The roaring engines of the Leo Corporation private jet finally whined to a halt as the aircraft taxied onto the tarmac of the exclusive Maiami Private Airlines.
The heavy cabin door lowered, and Himika Akaba stepped out into the scorching afternoon sun. Nakajima stood perfectly straight at the base of the stairs, holding open the door to a sleek, waiting limousine.
"Welcome back, Chairwoman." Nakajima said, bowing his head respectfully. "The international conference and acquisitions went smoothly, I assume?"
"Naturally." Himika replied, her sharp voice dripping as she slid onto the leather seat. "The global corporate expansions are fully locked down. Our financial and technological chokehold on the network is secure. With this, mine and Reiji-san's dream to produce the world's best duelists has gotten much closer."
The limousine instantly pulled away, heading straight toward the towering LDS headquarters.
"Now, give me an official update." Himika commanded, looking at her tablet. "What is the current status of Reiji-san?"
"The President is in the chamber right now, ma'am." Nakajima reported. "He is running tests on a completely new mechanics loop called 'Pendulum Summoning'."
Himika's eyes narrowed. "Pendulum? I haven't seen that term in any past or current files. What exactly is it?"
"President didn't wanted to disturb you, so he didn't informed you until you arrived." Nakajima explained. "It was discovered recently by a boy, and the President is trying to re-engineer it into our database."
Himika remained silent for a moment. She reached into her blazer and pulled out her encrypted communicator, dialing a direct, secure line.
The line clicked open immediately.
"Reiji," Himika said flatly into the receiver, bypassing any greeting. "Nakajima just briefed me on your current laboratory trial. Explain this 'Pendulum' data to me yourself. Is it a viable weapon for the upcoming dimensional conflict, or is it just another unstable factor?"
"Actually, another unidentified factor has come up, and I think it will be of use."
Himika didn't ask further. When the car reached its destination, she rushed to Reiji's office to confront everything.
What really felt out of place for her was Sakaki Yuya. Himika knew he was Sakaki Yusho's son—the man she believed was betraying the Standard Dimension.
Coincidentally, a complaint call came in to LDS. Himika confirmed it was from the son of the man running in the election for Maiami City mayor. With this sudden but advantageous factor presenting itself, she decided to make use of it.
She visited the hospital room where Shingo Sawatari lay. Seeing Sawatari wrapped in bandages all over his body, she concluded in a single sentence: "He is faking it."
As she spotted the future mayor crying for his son—who was already furious—Himika's opportunistic nature took over. She managed to manipulate the man into filing an official complaint, declaring that the one who had attacked and made a mess of Shingo Sawatari was none other than Sakaki Yuya.
She then called three top students of LDS to accompany her to her destination. She placed a quick call to Reiji, prompting him to give Nakajima orders to make a few changes to their plans.
# Youshow Duel School
Inside the classroom, the lights were turned off, leaving the room dark as the projector cast its display onto the screen.
Yuya, Yuzu, Sora, Ayu, Futoshi, Tatsuya, and Ryo were listening quietly to the explanation Shuzo was giving. The principal of Youshow School stood in his usual tracksuit, teaching with a professional weight that made him look like a truly experienced instructor.
"Let's understand Normal Summoning first: it is the most basic method used to summon a monster from Level 1 to 4 directly. Next is the advanced method, Tribute Summoning. To summon a Level 5 or 6 monster, you need one sacrifice—or you could say, you must tribute one monster. And to summon Level 7 and above, up to Level 12, you need to tribute two monsters."
All the kids, except Tatsuya, had "bored" written all over their faces.
"We already know all this."
"Can't you teach us Extra Deck monster methods instead?"
"Extra Deck..." Shuzo paused, spotting Sora. "Alright, let's focus on the Fusion method today. It is a method used to combine two or more monsters into one. Its card color—or card border is purple."
"We already know this too."
"Can't you teach us other methods?"
"Other, you ask..."
"Dad..." Yuzu murmured.
"Hmm? Yeah?"
"Can you explain Xyz?"
"Xyz method?"
"Yes!" She finally lost her cool. "Explain the Xyz Summoning method!"
"Why the sudden urge? Well... even I don't know the whole story. It is performed by overlaying two monsters of the same Level. It is the simplest method to use." Shuzo rubbed his chin, crossing his arms. "But I genuinely don't know much. I heard rumors that the person who invented or presented this method suddenly disappeared. Even his very identity and existence were erased, or so the rumors say."
He caught himself and stopped, realizing he shouldn't be sharing such dark stories with children.
"But that doesn't answer my...!" Yuzu fell into silence, looking briefly over at Yuya.
Yuya gave her a confused look in return. In fact, everyone was confused by Yuzu's sudden, desperate urge to learn. Only Ryo knew the exact source behind it.
"She must still be thinking about that phantom from yesterday..." Ryo thought. "Did that phantom looking exactly like Yuya affected her that much? She really is hard to understand—or rather, impossible to understand."
"This is all I know," Shuzo admitted, giving up. "Well, if any of you want to know about other methods, I will prepare a more detailed explanation for next time."
"Wait, Sensei!" Futoshi burst out. "Ryo-niichan knows about these methods!"
"Huh? You have knowledge about these, Ryo?"
"Yes." Ryo sighed inwardly, giving in. He already felt a negative premonition about what was waiting for him.
"This is great timing! Will you explain the methods you know?"
"Ryo-niichan knows all the methods!" Futoshi added with even more energy. "He will explain everything!"
Shuzo showed a flash of disbelief before it turned into absolute confidence. "Then please, explain them all, Ryo." He gave a firm nod and gesturing hand.
Teaching and explaining things to people who were entirely alien to them was one of the tasks Ryo hated most. He stood up from his chair and walked toward the screen where the projection was projecting light.
"Can you switch it to Fusion, Sensei?" Ryo asked.
"Ho! I am getting fired up!" Shuzo cheered, clicking a few buttons on his laptop.
Sora's gaze and concentration instantly sharpened, focusing entirely on Ryo and his upcoming words.
The digital screen shifted, bathing the dark classroom in a vivid light. Ryo stood before the projection, his shadow cutting directly through the digital information. His posture remained perfectly rigid, his crimson eyes reflecting the light as he used his moving fingers to illustrate his points on display.
"Fusion," Ryo began explaining. "To put it simply, it is like mixing ingredients together to bake a cake. You take two or more monsters from your hand or your field, and you use a specific Spell Card, like 'Polymerization', to melt them together. They combine into a single, new monster."
Sora leaned forward. His playful, childish smile remained intact, but his eyes narrowed with intense focus, analyzing every single word coming from Ryo's mouth.
"So, it just blends them?" Ayu asked, tilting her head. "Like making juice?"
"Exactly," Ryo replied. "The benefit is that you can do it right away, even using monsters straight from your hand. It is advantageous when you don't have a monster on the field or to summon directly. The downside is that you lose a lot of cards at once just to get one big monster out. If that monster is destroyed, you are left with nothing."
"This is so fun to hear!" Futoshi beamed with a happy smile.
"You mentioned a specific Polymerization card, so does that mean there are other ways to Fusion Summon?" Tatsuya asked, raising his hand as he caught the hole.
"Yes." A small smile brushed Ryo's lips before it vanished. "There are other ways as well. This is just the basic understanding."
"Amazing!" Futoshi and Ayu cheered together.
"And Xyz?" Yuzu pressed, her voice sharp with a desperation she couldn't hide. She gripped the edge of her desk, her mind still entirely fogged by the memory of the dark phantom who looked identical to Yuya.
Ryo shifted his gaze to her, his tone remaining strictly detached. He glanced at Shuzo, who tapped the laptop, switching the screen to a deep, starry black background.
"Xyz is different. It is like building a tower," his vision shifted. He kept explanation incredibly simple, cutting out the overly complex parts so the kids could understand easily. "To do this, you need monsters on your field that share the exact same Level. If you have two Level 4 monsters, you stack them on top of each other. They become the building blocks."
"Stack them?" Tatsuya repeated. "They don't go to the Graveyard?"
"No. They stay on the field, right underneath the new Xyz monster. We call them Overlay Units. When you want to activate the Xyz monster's special ability, you detach one of those cards from underneath and send it to the Graveyard. It is like spending fuel. If the Xyz monster is destroyed while it still has Overlay Units, those units go to the Graveyard as well. Additionally, Xyz monsters do not have Levels. They have Ranks, represented by black circles with yellow stars in them that go from left to right, opposite to a Level linning."
"Wow! That sounds super cool! It makes me shiver!" Futoshi shouted, bouncing in his seat.
"But what about Synchro? You didn't talk about the white cards!" Ayu pressed.
Ryo paused, his gaze sweeping over the children before Shuzo brought up a bright white card template on the screen.
"Synchro is like doing basic addition," Ryo said simply. "For this, you must use a special type of monster called a Tuner, and add it together with any non-Tuner monster. You add their Levels together like numbers in mathematics. If you use a Level 3 Tuner and a Level 5 monster, you add them up. Three plus five equals eight, so you can summon a Level 8 Synchro monster."
"So it's just a simple math puzzle?" Yuya asked, rubbing the back of his neck as he stared at Ryo.
"Yes," Ryo replied, his stare locking onto Yuya. "You send the Tuner and the other material monsters from the field to the Graveyard to complete the equation. If your math is wrong, or if your opponent stops your numbers from matching, your plan fails. It is all a matter of numbers. The same logic applies to Xyz Summoning." He finished.
Sora watched Ryo closely, idly swirling a pink lollipop around his mouth. The playful, childish expression remained plastered on his face, but his eyes were sharp. "For a kid in a third-rate school, he talks exactly like a corporate textbook from an Academia lecture." Sora thought, his teeth clicking softly against the plastic stick.
"So in short," Shuzo summarized, a wave of dramatic realization washing over his face, "Fusion is chemical mixing, Xyz is a vertical tower structure, and Synchro is a math equation! Brilliant! My hot blood is absolutely boiling with knowledge right now!"
"Ryo-niichan knows everything!" The kids went happy.
"What about Pendulam?" Sora asked.
"That... I don't know anything about." Ryo's shoulders lost strength, and so his head and neck.
"Eh!? We thought you know everything. So even so smart Ryo-niichan doesn't know everything." Kids, except Tatsuya, chatted.
"Oh yeah, let me teach everyone!" Yuya tried to cheer Ryo, trying to wave the subject away. "Sora and everyone, if you have any question about Pendulam than ask me.
"Ryo, it was a great explanation. You sure know a lot. At this point, it wouldn't be wrong to say you know everything." Yuya did his best.
Ryo couldn't play along to appear satisfied.
Before the lesson could go any further, a sudden shout came from outside.
"A surprise attack? Yuya would never do something so underhanded!"
"Gongenzaka?" Yuya muttered, taken completely by surprise.
All of them rushed outside to see what was happening.
Meanwhile, Razz was being accompanied by his friend toward the Youshow School. It was only thanks to Razz's persistent enthusiasm to see the school just once that his friend had given in to Razz's childish demand and agreed to come along.
Razz turned his head and smiled. "Thanks, Vance!"
All his friend could do in response was let out a long sigh.