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.)

103. Discordant

Starting Notes:

Welcome back! It's been a while, hasn't it? Sorry I took so long, life has been difficult, and well… a lot of things came up. It's a shame too, because this is a chapter that I've really been looking forward to writing. In fact, this chapter got so long that I ended up cutting it in half and then restructuring… and then separating it into different chapters… that's part of why it took so long. Anyway, I think it works way better like this. Enjoy!

---

Chapter 103: Discordant

Two years ago:

The sun hadn't risen yet when Tsubaki reached the airport. It had been a while since she was here—in fact, the last time that she'd been here was the first day that she had come to Heartland. Still, Dr. Arclight had asked her to come here, and she was hardly in a position to refuse.

Once she was in the airport, she waited by the gate for the passengers to depart from the plane, taking a sip of water as she watched. The typical crowd walked past her. A few shot her looks, clearly wondering why a seventeen-year-old was standing in the airport all alone, but they didn't pay her any more notice than that. Tsubaki checked the time again. Six forty-five. Heartland was about eight hours ahead of most territories in Colossia, give or take an hour or two. In other words, considering that the flight took around sixteen hours, the people she had been sent here to meet had most likely boarded the plane in the early morning in their own timezone.

… Tsubaki didn't envy them.

Still, eventually, she was greeted with one of the people that she had been sent here to meet. A young man with curly dark hair, the same height as her—he adjusted his glasses as he walked over towards her, pulling his luggage behind him. They looked at each other for a brief moment.

"... Hearts Branch?" He finally asked. His accent was rather strong—but Tsubaki recognised it. It was the same as her own, after all, though it'd faded somewhat over the last few months.

"Yes," she said. Then, hazarding a guess, she continued with: "Comment t'appelles-tu?"

"... Higuchi," he said, arching an eyebrow. "Kaede Higuchi. Enchanté."

"Nice to meet you," Tsubaki responded, swapping back to the common language—though the meaning was the same. Kaede nodded, shifting out of the way of the people behind him.

"I wasn't aware that there would be another student from Elseine," he said. "Are you…"

"I'm not new," Tsubaki said. "I was scouted a few months before you."

"... I guess that makes sense." Kaede reached into his pockets, taking out a bottle of hand sanitiser and spraying it on his palms. "Are we the same age?"

"... I suppose so. I guess Byron-san was searching for students old enough to be in high school."

They exchanged some idle chatter as they waited for the other exchange student to arrive. Kaede was from Elseine too, but not from the same district as her—instead, from a place that was slightly more well-to-do, with a name that Tsubaki recognised as a tourist spot. He had apparently dueled rather well in tournaments in Elseine, and the news had caught the attention of scouts from Heartland, which had gotten him the chance to go here.

("And well," Kaede had said, "there's no reason to refuse. Heartland's the best in most things.")

Around fifteen minutes passed without anything notable happening—and then a girl with purple hair walked out. She made a beeline for them—there was a smile on her face, and she politely curtsied in front of them. "Sorry for the wait," she said—her accent, at least, was not that of a person from Elseine, but there was something delicate and overly formal to her speech anyway, though Tsubaki wasn't versed well enough in the nuances of this language to get it.

"I saw you on the plane," Kaede said, frowning. "You were a row behind me, so we should have come down at the same time. What took you so long? Was there a problem with your luggage?"

"... my mother caused me some problems," the girl said, briefly sounding annoyed. "I told her that…" She paused, clearly considering her words. She didn't seem as versed in the common language as Kaede or Tsubaki. "Deh lehrer?" She pondered for a moment longer, before shrugging, deciding on what to use. "I told her that Dr. Arclight already explained that there were different firearm laws here, but as it turns out, my mother was worried enough to put one of our antiques in the safe." She clearly meant 'luggage', but Tsubaki didn't correct her. "So I had to explain things to the officer and ask him to call Dr. Arclight… I'm getting it shipped back home soon."

"You brought a gun into the one place in the world with the strictest laws about weaponry," Kaede concluded, sounding somewhat deadpan.

"Not knowingly."

"... I can't tell if that's better." Kaede held out his hand. "Kaede Higuchi."

The girl took his hand, shaking it gracefully. "Hisako Fuyumori," she said, before letting go and turning to Tsubaki. "If you don't mind, may I ask for your name as well, sir?"

… she really was overly formal. And long-winded. And—

Had she just called Tsubaki sir?

Tsubaki reached up, pulling at her hair under the hat—she'd tied it up in a bun to come here, but she hadn't realised how much it made her look like… well. Like her old self.

"Tsubaki Nagare," Tsubaki said. "Dr. Arclight sent me here to pick up the two of you and bring you to the place where you'll be staying."

"... huh. I see." Hisako shot her a hesitant smile—this one seemed more genuine than the awkward pleasantries of before. "In that case, thank you very much, Nagare-san." The sudden switch to feminine address was very obvious and clumsy, but appreciated.

… how strange. So these two were the other ones that Byron Arclight wanted to use to promote this program of his?

… Tsubaki hoped that he didn't expect her to be friends with them. She already had enough trouble dealing with the expectations of everything else. And the two of them immediately struck her as… strange people.

… if she was lucky, she wouldn't have to spend too much time with them.

(A few months later, Tsubaki would think back on this and fight the urge to laugh. After all, her best friends were the same two people that she'd met on that day. And yet she wouldn't know that there would be one person, even more important to her, that she had yet to meet.)

---

In the present:

"... let me check what you're saying right now," Kaede said. "You know that the Lancers aren't going to be happy with us for what we did." What you and Mariko did, he did not say, but the implication was there. "But you don't want us in the room with you when you're talking to them?"

"Reiji Akaba isn't going to attack me in some ill-advised attempt to avenge his comrade," Tsubaki said. She turned over a cigarette between her fingers, though she was unable to bring herself to actually light it. "He's not the type. And besides, he seems logical enough to move on from it."

"That's not what I mean," Kaede said. He stood up—Hisako reached out next to him, grabbing onto his arm—silently telling him not to make a rash move. "... Tsubaki. Aren't you willing to tell us what's going on anymore?"

"What do you mean?"

"... the bomb, Tsubaki. We did that to weaken Academia and prepare for a final assault. Because it's ultimately 'nothing but a show of force'. Those were your own words." Kaede rubbed his forehead. "I don't want to doubt you. But from what I've heard, you lied to Sora Shiun'in to make him think that we were doing something worse than we were. Nothing about this plan was supposed to alienate the Lancers. And it shouldn't have."

He looked at her. His gaze was characteristically cautious—though perhaps it did hurt her a little.

"We were keeping it from them just in case news about it got back to Academia, not because we actually thought that they would disapprove. So why has this become some battle about morality?"

"... I didn't tell a single lie," Tsubaki said. "We just didn't tell the full truth."

"But why?"

"... I don't have a good explanation for you."

Kaede shook his head. However, Hisako was the one to speak up—clearly, the two of them had come to a consensus before they'd come to talk to her. "But you do have an explanation, right? Even if you don't think that it fully explains things?"

I always have an explanation. But it's always useless. People rarely want explanations—they want results. That much, I know.

"... fine," Kaede said when Tsubaki didn't respond. "But let us be in there with you, at least. Don't bear the brunt of it alone."

"... it's my mistake, but you want to be held accountable for it?" Tsubaki raised her head, meeting his gaze calmly. "As if I'd let you."

"But you'll let yourself be held accountable for other people's mistakes." They all remained silent for a while, just staring at each other. Finally, Hisako stood up too, turning her head away. "... you are doing your best to be a good leader, Tsubaki… but, if I can be honest?" The keigo, as usual, distorted her meaning, but her tone was filled with unmistakable disappointment. "You are not… a very easy person to be friends with."

It stung. Tsubaki didn't let it show. "That's something I already know."

"But I don't think you know why."

"Hisako," Kaede muttered—now, he was the one trying to pull back, but unlike him, Hisako was rarely the kind to mince her words, when it was so hard for her to get them out in the first place. She pressed on anyway.

"Friendship, in essence, is something formed on equality, Tsubaki. But, to be honest, I don't think that you see any of us as actual equals, and now that I think harder about it, I don't think that you ever have. You only know how to give, you don't know how to take."

"Hisako!"

The purple-haired woman didn't pay any attention to Kaede's attempt to stop her. She simply met Tsubaki's gaze and finished her thoughts.

"If my leader wants to ask me to do something, all she has to do is order me to do it. It's the easiest way. But if my friend wants to ask me to do something… it would be nice to know why."

Tsubaki closed her eyes. "... later," she finally said. "I'll tell you later… for now, just let me fix this myself, alright?"

It clearly wasn't what either of them wanted to hear. Hisako pressed her lips together briefly, before nodding. She let go of Kaede's arm, leaving the room. A moment later, the dark-haired young man left as well, though he did briefly cast a look back at her.

Tsubaki covered her face.

… what can I do? I just want to protect you, no matter what.

---

"Huh, they actually went through with that."

Sitting at the edge of a pit that had once been a pond, Tatsuya Izumi watched the smoke in the air. From here, it was impossible to see the tower, and maybe that was the point. It had already been impossible to see it from here a long time ago, and now, he definitely never would.

"... nii-san."

Tatsuya turned his head, folding one of his legs in—the other one still dangled over the edge of the dried-up pond. "Sachi," he said. His cousin—sister—whatever. Sachi carefully made her way over to him, adjusting her skirts. She sat down next to him, quietly folding her arms around herself.

… what did she want now?

After a moment, she spoke up. "... the tower is gone?"

… good fucking riddance. He kept his tone calm when he spoke up. "Sad about it?"

"... we grew up there," Sachi said. Tatsuya fought the urge to roll his eyes. Sure, whatever. And she had been miserable the whole time, hadn't she? Because apparently, it was just so terrible to grow up in a family that could afford anything and be respected as anything, as long as you were normal enough. He'd never understand that part, but at this point, he knew that she was never going to be normal, so whatever. He just had to keep her out of trouble.

She was someone that was always going to be on his side, after all, and her deck operated on an axis that very few people knew how to deal with in this time and age, especially now that he'd convinced her to abandon those useless Ghostricks that she used to duel with. (She could use them when her life wasn't on the line in every duel.) It was a shame that she wasn't made for war in the slightest. Apparently she couldn't even duel someone as weak as Ruri Kurosaki (always hiding behind her brother, dismantled way too easily with a single effect) without freaking out after the fact.

"Yeah?" He said. "You sad about it?"

"No," Sachi said—it was so quick that it felt like an automatic response. "... father will be mad when he comes back."

Tatsuya snorted. Our old man can stick his thoughts up his ass, thanks. No one cares about that tower—overcompensation much?

He made a fist with his left hand, where Sachi couldn't see it. He was the one in control now, of his own life. "Just a stupid tower," he said. "He can get a new ballroom whenever he likes."

"... we won't have money," Sachi pointed out.

Obviously. Sachi complained about their money so much, but the moment she had to live with a little dirt and grime, she'd cracked so easily that it'd taken him no effort to get her to go with him at all. Still… "Who cares," he said. "We'll find a way. We always do."

"Spring water seeps through," Sachi quoted dutifully—their family motto. Spring— Izumi.

"We always get what we want," Tatsuya said carelessly. It was what his father had taught him, after all. They could have anything they wanted, and if people disagreed, they could just be pushed aside.

… it had all just been so boring. There had never been any challenge for him—people resisted, and then they were swept away. What else was there?

"I want to be safe," Sachi said quietly.

"I've done my best in that regard, don't you think?" Tatsuya raised an eyebrow at her. "It wasn't easy to get that girl to get you a whole new deck, you know."

"… I know, Tatsuya."

"Then don't say stuff like that. You'll make me think I haven't done a good job." Tatsuya turned to her. "... whatever. What did you come out here for? Something upsetting you?" He'd just solve it, and then she could keep following Rui around.

"... I just wanted to sit next to you, Tatsuya."

Tatsuya turned to look at her. She hung her legs over the gap in something that might have been defiance—not willing to leave.

… his relationship with Sachi really was a weird one. Anyone that looked at them knew that they were related, but Sachi looked so much like him that most people just thought that they were siblings. But, more than anything…

He surprised himself when he raised his hand and patted her on the head.

Obviously, everyone was disposable to him. (Except…) That included this girl. But… he probably could not deny that throughout his entire life, the only person who had ever looked at him with eyes like that—always looking up to him—was this girl.

Even if he could live without her good opinion (and sometimes he felt like telling her everything about him, just to see that look of hers shatter,) it didn't particularly hurt to keep someone like her around.

"Sure," he said. "A bit longer, then back in… you're too pale for the sun."

Sachi seemed to materialise her parasol from nowhere, holding it over their heads. "I'm prepared," she said seriously.

Tatsuya snorted. He ruffled her hair one more time, before pulling back.

"… what about you?"

"Huh?"

"What are you thinking about?" Sachi asked quietly. "Out here. Are you bothered by something?"

"What do I have to be bothered about?"

"I don't know… that's why I'm asking." Sachi covered her face with her arms. "You've been… weird, Tatsuya."

"... well, don't you worry your head about it. You can't do anything about it." Tatsuya shrugged. "It'll be fine once we get things done." He glanced towards the gate, spotting something. "If you want to talk later… I'll make time. Go in, Sachi."

Sachi looked towards the gate. She opened and closed her mouth, before she nodded and headed back in.

Tatsuya turned back. "What do you want now?" He asked casually.

Eri walked over, looking at him. There was nothing warm to her expression at all. "I need you to follow through on our agreement," she said.

Tatsuya snorted again, standing up. He took a step closer to her. "That's all? Seems like a shame to come here just for that. You're a busy girl."

"Unlike you, some of us have actual duties," Eri said tersely.

"I'm sure. You get up to a lot in such little time." Tatsuya smirked, reaching out to touch her chin—Eri slapped it away, as though his touch scorched her.

"Don't try it," she said sharply.

"Heh. Sorry." He glanced at her long, dark hair. "Just reminded me of someone. But I suppose you don't like men."

"Don't even imply that," Eri muttered.

"Oh, homophobic?"

"... you're just speaking rubbish. Not every woman has to be interested in you." Eri folded her arms. "Your affections are disgusting."

Another smirk. "I'm not seriously offering them. You're as revolting to me as I am to you."

"... you think I'm as revolting as you?" Eri said. There was something dangerous to her tone—a string pulled taut. "You're a high standard to meet."

"There goes the sass…" Tatsuya smirked. "I just think you're insincere. And manipulative. And completely unforgivable, just like your brother, of course."

Dagger in, twisted sharply. Eri did not ignore the barb—in fact, much to Tatsuya's amusement, she responded to it, though once her cold words fully formed, his smile faded. "I could not possibly be as insincere as a man who would say he loves a woman in the same breath that he kills her, could I?"

Tatsuya's head snapped up.

"Or as unforgivable as the man who is trusted with everything and gives it all up for self-satisfaction?" Eri continued. "… though I will agree on the part about manipulation. You're too monstrous to ever move people the way I do." She looked at him one more time, before sighing. "... why don't you let the rest of your people know that you'll be needed soon? It'll be the last thing I ever ask of your lot."

She turned to go.

"... I know that you have a secret."

… she stopped. Tatsuya smirked. Inside his heart, something was writhing—cold violence, rising up.

"All people have secrets, but I have a feeling that yours is particularly deadly to you, no? You seem like the kind of girl to hide all kinds of things—and I love that type." His smirk widened into a grin. "Lil miss Eri Phoenix. I saw you on the day of the invasion, you know. You, your brother, Tenjo and Nagare. I saw what happened there."

Eri stiffened up.

Tatsuya didn't say any more. It was just a reminder, after all—a reminder that he, too, could hurt people with words. That she couldn't get away with saying things like this to him. After all, he already had his suspicions, he had simply chosen not to dig deeper back then. Even he knew better than to test Academia's patience, so early on. Still, it would be all too easy to pry this woman's secrets open, lay them bare and choke her with them.

When she spoke up again, her voice was terse. "I suppose I'll keep that in mind."

---

When Edo returned to the base, it was amidst smoke and chaos. At the same time, it… strangely wasn't as bad as he'd thought. Saki Garam was directing a group of students to carry supplies away from the base, and when she saw him, she walked over to him immediately.

"Commander," she said. "Where have you been?"

"Not the time," Edo said. "What are our casualties and losses?"

Saki eyed him, but she ended up giving him a report anyway. "There were no casualties," she said. "People that were closer to the explosions are reporting some cases of partial hearing loss, but it'll take a while to see if it's permanent. Resources-wise… they blew up our two main storage rooms for food, along with the water purifier. Dennis, Kawasaki and I have been handling the retrieval of as many things as we can—though I suppose we could follow your lead now that you're back, Commander. What do you want?"

Edo glanced around him. This destruction…

… he did not know if he would ever be able to forgive Eri for this. No matter what her intentions were, this was unacceptable.

"Where are we currently moving our supplies to?" He asked.

"Nowhere specific. I simply asked them to move those to the outskirts of the base for now until we decided where we are going." Saki folded her arms. "We have two hundred people here, Commander-in-Chief. We no longer have the ability to feed them."

"I know," Edo said. Damn you, Eri. "We'll have to make proper plans for retreat now."

"But sir!"

"... I know," Edo said. "I will take all the responsibility for it. For now… simply continue what you're doing."

"But where do we go?"

"... if we have no intention to stay here for long, then we may as well deal one final blow," Edo decided. "So, let's bring everything to the largest standing building…"

He laid out his plan carefully. At the end of it, Saki stared at him, before she nodded. "Are you sure?"

"It's the place we have the most intel about—our agents spent a remarkable amount of time investigating it."

"... and you'll take all the responsibility, Commander-in-Chief?"

"I cannot sit here and lose with nothing gained," he said. "By hook or by crook… we must exhaust them."

"... yes sir."

---

"God. What a mess!" Grace kicked at the rubble. "Right after we got here too… this totally isn't our responsibility, right, big sister?"

"Of course not," Gloria said with a scoff. "Still… it's interesting timing."

"Huh?"

"... they did this right after we got here. In other words, they did this right after the Lancers got here." Gloria narrowed her eyes. "I wonder why they chose this specific time to do it. Why wait for the Lancers to show up before executing a plan that would leave us with no choice but to retreat, when they could have done it earlier?"

"You're overthinking it, sister."

"Am I?"

"It's a good thing for us that they waited so long, no?" Grace grinned. "If they make mistakes like that… why should we complain?"

"I suppose so."

They both then stiffened up as they heard rubble shifting at the same time. They exchanged a look, before walking towards the nearby desk at the back of the room. Gloria turned to look under the desk—

"Ahh!" A high-pitched voice screamed—but it didn't belong to either of the Tyler Sisters, one of whom burst into laughter, while the other watched, eyebrow twitching.

"You're so pathetic, Noroma," Gloria said.

Mamoru Noro climbed out from under the table, brushing off his clothes as he tried to retain his dignity. "Do not call me by that disrespectful nickname—"

"I'll call you whatever I like," Gloria said dismissively. Behind her, Grace was still laughing. "I see you haven't stopped hiding from your problems."

Grace hit the desk, still clearly holding back a laugh. "Hey, Noroma, remember when we were in class together?" She quipped. "We had a practice drill to protect Academia, and you…" She snorted, hitting the table again. "You hid under the table then too! I'm beginning to think that you, like, just like dark and tight spaces."

Noro's cheeks went red. "You—"

"Make yourself useful instead of hiding," Gloria said dismissively. As usual, no one could stand up to the twin verbal assaults of the Tyler Sisters, even someone that had gone to school with them for years and worked with them for longer. "Come, Grace."

The two of them left together. Grace collapsed into laughter again, and Gloria sighed, before gently patting her on the head.

… at least there was something amusing going on.

She still wanted to figure out if there was a connection between the Lancers and this bombing though.

---

If there was something that Reiji had quickly grown tired of when it came to this war, it was the meetings. Still, diplomacy was important in every situation, and so he had agreed to have another word with Tsubaki Nagare—hopefully, this would be more productive.

(Or, if it wasn't, he was done with waiting for less decisive people to act.)

And of course, he was long past being polite.

That was why, after they sat down, he wasted no time with useless questions. Instead, he pushed his glasses up and made his intentions clear. "Explain to me why you harmed a member of my Lancers," he said.

"I did not harm him."

"... you don't think that hurt him?" Mion asked. "He's just a kid."

"He's a student of Academia," Tsubaki said. "He's old enough to fight against others, so isn't he old enough to handle something like this?"

"So…" Reiji narrowed his eyes. "Was that some kind of misguided attempt at revenge?... because if so, I will assure you that Sora Shiun'in has nothing to do with Academia anymore. You simply chose to hurt someone for no reason."

"... you're wrong on that front. It's true that I trust him less than the rest." Tsubaki pressed her hands together on the table in front of her. "But in truth, there was no malice. I simply made the executive decision that we should not allow more information to leak, before we finished what we wanted to do."

"... I don't disagree with the idea of forcing Academia to change their plans and to strike while they're still adapting," Reiji said. "Do not get that wrong. If you had explained it to me properly, I would have deployed my Lancers to help you. What I do not understand is this lack of trust. We have done nothing that would indicate that we would betray you. Surely you see this."

Tsubaki watched him.

Reiji stood up. "The last time I let my Lancers be handled by anyone except me, they suffered more than they ever should have." His heart was going a mile a minute in his chest, but he knew that he likely still appeared calm.

It was a weakness of his, wasn't it? This inability to ever appeal to someone else's emotions, this inability to convince in any way other than logic. He was no fool—he had seen how the others, like Yuya, moved others entirely without logic, just through emotion. He himself had been moved by those once or twice—after all, the proof of that was sitting right next to him, her arms folded in her lap, her presence in the room a sign of her unwillingness to leave him to negotiate alone. For a moment, they made eye contact.

"Don't be foolish. If I wanted people who would blindly follow my orders, I would have waited and trained up more students from LDS. I don't want that. You all—the Lancers—I do not expect blind obedience. I do not expect you to always think that I am correct. I may be our leader, but we are comrades. We are far too different to all agree on the same thing. Questioning each other and providing new perspectives for each other is the only way that we will grow and survive."

… he wondered if that moment repeated in her mind as much as it did in his. If it affected how she made her decisions.

"You are my second-in-command. There is no one whose opinion I trust in more than yours. I know that you want to defend these six dimensions as much as I do. I know that you want to protect the other Lancers. You have the compassion and empathy that I lack, and at the same time, you are unable to make the callous and logical decisions that I make. The Lancers need both of us, Mion Myojin. And I need you to temper me so that I never make the wrong decision either. I need you to trust me, too. It was because we both acted on our own that it came to this."

Mion sharply nodded.

They could not afford to hold back any of their thoughts, not right now. And—

Reiji had a lot to say.

"I will not accept silence, and I will not accept manipulation. The last time I allowed a single act of disrespect, it led into a slippery slope." He took another step forward. "I will not take any more risks of letting my Lancers be hurt for no good reason. Tell me what's going on—and apologise to Sora for how you treated him. If you don't tell me, this all ends now. I've had enough of this nonsense."

Tsubaki looked at him. Quietly, she sighed—and relented.

"... the only people who knew about this plan were the four of us, Chris, Rio—and Nue, though she didn't know we were going through with it." She folded her arms. "... that was on purpose. This isn't the first time that we've done something, or tried to force Academia's hand in some way… and every single time, it was thwarted." She rubbed her forehead. "It's less about you specifically, and more about the number of people that know…"

Oh.

… this was worse than he'd thought.

"You're claiming that there's information leaking out of the Resistance," Reiji said flatly. "Which is why you won't tell anyone—because you were worried that Shiun'in would come back and tell us, and in the commotion, you'd hurt your plans. And instead of just telling him this and asking him to communicate it—"

"What proof did I have that he would listen to me?"

Reiji was about to speak—but someone else spoke up first.

"If you can't ask," Mion said, standing up too, her eyes narrowed as she pressed her hands flat on the table, "then you don't have the right to make assumptions about what people think and do."

Tsubaki stared at her. "... huh," she murmured. "For a moment, I thought you were…" She shook her head. "Maybe you're right. But I could not take the risk, not then. And maybe his past affiliation with Academia… still coloured my expectations about what he'd do."

Mion pursed her lips.

Reiji shook his head. "... then," he said, "the answer is simple, isn't it? If there's an information leak… we simply act in a way that cannot be compromised by that." Something so large, so obvious, that they did not need to try to be subtle about it, because there was no way of hiding it. "... you can solve this if you simply talk, Melia Arclight. I'm sure your comrades feel the same."

"... fine. Let's hear it, Reiji Akaba."

… progress. They'd have to talk to Sora later—or maybe he'd ask Mion or one of the others to do it. He was not what one would call a comforting presence.

Still…

… this was troubling.

I should see this woman's skill for myself, eventually. I'm sure that it's no joke—but even so, no matter how stoic she is, she seems… indecisive.

How exactly did she end up leading a group that seems this unified? Why is it that she seems hesitant to argue for the morality of her own actions? And… she says that she suspects that information is leaking out of the Resistance. She's trying to let as few people know things as possible… and only her close circle knew, this time. She's trying to flush out someone, but…

… something is wrong here.

---

When she heard footsteps approaching the garden area, Rio raised her head. A few seconds later, Hisako walked in, making her way straight to the plant pots. There was a look of annoyance on her face—one that faded when she noticed Rio there.. "... liebling," she said, brightening up a little. Darling. "I didn't think you'd be joining me today."

"I always show up at some point," Rio said, walking over. She brushed her fingers across Hisako's arm, tracing one of the dark flowers inked on her skin, before looking up at her. "And you always say that."

"Well, it's hard to think of you as someone who would enjoy being here. You hate plants."

Rio laughed. She remembered when she'd first started duel school, and she'd met the then-leader of the flower arrangement club—Aika Hanazoe had apparently met Ryoga a while back and really disliked him, and the fact that Rio had accidentally killed some of the flowers in the garden did not help. "I do," she said. "But you know I…" She meaningfully tapped Hisako's elbow.

"... I do know that much." Hisako leaned over, planting a kiss on her cheek. "Has anything been going on with you?"

"I'm fine," Rio said. "Just calming some of the others, but everyone seems to have a lot more spirit now that they've seen that place go up in flames." She'd known the basics of the plan, since she'd helped Mariko with the construction of the thing in the first place. She was pretty sure that she'd only been trusted with it because Hisako and her were… well. It wasn't a publicly known thing (because she wasn't that open about her own orientation) but their own friend circles knew it, the same way that most people knew about her brother and Thomas Arclight.

Still, when Hisako glanced away, there was a stutter in her breathing that betrayed her.

"... you're upset with something," Rio said. "... is it something you can tell me about?"

Hisako nodded. She sat down—Rio sat down next to her, putting a hand on her knee as the other young woman busied herself with taking care of the plants.

"... I'm worried," she finally admitted. "Something's wrong."

"Something…" Rio frowned. "In what way?"

"... everything should have been far better once the Lancers came here," Hisako said. "... everything's fine with them. Nothing seems overly off… so why is it that there seems to be this gap between us?"

"It's pretty natural—"

"It's not." Hisako glanced at her. "... you can't say that it is, Rio. You already trust them well enough, right?"

Rio blinked. "I mean, I don't have a problem with them." After the problem with Yuto's lookalike had been resolved, she'd actually found most of them rather pleasant. For example, that girl, Miharu, who was rather quiet but reminded her a little of Kaede. And obviously, Kaname, who was also quiet (maybe she just liked people like that) but also clearly so protective over Nue that it was hard to dislike her. And with how much Ruri seemed to like the Lancers, Rio would admit that she had sincerely hoped to like them. And she somewhat did.

"Yeah. You did." Hisako paused, looking at her. When it was clear that whatever she'd wanted to say hadn't gotten through, she sighed. "We knew Shun and Yuto were never going to charge down Academia by themselves, not while Nue was still there… we knew they'd come back eventually. If it's something that we know, why is it that everything is so tense?" She pressed her hands on the dark ceramics in front of her. "... I'm trying so hard to understand, spatzi. I was raised to understand the bigger picture, and I thought that I did, which was why I tried—I have been trying—to smoothen out relations between…"

She breathed out. When she spoke up again, she sounded a little lost. It was the kind of 'lost' that she usually disguised behind politeness and grace. (It spoke volumes that she was fraying enough to let that show.)

"... I don't understand, Rio. I don't understand why it's all going wrong. I know—or, I thought that I knew what kind of people I was working with. I thought that it was possible for us to all be reasonable, but for some reason, none of this is working."

"... and you don't think that's how it's supposed to be?"

"... I think that it's strange when I consider everything we've done so far," Hisako said. "We exclude them from every single decision we make, as though it's natural to do so… but why did we start doing that?"

Rio paused. "... I don't know," she said. "You're right, there's no reason for us to doubt their intentions, not when their identity has already been proven…" Why did they doubt the Lancers so much? She couldn't figure it out. It was this niggling suspicion, as though they just should—

But when had those suspicions started? Where had they come from?

Hisako shook her head. "I just have a bad feeling about everything," she said.

Rio looked at her. She reached out, boldly pulling Hisako into her shoulder—there was something imperious about it. She hoped that she looked as determined as she felt.

"We're going to bring this war to an end," she vowed. "Nothing will go wrong, Hisako. We'll all prove you wrong."

"No, you're going to prove me right." Hisako glanced at the sprouts again. "... I keep planting these, hoping that they'll survive until the day that everything gets better, because I… want to believe that we'll get there. To the point where we can harvest something and eat it and feel good about it." She looked up at Rio. "... we're going to get there, spatzi." She was calling Rio 'little sparrow'—and yet, for all her strength, she still seemed smaller than Rio right now, held down by her own worry. "... I'm going to protect you."

"... don't be ridiculous. I'm not some damsel in distress. I'm going to be the one to protect you." Rio leaned against her. "... come on. Let's rest properly before all of this."

"The potatoes."

"Can wait. If you don't rest, you're going to work yourself into a breakdown." Rio tugged at her sleeve. "Come. I'll go with you." And that was really all she needed to say, in the end.

… things would work out.

---

Sora vaguely remembered waking up once during the trip back to the Resistance, but most of the journey was a mix of delirium and slumber. When he woke up properly, he was lying down in a sleeping bag, tucked in carefully.

It was almost like it had all been a dream…

And then it hit him hard.

He sat up sharply. The room was empty except for Gongenzaka, who reacted to his sudden movements with surprise.

"You're awake!" Gongenzaka stood up, picking up a cup of water from next to him and hastily handing it to Sora—in his worry, he spilled some of it, and he winced. "How are you feeling?"

"Where is Reiji Akaba?" Sora asked, sitting up. "I need to—"

"He's talking to the leader of the Resistance right now," Gongenzaka said. "Don't worry, we know—"

"You guys know and you're still just talking to them?" Sora nearly tripped as he tried to get to his feet. Gongenzaka waved his large arms around as he tried to help, but right now, Sora could only be irritated by it. "Did they not say anything?"

"Sora—"

"They locked me up! Why are we still down here?" The entire room felt so much smaller now—he couldn't breathe. "Why are you so calm? Where's everyone?"

Doesn't anyone care what happened to me?

"We know, and Reiji Akaba is arguing about it, but we still have to—"

"What do we have to do?" Sora snapped back. "If people are just going to treat me like this, I might as well have stayed with Academia!"

… the words stung his tongue the moment that they left his lips—he knew he wouldn't go back. He knew, he knew—

Gongenzaka's eyes widened, and Sora snapped before he could think about it anymore. "You don't know what it felt like to just sit there useless—"

And at this point, he couldn't help but let it all out—the fear, the anger, all at the convenient target in front of him. He couldn't help it, because he'd felt so nervous and so vulnerable, and now, he could only desperately attempt to reclaim something, no matter what he had to do.

"Or maybe you would! Because you're the one who always sits there useless when everyone else is actually doing something!"

Gongenzaka's eyes widened in shock—and hurt. A part of Sora was ecstatic about that—about his words actually managing to do something to someone, in this horrible, cursed war.

"I—" Gongenzaka started to say, before stopping—he seemed lost for words. Then, he raised his arm to cover his eyes, as though to shield himself. Before he could bring himself to say anything in response to Sora's words, there was a sharp sound—the sound of fingers smacking flatly against stone. Sora turned his head.

Hitoda looked back, before she walked over to Gongenzaka, pressing a hand firmly to his shoulder. "Off you go, big guy," she said with a certain… softness that Sora had never heard in her voice before. "Take a moment. I'll come find you later."

Gongenzaka stood up, shaking slightly. "... yes, I will…" He'd dropped his overly formal pronouns. "I suppose I'll…" He hurried out of the room.

The moment he left, Hitoda turned to look at Sora.

"What, are you going to try to justify it all to me too?" Sora accused. "I just want to hear it from Reiji Akaba's own mouth, if he's decided that he can work with people who're so sick in the head that they want to kill people—"

Hitoda cut him off sharply. "—I don't care about that, and I'm not here to be a mouthpiece for Reiji Akaba."

… it was weird, but, with her being so sharp all of a sudden with her words… Sora couldn't help but be reminded of Nue.

Hitoda leaned back. With faux affection, she said: "Gongenzaka insisted on being here when you woke up, you know."

… what?

"He thought you'd benefit from feeling safe because the physically strongest member of the Lancers was here, and so you wouldn't think that you were going to get hurt or anything like that—not that Tsubaki Nagare intended to physically harm you, from what she's told Reiji Akaba. And because you're friends, he thought that it would be better for you to hear about the situation from him directly, but you didn't let him speak at all, did you?"

Sora's throat felt dry. It felt like she had just hit him straight in the face—even without moving at all, just with words. "... that's a cruel thing to say to me…"

"And what you said wasn't cruel?" Hitoda returned—her tone was still nonchalant, but it somehow made the words cut more. "… going through something doesn't give you the right to lash out at someone who's trying to help you, you know."

Sora flared up again—what did she mean? What kind of condescending crap was that? "What would you know?" Sora shot back. "The worst thing someone like you has ever suffered is a bad hair day!"

"… what a thing to say." Hitoda watched him. Her smile was still on her face. "Why's your first instinct to compete, huh?" She took a step back, unintimidated and yet almost coy. "You just think he's a safe target to get mad at. Someone kind, who won't complain, who won't call you out on how much of a jerk you're being."

Sora was abruptly reminded of Mariko's smile, of Eri's emotionlessness, of just—everything. "Don't talk to me like that," he snapped.

Hitoda watched him. She shrugged. "Do you feel good about yourself?" She asked. "When you say all of that?"

Sora froze up. For a moment…

Why did it feel like he was talking to Shino? Hitoda Makishima did not talk like this, she was not in any way nurturing or rude, and even if she was usually brazen, she rarely directly confronted anyone like this.

Hitoda continued on, clearly not noticing his surprise. "Because if you do," she said, "you should reconsider how you think about yourself. And about other people, too." She turned and left the room—leaving Sora alone.

Sora folded into himself. All the rage was still there, but abruptly, he felt like he'd deflated somewhat—no matter how angry he was, with no one else around, it was like it didn't matter.

… he couldn't help but think about Gongenzaka's hurt expression again. About a few days ago, when Gongenzaka had asked him about the circumstances of Tsukikage's carding, Sora had still hurt him and struggled to answer.

He… should probably apologise, right? He kept thinking that, but he just couldn't bring himself to do it. What would Shino say if she was here?… never mind. (He'd already told himself to stop making decisions based on that, but it was a tough habit to break.) What did he want to do?

… it was just difficult. He couldn't help but think that if the Lancers really could work with the Resistance after this… then, it would be as though they didn't care about him. They didn't care about how he'd tried to get back to tell them something, anything. They didn't care about him at all. And even if that wasn't true, how was he supposed to take it?

… he really didn't know.

---

What a mess.

… I guess in the end, unlike the rest, I'm not made for this kind of gentleness.

Hitoda stopped in the corridor, breathing out slowly as she messed with her hair bun. She had just been coming to check on the two and to bring some more water, but she hadn't expected to walk in on that. Good job, she chided herself. Scolding the traumatised kid who still can't seem to focus on anything except lollipops. That's going to spread fast.

Still… she couldn't help it. When she'd walked in and seen Gongenzaka getting yelled at, there had been a part of her that had been just as eager to lash out.

She traced the obvious path that he'd taken, eventually making her way to a different room. Gongenzaka was sitting on a chair in the corner, staring intently at the ceiling.

"Hey, big guy." She settled down next to him, holding out a cup. "Drink up."

Gongenzaka was clearly startled when he noticed her. "Did you leave Sora alone?"

"Let him steam a bit," Hitoda said. "We're all old enough to handle our emotions, I think." She smiled at him, hiding her annoyance from earlier. At least, we're old enough to handle our emotions without taking it out on other people. "Wanna take a break with me while our leader's discussing things, big guy?"

"Take a break?"

"Yeah." She looked him over. "... I don't feel like I've seen you sleep much, you know."

Gongenzaka pinched his nose. He leaned back. "... I would like to duel you, Hitoda-san," he finally said.

"... huh?"

"Please." He sounded more determined now. "Sora… reminded me of something that I have been steadily trying to ignore. And… this man, Gongenzaka, cannot ignore it any longer."

"Huh. So you… want to duel?"

"I do."

Hitoda watched him.

… yeah. Why not?

She was curious about this sudden impulse too. And well… she remembered what she had said to Reiji Akaba once. I do not want anything, or wish to do anything. Lying through her teeth, but—it was true. Nothing moved her more than curiosity, nothing earned her favour more than the same. And whatever fragile trust existed between her and Gongenzaka, it had never stopped being tested by her lies and apathy, and yet he never seemed to notice.

Maybe she owed him a little.

"Want to sneak out, big guy?" She asked.

---

Sora wasn't left alone for long. When he heard footsteps again, he looked up, about to snarl out something—only to see the person who'd just arrived and pause.

"You look like you're sulking."

"You can't see me," Sora blurted out, before immediately facepalming. "... sorry."

"It's not like you're wrong." Nue sat down next to him, leaning her cane against the wall next to them. "No need to apologise."

"... I feel shitty whenever someone just… says it to Shino's face," Sora said. "... I don't want to be like them."

Nue turned towards him—Sora knew he wasn't being looked at, but he still felt 'perceived'. "... I see," she said. "Actually, that's what I wanted to talk to you about."

"I would've expected Kurosaki to be hanging around by your side, like usual…"

Nue's smile didn't reach her eyes. "Shun doesn't know what to think of me right now," she said. "I'm giving him space while he settles things."

"He's angry at you?"

"No." Nue leaned back on the wall, fiddling with her braid. "Just… he's dealt with learning a lot more about me than he'd expected to. I don't exactly seem like the kind of person with hidden depths, do I? Just the strict older sister, nothing more than that. So… he obviously knew there was more, but this much more… obviously he needs time to understand how he wants to move forward. What things he can accept and what he can't."

"But…" Sora frowned. "You two… are dating, right?"

"... if you can't tell by now, something's very wrong."

"No, that's not what I—"

Nue let out a soft huff—it was something like a chuckle, but there was something so worn-down to it that it made Sora stop. "I know what you mean," she said. "Yeah, we're dating."

"Then…" Sora gulped. "If he loves you… he's supposed to forgive you, right? To help you?"

Nue went silent for a moment. Briefly, she balled up the fabric of her shirt as she clenched her fists. "He's not supposed to do anything," she said. "That's not how things like this work—I can't let that be how they work."

"... huh?"

"That's not what… love is," she said. "I haven't even said 'that' yet, but either way, love shouldn't be a burden that forces you to shoulder what you can't carry. It shouldn't be something that forces him to keep pulling me up. I—"

She shook her head sharply.

"He's my boyfriend. He didn't sign up to be my therapist. And if I fuck up, it's not his job to fix things. It's mine. He isn't obligated to give me anything, it's his choice."

"... you sound like you don't think he's going to support you."

"Really? Do I sound that way?" Nue frowned. "... I think he'll still choose to talk things out with me. But it doesn't mean that he doesn't have the right to think about that choice first. And he very much should."

"I thought that if you loved someone, you didn't need to keep thinking about things like this," Sora muttered.

"That's simplistic." Nue didn't even try to pull her punches. "It's because I… care for him, and he cares for me, that we have to keep thinking about these things. That's the only way that a relationship can work out."

But then, Sora wanted to say, what did that mean about him? What did that mean about his understanding of love, as this sacrificial thing, as this cost that had to be paid?

Still, Nue spoke up before he could. "Back to what I actually came here to talk to you about. I wanted to ask about your cousin."

"Shino?"

"Yeah." Nue folded her arms. "I want to know if she ever came here."

"No?" Sora scowled. "The injury she took from Yuri meant that she would have difficulty moving around a place like this, so the Professor made the decision to keep her in Academia for that war, especially because her physical state deteriorated around that time."

"The injury she took from…" Nue narrowed her eyes. "... you mean that person with the same face as Yuto, right?"

"Yeah. The one who…" Sora pushed away thoughts of the violet-haired boy standing in the middle of a crowd, shouting.

"I am not a prize to be exchanged. And neither you nor Reiji Akaba get to bet on my future! Whether or not I go back to Academia—who said that you got to decide for me, Shino?"

"Anyway, she started collapsing more around that time, and with her narcolepsy, it just wasn't useful to send her out, no matter how strong she was."

"... huh." Nue seemed to be considering something. "And… before that?"

"Huh?" Sora blinked. "What do you mean?"

"Say… ten years ago. Do you know if she came here around that time?"

Ten years ago… Sora thought back to things—and abruptly felt like crying. Was it ten years ago now? "It's not possible for her to have come here," he said. "Ten years ago, Shino and I lost our parents and we were still running away in a warzone… and the Professor wasn't even that famous then, and he didn't know who we were. There's no way that she could have come here!"

"... huh."

"Why did you ask?" Sora said—hoping that he was catching the wrong implications. Did Nue… know something?

"... I remembered something recently," Nue admitted. "When I was sleeping… it's hard to explain. But… it's complicated."

And then, she dropped the bombshell.

"I think I met your cousin when I was a kid."

"What?" Sora exclaimed. No way…

"Yeah. I met that girl. Your cousin. Right here, in our world—she walked up to me in a playground when I was having a… bad time." Nue closed her eyes. "It could have just been a dream… but it felt too familiar to be a dream. Your cousin walking up to me, telling me her name and the characters it was written with—'weave' and 'hope', right?"

That was correct. Even so…

"... Shino didn't act like that back then," Sora muttered. "Back then, she was still… stiff." Why would she have been friendly to Nue?

"I don't know how to explain it," Nue said. "But I know what I saw. It's not just a hallucination. I know what those feel like. And anyway, why would I hallucinate a girl that I had never seen before?"

"I believe you," Sora said. "I just don't know how." If Shino had come to Heartland all those years ago, why hadn't she told him? "... I guess there's a lot I didn't know."

Nue didn't loosen up at all—her hands remained tightly clenched in fists.

---

"Nue-san?"

If Nue had to put a word to the emotions that she currently felt, it would probably be guilt.

After all, no matter how strange the circumstances were, no matter how impossible it felt that it had happened… it made all too much sense, when she finally thought about how Shino Gitsune had been acting towards her all along.

But…

Nue had still forgotten it, back then.

Because she had been going through so much then, her mind still struggling to understand what was happening to it, and it was easier to ignore and forget everything, including a girl with pinkish-purple hair and bright green eyes, slightly shorter than her, scattered pieces of candy in her pockets, a sweet smile on her face. But…

That girl had clearly not forgotten her.

That girl had met her in Standard, and when Nue had tracked her down to duel her and get her out of that world, she had raised her head, smiled and asked for help with a crossword, as though nothing was wrong. She had immediately made it clear that she knew their… connection, because to her, there was nothing wrong with sharing valuable information like that with someone who might not have known. And, when Nue had simply gotten mad at her and not recognised her at all… she'd played along. She hadn't treated Nue as a stranger, but she hadn't treated her with the same warmth as before either. And in Synchro, she'd gone out of her way to avoid fighting Nue again—a choice that she had backed up by saying that out of everyone there, the one person who she saw as a threat was Nue.

… that was a lie, wasn't it? Nue shouldn't be surprised. Lies mixed with truth—that was how the world worked.

The truth was simple.

Shino Gitsune did not want to duel her. Nue had thought that it was something to do with what they had in common, but no. Clearly, dueling Kaname hadn't been a bad thing for her or Kyorin… so it made no sense in that case.

If logic had played no role in that girl's decision, then the next obvious answer was that it was… emotion.

And that was… far more complicated than she'd expected.

That sweet girl in the park… maybe Nue understood her even less than she'd imagined. Even so…

"... you know," she said, "your cousin's physical condition probably didn't get worse, back then."

"... I think I knew," Sora admitted. "But I still believed in Academia back then, so I tried not to think about it."

Nue nodded.

… it was likely that Shino had just feigned illness and a worsening condition to get out of being forced to participate in an invasion like this… Nue had once felt disgust towards her, the person who understood how wrong it all was and fought for Academia anyway. But… there was clearly a part of that girl that was gentler than Nue ever had any hope to be.

"Thanks for answering my questions," she said.

Sora must have done something, but Nue couldn't tell what it was. "... it's just another thing I have to know, I guess," he said, sounding rather bitter. "... whatever. Thanks for telling me."

---

"You ready, big guy?" Hitoda asked. They were standing outside the base—Hitoda had wanted to get some fresh air, and well, they hadn't exactly wandered far from the base. Just enough to give themselves some space.

"Of course." Gongenzaka raised his duel disk, looking determined.

Well, Hitoda didn't exactly know what this was all about, but if he wanted it so badly, she'd indulge him. "Let's go!"

[DUEL!]

Hitoda Makishima: 4000LP

Noboru Gongenzaka: 4000LP

[Turn 1: Hitoda] [H:5]

Hmm, she'd been randomly assigned the first turn, huh? Not bad—she could afford to take it slow, if that was the base. She quickly surveyed her hand. "Alright," she said. Neither of her Pendulum Monsters were in her hand, so she hadn't been given a choice anyway. And her deck was still in its 'versus Academia' build, so it had a greater focus on EARTH monsters compared to any other Attribute—which would naturally serve her well against Gongenzaka, who played a similar deck.

Alright. Time to get to work.

She reached up towards her hair, as though she could find Soothsayer's veil there. Still, she was just Hitoda Makishima.

(Even now, she still had another layer up.)

"First, I'll activate the Spell Card, Spirit Charmers," Hitoda said with a wink. "I'll discard a card and then—well, I've said the requirements enough! It's just my usual archetypes, yeah? I'll add one of them to my hand and set the other." A single set card appeared on the field in front of her. "Then, I'll Normal Summon Eda the Sun Magician!" A magician in silver robes appeared, her orange ponytail swinging through the air behind her.

[Eda the Sun Magician (4*/1500/1500/EARTH/Spellcaster/Effect)]

"Eda's effect!" Hitoda picked up a single card from her deck, spinning it. "When I Normal Summon her, I can set a Spellcaster monster with 1500 defense points from my deck!" She placed it facedown—ending up with two monsters on the field, along with two set cards as she lifted another card from her hand. "I'll set a card facedown. Over to you."

[Turn 2: Gongenzaka] [H:6]

"Two set cards and a set monster," Gongenzaka commented as he drew a card. "Those are always difficult with you… and you didn't Link Summon immediately."

Hitoda winked, hiding her smile behind the two cards in her hand. "Yeah?"

"It's because you started first." Gongenzaka studied her with a serious expression. "Correct?"

"... heh." Hitoda shrugged. "It's just what I think is best right now. This isn't an 'extension' kind of field, you know?"

"You three from the Link Dimension are all like that," Gongenzaka noted. "You build up resources… you just use them differently. Very well. The man, Gongenzaka will face you head-on. Since there are no Spells or Traps in his graveyard, by discarding Superheavy Samurai Motorbike, the man, Gongenzaka can add another "Superheavy Samurai" monster to his hand!" He swiftly picked up another card. "Then, since you control two or more monsters and I control no monsters, I can Special Summon Superheavy Samurai Scales from my hand!"

The familiar green samurai appeared on Gongenzaka's field. Hitoda held back a joke about it looking tall and strong, because well. Not her type.

[Superheavy Samurai Scales (4*/800/1800/EARTH/Machine/Effect)]

"Then, the effect of Superheavy Samurai Scales! I will Special Summon Superheavy Samurai Motorbike from the graveyard!" The pink mechanical motorbike with flames coming out from behind it appeared.

[Superheavy Samurai Motorbike (2*/800/1200/EARTH/Machine/Tuner/Effect)]

"I'll tune my Level 2 Superheavy Samurai Motorbike to the Level 4 Superheavy Samurai Scales! Rise your war cry, divine ogre! Show yourself on this battlefield of raging ice and storm! Synchro Summon! Now depart for the front! Level 6! Superheavy Samurai Ogre Shutendoji!" The tall red samurai appeared, holding onto a long club. Golden metal strips across his shoulders.

[Superheavy Samurai Ogre Shutendoji (6*/500/2500/EARTH/Machine/Synchro/Effect)]

"Since Shutendoji was Synchro Summoned while there are no Spells and Traps in my graveyard, all Spells and Traps you control are destroyed!"

Hitoda hid a smile. Aww. He was trying rather hard, wasn't he? She lifted up both cards, revealing them. "Possessed Partnerships and Unpossessed," she said. "There you go." The two holograms on the field shattered.

"... good," Gongenzaka said. "The man, Gongenzaka will then activate the effect of Superheavy Samurai Soulpiercer in his hand, and equip it to Superheavy Samurai Ogre Shutendoji!"

"Responding," Hitoda said lightly. "First, I'm banishing Possessed Partnerships from my graveyard to set Unpossessed back to my field face-up." Meaning that pretty much all of her monsters wouldn't be able to be destroyed by battle. And well, they all knew just how honest and upright Gongenzaka was, destroying her monsters through battle was probably what he'd prefer anyway. "Second, I'm going to activate Eda's effect and flip my set monster into face-up Defense Position!"

Gongenzaka narrowed his eyes.

"You know who she is, don't you? I'll flip up Aussa the Earth Charmer!" The girl with short brown hair appeared, nervously adjusting her glasses.

[Aussa the Earth Charmer (3*/500/1500/EARTH/Spellcaster/Flip/Effect)]

"You're going to use Soulpiercer to search out Flutist to protect your monsters from mine, right?" Hitoda said. Soulpiercer searched out any other "Superheavy Samurai" monster when sent to the graveyard—in other words, pretty much any other Superheavy Samurai card, since there were no Spells and Traps in the deck. Meanwhile, Flutist could banish itself from the graveyard to protect his monsters from targeting effects.

So anyway, TL:DR, can't let him do that. And it'll be a nice bonus if I cut him off from Synchro Summoning anymore too—Scales is his best way of swarming.

"Sadly, I think I don't want this performer to exit the stage yet. Aussa's effect! I'll take control of Shutendoji!"

The large ogre was dragged over to Hitoda's side of the field—and now, those defense points were all protecting her instead of Gongenzaka.

"And with your Unpossessed back on the field, I cannot destroy your monster to save mine from its clutches," Gongenzaka said gravely.

Hitoda fought back the urge to laugh. "I don't usually let people go from my clutches, no," she joked. When Gongenzaka shot her a stricken look though, she rolled her eyes. "Just kidding, big guy. I'm a big believer in consent."

"... regardless, it does not change my plan." Gongenzaka revealed a card in his hand. "Normal Summoning Superheavy Samurai Battleball!" A large, rotund… well, ball-shaped warrior appeared on his field, dressed in varying shades of bronze, silver and gold. It was holding onto a short spear with a comically large metal tip. It… kind of looked like a kid's idea of a samurai, exaggerated and cartoonish.

[Superheavy Samurai Battleball (2*/100/800/DARK/Machine/Tuner/Effect)]

"Battleball's effect!" Gongenzaka gestured forward. "The man, Gongenzaka, can target one of your monsters and send it to the graveyard alongside Battleball himself to Synchro Summon!"

Hitoda blinked.

… huh.

Okay, that was kind of ironic. She respected it—stealing from a thief. And then, if he just took Aussa, Shutendoji would go back to him and he'd have two monsters on the field—

"The man, Gongenzaka, tunes the Level 2 Superheavy Samurai Battleball to the Level 6 Superheavy Samurai Ogre Shutendoji!"

… maybe he still needed more lessons in being underhanded.

Gongenzaka pressed his hands together. Above him, Shutendoji slipped through two glowing rings of light.

"Ninja that cuts away tricks! Step steadfast on this battlefield! Synchro Summon! Level 8! Superheavy Samurai Ninja Sarutobi!" The large blue robot appeared, holding up its fists sternly as it readied for battle.

[Superheavy Samurai Ninja Sarutobi (8*/2000/2800/EARTH/Machine/Synchro/Effect)]

"Soulpiercer's effect. Since Shutendoji left the field, it is destroyed and sent to the graveyard—and when sent to the graveyard from the field, I can add a "Superheavy Samurai" monster from my deck to my hand. Then, the man, Gongenzaka, will activate Sarutobi's effect," Gongenzaka said solemnly. "Once per turn, during either player's turn, it can destroy a Spell or Trap on the field, and deal you 500 damage!"

Hitoda smirked. "Not bad, big guy." Unpossessed blew up—and now, Aussa was vulnerable to battle again.

Hitoda: 4000 - 500 = 3500LP

"Your Spells and Traps are what make you such a formidable foe, Hitoda-san," Gongenzaka declared. "The Spell that protects them from card effects, this trap that protects them from battle and stops you from ever running out of troops… no matter how many of them you attempt to set up on the field, I will break them down without mercy."

"Then, go ahead and attack," Hitoda said with a wink. "You've already torn all my walls down!"

"Superheavy Samurai Ninja Sarutobi attacks Eda the Sun Magician! With its effect, it can attack in Defense Position, using its defense points—so if this goes through, you'll take all the damage!"

If it went through, huh…

Sure, why not.

The ninja punched Eda straight in the face, slamming her to the ground as Hitoda's life points fell.

Hitoda: 3500 - 1300 = 2200LP

Yup. If he'd gotten rid of Aussa instead, Shutendoji would still have been free to attack her directly—though she still had a way out of it.

"I end my turn," Gongenzaka said. "It's over to you again, Hitoda-san."

[Turn 3: Hitoda] [H:3]

"Yeah," Hitoda said cheerfully. "I'll make sure to impress, I guess. Draw!" She still had Aussa on the field now, which left her with a lot of options. "I'll activate the Continuous Spell, Awakening of the Possessed."

"The one that boosts your monsters in battle," Gongenzaka said. "I will activate Sarutobi's effect!"

Actually, Hitoda just used that card to draw… well, more cards. But this was fine. Her card blew up and her life points fell again.

Hitoda: 2200 - 500 = 1700LP

"That's fine," she said with a shrug. "Spell Card, Reasoning!"

"Rea… soning?"

"Reasoning," Hitoda repeated, as though they explained anything. She left him wondering for a moment, just for fun, but explained things a moment after. "You declare a Level from 1 to 12, and I excavate cards from the top of my deck until I get a monster that can be Normal Summoned or Set. Then, if you were right, all the excavated cards are sent to the graveyard, but if you were wrong, I summon that monster. The rest of the cards go to the graveyard anyway."

"I… see." Gongenzaka narrowed his eyes. "Your Charmers are Level 3… but the rest of your monsters, those Fairy Tail and Familiar-Possessed monsters, are Level 4. That's what I'm choosing."

And that obviously included her familiars as well, so it had been the obvious pick. Well, that was fine. Hitoda had never been afraid to take a risk.

"Going through it then," she said. She flipped up the cards one by one. Spiritual Earth Art - Kurogane. Grand Spiritual Art - Ichirin. Monster Reborn. … heh. That one couldn't be Normal Summoned. And finally…

"Level 5," Hitoda said lightly. "Come—Awakening of the Possessed - Gagigobyte!" The large aqua blue reptile appeared on the field, a torrent of water churning around it, as well as crackling lightning.

[Awakening of the Possessed - Gagigobyte (5*/2000/200/WATER/Reptile/Effect)]

"I'll Normal Summon Fairy Tail - Rochka!" She played the last card in her hand. The girl with fluffy white hair and a long tail appeared, standing next to the large lizard.

[Fairy Tail - Rochka (4*/1850/1000/LIGHT/Spellcaster/Effect)]

"Rochka's effect. I'll give you 500 life points, and then, you can look at the top three cards of my deck." Holograms appeared in front of Gongenzaka, turned away from her. "You choose one and add it to my hand."

As a glow surrounded Gongenzaka, he shot a rather puzzled look at the three cards that Rochka revealed.

Gongenzaka: 4000 + 500 = 4500LP

"... take Dharc the Dark Charmer," Gongenzaka said. Hitoda picked it up—it wasn't going to work, considering that she'd already Normal Summoned, but that was fine.

"Okay," she said. "I'll banish my second copy of Possessed Partnerships from the graveyard to activate Unpossessed from my graveyard. And now, let's get to it. Opening the multi-coloured circuit! The conditions are two monsters, including an EARTH monster! I'll set Aussa the Earth Charmer and Awakening of the Possessed - Gagigobyte in the Link Markers! Appear now, ascended figure of the earth! Circuit Combine! Link Summon! Link 2! Aussa the Earth Charmer, Immovable!" The woman with short brown hair appeared, her small familiar floating to her right.

[Aussa the Earth Charmer, Immovable (L2/1850/EARTH/Spellcaster/Link/Effect/↙, ↘)]

"Gagigobyte's effect. I'll add a "Possessed" Spell or Trap from my deck to my hand." Hitoda picked up the card carefully. "I'll activate a second copy of the Continuous Spell, Awakening of the Possessed!" Hopefully, Gongenzaka wouldn't get the chance to blow it up this time. "And then, Aussa's effect! I'll Special Summon an EARTH monster from your graveyard! Come to my field! Superheavy Samurai Scales!"

The green warrior rose up at Aussa's bottom-left marker.

"Scales and not Shutendoji?"

"Not Shutendoji," Hitoda said. "After all, Scales is a Level 4 monster, isn't it?"

"Yes…" Gongenzaka stared at her field, before frowning. "Don't tell me…"

"Bingo," Hitoda said. "Hope you don't mind, but if you wanted to challenge me, I'd figured that I should give you a bit of a challenge." She wasn't what one would consider a Link specialist anyway—she didn't even Link Summon that often, compared to Yuno and Miharu, who usually Link Summoned around four to five times in a single turn. Her board-building came from a different direction—simply keeping her own monsters alive. And she enjoyed working with Nue so much—was it any surprise that she'd have eventually picked up something from the other girl? "Overlaying the Level 4 Superheavy Samurai Scales and the Level 4 Fairy Tail - Rochka!"

The two monsters turned into bright streaks, streaming into the ground.

"Unholy alchemy, fall into the madness of progress and breach the border to the unknown! Xyz Summon! Rank 4! Esoteri the Elemental Alchemist!"

A woman with the same green hair as Hitoda appeared on the field—lush, dark forest green. She adjusted her goggles, looking bored—her eyes danced with colours. That wasn't a metaphor either—it was impossible to nail down what colour her eyes were, because looking at them felt like looking at a wall covered in several different splashes of paint. She was dressed in rather regal-looking dark brown robes, lined with mahogany, red-brown fabric. Casually, she tossed a beaker through the air—the beaker was frothing as something strange mixed around within it. Around different parts of her robes were strange patches—a burning piece of fabric, plants looping around her right leg, swirling water around her shoulder, wind pushing up the collar of her robes. A patch of gold at the side of her hair. Behind her, her shadow was writhing strangely.

[Esoteri the Elemental Alchemist (R4/1850/1500/LIGHT/Spellcaster/Xyz/Effect) (OU:2)]

"Esoteri's Attribute is permanently replaced with the Attributes of her materials!" Hitoda declared. Around the green-haired woman, orbs of light and small pieces of rock formed, far larger than the smaller traces of elements on her clothes. "Since she was Xyz Summoned with both of our monsters, she's now LIGHT and EARTH. And that means that I now control two Attributes of monsters, so Awakening of the Possessed gives both my monsters 600 attack points!" Both Aussa and Esoteri glowed.

[Esoteri the Elemental Alchemist: 1850 + 300 x 2 = 2450ATK]

[Aussa the Earth Charmer, Immovable: 1850 + 300 x 2 = 2450ATK]

"Furthermore, since I summoned a Spellcaster monster with 1850 original attack points, I can draw a card with Awakening of the Possessed's other effect." Hitoda gestured forward. "Esoteri's effect! Let's give this a spin—by detaching an Overlay Unit, I'll target a monster on the field with the same Attribute as her and banish it!"

She gestured towards Sarutobi.

"Obviously, I stole one of your Superheavy Samurais as material for Esoteri. So with her EARTH Attribute—" Esoteri spun the beaker through the air, the liquid inside taking on an orange-brown tinge. "She'll banish Sarutobi!"

[Esoteri the Elemental Alchemist: OU:2 - 1 = OU:1]

Gongenzaka narrowed his eyes.

"All your negates only work from the graveyard," Hitoda said. "You haven't gotten the chance to send any of them there first. So now's a good time." The fluid in the beaker splashed through the air, hitting Sarutobi. It ate through the samurai's armour like acid, before the blue ninja vanished from the field, leaving Gongenzaka defenseless. "And now, Esoteri will attack you directly!"

If he had nothing, he would lose. Hopefully, it wouldn't come down to that.

Thankfully, Gongenzaka picked up a card from his hand, signifying that he wasn't done yet. "I'll activate the effect of Superheavy Samurai Soulshield in my hand. When you declare a direct attack, I can Special Summon it from my hand, and Special Summon another "Superheavy Samurai" monster from my deck!" The black and green shield-like monster appeared, floating in front of Gongenzaka. "Come from the deck, Superheavy Samurai Blue Brawler!" Another bright blue samurai appeared on the field, holding up his fists—on them, black metal formed structures like boxing gloves.

[Superheavy Samurai Soulshield (3*/1000/1500/EARTH/Machine/Effect)]

[Superheavy Samurai Blue Brawler (4*/0/2000/EARTH/Machine/Effect)]

Both monsters were obviously in Defense Position, to protect him against her monsters.

"Esoteri will redirect her attack to Superheavy Samurai Soulshield," she said. "Honestly, this works out for me. When Esoteri battles a monster with the same Attribute as her, once per turn, I can take a monster from my deck which fulfils specific conditions, and I can either add it to my hand or Special Summon it facedown. So, this monster either has to be a Spellcaster monster with 1500 defense points, or it has to be a monster with 1500 attack points and 200 defense points."

In other words, any of her Charmers or Familiar-Possessed monsters (though not the Fairy Tail monsters), or any of the 'familiars'.

"I'll set another copy of Aussa from my deck Alchemic Transformation 101!." The Charmer appeared on her field, before turning into a facedown card. Right after that, Esoteri tossed out more of the strange acidic substance at Soulshield, eating through the monster. "I'll then end my turn."

"Huh?"

"Well, you know what the one card in my hand is!" Hitoda gestured forward. "And I saw what you did with Soulshield against the Obelisk Force. Back in that duel, you summoned Blowtorch, a monster that couldn't be destroyed by battle—and your expression now is the same as it was back then. Blue Brawler can't be destroyed by battle, right?"

"... I don't know how I keep on forgetting, Hitoda-san, but you're truly one of the craftiest duelists I've ever met."

"It's an acquired skill," Hitoda said amusedly.

"To be unnoticeable?"

"Crafty, thank you."

"I see…" Gongenzaka shot her an intrigued look. "Was this your first deck?"

Hitoda shrugged. When she was younger, she had started out with a different deck—it couldn't really be called a cohesive deck, back then. She'd kept on losing to her brother, and then eventually, her mother had gotten her a card that specifically countered FIRE monsters, as a peace offering of sorts.

… maybe she still remembered it, better than she thought. Her parents' relationship had been interesting. For one, her mother hadn't actually been her biological mother. Takeru had been their parents' child. Meanwhile, Takemi had been born of… well. The less spoken of her father's indiscretion, the better. Still, her mother had never treated her any differently—she'd loved her dearly, and wanted to make her feel welcome from the moment that she'd moved to their home.

Still, Hiita the Fire Charmer had been the card that had technically started her deck—she'd quickly collected the rest to make a set, even though she still only played Hiita, because her opponent back then had been her brother. As such, she'd only begun making a name for herself with the Charmers after… everything.

"You could say I've always been Princess Charming," she said with a smirk. "Well? Over to you. I'm sure you're fine though."

[Turn 4: Gongenzaka] [H:4]

"Draw," Gongenzaka said. His field was now completely empty again save for Blue Brawler, with one of his stronger Synchro Monsters banished, while Hitoda had an Xyz Monster, a Link Monster and a facedown monster, all geared towards the main Attribute he used—and yet, he did not seem too fazed by it. Good. "I must confess, I decided to duel you for selfish motives, Hitoda-san."

"Believe me, I know that part," Hitoda said dryly.

"A-ah?" Gongenzaka briefly lost his composure. "Was that obvious?"

"Well, it's not like there were any selfless reasons why we would suddenly be dueling before some kind of big battle. I get it. Not a problem."

"I see… like I said, you're always surprising." Gongenzaka looked through his cards. "You have those two cards on the field again—so your monsters cannot be destroyed by battle or card effects until I get rid of them. And that set Charmer…"

"So, what are you going to do?"

"I'm going to take you out in a single blow!" Gongenzaka declared. "The man, Gongenzaka, activates the effect of Superheavy Samurai Transporter! Since there are no Spells and Traps in his graveyard, he can Special Summon Transporter from his hand!" A skinny, skeletal warrior appeared—whitish bone-like metal structures could still be seen under a pinkish-red layer of metal on top of it. Notably, the warrior's feet were replaced with wheels as it spun around the field.

[Superheavy Samurai Transporter (5*/1200/1800/EARTH/Machine/Effect)]

"Transporter, huh…" Hitoda didn't think she'd seen that one yet.

"On the turn that Transporter is summoned with its own effect, I can only Special Summon "Superheavy Samurai" monsters," Gongenzaka declared. "Then, by tributing it—" The red warrior vanished as Hitoda blinked in surprise. "The man, Gongenzaka, will Special Summon two monsters from his hand to your field in Defense Position!"

"To… my field?" Two of Hitoda's Main Monster Zones lit up. "Huh. You sure about that, big guy? I'm not going to be courteous enough to leave them there."

"It will not matter," Gongenzaka said solemnly. "The man, Gongenzaka, Special Summons Superheavy Samurai Gigagloves and Superheavy Samurai Flutist to your field!" Transporter reappeared on Hitoda's side of the field, holding onto two packages. He flung them onto the two highlighted zones, before saluting and vanishing again. The cardboard boxes surrounded the packages opened up, and the two monsters emerged. A large red samurai-like robot appeared, holding up its large hands as though to clasp something—that was obviously Gigagloves. Meanwhile, Flutist stood up straight on her field, playing a quick tune on the strange flute in its hands.

[Superheavy Samurai Gigagloves (3*/100/1000/EARTH/Machine/Effect)]

[Superheavy Samurai Flutist (3*/500/1000/EARTH/Machine/Effect)]

"Then, I draw a card for each monster summoned by this effect."

"Digging for something?"

"... I only wish to win against you at your best, Hitoda-san," Gongenzaka said, narrowing his eyes. "And to do so, I must empower you first! I found what I was looking for! I Normal Summon Superheavy Samurai Magnet!" A blue robotic warrior with a large black magnet attached to its back appeared on the field.

[Superheavy Samurai Magnet (4*/900/1900/EARTH/Machine/Effect)]

"And Superheavy Samurai Magnet's effect Special Summons another "Superheavy Samurai" monster from my hand! March on!" Gongenzaka slammed down the one card in his hand that he hadn't drawn with Transporter's effect. "Superheavy Samurai Drum!" The monster that appeared on his field now was cylindrical in shape, and its body was made of black and gold metal, with a glowing red light forming a ring on top of it.

[Superheavy Samurai Drum (1*/300/300/EARTH/Machine/Tuner/Effect)]

"And now, I'll tune the Level 1 Superheavy Samurai Drum to the Level 4 Superheavy Samurai Magnet and the Level 4 Superheavy Samurai Blue Brawler!"

Hmm. Level 9, huh?

"With your divine fire, let loose a warcry that will break the battlefield! Show yourself! Synchro Summon! Level 9! Superheavy Samurai Beast Kyubi!" As expected, the stocky mechanical samurai appeared in front of him, yellow flames streaming out from its head, arms and shoulders, taking on the form of long tails that whipped through the air.

[Superheavy Samurai Beast Kyubi (9*/1900/2500/EARTH/Machine/Synchro/Effect)]

"And this is how I intend to break through those walls of yours—with full force!" Gongenzaka clenched a fist. "Superheavy Samurai Beast Kyubi gains 900 defense points for each Special Summoned monster the opponent controls while there are no Spells or Traps in my graveyard!"

"Each…" Hitoda chuckled. "Nice. So that's why you put two more of them on my field…"

[Superheavy Samurai Beast Kyubi: 2500 + 900 x 5 = 7000DEF]

Seven thousand defense points… and Gongenzaka's monsters used defense points when they battled, didn't they?

"Battling Esoteri will only give you another chance to search out something to help you," Gongenzaka declared. "Finish this in a single, mighty blow! Kyubi attacks your Link Monster!"

Kyubi raised his fists—and then, golden flames burst across the field, immolating everything as they rushed towards Aussa. It surrounded the field with a bright glow, and Gongenzaka stared into the flames, rather determined—

The flames parted suddenly, shimmering green light forcing them to retreat.

"You were close, but you don't have it," Hitoda said. "Fairy Tail - Snow's effect activates in the graveyard! By banishing seven cards from my graveyard, hand or field, she can Special Summon herself to the field!"

"An effect like that at this time…"

"I'll banish Superheavy Samurai Flutist and Superheavy Samurai Gigagloves on my side of the field," Hitoda said. The two monsters vanished. "And Spiritual Earth Art - Kurogane, Grand Spiritual Art - Ichirin, Reasoning, Awakening of the Possessed - Gagigobyte and Fairy Tail - Rochka from the graveyard!" On the field, in the middle of the glowing green light, a dark-haired girl dressed in red and white appeared, a thick white squirrel tail emerging behind her with a green ribbon tied on it.

[Fairy Tail - Snow (4*/1850/1000/LIGHT/Spellcaster/Effect)]

"Awakening of the Possessed will let me draw a card, since I just summoned a Spellcaster monster with 1850 attack points. Then, when Snow is Normal or Special Summoned, I can target a face-up monster you control and change it to facedown Defense Position," Hitoda said. "I only have one target, don't I?"

Snow dashed forward, her tail swiping through the air—with a bright flash of light, Kyubi collapsed to the ground, turning into a single set card.

"... unbelievable," Gongenzaka muttered.

Hitoda messed with her hair, almost pulling it out of its bun. She shrugged. "Sorry?"

"... it wouldn't be you without curveballs. Well, you must still make it past my monster. Can you do it?" Gongenzaka gestured forward. "... your turn, Hitoda-san."

[Turn 5: Hitoda] [H:3]

"Draw." Good. She'd banished Flutist and Gigagloves for Snow's cost, specifically so that Gongenzaka wouldn't get to activate their effects this turn. So she only had the one card in his hand to be worried about. Kyubi was… well, Kyubi wasn't really of consequence to her. "I'll Flip Summon Aussa the Earth Charmer, though her effect doesn't activate. Then, I'll Normal Summon Fairy Tail - Luna!" The blue-haired girl appeared on the field, her golden yellow tail lying on the ground beneath her.

[Fairy Tail - Luna (4*/1850/1000/LIGHT/Spellcaster/Effect)]

"Luna's effect adds another Spellcaster monster with 1850 attack points from my deck to my hand. And with Awakening of the Possessed's effect, I'll draw a card." She glanced through her hand. Hmm. Not bad.

Her win condition was obviously to get rid of Kyubi, or at least circumvent him. She knew exactly how to do it too.

"I'll use Aussa's effect," she continued. "I'll Special Summon… Superheavy Samurai Drum from your graveyard to my field." The robot appeared, floating to Aussa's right—filling up her last Main Monster Zone. "And I'll open the multicoloured circuit! The conditions are at least two monsters with different names, except Tokens. I will set Superheavy Samurai Drum, Aussa the Earth Charmer, Fairy Tail - Snow and Aussa the Earth Charmer, Immovable in the Link Markers! Verdant winds are born as the sands of time fall away! An arrow that flies through the eternal gale! Now, huntress with divine power, tamer of every beast beneath the sky! Strike down any who try to pull tricks in your presence! Circuit Combine! Link Summon! Link 4! Apollousa, Bow of the Goddess!" Her ace and favourite monster appeared on the field, holding up her glowing bow and preparing to fire off a shot.

[Apollousa, Bow of the Goddess (L4/?/WIND/Fairy/Link/Effect/↙, ↑, ↓, ↘)]

"Apollousa's original attack points are 800 times her materials," Hitoda said with a wink.

[Apollousa, Bow of the Goddess: 0 → 800 x 4 = 3200ATK]

Alright. That would seal off any hand traps that he still had in his hand, no matter how he tried to activate it. Still, she now controlled three Special Summoned monsters, so Kyubi's defense points would be… 5200. Not good enough.

She glanced at Esoteri and Luna, before she shrugged. Esoteri already had those two Attributes, so… she could afford to use Luna as material.

"I'll Special Summon Ranryu from my hand!" She declared, the green dragon emerging from a portal next to her and gliding onto the field.

[Ranryu (4*/1500/200/WIND/Dragon/Effect)]

"Then, I'll send Ranryu and Luna from my field to the graveyard," Hitoda said, even as green winds swirled around her on her field. She held out a hand, particles floating in the wind. "Come from the deck! Awakening of the Possessed - Rasenryu!" The larger version of Ranryu appeared on the field, its jaws forming a wide snarl as it roared.

[Awakening of the Possessed - Rasenryu (5*/2000/200/WIND/Dragon/Effect)]

"You normally only use the EARTH and FIRE ones," Gongenzaka said, eyeing Rasenryu. "This one…"

"It does what the wind does best," Hitoda quipped. She raised her fingers in the shape of a gun, pretending to fire at the set card. "I return a card from the field to your hand. That card doesn't have to be face-up either."

"So, you mean—"

"I'm returning Kyubi to the Extra Deck," Hitoda confirmed. The winds picked up, and Gongenzaka shielded himself with his arms as his monster was ripped from the field. "And I do think that's checkmate for real, this time. All my monsters gain 900 attack points since I control three Attributes!"

[Awakening of the Possessed - Rasenryu: 2000 + 300 x 3 = 2900ATK]

[Apollousa, Bow of the Goddess: 3200 + 300 x 3 = 4100ATK]

[Esoteri the Elemental Alchemist: 1850 + 300 x 3 = 2750ATK]

"Esoteri!" Yet again, the Xyz Monster waved her flask through the air and tossed out a colourful liquid on the ground—which exploded immediately after that.

Gongenzaka: 4500 - 2750 = 1750LP

"Apollousa!"

The archer goddess loosed an arrow, sending it flying straight past Gongenzaka's face—

Which was coloured with resignation.

Gongenzaka: 1750 - 4100 = 0LP

Winner: Hitoda Makishima!

After a moment, he stiffly nodded. "Thank you for the match, Makishima-san."

… hmm. "Hitoda," she reminded—she'd noticed the change in address immediately. "... alright, fine. I'll bite. Spill."

"What?"

"You're upset over something that's not Sora." She folded her arms. "Spill."

"It's not important."

"That's your opinion!" Hitoda walked over to him, smiling at him sunnily. "But if it affects you, it's important. Come on. Tell me more about it."

"... do you think I'm useless, Hitoda-san?"

… oh, come on. "Obviously not," she said. "Sora's wrong about that—"

"But I've felt that way about myself for quite some time," Gongenzaka interrupted. "It's just… what is a man, if he cannot protect his friends? If the final responsibility to defeat their foes must always fall to another, every time?"

"Does it matter to you so much?" Hitoda asked. "To have to be the one to defeat the enemy?"

"... I try to pretend that it does not. That I am satisfied with what I can contribute. But I would like to be stronger. To catch up with Yuzu and Yuya, who feel as though they're so far ahead that I can never reach them."

… huh. Now, that was…

"I cannot help but feel like I have become a burden towards those that I intended to protect," Gongenzaka confessed. "And I do not know how I should change so that I can start being someone that isn't just useless to the rest of you."

… this man probably did not want useless platitudes, Hitoda thought. So, the best way to handle this was likely not delicacy. It was to give a solution to that problem.

Was she really doing this?

Hitoda carefully schooled her features, before letting some seriousness slip through to her tone. She spoke up again. "On your first turn, you could have used Battleball's effect to target Aussa and use her as material for a Synchro Summon," she said. "I know you have a Level 5 monster, you showed it to me once. Removing Aussa from my field would have allowed you to take Shutendoji back, since Aussa's effect lasts only as long as she's face-up on the field."

She took another step towards him.

"Hitoda-san…"

"Then, you could have cleared Eda off my field. The fact that I am forced to Normal Summon Eda to trigger her effect on my turn leaves me vulnerable through her, for the most part. Shutendoji's 2500 defense points and Musashi's 2300 defense points would have left me with 700 life points. If you could have gotten another monster on the field, there was a chance you could have taken me out in one turn." She paused. "… obviously, I dropped Snow in my graveyard from the start, but I would have had to banish most of my hand for her, since I hadn't yet set up my graveyard for her with Reasoning. It would have put me in a far worse position."

Another step.

"So, why didn't you do that?"

Gongenzaka swallowed. "I've never heard you so serious," he said solemnly. "Or so… sharply analytical."

"I guess not," Hitoda said. She raised a single finger, tapping her cheek. This is what always goes on in my head. It just gets sweeter by the time it gets to my lips. She wasn't Kyorin (or even Ruri, though she didn't know the other girl that well), someone whose sweetness was all natural. Her honesty was always, without a doubt, something that burned—which was part of why she was rarely ever honest.

(She'd already learned her lesson about that. Still, she could do her best to dress it up carefully now—get what she wanted.)

She softened her tone. "So, big guy. Was it a mistake or a choice?"

"Both," Gongenzaka finally admitted. "I wanted to win against you without stealing your monster in turn—it felt dishonourable."

… of course that was it. Of course, of all things—

Live an honourable life, and combat evil by doing good. Do not sink to the level of others.

Of course that's how someone like you lives life. I've given up on that long ago.

Alright. Alright!

What someone like you does not need more of is skill. What you need to learn is…

"You really are cool, big guy," Hitoda said. Start with flattery. That works best. "I don't know a lot of people as upright as you." Steer it. "And it's admirable, but it's pretty obvious what you're lacking from the get go."

"Huh?"

She winked. "Flexibility." She held out a hand. "And ruthlessness. If you want to get better, would you like me to show you those?"

Gongenzaka watched her. "You know that you have my deep respect, Hitoda-san," he said, but Hitoda could already hear the hesitance in his voice. "But… this man, Gongenzaka, thinks that what you mean by 'flexibility'… is not something he wants to learn."

"... come on, Gongenzaka."

"Furthermore," Gongenzaka continued, "he thinks that the word 'ruthlessness' has nothing to do with you. You are kind, Hitoda-san. He needs to figure out a different way to stop holding back for the sake of his honour… but he cannot learn that from you."

Hitoda felt the urge to throw her hands up in the air in frustration. Why am I even bothering? "Do what you want," she said. "I just hope that it doesn't come back to bite you later. This honour of yours, I mean."

"'Battles are long, and wars are longer'," Gongenzaka said. His tone was calm and steady—he was obviously quoting someone else, not that Hitoda knew who it was. "'Nobility only expires, and goodness only inspires for a short time.' Still, I have decided that it is not wrong… to still try to be honourable."

Hitoda watched him.

"I can't force it on you," she finally said. "So don't regret it."

---

Yuno had intentionally walked around for a bit more without any purpose in mind, so that Miharu could take some time to herself—he'd also been the one to report the situation to Reiji Akaba when they'd gotten back, so that Yuya and Yuzu could get Sora somewhere that he could rest. (He couldn't exactly expect either Yuji Fujita or Chiaki Katsuya to give a mission report.)

When he finally got back to Miharu, it was to the sign of her on her laptop, as usual. Her fingers danced across the keys, not stopping even as she lifted her head to look at Yuno.

"Productive," Yuno said. He sat down, passing her a cup of water. Then, after Miharu put it down, he planted a quick kiss on her cheek. "Have you made a breakthrough?"

"… I have the program down in theory, but I can't test it without an internet connection," Miharu said. She looked back at the screen. "I was thinking of heading out to Heartland Tower in a bit, to see if they moved their signal jammer."

"In a while… yeah, that makes sense." Right now, Academia's invasion force was likely still buzzing around the place, moving things and helping people.

"The only reason they wouldn't move it is if it's too big to be moved," Miharu said. "But it's still worth a try, I think."

"Well, we can go later," Yuno said. He leaned on her shoulder. "When are you going to let the rest know what you're doing?"

"It technically has nothing to do with the Lancers, so I'd prefer not to bother them."

Yuno sighed. Miharu had only let him in on this project a while after they'd come to Heartland in the first place—it apparently wasn't what she'd been working on back in Standard or anything like that, but… would it be fair to say that going to Neo Domino City had changed Miharu Kogami slightly? Yuno thought so. She was still every bit the girl that he cared for so much, but there was a part of her that seemed uncannily focused now—and strangely enough, she was more cagey about saying things, compared to how she had been before.

Keeping things to herself…

"If it succeeds," Miharu finally said, "I don't mind telling them. But right now, I have to worry about my family too. And the things I can do to protect people."

Yuno gently looped his arm through hers. "Well, you can do it," he said cheerfully. "You're Dazzling Spring, the protector of VRAINS, after all. And if all else fails, you have me!"

Miharu turned her head. "... that's right," she said. "I have you." She stopped typing for a moment, putting the laptop down. There was a moment when she just looked at him—Yuno felt his breath catch in his throat. Even without saying much, the look in her eyes still captivated him. That slight tenderness, how clearly relaxed she was around him…

"Love you," he blurted out, with none of his usual charm. It was clumsy, impulsive—

Miharu didn't look away. "Love you too," she said, sounding rather calm about it all.

Carefully, Yuno raised his hand and touched her cheek. That got a reaction out of her—a brief stutter in her breath. He brushed her long, blonde fringe back, exposing her bright eyes.

… he felt a little shy, all of a sudden.

Miharu watched him expectantly, clearly curious about what he was going to do. However, as Yuno finally gathered up the courage to lean in—

"Kogami! I have something I—"

Both Yuno and Miharu sprung apart, whirling their heads around. Serena was standing in the doorway, staring at them curiously.

"—needed to talk to you about," Serena finished.

Yuno cleared his throat, standing up as his cheeks burst into flame. "Okay," he said. "I'll be back later, Miharu." Don't address it, don't address it—

"See you later," Miharu said, looking just as flushed.

Yuno didn't flee, but he definitely walked away a lot quicker than he usually did.

Just a few seconds more…! That would have been…

Oh well. There was always another day.

---

Serena… felt like she'd walked in on something. Still, after a moment, the slightly flustered expression that she'd seen on Miharu's face was gone. (That expression had still been very subtle, but compared to Miharu Kogami's usual calmness, it said a lot about exactly what Serena had just witnessed.)

"Sorry," she said. "I didn't expect—" What? She didn't expect to walk in on some kind of deeply meaningful moment between two of her comrades? Apparently that was happening every few minutes now. She really should have known.

"It's fine," Miharu said. "You needed to talk to me…?"

Serena didn't hesitate. "I wanted to tell you about something I figured out."

"Figured… out?"

"About myself," Serena continued, determined to get out the words. "It's something I need to say."

"And you need to say it to me? I wouldn't have thought that I was particularly approachable, amongst all of our comrades."

"... you really have no clue how much everyone admires you," Serena muttered. Miharu blinked once—seeming genuinely surprised. "I—no. I need to get this out."

Before I get embarrassed by my own thoughts…

Miharu nodded, thankfully—which allowed Serena to barrel on, her clumsy words coming out before she could stop them.

"I was thinking how at first, I thought I wanted to fight for a utopia!" Serena clenched her fists. "And I know I was so wrong back then when we met. But on some level, I still do want that. I want to fight for the happiness of everyone… and then, I decided in Standard, when I met Kurosaki, that I wanted to fight to protect other people too. And so that was the kind of person that I wanted to be in Synchro, and—"

She breathed in deeply. She wasn't looking at Miharu's face—after all, a part of her still remembered the feeling of being quelled by this girl, of being forced to confront her beliefs.

"And?" Miharu asked quietly.

"... I think I wanted all that," Serena said. "But I also want more. Those things are all part of the thing that I really wanted. Yes, happiness is important—"

Like Yuya's entertainment, like Yuzu and Yuno.

"And yes, I want to protect."

Like the members of the Resistance, trying to keep each other safe. Like the citizens of Synchro fighting together, like her carrying Kurosaki and refusing to let Sora hurt him.

"But I don't want to be just one of those things."

None of those were the philosophy for her, not how they were for other people. She could not sit there on the field with the full intention to make other people happy, because there would always be a part of her that longed to win and longed to clash fiercely with anyone and everyone. But she couldn't just be someone who protected too—because she wanted to strike out.

"I think what I've always said is that I want to fight to show people they're wrong," Serena said determinedly. "So I was thinking. Maybe what I really want is the power to change people's minds."

"... it's good that you know yourself better," Miharu said. "But… did you need to say that to me specifically? I'm sure others would have been… well. If you had gone to Yugo, he would have been more clearly enthusiastic about it."

"No," Serena said. "It has to be you. Because you're the one that taught me that it was possible in the first place—to change people's minds with your dueling. You changed me, Miharu Kogami. And…"

… damn it. She was going to cry. She did not want that.

"I don't want to be callous, or selfish, or ignore people, and I don't want to leave them be, because our victory means nothing if people don't change," Serena admitted—the most radically different thing she had ever said, compared to her past self. "I still want to prove myself, don't get me wrong. I want to be the strongest. But… there's more to dueling than just victory."

She thought about everyone that she'd faced so far.

"Technically, Sora and I won against Makoto Toyama," she said. "But we didn't change his mind. He was already capable of becoming a better person—and it was his sister that convinced him to change. Maybe his friends too. But in that duel… it's not like I was able to make him understand my ideals or anything like that. And when I dueled against that guy from Diamond Branch, I didn't win or lose, but in the end, that guy just… didn't care. He didn't listen either. And that's not I want. I want to be able to help people change their minds, not just for me, but so that they can escape themselves and the things that hurt them too."

Like Sora.

Like… Yuri. (It was getting easier to think about him.)

"You made me a better person," Serena said. "And I don't thank you enough for it—or give you enough credit for it. I wouldn't be here if not for you."

Miharu shook her head. "I think you would have gotten out of there eventually," she said. "Even without me."

"That's what you think?"

"... I was never very close with people my age other than Yuno." Miharu said. "I've been told that I'm too stoic. Too uptight. That no one can talk to me."

"That's such bullshit," Serena snorted.

"... no, they're right." Miharu reached up, brushing her fringe back. "I was always more interested in work anyway. I never really knew how to talk to people my age—not when their lives were so different from my own."

"How early did you start working?" Serena asked curiously.

"... it was before I even went to school," Miharu said. "But, Serena, what I'm trying to say is…" She met Serena's gaze with her own—two pairs of green eyes, one darker than the other. "It means a lot… to make a difference. To know that I could change your mind. I guess we're the same in that way."

"... but you don't force your opinions on others. You're… so strong, and you absolutely could, but you somehow never do." Serena swallowed slowly—and then, she made the painful admission. "I want to be like you."

It was how she'd felt since the start. Miharu Kogami was the ideal she had been chasing since back then.

To her surprise, Miharu raised a hand and carefully put it on her shoulder. "You're you," she said. "I'm me. And to be frank, you're fine, exactly as you are."

Serena's head snapped up. "Do you think so?"

"Yeah. Actually, I think that the person you are now is incredible," Miharu said, as though she wasn't setting Serena's cheeks ablaze with that comment. "... people aren't good at changing, or admitting they're wrong. The fact that you managed to do that to this extent… you're already someone worthy of respect."

"... thanks," Serena said.

"... so don't keep looking for validation from me."

—and Serena flinched.

Miharu watched her. Her voice was, as usual, calm. "I understood what you were trying to ask for," she said. "... you wanted me to be the one to tell you that you were right. Because you respect me. But you are strong, Serena. And I don't think you should look for validation from anyone, including me."

Look for validation…

But Serena had grown up chasing the Professor's coattails. And maybe a part of her had continued to hope for acknowledgement. And it was a part of her that she hated. Maybe Miharu had a point.

Miharu watched her. "Idolisation doesn't help anyone. To be honest, I never thought that you and I would be anything close to friends, when we first met—but now, to me, you're…"

Serena grew more and more impatient as she stopped speaking. "What?"

"Someone that I want to protect." The words hit Serena hard—she widened her eyes as Miharu continued. "And… I suppose, one of my closest comrades. And like I said, while I'm not a person that should be put on a pedestal… as a friend, I'm deeply proud of you for the person you've become."

… Serena was not going to cry.

She was not—

"Oh." Miharu watched her. "Did I say something wrong?"

"Obviously not," Serena said, rubbing her eyes. "I'm just…" Happy.

Miharu hesitantly took a step forward. Then, carefully, she wrapped an arm around Serena—it was the most awkward hug that Serena had ever experienced, and it was clear that Miharu was still physically holding herself back a little, but she was trying. It was endearing.

… it was so endearing that Serena couldn't hide how she felt. She didn't hug back, because that might end up hurting Miharu—but she leaned forward into the blonde girl's shoulder, taking a shuddering breath. "You're my friend too," she said fiercely. "I want to protect you too. And while I'm here, not a single one of us is going back to Academia!"

"... okay," Miharu said. "I'll rely on you then, Serena." Gently, she raised her hand, patting Serena's back slowly.

… she didn't have to say any more.

---

In the end, Mion would admit, it was an exhausting conversation. Not because Tsubaki was still being obstinate—in fact, the moment that they'd stopped probing for her reasons and started planning instead, all of the red-haired woman's secrecy seemed to fade. (That was worth questioning.)

Still…

For all that Tsubaki and Reiji went back and forth, the plan that they came up with was relatively simple. Tsubaki had explained that Mariko had gone to observe where Academia was heading towards, and she would come back once she figured out what building Academia was planning to use as their next base. Afterwards, the two of them had laid out the beginnings of a plan—namely, to charge right into Academia's base.

… alright, that was an overly simplistic summary of the plan. There were nuances to it—some discussion on the capabilities of the Resistance and the Lancers, about what kinds of groups to form as they charged towards the base, about how they would have to brief the Lancers on the terrain, about fallback plans and important things to keep in mind. Contingency after contingency. All the kinds of details that someone else might not care about—they'd just want to skip to the plan and they would just hope that it was successful, but that was not how either of these people operated.

… they were more similar than Mion had thought.

Mion had chimed in quite a lot of times, mostly just pointing out specific details and forcing one of them to explain more about what they meant—simply helping with communication. Still, she'd gotten quieter and quieter over time, simply watching them—a tired fog was eating through her head.

"So, is that all of it?" Reiji finally said. "We can explain things to our respective sides. If we want to capitalise on their current state of unrest, we should move tomorrow—or the following day, by the latest."

"That seems fine." Tsubaki turned away. "... thank you for your cooperation."

"... to be honest, Tsubaki Nagare," Reiji said cuttingly, "once this is over, I hope that I will never have to work with you again. Your people have only made things more difficult for mine." He stood up, and Mion got up too—she stumbled briefly, pressing her arm against the table to stabilise herself—not that the other two noticed, still trying to figure out what the other was doing. "It has taken far more effort than necessary to get us to this point. I cannot help but wonder why."

It was a question, despite how it sounded like just a statement. When Tsubaki replied, she sounded resigned. "To be honest, Reiji Akaba," she said, in the exact same cadence, "I'm ready to put this behind me. Unlike you… I was not made for this."

"... then, that's all," Reiji said. He turned—only to catch sight of Mion leaning on the table, breathing heavily. "... Mion?"

Mion clutched at her arm, which felt like it was on fire. "It's fine," she gritted out. "It's—"

She tried to let go of the table, but a sudden pain spiked in her head—she nearly fell, if not for Reiji catching her at the last moment. At the other side of the table, Tsubaki stood up, her eyes widening.

Her vision trembled. However, after a moment, she managed to stand back up—the sharp pain vanished as quickly as it came, leaving her staring at her hands.

What…

She'd never experienced something like that before… what had just happened to her?

"Are you alright now?" Reiji asked. Someone who knew him less well than she did would think that he sounded dispassionate—but Mion could see the glint of worry in his eyes when she turned to look at him—as well as the silent question that he was asking. What happened there?

"I am," Mion said, and then shrugged afterwards—trying to tell him that she had no clue. From the way that he narrowed his eyes, she had the feeling that he didn't believe her, which made sense. Mion wouldn't believe it if someone that just… collapsed like a puppet on strings tried to tell her that they didn't know why.

But it wasn't her ribs, which would have been the only logical explanation. It had been her head, and then her hands—even the hand that wasn't real anymore. Why…

She stood up by herself. "... we should explain things to the rest," she said, hoping that her trepidation about herself wasn't showing.

… she'd worry about herself once this was all settled. After all, she didn't want them to go back on their plans.

It was long past time that they settled this.

---

Sayaka turned away from the room, breathing out quickly. Something had happened in there, but that was her cue to get out of there—

And then, she froze.

"... what are you doing here, Sayaka?" Rio Kamishiro said, folding her arms. She was not alone—behind her by only a single step was Hisako Fuyumori, who was watching with a clear unease to her expression.

"Nothing," Sayaka squeaked out.

"If it was nothing," Hisako said, leaning on the side of the corridor in the cavern, "you wouldn't look so… what's the word. Shifty. You seem to have a guilty conscience."

"She's nervous—that's just how she normally is," Rio said. "Let's not jump to conclusions." She put a hand on Hisako's arm—as though cautioning her. Sayaka almost wanted to cry, because she knew what that meant. Rio trusted her, believed that she hadn't been doing anything wrong, and was trying to protect her from one of the leaders of the Resistance. More than that, she was trying to protect Sayaka from her partner. (She and Ruri had at least been close enough to Rio to know that part, considering that they were all best friends.)

She was, in other words, confident about Sayaka's allegiances.

And that made Sayaka feel horrible.

"We saw her standing right there," Hisako said. "She was listening in. And…" She turned back to Sayaka. "... if it is alright with you, Rio, I would like to hear from her directly about why she was listening in on a meeting like that, when she would need to have deliberately mapped her way while avoiding Kaede, Chris and Mariko to get here in the first place. This is not somewhere she would be if it was just an… 'accident'."

Sayaka swallowed slowly. She'd taken advantage of the fact that Mariko had left her spot briefly in order to sneak through the corridor that the girl had been guarding. It had been convenient enough that she could see where the other girl had been standing guard in the first place—people said that Tsubaki knew about everything that happened down here, but in reality, the one who had eyes and ears everywhere was the Golden Blade herself.

(Sayaka had been worried that the pale-haired girl had found out about the deal Sayaka had made, but apparently, she hadn't. Apparently, that person had been stealthy enough in their infiltration to go under Mariko Ejiri's notice… and that was even more terrifying.)

"Sayaka?" Rio said gently.

Sayaka… Sayaka had to go. She had to go report what she'd heard, but…

Rio's expression shifted to one that was filled with disappointment. Sayaka's heart sank. She'd taken too long. It'd been too obvious that she was hiding something.

She couldn't even lie properly.

"Who made you do this, Sayaka?" Rio said. "Who made you betray us? It's not too late, you haven't gone to them yet. If you tell us, we can handle this."

Sayaka swallowed. "I can't," she said. "That person… knew everything." If she backed off again, couldn't commit fully to anything again, what was the point of it all? "If I don't…"

Rio looked appalled. "Sayaka…"

"Obviously, we don't know what they agreed on in there," Hisako said, "but if you think we're letting you just walk off and leave without doing anything…" She paused. "... well. Then you don't think well of us at all."

And if they just left and told people…

Sayaka just wanted to survive.

"If I win," she said nervously, "will you let me go without telling anyone?"

Hisako slowly turned towards her. "... are you really asking that?"

Sayaka swallowed. "It's not like I want to do this," she said, "but I also need to look out for myself!" Her heart felt like it was going to explode.

"... look out for yourself?" Rio said. "That's just selfishness speaking." When she glared at Sayaka, there was something imperious to it. "... as your friend, I can't let you destroy your life like this."

But it's already destroyed! Sayaka wanted to scream. And I can't get it back—the me that didn't screw up everything!

"So fine. I'll duel you." Rio raised her hand. "I'll stop you right here!"

Sayaka gulped.

"If you don't do what I say, I'll hunt you to the ends of the earth. I will make sure that your secrets follow you for your entire life, and even after the war, your loved ones will never come back. Your cousin, Kotori, will never get to graduate school. Your parents will never get to hug you again. And you can never outrun me."

"Okay," she said quietly. "I guess… I have to…"

She had to fight.

---

Rio… hadn't expected Sayaka to actually force the issue. She really didn't want to do this… well, it didn't matter. She had to fight. If it had to be someone else… they wouldn't give Sayaka a chance to explain, or to fix things. The only way that Rio could stop her friend, or give her a chance…

The only way that Rio could show mercy was to duel and win.

[DUEL!]

Rio Kamishiro: 4000LP

Sayaka Sasayama: 4000LP

[Turn 1: Rio] [H:5]

"I'll start," Rio said. She picked up her starting hand, looking at it. "… alright. I'll activate the Spell Card, Moray of Greed! I'll shuffle two WATER monsters from my hand into the deck to draw three cards." She sent her Blizzard Falcon and Friller Rabca back into the deck—neither of them would allow her to make a play fast enough to counter Sayaka's monsters. When she saw one of the new cards she drew, she nodded. "Since a Spell Card was activated, I can Special Summon Surfacing Big Jaws from my hand!" A green-blue fish with large fangs appeared on the field, swimming around.

[Surfacing Big Jaws (4*/1800/300/WATER/Fish/Effect)]

"Surfacing Big Jaws's effect! I'll add a Fish "Shark" monster to my hand!" Rio swiped up a card. "Then, I'll Normal Summon Aurora Wing!" The translucent bird with a blue and green body appeared to Surfacing Big Jaws's left.

[Aurora Wing (4*/1200/1600/WATER/Winged Beast/Effect)]

"Then, now that I have both of those monsters on the field, I can Special Summon Spiritual Water Bird - Sirène Orca from my hand!" The half-fish, half-bird woman appeared on the field, her wings spreading through the air as she let out a cry.

[Spiritual Water Bird - Sirène Orca (5*/2200/1000/WATER/Winged Beast/Effect)]

"Spiritual Water Bird - Sirène Orca's effect! I'll declare Level 5 and change all Fish and Winged Beast monsters on my field to that Level!" The three monsters all glowed, before Big Jaws and Aurora Wing's Levels shot up.

[Surfacing Big Jaws: 4* → 5*]

[Aurora Wing: 4* → 5*]

She usually preferred going second—with a deck as focused on attacking and damage as hers, especially considering that she usually didn't have a lot of effect protection on her monsters, it was easier to just set up and go for the kill instead of trying to stall for a turn.

"Then, I'll Special Summon Abyss Shark from my hand since all monsters I control are WATER monsters!" The large blue shark with gold metal around its body appeared as well.

[Abyss Shark (5*/1200/700/WATER/Fish/Effect)]

"I can then add a Level 3, 4 or 5 Fish monster from my deck to my hand, but I can only Special Summon WATER monsters this turn!" Rio picked up the card. "I'll overlay the Level 5 Abyss Shark and the Level 5 Surfacing Big Jaws! Frozen beast suspended in time, lend your strength to the frozen beasts! Xyz Summon! Rank 5! Number 19: Freezadon!" The large blue dinosaur appeared on its field, its body reflecting the lantern light and blocking off the passageway.

[Number 19: Freezadon (R5/2000/2500/WATER/Dinosaur/Xyz/Effect) (OU:2)]

"Freezadon…"

"But he's not staying for long," Rio said. "Now, I'll overlay Freezadon on itself! Frozen to the point of absolute zero, pierce the air with your crystalline spear and carve open the path of sacrifice! Rank-Up-Xyz-Change! Rank 6! Full Armored Crystal Zero Lancer!" Her graceful ace appeared on the field, cloaked in blue ice, red-tinted crystals emerging from around her. She waved her spear through the air, her expression cold and detached.

[Full Armored Crystal Zero Lancer (R6/2200/1600/WATER/Warrior/Xyz/Effect) (OU:3)]

"And, in case you don't remember…" Rio paused. It had been a while since the two of them had fought, hadn't it? "Crystal Zero Lancer gains 500 attack points for each of her Overlay Units!"

[Full Armored Crystal Zero Lancer: 2200 + 500 x 3 = 3700ATK]

"But I'm not done! I'll overlay my other two Level 5 monsters! Brave figure that rises from the ocean, cut through the unjust for the sake of your kingdom! Xyz Summon! Rank 5! Valiant Shark Lancer!" Next to her ace, another one of the aquatic warriors rose up—this one was very obviously Ryoga's though, her brother's monster instead of her own. Still, they matched well—green, blue and red, swinging a sword through the air, while Crystal Zero Lancer watched him impassively.

[Valiant Shark Lancer (R5/2500/1600/WATER/Beast-Warrior/Xyz/Effect) (OU:2)]

"I'll set a card and end my turn," Rio said. "Over to you, Sayaka."

[Turn 2: Sayaka] [H:6]

"Draw!" Sayaka stared at her cards. "I don't want… to do this, Rio…"

"You suggested it," Rio said. "I'm not going to back down—"

"I won't either," Sayaka said. "I… can't give up like that!" She revealed a card in her hand. "I'll activate the Continuous Spell, Holy Nights Heresy!" The card appeared on her field. "Once per turn, I can target a monster on the field, and it's treated as a DARK monster until the End Phase! I'll target Crystal Zero Lancer!" The ice-themed woman was surrounded by dark shadows that wrapped around her, constricting her. "Then, I'll activate the Spell Card, Holy Nights Bellfire! I'll add a "Holy Nights" monster from my deck to my hand, or a Level 7 LIGHT Dragon monster!"

She picked up a card, before she raised another.

"Then, since you control a DARK monster now, I can Special Summon a Level 7 LIGHT Dragon monster from my hand!" Sayaka placed the card down. "Come! The Dragon Twinkling in the Holy Night!" The beautiful, angelic dragon landed on the ground in front of her, its angelic wings sweeping through the air.

[The Dragon Twinkling in the Holy Night (7*/2500/2300/LIGHT/Dragon/Effect)]

"Since it was Special Summoned from the hand, I can target a card on the field and destroy it! I'll target your Valiant Shark Lancer!"

"I'll activate Valiant Shark Lancer's effect!" Rio countered. "It's a Quick Effect since I control another Xyz Monster—I can detach one of his Overlay Units and destroy a monster you control!" One of the orbs floating around the colourful warrior vanished, before the warrior tossed his sword forwards, slicing through Sayaka's dragon and destroying it.

[Valiant Shark Lancer: OU:2 - 1 = OU:1]

However, the aquatic warrior was then destroyed in turn.

Sayaka bit her lip. "I'll Normal Summon Holy Nights Rayel!" Sayaka declared. The angel in blue armour landed on the field, white wings sweeping through the air.

[Holy Nights Rayel (4*/1800/700/LIGHT/Fairy/Effect)]

"Rayel's effect! I'll add the Field Spell, Holy Nights Sky to my hand and activate it! Then, I'll…" Sayaka picked up another card, looking determined. Rio felt saddened by it.

… she didn't know how it had come to this.

"I can Normal Summon a second time this turn with my Field Spell's effect! I'll Normal Summon Holy Nights Flamel!" The white and red angel appeared on the field, next to Rayel.

[Holy Nights Flamel (4*/1500/1000/LIGHT/Fairy/Effect)]

"I'll overlay the Level 4 Holy Nights Flamel and the Level 4 Holy Nights Rayel! I'm not holding back, Rio! I'll overlay the Level 4 Holy Nights Flamel and the Level 4 Holy Nights Rayel! Stars shine in the sky and frost! Xyz Summon! Rank 4! Starring Knight!" The gold and red warrior appeared on the field, glowing brightly.

[Starring Knight (R4/1900/1000/LIGHT/Fairy/Xyz/Effect) (OU:2)]

"I'll then detach one Overlay Unit from Starring Knight! I'll Special Summon Holy Nights Astel from my hand!" The angel with a sun-themed sceptre appeared, spinning it through the world around them.

[Holy Nights Astel (4*/500/2000/LIGHT/Fairy/Effect)]

"I'll then banish Flamel from my graveyard to add my dragon from my graveyard to my hand! And with Astel's effect…" Sayaka gulped. "I'll tribute Starring Knight to Special Summon a Level 7 LIGHT Dragon monster from my hand!"

Another time…

The dragon reappeared on the field with a roar.

Where was this competence when Sayaka had been facing off against actual enemies?

… or was she more scared of Rio now than she was before?

Rio clenched her fists in frustration.

But…

This duel was already over. (As soon as it had started, the result had been obvious—which made Sayaka's desperation far too obvious as well.)

"The effect of The Dragon Twinkling in the Holy Night activates!" The dragon with the long name roared again. "I'll destroy your set card!"

… hmm.

Crystal Zero Lancer could only protect itself from destruction, not from the banishing effect of Sayaka's dragon. However…

"You want to know something, Sayaka?" Rio said, raising her head. "I'm two years older than you. And I've been dueling for far longer. You've overextended!" She flipped up the set card. "Trap Card, Xyz Poseidon Splash! I will declare an Attribute—and then, all monsters of that Attribute on the field, except those equipped with an Equip Spell, are destroyed!"

"What?" Sayaka exclaimed.

"I'll declare LIGHT!" Rio called out—and Sayaka's entire field was swept away by a single, mighty wave.

When it subsided, there was nothing left there but her Field Spell.

Sayaka trembled.

"You should know, Sayaka," Rio said. "I'm not one for long fights. I come, I see, and I sweep my opponent away—or I myself am swept away. My only way of defending myself is, and has always been, through offence." She narrowed her eyes. "It's over."

Sayaka stared at her.

Valiant Shark Lancer and Crystal Zero Lancer floated on both sides of Rio. The result of the match was already obvious, just in two turns—Rio liked it that way, they all knew that. (That duel against Kaname Mizuchi had already been an anomaly.)

"So?" Rio asked, when the silence dragged on for too long. "What are we doing now?" Others might have expected more yelling, more arguments—but this was just how betrayal went. It wasn't worthy of anything other than acknowledgement and punishment. They all knew it well enough by now.

Sayaka stared at her, and finally began to cry. Her duel disk fell a moment later, as the holograms faded around her.

"Fine," she whispered.

---

OC Cards:

Esoteri the Elemental Alchemist

(R4/1850/1500/LIGHT/Spellcaster/Xyz/Effect)

2+ monsters with different Attributes

(This card is always treated as a "Familiar-Possessed" and "Charmer" monster.) This card is treated as having the Attributes of all monsters used as Xyz Material for its Xyz Summon, instead of its original Attribute. You can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card, then target 1 monster on the field with the same Attribute as this card; banish it. If this card battles a monster with the same Attribute, or is targeted by the effect of a monster with the same Attribute, at the start of the Damage Step: You can take 1 Spellcaster monster with 1500 DEF, or a monster with 1500 ATK/200 DEF from your Deck; Special Summon it in facedown Defense Position or add it to your hand. You can only activate each effect of "Esoteri the Elemental Alchemist" once per turn.

Trivia: Do I know what possessed me when I made this card three months ago? No. Do I kinda like the final result? Yes. This card is an obvious allusion to Mion's Alchemic Magician appearance-wise, though it's a different monster in-universe. Does it support a ridiculous amount of cards? Yes. That's what happens when we have to support Charmers of all things. The removal of the 'Magician' title is to show that it's not associated with Mion. The interesting part is that while I wanted to give Hitoda just a normal Rank 4 Spellcaster, there was nothing that wasn't already associated with another character. Was this card supposed to debut vs Yuno, before I decided to simplify that duel a bit? Yes. :D Esoteri is based on the word 'esoteric', aka, referring to something very niche and only known by a specific group of people.

Superheavy Samurai Soulshield

(3*/1000/1500/EARTH/Machine/Effect)

You can target 1 "Superheavy Samurai" monster you control; equip this monster from your hand or your side of the field to that target. It gains 200 DEF. When an opponent's monster declares an attack while you have no Spell/Trap Cards in your Graveyard: You can Special Summon this card from your hand in Defense Position, and if you do, Special Summon 1 "Superheavy Samurai" monster from your Deck in Defense Position, but you cannot Special Summon monsters while you control the monster(s) Summoned by this effect, except "Superheavy Samurai" monsters.

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End Notes:

Disclaimer that Tatsuya is an ableist asshole and that his thoughts do not reflect the author in any way. :3 The author hates Tatsuya as much as the rest of you.

Hitoda and Gongenzaka's bromance stays strong! Don't think I need to talk too much about that. The whole chapter alternates between groups of characters, but Sora and Gongenzaka do get more focus this chapter, as they very much deserve.

Despite the fact that Sora is one of my favourites, he really does suffer a lot in this arc, huh. I will reiterate that I'm not a fan of 'bashing', or whatever the term is—but I am a believer in allowing characters to be upset when they deserve to be. Sora's stressed, upset and he immediately feels like no one is listening to him—it's one of those situations where he's being shitty to someone who doesn't deserve it, but the situation is rather understandable, considering that he's just a teenager.

Serena and Miharu's scene made me so happy when I wrote it because I love both of them so much.. They definitely deserve this chance to just… talk, and they've both gone through so much shit since they fought all the way back in Standard.

Unironically, Aussa the Earth Charmer is one of the best Charmers in 6ARC meta because of all the Ancient Gears—you're usually going to get to use it, and it's a safe bet.

In this continuity, Noro and the Tyler Sisters are the same age and are both alumni that have had to work together multiple times, much to both of their distaste.

While there were a lot of reasons that this chapter took a while to come out, I'll admit that I was hoping that the cards from Rage of the Abyss would get official translations by now for Rio's duel here, since literally nothing can replace that big Trap at the end. Still, I made do :) Note to come back to edit: Surfacing Big Jaws, Xyz Poseidon Splash. I love Rio in this story—she wins or she loses, but she just gets it done quickly. As expected of someone as decisive as her. Her duel against Sayaka completely lacks suspense or pacing—but that is very much the point.

Nue's dream refers to one of the last dreams of Chapter 97, if you've already forgotten :) No more comments on that, or on… certain other things that other characters do or experience in this chapter.

I do promise that certain things that may be… puzzling so far will make sense by the time we're concluding this arc. :)

I think you guys can probably tell at this point, but we're rapidly heading towards the 'big battles' of the arc now. Obviously there's still more development to go, and there's way more 'character moments', but the Xyz Arc was never meant to drag on as an extended conflict—it's not the same situation as Synchro, after all. Still, don't worry! As you can tell, I have very much not been rushing through it, haha. Still, it's pretty much been a season without 'filler', just like Synchro. There's a lot of things that are going to get cleared up :)

That being said, this chapter was originally longer—but it got out of hand, as you can tell from how long it already is. So I had to split it up into three separate chapters (yes, three. It's looking like it might end up being four, but I'm holding out hope that I didn't actually overwork myself that hard.) So that's one of the reasons why it took so long :3 If there's a character that you feel like should have had certain conversations or reflection in this chapter… there's a good chance they just got split into the next chapters, haha.

Review responses!

To ra. alrefady, you'll see him… eventually! But characters aren't necessarily playing major parts in every arc. :) Promise that Yuri does have a very major part in the story coming up, haha.

To TheRealD3lph0xL0v3r, thanks for the review, glad you enjoyed!

To Bryz0n, there's a lot going on last chapter, so I'm glad you managed to keep track of it, haha. It's always nice to see your name in a notification :)

To Infernal Enby, I've been waiting to properly dig into Chiaki's character for a while, seeing as she's the only OC counterpart that was forced to sit out for the first two arcs. And her dynamic with Miharu is really fun :) And yeah, there's… a bit more going on than meets the eye, when it comes to the Resistance.

To Ben23ten, thanks for pointing that out! :) That one was just me mistyping on the number pad, haha. Wow, that's cool! I keep meaning to read up more about Duel Links lore because it sounds cool, but I'll probably come back to the game around the time that Yuri finally gets released, haha. Enjoy his character too much on that front.

To Darkrai2000, hey! Welcome, hope you enjoy reading the fic :)

To egduardiazsluber, that's an interesting theory! As usual though, I never confirm nor deny things.

That being said, I found out something unfortunate a while back that I just wanted to mention. I don't know if this needs to be said, but please do not plagiarise my work. Essentially, while I'm not naming them here, I recently found out that another fanfic writer who has been continuously asking me for advice and asking me to write things for him has actually been copying large passages and turns from 6ARC for his VRAINS fic, changing the names within them and using them in his fic. He's also been using my OC cards and copying turns from my duels, down to the dialogue, and to be clear, he never asked me for permission—not that I would have ever given permission for someone to just flatout copy dialogue and duels from 6ARC, for reasons that I hope you all understand. Still, most of the time, his stealing of my work has gone uncredited, aka he does not say that he did not write it, and even though there have been two times when he's mentioned that the OC cards he used belonged to me, I hope it can be understood that this is very much a 'too little, too late' situation. Crediting me there does not matter because he did not ask, and I specifically stated in my profile that I do not consent to people using my OC cards without permission—that has been there since July last year. Even if he asked now, he has plagiarised so much of my work by now that I would not ever given him permission.

To complicate the issue, even after I told him that I'd seen it and he said that he'd stopped, in his most recent chapter, he actually continued to copy things from me, which was just… well. It did a number on me. Regardless, I was told by someone else that I never set a firm boundary, so well, if it needed to be said, here it is. I hope you guys can understand why this is very much upsetting to me, and it is part of why it ended up taking me so long to update—seeing that person continuously copy from me even as I was trying to write was painful to me, and I needed to take a break from thinking about fanfiction for a while. In an anxiety-ridden episode, I went through his entire fic and well, worsened my own mental state by finding that duels and dialogue that I spent so much effort on had been taken out of context and Frankenstein'd into something that frankly didn't make sense, just because someone decided that their ego and wish to 'write' was more important than respecting the work of others. For anyone out there that considers doing things like this, please know that it hurts greatly, and that it only serves to alienate the people that you steal from. Your best writing is one that doesn't rely on the skeleton of someone else's. In reality, even if the person had actually kept to their word and stopped stealing my work, I would still never have been able to forgive them for doing it in the first place. Stopping was the bare minimum, and they couldn't even do that. And there's still pages upon pages of stolen work making up their fic of almost a million words long. Even if they stop now, it doesn't change the fact that their fic still exists as a reminder of that. And it doesn't change the fact that they've made it so that every time I post a chapter, I have to wonder—is someone going to steal my work this time? Am I someday going to be told that these words belong to someone else because someone read them in another work first, by someone that didn't write them? Even if it sounds like I might be exaggerating it, it's the kind of intrusive thought that just won't go away.

… well! That got a bit too serious. Sorry about that, it's been weighing on me greatly for a while. But yeah, it's a 'dick move', as we call it. So even though I'm not the kind to get into long arguments on the internet, I just wanted to make my stance clear. Thank you for understanding.

No promises, but I'll try to get the next chapter done quicker… we'll see if I feel better and my schedule works better for writing :) I'll do my best! On the bright side, ffnet notifs seem to be back? Let me know if you got an email notifying you about the new chapter :) Alright, until next time!