smirked.
"Finally—Gem-Knight Aquamarine's effect!" the Fusion user crowed. "If it's sent from the field to the Graveyard for any reason, I can target 1 card my opponent controls, and return it to the hand! I target Gladial Rejection!"
Streiter tensed—and that just made Masumi smirk even wider. At last, she'd found a weakness in his perfect defense—a chink in his armor that they could exploit. Whether or not it counted depended on what they did next.
"What the heck just happened?!" Hotene wanted to know.
A quick check of the history function in Masumi's Duel Disk told her what she already knew, and more besides. "Kikyō Released my Aquamarine as part of a Ritual Summon," she replied back. "That triggered its effect to get Markus' Rejection off the field—and makes his monsters that much more vulnerable!"
What she hadn't known until then was exactly how it had happened—for Kikyō still had yet to utter a single word during her turn. That had forced Masumi to check the progress of the turn on her Duel Disk, where she'd found that the Ritual Spell Kikyō had used—one Forbidden Secret Arts of the Ritua—could use anyone's monsters on the field for a Ritual Summon, including her opponent's … and even whatever player had allied with her in a Battle Royale.
That alone had left Masumi stunned for a moment. I've never heard of a Ritual Spell that powerful!
The downside, as with so many powerful cards in Duel Monsters these days, was that whatever Ritual Monster this Forbidden Secret Arts was used to Summon—in this case, something her Duel Disk had called Eviritua Tetraogre—had its ATK cut in half in the process. But Kikyō didn't seem to care; even as Streiter's Final Attack Orders still remained on the field, leaving it at the mercy of Domitianius and Nerokius—each of whom were salivating at the thought of tearing this monster to shreds—she still remained calm and collected.
And now she was swiping a second Spell Card across her Duel Disk—this one just a regular Spell, Masumi noted, called Communication with the Ceremonial Water Mirror—before looking expectantly at the Fusion ace again.
An instant later, her sister spoke up. "I don't know why Kikyō's trusting you this quickly, Kōtsu Masumi. But she wants to keep on trusting you—and she wants to know how well you trust her." Somehow she must have sensed the Fusion Duelist's confusion, because she continued on: "That Spell you saw her activate lets her look at any player's Set Spells and Traps, or the top two cards in their Deck and rearrange them, if she controls a WATER-Attribute monster. If that monster's a Ritual Monster, like this Tetraogre, she can do both. And she wants to choose you."
"Huh?!" Now Masumi was really confused—the fact that they somehow knew her name meant so little to her right now. "Why me?"
"Because Duels seem to be how people make friends around here," the redhead said matter-of-factly. "And there's no one else in this Duel with any Set cards on their field except for you. It'd be a waste of a good card otherwise."
Masumi raised an eyebrow. She's got me there, she admitted to herself. "All right, then—I trust you."
That seemed to be all Kikyō needed. The moment she'd nodded back at Masumi, a golden, flawless mirror had materialized in her free hand. She stared into its depths, her nose almost touching the light made solid that formed the reflective surface—and then her silent lips twitched in a smile. Seconds later, Masumi heard a thwip-thwip noise from her Duel Disk; instinctively, she knew Kikyō had seen the two cards at the top of her Deck, and decided they could be better ordered after all. She couldn't help but bite her lip at this.
Especially since she might not survive long enough to find out what those cards might be.
Kikyō signed something briefly, and then stepped back with a look at her sister. Immediately, the redhead stepped forward in her place. "My turn!" she cried, breaking the silence with a gusto that made Masumi wince in surprise.
"First—I activate the effect of the Nekroz of Areadbhair in my hand!" The blind Duelist held a single, blue-edged card aloft—how did she know which card it was if she couldn't even see them? Masumi wondered—and continued on: "By discarding it to my Graveyard, I can Release up to 2 Nekroz monsters in my hand or face-up from my field, and send that many Nekroz cards from my Deck to my Graveyard!"
Two more cards followed her Nekroz of Areadbhair from her hand—and then two more were ejected from her Deck and slid into her Graveyard slot. "The monsters I Released from my hand were Great Sorcerer of the Nekroz and Exa, Warrior of the Nekroz," the redhead went on. "And because I Released them with a card effect, I can activate their effects, and add a Spellcaster- and Dragon-Type Nekroz Ritual Monster from my Deck to my hand!"
Masumi briefly saw another flash of blue from the edges of the brace of cards this unknown Duelist had swiped up, and felt a sudden thrill. Ritual Monsters … She'd honestly forgotten the last time she'd watched a Duelist use such cards. Probably Hōchun Mieru, she thought; the ace student of Unno Divination who—last she'd heard—was still nursing a major crush on Sakaki Yūya. And even she possessed only the one in her Deck … yet this nameless, blind girl had already proved herself to possess at least three such monsters—and without even Summoning them!
She felt her head swimming despite herself. What the hell is going on here?!
"Next—the Spell Card: Preparation of Rites!" shouted the girl, revealing another card and swiping it over her blade. "With this card, I can add a Level 7 or lower Ritual Monster from my Deck to my hand, and then add a Ritual Spell from my Graveyard to my hand!" And before Masumi could blink, another brace of cards—each from a different place in her Duel Disk, had been gathered up and added without hardly any hesitation. "Then, since I control no monsters, I can activate the other card I sent to my Graveyard with Areadbhair—a second Ritual Spell: Reincarnation Technique of the Nekroz! By banishing it and another Nekroz monster from my Graveyard, I can add another Nekroz Spell from my Deck to my hand! I banish my Exa, Warrior of the Nekroz!"
The Fusion ace, still staring raptly at the unfolding action, felt a chill race across her skin just now. It felt as though the seasons had chosen this exact moment to change from summer to winter—blowing past autumn like it wasn't even there—and sending the temperature down so rapidly in doing so that she might have just walked into a freezer.
"Now I'll Summon my Shurit, Caster of the Nekroz in Attack Position!" declared the girl, slamming a card onto her blade and generating the hologram of a most unusual-looking boy: redheaded just like the girl, but with silver bangs, and possessed of one red eye and one bright blue (Level 3: ATK 300/DEF 1800).
"And now," said the girl, her sightless, bloodshot eyes widened, "I'll play the Nekroz Demon-Summoning Mirror I retrieved with my Preparation of Rites! With this card, I can Ritual Summon a Nekroz monster from my hand, by Releasing monsters from my hand or field or banishing Nekroz monsters from my Graveyard! And while I'd normally have to make sure their Levels equal the Level of the monster I Summon," she added, "I don't have to here, because the monster I'm Releasing—my Shurit, Caster of the Nekroz—can be used as the entire sacrifice for any one Nekroz monster I Ritual Summon thanks to its effect! GO!"
She can Ritual Summon a monster of any Level now?! Masumi swallowed. I've never seen that before either!
Shurit now unsheathed the sword he carried by his side, bringing the large, mirror-polished surface at its hilt to his breast. Masumi had just enough time to think it looked like an actual mirror before it flashed with blue light—and without warning, the sword suddenly erupted in blades of ice, engulfing the weapon from edge to pommel quicker than it took to draw breath. Nor did it stop there; the ice spread over Shurit's body and clothes like sentient armor, forming reptilian legs, a scything tail, and even the beginnings of glittering wings from his back:
"Youthful warrior who wields the icebound armor of destruction, I humbly invoke your name!"
"Ritual Summon!" the girl chanted. "Surge from the frozen sea! Level 6! Nekroz of Brionac!"
The icy wings unfurled at last, revealing a striking sight. Nekroz was older now—perhaps a few years older than Masumi, and taller than her by at least a head. But for his hair and eyes, he might have been unrecognizable—such was the extent of his new armor. Clawed gauntlets shimmered with condensation as they gripped his sword tightly, and the six edges of his helm—one jutting from below his chin, another from each cheek, and three more atop his brow, had come together to form the striking, unmistakable visage of a dragon (Level 6: ATK 2300/DEF 1400).
"Shurit's second effect activates when it's Released by a card effect," the blind Duelist went on, apparently immune to the frigid air that her monster seemed to generate just by existing, "and lets me add a Warrior-Type Nekroz Ritual Monster from my Deck to my hand!" She did so. "Now I'll activate the same card I banished my Reincarnation Technique to add to my hand—a second Ritual Spell: Nekroz Kaleidomirror!"
Together, she and Kikyō dropped to a knee—and Masumi started: three sheets of ice, each the height and breadth of Streiter himself, had erupted from behind the twins. Holograms they might have been, but each was so clear as to display not only their wielder's perfect mirror image in each one, but the Kämpfer's as well—even the sudden agitation that now adorned his face.
"When I activate this," she said, smirking, "I can send 1 monster from my hand, my field, or my Extra Deck to the Graveyard … and Ritual Summon monsters from my hand whose total Levels equal that sent monster's Level!"
The Fusion ace nearly collapsed in shock. Did I just hear that right?!
Hotene, behind her, sounded even more confused. "Did she just say monsters?!" she shrieked, thinking out loud. "Like—more than one?! You can't Ritual Summon two monsters at a time! No one can—it's impossible!"
"So was Contact Fusion, once," said the blind Duelist, narrowing her eyes at Streiter in clear hatred. "Now, from my Extra Deck, I send the Level 12 Shura the Supremacy Star"—she slid a violet-edged monster into her Graveyard slot—"and Ritual Summon not one monster, not even two—but all three Nekroz Ritual Monsters in my hand!"
Masumi completely forgot her amazement at witnessing an act she'd never once thought could even be attempted; her gaze, still fixated on the redhead's multiple reflections behind her, had also seen Markus Streiter tense in shock:
"I have completed the trials. I have mastered the secret arts. Now, I have delivered the ultimate sacrifice!"
Several things happened as the girl began chanting at the top of her lungs; shadowy wraiths flickered into the icy sheets, engulfing their depths like so many tongues of black flame. Then, a mere instant later—CRACK—some inner force had splintered them into a billion shards, and even as Masumi watched wild-eyed at the scene, their remnants were gathered in fell winds, creating glittering tornadoes behind their sightless mistress—
"KALEIDO RITUAL REFLECTION!" screamed the girl. "Shatter the frozen sea, and assemble! Level 3, Nekroz of Clausolas! Level 4, Nekroz of Unicore—and Level 5, Nekroz of Catastor!"
The monsters that emerged from the storms of wind and ice could not have differed more from one another. One Masumi easily recognized as a cocky, grinning Shurit, encased in green-and-gold armor that made him look more bird than boy—he even had feathered wings and a tail trailing from his hips and spine, more feathers adorning the blade of his sword, and most bizarrely of all, a beaked face adorning his chest (Level 3: ATK 1200/DEF 2300). To his left was a young man in splendid white-and-gold plate, swathed in a blue cloak and bearing a multi-bladed lance. The single spike adorning his crown, and the bushy tail that hung from his belt like some strange trophy, conjured images of a unicorn stallion in Masumi's mind (Level 4: ATK 2300/DEF 1000). To his left stood the strangest of the three by far: a blue-skinned, multi-finned hulk of a lizard, taller by half than she stood, and twice as broad at the shoulder. White-and-black gauntlets, shined to a mirror polish, pulsed with sinister red energy, and the slashing golden edges that tipped each one flexed and curled with the monster's own claws (Level 5: ATK 2200/DEF 1200).
Seeing these three creatures—all Ritual Monsters to a one—made their existence seem doubly unreal to Masumi. To think this girl—this blind, psychic girl—had done all this with just one card … She could not repress a swallow.
"Thieves!"
And then, all at once, Markus Streiter had shattered all sense of awe and mystique. The Kämpfer was angrier than ever; his face had turned a shade of red that did not suit his gray crew cut at all.
"You would dare use that card against me?!" he bellowed. "It was never yours to wield in the first place—you stole it from its rightful owner!"
"Like it helped him," the sightless girl sneered back in reply. "Shura does a lot more good in my Duel Disk than it ever did with Kachidoki Isao. And I'll tell you something else." Her smirk grew wider, and for a moment Masumi wondered if she really could see through those bloodied eyes. "It's not even the first Fusion Monster we've taken. You think your Ædonai keeps a firm grip on the Fusion Dimension? You can't even figure out how many of your weapons are missing because of the resistance in your own Kingdom! Sakaki Yūshō kept more than just refugees and runaways safe—he also kept the monsters that they had the courage to steal from right under your nose! Five God Dragon, Master of Dragon Knight … even a little something called Arm—"
Whatever this "little something" was, Masumi had no clue what it might be; Streiter's twin terrors, Domitianus and Nerokius, had let fly just then with bellowing, screeching roars of such rage that the girl's diatribe was completely drowned out. The Fusion user felt her blood run cold, sensing at once that the blind Duelist had just crossed a line.
Sure enough, Streiter looked thoroughly beside himself, as bestial as any one of the many, many monsters that lived in his Deck. "In all the years I have served the Fusion Dimension," he growled, "I have never once disobeyed even a single order. But this time … this one time … I have never been more tempted than with the both of you!"
He balled his shovel-sized hands into fists so tight that Masumi heard the knuckles popping, even from the distance between them. "But unlike you, I still know the meaning of 'duty'. So I will restrain myself—but when I am done with you, I promise you this: you will be in no shape to escape even the lowest of Ædonai again—and certainly not Gwendolyn Grimm. And when she finds you—"
"Let her," said the redhead snidely. "We'll just do the same thing to her that we're about to do to you!" And then, without further ado, she threw out a hand. "I activate Nekroz of Brionac's effect! I can target up to 2 monsters on the field that were Special Summoned from the Extra Deck, and shuffle them into the Deck! And since Masumi got rid of your Gladial Rejection card, that means I can target—"
"It's useless!" Streiter shot back. "Gladial Beast Domitianus' effect! If a monster effect is activated, I can negate it, and destroy the monster that—"
He broke off. The angry red in his face was fading rapidly, leaving behind ugly blotches that made him look as if he had a bad case of hives. His gray-blue eyes had turned almost as glassy as those of the blind girl who'd insulted him so thoroughly, and it was apparent to Masumi that he'd seen something on the battlefield that he did not like at all.
"Don't tell me," smirked the redhead. "You can't activate your monster's effect, can you?"
The Kämpfer did not give her the dignity of a reply. But Masumi had seen his fingers begin to tremble, and guessed they'd already said enough. "What have you done?!" he demanded.
"Ask my Nekroz of Unicore," said the girl. The warrior in question leveled his lance—its many blades now glowing with light and thrumming with an ominous hum—at Streiter at the sound of his name. "As long as I control it, every single monster on the field that was Special Summoned from the Extra Deck has its effects negated—which leaves me free to use my Brionac's effect on any 2 monsters I want. Like your Gladial Beasts Domitianus and Nerokius!"
"YES!" Masumi didn't even bother hiding her jubilation; she'd punched the air with a fist in joy as Brionac spread the wings of his armor and soared aloft. Then—with one single wingbeat—a veritable storm of ice and chilly winds erupted on the battlefield, the gusts so strong that the Fusion Duelist was knocked right onto her backside, and even the behemoth that was Hotene's Rider Gaiapelio found itself being pushed back from the sheer force they carried.
Streiter's monsters weren't so lucky. The Fusion Duelist had just enough time to see both Domitianus and Nerokius roar one final time before all that ice Brionac had conjured began to coat their bodies in full. Within seconds it was already so dense and thick that their limbs hung leaden by their sides. Domitianus' trident hit the earth with a final CLANG, and Nerokius' wings drooped pitifully from its back—but the ice still continued to encapsulate them.
Finally, it stopped, and the air was mercifully clear and warm once more—but the two monsters that had tormented the LID for half this Duel were now nothing so much as two mountains of jagged ice, the frozen forms beneath having collapsed under the sheer weight of it all. A second later, the ice itself had collapsed as well.
Next to Masumi, Hotene's legs were wobbling. "Whoa … " the tiny Duelist could only whisper.
By the time the blind Duelist's Brionac had come back down to earth, the awestruck Fusion ace saw nothing left behind of the Kämpfer's field but a pair of Continuous Traps, his ever-present Colosseum—and two gigantic, half-melted piles of watery slush that betrayed no sign that the Gladial Beasts imprisoned within had ever existed.
The redhead sniffed. "Nobody calls Hamabe Kiku useless," she declared. "I end my turn!" And all four—four! Masumi continued to think in amazement—Ritual Monsters this girl, Kiku, had Summoned now stood to attention, their blades, claws, and all manner of other weapons pointed right at Streiter as if challenging him to break through her field. The Fusion Duelist privately admitted that she wasn't sure how he could.
As Streiter drew his card, though, she couldn't help but think he looked desperate enough to try. All of a sudden, his impenetrable field had been broken in half with almost literally one single card—all of a sudden, he looked like he needed the luckiest of draws to even survive. And from the glint that had suddenly sparked in his eyes, it looked as though the Kämpfer had gotten exactly the card he needed.
" … Masu-chan?" Hotene piped up just then.
Her voice sounded so destitute that Masumi whirled her way. "What is it?"
The tiny Duelist's messy hair looked flatter than ever. "That girl's Unicore didn't just mess up Markus' monsters—it's doing the same to my Riders!"
She gestured frantically at her Petolphin—which Masumi now saw had lost its normal shimmering sheen, on both rider and dolphin. "I can't de-fuse my monster anymore!" she wailed. "She's made me a sitting duck!"
A strangled sob clutched at her words as Masumi rounded on the twins, Kiku and Kikyō. Both of them had frozen where they stood. Kiku had torn her sightless eyes from Streiter at last, and stared at Hotene in growing horror.
"How unfortunate." Streiter, on the other hand, wore a snarl so feral that he no longer looked human. "I did warn you that those girls were undisciplined," he told them. "When you're as frightened and alone as they are, the only people you can count on is yourself. They've learned to fight alongside each other … but never with anyone else." He shook his head. "Loose cannons, as I said. They were fools to ally themselves with you—but you are even more so for giving them your allegiance in the first place! NOW!"
He drew himself to his full height, and acted without further ado. "First, I reactivate my Continuous Spell: Gladial Rejection," he began, placing a card on his Duel Disk, "and then"—he slammed a second one onto his blade—"I re-Summon Gladial Beast Lanista in Attack Position!"
Masumi bit her lip. Full circle. She remembered this avian warrior from the very first turn of the Duel—the first monster Streiter had Summoned in a Deck packed to bursting with them (Level 4: ATK 1800 » 3000/DEF 1200 » 2400). The scarlet lance in its claws slashed and stabbed as though it had a mind of its own, hungry for blood.
"All I needed was one monster," Streiter growled, a nasty grin playing over his lips, "just one. It didn't matter how weak—I've tagged out enough of my Gladial Beasts that my terrain program can do the rest. BATTLE PHASE!"
Lanista tensed, spear at the ready. "Gladial Beast Torax—destroy Rider Petolphin!" Spittle and foam flew from the Kämpfer's mouth. "Expurgate in infirma!"
"NO!" But it was too late for Hotene to run. Not that she didn't try; she'd turned as if to flee, but slipped on part of the waterlogged Colosseum and tumbled to the ground. By then Lanista had broken into a full sprint, holding its spear aloft—it hurled the weapon like a thunderbolt, straight and true—
SHLCK. The sickening noise made Masumi grateful she'd turned away in time; Rider Petolphin had time for one final squeal of fright before Lanista had pierced both rider and mount with its spear. But Lanista did not stop there; it kept on going, flapping its armored wings once—and finally body-checked a helpless Hotene before she'd had a chance to cry out. She careened into the doors of the Ryōzanpaku gate at full speed, sailing through them and disappearing from view. The last Masumi saw of her was her limp, senseless body tumbling down the great stone staircase that led to the school, her Duel Disk emitting a tinny squeal in defeat.
"Hotene, NO!" Rika immediately dismounted from her monster, sprinting after her.
Rider Gaiapelio, having outlasted its defeated Summoner, disappeared in a shower of photons. Masumi felt sick at what she had witnessed. The twins, Kiku and Kikyō, looked equally green.
Streiter didn't bother giving the empty gate a second glance. "You'll be learning a more painful lesson than that before the Golem is through with you," he addressed the latter pair, as Lanista stalked back to his side. "That ends my Battle Phase, and activates my Lanista's effect—by shuffling it into my Deck, I can Special Summon another Gladial Beast monster from my Deck in its place! Tag Out—Gladial Beast Darius!"
With a flash of light, Lanista was gone from human vision—only to be replaced by an equally berserk-looking, horse-headed warrior (Level 4: ATK 1700 » 2900/DEF 300 » 1500). And even as Masumi looked on, Streiter's Colosseum had already conferred its benefits on the beast, bringing its gauge to 3000/1600 in the blink of an eye.
"Darius' effect activates when it's Special Summoned by a Gladial Beast monster's effect," the Kämpfer told them all, "and lets me target and Special Summon another Gladial Beast monster from my Graveyard with its effects negated! I target and Special Summon Gladial Beast Dicaerii—and then," he bellowed, watching a ram-headed, purple-skinned hulk raise its armored fists to its breast (Level 4: ATK 1600 » 2900/DEF 1200 » 2500), "since a Gladial Beast was Special Summoned from my Deck, my Gladial Rejection activates as well, and Special Summons yet another Gladial Beast whose Monster Type differs from the monsters I already control! I Special Summon the Winged Beast-Type Gladial Beast Augustol!"
The only sign of this monster's arrival was a growing shadow on the field. Then—THUD—the mammoth wings of Augustol had eclipsed both of Streiter's monsters, with the abomination of bird and reptile in between them flexing its four arms and screeching to the skies (Level 8: ATK 2600 » 3900 » 4000/DEF 1000 » 2300 » 2400), further invigorated by the swell of power it received from the Colosseum around it.
Streiter brought his hands together with a BOOM. "Now," he rumbled, "I shuffle my Darius and my Dicaerii back into my Deck—and Special Summon another Fusion Monster from my Extra Deck!"
At his command, both muscle-bound monsters burst into white light, clasping each other's hands all the while. Masumi bit her lip, grateful—if for nothing else—that whatever he brought out next wouldn't be the end of her:
"Primal charioteer of ancient times! Merge with the souls of gladiators and become a warrior of legend!"
"Contact Fusion!" cried the Kämpfer. "Come! Gladial Beast Esedari!"
What emerged was unlike any Gladial Beast Masumi had ever seen Summoned: from the waist up, it was a gorilla more massive than any she'd ever seen in the city zoo, wielding a truly wicked cudgel and a spike-tipped shield that each looked as though they weighed more than she did, and thrummed with electricity. Its legs, however, were encased within an equally huge chariot covered in burnished fiery armor, and it was on this that the monster turned to face Masumi at last, growling with feral fury (Level 5: ATK 2500 » 3900/DEF 1400 » 2800).
Masumi could not help but steal a glance at Kikyō; hoping against all hope that whatever she drew next would have the strength to break through this latest addition to Streiter's wall of power. But Kikyō was not meeting her gaze, nor was she signing with her free hand. Her attention was focused solely on Esedari—and perhaps, the Fusion Duelist pondered, what might have happened to Hotene if her sister Kiku had paid more attention to her allies.
It took a short while before she realized Streiter had ended his turn. The Kämpfer looked as though he'd regained some of his old bluster—his field was intact once more, if slightly weaker than before, but he appeared assured of meeting any challenge she posed to him. He hadn't opted for another Triple Contact Fusion, even though he could have brought out Nerokius again—he clearly didn't want another repeat of what had happened with Kiku's Brionac.
So it all comes down to this, Masumi thought, glancing at the top of her Deck. I'm risking it all because of a girl I only just met today. For some reason, that gave her a strange sort of comfort. It hadn't been the first time she'd put her trust in complete strangers, after all—even if Hotene, Shen, and Fuyu didn't have psychic powers of their own.
She took one more glance at the twins, and noticed to her pleasant surprise that Kikyō was finally looking her in the eye once more. Blue as blue could be, they were—as blue as her own—
—Aquamarine—
—a rock formed in the recesses of her mind, ready to be whittled away—
Grind.
Masumi looked to the only card left on her field—the final Trap she'd laid for Streiter—
Sand.
—she checked her Graveyard, and saw the perfect target for her Trap—
Lap.
—her keen eyes flicked back to her hand, exposing another bit of the gem at which her brain labored away—
Polish.
"It's–"
—her fingers tensed—
"—my—"
—drew—
"TURN!"
—her gaze alighted on the card to her hand—
Et voilà.
The crown jewel complete, its light dazzled her eyes—but the grin that split her lips outshined even this radiance. "I activate the Continuous Spell: Brilliant Fusion!" crowed Masumi, swiping the card over her Duel Disk. "With this card, I can Fusion Summon a Gem-Knight monster from my Extra Deck by using monsters in my Deck as Fusion Material, and set that Summoned monster's ATK and DEF to zero! And I choose to fuse Gem-Knight Lapis, Gem-Knight Lazuli, and Gem-Knight Emeral! Let's go!"
And as she threw her hand aloft, she sensed her chosen trio appearing above her—two slender females in armor, flanking a burly warrior with a saw-bladed buckler on its left arm—right before the vortex of swirling energy erupted in the skies above, like the eye of God watching over her:
"Blue and green stones that hide mysterious power! Brilliant emerald of good fortune! In a whirlpool of light, combine to bring forth a new dazzling radiance!"
The eye flashed with white lightning, and Masumi chanced a glance upwards, seeing the warrior forming inside—
"FUSION SUMMON!" she bellowed. "This is my true ace! Dazzling lady, Gem-Knight Lady Brilliant Dia!"
She dropped to a knee with scarce a second to spare—the strongest monster in her arsenal hit the earth with a THUD that might have been heard all the way back in Maiami City. But the force of the impact had come at a price: though the knight, all of fifteen feet in height, brandished its gleaming saber at Streiter as though nothing had happened, the Fusion Duelist saw no luster to the armor of her pride and joy (Level 10: ATK 3400 » 0/DEF 2000 » 0).
"And what is it that you're trying to accomplish?" demanded the skeptical Kämpfer. "Did you forget that your so-called allies are negating the effects of your monster?"
Masumi ignored him. "When I used my Gem-Knight Lazuli as Fusion Material, I activated her effect—if she's sent to the Graveyard by a card effect, I can target a Gem-Knight Normal Monster in my Graveyard and return it to my hand! I'll target and add my Gem-Knight Saphire—and then Summon it in Attack Position!" Before she'd even finished speaking, a much smaller knight—blue-armored with fists that seethed with frothing water—had materialized next to her Brilliant Dia (Level 4: ATK 0/DEF 2100).
"Zero times two is still zero," smirked Streiter. "It seems as though you've been betrayed—if not by your allies, then the very cards in your Deck!"
That was when Masumi smirked back—and sprang her snare at last. "Trap Card, open: Gem-Enhance!" she yelled. "By Releasing a Gem-Knight monster I control, I can target a different one in my Graveyard and Special Summon it to my field! So I choose to Release my Gem-Knight Saphire—and Special Summon my Gem-Knight Aquamarine!"
"What?!"
Streiter pulled back, eyes widened in surprise. Masumi had just enough time to take this in before she remembered to back away. She did so just in time: with a BANG and a whizz of crumpled armor that flew past her like so much shrapnel, Saphire had been blown apart from within—but the walking tank that was Aquamarine had assumed its place almost in the same instant (Level 6: ATK 1400/DEF 2600), planting its bladed shield in the earth with a grunt.
"Here's what Kikyō and I think of your math lesson, Streiter!" She made sure to steal a wink at the mute Duelist before playing the card that Kikyō's Communication with the Ceremonial Water Mirror had made it possible for her to draw. "I activate the Spell Card: Particle Fusion!"
The Kämpfer froze in place. "Another Fusion card?!" His gruff voice wavered—and Masumi had seen the pupils of his stormy gray eyes shrink in sudden fear.
She grinned. "Another Fusion card," she echoed back. "And this one lets me Fusion Summon a Gem-Knight monster from my Extra Deck by using monsters on my field as Fusion Material! So I'll fuse my Aquamarine and my Brilliant Dia—which means you know what happens next, right?"
Another step backward. "Nein." Streiter's voice was whisper-quiet—but Masumi had heard, and felt her heart sing with immense satisfaction.
"That's right!" she screamed as a second vortex billowed in the skies above her, far bigger than its predecessor, and sucking in both her Fusion Monsters without any further ado. "When my Aquamarine is sent from the field to the Graveyard, her effect lets me target any card my opponent controls, and return it to the hand—and because my Gem-Enhance Special Summoned it from the Graveyard, and not the Extra Deck," the Fusion ace added, feeling yet more savage pleasure at watching Streiter squirm after being tormented by his Deck for so long, "that means Nekroz of Unicore won't negate its effect! So I'll get rid of your Gladial Naumachia this time—and Summon this as well!"
With one final effort, Aquamarine flung its shield at Streiter—narrowly missing the German, but shearing through the hologram of his precious Continuous Trap. For the second time this Duel, he was forced to replace a part of his precious combo in his hand—leaving Masumi's duo of monsters to be subsumed in the hurricane of color above her:
"Dazzling paragon of diamonds!" Masumi howled. "Ice-blue shield of honor! In a whirlpool of light, combine to bring forth a new dazzling radiance!"
"FUSION SUMMON! One who illuminates the shadows with unyielding resolution! Gem-Knight Zirconia!"
If her Brilliant Dia's arrival could have been sensed in Maiami City, then the appearance of her Zirconia might well have been felt by every person in mainland Japan. How Masumi managed to stay upright after the meteoric impact her newest monster made upon hitting the field would be a mystery until her dying day. Maybe she'd been doing it enough over this past year that it barely fazed her anymore. Perhaps she was just that intent on proving to Streiter that the old ways were best—that for all his experience and innovation, nothing beat the classics.
Or maybe she was just that angry at him for all that he'd done to her friends, her city—her entire way of life.
Whatever the truth, Masumi's Gem-Knight Zirconia now stood tall over every other monster in play, towering over her like an oak among saplings. She felt a swell of pride as she saw its indigo cape snapping in the mountain air, watched its silver armor glint in the sun from helm to heels—and in between, the gigantic, crystalline pile-drivers that served as its fists, striking the ground in challenge to Streiter's monsters and creating yet more craters with every blow (Level 8: ATK 2900/DEF 2500).
Those fists now began to brim with silver energy—and overflow with it moments later. "Particle Fusion's second effect activates immediately after it Fusion Summons a monster," Masumi explained, savoring every word she spoke so as to rub it in the Kämpfer's face even more, "and banishes it from my Graveyard. Then, I can target one of the monsters in my Graveyard I used for that Fusion Summon, and make the monster I Fusion Summoned gain that target's ATK for the rest of the turn! And you'd better believe I'll be targeting my 3400 ATK Brilliant Dia!"
By now there was so much energy radiating from Zirconia that the waterlogged ground beneath it had not only dried up, but cracked and cratered under the monster and the weight its hard-light hologram carried. The knight stood tall, and leveled his fists right at Streiter, but made neither sound nor speech. It did not need to—the titanic ATK gauge of 6300 above its head spoke for itself.
Until that point, an unthinkable thought had been building up inside the mind of Markus Streiter.
He had known from the beginning that these kids were not to be underestimated—certainly not after what they had done to one of his most powerful students. Nor did one learn to become overconfident in their abilities after three decades of service to their kingdom. And he was more than aware that the Deck he used as his weapon was built more for single combat than anything else—for such was the height of the human experience: to struggle against an opponent of equal strength, that each might prove their claim of dominance over the other.
But Streiter, ever the tactician, knew it was never that simple. There were always variables—always unknowns that had to be accounted for. As he always said to the students he'd taught, and later still the soldiers he'd trained: "If all you can think about the battle to come is the battle itself, then you have already lost." For he understood that human beings were not pieces on a chessboard, to be moved and removed at the will of their commander—no more than the battlefield on which they fought could be a chessboard at all. The real fight, in his mind, was against the battlefield itself: to fight in the most opportune conditions—or, if this could not be done, to alter them until it suited their methods. Chessboards weren't minefields, after all, no more than they were fields in Duel Monsters.
It was this mindset that proved the genesis for the terrain program within his Duel Disk, the progenitor for so many others used by Academia and Ædonai alike. But what to do when fighting an enemy who'd fought on manipulated terrain in the past? Such tricks only worked once if they were smart enough. Yet it was here that the Kämpfer's abilities as a strategist truly shone: the field itself could be a Duelist's only secret weapon—but so could the very nature of the Duel itself. To the trained soldier, Action Cards could be discard fodder for monster abilities and more besides—a demonstration he had been only too happy to conduct for Sakaki Yūshō. Tag Duels could turn Decks against each other if the teammates you were fighting were too incompatible. And Battles Royale, as the LID had learned, could devolve into muddy slogs by influencing the very allegiance your opponents had forged to fight you.
So it was that Streiter had slowly, methodically gained the upper hand in their battle. One by one, he had exposed the cracks in the bonds these kids had shared. Some were more cautious and defensive, others were raring to attack him because of everything he had done in this city. He had started there, assembling his strategy bit by bit, until he need only stand back and watch as it crushed each of them in his path, one by one, until victory was in his grasp.
All of this—and perhaps more besides—had been undone in a trice when the twins had decided to intrude on the Duel.
How a girl and a supercomputer could have tracked them down on their own power where entire platoons of soldiers had failed, Streiter could not be sure—to say nothing of how they'd convinced the sisters to do what they had done. Had they simply exchanged words? Had they waged a battle of their own amidst the larger war around them—not merely with cards, but with their own psychic abilities to boot? Were they even here of their own free will?
Whatever the case, he could only suspect that they'd had some inside help—he cursed under his breath as Himika's face, smirking coldly, swam in his mind—and found he did not care beyond this. The fact was that they were right there in front of him—almost daring to be seized and brought back to the Fusion Dimension, to serve the Ædonai once more. The sheer cheek alone had brought his hackles up in a way that hadn't happened since he'd been the greenest of cadets. They'd even gained Decks of their own—ones that used Fusion Monsters in the one way they never should be, as mere sacrifices for a mode of Summoning he'd once thought was too slow to be of relevance anymore. No doubt Yūshō had furnished them, thought the Kämpfer, and he pondered if perhaps this was meant to be some parting middle finger. He grit his teeth, grateful that he'd found another reason to have dealt with the man.
But even as his mask had dissolved, and his anger now came front and center, Streiter wondered if perhaps he had betrayed more. For certain circles of the Ædonai knew what the twins were capable of—even without Decks and Duel Disks. And for all that he'd sneered that these circles were scared of these two girls, blind and mute alike, he himself did not like contemplating what might happen if the power they possessed might one day be turned against them.
Now, it seemed, that day had come—and Streiter, for an instant, had let slip his own silent fear. As if that instant had been the flashpoint of a nuclear detonation, yet more began to unravel. The mute twin had sacrificed Masumi's Aquamarine to her own ends, and in doing so triggered the very ability he had been attempting to avoid all Duel. Her sightless sister, as if refusing to be outdone, had then negated his monsters' abilities before removing them from his field outright—and left him wide open.
For the first time, he'd begun to wonder if he might actually lose this Duel.
The thought was so unthinkable that he did everything in his power to drive it out of his mind. He'd thundered and fulminated that the twins were not to be trusted—that their powers would serve to be the LID's undoing—and that the Ædonai would be the only family that they would ever need. He'd clawed back in defiance, taking out one more of their team out of little more than spite—and in this, at least, it seemed that all was well once more.
Kōtsu Masumi, whether she knew it or not, had just proved him right.
Streiter had been seething over this turn of events for so long that he almost forgot to do the math in his head. He still had 2600 Life Points, and Masumi only had the one monster to attack. Even if she attacked his weaker Esedari, he would still have a sliver of LP left to him—and not even these twins had what it took to best a 4000 ATK Augustol, he thought with a smirk. That was if they chose to attack at all—with his Naumachia gone, they might just decide it wasn't worth it to fight a battle they could not hope to win, now that they had the option not to.
Their mistake. "Too little, too late," he said, half to himself. Then, a little more loudly: "It was a valiant final stand. I'm willing to admit that much. But I stand by what I said before—you do not have the fire in your eyes that I do."
Masumi's eyes—flashing so rose-red as to appear tinged with blood—stared back at him with enough defiance that for the briefest of moments, Streiter wondered if perhaps he'd spoken too soon.
"What we share between us," she spoke, slowly and calmly, "isn't something that can be seen or heard or touched. You can spout all you want about fire in our eyes or steel in our words, Markus—but the fact is that we don't care about any of that. We don't need it to work as a team—because none of this is about fighting a war. It's not even about stopping one. All we're doing is protecting our home. It's what we're here to do—war, or no war."
She took a step forward. "Your war is over," growled the Fusion ace of the Leo Duel School. "It was over before it even had the chance to start. All that happened today was the last gasp of a man who doesn't know that he's lost."
Another step. "BATTLE PHASE!" Masumi yelled. "Gem-Knight Zirconia—destroy Gladial Beast Esedari!"
And then, as the armored knight plodded forward, speeding up like a locomotive, Markus Streiter witnessed the impossible.
"Nekroz of Clausolas' effect!"
Masumi almost didn't hear Kiku cry out, even though her twin sister was the only one standing between them; her Zirconia was making too much of a clamor. "By targeting any one face-up monster on the field that was Special Summoned from the Extra Deck, I can negate that monster's effects until the end of this turn—"
The Fusion ace blinked. What?! That didn't make any sense, she thought—she'd deliberately Fusion Summoned Zirconia because it didn't have any effects that Kiku's Unicore could negate. Streiter was probably smart enough that his Esedari was probably the same way, if he hadn't used them by now—
"—and make that monster's ATK zero!"
There was no time for anyone to take in this sudden, unexpected reversal of fortune—not Streiter, not even Masumi. By then, Zirconia was already halfway across the field, shaking the earth with every step that carried it forward. But the strange beak that adorned the cuirass of Clausolas now opened in a keening cry, loud enough that Esedari was seen to clap its furry hands to its helmet in pain—while Zirconia, wholly encased in its armor, heard nothing but its own bloodthirsty rampage. It raised its gigantic fists—drew them back—
SMASH.
—and went straight through Esedari, chariot and all, leaving behind only the trampled remains of the vehicle and the crushed, misshapen body of the gorilla that had steered it so briefly. And Zirconia still wasn't stopping—it'd carried on right for Streiter, whose entire face had suddenly gone pale with shock and terror, and whose mouth had opened in a howl that would never be heard—
WHAM.
Even Masumi, no stranger to the brutality of Duel Monsters from some of her more recent fights, cringed and forced herself to look away. Her Gem-Knight had charged Streiter right off his feet and into the already damaged front façade of Ryōzanpaku. The wall finally collapsed around man and monster alike, burying them in a landslide of rubble. She didn't even need to check her Duel Disk to know that the hit had struck home.
Markus Streiter—the Kämpfer of the old Academia, who had orchestrated a swath of destruction the likes of which Maiami City had never seen carved in its streets, and who had personally brutalized not one, but two Duel School headmasters personally along the way—had finally met his match.
And yet it all seemed so sudden, so unexpected, that Masumi could not quite believe it had happened.
The Fusion user stood there dumbly for a few long moments, replaying the last seconds of the Duel in her brain over and over again. It was around the fifth time that it finally sank in—and she finally collapsed to the ground in sudden fatigue, too exhausted to even laugh. The waterlogged scenery of Streiter's Colosseum, and the Duel Monsters that called it home, had long since vanished. Gone, too, was her Zirconia, along with the myriad of Ritual Monsters that Kiko and Kikyō had introduced to their dimension, and which had made her victory possible.
Victory … "We did it … " she murmured, gazing up at the sky without really seeing it. "Yaiba … we won … "
"I … kind of put that together," mumbled her boyfriend. When he'd regained consciousness, Masumi could not be sure. "Your monster … ruined a good nap, babe … "
"You can all sleep later." Kiku carried such resolve in her words that Masumi got to her feet. Both of the twins were crossing the battlefield, to the wreckage where Streiter still languished in defeat. "We're not done yet."
"Not done—?" Yaiba sat bolt upright himself. "We just finished kicking this guy's ass! How can we not be done?! Besides, the army's probably about to show up any minute to arrest him—"
Which was right when an entire platoon of JSDF, two dozen strong, burst through the front gate of Ryōzanpaku with an almighty BANG. The ruckus caused enough noise that it stirred Hokuto and Shen from where they still lay, while Fuyu made an effort to drag himself to his feet, but accomplished nothing save a feeble groan. Each of the soldiers carried a gun, and now trained it on the vanquished German. Masumi heard the clicking of safeties.
"Markus Streiter!" the one in the lead now bellowed through a bullhorn. "By order of the Ministry of Defense, you are under arrest! Deactivate any and all technology on your person and come out with your hands over your head!"
Silence. Kiku huffed. "You're wasting your time," she told the soldiers. "He's in no shape to listen to you."
The JSDF traded stares. "And who are you?"
"They are somewhat above your pay grade," said Angel-IQ, floating over to flank Kiku and her twin. Rika had yet to return; Masumi guessed she'd either found Hotene—or found her in such bad shape that she was waiting for help. "This is still an LDS matter. We will turn over Markus Streiter into your custody once we have finished here."
The man with the bullhorn must have been his platoon's commanding officer, because he sighed through his teeth in extreme displeasure. "Do not keep us waiting," he told the supercomputer.
But he did not lower his gun, nor did anyone else behind him—not even when Kiku and her sister drew closer to the fallen Kämpfer, inside their line of sight. For it was at that moment that the pile of bricks and mortar that concealed Streiter now shifted, and the German himself emerged.
Masumi had never seen a sorrier sight. The old man looked older still with all the dust that had settled in his hair and skin, and he was so bloodied in several places that it mixed with the dust, forming disgusting stains of pink. His Duel Disk was sparking and badly damaged—out of working order, she could tell, even at a glance—and the high-tech gloves that allowed him to influence his monsters' attacks had been so torn as to expose the circuitry underneath.
Kikyō, though she faced away from Masumi, was still clearly livid with fear from the way she clutched her sister's hand. Her knuckles were white, and her free hand was signing faster and more erratically than ever.
Whatever she was saying caused Kiku to nod. "Right," she said grimly. "Let's get this over with."
And in tandem, they both raised their hands, standing mere meters away from Streiter. Masumi bit her lip.
She wasn't sure what happened next. Their fingers had tensed for a moment—and then, all of a sudden, Streiter had unleashed a bellowing roar. He clapped his hands to his temples, squeezing his eyes shut tightly as if possessed of a massive migraine, and tried to scrabble out of the rubble that still buried him halfway.
"Nein … nein!" he screamed at the top of his lungs. His speech came in a torrent of his native German. "Ihr mögt mein Augenlicht nehmen, aber ich werde mein Volk nicht verraten! Ich kann nicht! Ich darf nicht! NEIN!"
Masumi hadn't the faintest idea what Streiter was saying—but she had never seen a full-grown man such as himself look so terrified. She felt a chill as she watched Kiku and Kikyō advance further still towards their foe.
"Why did you kidnap those kids?" snarled Kiku. "Why are you attacking cities all over again?"
"Wenn ich Ihnen gesagt … würden sie Sie versiegeln," rasped the Kämpfer. "Aber er noch braucht dich … und Sie noch uns." He coughed and hacked. "I will not betray my comrades … not even in this disgrace."
"If we take one more step, you won't have that choice," Kiku hissed. "We'll tear the truth out of you if we have to."
At this, Streiter managed a weak grin. "Then you're only going to be disappointed."
He opened his eyes at last—and Masumi blanched at the sight: the whites had been wholly shot through with blood, turning them red as rubies, and the dark storm that had once dominated his eyes was now the dull, glassy gray of a fog rolling in. It was like the reverse of a geode—with the gems on the outside of the stone, rather than the inside.
They were also, she thought with a gasp, exactly the same eyes as Kiku had. She looked from one to the other, and back again as a ghastly thought occurred. Is … is he blind now? Did she just make him blind? How'd she do—?!
She did not have the chance to receive an answer: Kiku and Kikyō had followed through on their threat … and taken one more step.
Then many things happened at once: Streiter threw back his head and howled, "Unum in multis! Multi in unum!"—and was suddenly engulfed in a blaze of blue light. The twins rushed to lay hands on him—only to be dragged back by Angel-IQ. The soldiers surrounding the scene broke ranks in the chaos that ensued in the hope of getting a clear shot, but before a single bullet could be loosed, their target suddenly began to shrink before their eyes—
Masumi realized what was happening even before she saw the tiny rectangle forming in midair where the Kämpfer had once been, and felt herself swaying long after the light had faded as though she might faint.
So silent had the Ryōzanpaku campus become that the sound of a single wafer of cardboard floating to the ground, where it settled upon the dirt, felt as though a bomb had gone off in their midst. A gust of wind carried it over to Masumi, and with fumbling fingers she picked it up.
Yaiba nearly made her jump out of her skin when he sidled up to her. "Did he just … seal himself into a card?"
Masumi wasn't sure. Even though all the proof she needed was in the palm of her hand, something still felt wrong to her about this. It took her some time before she realized that the word she was truly searching for was "empty". At long last, they had won the day—but what had they done to get there besides beat an old man? What had they gained? What had they learned?
She shook her head. This was too easy, she thought. It seemed so strange to say after the grueling Duel they had fought … but no other word came to mind. They had battled one of the highest-ranking figures of these Ædonai, and yet had learned nothing more about their motives for fighting, for abducting Yūya and Yuzu …
There were questions, and plenty of them. But very few of them had anything resembling a concrete answer.
Yet the Fusion Duelist thought she knew where to start getting more answers. And so, warily, she approached Kiku and Kikyō, clearing her throat when she was a few meters away so as not to startle either twin. Both were standing quite still, and had been ever since Streiter's unceremonious exit from reality. The hand that Kikyō used for her sign language was the only part of the twins' bodies that moved—and she was signing more frenetically than ever.
"What … did Markus say to you?" Masumi ventured.
Kiku shook her head. "It wasn't what he said." She sounded miles away, lost in thought. "It was what we saw." When Masumi was silent, she continued to explain, "In that split second, before he disappeared, we … broke into his mind, saw his thoughts. Or at least my sister did, and showed me after. She didn't see much. Just two words, over and over again … two words and a picture."
Masumi felt her confusion deepen further still. " … And?"
Kiku nudged her sister, who nodded and signed back. "She says she'll try to make it as simple as possible for you."
And with this, Kikyō bent down in the dirt, inscribing with her finger a series of block letters a foot wide and tall:
WISE MAN
Masumi tilted her head, confused—but even as questions by the dozen exploded in her brain, Kikyō was already continuing with her drawing. Below these two drawings she sketched three crude stick figures: a boy in a simple T-shirt, a girl to his left who wore an even more simply-drawn dress—and then, standing behind and between them both, someone much bigger and broader at the shoulder, who wore neither shirt nor dress, but instead bore what looked like wings, and a single horn atop its head.
Then, with much more care and precision, the mute Duelist sketched something onto their blank faces, where their foreheads ought to be—a single vertical line, flanked on either side by a single chevron.
Masumi's breath froze in her throat, and she began to shiver and shake despite the warm day. For she had seen that symbol before—adorning the forehead of Sakaki Yūya, right after Markus had brainwashed them earlier today.
There's no way in hell that's a coincidence, she thought.
She clenched the fingers of her fist that wasn't clutching the card of Markus Streiter. "Angel-IQ, get a picture of that," she said, and the holographic girl immediately drifted to her side to do her bidding.
"We'd better get back to LDS." Masumi's voice sounded as though she was hearing it from the other side of the ocean. She was thinking out loud, now—too absorbed in the strange vision Kikyō had sketched to take in much else. "We need to talk to Himika yesterday. She's going to want a full explanation about what happened here."
"She's not the only one," Yaiba remarked apprehensively.
He was looking behind Masumi. When she turned around, it was to see the remaining student body of the school, overcome by their own curiosity, streaming from their dormitories into the ravaged courtyard.
Oh, boy.
The biggest of them stepped forward, looking from the LID to the JSDF, before finally settling on the twins in their midst. He did not speak—but the look in his eyes was so fierce that Masumi could feel her ears ringing from the question they silently demanded.
She and Yaiba looked at each other for exactly one second—and immediately after, stepped away from Angel-IQ.
"Your turn to explain," they said to the hologram in unison.
A/N: There's been a change in my job's hours. I've been with my company long enough that I have seniority, and can go back to a regular day shift because of it. While I welcome the chance to go back to a normal sleep schedule, it's also going to take a little bit of time for me to adjust after two years on night shift. So while I did finish writing this on the 1st of the month, I also waited to publish until after the change took place to rest my fingers and my brain. Hopefully that'll mean positive things for my update schedule, too, somewhere down the line.
So—that's the biggest Duel of the story so far behind me. I hope I won't have to do a big one like that for a long while; my fingers haven't yet forgiven me for the first Battle Royale I did all those years ago. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, too, considering I didn't have to resort to any anime- or story-exclusive cards. I'm getting better at finding alternatives to those.
But just because this Duel is finished doesn't mean it's the end of the story. The next chapter will tie up some loose ends and wind down the action of these last few installments—and set the stage for what's to come.
Thanks for reading! – K