Tenjo Hikari shook his left hand a little.
In fact, from a long time ago, Tenjo Hikari had vaguely felt that something was strange and off.
Although his name was "Tenjo Hikari," for some reason the Spirits all seemed to default to calling him "Hikari."
Logically speaking, names and forms of address are all about habit—some people like to call themselves Thunder, some like to call others "Bro X-zi," that's all very normal. Like how a lot of people in the Fusion Department like calling Tenjo Hikari things like Hikari' or Brother Hikari; there's nothing odd about that.
But Spirits were different.
Almost every Spirit who met Tenjo Hikari would call him "Hikari," even if Tenjo Hikari had already introduced himself by name.
Or rather, in the ears of Spirits and in the ears of humans, Tenjo Hikari's name was actually "different."
Even though it was the same character, the same meaning, neither Spirits nor humans present would feel anything off about it; only Tenjo Hikari himself always felt something was weird when he heard it.
As Tenjo Hikari encountered more and more Spirits, he became increasingly sensitive to it. He even later ran into a special case like Fudou Yusei, and gradually started to pick up on something.
The "field data" was different.
Yes, if you used the knowledge of this Duelist world to understand it, it seemed to be something like that.
Even though his name was Tenjo Hikari, in the eyes of different forms of life, the way his "field data" looked was different.
Maybe like "Number 107: Galaxy-Eyes Tachyon Dragon": in the eyes of Galaxy-Eyes it's Galaxy-Eyes, but in the eyes of the Number series it's "NO.101→107." Or, of course, it might be like how in the OCG, Midrash is called Midrash, while in the TCG, Midrash is called by her real name "Winda"—a sort of subtle difference in a certain sense.
In any case, under Tenjo Hikari's quiet observation, he gradually discovered this fact.
In itself this matter was meaningless; if Tenjo Hikari didn't already know that in the original story "Darkness" was notorious for psychological games, he wouldn't have deliberately used this kind of thing to probe other people's identities.
After all, Tenjo Hikari couldn't guarantee that the people he ran into on the road weren't Spirits in disguise.
Besides, it wasn't without exceptions, for example…
Tierra had always called him Tenjo Hikari. So it wasn't a one-hundred-percent reliable method of distinction, but it was indeed one of Tenjo Hikari's ways to tell humans and Spirits apart, an almost foolproof method that no one else knew about.
Personally, Tenjo Hikari felt there might be many more strange implications behind this, possibly even connected to the reason why he himself had come to this world.
But unfortunately, Tenjo Hikari had never had any clues, so for now he could only treat it as a simple identification method.
Pendulum Machine saw Tenjo Hikari unfold his Duel Disk. Even though it didn't know how it had given itself away, it still let out a cackling laugh. The scimitar parts of its body began to transform, gradually turning into a Duel Disk. At the same time, Flame Sword's figure slowly faded away and then merged into Tenjo Hikari's Deck.
"I'll let you go first." Tenjo Hikari glanced at the surroundings.
Somehow, without noticing, he'd been brought into a relatively hidden pitch-black corner.
"That confident, huh, Hikari." Pendulum Machine let out a ferocious grin, and, not bothering with politeness, went straight into a Draw.
Pendulum Machine, LP: 4000.
Tenjo Hikari, LP: 4000.
"My turn, Draw."
Pendulum Machine drew a Card from beneath itself, then lowered its head to glance at it.
"Come to think of it, you've always been deeply trusted by your subordinates and friends, haven't you? Yet the first thing you do after running into a friend is suspect them, and you even take action in a situation like this, having a Spirit swing a Greatsword and attack your friend.
Doesn't look like you trust your friends as much as the rumors say, does it?"
Here we go—
When Tenjo Hikari heard this, he not only didn't get angry, he actually felt a little amused.
Classic.
A Darkness-style mind game.
Tenjo Hikari folded his arms and watched the rambling Pendulum Machine with interest.
Pendulum Machine nagged on for a while. Noticing that Tenjo Hikari showed absolutely no emotional reaction, it snorted coldly, its eyes turning as a new idea flashed across its mind. "As expected of you, Hikari—your will really is firm.
You're wary of everything, exactly the level of caution a competent Dimension Traveler should have.
But…"
"Do your friends have that kind of mindset?"
Tenjo Hikari frowned.
"Those friends of yours trust you completely. They'd believe anything you say. So if someone wore your face to trick your friends… what do you think would happen?"
Tenjo Hikari's expression darkened slightly, his eyes narrowing.
"Is that what the master behind you taught you to say?"
"What master behind me."
"If there wasn't some particularly powerful being, how could a Spirit like you possibly disguise itself as a human, and even match the real person down to the last detail?"
"Hehehe, sharp—as expected of you, Tenjo Hikari. But I'm not telling you those kinds of details." Pendulum Machine let out two sly laughs, then drew out a Card and slotted it into its own blade.
"I activate the Spell Card, Allure of Darkness: I Draw two Cards, then banish 1 Dark Attribute Monster from my Hand Cards."
It Drew two Cards, then flicked one out—a "Blowback Dragon."
"Then, a second Allure of Darkness."
It Drew another two, then banished one Pendulum Machine.