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

by BlaiseCandell

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

83. Conversations Before Sunrise

Starting Notes:

Welcome back! And welcome to the Xyz Arc. Wow, this has taken a long time, huh. If you need a very condensed summary of what's happened so far, I've posted one on the Tumblr, though… honestly, I'd recommend just rereading the whole thing. There's a lot of details and stuff that I can't exactly point out in a summary, after all. Sorry for taking so long—a lot of it has to deal with the fact that this chapter has been wreaking havoc on my brain for three months, and even though my perfectionist complex wants to rewrite it again… at some point, I have to make the decision to just post it and deal with it. I may still come back and edit it, but this is my way of forcing myself to move forward with the story. There's more general stuff to talk about, but that'll be at the bottom.

Now, this chapter… dips its toes into some pretty difficult topics, and while most of it is still left ambiguous for now, I will give a general content warning for what's here—skip this paragraph to avoid spoilers—a general discussion of a past relationship that was emotionally traumatic, though the details aren't clear yet. In fact, this arc kinda starts going heavily into emotional trauma, war trauma, etc pretty quickly, so just be aware that the tonal shift is deliberate. We'll still have our occasional comedy and stuff like that, but it'll be lighter moments in a pretty dark arc as opposed to the Synchro Arc, which was darker moments in an otherwise tonally neutral arc.

---

Chapter 83: Conversations Before Sunrise

Heels clacked loudly against the ground. As the footsteps got louder and louder, the Professor raised his head to meet the approaching figure's gaze. "You've finally returned, I suppose."

"It's hardly my fault that you sent me to the second farthest island of the archipelago from here," Eve said with a shrug. "Though I suppose you had no real choice in the matter."

As if she hadn't wanted to go there in the first place… "Have you been caught up to speed on recent events?"

"On the fact that while I was gone, you managed to lose not just Serena, but the rest of the girls as well?" She shot him an unimpressed look. "I certainly have been, yes. What about those useless guards? What's been done with them?"

"Carded," Leo said with a shrug. "That should be a good enough warning to the rest that we don't tolerate failure, if they've managed to forget that."

"If they were defeated by three teenage girls who haven't touched their decks in months, then they deserved it," Eve said, just as cold. "Though someone must have helped them. Those three would hardly have had the capability to break out on their own."

"I'm well aware." Leo folded his arms. "I've ordered an investigation."

"Dare I ask?"

"... my first suspicion was of Shino Gitsune, especially because the deck that she originally played ended up in Chiaki Katsuya's hands. But she submitted a memory scan, and it's infallible—she was not involved in their escape. I do not know how she could be the culprit anyway—far too many doors were unlocked in the time that she was in Synchro, and she did not have nearly enough mobility to go around this place without someone seeing her."

Eve did not respond for a moment.

"... I know that you're prejudiced against her. I am too—sometimes, I question if I should have allowed Albion to come to this school in the first place. There's not a single student in this school that has carved a bloodier path than her to get where she is today." Leo pressed a hand to his forehead, letting out an annoyed sound. "If only that demon hadn't crippled her. She would be far more useful if that was the case. But in this case, she's not involved—we cannot allow our wariness of her to stop us from finding the real traitor."

"... I suppose so. They're heading to Xyz, aren't they? It seems that your stronghold is about to come crashing down."

"You don't say things like this unless you have something that you want to suggest. Go on."

"... at this point, you don't need victory. You just need success." Eve's gaze fell on him. She did not smile, but her tone crept on the edge of amusement. "Why not let me have a go at it?"

"I would hardly think that you would be interested. You never were before."

"I have my own reasons." Eve shook her head. "That useless girl that I sent to Heartland for the invasion didn't even complete the one mission that I gave her. It looks like I have to get more… hands-on. I won't be going to Heartland myself, of course… but I don't need to be there to control what happens. We only need to make sure that they spill their own blood when they come for our heads."

"... that's unfortunate. I was planning on asking you to go after Daitokuji's rebellion next. He's been building up a group of his own in Lilitu, from the brief reports we could get from Chronos's notes." Paperwork, one of the few reasons that he regretted Chronos's defection. The man had been excellent at it—unfortunately for him, those records had been sent back to Academia as well.

"Lilitu?" For a brief moment, Eve seemed genuinely taken aback. She contemplated things for a moment. "That place is god-forsaken—they'll cause their own deaths even if I don't go. The people there are so scarred by the war that they follow no laws or morals or what's right. If there's a sickness to this world we live in, it's the strongest there."

She sounded like she was reciting the words of someone else. Or perhaps taking someone else's words and using them for her own new purpose.

"I'd far prefer to avoid dipping my toes in its waters." She shot him a look. "This is why we should have just carded all of them before they defected from Academia. I cannot believe that Daitokuji is still alive. That man studied interactions with Duel Monster Spirits for a living—are we trying to repeat past mistakes?"

"It's too late for that anyway, isn't it?" Leo said, returning the same sharpness—he didn't appreciate being talked down to.. "What do you suggest then?"

"... two birds with one stone," Eve muttered to herself. Leo thought that she might have smirked. "If a person won't work for you in the way that you want, put them in a position where they must."

She was looking away and down now. For all that she always seemed so brilliant—and yes, objectively beautiful, though Leo had never seen her in that way—her eyes were dark now, the colour of marsh water, images of shadowed leaves distorted beyond recognition.

"Send our troublesome Empress of Dragons," she said, derision oozing from every word. "After all, you and I know her strength. She knows that we know. And if she wants to keep saving her own skin, she'll succeed—she won't have any excuses if she fails you this time. Tell her to do the same things I do—to kill Daitokuji. To kill the rest of the rebels. To kill each and every single one of them—if necessary for our purpose, to wipe out Lilitu from the map."

"She's not fit for such responsibility," Leo said—he might have used children as soldiers, but even so, he still hadn't been willing to send a girl into war when she could fall asleep at any moment, who couldn't walk, who had a heart that was just soft enough to put her in danger.

"Modafinil," Eve said. "Prosthetics. There are plenty of things that can help that girl return back to what she used to be. Don't you get it, Leo? She's choosing not to do any of that because she wants to slip out of duties like that."

Ridiculous. No one would ever choose to be so weak for no reason. And Emi Ayukawa had reported that Shino's leg would be near impossible to replace with modern prosthetics, because most of her nerves, even in the part that remained, had been wrecked. And yes, modafinil would help, but the girl reportedly still passed out in the middle of corridors occasionally.

"And what if, like you say, she's a rebel? Will she not run then?"

"... oh, now that part's the easiest to fix." Eve put her hands in her pockets. "You send one of your stronger duelists with her—someone stronger than her. And the moment that she steps out of line, execute her. The Hell Kaiser, perhaps."

She began to walk towards the door. Leo took a moment to reflect on her words.

He did understand Eve's fixation and paranoia about that girl to a certain extent—he knew more about what that girl represented to her than most others. It was something similar to what Serena was to him, after all.

"Oh, and Leo?"

His head snapped to look at her.

"You should start accepting applications for another medical professional," Eve said offhandedly. "Let me know when you're done." With that, she left the room.

---

The moon was high in the sky. They'd all turned in rather late, considering the shocking events of the day—the Lancers that hadn't really had a reason to comprehend death at all were reeling a bit from the news of Roget and Sergey's deaths. They were all mentally preparing themselves to go to Heartland as well—after succeeding in protecting a single world, there was a certain sense of accomplishment that everyone felt. To just move onto the next world… it felt a little like starting over.

Of course, Shun Kurosaki was one of the people who felt the least bothered by leaving Synchro. They'd done what they needed to do here… and now, they could finally go home and do what they had wanted to do since July (was that really seven months ago now? It'd been so long.)

He stepped out of the shower, wiping his hair with the towel.

Nue was sitting by the window. Or rather, on the window ledge. The window was completely open, and there was nothing stopping her from falling out if she happened to slip. Still, she didn't seem bothered by the danger—instead, she looked completely at home there. She was gazing into the distance—there was something far away to her expression. In the tree right next to the window, a grey bird was watching Nue, letting out occasional chirps.

"You seem tired," Shun said, sitting down on the chair and continuing to dry his hair. "We should sleep soon."

Nue glanced at him, seeming to come back to the present at that exact moment. "... I was just thinking," she said. "I'd rather not sleep yet. We can turn down the light though, if you want to sleep first."

They hadn't directly admitted it, Shun thought, but it was pretty obvious to anyone and everyone that the two of them were sharing a room at this point. On that night during the Friendship Cup, after Shun had been forced into that emotionally destructive duel against Dennis and Nue had sent her own brother to the Underground, they had both needed some kind of company. They hadn't really discussed anything—Nue had just shown up in his room, he'd made room for her, that was that. He'd woken up alone the next morning, and they hadn't really discussed anything until she'd come over to watch the duels alongside him later in the day.

(And then, of course, he'd kissed her in front of a whole city of people. That was definitely something that had happened.)

Of course, after that, they'd settled into a different rhythm. The night when they'd fought off Academia was chaotic enough, but when everything had settled, she'd ended up in his room again, and he'd been too tired to lie to himself for the sake of any social norms—he wanted her there. And he'd wanted her there every single day since.

Even so…

He never really saw Nue 'asleep'. He always went to sleep first, and by the time that he woke up in the morning, she would already be awake and busying around the room—or she would already be gone.

"I'm still fine," he said. "What are you thinking about?"

"... everything that we've been ignoring," Nue admitted. "Home. Stuff like that." She hesitated, turning away from him and towards the window. The bird on the tree outside let out a few shrill chirps.

Shun approached her. Awkwardly, he reached out and touched her arm. "Hey," he said. "It goes both ways. I want to hear about things that worry you too. I know I'm not very attentive, but I… yeah."

"You're attentive enough," Nue said. She closed her eyes briefly. "... I might not be able to tell you about it all right now though. Not because I don't trust you, but because I'm not used to talking about myself. It… takes a lot for me to do it… usually, I'm dealing with other people's problems."

"Well," Shun said, "you are usually one of the most reasonable people in any given room."

The side of her lips curved up—that half-smile of hers. "Hah. Maybe only in comparison to all of you."

He smirked too. "Yeah, I guess so." The tension in her figure seemed to have eased slightly. "Want me to go back into the shower? You can climb into the trees and sing."

"... Kaito told you about that," Nue said, rolling her eyes. "I'm going to murder him. I need to ask Rio about your embarrassing childhood stories too."

"Maybe not. Kaito would have mercy on you and only share the less embarrassing stories. Rio would absolutely tell you the worst things I did as a kid." He was glad that she didn't mention Ryoga—it was a bit of a sore spot for him and Rio. Ryoga wasn't carded, but they certainly weren't in a position to talk to him right now.

Nue arched an eyebrow. "Now I'm fascinated. Do you have a dark past after all?" Shun let out a huff, and she smirked. "Why would he even tell you about a habit that I stopped when I was nine or ten? It doesn't seem like it would be relevant."

"I was asking if you always liked singing, even as a kid." Shun shrugged. "The first time that I saw you playing the piano in the park, I was… surprised. You didn't seem like the kind of girl that would like slow music."

"... it calmed me down. That's embarrassing though—I didn't know that you saw me there. How long ago was that?"

"All the way back when you first joined Diamond Branch." Nue tensed up briefly—Shun apologetically pressed a hand to her shoulder. There was an unspoken statement there. "I don't know. You looked so… different when you were sitting there and playing the piano, compared to when you were in school."

Nue's eyes widened briefly, before they softened—at the same time, then there was something painfully sad to her gaze.

"Which song?"

"Uh… something about believing in gods?"

(If I believed in gods / I'd have to banish the thought / of earnestly believing / that life was worth living.)

Nue seemed unsurprised. When she spoke again, her voice was slightly amused, if resigned. "You know, if you wanted to know about me, you could have asked me directly."

"I would have," Shun said, "but we weren't exactly getting along back then. I think that at that point, the only real conversation we had resulted in you punching me in the face."

"... I was such a bitch back when I started at Diamond Branch," Nue muttered. She wrapped her arms around herself, almost unconsciously. A part of her wanted to become smaller, to escape the scrutiny of others around her. "I really don't know how you liked me. Or…" She shook her head. "I was the worst. I'd distanced myself from most people that I knew, except Kaito, and I… yeah. I don't know why you would have wanted to know more about me."

"... so, Kaito and I became friends in our first year," Shun said. "And he always mentioned you—well, you and the Arclights. After all, your three families were playmates as kids." Nue nodded. The Kamisokas, Arclights and Tenjos had been working together in Heartland before she was even born—as such, she'd grown up with Kaito, as well as the Arclight brothers. Chris, much older than them and usually the one forced to deal with their antics. Thomas, the one who was far more aggressive but also very protective of them. And of course, sweet Michael, who just wanted the best for everyone. Haruto, Kaito's little brother, had pretty much grown up with a gaggle of pseudo-older siblings being protective over him whenever he made a move, not to mention Kaito himself.

(At least, that was what Nue and Kaito had explained to him after they'd become proper friends. A time that pre-dated Yuto's adoption into the Kamisoka family, a time that was over before Nue had even become a teenager.)

"And so I was looking forward to meeting you, especially because Spade Branch was apparently closer to where you lived, so I assumed that you'd come to Spade." Shun shook his head. "And then, apparently, there was this really ruthless girl rising up the ranks of Diamond Branch, and I wanted to meet you and learn more about you." He leaned back, glancing at her. His next words were completely sincere. "I really disliked you."

Nue laughed. "Yeah? I'm not surprised." There was something bitter about it.

"I know now why you were like that," Shun said. "Still, because I didn't know back then, I thought that you just enjoyed toying with people. Then, you punched me in the face, and I was just… mad. Rio, Ryoga and I went out after the whole thing, and then we happened across the park where you were playing, and I saw you, and…"

A soft, slow inhale.

"You were just… different. It was like I was looking at an entirely different person—and that person took my breath away. You looked free, and yet so… absorbed in what you were doing."

Nue nodded. "I felt like another person when I was in Diamond Branch back then," she admitted. "I was a shadow of myself—I only realised it later."

Not surprising. Nue's first year in Diamond Branch… Shun had heard a bit about it later, and he'd put some of the pieces together. The picture that those pieces made was… not the best. Just thinking about it filled him with anger.

"So you fell for me when I was still with Tatsuya Izumi," Nue said with a distant look. The name of the former Ace of Diamonds—the one who had held the title before her—seemed to freeze the room completely. What a picture they made—his eyes on her, on nothing else but her. Her eyes on the window, her gaze distant. The moon in the night sky shining down on them, even as the birds outside refused to go to sleep.

"You think I don't see you eyeing up my girl, Kurosaki? I'm warning you—stay in your lane."

"I still don't know what he did to you," Shun said, finally breaking the silence. "No one does. Maybe… does Kaito know?"

"Yes." A one-word answer.

There were three things that both of them knew, but that neither of them wanted to speak aloud now—things that had mostly been kept hush-hush amongst the upper echelons of Heartland Duel School, hidden from the younger students like Yuto and Ruri. It had all started and concluded before they had ever come to Heartland Duel School anyway.

One. Tatsuya Izumi and Nue Kamisoka had dated for a whole year before Nue had even stepped into Diamond Branch—before a terrible, messy breakup had happened between them, the details of which weren't known to many other people.

Two. More than a year ago, Kaito Tenjo had gotten in an explosive brawl with Tatsuya Izumi, and the only witnesses had been Shun himself, Thomas Arclight and Tsubaki Nagare. Kaito had never explained why—but there had never been any charges pressed against him either. Subsequently, Nue had distanced herself from Tatsuya, and that had been it.

Three. Whatever had happened during that terrible relationship, it was the reason why Nue had been so cold back when they had first met. But the Nue Kamisoka that he knew now—snarky, but relaxed and always assured in her own decisions—this was the same Nue that had contemplatively pressed her fingers against the piano keys and looked completely at peace when no one else was around. That Nue he'd seen then, so different from the front that she presented in Diamond Branch, was the real her.

At the same time, it also meant something worse. He'd fallen for her when she was in pain, when she was being exploited and hurt without anyone else seeing it. He'd fallen for her because he had heard her singing about her frustration towards the world.

I fell for you when you were still being toyed with without realising it, because I saw that there was something more underneath that. I saw you.

"Don't force yourself to tell me anything," Shun said. "I am here though. If you want to talk about it. Or anything else."

Nue got off the window—which admittedly filled Shun with relief. The bird let out a squawk and flew away. She picked up the hairdryer. "I'll help you with your hair," she said.

Recognising it as an attempt for her to talk, Shun sat down. She turned on the hairdryer—and when she spoke, her voice was barely audible over the loud sounds.

"I've gotten… too comfortable," she admitted—a different topic from the one earlier, but not one that was any less serious. "It might not seem that way, but honestly, fighting alongside the Lancers is easy. We don't have the same priorities, we don't know the same things, we don't even come from the same place. But it's because we're all so different that it's… easier to work together, actually? Knowing people well makes things complicated, it adds so many other factors to the equation, and your emotions get in the way of you doing the thing that's right for the current situation… I'm not making any sense, am I?" She sounded exasperated with herself at the end.

"No, I think I get it," Shun said. "We were all stressed out and irritable back then… obviously, I wasn't a leader back then. But with all the stress, you all must have been arguing all the time."

"It was a fucked up situation. None of us wanted this. We were barely even adults, really, or not at all…" She finally turned off the hairdryer, and so her next words came through clearly, seeming extremely abrupt. "We did our best. But… fuck it, I'll admit it. I'm scared to go back to who I was back then."

Shun didn't interrupt her—she was finally talking about how she actually felt.

"I want to protect them. I want to go back and protect them. That's not—I'm not saying that I want to abandon them. I don't. I miss everyone. But I…" Nue leaned back on the bed, staring at the ceiling. "As a member of a group, I can argue, I can express when I'm unhappy, and I can fight back against decisions that are made by the group if I really don't agree. But as the Ace of Diamonds, Nue Kamisoka, one of the people that everyone looked up to, I couldn't do any of that. I just had to keep smiling, keep being the better person, keep doing things for everyone other than myself…"

Shun sighed. He and Yuto had constantly been off fighting—meanwhile, the others had stayed back to make long-term plans, to think about the group as a whole, as opposed to just thinking about saving or avenging a single person. It wasn't just Nue. Their actions would have affected an entire group of teens that was already tired and stressed out by everything.

"I dreamed once that I was helpless. That everyone was slaughtered in front of me, and all I could do was watch. That I would know and still be unable to step in. A part of me wants to stay away so that I don't have to watch more people die. And still another part of me tells me that protecting everyone that matters to me has been my duty from the start. That if anyone else dies now, it's my responsibility… I can't live with that weight. I'd rather die."

"Don't say that," Shun said sharply. "You're not allowed to—"

"... I mean, I don't intend to," Nue said, shrugging. "I'm going to keep on living, no matter what. I was just saying that sometimes, I do feel like running away. But that's pointless. I can't afford to be so selfish. And besides, thinking too much about myself has only caused me more problems."

There was a certain… double meaning to the words. "What problems?"

Nue glanced at him. For a brief moment, there was… trepidation to her gaze. Finally, she sighed.

"I'm mad," she said.

"Angry, well—"

"No, not mad as in angry. Mad, as in…" She hesitated. "Mental illness."

"Oh." Shun sat down next to her. "... but the 'you' that I've met is the person who's lived while dealing with it, you know. I won't reject you because of that."

"... it's nice of you to say." Nue sighed and rolled over, turning away from him. "It's been years. I've gotten better. But I always seem to relapse whenever I start to focus on myself. And… I do want to tell you, Shun. My parents and Kaito knew—I think the Arclights might know as well. But they know due to circumstances. The last time that I trusted someone enough to tell them… it didn't end well."

Shun looked at Nue, at the way that her arms were wrapped around herself—as though to protect herself from something invisible. This girl… this girl. Just… her. Always her, always so strong, always struggling without telling anyone. Not the one that fought directly against their foes, but the one that kept her allies alive and held onto them tightly. She would be determined and a striking figure—and yet she would also allow herself to fade into the background to let other people take the lead when needed.

And yet, this was Nue trusting him enough to confess a specific vulnerability to him—the day before they returned to what was arguably the most horrifying situation that they'd ever experienced in their lives.

Shun sat down next to her. "Okay," he said. "Okay. I'll wait for you to tell me when you're ready." He kissed her forehead. "... I know that I've been a jerk sometimes, I know that I've hurt you. But I won't use your secrets against you. And when I find out who did—"

Nue turned to him. With a sudden tug on his shirt, she pulled him closer to her. "You are entirely too good of a man for me, Shun Kurosaki," she said. He could hear the smile in her voice.

"Hah. That's my line. You never gave up on me, Nue Kamisoka, even when I ran off on my own and endangered everyone. Nothing would make me give up on you." And that was it, really. He pressed his lips gently to her collarbone and wrapped his arms around her. "Come on. Let's go to sleep already. Even if you think that going back is going to be bad, it can't be as bad as you think. And I'll help you every step of the way." She didn't release her grip on his shirt, and she briefly tucked her head in the crook of his neck—the warmth of her lips was comforting.

After all, it wasn't like he didn't have ghosts of his own.

She's here. I haven't lost my chance. I can't let go of her. I can't let her give up on me.

I have to be better. Better than I was. Better than I am right now.

---

Kyorin quietly stepped out of her room, tiptoeing towards the kitchen. A part of her felt a bit unsettled. However, as she came downstairs, a figure emerged from the left in the darkness. Kyorin nearly shrieked—before dark blue eyes lifted from under a green fringe, the colours all darkened by shadows.

"You should definitely be asleep," Hitoda said playfully, leaning on the wall. "Unlike the rest, you don't exactly have a beau to be hanging out with so late, do you?"

Kyorin smiled awkwardly. "No, I don't… sorry. I was hungry."

"Night snacks, I totally get it." Hitoda walked into the kitchen, sitting on the counter as Kyorin began to make cup noodles. "... you know, Kyorin, this is a good time to talk."

Was there something different to her tone? No, Kyorin was probably just imagining it. "Talk about what?"

"It's just… there've been a few pieces of information I've learned about you, just here and there," Hitoda said. "The first one… well, half of us missed it, but trust me, I'm not the only one who noticed Reiji Akaba saying that you have the right to negotiate for the entire Ritual Dimension. Specifically you, and not Fujita or Katsuya-san."

Kyorin had winced. Yes, the fact that Reiji had been so… open about it had made her a bit nervous. She'd assumed that everyone had missed it or forgotten about it, but…

"Then, there's the fact that you lied about how you got to Standard," Hitoda continued. "You said that you picked up a card from Academia and it teleported you to Standard." She was still smiling—leaning on one arm, watching Kyorin. "It fooled most people at the start, especially Yuno, Miharu and I, because we got to Standard with a similar method. But once we figured out that it didn't work… I don't think anyone really asked you what the real method was, right, Kyorin? We were all kind of busy, and then we forgot."

Kyorin gulped.

"And then, there's that last little thing," Hitoda continued wistfully. "You tend to refer to your guardian as… well, your 'guardian'. Not necessarily father, or mother, or anything like that—just 'guardian'. In other words, either you have a very strained relationship with them… or they're not legally or biologically related to you, and you still feel awkward about it."

"... you're right on all three things," Kyorin said shyly. She picked up the cup noodles. A part of her wanted to run back to her room and hide, but she knew that she would have to talk about things eventually—and well, as things stood, she really liked Hitoda. She didn't really want to lie. "You really do listen a lot, huh?"

"I'm always listening. It's a good skill." Hitoda shrugged. "I'm not criticising you, just so we're clear! I was just saying that there's a few things that are obvious if you put the pieces together." She cracked a smile. "You know, you remind me of a princess."

Kyorin waved her hands. "W-well, if anyone feels like a princess, it's Ruri-san or Kogami-san!"

"You've got that right." Hitoda smirked fondly. "From what Yuno says, most people at SOL called Miharu ojou-sama." She shook her head. "Alright, I've pushed enough for today, I think. Want me to leave you be?"

"I don't really want to be alone," Kyorin said. "Um, if…"

"Then I'll just stay," Hitoda said easily. She grabbed a carton of fruit juice from the fridge.

"Thanks."

"Nothing to thank me for. We're friends, aren't we?" Hitoda shot her a wink. "You need to get in the habit of asking for things you want, you know. You're plenty pretty and strong, Kyorin—just need to get a bit of attitude too."

"I could never!" Kyorin winced. "I really admire you and Nue-san and Mion-san and…" She cut herself off, realising that she was about to start rambling. "But I would feel too mean if I just kept asserting myself… it's just not like me."

"... well, it's not a bad thing to be nice," Hitoda said. "Just make sure that people don't take advantage of you, Kyorin."

"... in the past, I was…" Kyorin shook her head. "I got in trouble because I was too trusting of other people. But the thing is… what if someone genuinely needs help, and I don't believe them?"

She had meant it as a genuine question, but Hitoda seemed to take it seriously. "... you know, Kyorin," she said, still smiling, "there are a lot of people out there who look really sweet and kind, but are just out to use the trust of others. Sometimes… you really do have to distrust people."

"But there are also genuinely nice people who want to help others," Kyorin said. "Like you!"

Hitoda covered her mouth, letting out a fond laugh. "... now I'm really worried about your judgement of other people, Kyorin. Geez."

Kyorin frowned. "I don't think you're a bad person," she said nervously. "And you've always been kind to me… so I don't think I've misjudged you."

"There's niceness, and then there's kindness, Kyorin. Not the same thing." Hitoda shook her head, before smiling—there was something softly resigned to it. "I'm nice, I love to charm people, and I like to make people laugh. But I'm not kind. There's a lot of people like me in the world, Kyorin. You got lucky with me. You might not get lucky with the rest."

… but Kyorin still wanted to protect people as much as she could. Even if she still got scared…

She was here to fight, wasn't she?

---

On the morning of the Lancers' departure, Reiji Akaba woke up at precisely six in the morning. His routine was planned out step by step for the whole day—fifteen minutes to get ready for the day, five minutes leeway for anything that he needed in the house, before he would travel to the building that had previously belonged to the High Council. He would arrive there at six thirty-five, the exact time that he'd arranged to meet with Jack Atlas.

Time was money, after all.

He got dressed, heading out of the bedroom to the attached office—

… ah. Right.

"Morning," Mion said. "Are we going already?" She was already fully dressed, and she had a rucksack slung over her shoulder—clearly, she had already prepared any supplies that she thought she needed. How early had she gotten up, if that was the case?

… Reiji had originally asked Mion to come along for their final discussions with Jack Atlas and Aki Izayoi—but with the events of last night, his very logical decision now seemed slightly more awkward.

Perhaps it had not been the best decision—but in the end, they were professionals. "Yes," he said. "We said that we would do the mission brief at ten." He'd originally said that they should meet up at eight in the morning, have a mission brief and depart at nine, but—

"If you're expecting Shun and I to give a lecture about Heartland at eight in the morning, you're out of your mind," Nue said. "I know you're a CEO and all, but normal people are not functional that early in the morning."

"Eight in the morning? Reiji, it's already an hour past midnight. Teenagers need more sleep than usual—we don't want careless mistakes when we got to Xyz."

He had subsequently been overruled by the many concerned older siblings among the Lancers, and thus, meeting time had been pushed to ten.

"We should be done by nine," Reiji continued. "We can grab breakfast before we come back here."

Mion shot him a look, before she shrugged, a small smile on her face. "We can do that," she said. "Might be nice."

---

"You're disgusting."

"Of course you would say that."

"You hurt so many people. I don't care, Z_—no, Y_. I can't act like we're friends anymore."

"Oh, and have you been acting like we were friends all this time? That's news to me."

"... you're such a bastard. Things like this have an end, you know—eventually, you're going to take one step too far—"

"And they'll cover it up for me." A sneer. "They'll always cover it up for me, because entertainment is the most important thing to them. Your own father is part of the group that enabled this in the first place."

"You—just because they cover it up doesn't make it okay!"

"Then what makes it okay? A man gets flung back by a shockwave, we call that an accident. A claw comes too close, oh no, loss of limb, let's just compensate them and sweep this under the rug. You don't understand at all. It's not me that's chosen this, it's the world! In this world, you can't survive as a duelist without hurting people! Otherwise, you're boring, you're trying to change convention, you're a clout chaser, you can't belong!"

"Does belonging to this world matter more than being a good person?"

"You don't get to talk! You're so fortunate, after all. Daughter of a genius, gets scholarships rained down on her, every single mistake you make is covered up or doesn't matter because of your dad. You were born belonging to this world—I was born staring from the outside, longing to fit into it! You're judging me, but I had to earn all this acceptance from scratch, and you know what? It still makes me want to scream!"

"… Z_."

"Because I'm not a human to them, I'm an exhibit. Ooh, look at that idiot, talking to his monsters. Look at that idiot, who wants us to accept and respect him, and will hang onto any crumbs of connection that we throw on the ground because he's so pathetic, isn't he? So pathetic that he still clings onto a childhood friend that continually treats him like shit, in hopes that if he has a best friend, she might love him!"

"… I'd never love you. Not like this."

"Fuck, do you think I need you to tell me that? Get out."

"Z_—"

"Get out now! And—"

---

Yuto woke up with the strange feeling of something echoing in his ears. For a moment, he blinked, just lying there.

What was that? Already, the dream was fading from his mind. He sat up. It was so early in the morning that the sun hadn't even begun to come over the horizon yet.

He tried to fall asleep again, but it didn't work, so he instead washed up and got ready for the day. Then, he headed out of the door, walking down to the kitchen—and then, he stopped halfway down, because Yuno Sugisaki was hanging from the bannisters with his arms, and… just why. So much why was floating around in his head right now.

"Hi!" Yuno chirped. "Sorry to disturb. Got a bit restless."

"You didn't wake me up," Yuto said, staring at him in surprise. "Is there a reason why you're…"

"Well, it's certainly not because I want to look like a monkey!" Yuno carefully moved his grip up the railing, before he kicked up his legs and caught the edge of the stairs, pushing himself up. It was honestly very impressive. "Like I said—I'm restless. Had a weird dream, so I'm… well, waking myself up a bit!"

"Weird dreams? Me too." Yuto shrugged. "Maybe we're all just stressed out…"

"Or maybe we've relaxed enough to let our minds wander!" Yuno winked. "Got to think on the bright side once in a while, don't you think?" He grabbed his scarf from where he'd wrapped it around a nearby pillar. "Though it might be a bit harder for you to relax. Sorry if that's inconsiderate of me. Want to talk about your dream?"

"... I've kind of forgotten it all," Yuto said. "Except that I think I was arguing with someone?" He shook his head. "Probably just a memory of Heartland. Shun and I weren't the most cooperative with the others back when we were there."

"If they were all as practical as Nue-san, I can't imagine that they would have let you get away with being that uncooperative," Yuno said. "After all, a single person acting alone can sink the whole ship."

"... I don't know why they let us get away with so much," Yuto said. The two of them stepped into the kitchen. "... alright, maybe I do know. Nue was the main one who tried to get us to stop acting out—the others didn't try. If Shun and I were just going to mess things up anyway, they would tell us to go to a certain area so that we would draw attention, since we were far more aggressive than the rest—and it would allow other people to actually achieve something productive."

"... don't be so harsh on yourself," Yuno said. He put a hand on Yuto's shoulder—it was a surprisingly soothing gesture. Yuto would never look up to Yuno, but he definitely liked the other boy. There was just a certain air of acceptance that he gave off. "In the end, those people cared for you and understood you—that's why they tried to make you more productive, or tried to help you to stop. It's not such a bad or unforgivable thing, as long as you're more self-aware about it, right?"

"... guess so. I do have to make up for it though." Yuto clenched a fist, determined. "I know that by the time we left, Tsubaki-senpai, Kaito and Nue were coming up with a plan, but they hadn't confided in any of us about it yet. If it's a plan that can get rid of Academia… I'll get her to talk to Reiji Akaba about it."

"Not your sister?"

"She said that without us there, the plan wouldn't really work, so there was no point thinking about it," Yuto said. Nue kept a lot of cards close to her chest.

"Ah, okay." Yuno chuckled. "In character for her." He tilted his head. "Yuto? Can I ask why you refer to that one person differently from the other people you know in your world?"

That one person…

Ah.

"I use an honorific for her because she's not exactly my friend," Yuto said. "Like, I hang out with Kaito and Shun and quite a few of the others, so we're close enough that I can call them by their first names. But Tsubaki-senpai isn't exactly… the most sociable person. She's helped me before in the past, and I do deeply respect her as a person. But she doesn't get close to just about anyone—other than her family, she's only really close to one person."

"... ah." Yuno rubbed his forehead. "Honestly… the fact that you respect her makes me pretty excited to meet her? How strong is she?"

Yuto snorted. "She's only lost once in her life, and she went toe to toe against Academia's Commander-in-Chief during the invasion, though that duel didn't have a result. Honestly, I'm just glad she's on our side."

… and well… he'd caused that girl a lot of problems.

He probably had to apologise to her, just as he had to apologise to his sister. All of that was just… things he had to consider in the future.

(As they continued, the last part of the dream, naturally, lay forgotten in his brain with the rest.)

"And don't you ever. Dare. Come back."

---

Eventually, Yuto found himself giving a history lesson to an intrigued group of people, which included Yuji and Yuya, who had woken up for some reason, as well as Gongenzaka and Tsukikage, who had been exercising in the morning.

"Heartland is one of the youngest countries in our world," Yuto explained. "From how the story goes, it was discovered by a bunch of sailors, and it was pretty much completely empty. Well, they excavated skeletons and stuff like that from old building-like structures later, so they suspect that the population there died out because of disease—or they just didn't have the population level to sustain themselves. But anyway, it was free space, and since it was at a good spot, they made a port there, and over time, the tech there developed rapidly as talented people from other countries came to seek their fortune. Eventually, they were granted independence, and one of the most well-respected members of the community, Isra Arclight, became the first mayor of Heartland." He'd never understand why they used 'Mayor' instead of 'President'. "That was almost a century ago now though. And that's the story."

"... you know," Yuya said, "you do seem like the kind of person to stay awake in history class."

Yuto snorted.

"... did they find any other traces of the people that once lived there?" Yuji asked quietly.

Yuto blinked, surprised to hear the quiet boy speaking up. When he didn't speak, Yuji turned his head away.

"... never mind."

"It's fine to ask questions," Yuto said, a bit more forceful than he'd wanted to be. "Well, uh, they found quite a few temples? Underground ruins. They were surprisingly stable for the tech they had back then. There were quite a lot of inscriptions—my father worked as an archeologist, so he did a lot of writing and speculating on them. In our world, they're pretty well-known as one of the most interesting bits of history that's always debated—The Hundred Inscriptions of Heartland."

Yuji seemed genuinely intrigued.

"There's actually numbers next to each inscription—well, symbols that were eventually decoded as numbers. They go from one to a hundred." Yuto shrugged. "Maybe when we save Heartland, I'll show you guys one of the ruins. They're pretty heavily guarded, but…"

… they were, at least. Doubt that anyone really cares about guarding them now that most of us are gone.

There's a chance that Academia's destroyed them too.

He cut himself off. "... well. I'll show them to you, if they're still there."

A moment later, he let out a yelp as he spotted several plates on the table that had definitely not been there earlier.

"Guess what?" Yugo exclaimed cheerfully. "We have breakfast!" Behind him, Kaname looked like she might sink into the doorframe.

---

When Ruri was thirteen and in her first year of middle school, a boy asked her out for the first time. It was strange, it was uncomfortable, and she really didn't want to think about it. The boy had been pushy and terrible and Ruri had desperately made excuses to leave—

And then, Rio Kamishiro had pushed through the crowd and grabbed her by the hand. "There you are, we're going to be late for the movie," she'd said, and she'd pulled Ruri along until they were out of sight.

That was the kind of person that Rio was—brazen and determined. Ruri had known her since they were kids—they were childhood friends, after all. While Rio was two years older than her, Ruri could sincerely say that they were pretty much best friends—just like how Sayaka later became one of her best friends too. Shun had been so overprotective of her that Ruri had earned a reputation in most schools without any input of her own. To most people, she was Shun Kurosaki's sister. And she was proud of that, and proud of him—but it made people like Rio and Sayaka more precious to her, because she'd been Ruri first with them—she'd made friends with them without anyone's input.

So it was possible for her to talk to people without being shy—and she'd never been timid, anyway, even if people would expect her to be.

Even so…

This might be the most stressful moment ever.

It was seven in the morning, she'd snuck out early and—ah, there she was.

Serena was sitting near the back of the house, glancing through her deck. Ruri envied the other girl's hairstyle a bit—she could never tie up her hair in the same way. Her hair was so wild that it barely took a few minutes for it to escape even the tightest hair ties. Seeing it with her own face again…

"Morning," she called out.

"Morning," Serena said. Ruri smiled—if she was honest with herself, now that they weren't standing on opposite sides, Serena reminded her of Rio just a little. They weren't exactly the same, but they both certainly stood up for themselves no matter what.

"Sorry. I'm late."

"No, I'm the one who's early." Serena got up, raising her duel disk. "Let's go."

Ruri nodded. Yesterday, she and Serena had agreed to meet up here for a single duel in the morning—just to finally settle things between them. With all the things that had happened, she hadn't known if Serena would still want to duel, but she'd woken up anyway.

… maybe she shouldn't have been surprised that Serena still wanted to duel. That girl was too motivated.

Ruri was motivated too. She especially wanted to take a moment to breathe—to warm up before they returned home.

She raised her own duel disk too.

Time to conclude what they'd started in December.

[DUEL!]

Ruri Kurosaki: 4000LP

Serena Akaba: 4000LP

[Turn 1: Ruri] [H:5]

Ruri checked through the top five cards of her deck swiftly. Getting the first turn in this duel… was probably a disadvantage, huh? She'd have to prepare for it. "Since I control no monsters," she said, "I can Special Summon Lyrical Luscinia - Turquoise Warbler from my hand!" The bird girl with green feathers appeared on her field.

[Lyrical Luscinia - Turquoise Warbler (1*/100/100/WIND/Winged Beast/Effect)]

Ruri placed down another card from her hand with a flourish. "And then, with Turquoise Warbler's effect, I can Special Summon another "Lyrical Luscinia" monster from my hand or graveyard! Come! Lyrical Luscinia - Celeste Wagtail!" The girl with grey feathers appeared next to Turquoise Warbler, winking.

[Lyrical Luscinia - Celeste Wagtail (1*/200/0/WIND/Winged Beast/Effect)]

"Celeste Wagtail's effect! I can add a "Lyrical Luscinia" Spell or Trap from my deck to my hand! I'll add Lyrical Luscinia - Bird Call and activate it! I'll add a "Lyrical Luscinia" monster from my deck to my hand—and then, I can Special Summon a "Lyrical Luscinia" monster with a different name from my hand! Come! Lyrical Luscinia - Cobalt Sparrow!" Her main searcher appeared on the field too.

[Lyrical Luscinia - Cobalt Sparrow (1*/0/100/WIND/Winged Beast/Effect)]

"Cobalt Sparrow will let me add a Level 1 Winged Beast monster from my deck to my hand!" She picked up Sapphire Swallow, adding it to her hand. "I'll activate the effect of Lyrical Luscinia - Sapphire Swallow in my hand! I can Special Summon her, along with another Level 1 Winged Beast monster in my hand! Come! Sapphire Swallow! Slower Swallow!" The blue-themed bird girl appeared on the field, along with a white and blue bird surrounded by flowers.

[Lyrical Luscinia - Sapphire Swallow (1*/100/0/WIND/Winged Beast/Effect)]

[Slower Swallow (1*/100/100/WIND/Winged Beast/Effect)]

"Five monsters…" Serena muttered. "Are you planning on bringing out Assembly Nightingale then?"

"Yeah," Ruri said. "But not in the way that you think! I'll tribute Slower Swallow, and during my next Draw Phase, I can draw two cards instead of one!" The colourful bird turned into particles that scattered around her. "And then, I'll overlay the Level 1 Lyrical Luscinia - Sapphire Swallow and the Level 1 Lyrical Luscinia - Turquoise Warbler!" The two monsters turned into green streaks, zooming into the Overlay Network in front of her. "Birds with beautiful wings! Gather on the battlefield and take brilliant flight! Xyz Summon! Dance in the sky! Rank 1! Lyrical Luscinia - Assembly Nightingale!" Her colourful ace appeared on the field, feathers scattering beautifully around her in a gale.

[Lyrical Luscinia - Assembly Nightingale (R1/0/0/WIND/Winged Beast/Xyz/Effect) (OU:2)]

"Assembly Nightingale gains 200 attack points for each of her Overlay Units," Ruri explained.

[Lyrical Luscinia - Assembly Nightingale: 0 + 200 x 2 = 400ATK]

"I remember that much," Serena said, shaking her head. "What a terrifyingly direct monster… but you're only summoning it with two monsters?"

"You'll understand why later," Ruri said. "I'll overlay the Level 1 Lyrical Luscinia - Cobalt Sparrow and the Level 1 Lyrical Luscinia - Celeste Wagtail!" Her other two monsters turned into streaks as well. "Bird of stars that sings in the glowing sunset. Appear before us! Xyz Summon! Rank 1! Lyrical Luscinia - Recite Starling!" The woman with dark wings appeared, stars glittering in her feathers.

[Lyrical Luscinia - Recite Starling (R1/0/0/WIND/Winged Beast/Xyz/Effect) (OU:2)]

"Recite Starling's effect. I'll target Assembly Nightingale and increase her attack and defense points by 300 for each of Recite Starling's Overlay Units! Gift of the Stars!" A bright light shone over Assembly Nightingale, her attack points shooting up.

[Lyrical Luscinia - Assembly Nightingale: 400 + 300 x 2 = 1000ATK; 0 + 300 x 2 = 600DEF]

"I'll then detach an Overlay Unit from Recite Starling to add a Level 1 Winged Beast monster from my deck to my hand!" Ruri swiped up a card from her deck.

[Lyrical Luscinia - Recite Starling: OU:2 - 1 = OU:1]

"I'll then set a card and end my turn!"

[Turn 2: Serena] [H:6]

Serena arched an eyebrow. "Sure. Draw!" There was sharp determination in her eyes—Ruri felt slightly flattered by it. It meant that Serena really wanted to defeat her. "I'll activate the effect of Moonlight Black Sheep in my hand! I'll discard it to add Polymerization from my deck to my hand! Then, I'll Normal Summon Moonlight Kaleido Chick from my hand!" A girl dressed in yellow with a sparkling cape behind her appeared.

[Moonlight Kaleido Chick (4*/1400/800/DARK/Beast-Warrior/Effect)]

"Kaleido Chick's effect! I'll send Moonlight Panther Dancer from my deck to the graveyard, and her name becomes Panther Dancer until the End Phase!" A dark aura surrounded Kaleido Chick. "And then, I'll activate the Spell Card, Polymerization! I'll fuse Moonlight Kaleido Chick, now known as Moonlight Panther Dancer, on the field with Moonlight Yellow Marten and Moonlight Emerald Bird in my hand!" The three monsters fell into the graveyard. "Elegant beast dancing on the moonlit wilderness! Emerald feathers that shroud the sky! Crescent-tailed moon creature that dances through the night! Swarm in a vortex of the moon's gravity and revive with a new power! Fusion Summon! Come forth! The king of beasts dancing atop the summit of the moonlight wilderness! Moonlight Lio Dancer!" The dark-skinned woman with stark white hair spun around as she emerged from the vortex, letting out a hiss.

[Moonlight Lio Dancer (10*/3500/3000/DARK/Beast-Warrior/Fusion/Effect)]

Ruri breathed out slowly. Surprisingly… she didn't mind the Fusion Summon. Yes, the term itself put her on edge… but it didn't make her mad at Serena for no reason. That was the best she could hope for, wasn't it?

"Kaleido Chick lets me add Polymerization from my graveyard to my hand! And then, Yellow Marten lets me add a "Moonlight" monster from my deck to my hand." Serena picked up both cards. "And Emerald Bird lets me Special Summon Moonlight Black Sheep from my graveyard!" The… well, beast in jet-black dress appeared on the field.

[Moonlight Black Sheep (2*/100/600/DARK/Beast-Warrior/Effect)]

"Then, Spell Card, Moonlight Fusion! I'll fuse Black Sheep on the field with Moonlight Purple Butterfly in my deck!" Serena gestured forward sharply. "Butterfly that wields violet poison! The beast lurking in jet-black darkness! Spiral into the moon's gravity and become a new power! Fusion Summon! Come to me! Beautiful beast that leaps towards the future! Moonlight Rabbit Dancer!" A hooded dancer stepped next to Lio Dancer, smirking to herself.

[Moonlight Rabbit Dancer (5*/2000/1000/DARK/Beast-Warrior/Fusion/Effect)]

"Battle Phase! Lio Dancer attacks Assembly Nightingale!" Serena declared. "Shredding Moonlight Blades!"

"Assembly Nightingale's effect!" Ruri returned immediately. "I'll detach one of her Overlay Units, and this turn, my "Lyrical Luscinia" monsters can't be destroyed by battle or card effects, and I take no battle damage this turn! Feather Barrier!"

[Lyrical Luscinia - Assembly Nightingale: OU:2 - 1 = OU:1; 1000 - 200 = 800ATK]

To Ruri's surprise, Serena smirked. "And I'm prepared for that! Quickplay Spell, Moonlight Stun Whip! I'll target Lio Dancer and negate the effects of all monsters you control with lower attack points than her! And you can't respond to it with monster effects either!"

… right. Serena had used that the last time that they'd dueled too.

"So Assembly Nightingale can't defend against this! Take her out!"

"Trap Card, Waboku!" Ruri finally declared, flipping up her set card. "My monsters can't be destroyed by battle this turn, and I take no battle damage!"

"... that means not even Rabbit Dancer…" Serena shook her head. "I'll set one card facedown and end my turn!" She now had a single card left in hand.

… that was a lot of damage that Ruri had narrowly avoided. Still…

It was her turn to attack.

[Turn 3: Ruri] [H:4]

"Draw!" Ruri picked up two cards with Slower Swallow's effect. There it is. "Spell Card, Wing Requital! Since I control only Winged Beast monsters, and at least two monsters with different names, I can pay 600 life points to draw two cards!"

Maybe lowering her life points in front of Serena wasn't the best choice—but it didn't matter, if Ruri could take her out this turn.

Ruri: 4000 - 600 = 3400LP

Both Recite Starling and Assembly Nightingale had their effects permanently negated. Luckily…

"I'll activate the effect of Lyrical Luscinia - Beryl Canary in my hand!" She declared. "I'll Special Summon her from my hand, along with a "Lyrical Luscinia" monster from my graveyard, but I can only Special Summon Xyz Monsters for the rest of this turn! Come, Beryl Canary—and from my graveyard, Celeste Wagtail!" The two birds appeared next to it, the golden plumage of Beryl Canary standing out in comparison to Celeste Wagtail's more muted colours.

[Lyrical Luscinia - Beryl Canary (1*/0/200/WIND/Winged Beast/Effect)]

"Celeste Wagtail's effect. I'll add a "Lyrical Luscinia" Spell or Trap from my deck to my hand! I'll add and activate the Spell Card, Lyrical Luscinia - Bird Switch! I'll return Assembly Nightingale to the Extra Deck!" Her ace vanished from the field—and consequently, was freed from Stun Whip's effect. "And then, I can add a Winged Beast monster from my graveyard to my hand." She flipped it over. "I'll Special Summon Sapphire Swallow from my hand, along with another copy of Cobalt Sparrow!" Two more monsters joined the chorus—however, since Ruri had summoned Assembly Nightingale to the Extra Monster Zone and Recite Starling to a Main Monster Zone, she couldn't use five monsters for the same summon.

Still…

This would work.

"Cobalt Sparrow lets me add another Level 1 Winged Beast monster from my deck to my hand! Then, I'll overlay the Level 1 Lyrical Luscinia - Turquoise Warbler, Lyrical Luscinia - Cobalt Sparrow, Lyrical Luscinia - Celeste Wagtail and Lyrical Luscinia - Sapphire Swallow!"

Serena winced.

Ruri couldn't help but smile. "If you can't defeat Assembly Nightingale, you can't defeat me," she said—it was a very straightforward statement, because that was what everyone had said back in Heartland too. That's Four of Spades, Ruri Kurosaki, and you have to be careful of her ace—once Assembly Nightingale is on the field, it takes a turn to get rid of each of its Overlay Units. If you don't have a plan to defeat Assembly Nightingale, you can't defeat Ruri Kurosaki.

She was one of Spade Branch's stars back then, too.

"Come back!" She declared. "Assembly Nightingale!" Her ace reappeared on the field, letting out a graceful cry. "And now, Beryl Canary and Sapphire Swallow's effects activate! Sapphire Swallow lets me attach Turquoise Warbler from my graveyard to Assembly Nightingale as an Overlay Unit—and Beryl Canary gives Assembly Nightingale 200 more attack points!"

[Lyrical Luscinia - Assembly Nightingale: OU:4 + 1 = OU:5; 0 + 200 x 5 + 200 = 1200ATK]

"Battle Phase!" Ruri declared. "As you already know, Assembly Nightingale can attack once for each of her Overlay Units, and she can attack you directly!" Assembly Nightingale raised her wings, summoning up a cyclone that spun around in front of her. "Avian Gale!"

"I'll Special Summon Moonlight Sapphire Dolphin from my hand in Defense Position, and this turn, all damage I take is halved!" A dancer wearing blue veils appeared, gracefully landing on the ground.

[Moonlight Sapphire Dolphin (4*/600/1800/DARK/Beast-Warrior/Effect)]

"The attack continues," Ruri said confidently—Serena blinked, seeming surprised. "Even if you halve the damage I deal to you this turn, Serena, damage is damage. Avian Gale!" The five cyclones hit Serena, knocking her back one by one.

Serena: 4000 - 1200 / 2 x 5 = 1000LP

"But your Recite Starling has no attack points!"

"I know," Ruri said. "I'll move to my second Main Phase." Lio Dancer was still a problem, especially since Ruri didn't really know what the effects of that monster were. "I'll change Recite Starling to Defense Position and end my turn." Recite Starling's damage reflection effect had been negated, after all.

[Turn 4: Serena] [H:1]

"Draw!" Serena picked up the card, before smirking. "I'll activate the Spell Card, Graceful Charity! I'll draw three cards and discard two!" She revealed one of the cards that she had discarded. "I'll activate the effect of Moonlight Aquamarine Owl! I'll gain 500 life points for each Special Summoned monster my opponent controls!"

Serena: 1000 + 500 x 2 = 2000LP

"I'll then Normal Summon Moonlight White Rabbit!" A slightly younger version of Rabbit Dancer appeared on the field.

[Moonlight White Rabbit (2*/800/800/DARK/Beast-Warrior/Effect)]

"With White Rabbit's effect, I'll Special Summon Black Sheep from the graveyard. And then, I'll overlay the Level 2 White Rabbit and Black Sheep!"

An Xyz Summon…

"Dancer with a beautiful plumage of feathers! Let the world hear your colourful song as you tide through the night! Xyz Summon! Rank 2! Moonlight Songbird Dancer!" In front of Serena, a woman with light blue skin and a bright blue cape appeared, swinging a rapier through the air. Ruri gasped in surprise.

[Moonlight Songbird Dancer (R2/1000/1500/DARK/Beast-Warrior/Xyz/Effect) (OU:2)]

"That's…"

"... I asked for it to be based on yours," Serena said. She still sounded as determined as ever, even if her words made Ruri feel slightly choked up. "I hope it's not too presumptuous of me."

"It's—it's not." Ruri wiped at her eyes. "It's really sweet of you. Thank you."

"What are you thanking me for?" Serena said with a frown. "I just wanted to get stronger, and it felt like the most fitting monster to represent that was something associated with my newfound resolve."

She's not helping. I'm even more emotional now.

"I'll detach two Overlay Units from Songbird Dancer! And she can attack each of your monsters twice this turn, but they aren't destroyed by the battle!"

"I'll activate Assembly Nightingale's effect!" Ruri countered—chaining her monster's effect directly. "Feather Barrier!"

[Lyrical Luscinia - Assembly Nightingale: OU:5 - 1 = OU:4]

[Moonlight Songbird Dancer: OU:2 - 2 = OU:0]

Once again, Lio Dancer and Rabbit Dancer were rendered useless—but Serena didn't seem fazed in the slightest.

"Moonlight Songbird Dancer attacks Lyrical Luscinia - Recite Starling," she said. "And when Songbird Dancer declares an attack, all my opponent's monsters lose 400 attack points! Nightlit Pierce!"

Decreasing her monster's attack points…

Naturally, Ruri took no damage and her monster was not destroyed, but there was a far more serious result.

[Lyrical Luscinia - Assembly Nightingale: 1200 - 200 - 400 = 600ATK]

"And again! Nightlit Pierce!" Songbird Dancer struck at Recite Starling again, her cape sweeping through the air—Assembly Nightingale drooped down closer to the ground.

[Lyrical Luscinia - Assembly Nightingale: 600 - 400 = 200ATK]

"Then, twice more!" Songbird Dancer struck at Assembly Nightingale with her rapier twice, and Ruri's ace let out a distressed sound.

[Lyrical Luscinia - Assembly Nightingale: 200 - 400 - 400 = 0ATK]

"I'll end my turn," Serena said, seeming satisfied—and she should be. She'd just successfully eliminated Assembly Nightingale as a threat. Even if Ruri defeated Songbird Dancer now, the decrease in attack points was permanent.

… Ruri cracked a smile.

[Turn 5: Ruri] [H:5]

"Draw," Ruri said. "It was a good try, but… I guess you haven't seen enough of my monsters yet."

Serena blinked. "Enough of your monsters?"

"Spell Card, Graceful Charity. I'll draw three cards and discard two. I'll Normal Summon Lyrical Luscinia - Turquoise Warbler!" The green bird appeared on the field. "Then, Sapphire Swallow's effect! I'll Special Summon her from my hand with a copy of Celeste Wagtail!"

"So you're swarming again…"

"It's not my dueling if I don't bring out at least five monsters each turn," Ruri said, smiling. "Celeste Wagtail's effect! I'll add another "Lyrical Luscinia" Spell or Trap from my deck to my hand! I'll add and activate another copy of Bird Switch! I'll return Recite Starling to the Extra Deck and add Slower Swallow from my graveyard to my hand!" She picked up yet another card, even as the star-themed Xyz Monster vanished from the field. "I'll then overlay the Level 1 Celeste Wagtail, Turquoise Warbler and Sapphire Swallow! Now, beautiful bird with the power of the whirlwind, use your magic gusts to destroy every trap laid on the battlefield! Xyz Summon! Rank 1! Lyrical Luscinia - Prom Thrush!" Next to Assembly Nightingale, the woman with bright brown wings appeared, gracefully sweeping her wings through the air.

[Lyrical Luscinia - Prom Thrush (R1/0/0/WIND/Winged Beast/Xyz/Effect) (OU:3)]

"I'll activate the effect of my other copy of Celeste Wagtail in the graveyard. I'll attach her to Prom Thrush as an Overlay Unit!" The grey bird girl shot up, turning into an orb of light that orbited Prom Thrush.

[Lyrical Luscinia - Prom Thrush: OU:3 + 1 = OU:4]

"And since Sapphire Swallow was used as Xyz Material, I can attach another monster from the graveyard to Prom Thrush—so she gets my first Turquoise Warbler as an Overlay Unit!"

[Lyrical Luscinia - Prom Thrush: OU:4 + 1 = OU:5]

"And Prom Thrush gains 500 attack points for each Overlay Unit!"

[Lyrical Luscinia - Prom Thrush: 0 + 500 x 5 = 2500ATK]

"Battle Phase!" Ruri declared. "Prom Thrush attacks Songbird Dancer!" While she was flattered by Serena's Xyz Monster, it was also the weakest link on her field right now. Prom Thrush summoned up a gale that destroyed the dancer, inflicting a small amount of damage to Serena.

Serena: 2000 - 1500 = 500LP

"Lyrical Luscinia - Assembly Nightingale attacks you directly!" She saw Serena's confusion, so she explained quickly. "When another monster I control battles, I can detach any number of Overlay Units from Prom Thrush to give that monster 300 attack points for each Overlay Unit detached!" All four of Prom Thrush's Overlay Units flew over to Assembly Nightingale, dispersing into bursts of wind. Even with the stored decrease from Songbird Dancer's effect…

Well, Assembly Nightingale's attack points were no longer zero.

[Lyrical Luscinia - Assembly Nightingale: 0 (-600) + 300 x 5 = 900ATK]

"900 damage with each attack, and Assembly Nightingale can attack four times," Ruri said. "That's it. Finish her off, Assembly Nightingale! Avian Gale!" The four bursts of wind shot down and hit Serena, finishing off her life points.

... it was kind of overkill.

Serena: 500 - 900 x 4 = 0LP

Winner: Ruri Kurosaki!

Serena looked at her full field of monsters, including her strongest monster—before smirking. "I see," she said. "It looks like I have quite a bit to work on."

"To be fair, my playstyle is… a pretty obvious counter to yours," Ruri said. "Rin might fare quite similarly, though she doesn't have much defence either… so it might be more even in that case."

"That doesn't make it better," Serena said. "I'm not satisfied with losing just because it's a bad matchup." She held up a fist. "Good match."

Ruri awkwardly returned the fistbump (she much preferred shaking hands).

Serena turned her head over. "And are you done watching?"

Ruri blinked as she turned in the same direction. Miharu was sitting nearby by a tree. How had Ruri not noticed her the whole time?

"It was a good duel," Miharu said neutrally. "You're very good, Kurosaki-san."

"Thanks!" Ruri smiled—she and Miharu had hung out once during the previous week, and at the very least, the two of them had talked about themselves. She liked Miharu enough, though they still weren't really close. "You should have spoken up…"

Miharu shrugged. "I didn't want to interrupt. It seemed like something too personal for me to deal with." She fidgeted with her jacket sleeve, near the shoulder—after a moment, Ruri realised that she was fiddling with her bracelet. "Do you want to come in? Mizuchi-san brought us breakfast."

Ruri and Serena exchanged a look. "... somehow, I can't imagine that girl doing anything in the kitchen," Serena said—far more blunt about it than Ruri would be. "Still, it's probably pretty good."

---

Growing up in the orphanage had equipped Kaname with one fundamental skill—to sneak out of a room without waking anyone up. It was one of those things that was necessary to escape too many questions. She didn't sleep with the eyepatch or the mask, after all—it would all get in the way. So at night, she would lie in the furthest corner of the room and turn her face towards the cupboard, so that no one could possibly see her. She'd then wake up before sunrise so that she could wear those things and hide herself away again, before the light made her face visible.

So that morning, she casually snuck out from under the blanket, though she did carefully tuck it around Makoto's shoulders before she went down. She prepared two cups of tea, before she opened up the fridge, taking out some ingredients and beginning to prepare them—the rice, the fish, the vegetables—

Arms wrapped around her shoulders. Kaname turned around.

"Wake me up next time, darling." Makoto yawned, moving to take the frying pan from her hands. "Cooking something for your new comrades? Sweet of you."

Kaname pressed her hands together, before she moved to make the riceballs. I didn't make the best first impression.

"So you want them to like you?" Makoto shrugs. "Fair."

Sorry to disturb you. Did I wake you?

"No." Makoto smirked. "You're very quiet." Then, his expression softened as he seemed to realise something. "You didn't want to wake me up? Then, were you planning on leaving without saying goodbye?"

I already spent all last night with you. Don't get greedy now.

"Oh, but I'm very greedy. I'm not going to be seeing you for at least a month or two, and you weren't going to let me see you off? You're so cruel." The sound of the eggs and oil was a bit much for Kaname—she moved to the other side of the kitchen. (She didn't like the sound of oil, but she'd learned to tolerate it—it was necessary to learn how to cook, after all.) He shot her a relaxed, teasing look. "You can't spend a night with a man and sneak away in the morning, that's just cold."

Kaname's lips quirked up briefly, though she swiftly suppressed a blush. Don't say it like that. I didn't want to see you sad.

"I'd be sad either way. This way, I get to see you off."

The two of them settled into a calm routine of cooking and packing food into insulated containers. When they were done, Kaname capped off the container at the top, and then she just stood there. Their usual comfortable silence was… clouded by something else.

"I don't know what I'll do when it rains," Makoto admitted.

Kaname swallowed slowly. She walked over to his side. Her fingers trailed the last remnants of the criminal marks under his shirt—they were almost done. She'd gotten rid of most of them in the time that they'd known each other. But there were still a few left.

When he spoke, his voice was a little deeper, more uneven. "Alright," he said. "I think you should go."

Kaname breathed out slowly, her fingers swiftly signing out an agreement, before she hesitantly added on another sentiment. Don't get bored of me while I'm gone.

"Could I ever?" He shook his head. "There's no one like you, Kaname Mizuchi." He walked towards the couch, fingers trailing a sleeping Kemuri's fur. His gaze was soft and conflicted as he looked at the cat—Kaname was sure that gaze was meant for her, but he didn't want to pressure her. "... fuck. Sorry. I'm trying to make it easier, but I'm not doing a good job, am I?" He waved a hand. "Jack Atlas is already planning on eventually sending people to help when you all go after Academia. I'm probably going to come along then, if you're still not home yet." He cracked a smile, and there was something so achingly lonely to it that Kaname wanted to tuck her head in his shoulder and never back away. "See you."

"... soon," Kaname said.

She stepped out, but she couldn't stop thinking about him sitting there, looking at Kemuri to avoid looking at her, to avoid thinking about her leaving…

She turned around, putting down the container. Swiftly, she crossed over to him, pressing her lips gently to his.

She silently promised herself that she would not lose him either. She would not lose anyone else who mattered so much to her, not like how she'd already lost those two people.

---

When Kaname made her way to the building where the Lancers were staying, she saw Arisu sweeping Yugo into a tight hug. She hung back until Arisu raised her head and glanced around. When they finally made eye contact, Arisu cracked a smile and gestured for her to come closer. Kaname slowly walked forward, and Yugo saw her, grinning.

"Nee-san!" He greeted. "What are you carrying?"

Kaname raised the container of food, pushing it into his hands. Yugo's eyes widened.

"You made breakfast? Neat! Is this for everyone?"

Kaname nodded. Yugo rushed back in as she and Arisu shared amused looks. He must have come downstairs just to say goodbye to Arisu. He had never really been as attached to everything as Kaname was—unless 'everything' referred to Rin. Still, it was sweet of him.

"He's so reckless," Arisu said, folding her arms. "You'll watch out for him, right?"

Naturally.

"I guess it was an obvious answer." Arisu stepped forward, wrapping her arms around Kaname too. "But you'd better take care of yourself, okay? You can't protect everyone at the cost of yourself. I'm worried about you too."

'Promise.'

"Alright then." Arisu glanced at them wistfully. "... you're all definitely too young for this, but that's just how our world is nowadays, huh?"

Kaname didn't respond to that. She found it just as sad, to be honest.

"I'll keep everyone safe," Arisu continued. "All of us will. So… just stay alive and come back safe."

You don't need to tell me that. Or Yugo, or Rin.

Our city is the city that forces you to learn how to survive. We're good at that.

"... hah. I guess you're right." Arisu patted her shoulder. "Alright. I have to go and discuss some things with Kyosuke and Chino's brother—see you."

Kaname watched her go, before she awkwardly stepped into the building. She hung by the door, watching the four of them eat—she saw the shadow of Miharu Kogami enter the room, before the girl swiftly left to get someone else.

This was fine.

… I don't really want to leave to save someone else. I don't really have some altruistic part of me that says I should help someone else.

If I could charge towards Academia by myself…

Would I lose to that man again?

---

She stared at the wall, making sure not to move too much. Finally, there were the soft footsteps of a person trying desperately to stay quiet, before the door opened.

Miharu finally rolled over, glancing at the door as it shut behind Yuno.

He's unsettled by something. A dream, maybe?

I should give him a while to ponder things.

She walked over to the desk, casually beginning to tie up her hair in the usual princess braids. Then, she made sure to pick up the bits and bobs around the room—small things that were easy to forget. She packed them all in her backpack, along with her laptop. Then, she opened up her backpack, hesitated and pulled out the green stuffed turtle.

"Kyoko," she murmured to herself, not for the first time. It was a lament—of the harsh words she'd spoken the last time they had seen each other.

Some might think it was childish for her to cling onto a soft toy like this—to the point where she couldn't even let go of it when she'd run from home. But Miharu didn't really care about societal expectations. It comforted her, so she brought it with her. Was there really anything else that needed to be said on that front?

It was a reminder of her home, of family…

She pushed the stuffed turtle into her bag, before she finally zipped it up, standing up.

She headed out of the room, sneaking past the kitchen (where Yugo was regaling the other three with the fact that his sister could cook, with a prideful expression that was honestly rather endearing) and she snuck out of the house, walking to where she'd seen Ruri and Serena from the window.

She might as well call them back. A part of her was still on edge—as much as the events of last night had brought a certain bounce to her step, she couldn't ignore the other thing that she'd witnessed the day before, after all.

(That person being torn apart as he was dragged into a portal.)

(Horrible.)

She called them back to the house, but she stayed outside for a while longer.

It was strange. A part of her didn't want to see the Lancers, which didn't make sense. She obviously liked them, after all…

It might just be a thing with introversion. She didn't want to think too much.

… how many more worlds would she have to save before she could actually save her own? Did her own want to be saved anyway, or would it turn against her just as surely as it had before?

If she wanted to sway people to their side, then she needed clear evidence. Her world was one of evidence, facts and utility—what was useful to them and what was not. It wasn't what the Lancers believed in, perhaps—but without all of that proof, things would go nowhere when she returned.

(And she needed to prove that allying with the Lancers was more beneficial than allying with Academia.)

(The two computer chips that she'd retrieved from this dimension lay in a secret pocket of her jacket. She had already downloaded the files, though she hadn't fully decrypted them yet. Nor was anyone else aware that she'd kept them in the first place.)

"Miharu!"

Yuno wrapped his arms around her in a hug briefly, grinning at her. Miharu offered him a small smile—a part of her felt giddy. It was like breathing in fresh air again.

"Come on, come in for breakfast."

Miharu squeezed his hand. "... alright." And she let her mind drift away from other thoughts for now.

---

Roboppi had been in her duel disk the whole time, but Miharu had thought that it was terribly inhumane to create an AI just to do things for her, so she'd created a system where she could notify the AI if she needed help with a button or with a voice-activation phrase. (Or if her physiological signs showed distress.) At other times, Roboppi had been supplied with plentiful data to analyse and have fun with, as well as some basic simulations. Pandor had the same, though considering her personality, Miharu had just given her a large selection of logic and mathematical puzzles to have fun with.

As such, even though she'd introduced Roboppi and Pandor to Yuno, the rest of the Lancers still hadn't learned anything about the two AI—it was just a secret between them for now. Just like how the changed nature of their relationship remained between them—well, they acted the way that they always did, and there was basically no change, so no one noticed a single thing.

As such, more and more Lancers came down, chatting with each other. Mion and Reiji came in from outside later on, and Rin, Hitoda and Reira came down together—an odd group, but apparently Rin and Hitoda had been teaching Reira how to tie up their hair. (And the whole issue with Reira's pronouns had been cleared up with a single message by Reiji in the group chat, which Miharu was glad for.) And yet, two faces remained missing for a while.

---

Yuto glanced at Shun as he slid into a seat—he and Nue had been the last ones to come downstairs, which had been… surprising. "Is everything alright? I…"

I would've expected you two to be the first ones to come down this morning.

Shun leaned over, whispering. "Your sister had a nightmare this morning. For her sake, I suggested that we rest a bit longer. We… overshot a bit."

Yuto shot a look at his sister, who was now engaged in conversation with Rin about the merits of short hair. "I wouldn't have thought…" That she would agree to that.

"Yeah," Shun said. "Me neither."

---

"I've been asked by Reiji Akaba to tell you all about the situation in Xyz," Shun said flatly. "If you have questions, I don't care. Wait until I'm done."

"What a charmer," Hitoda quipped. "If this is the standard of sweetness that you're getting, Nue-san, maybe you should date a girl instead." Nue sighed, shooting Shun a look of amusement. Shun fought the urge to smile at her, turning back to the rest.

"Let's go, Professor Kurosaki!" Sora cheered mockingly. Serena smacked him over the head.

"Anyway," Shun continued, fighting the urge to throw something at Sora, "the Heartland Occupation Force is led by Commander-in-Chief, Edo Phoenix. He's by far the strongest member of the Occupation Force. We've suffered quite a lot of casualties due to him—to be honest, at the start of the invasion, Spade Branch suffered the least casualties. Kaito wasn't actually at Clover initially because he was rescuing his father from Heartland Tower, and most of the other top duelists from Clover had already been eliminated by the time he got there. I do believe that only he and Rio were left standing from Clover's top ten by the end of the invasion. Edo Phoenix and his lieutenant singlehandedly eliminated half of them."

"You mean Mamoru Noro?" Sora interrupted, sounding genuinely shocked. "No way. The Professor only sent that guy along because Edo Phoenix can't do paperwork!"

"No, not that guy," Shun said. "That's the second-in-command, right? I don't think he's ever actually taken a step on the battlefield. No, uh… to be honest, we don't even really know that lieutenant's name. Kaito claimed that she was the one that defeated Anna—uh, the older sister of one of our friends—and that she stalled him so that her commander could retreat after a severe injury. But yeah. That's what we know about them. Though it seems that she might have been replaced—Academia keeps needing to send new lieutenants to Heartland."

"Why?" Sawatari remarked. "Are they trying to overwhelm you all with numbers?"

"Numbers have nothing to do with it," Shun said. "We just forced them to find replacements—that's all." The elusive Commander-in-Chief had caused them far too many casualties, and yet, frustratingly, they were never able to actually track him down before he disappeared—as though he'd somehow predicted what they were doing. The lieutenants never had the same luck though, and…

"So Academia changes the deployed duelists frequently?" Reiji asked.

Yuto cleared his throat. "More that they've been forced to change them," he muttered.

Half the people at the table caught the implication. The other half did not ask. Only one person spoke up—and that was Yuya. "So they bring people in and out constantly?"

"We captured them, interrogated them and carded them," Nue said bluntly.

"What?" Yuya exclaimed.

"Because that was how we got information about other worlds. That was how we found out that Ruri had been captured and not carded." Nue folded her arms. "That was how we found out about the other worlds, and the fact that the Professor had a son in Standard that we could search for. You already knew that our hands weren't bloodless, didn't you?"

Yuya glanced at them, seeming… uncomfortable.

"They were sent to Heartland to kill more of us," Shun said. "Were we expected to play nice with them? Defeating them just means that they get to try again."

"It's just…" Yuya shook his head. "I don't mean to judge you on what you did to survive. You probably had no choice. Sorry. I'm being naive again."

Still, that discomfort had spread to the rest of the room. Reiji Akaba was no help—he simply looked at Shun, as though expecting him to resolve the awkwardness himself.

Fuck.

A couple of thoughts raced through Shun's head before he spoke up. "Obviously, we don't intend to keep them carded forever. Academia probably has a way to fix it." He kept his head high. "We'll let them fix themselves if they'll fix us. I personally don't think they deserve it, but… if they did something like that to us without being able to reverse it, they can live with the consequences of their actions."

"It's not a fair trade if we card them and they card us," Tsubaki had said. "Because they pushed first. Us fighting back and carding them is just the consequence of their action. But fighting back isn't revenge, it's just survival. And we haven't gotten the chance to push back yet."

That seemed to settle the group slightly more.

"Academia has set up a lot of forces in Heartland—and pretty much cut off Heartland from the rest of our world by putting watchposts and explosives around our borders. We don't know if other countries in our world actually know what's happened to us—there's a chance that they don't." Shun folded his arms. "They do occasionally send in other helpers to Heartland, but they don't stay for long. There were these two sisters—the Tyler Sisters—and they tore their way through our forces at some point, but we managed to force them to retreat. Stuff like that. Their main base, however, is at Heartland Tower."

"Isn't that the centre of your city?" Yugo said. When Shun nodded curtly, he grimaced. "Ouch. That's really disrespectful."

"They set up a proper dimensional transporter there—and their forces consistently teleport there if they're coming from Academia."

Miharu's eyes sharpened. "Then I should investigate that," she said frankly. "If I can refine the dimensional transport mechanism…"

"Hey, long-term goals," Yuno teased, leaning on her shoulder. "Focus first."

"Naturally, our focus is to help both with ousting Academia and strengthening the Resistance," Reiji said. Shun shot him a look—if he was just going to start explaining too, then why not do the whole thing himself? He and Nue had already told him everything. "The plan is simple. We will enter Heartland, establish contact and communications with the Resistance, and gain updated information about Academia's plans and bases throughout Heartland. Afterwards, we will eliminate Academia's presence within Heartland."

Oh, Shun thought, holding back from rolling his eyes. And maybe we can also steal the moon while we're at it. No big deal, simple goals.

… that was a bit too sarcastic. Maybe he was still a bit stressed out by everything. They were goals that he had too, after all.

"Once we feel that the Resistance is in a stable enough position, we will then move to Ritual from there." He nodded towards Shun.

"... yeah," Shun muttered. "Still, it's important to note that…" He rubbed his forehead. "The Resistance is very suspicious of other people. Well, it's not that we won't take in refugees, but in general, if you show up using a new summoning method that none of them know, there's a good chance that they'll assume that you're an enemy, even if you say that you're with us. Academia actually did seem to have notes about us when they invaded, especially Kaito, Nue and I, so… even if you bring us up, or even Yuto and Ruri, they'll think that you just read the files to pretend to be our allies."

"... we can't blame them for their paranoia," Serena declared firmly. "We just have to work around it."

"Right." Shun clenched his fists. "Notes about us…"

And then, he had a moment of realisation.

"... oh, fuck that guy. Piece of shit, I should have put things together earlier."

Half the table responded to his swearing with shock—the other half responded with barely-hidden amusement.

It was Yuto who got it first. "The fact that they knew all the decks of the top duelists in Heartland…" He blinked. "You think that it was Dennis who leaked that information?"

"That makes sense," Ruri said. "He was there for… a while. Sayaka, Allen and Kaito all saw him around Clover a few times."

"If one of them had mentioned a suspicious guy hanging around, maybe we'd have put the pieces together and I wouldn't have wasted my sympathy on that bastard," Shun muttered darkly.

Ruri frowned—Yuto squeezed her hand, a signal to talk later. Shun glanced away—he didn't want to see her worry. (Then again, how was Yuto going to explain it? 'Your brother had an intensely traumatic duel against the guy who caused you to get kidnapped in the first place, and it led to a massive mental breakdown and panic attack that Nue and I had to help him out of, and then he had to watch the two of us fight each other'? No, absolutely not.)

"But anyway," Shun said, "it would be better to avoid too many misunderstandings. That's why, unless it's necessary, it might be better if you don't use Fusion." His gaze was now directed at the Fusion users in the group. There were really a ridiculous amount of people who tended to use Fusion as their main summoning method. Serena and Sora, obviously, but Yuzu also used it, and Yuya (if one discounted Pendulum) mainly used Fusion as well. Not to mention Reiji Akaba himself. (Mion and Reira got a pass.) "So, yeah…"

"If it's Fusion as a main method," Mion spoke up, "we might have to bench you, Reiji." It was clearly a joke, because the very idea of excluding Reiji Akaba from scouting and information gathering was ridiculous.

What was absolutely not hilarious, and rather baffling, was Reiji letting out a quiet huff—definitely not a laugh, but still a break in composure. "I'll agree to that when you agree to take it easy too."

Shun did not want to unpack that. He quickly moved back to the original conversation topic. "Especially you, Yugo," he said.

"Huh? I go?" Yugo said, pointing to himself.

Several people facepalmed. Rin kicked Yugo's leg under the table. Yuto looked like he was going to sink under the table with embarrassment.

"No, not 'You go', I was just saying your name, id—" Shun, who still had his hand on his face, took a moment to recover from the terrible pun that he'd somehow made. "... no, uh, until we get the misunderstanding cleared up, you should probably try to keep a low profile, just so that the rest of the Resistance doesn't come after you in a frenzy while insisting that you tell them Ruri's location."

"What misunderstanding?" Yugo said obliviously, which was exactly the question that Yuto had clearly hoped that he wouldn't ask.

"Remember that you and Yuto got in a duel over Ruri and Rin because you thought that the other one kidnapped her?" Nue said dryly. Both girls looked at each other in surprise—and then, Ruri sighed, while Rin looked like she was deciding whether to kick Yugo again. Yuto gave in and smacked his head on the table. "After you got teleported away by whatever that thing was, Shun picked Yuto up and the two of them headed back to base—where Yuto promptly regaled all of us with the tale of his doppelganger with blue and yellow hair, who had definitely kidnapped Ruri but wouldn't own up to it, and told us all to defeat you if we saw you so that we could interrogate you to find out where Ruri was. Oh, and I quote, "he's going to lie about everything—and nothing that he says makes sense, so don't listen to him". And considering how desperate they were to find any clue about your whereabouts, Ruri, they spread that story across the entire Resistance. If Yugo steps into Heartland, not a single person is going to believe a word he says, and they're all going to be gunning for his head in Ruri's name."

Yuto hit his head against the table, too embarrassed to speak again. Nearby, Hitoda was laughing her head off, even as Yuno let out a huff of amusement. Miharu was no help either—she simply raised an eyebrow, as though asking him 'why'.

"To be fair, Yuto couldn't stay that level-headed when she was kidnapped," Yuya protested. "It's perfectly logical."

"As was your attempt to punch Reiji Akaba in the face?" Sawatari said, stirring the pot.

Sora, who had not been around for that particularly violent stage of Yuya's life, shot him an impressed look. Yuzu, on the other hand, looked at Yuya incredulously. "You did what?"

"He wouldn't let me know that you were actually alive!" Yuya defended himself, and the target of Yuzu's ire immediately changed as she turned her head.

"You did what?"

Reiji shook his head, looking slightly annoyed with how the conversation was going. He turned to Shun, who had just been idly watching the conversation. "Kurosaki, if you would…"

"She did ask a question," Shun said, his expression completely calm, because the earth would be well and truly dead when he gave up a chance to torment Reiji Akaba, even if it was during a mission brief. People did not give him enough shit for anything. After a moment though, when it became clear that Reiji wasn't going to answer, Shun continued talking. "Anyway, thanks to Yuto, we can't let Yugo go to Heartland until we resolve this issue, since he might end up meeting the Resistance while completely alone."

"Half of the responsibility for spreading that around goes to you, Shun," Yuto groused. Shun raised an eyebrow and Yuto wilted slightly—he already knew that he wouldn't win any arguments about that topic. It had been him who had gone all out with slandering Yugo back then, after all… "Ok, fine. How was I supposed to know that Yugo was a good person back then? His name was literally a stressed syllable away from yuugo!"

Yugo opened his mouth to protest. Rin kicked him under the table again. He shut his mouth.

Shun smirked briefly. "Anyway, so it's better if we all keep level heads and keep a low profile until we settle that stuff, alright? Anyway, I'm now supposed to tell you a bit about the people in the Resistance."

"Why didn't we talk about this earlier?" Yuno asked. Miharu elbowed him in the side gently, subtly gesturing to Sora, who was currently balancing a lollipop on his nose. Then, Yugo, who was now chatting Rin's ear off about something completely unrelated. And Hitoda, who had somehow found the time to start doing her nails again during a meeting. She could probably continue on, but there was no point—the short attention span of the Lancers in general was already obvious. It was not subtle at all, and Shun had a hard time keeping a straight face.

"So, the Resistance," he said. "We have two main bases—set up in the two standing branches of Heartland Duel School, Spade Branch and Clover Branch."

Mion blinked. "Didn't you say that there were three—"

"They blew Diamond Branch to bits," Nue snapped. After a brief moment, she sighed. "... sorry. That was rude."

"... it's fine," Mion said. "So, two bases? How does that work?"

"It's so that we're not all in one place if Academia comes for us," Shun said. "And that we have backup facilities. Doctor Tenjo, Kaito's father, helped us to set up water purification services and things like that. We were also looking into long-term food supply around the time that we left. So yeah. In general, we were trying to make sure that we had somewhere to run to if we needed it."

---

It was strange seeing Shun talk in such a… teacher-like manner. Yuto didn't remember a time when he'd ever been like that.

"Anyway, we never officially declared a power structure or anything like that. While there were some adults around—once again, like Doctor Tenjo—for the most part, they let us take the lead. The best duelists in the city were in Heartland Duel School—that was just a fact. Originally, the 'leadership' roles fell to the strongest duelists of each branch. However, because of…"

Shun's gaze trailed to Ruri briefly—barely noticeable, before he looked away.

"Because of certain reasons, I was deemed unfit for leadership by the rest. It was a unanimous vote to leave me to my own devices, unless necessary."

Ruri shot a surprised look towards Nue, who didn't meet her gaze. Yuto grimaced. He'd heard about it—the fact that Nue had voted against Shun had surprised him then, but in retrospect…

"It was a reasonable choice on their part," Shun finally said. "I was still one of the strongest, but… thinking clearly and coming up with plans that weren't just 'crush Academia'? It wasn't possible for me back then. Anyway, over time, everything evolved into an unofficial 'council' once per week—we would meet up at one of the two branches and discuss plans. Even if you weren't a 'member', you would still be allowed to sit in if you had something to say—and I always had something to say, even if I wasn't very helpful."

His words were slightly rushed—Yuto detected a hint of embarrassment.

"Because Academia broke down all communications technology in Heartland, and phones and things like that couldn't actually connect or work anymore, we needed to meet up in person. We all mostly did our own things, but coordinated with plans that were suggested by one of us. When we go to Heartland and try to communicate with the Resistance, those are likely the people that we have to coordinate with."

"Basically, Tsubaki, Kaito and I would coordinate everything, but everyone had different plans," Nue said. "We had different people fulfilling different roles—for example, there was one person, hailing from a background that equipped her with horticultural knowledge, who was trying to figure out how to get us a long-term food source early on. We actually had a small farm within Spade Branch, if I remember correctly—and we already had a vegetable garden there even before then, so that was basically two small farms. Not nearly enough to feed all of us, but they were figuring out a way to do that. Then we had scouts, as well as people who were slowly expanding the perimeter of our 'territory', so to speak."

"It sounds like you were actually doing quite well," Mion said.

"It was a given that we were fighting for survival," Nue said with a scoff. "But more than that, we wanted to drive them out. We needed more than mindless fighting for that."

"That's far better," Reiji said. "Fighting just to survive implies that you've given up on victory. We need people with genuine ideas and thoughts of their own. You mentioned your Hearts Branch to me—care to elaborate on it for the rest of the Lancers?"

"Hearts Branch wasn't a specific location—it was the name of a program launched by Heartland Duel School itself," Shun explained. "Also known as the Dueling Expatriate Initiative. Essentially, since Heartland had the most developed pro circuit in the world, they sent out scouts to try and bring in talents from other countries. So the 'Hearts Branch' students were specially scouted as competition for the duelists in Heartland, to encourage us to grow more too. They were allowed to attend lessons at any of the three branches that they wanted. Because of that… they were friends with quite a lot of us, though they did have their favourites." He shook his head. "Think of them as… our version of the Elite Officers from here?"

There was audible silence.

Shun smacked a hand against his forehead. "That sounds terrible, doesn't it," he muttered.

Kaname raised a hand, about to start signing, before she lowered it and typed into her duel disk. 'We were the villains, so…'

"Yes, you were," Shun muttered. "Uh, I meant more so that they were recognised for competency, so no one really objected to them taking the lead. Also, all four of them had… really aggravating dueling styles. Maybe not as bad as you, Nue, but still terrible."

"Kaede was less specific but arguably more annoying," Nue said, shaking her head. "But yeah. They're on our side—and honestly, we wouldn't have survived so long without all of them." She cleared her throat. "... but still, every member of the Resistance is important, not just them."

"Yes," Shun agreed. "As long as we manage to talk to the Resistance, it should be easy to negotiate a truce." With that, he walked back to his seat, concluding the discussion.

Reiji stood back up.

"Do any last minute preparation that you need. Drink any coffee that you need. Bring some water and food with you, just in case—we don't know how long we will be spending there before we meet up with the rest, and we cannot burden the Resistance more, since none of them were able to report whether a stable and sustainable food source has been set up." He walked towards the door, tablet in hand. "And if you haven't read the new cards I've given all of you, do so. That's all. You have one hour."

He walked out, and eventually, they all dispersed on their own.

---

Yuji walked after Chiaki swiftly as she headed back to her room. As she stuffed several bottles of water into a single bag, he glanced at her.

She spoke up before he did, which was expected. "I want to hurry and get this over with so that we can go back—don't you feel the same way?"

Yuji looked at her.

"… right. Stupid question." Chiaki sighed. "Yuji. We're not sticking with these people for long—just until we kick Academia's ass to hell and back. In that case, I want the opportunity to fight. So I'm not staying behind. Even if you don't feel the same way, it's still better than staying here."

Yuji nodded.

"Plus, I want to get stronger. And we only get stronger through risk and pushing ourselves to our limits. I haven't reached mine yet."

Risk and loss…

Yuji glanced down at his hands.

Technically speaking, he hadn't lost yet. Even in the duels he should have lost, they had technically been cancelled. Even so…

To lose, huh…

He still hadn't spoken a word. Chiaki had guessed his intentions so well—he had been about to ask her if she was sure that she didn't want to just… go home.

But if she didn't, and he didn't, then there was no issue there.

"I don't want to," he said. "Lose, I mean. If I lose, it has to be for a good reason…"

He'd been going with the flow the whole time.

"If I lose, that person has to be as strong as Sugisaki or Kirijo," he finally completed. "Otherwise, there's no point."

"... you know, Yuji, I think you're stronger than me now," Chiaki said. "So I'm not worried about you losing to anyone who matters. You just stay safe, find Kyorin or someone else, and we'll meet up afterwards."

"You stay safe," Yuji said, not denying it—they never really lied to each other, and they said things as they were. "Your deck is stronger now."

"But I'm not," Chiaki muttered. "And there's months worth of work for me to catch up on when it comes to you."

That much was true, so Yuji didn't bother with platitudes. "Why not use it?" He asked instead.

She understood, as usual. "Why would I use it?"

"It's not useless anymore."

"But it's the summoning method that belongs to the people that imprisoned us," Chiaki said—as usual, her temper was a wildfire. "If that's the way to become stronger, I'll find another way. I will catch up to you, Yuji, no matter what."

"... that's alright," he said. "... I'm not used to this."

To being ahead of you, he meant. To not being your equal.

"... I'm not used to it either," Chiaki agreed. "But… whatever. We'll find a way to work it out. We have time."

Between the two of them rested the simple wish that things would just go back to normal already. They knew it.

Normal, without any of this.

Yuji wanted to step forward. To announce something bold—to say something like 'I will protect you' or 'I'll help you get stronger'. But that was useless. They both already knew that—words were so useless between them when they knew each other so well.

Instead, he nodded towards her. That was it. A nod.

Chiaki shook his head. She looked exasperated. "Hold out your hand," she said. Yuji obligingly raised his left hand, his watch clinking against his wrist. She plucked out something from her pocket, pushing it against his index finger—

… ah.

She let go of his fingers. Yuji's hand felt stiff suddenly. The warm metal of the ring felt unnatural. It was a simple silver band.

Chiaki raised her hand, revealing that she had one on her index finger too. "I got two from this one vendor on the street, because they were cheap," she said. "That way, you always have something linking you to me. Don't go off on your own again, Yuji—it's easier to find you if you stay on track."

Yuji kept an emotionless look on his face. He lowered his hand, fiddling with the seam of his jacket. As Chiaki turned back to pack, he walked out of the room.

---

A few days ago:

The boy ducked into a house, breathing out quickly. He turned towards the door, pulling open a crack—searching for any signs of his pursuers. He then turned around, breathing out in relief and allowing himself to relax—

He heard the sound of something moving from elsewhere in the destroyed house. With a yelp, he pulled open the door that he had entered the house from—only to have a heart attack as he came face to face with a smiling figure. The girl grabbed him by the collar of his shirt, shoving him back into the house.

"Aren't you always the ones who say there's no point in running?" The girl said with a daring smile. She was the kind of girl that would be called conventionally pretty—maybe even stunning. She was a head shorter than him—her dusty white-grey hair was completely neat and wavy, as improbable as that was—what, did this girl go to a hairstylist in the middle of an invasion? Black and electric blue highlights could be seen throughout her hair. A thick, dark hairband held back her fringe. She was fidgeting with a shiny ring that she had hooked around her index finger—she was wearing clothing of neutral colours, with a layered brown skirt that went below the knee, a tan-coloured cardigan with golden buttons on the wrists of the long sleeves and a white camisole. Her earrings swung through the air briefly as she leaned forward—silver piercings attached to long blue crystals, small runes and hieroglyphs carved on the crystals. "You're the one that came to the Resistance expecting to break our walls. It'd be disrespectful of us not to welcome you, now that you've proven that you've already carded someone."

"They are hypocrites, after all," another voice said, sounding rather amused. "What else would you expect?" Standing at the top of the staircase, a girl with short purple hair was rummaging through a few boxes. "The fact that he would run here and try to barricade the door if we chased after him—it was pretty predictable from the get go." Her clothing was of more muted tones of purple and grey, though there was something warmer to the shades—grey blouse, red ribbon wrapped around her wrist, long purple skirt that went down to the lower half of her legs, far below the knee. Elaborate dark tattoos were snaking around her arms and lower legs, flowers in stark ink.

The back door rattled again, before it opened. A tall young man with black hair and eyes the colour of the sky walked through the door, adjusting his thin wire-frame glasses. He was dressed in a way that certainly did not suit the environment, overly formal for a warzone—a long-sleeved, button-up white shirt, long dark pants, a brown belt around his waist. A tie hung around his neck, already pulled out of its knot for the sake of giving himself more room to breathe. A piece of red cloth was tied around his wrist. "Just because you can see it, it doesn't mean that everyone can see it, Hisako," he commented. "Foresight isn't something that a lot of people have—let alone someone from Academia."

The purple-haired girl, Hisako, held a hand over her lips, smiling politely. "I suppose you're right, Kaede."

The boy stumbled back. The grey-haired girl at the door smirked, leaning on the doorframe, casually barring the exit. "Ah, that look," she said. "Really, with how many of you we've gone through, you'd think that Academia would get some stronger or more situationally aware lieutenants at this point. Edo Phoenix might be competent, but God knows that guy's never had a good subordinate. Still, you should never have come to our base. You shouldn't have carded our people. How many did you get—four? You're a piece of shit."

The boy recognised them—the names were a dead giveaway, even if he hadn't spotted something else that was equally terrifying.

On the first girl's headband, shining in white—

On the second girl's blouse, glittering black—

On the young man's shirt collar, bright azure—

A single, plain pin that was shaped like a heart.

Hisako Fuyumori glanced at him. "He seems to recognise us," she said. "Maybe Academia is actually bothering to tell them what the danger is now."

"If that's the case, they're still sending people against us as nothing more than fodder," Kaede Higuchi said with a shrug. "I'd prefer to think that they're either callous or stupid, but it seems that it might be both."

In front of him, Mariko Ejiri winked. "Got you," she said in a singsong voice. "So, are we doing this the hard way or the easy way?"

---

In the ruins of the buildings that had once been called 'Spade Branch', a trail of smoke floated through the air. The silver-haired man grimaced as he approached the girl sitting in the middle. Her hair was long, intense red, going over her shoulders. Her dark red, almost-black jacket and black long pants that went down to her ankles were a sharp contrast to everything else—they cast a shadow behind her, appearing almost like smoke. Within the golden light of the sunset, her shirt took on that colour, rather than its original white. When she saw him, she turned her head away, stubbing her cigarette on the ground. "Chris," she greeted—her usual aloof and guarded persona had given way to something warmer at the sight of him.

"Melia," Chris Arclight returned. A part of him wanted to encourage her to refer to him the way that she had back before the invasion, but… after everything, he could see why she couldn't bring herself to do so anymore. "Don't smoke."

He could hear the bitter smile in her voice, even if he couldn't see her face. Not that she would ever say any angry words—she always had problems expressing her displeasure with others. "We have far bigger problems than a single cigarette, Chris."

"You know that those are addictive."

A shrug. "Let it be. Lung cancer won't kill me before Academia does."

"Don't even joke about that."

There was a brief moment of silence. She tossed the cigarette onto the ground—a silent apology.

"It's my job to worry about you," Chris said. "God knows you spend enough time worrying about everyone else."

"You're the only person who thinks that I still need to be taken care of."

"That's not true. Father—" Chris cut himself off abruptly. When he continued, there was conflict to his voice. "Father would have."

"You don't need to walk on eggshells around me. I'm not Thomas or Michael. I'm not even really an Arclight." She stood up, her brown eyes glancing into the distance. "Do we have any news about that group, by the way?"

"Other than them being trouble? No." It still felt strange to… defer to his sister when it came to decision-making, but no one could deny that she had minimised the casualties that they would otherwise have faced. "Actually, I came here to tell you that we managed to capture another one of their lieutenants. Higuchi said that he would leave the interrogation to you."

"Of course he did." She stood up. "… thanks for getting me then."

"It's no problem." The two of them walked back to the Resistance together, along destroyed streets. "… do you remember when father brought us out for the New Year festival?"

"… I know you're trying to cheer me up, Chris," she said. "But I don't think I can afford to think about the past right now. Otherwise, I'll end up like him."

Him. There was only one person who she would refer to with such regret.

"What happened to Kaito wasn't our fault," Chris said. "And what he's doing now… we're not to blame for it either." He knew that she wouldn't really accept those words though—not when she had that delicate, strange situation with the Ace of Clubs. More than anyone else, she blamed herself for what had happened to Kaito—and while she cared about everyone else that had been affected, she obviously worried the most about Kaito, even if she didn't seem aware of that fact.

"You're right." A sudden sharpness to her tone. "It's all Academia's fault." That sharpness seemed to bleed into her movements—an anger that had not faded in quite a long time.

They got back to their base, and as they walked in, they saw a group of people huddled around the entrance corridor—two of them seemed to be arguing, and one of them was lifting the other up by the collar of their shirt.

From next to him, she spoke up. "Stop fighting." The group of teenagers turned to look at her—the two who were arguing let go of each other, looking chagrined. She walked forward, reaching up and messing with her red hair. "What's going on?"

"He…" One of the boys spat on the ground, seeming annoyed. "He's refusing to pick up a duel disk again. He's so selfish. We're just trying to make the Resistance stronger, Tsubaki-san."

Tsubaki Nagare, who only allowed her family to call her by her legal name of Melia Arclight, folded her arms. "I've already said that there's no use forcing people who don't want to fight into the battlefield," she said with a sigh. "There are plenty of ways that they can contribute. Yes, we appreciate everyone that chooses to fight—you're all very brave. But in the end, it's everyone's choice. Whether you fight or not, you're still in danger."

All the teenagers looked mollified. Tsubaki reached out a hand, helping the boy on the ground to his feet.

"You're working under Mariko to scout and find resources from outside, right?"

"You… remember what I'm doing?"

"I remember everyone," Tsubaki said with a calm smile. This was the public face—this was Tsubaki Nagare, unofficial leader of the Resistance—no trace of bitterness or tiredness when she faced the people that she led. "Like I said, you're all contributing to our survival as a whole. You seem stressed. Why don't you take a break today? I'll tell Mariko about it, so you don't need to worry."

"… no, it's fine, Tsubaki-sama," the boy said, looking slightly starstruck. "I'll keep on working hard for the Resistance!"

"… if you say so. Thank you." Tsubaki turned her head to address the rest. "All of you." She turned her head and left, and whispers broke out among the group, all of them shooting awestruck looks at her.

Chris followed her. "You defused that situation well."

"… that's child's play compared to our actual problems," Tsubaki said. The two of them headed towards the place where they were keeping the captured lieutenant. When they got there, Chris stayed outside. (Maybe that was a cowardly move. Maybe he just didn't want to see his younger sister be quite so callous.)

Kaede Higuchi was standing inside, along with the chained-up Academia soldier. He adjusted his tie. "Tsubaki," he said with a nod. "I haven't done the proper interrogation yet—the lieutenant is refusing to tell us anything."

"The soldiers only know the basics," Tsubaki remarked. "Do they know anything about Yuto, Shun and Nue?"

"Nothing new. Those three formed an alliance with Standard, and helped to defend it—we've known that for a while."

"Lancers," Tsubaki murmured thoughtfully. "It's strange that they haven't come back yet though. What's taking them so long…? Don't tell me that they've already gone after Academia… no, even if those two wanted to do it, Nue wouldn't let them run off on their own."

She shook her head.

"Whatever."

She walked up to the lieutenant—Chris properly turned his head away at that moment, grimacing.

He would never understand how comfortable his siblings had become with war. Maybe Thomas was more understandable, and maybe Melia had been more familiar with fighting than he'd expected, but even Michael…

He'd never expected to feel so weary—to feel as though those three were truly, firmly going down a different path, and to feel that he could not help them.

If only his father was still around… then they'd never have splintered to this extent.

Tsubaki's voice was cold as she spoke. "You're going to tell us where all of Academia's bases are, in Heartland. And you're going to give us any information about the Occupation Force that you can."

"Even if you torture me, I won't say anything!"

"… who do you think we are? We're not Academia. We won't torture or hurt people for no reason." A few footsteps—Tsubaki must have gotten closer. "But if you don't help us, we have no reason to help you."

"H-huh?"

"Because of what Academia has done, we don't have much access to water or food, except for what we've set up ourselves," Tsubaki said. "We can't afford to waste those things on a prisoner, unless that prisoner is useful to us." There was a shifting sound as she stood up. "But we can't let you go either—you've seen the inside of our base. I'm sure that you understand."

"I-if you do that, then I'll…"

"If you don't tell us anything, then we won't do anything to you," Tsubaki said. "We won't card you. We won't touch a single hair on your head. Instead, we'll leave you here. It's far enough that no one will ever find you. No one will listen to you, no one will talk to you, and no one will give you anything. But we won't have hurt you."

"That's ridiculous! Even if you don't physically hurt me, that's still disgusting and inhumane!"

"Disgusting and inhumane," Tsubaki repeated. "Then, what do you call what you all did to us?"

Abrupt silence.

"I guess that's your answer," Tsubaki said—she sounded indifferent, for all that Chris knew it wasn't true.

She won't do it. We all know that she won't. I know my sister. The sister I know wouldn't do this.

But they don't know that. They're terrified of her—our Firebird King of Hearts. So… they won't call her bluff.

"Let's get going then, Kaede."

"W-wait!" The boy cracked. "Fine, I'll tell you what I know—but I've only been here for a few days! I don't actually know everything!"

"What you know is enough." Tsubaki dropped a pen on the floor in front of him, along with a notebook. Chris exhaled slowly, understanding that the worst of it was over. "Start writing."

---

"We've lost another lieutenant," Commander-in-Chief, Edo Phoenix, said in the same tone as someone commenting on the weather. "Write a report to Academia and ask for another one."

"Another one? It's only been three days!"

"Then maybe Academia should give me some more competent lieutenants," Edo said with a snort. "Give me someone who can handle Kaito Tenjo and we can talk." The second-in-command at the base growled, before stalking off.

Edo exhaled. He put one hand on the window—

And then, like a gust of wind, a figure slipped in from a window further down the corridor. Edo looked over, hardly surprised.

"How's the situation?"

The figure shrugged and gave their report.

"I see. I assume you silenced him before he spilled anything."

More talking.

"Of course I'm going to be careful. Who do you take me for?"

The figure shot him an affronted look.

"Fine. Give me your report. I'll send it back to your mentor."

A sheet of paper was handed over—when Edo looked at it, as usual, he couldn't make heads or tails of it. The figure was gone before he could say anything.

He glanced out of the window, at the sky.

… and then, the Lancers are supposedly coming here too. Among them are Shiun'in, who I've recognised once for genuine potential, and all six of Academia's priority targets, as well as several other dangerous enemies of Academia.

… I do need stronger subordinates. I can hardly handle them all by myself. Even with her, and even with what we've learned about the Resistance, it has not been easy to keep them at bay, let alone conquer them.

Something dark is stirring in Heartland…

But Academia will emerge victorious. After all, we are in the right.

It's simply destiny.

---

OC Cards:

Moonlight Rabbit Dancer

(5*/2000/1000/DARK/Beast-Warrior/Fusion/Effect)

2 "Moonlight" monsters

This Fusion Summoned card cannot be destroyed by card effects while it is face-up on the field. This card can attack your opponent directly, but the damage it inflicts to your opponent is halved. If this card inflicts battle damage to your opponent by a direct attack: You can target 1 monster they control with higher ATK than this card; send it to the GY.

Moonlight Stun Whip

(Spell/Quickplay)

During the Main Phase: You can target 1 monster you control; negate the effects of all monsters your opponent controls with lower ATK than that monster. Your opponent cannot activate the effects of monsters in response to this effect. You can only activate "Moonlight Stun Whip" once per turn.

Lyrical Luscinia - Bird Switch

(Spell)

You can target 1 Xyz Monster you control; return it to the Extra Deck, and if you do, you can add 1 Winged Beast monster from your GY to your hand. You can only activate 1 "Lyrical Luscinia - Bird Switch" per turn.

Moonlight Sapphire Dolphin

(4*/600/1800/DARK/Beast-Warrior/Effect)

Once per turn, during your opponent's turn (Quick Effect): You can Special Summon this card from your hand in Defense Position, and if you do, this turn, all damage you take is halved. If this card is sent to the GY by a card effect: You can add 1 "Moonlight" card or "Polymerization" from your GY to your hand. You can only activate each effect of "Moonlight Sapphire Dolphin" once per turn.

Moonlight Aquamarine Owl

(4*/1200/1000/DARK/Beast-Warrior/Effect)

(Effects not fully revealed.) If this card is sent to the GY by a card effect: You can gain 500 LP for each Special Summoned monster your opponent controls, then, if you do, you can return this card to the Deck.

Moonlight Songbird Dancer

(R2/1000/1500/DARK/Beast-Warrior/Xyz/Effect)

2 Level 2 "Moonlight" monsters

This card cannot be targeted by card effects. Once per turn, if this card destroys a monster by battle: You can pay 800LP; add 1 "Rank-Up-Magic" card or 1 "Moonlight" Spell/Trap from your Deck to your hand. You can only activate this effect of "Moonlight Songbird Dancer" once per turn. If this card declares an attack: All your opponent's monsters lose 400ATK. You can detach 2 Xyz Materials from this card; for the rest of this turn, the first time each monster your opponent controls would be destroyed by battle, it is not destroyed, also this card can attack all monsters your opponent controls, twice each, this turn.

---

Different Card Effects from TCG:

Moonlight Panther Dancer - Anime effect.

Moonlight Lio Dancer - Anime effect.

---

End Notes:

So, let's go through some admin stuff first! As usual, chapters will be released whenever they're done and in a good state for me to post them. This arc, especially, is very difficult for me to write, because I do want to do it justice, so please understand that the chapters are going to take more time to come out. I also don't know if I can keep on doing one chapter a week—while I managed it for most of last year to the shock of everyone, including myself, it was a frankly draining and unhealthy writing process. :) I'll do my best, but I make no promises.

The duel in this chapter was supposed to be entirely about Ruri. And of course, it still mostly is, but somehow, a character moment for Serena snuck in again, because this girl continues to hog screen time. I don't know if I ever mentioned this, but character arcs aren't linked specifically to the arc of the dimension they're from, it's just about how interesting I think they can be in each arc. So yeah.

Ruri vs Serena was also going to be offscreen in my outline, but then I realised how horribly disrespectful that was to both of them, considering how important Ruri vs Serena Round 1 was to Serena's character arc. So here we are! Just something fun that lets Ruri start off the arc with a win. (And if you're wondering, Ruri counterpicks Serena really hard here—even more than Miharu. I won't talk about most of the rest, since some of them might duel in the future and I want to keep a secret.)

Originally, I wasn't going to include the Makoto/Kaname goodbye, but then I remembered that I'm pretty much going to be saying goodbye to my Elite Officers for a while, and I decided to indulge myself and write a bit of fluff. Especially because most of the other pairings get moments in the Xyz Arc, but poor Kaname/Makoto are not going to see each other for quite a long time :)

I struggled with the exposition in this chapter for so long, pfft. Hope that it was clear what I wanted to get across.

There's a bit of in-universe explanation for the Numbers too—they're not supernatural in this universe, but they do exist. :)

Yugo "You go" Kirijo and Yuno "You know" Sugisaki continue to be one of the dumbest jokes in this story, and I love them so much.

I haven't written Hitoda and Kyorin talking to each other properly in a while. It's a nice dynamic though.

Pretty much all characters that are namedropped here are important in some way or another in the arc. We'll have a cheatsheet for the Xyz characters once things settle down for the start of the arc.

Review responses! (It's really been a while.)

To TheRealD3lph0xL0v3r, the dub always comes with a certain level of censoring. I won't argue that it can sometimes make for funnier moments, but sometimes the censoring is also a little annoying. :)

To the Guest asking me to write omakes for the characters… maybe. Depends on whether I feel like it.

To Bryzon, Ryoken plays a really important role in the Link Arc, so I need to make sure that I set him up well. :) I won't deny that the fact that Dr. Kogami is alive here, as opposed to canon, makes him a far nicer character than he is in VRAINS canon too. Hope you enjoyed!

To T.V. 2000, I haven't gotten around to the Q&A stuff yet—I really have been just… writing, haha. Hope you had a good holiday too!

To Jalapainio, I've already mentioned it on Tumblr, but Shark's not showing up in the story. How do I put it… he's a bit too similar to both Kaito and Shun, and I couldn't figure out a way to give him a character arc that would be distinct from them. Plus, I've got my hands full with certain other legacy characters already… sorry to disappoint, but I hope you'll enjoy anyway :)

To phantomdragons, oh yeah, if manga!Nue existed, she would definitely still have a thing for manga!Shun. Glad you enjoyed! And yeah, there's definitely some foreshadowing in that chapter, even though it's non-canon.

To kikuruhime, aren't they always cute? :3

There were some other reviews, but as mentioned before, I don't usually comment on archetypes or decks that are going to show up, just to avoid spoilers one way or the other. Thanks for your support anyway!

See you guys next time! According to my outline, it should be a rather short chapter that still just sets up things, but I think it'll be fun anyway :)