"Wait, you actually built a remote communicator into the Duel Runner? How did you even manage that?"
Hikaru blinked as a familiar voice came through the D-Wheel's speakers.
He was surprised, but not exactly shocked.
"Ha! And here I thought I'd make you jump if I suddenly spoke up," came the smug reply.
"I had Mokuba Kaiba help me out. Top-tier tech, you know, so don't break it!"
Hikaru glanced toward Tierra, deadpan.
If it did break, she could probably fix it anyway.
"So? How's life over there treating you?"
"Don't even start, Chazz. Thanks to your little modification, I nearly lost my first Riding Duel because the Runner was too slow! What, you jealous I won the championship, so you sabotaged me?"
"Hah!? If you actually knew how to ride, I wouldn't have had to limit it! Look at yourself for once, Champion!"
Chazz practically shouted that last word, and Hikaru could only roll his eyes.
After a bit of banter, Hikaru returned to his underground base.
He boiled a pot of water, poured himself a cup, and, while sipping it, reattached his Duel Disk to his arm. The holographic projector came to life as he reviewed the day's duel data, chatting idly with Chazz.
To Hikaru, it might only be a matter of months before he returned to Duel Academy, but from Chazz's point of view, Hikaru had vanished into another dimension alone, a completely foreign world, without allies or backup.
He couldn't help but worry.
So whenever work didn't keep him too busy, Chazz always tried to call, offering advice or just keeping Hikaru company.
And honestly?
Hikaru had to admit that "Detective Princeton" really did have a knack for analysis, he'd fit right into the Synchro Dimension.
It was a shame he had his own career and goals; if Chazz were here, things would be a lot easier.
Hikaru paused, glancing down at the crimson Mark glowing faintly on his left hand, then began explaining to Chazz why he'd come to this world, and what he was truly searching for.
Some time later…
"I see," Chazz said thoughtfully. "So that's why you disappeared."
"You always said you wanted to check out the Synchro Dimension, but you never told anyone why or how. Turns out that card, Dragonecro Nethersoul Dragon, is a special one from that dimension, huh?"
That explained a lot.
"Makes sense now," Chazz continued. "After you came back, you started running Zombie-type monsters. Before that, I never saw you use anything even close to that theme."
As expected of the self-proclaimed detective, he'd already pieced the situation together from a few details.
"Ha! Everyone else said you were probably still holed up in the lab again. But I told them, nah, Hikaru might lock himself in there for days, but he'd never skip something important."
"Even Professor Crowler got dragged into it. Some TV station wanted to interview you, he agreed, but when he texted, you never replied."
"Text…?" Hikaru frowned, pulling out his phone.
Sure enough, there was a message, timestamped exactly when the Crimson Dragon had pulled him into this dimension.
"And then?"
"I covered for you, obviously!" Chazz snorted.
"After you won the championship, half the Academy wanted a piece of you, but Crowler turned them all away. One of his old colleagues even showed up looking for you~~poof, gone again."
He paused for dramatic effect.
"And get this, since you won, a bunch of underclass girls have been hammering on the Fusion Club door nonstop. Poor Serena can't even get through her alchemy experiments without someone knocking every ten minutes."
"Ah...haha… yeah, I'll… uh, make sure to apologize to Professor Crowler and Serena later," Hikaru replied awkwardly.
"Hmm…" Chazz muttered, thinking aloud.
"About your situation over there, I've done a bit of analysis."
"Here we go…" Hikaru sighed.
"Listen. I've been to that world too, remember? I looked into how the upper and lower sectors work. So I can tell you right now, the tension between them isn't really because of the 'gods.' Or at least, not just because of them. It's the result of years of social and economic imbalance.
From that perspective, whatever that Shinji guy's Dark Mark told him, well, it's definitely not the whole picture. Maybe even biased."
"You needed to 'analyze' that? Yeah, yeah, thanks, detective. Go to bed already," Hikaru said, waving him off.
Did Chazz really think he was an idiot?
"Wait, hold it! Don't hang up yet, the important part's coming."
"Then get to it."
"If what that guy said is true, then one thing's certain: he, or whoever's backing him, maybe even that so-called god, believes that if he wins, he can make his ideal world real."
That much, Hikaru had to agree with.
If the Earthbound Gods from the original timeline were as powerful here as before, and if he truly gathered all the Signers' and Dark Signers' marks to turn his god into the One True Deity,
then reshaping the world to his liking wouldn't be hard.
Resurrecting the dead of the Lower Sector? Easy. Feeding on the souls of the rest of humanity? Also easy, Earthbound Gods never cared about that sort of thing.
And Shinji himself clearly didn't care either. He'd never even questioned why the city had become so divided; he only wanted his dream fulfilled.
"But finding your opponents in a city that huge must be a nightmare, right?" Hikaru said.
"Exactly. And from what you told me, every Dark Signer uses Riding Duels to draw those 'Earthbound patterns.'
That means each of them has a limited territory. So if they don't overlap, how are they even supposed to fight each other? That's why I think it's not about elimination at all, it's about conversion.
"In other words, they use Riding Duels to rewrite the other's mark into their own pattern. That's why encounters between Dark Signers and Dragon Signers aren't random, they're inevitable.
"You showing up in that dimension and meeting two Dark Signers within days? That's not luck, Hikaru.
That's destiny."
Hikaru raised an eyebrow, realizing what he meant.
"So the Dark Signers and Dragon Signers are drawn to each other?"
That would explain everything.
He'd thought of himself as just a bystander, someone who would finish his own mission and leave.
But maybe that wasn't possible.
Unlike in the original world, where Dark Signers fought out of hatred, this dimension seemed… different.
No hatred. Just resonance, marks seeking worthy duelists.
Accepting Dragonecro's power and easing Mudragon's vengeance… it really wasn't that simple after all.
"Exactly!" Chazz exclaimed. "Man, Hikaru, you pick things up fast.
You've got that D-Wheel now, right? Tomorrow, try cruising around. If my theory's right, you'll run into that Shinji guy soon enough."
"Heh, you might be right… Thanks, Chazz."
"Don't mention it, man. We, me, the Professor, everyone, we're rooting for you. If things ever get too rough out there, don't forget you've still got us."
Hikaru couldn't help but smile.
...
Stones PLzz