Chapter 241
Unlike the fixed two-hour window of the Hacker Invasion skill, Union of Kindred Spirits appeared to activate only during a duel and sustain itself until the duel concluded.
The golden stardust particles from Stardust Colossus's finishing blow lit up the mid-level district against the darkness of artificial night. When the blinding light faded and everyone turned back to the screen broadcasting the riding duel, the figure on the red D-Wheel was Rin Seiya again.
"Did my eyes play tricks on me?"
"I could have sworn the duelist changed in the middle of all that."
"That kind of thing is not really possible though."
"Maybe the dark made the Eva system's cameras glitch."
"Yeah, and those dueling robots looked like a system glitch too. The Eva mainframe has been getting unreliable lately. Are the maintenance engineers slacking off?"
"It does not matter. We won in the end!"
"A bunch of cheating robots was never going to beat our Senpai Rin at her best!"
"Synchro Summoning is the only method that can build a real future!"
With Stardust Colossus clearing out every last undead machine and locking in the victory through its rule-level effect, the curtain came down on this year's Academy Challenge Tournament at last.
The final moments had put everyone on edge in a way that would not be forgotten easily. But by any measure, Synchro Academy had achieved an unprecedented sweep of the tournament.
Principal Leiden's elderly body went limp in his chair. "I have never been more stressed in my life. We won, yes, but if this level of dueling is going to happen every year, it will take years off my life."
Principal Grapha replied from beside him, "Stop complaining after winning. With results this strong, Synchro Academy's enrollment next year will probably double."
"Ha ha, too many students is its own headache you know~"
The Synchro Academy side of the arena was deep in celebration. Out on the now-quiet urban circuit, Rin Seiya had stopped her D-Wheel and found herself standing in an unusual silence.
"Amano, where did you go?"
The Hacker Invasion timer should not have expired yet. But the moment the duel ended, both Amano Rei and the Yusei Fudo lookalike who had appeared mid-match had vanished completely. The steel walls sealing the track were slowly lowering back into the ground. The night-dark streets held only one D-Wheel.
Rin Seiya shook her white hair out. "That was not just my imagination, right?"
At the same moment, Amano Rei was entertaining the exact same thought.
He was standing in a pure white space, looking at Z-one directly in front of him. The feeling of facing the final antagonist of 5D's up close, without the filter of a duel screen or a crowd between them, was unexpectedly intimidating.
From the visual surroundings, he appeared to be inside the deep Eva network space. The same one he had entered during the battle against Shiyue Yi: the place Shiyue had called "the space deep within the Eva network."
Z-one spoke first. "Amano Rei. We meet again at last."
"Again? Have we met before?"
"It is entirely normal that you do not remember. Time is short. I will tell you the key points."
Even as he spoke, Z-one's body flickered with intermittent static, like a signal that kept losing its connection.
"Your memories have been stored inside the Duel Chronicles. Your power has been dispersed across the Duel King System and the fragments of the Millennium Puzzle. Both your memories and your power are critically important to Eden Tower. You must find a way to reclaim them."
Amano processed this. "My memories and my power are important to Eden Tower?"
"You have encountered Eva's proxy representatives more than once already. Let me give you one piece of advice: do not trust Eva's proxy representatives completely. Within Eden Tower, Eva's existence is not singular. After thousands of years of evolution, she diverged into multiple versions. Each holds different intentions, yet they all collectively govern the operational rules of Eden Tower. That is why so many unusual crises keep appearing near you."
Amano thought back over everything he had encountered in the past month. Shiyue Yi moving freely between the digital network and the physical world. The system bugs in the lower district and the mid-level district. All of it seemed to connect, in different ways, back to the Eva system itself.
The mention of the Eva mainframe seemed to accelerate the static. Z-one's presence became more unstable, the image breaking up more severely.
"This is not the right space for discussing Eva. Amano Rei, if we are fortunate, we should be able to meet once more inside the Duel Chronicles. Until then..." A pause. "Look after Seiya for me."
Amano blinked. "Look after Senpai Rin for you? Why are you asking me that?"
This was something he genuinely wanted to understand. Why, when he used Union of Kindred Spirits through his bond with Rin Seiya, did the Legendary Duelist that appeared turn out to be Z-one?
Z-one smiled with a touch of awkwardness. "Think of it as a selfish request from an old father."
Amano's thoughts came to a complete stop. "Old... father? Does that mean..."
"Amano Rei. Do not say anything more." Z-one's voice was quiet but absolute. "I can see that Seiya is living happily right now. That is enough. Do not tell her unnecessary things."
"So Senpai Rin's current parents are not her biological parents?"
"Seiya's adoptive parents, were people I chose personally. They will take care of her daily life well enough. But Amano Rei." The look in Z-one's eyes, set in a face that wore Yusei Fudo's features, carried a sharpness and gravity that Yusei Fudo had never expressed. "Do not lead Seiya's emotional life astray."
"I have not done anything to lead Senpai's emotional life astray," Amano said.
She did display a certain suppressed quality at times, but that had nothing to do with him personally. That was just how she was, surely. The infamous Shiyue Yi had once assessed the situation directly: "Rin Seiya, if you are suppressing yourself, do not put the blame on someone else."
"Good if you have not. But do not betray Seiya's feelings either. Remember, Amano Rei: we will meet again. I hope that meeting will be a pleasant reunion, not a duel."
With that final advisory on the record, Z-one's flickering image faded entirely into the deep network space.
The last boss of 5D's and yet the most acute source of pressure had come not from that title but from something far more immediate. Being warned by a girl's father to watch himself, in that specific tone, hit differently.
Though there was nothing between him and Senpai Rin that warranted that kind of warning. At least not yet.
After Z-one vanished, Amano's own body began to dissolve as though undergoing digital decomposition, fading piece by piece in the deep network space.
Just before the process finished, a familiar figure appeared in front of him: a girl from the deep Eva network, hands clasped behind her back, leaning forward with an expression that qualified, on a generous interpretation, as a smile.
"You did well this time, Amano Rei. You kept the promise, breached Fusion Academy's stage, and kept Synchro Academy's stage from being breached."
Breach Fusion Academy's stage. Now that he thought about it, Amano did recall dreaming the night before his duel against Kaiba Chiaki, a dream in which the girl from the Eva network had told him to win that match no matter what.
The girl continued. "This means the permissions on my end will increase again. A higher permission level means you will be able to see more of the truths that have been hidden from you. Consider it a reward for your efforts in the Academy Challenge Tournament."
See more hidden truths.
Amano had plenty he wanted to say to that, but his body was already dissolving in data streams. He could not produce a sound.
Last time he had been told he would be able to see certain hidden truths, the only visible result had been seeing his best friend as her true self. Not much else to show for it. Whatever strange thing was being prepared for him this time, he could only wait.
With that unresolved question, the last of Amano's data-dissolved form crossed the boundary between the network and the physical world and returned him to the street where Rin Seiya's D-Wheel sat parked.
Rin Seiya's expression broke into visible relief. "Junior! You are finally back! I almost thought I had lost you!"
"I am... back?" The sensation of full data decomposition was so unusual that Amano actually checked his hands and feet to confirm everything was where it should be.
There were many things about the Union of Kindred Spirits skill that he had not understood before today.
For one: it had activated while he was already in Hacker Invasion's background spirit state. And when Union of Kindred Spirits ended, the background spirit state ended with it, despite the two-hour timer not having expired. Union of Kindred Spirits appeared to take priority over Hacker Invasion and override it entirely.
Then there was the larger question. What was the mechanism behind unlocking Legendary Duelists who had long since vanished from history? How did his system skill reach across time and pull someone like Z-one into a living duel?
And if his bond with Rin Seiya had unlocked Z-one, then different combinations with different conquest targets would presumably unlock different Legendary Duelists. Fusing with Kaiba Chiaki might call out Kaiba Seto, for instance.
Though in the movie, Kaiba Seto had still been completely dismantled by the Egyptian God AI. That option might not solve the immediate problem.
What Amano really wanted was a combination that unlocked Yugi Muto. That would be essentially unbeatable. The problem was that he did not currently know anyone with a meaningful connection to Dark Magician or Yugi Muto's card lineage.
He was also noticing, somewhere in the middle of these thoughts, that the pattern of other people being the materials while he functioned as the vehicle was a dynamic that deserved some private reflection. He decided not to examine it too closely.
"Speaking of which, where did Yuma Tsukumo go?" Amano scanned the night-dark streets of Eden Tower but could not find a familiar figure anywhere.
A twenty-year-old version of the real deal in person. The shock of that had settled into something Amano suspected would sit with him for a while.
"He left while you were missing just now," Rin Seiya said. "He left a message before he went."
"What message?"
"Cherish the companions whose souls are connected with yours. Do not wait until you have parted ways to regret that you did not understand each other deeply enough."
"That sounds like something Yuma would say." They had met only once, but the twenty-year-old version Amano had encountered today carried a weight and steadiness that the middle-school-aged anime version had not yet grown into.
That also explained why Rin Seiya had said she almost thought she had lost him. Yuma's words had primed her, and then Amano had actually disappeared.
"Oh, and he left this for you," Rin Seiya said, and placed the Emperor's Key into Amano's open palm.
Astral was almost certainly not residing inside it anymore. Yuma had said as much during the duel: this was symbolic in meaning more than anything else. But symbols carried their own kind of weight.
After the key changed hands, Rin Seiya murmured something quietly, barely above a whisper.
"Of course I will cherish them."
[Rin Seiya] [Affection +2] [Affection: 91]
[Affection 90 reached. Romantic skill unlocked: Toward Different Destinies]
[Toward Different Destinies: When the Union of Kindred Spirits skill is used, an additional Legendary Duelist unlock option becomes available, allowing a choice between two options. After a Legendary Duelist is unlocked, their corresponding cards become available for point exchange.]
Even Rin Seiya's 90-point skill was tied to the Legendary Duelist system.
The choose-between-two option presumably meant that future Union of Kindred Spirits activations would present a selection screen, like a hero-pick menu in a game, letting Amano choose which Legendary Duelist to call. And the point exchange unlocks would stack: since Z-one was already confirmed, Amano could now spend academy points to acquire the anime-version Timelords for his own use.
The Timelord that had drawn five cards when it left the field, and the one that had wiped the entire board and GY in a single battle hit, had both made strong impressions.
Given how the system handled rare cards of that power level, the price was not going to be comfortable.
"Alright then. Since everything worked out and the Academy Challenge Tournament finished so well..."
Rin Seiya stretched both arms overhead from her seat on the D-Wheel, a long, satisfied stretch, then checked the Eva Terminal balance with an expression she could not quite keep neutral.
"Tonight we hold a victory party at the club room! I will be generous for once and call everyone. My treat!" She could barely hold back the grin. "After all, this counts as money falling from the sky."
Watching her face lit up by the starlight of Eden Tower's artificial night, genuinely bright and carefree in a way that caught Amano off guard, he was suddenly reminded of the first time they had met. That had been under a night sky too. Back then the white-haired girl who had appeared before him without warning had felt strange and cool and faintly mysterious, like a spirit that had wandered in from somewhere else.
The girl currently showing off her small canine teeth in a delighted grin at a string of numbers on her terminal was a completely different person by any visible measure.
He remembered Z-one's words, just before the signal had cut out completely.
"I can see that Seiya is living happily right now. That is enough."
"I agree with that," Amano said quietly.
"What did you say, junior?"
"I said a victory party sounds great. Since you are treating, let me start inviting people."
The people who needed to be there for Synchro Academy's biggest win were obvious. Finesse and Karl had both provided critical support in keeping the stage from falling and deserved to be included. Add Yui and Shio, and the club room was already going to be crowded.
He briefly considered inviting Kaiba Chiaki, then remembered this was a celebration of Synchro Academy's victory over Fusion Academy. Calling the person who had just been defeated as the strongest Fusion Academy duelist to the party felt unnecessarily pointed.
In the end, Karl sent his regrets, citing a pressing need to recover somewhere quiet. Everyone else showed up. Mizuki and Kuroshio Nagi from the streaming club downstairs made it up as well.
The crowd was smaller than expected in terms of physical space. The room was not large, but the girls present were all slight enough that five could share the sofa without anyone being genuinely uncomfortable.
The downside was the noise. Too many women in one small room created a volume level that pushed Amano and Kikawayu into the corner together. They exchanged a look without speaking. Eighteen years of knowing each other had compressed into the kind of wordless understanding that did not need explaining. They clinked cups quietly.
The current debate among the girls was which academy Yui should enroll in when the new school week started. Finesse was representing Fusion Academy, Rin Seiya was representing Synchro, and Kuroshio Nagi was making the case for Xyz. Three equal and opposing forces.
Amano learned something new from the Xyz side: Xyz Academy apparently allowed students to submit applications and exchange credits for different Rank-Up-Magic cards. In the original anime lore those had been quite rare. Interesting.
Whatever Yui decided, her DDD archetype was versatile enough to fit into any of the three academies cleanly.
Then his VSN terminal buzzed urgently on his wrist.
Everyone he was closely acquainted with in the mid-level district was currently in this room. That left only one possibility.
He opened the interface. Sure enough: a message from Kaiba Chiaki.
He noticed, not for the first time, the difference between how he had felt about her messages before and how he felt now. Before she became his employer, receiving a message from Kaiba Chiaki had been interesting, even exciting. Now, after hours of the most stressful duel experience of the month, getting a work message from his boss at this hour produced a specific and very relatable kind of weariness.
The corporate grind had officially gotten to him.
[Kaiba Chiaki: Amano Rei, you mentioned today that you were pursuing cards to challenge the three Egyptian Gods. What progress was made?]
He had almost completely forgotten about that. The original plan had been to borrow Exodia's head piece from Mizuki, but the two-month trade cooldown was still active.
Today had not been entirely without progress though. He had at least learned how Union of Kindred Spirits worked.
Whether Union of Kindred Spirits could be useful against the Atem AI with all three Egyptian Gods was a harder question. Whatever Legendary Duelist a Kaiba Chiaki fusion might summon, even if the result was Kaiba Seto himself, the movie had shown clearly that Kaiba Seto also lost to an Egyptian Gods deck.
Ideally the combination would produce Yugi Muto. That would be a different story entirely. The problem was that he currently knew no one with a meaningful connection to Dark Magician or Yugi Muto's deck lineage.
Amano sent his reply: [Some progress, but still needs more time. You said there was no rush, Kaiba Chiaki.]
Her response arrived in seconds: [Hmph.]
One character. And yet Amano could hear her exact tone of voice from it with unsettling clarity. Working under someone for even a short time did things to a person.
Three more messages followed in rapid succession.
[The Academy Challenge Tournament ends today. Come to the Chronicles with me tomorrow.]
[Come alone. Do not bring whichever noisy group of hangers-on you have collected.]
[Tomorrow's Chronicle is special. I will be the one going first.]
Z-one had told Amano that his memories were stored in the Duel Chronicles. That alone made tomorrow's Chronicle more significant than any previous one had been. He found himself genuinely curious.
What he could not figure out was how Kaiba Chiaki already knew tomorrow's Chronicle would be unusual when it had not started yet.
He set the terminal down and looked toward the corner where Kikawayu was sitting with her drink.
"Kikawayu. Bark for me."
Kikawayu looked up without changing expression. "Woof?"
Good friends came in all varieties. Even the ones who said woof on request were worth keeping around.
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