"Uraaah!"
Chancellor Sheppard—or rather, within this dojo he should be called Master Sheppard—staggered back a few steps and dropped to one knee, panting hard.
[Sheppard, LP 0]
Zane Truesdale ended the duel, retracted his Duel Disk, and walked forward with calm, effortless motions, as if it had been nothing.
"Why, Zane?" Sheppard raised his head. "Can you no longer hear the voice of Cyber End Dragon?"
"Have you forgotten how you felt back then?"
Bracing himself on his knee, Sheppard stood, seemingly trying to help Zane remember.
"This place, this dojo—does it not hold a special meaning for you?"
"The Cyber Style—you once sweated with comrades here, growing together, becoming stronger. But from the moment you obtained Cyber End Dragon at nine years old, what remained of Cyber Style was only a name."
"Ah, I remember."
Zane nodded and addressed his master respectfully.
"That was nine-year-old me's ultimate dream: to be acknowledged by Cyber End Dragon and become the heir to the style."
"Exactly! So many disciples, so many who dreamed of inheriting Cyber Style's secrets—but in the end, only you, at nine, won it all."
To him, the past scenes were still crystal clear.
He remembered dueling nine-year-old Zane, the satisfaction and admiration he felt seeing the boy's deck and his dueling.
"Respect your opponent—see yourself as if from your opponent's heart. Duel from that place. You're excellent."
Back then, Sheppard praised him, then handed the Cyber End Dragon card to the boy.
He still remembered the spark of hope that flashed in that child's eyes when he received it.
"I hope you won't forget this day," Sheppard said with a smile as he patted the boy's head. "And never forget this feeling."
"Mm!" the nine-year-old nodded vigorously.
But now the boy from memory had been replaced by a cold young man, the fire once visible in those eyes seemingly extinguished.
"I can hear it."
Zane spoke calmly.
"I can hear Cyber End Dragon's voice."
"Then why—!?"
"Because it's unnecessary," Zane said coolly. "I can hear it; I simply choose not to heed it now.
Because my soul craves victory, and I will pay any price to get it."
"But your dueling has strayed from the path of Cyber Style that we once followed…"
Zane shook his head. "But I won, and you lost, Master. Doesn't that prove the path I've found now is more correct?"
Sheppard was speechless.
After a long pause, he said, "Is winning and losing… all there is to dueling?"
"Of course, Master," Zane said softly. "It always was. I was merely too dull to notice.
The world of dueling is cruel—there is always only one winner. If you lack the resolve to do anything to win, you're handing victory—and everything else—to someone else."
He shook his head, unwilling to speak further.
"As agreed, Master, I've won. I came here today to take Cyber Style's ultimate secret."
Master Sheppard's face tightened.
"Cyber Style's ultimate secret was entrusted to you years ago."
"You know what I mean, Master," Zane said. "The Cyber End Dragon I inherited is only the symbol of the Cyber Style—it does not encompass the whole."
"You want that?" Sheppard shook his head. "No. Absolutely not. You mustn't—"
But Zane walked past him straight to the back of the main hall. He tore down the Cyber End Dragon tapestry hanging on the wall; behind it, a recess had been concealed.
Within sat an exquisite little box.
It had been here all these years, in the dojo's main hall, hidden behind the symbol of the Cyber Style—as if to signify it was the other side of the coin.
"No!"
Sheppard protested.
"The 'Underworld Deck' is a forbidden power—too dangerous. The founder of Cyber Style sealed it, never to be inherited by anyone—"
"No, Master. Power is just power. Whether Cyber or Underworld Cyber, both are tools for victory."
Zane spoke earnestly.
"Only then is Cyber Style complete."
"I was too naive in the past to understand, unworthy of this power."
"But now I do. As Cyber Style's heir, light or darkness, I must master all of it. As long as it wins, as long as it leads Cyber Style to a higher peak, that's what matters."
Sheppard fell silent, at a loss for words.
After a while, he let out a long sigh.
He felt deeply that he was old.
He could do nothing.
He couldn't out-argue his former student, nor stop him from taking a dangerous deck and straying from the style's path.
The future belongs to the young; perhaps his way was already outdated.
Sheppard drew a deep breath and stood. "Zane, you're in your third year now. Graduation must be soon?"
"Yes, Master," Zane nodded.
Though he no longer agreed with Sheppard's teachings, their difference lay in philosophy.
Even if they contended over it—even just now dueling to seize the forbidden deck—their conflict was about the direction forward.
Sheppard was his mentor, the one who opened Cyber Style's doors to him and gifted him Cyber End Dragon—a man who shaped Zane's life more than anyone. He still respected his teacher.
"How quickly three years have passed."
Sheppard sighed.
"Indeed," Zane nodded. "Three years—graduation is upon me. Looking back, my progress has been limited.
Complacent within the academy's small world, reigning there, I couldn't see a broader sky."
"True…"
Sheppard, of course, knew who had spurred this third-year student onward.
"Well, your grades are excellent—first in every subject. You'll certainly be this year's exemplary graduate.
By tradition, the representative gives a graduation duel, choosing any enrolled student as the opponent. I presume you've already decided?"
"I have."
Zane looked toward the doors. Beyond the hall, atop the snowy peak, flakes whirled in the gale.
"It was decided long ago."