Two years earlier, anticipating that Leo Akaba might one day be forced to counter an invasion from beyond, the young executive asked his friend, the world-famous Entertainment Duelist Yusho Sakaki, to test a modified dimensional system and attempt a jump to another world.
But two full years passed with no word from Yusho, as if he had vanished into thin air.
If not for the life-monitor still pinging on Yusho's person, Leo might have believed him dead.
Even so, with over two years gone and no contact, Leo could no longer wait.
Their Standard Dimension could no longer hide; people from other worlds had found it and were preparing to enter.
Leo had to make new decisions.
For now, the Dimensional Door project would have to be shelved. At the very least, he needed to ensure his people were no longer so passive. The citizens of this world had to change.
In truth, Yusho Sakaki was neither missing nor dead.
He had simply arrived… in the wrong place.
The Xyz Dimension.
With the parts he had scavenged, Yusho finally managed to erect another Dimensional Door.
Two years earlier, that first attempt had misfired and deposited him in the Xyz Dimension. Unable to return, he became a teacher there, spreading his creed of Entertainment Dueling.
A few months ago, Academia, Declan's father's Fusion forces, attacked the Xyz world. Yusho stepped in to save several children, then followed the raiders' retreat, collecting components and inactive portals the Fusion soldiers left behind, until he rebuilt a working gate.
This time, with Academia's gear in hand, he could finally find a way out.
He exhaled.
So it had happened after all, Leo Akaba's invasion of other Dimensions…
He primed the machine and slid a card into its slot.
Unlike Declan, who didn't know why Leo would wage such a campaign, Yusho knew some of the truth.
In their youth, he and Leo had co-developed Solid Vision, a system that granted holograms mass, so that tasks tedious for humans could be handled by light made solid.
Construction without strain. Terrain reshaped at a touch. Entire industrial chains completed by projections.
A certain organization took notice. They invited the pair to explore Solid Vision's future.
They wanted to use Solid Vision to pour limitless "mass" into a single card, to create a "god card" with infinite heft.
To ensure the experiment's success, Leo put forth his own daughter, Ray Akaba, whose talent was extraordinary, as a test subject.
But the plan failed.
Not because the card or the tech fell short, rather, because there was a traitor among the researchers.
Yusho, engrossed in Solid Vision and the art of Entertainment Dueling, never imagined his closest colleague would betray them in that moment.
Leo Akaba.
At the crucial instant, Leo moved to steal the "god card" that could change everything, so he could control the world and become its master. Ray Akaba, offered up as a volunteer, had been a decoy in a trap to monopolize the Infinite Card.
The one stroke of fortune: the plot was discovered by the project's leader, and Leo failed, flung out of the world by the enormous energy the experiment released.
Even so, the two volunteers who underwent the procedure, Ray Akaba and Zarc, gained a peculiar power later called the Adam Factor.
Later, why those two split, why they ended up in different Dimensions, Leo Akaba didn't know. All he could do was find a duplicate afterward and adopt it.
Bzzz
The familiar hum of teleportation filled the air as Yusho Sakaki landed, staff in hand, tipping his hat with a light touch.
A city?
On a giant outdoor screen, a Duel was being broadcast.
From the chatter around him, it was a wildly popular tournament here. After a few questions, he pieced it together.
The GX Tournament, "Genius × (Cross) Tournament," a contest to crown this world's most brilliant duelist?
Oh!
That sounded delightful. If it could make so many people smile, it had to be a fun show.
On-screen, two duelists clashed. The one on the left shackled the field with Skill Drain, backed by a swarm of Goblin cards.
Yusho took one look and found it thoroughly un-entertaining.
The opponent… Amazoness?
From the girl piloting Amazoness, he could see it at once, she was pushing too hard, ignoring her body, dueling as if her life were on the line, pressing and pressing until she spooked her opponent.
This was;
As expected in another Dimension, that wouldn't do at all.
Yusho made a quiet decision. He needed to search for Leo Akaba in this world, and at the same time, he would spread his beloved Entertainment Dueling here, share the joy of the game.
There had to be balance between work and rest.
"Battle-Amazoness Empress, direct attack!"
Gloria thrust a finger at her opponent and roared.
Ansiel's Traps were nasty and well-placed. If the Amazoness deck hadn't carried its own powerful Traps, she might have lost already.
When it ended, she felt wrung out. Days of overtraining that ignored her limits, piled atop a desperate duel, left her mind hazy.
But she wouldn't show it. A victor's smile settled on her face; she straightened, threw a confident fist toward the waiting area, and, holding herself together, walked straight off the stage.
Down below, Grace rushed in to steady her, calling her name, worry plain in her voice.
"It's nothing, Grace. A duel like that is no problem!"
Grace looked stricken.
How much pain her sister could bear, how could a twin not know?
Gloria was a bit hardier than she was, but not by much.
And yet, as her sister, Grace knew that if Gloria's obsession and resolve couldn't be released in duels, she herself would never be able to let it go. So she squared her shoulders, gathered up her exhausted sister, and hurried them back to the dorm to rest.
Night fell.
In a drowse, Grace reached out to hug the warm shape beside her, only to feel the wrong kind of softness. She jolted awake and stared. It wasn't her sister at all, but a huge body pillow. She sprang up, threw on her clothes, bolted out the door, and ran to find Gloria.
At the training hall, sure enough, there was Gloria, still drilling, still pushing, late into the night.
For the first time, Grace felt a hot spark of anger at her sister.
She started forward, and then froze, hands flying to her mouth, eyes wide with surprise.
Under the moon, a boy in a blue captain's coat stepped onto the road. The breeze lifted his hem as if he had just walked out of the moonlight itself.
Gloria froze.
"Amagi Hikaru."
She was stunned.
"You should stop entering the tournament."
"Hah, what are you saying? Are you afraid of me?" Gloria swiped the sweat from her chin, forced herself upright, and faced him.
Hikaru swept out his right hand; a vein of violet lightning seemed to crackle beneath the moon. "If you really just want to duel me, you can find me anytime! Why risk your life in this tournament?"
!!
As if struck, Gloria's breath caught. She said nothing.
"No, if that's truly what you want, then let's do it now."
Now!?
The twins both felt their hearts jolt at the same instant.
"We're friends," Hikaru said. "You can duel me whenever you like. If you want it that badly, I'll duel you now." He slipped his Duel Disk onto his left arm with an easy motion.
Gloria tipped her chin up. She glanced at Hikaru a few times, then lowered her gaze. She couldn't have named the feeling even if she'd tried; she only knew her heartbeat thundered whenever she looked at him.
Her blood boiled.
Her face lit with excitement. "Good, if it means I get to see more and more novel Fusions even sooner!"
"Duel!"
"Duel!"
Gloria — LP: 4000
Amagi Hikaru — LP: 4000
...
Stones Plzz
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