"Battle! Lightning Golem, attack Goyo Defender! Oh, target the second one, the one that wasn't Synchro Summoned properly!"
"Tch! I activate Goyo Defender's effect! When this card becomes the target of an attack, its ATK increases by 1000 for each EARTH Warrior Synchro Monster I control, except itself, until the end of the Damage Step!"
Goyo Defender — ATK: 1000 → 2000.
"Trap Card, activate! Half Unbreak!"
A transparent dome of glowing bubbles enveloped Goyo Defender.
"I target 1 monster I control; that monster can't be destroyed by battle this turn, and any battle damage I take from its battles is halved!"
The lightning struck, crackling across the shield. The bubbles burst one after another, absorbing the impact. The remaining energy ricocheted toward Trudge's D-Wheel, shaking it violently.
Tetsu Trudge— LP: 4000 → 3800.
"That ends my turn."
"Then I activate my Set card, Continuous Trap, Powerful Rebirth!"
The hologram lit up automatically as the card flipped open.
"I target 1 Level 4 or lower monster in my Graveyard and Special Summon it!
I choose Rose, Warrior of Revenge!"
A red-haired warrior twirled gracefully out of a crimson light, dashing beside Trudge's bike in perfect sync with its speed.
Rose, Warrior of Revenge — Level 4 / FIRE / Warrior / ATK 1600 / DEF 600.
"A monster Special Summoned by Powerful Rebirth gains 1 Level, and its ATK and DEF each increase by 100!"
Rose, Warrior of Revenge — Level 4 → 5; ATK: 1600 → 1700.
Meanwhile, Hikaru looked ahead, watching the flashing police lights in the distance and glanced down at his console's mini-map.
To be honest, this racetrack was surprisingly short, perhaps intentionally so, given that this was a Chase Duel.
Judging from the map, he hadn't fallen too far behind; the race was only about a quarter finished.
Still, if Trudge kept up this kind of defensive dragging strategy, Hikaru might run out of options.
"My turn!!"
Trudge drew his card sharply, and instantly, his D-Wheel surged forward, widening the gap even more.
At this speed, they could only communicate through the built-in intercom systems inside their Duel Runners.
Hikaru raised an eyebrow.
"Oh, right, I forgot about that…"
In 5D's-era duels, every turn automatically generated Speed Counters to increase acceleration.
But in this dimension, though there were no visible counters, the speed gain mechanic still existed.
Which meant all his previous calculations were now useless.
At this rate, if he didn't finish the duel on his next turn, he'd probably be caught by Sector Security.
Trudge's voice echoed through the comms.
"Kid, I watched your duel back in the Friendship Cup. I know you're brave… and that you've got a strong sense of justice.But each dimension has its own rules. You can't judge ours by what you saw in yours."
"Heh… self-delusion?" Hikaru shot back calmly.
"Shut up!" Trudge barked, his expression dark. "Listen. If you want to survive here and make it back to your own dimension, stop talking about what you said before.
If we arrest you and deport you, at least you'll still have a future. Otherwise…"
He trailed off.
In this world, the High Council still existed.
Though civil unrest had weakened their power and left them nominally under Director Goodwin's command, the aristocrats weren't the type to sit quietly in defeat.
And right now, this entire duel, this "pursuit of an interdimensional invader", was being broadcast across the upper city.
Trudge didn't want this hotheaded duelist's words to ignite a political firestorm, to give the nobles an excuse for "punishment," or worse, execution.
"What you've seen so far are just ordinary duelists," Trudge continued. "Even Yusei Fudo, the strongest Synchro user, hadn't yet risen to prominence at that time.
You're an outsider who stumbled here by accident. My advice..."
"An accident?" Hikaru interrupted evenly. "No. You're mistaken.I came to this dimension by my own will. To pursue a higher state of existence."
Trudge's eyes widened in disbelief.
For a long moment, he was silent. Then, his face hardened.
"Then I won't hold back anymore."
He raised his arm dramatically.
"I tune my Level 5 Rose, Warrior of Revenge with my Level 3 Goyo Defender!"
Rose's form shimmered, dissolving into five glowing stars that arranged themselves into a massive array of emerald rings before Trudge's D-Wheel.
The remaining Goyo Defender accelerated, thrusting itself through the glowing circles. Its body twisted and expanded, morphing into a far larger silhouette cloaked in light.
"Commencing pursuit operation!"
"Appear, ruler of the Goyo forces…"
"Synchro Summon!"
"Come forth, Goyo King!"
A traditional Japanese-style warrior spun his twin truncheons in an elegant yet intimidating dance before leaping into position ahead of Trudge's D-Wheel.
Goyo King — Level 8 / EARTH / Warrior / Synchro / ATK 2800 / DEF 2000.
Upon its arrival, the giant enforcer hurled out an energy rope that wrapped tightly around Hikaru's D-Wheel, dragging down his speed even further.
Hikaru smirked faintly.
"Heh… as expected of Captain Trudge."
"The top enforcer of Security, it's only natural he'd stop an interdimensional fugitive so easily."
In the upper levels of the city, high-born spectators swirled their glasses of red wine, commenting idly as they watched the broadcast.
"Ha ha… impressive, Captain Trudge. Looks like this 'Chase Duel' is already decided."
"Truly fine work. Watching these captures is better entertainment than the opera."
To them, this was no more than a casual show, a bit of post-dinner amusement.
"I activate the Spell Card, Monster Reborn!
I target the Goyo Defender that was properly Synchro Summoned in my Graveyard and Special Summon it!"
The smaller armored samurai reappeared, raising its shield as it skated alongside Trudge's D-Wheel, blocking Hikaru's path.
"Battle!"
Trudge leaned forward, his D-Wheel roaring beside Goyo King.
"Goyo King, attack Evil HERO Lightning Golem!
And I activate Goyo King's effect! When this card declares an attack on an opponent's monster, its ATK increases by 400 for each EARTH Warrior Synchro Monster I control until the end of this turn!
I control three, so that's a 1200-point boost!"
Goyo King — ATK: 2800 → 4000.
"Whoa! That's stronger than Jack Atlas's Red Dragon Archfiend!"
"Magnificent, what power!"
"Yes, yes! Finish that interdimensional criminal off!"
"Perhaps we can even extract knowledge from him afterward…"
The nobles' laughter echoed over their private feeds, their imaginations running wild.
Goyo King spun its weapon in a brilliant arc, its two subordinate Defenders flanking it. With a coordinated strike, they hurled their truncheons like a massive spear, slamming into Lightning Golem with explosive force.
Hikaru Amagi — LP: 4000 → 2400.
The blow wasn't just heavy, it slowed his D-Wheel even further.At this rate, he wasn't even racing anymore; his speed was closer to a bicycle's casual roll.
"I activate Goyo King's effect!
When this card destroys an opponent's monster by battle and sends it to the Graveyard, I can activate one of two effects,
(1) Special Summon that monster to my field, or
(2) Take control of one face-up monster your opponent controls!"
"Since you have no other monsters left… I'll take control of your Lightning Golem!"
Trudge's voice boomed through the comm-link:
"It's arrest time!"
"Sorry!" Hikaru shouted suddenly. "But Lightning Golem can only be Special Summoned by the effect of Dark Fusion!"
"What!?" Trudge nearly lost control of his bike. "You mean… it can only be Fusion Summoned properly? No other way!?"
He was completely thrown off.
"What era are we in, who still plays monsters that can only be Special Summoned by the proper method!?
If I could run five Goyo Defenders in my Extra Deck, I'd flood the field in one turn, no silly restriction like that!
And that Lightning Golem isn't even that strong! Fixed materials, 2400 ATK, a once-per-turn destruction effect, it's so basic!"
Hikaru smiled faintly.
"Heh. Every monster has its own uniqueness.
What seems outdated can still shine under the right conditions.Just like now, your 'arrest combo' won't work the way you planned."
That self-limiting clause, "can only be Special Summoned by Dark Fusion" was ironically its own form of protection. Against Goyo King, it was an impenetrable defense.
"Tch… fine then. I'll just take your Life Points and speed instead!Goyo Defender, direct attack!"
"Hold on. I'd rather not slow down any more than I already have, at this rate, I might as well be walking."
Hikaru raised his Duel Disk.
"When your monster declares an attack, I Special Summon this card in Defense Position!
Appear, Vampire Fraulein!"
A black parasol appeared beside Hikaru's D-Wheel, opening with a flourish. A swarm of bats burst forth, and from within them, a golden-haired noblewoman emerged gracefully, her eyes gleaming crimson.
Vampire Fraulein— Level 5 / DARK / Zombie / DEF 2000.
The elegant vampire spun her parasol once, landing delicately before Hikaru's D-Wheel.
The charging Goyo Defender halted abruptly, blocked by her haunting presence.
Trudge clicked his tongue in frustration.
All of Trudge's strategies were being interrupted, seen through, and shattered one by one.
For him, that was agonizing.
Still, the Goyo monsters were reliable.
Even on the opponent's turn, they were essentially 3000-ATK walls, defensive powerhouses not easily toppled.
Besides, he'd already cleared more than half the course.
If Hikaru hesitated even a little next turn, victory would be his.
As for catching up?
Absurd.
The guy could barely steer a D-Wheel!
And that model he was riding, a standard-issue police runner, was decades behind. Trudge knew its limits well.
"Turn end."
"My turn, draw!"
The Duel Disk scanned his motion. A single card materialized in holographic projection.
Hikaru caught it between his fingers, glanced at it, and nodded slightly.
Ultra Polymerization.
Looks like I've won.
He glanced regretfully at another card in his hand, Resonance from the Otherworld – Synchro Fusion.
Unfortunately, this was the OCG-only version, it couldn't be treated as a Fusion or Synchro Summon.
If it had been the local version, he could've used it last turn. Worse still, the OCG effect sent monsters to the GY rather than using them as material, making it incompatible even with his Fusion Dragons.
I'll need to find this world's version of "Resonance from the Otherworld – Synchro Fusion" soon.
But for now, he had a duel to win.
"I Normal Summon the Tuner monster—Growing Bloom!"
A small purple bud sprouted beside Hikaru's speeding D-Wheel, racing alongside him.
Glow-Up Bloom — Level 1 / DARK / Zombie / ATK 0 / DEF 0
"A Tuner monster!?" Trudge shouted, eyes widening as he glanced back.
"A Tuner!?" echoed the astonished nobles watching the Chase Duel broadcast from the upper city.
Hikaru pressed the accelerator. The engine roared, but his speed still refused to rise. He didn't care. Instead, he raised his voice over the wind.
"Officer Trudge, do you know why you reacted so strongly to my words?
Why can't you understand the people of the lower district?"
"What are you talking about?" Trudge snapped, confused.
"Because you've never tried to understand them. You judge by instinct, by duty, by assumption. You never actually looked at their world through their eyes.
That narrow-mindedness… is what makes you blind!"
Trudge stared at Hikaru through the rushing air, unable to respond. Somewhere deep down, the words struck a chord.
"And now I'll tell you, why I came to this dimension. Why I said I wanted to reach a higher level of Fusion.
Because I want to understand.
To understand more about dueling, about your dimension's power.
To make my own Fusions stronger!"
Hikaru raised a card dramatically.
"I activate the Spell Card, Ultra Polymerization!"
"Ultra… Polymerization!?" Trudge repeated in disbelief. The name alone carried a weight that made his instincts scream danger.
"I pay 2000 Life Points! I send Fusion Materials listed on a Fusion Monster from my field to the Graveyard to Fusion Summon that monster!"
Hikaru Amagi — LP: 2400 → 400.
"He actually paid 2000 Life Points for it!?" Trudge exclaimed.
Glow-Up Bloom and Vampire Fraulein dissolved into a swirling vortex of darkness beside Hikaru's D-Wheel.
"With the souls of two beings from the underworld, I call forth the dragon that reigns over death itself!"
"Shatter the gates of the netherworld!"
"Fusion Summon!"
Hikaru raised his left hand high. It was burning.
The dark sigil etched into his skin pulsed violently, glowing a deep crimson, as though something ancient and terrible was awakening.
Not only that, behind him, Hikaru could faintly hear something new: the rhythmic pounding of hooves echoing in the air.
"Descend—Level 8!"
"Appear, Dragonecro Nethersoul Dragon!"
BOOM! BOOM!
A massive skeletal dragon smashed through the very air itself, its emergence tearing open a rift in the night sky.
"ROOOOAAAARRRRR!!!!"
It howled madly, venting its rage into the storming air—proclaiming to the world that it had returned.
Dragonecro Nethersoul Dragon — Level 8 / DARK / Dragon / Fusion / ATK 3000 / DEF 0.
"Dragonecro… Nethersoul Dragon?" Trudge stared, awestruck. Something about that creature, its aura, its birth, felt far beyond ordinary.
But he steadied himself.
"Still, even with 3000 ATK… It's not enough."
He looked down at his D-Wheel's monitor, If he could just endure this turn, he might still win.
"Now I activate the effect of Ultra Polymerization from the Graveyard!" Hikaru declared.
"What!?"
"By banishing it, I target the monster that was Fusion Summoned using its effect. Then, I Special Summon the Fusion Materials used for that monster's Summon from my Graveyard.
Those monsters have their ATK and DEF reduced to 0, and their effects are negated."
Vampire and Glow up Bloom reappeared briefly, glowing with eerie light before kneeling in silence beside the roaring dragon.
"Huh? At this point, reviving those monsters does nothing… their ATK is zero!"
"Heh. That's because I plan to use your dimension's own technology."
"W–What!?" Trudge gasped, his eyes widening in disbelief.
Hikaru raised his arm.
"I tune the Level 1 Glow up Bloom with the Level 5 Vampire Fraulein!
Arise, explorer of ancient fusions!"
"Synchro Summon! Level 6—Muddy Mudragon!"
Mudragon — Level 6 / DARK / Dragon / Synchro / ATK 500 / DEF 1800.
The creature spread its thick, mudlike wings, gliding beside Hikaru's D-Wheel, its body shifting like liquid shadow.
"You… you even know how to Synchro Summon!?" Trudge exclaimed in shock.
An interdimensional duelist, who had mastered Fusion and Synchro alike!?
And that line echoed in Trudge's mind again:
"Because I want to understand."
That wasn't a bluff.
"Mudragon can be treated as a substitute for any 1 Fusion Material whose name is specifically listed on a Fusion Monster.And since it was Synchro Summoned, it can also activate its effect to fuse directly with another monster on the field."
"But this time," Hikaru raised another Spell card, his voice firm.
"I'll use this instead, Miracle Synchro Fusion!"
"Synchro… Fusion?" Trudge's pupils shrank.
Even the upper-city spectators gasped.
"He's combining our Synchro Summoning with Fusion Summoning!?"
"To merge two entirely different summoning methods…!"
Indeed, Fusion and Synchro, two separate summoning arts, now united in a single spell.
"By banishing Fusion Materials from my field or Graveyard listed on a Fusion Monster that requires a Synchro Monster as material, I Fusion Summon that monster from my Extra Deck!"
"I banish Mudragon on my field and Elemental HERO Avian from my Graveyard!"
"Fusion Summon!"
With a thunderous burst, the restraints that had been weighing Hikaru's D-Wheel down shattered. The roar of the engine rose into a fierce gale, his speed skyrocketing!
And then, from behind came that sound again.
The pounding of hooves.
He glanced back, and saw a flaming skeleton horse galloping toward him, its entire body wreathed in fire.
A spectral steed of the underworld, charging alongside him through the burning wind.
Hikaru's eyes lit up.
"ROOOOAAAAARRR!!!"
The Dragonecro Nethersoul Dragon let out another triumphant roar, as if it were rejoicing at an old friend's return.
From behind, the flaming skeletal horse galloped toward Hikaru.
Its body shimmered, phasing in and out of visibility.
Before Trudge could even utter his confused "What the!?" the undead steed melted into pure flame and merged directly with Hikaru's D-Wheel!
At once, the engine howled.
The vehicle's frame warped and expanded, plates shifting like living bone.
The once-standard police D-Wheel was gone, replaced by a massive post-apocalyptic skeleton bike, adorned with bone plating and fiery trim.
"Whoa…" murmured Tierra softly, watching from afar.She remembered that steed, it was the spectral mount that had once delivered Dragonecro to Hikaru.
Even as Hikaru gripped the handles, he could still hear the sound of ghostly hooves beneath the engine's growl.And then, as Miracle Synchro Fusion's light enveloped the track, a towering armored Dragon Knight emerged beside him, spreading great wings of wind and holding a radiant dragon-lance.
"Level 10—Dragon Knight Draco-Equiste!"
Dragon Knight Draco-Equiste — Level 10 / WIND / Dragon / ATK 3200.
Trudge's jaw dropped. He couldn't even speak.
"Battle!
Dragonecro Nethersoul Dragon, attack Goyo King!"
Hikaru's tone was calm, focused. He had no time for the other man's shock.
The skeletal dragon inhaled sharply, then unleashed a torrent of black miasma that engulfed Goyo King entirely.
The mighty enforcer dropped to one knee, armor cracking as the light faded from its eyes.
Tetsu Trudge— LP: 3800 → 3600.
"Monsters that battle with Dragonecro Nethersoul Dragon cannot be destroyed by that battle. But at the end of the Damage Step, the monster's ATK becomes 0, and I Special Summon 1 'Dark Soul Token' whose ATK and Level are equal to that monster's!"
From the dragon's jaws, a pale white soul streamed out, and a ghostly Goyo King appeared beside Hikaru, now drained of color.
Goyo King — ATK: 2800 → 0.
"Continue the attack, Dark Soul Token, strike down Goyo King!"
The phantom enforcer spun its spectral spear and hurled it forward. It pierced straight through the fallen Goyo King, shattering it into fragments of light.
"GAAAH!"
Trudge's D-Wheel wobbled violently. His acceleration plummeted, and in an instant, Hikaru overtook him!
Tetsu Trudge— LP: 3600 → 800.
"It's over, Officer Trudge.
Without your Goyo King, your Goyo Defenders' attack power can only rise to 2000 at most!"
Indeed, with the commander gone, only two Defenders remained on the field.
The final strike from Hikaru's new dragon knight would be fatal.
"So this is the end, Officer. I hope you can understand now, or at least stop being only a 'Defender', and nothing more than a 'Goyo.'"
"Dragon Knight Draco-Equiste, attack Goyo Defender!"
Hikaru turned his D-Wheel sharply, spinning into a reverse drift. Ordinarily, that maneuver would've been impossible, but now, with the skeletal steed fused into the chassis, he could do it effortlessly.
And he couldn't help but smile.
He'd always wanted to try that move.
Above him, the Dragon Knight Draco-Equiste took flight. Wings unfurled, its lance rose high, symbolizing Hikaru's endless pursuit of Fusion's ultimate form.
Then, with a roar, it dove.
The dragon-lance gleamed like a comet as it struck down, tearing through the Goyo Defender's shield and body in a single, blinding flash.
The resulting gale threw Trudge's D-Wheel backward, nearly knocking him clear off the racetrack.
"GAAAH!"
Tetsu Trudge— LP: 800 → 0.
"Life Points, zero. Duel mode, terminated."
PSSSSHHHHHHHHH
A cloud of steam hissed from Trudge's D-Wheel as it slowed,its lights dimming until it coasted to a halt.
He removed his helmet and watched silently, as Hikaru's silhouette disappeared down the track.
For a long moment, he said nothing.
Then;
"Tch… damn it!"
"Getting beaten by a rookie… that's just humiliating!"
Even as his communicator buzzed with his superior's angry shouts, Trudge ignored it. He was still processing the sting of defeat.
"Understand… huh?"