"Ding-ding"
"Whoosh"
Under the blazing sun, Jim "Crocodile" Cook set down his multi-tool pickaxe, wiped the sweat from his chin with the back of his hand, then took off his outback hat and fanned himself with it.
"Awrr."
Karen, balancing a paper cup of water on her head, chirped and waddled up beside him.
"Thanks, Karen." Jim took a sip, lifted her up, and scratched her jaw affectionately.
"Awrr!"
"Worried about me? Haha, don't be. Duels in this Dimension can hurt, sure, but it's not a Dark Duel, right?"
Jim laughed, easy and bright.
His next opponent for a quarterfinal slot was the so-called Absolute Fusion user, a legend on everyone's lips. A Student with far too many rumors already trailing behind him.
More than that, even Karen knew Hikaru had gifts most people simply didn't.
It was normal for Karen to worry.
But;
Jim was no different.
His hand went, without thinking, to his right eye.
A bandage hid it completely.
Years ago, to protect Karen, he'd lost that eye. A passerby, moved by the bond between man and crocodile, had given him a new one:
The Eye of Orichalcum.
He brushed the bandage lightly.
The man had said the eye could save a friend when the time came, keep infection at bay, let him converse with Duel Spirits, even.
For many years, Jim had believed the eye's only service was keeping the wound clean.
But, when he met Hikaru, the eye responded, subtly, unmistakably.
It wasn't telling him Hikaru was "the friend" to save.
It was, Alchemy.
"Legendary alchemy… orichalcum itself as an alchemical medium… the ancients really were something," he murmured, set his cup down, and gazed over the ruins before him.
Despite the bushman get-up, Jim wasn't a student of the North Academy; he hailed from the South Academy.
And though he looked the cowboy part, he was, in truth, a geologist, and an archaeologist.
Duel Academy brimmed with talent; prodigies came from every field. Even an e-sports prodigy had needed Sartorius Kumar's backing to make a name on campus, proof of how Duels had reshaped this world.
Jim had even excavated dinosaur fossils once.
In short, between his childhood and his love of the earth, he found pure joy in mining and excavation.
So when he arrived in this strange Nexus Dimension, he couldn't help comparing the history of the Spirit World with that of humans. He spent days and days surveying a single site, met ancient Duel Spirits native to this world, crossed paths with Axel Brodie, and kept digging for dozens of days, only realizing there'd been a Dark World incursion after he finally came back up.
But that detour led him to Jaden, and, in time, to Hikaru.
When he learned Hikaru would be his next opponent, the thrill stuck with him for hours. During the two-day break, he didn't go anywhere else; he hurried back to the spot he'd first marked in this Dimension and just kept tapping, thinking about the Duel, and what came after.
Ding
Ding
Suddenly, Jim's movements paused, a faint shimmer gathered in front of him, then a blinding radiance surged up out of the hole.
Jim starlted and hopped back. A column of white light roared skyward, bright enough to turn the cavern into a star-lit dome.
"Wh...what?"
He was still blinking when a card floated up from the depths and hung in the air. The glow ebbed, revealing a card he'd never seen, and yet it felt strangely familiar, as it drifted into his reach.
"Awrr?" Karen scrambled up onto his shoulder to peer with him.
Jim scanned the artwork and effect text; excitement crept across his face.
Good.
What a card.
How could a card be this powerful?
More than that, something immense slumbered inside it, merely sealed.
He frowned.
With this in hand, his chances shot up. But he'd need to be ready.
He touched the bandage over his right eye.
Just in case… I'll test it over these two days.
Two days later...
KaibaCorp had rebuilt the Duel Field taller than before, with tighter safeguards for spectators and banks of transparent barriers to blunt splash damage. Only after those preparations did the tournament resume.
Even so, the two-day lull, plus the over-the-top Duel between Zane Truesdale and Atticus Rhodes, left the first matches struggling to catch fire. The arena felt muted.
Until another Duelist strode in, and the stands erupted again.
The pinnacle of the Academy. The answer to Fusion. Amagi Hikaru!
Hikaru waved to his friends below. Overhead, his avatar and Funglow Corp's "GG" display bloomed across the holo-screens.
By contrast, Jim's entrance drew quieter applause. Aside from South Academy students and a handful of geology and archaeology buffs, support was sparse. Above, his hologram appeared beside a giant fossil-slab motif.
"Good luck, Amagi," Jim called. "Didn't expect to face you this soon. Feels like a sneak-peek exchange match for next term."
Hikaru grinned. "Yeah, Jaden wanted me to duel you ages ago. Didn't think the chance would come this fast. You're a Fusion user too, so let's give everyone a great show."
Jim tipped his hat with one finger. "Same thought. Heads up, though: I happened to find a super-powerful card these last two days. If you're not careful, you might lose in an instant."
'A super-powerful card?'
'How powerful?' Hikaru wondered.
"All right, then, let's go."
"Duel!" ×2
Duel Academy — Headquarters (Academy Representative)
Amagi Hikaru — Absolute Fusion User — LP: 4000
Duel Academy — South (Academy Representative)
Jim "Crocodile" Cook — Archaeologist — LP: 4000