Following Professor Crowler to the principal's office, Hikaru saw the other groups.
Professor Crowler and Zane, along with Professor Banner who had brought Jaden, Bastion, Alexis, and Chazz.
"Hmm, Amagi-kun, you're here too?" Professor Crowler nodded slightly. "It seems only elites are present~"
He bent down slightly, looking at Jaden with a comical grin. "And who is this? Could it be a mistake? There's someone here who shouldn't be, isn't there?"
Although he no longer targeted Jaden directly, the relationship between Professor Crowler and Jaden was still not great.
"Don't mind it, Chazz." Jaden smiled at Chazz.
"He was talking about you!" Chazz glared at Jaden.
"Ah, maybe he meant Misawa?" Stroking his cat, Professor Banner explained, "Originally, the principal asked me to call Amagi-kun, but I couldn't find him, so I brought Misawa from Yellow Dorm instead."
"Huh? So I'm the extra one?" Bastion nearly stumbled.
Hikaru stood to the side, thinking.
It seemed due to him, Bastion's experiences had been altered from the original.
But that wasn't much of an issue after all, in the original, Bastion became more and more like a background character as the story progressed.
His only concern was whether this would affect Bastion's future relationships.
The group entered the principal's office and listened to the reason they were called.
"The Three Sacred Beasts' cards?" Jaden repeated in surprise.
"Yes, three ancient cards sealed on this island."
"Huh? This school has such a long history?" Jaden looked up.
Principal Sheppard smiled as he explained, "Actually, this school was built upon the very location where those three cards were sealed."
"What!?"
Hikaru snapped his fingers. "Ah, just like when I was a kid, people always said schools were built on graveyards!"
"Eh!? Ehhhh!? Ehhhhhhh!?"
Upon hearing Amagi, the principal laughed heartily and right away continued explaining, "According to the island's legend, when those cards reemerge on the surface, the world will be engulfed by monsters, and chaos will consume everything. The darkness that corrodes human hearts will be unleashed, and soon, the world will be destroyed."
"These cards are said to hold such power."
The students swallowed hard.
That sounded terrifying.
But Hikaru knew the legend was not a mere exaggeration.
Although the events wouldn't unfold exactly as the students imagined, and the reasons behind the Sacred Beasts' unsealing differed from their assumptions, the power of the Sacred Beasts was undeniable.
One thing had to be clarified, the strength of a card's effect and the strength of its card spirit were not directly comparable.
For example, the invincible Tearlaments deck, considered one of the most powerful unrestricted decks, could be severely weakened against the Sacred Beasts. This was because, in their setting, Tearlaments were merely the enslaved fragments of Visas' negative emotions. They couldn't even compare to Visas' full emotional avatars, let alone Visas himself.
Yet, in actual gameplay, Visas' card effects couldn't even match a Havnis.
The Sacred Beasts' cards, while unimpressive in competitive plays, possessed GX's strongest "supernatural" abilities such as age reversal, spirits absorption of all cards in the world, and forcibly turning them into blank slates.
Against monsters of this caliber, ordinary cards didn't stand a chance.
Furthermore, even the so-called "legend" Principal Sheppard mentioned would eventually come true. This meant that the power of the Three Sacred Beasts far surpassed that of any ordinary card or even most card spirits.
"So?"
"Challengers seeking to unseal these cards have appeared."
"Who exactly?" Zane asked in confusion.
"The Shadow Riders," Principal Sheppard continued, "They are a complete mystery, and one has already arrived on this island."
As he spoke, he took out a box and revealed its contents seven objects that looked like keys. "The seven massive stone gates of the spirit doors protect these cards, the only way to open them is with these seven keys."
"Therefore, I hope you all can safeguard these seven keys."
"Even if you say that, how do we protect them?" Chazz asked.
"Of course, by dueling!"
"Huh!?" Everyone was startled.
'Well, what else did they expect?'
Hikaru really wanted to ask that.
In this world, what else could they do besides duel?
Were they seriously considering guns and weapons?
"In the duels to seize the Keys, you must win. Only then can the spirit doors be opened. That is why I am entrusting them to you, the academy's top duelists."
The principal glanced at Crowler and Banner. "Though to be honest, some of you are just here to fill numbers."
"Well then, Principal, in that case, why don't I give my spot to Misawa?" Banner stroked his cat and smiled.
"Um… well, Misawa?"
"No problem, I accept."
"In short," Professor Crowler stepped forward, picking up one of the keys. "Just think of it like some thugs challenging our school and trying to take our signboard, right? No need to be scared, Principal."
"Ah… well, that's one way to look at it."
The sequence of events was slightly different from Hikaru's memories.
He picked up a key from the edge and hung it on his hand.
The details might be off, but that didn't matter. What mattered was that as long as he held one of the Seven Keys, one of the Shadow Riders would inevitably come after him for a Shadow Duel.
In other words, energy would come knocking on his door.
However, looking at the key in his hand, Hikaru contemplated the future.
Since this world had "alternate dimensions," he couldn't guarantee that the Shadow Riders were the same ones from the original, but regardless of who they were, their ultimate goal remained unchanged, to unseal the Three Sacred Beasts' cards.
It might seem counterintuitive, but on the flip side, Principal Sheppard had actually been deceived by Chairman Kagemaru.
From the get-go, the Three Sacred Beasts' cards were entrusted to the principal by Kagemaru himself. Even so, at that point, they weren't ready to be unsealed. Only when all seven keys had absorbed enough "duelists' passionate fighting spirit" could they be activated, thereby unsealing the Three Sacred Beasts and allowing Kagemaru to regain his youth.
So, whether the Shadow Riders won or lost, the seals would eventually be broken.
But that didn't really matter.
After all, Jaden would just defeat Kagemaru in the end, right?
He only needed to use this opportunity to accumulate energy.
...
That night, while studying his cards, Hikaru suddenly noticed that the world around him had lost its color. His entire surroundings were enveloped in a strange blue aura. Immediately after, the environment grew intensely hot and brilliant.
'A volcano?!'
He surveyed down in shock. Somehow, he had been transported inside a volcano, standing right above the crater!
"Where is this!?" Not far away, another person appeared, screaming in surprise.
'Alexis?'
Hikaru glanced at her before lowering his gaze again.
Beneath their feet was a massive transparent "floor." It seemed to be made of some strange energy as if it could vanish at any moment.
In that instant, a gigantic fire dragon emerged from the magma, spun around, and then landed with a roar. Slowly, it transformed into a masked man.
"Who are you!?" Alexis instinctively shouted.
"I am Darkness, one of the Shadow Riders."
"According to my investigation, Hikaru, you are the representative duelist of this school. As my debut battle, you will be my first opponent."
"First?" َHikaru didn't waste any words. He revealed his Duel Disk at once, which activated and shuffled automatically. "This'll be your last!"