New Domino City, this sacred ground of Dueling, had crowds of teens clustered beneath the giant street-side display, roaring as the broadcast hit its climax.
"One fights with Xyz, the other with Synchro, but both for the same thing!"
"Yeah. He wants to push Cyber Dragons even further, and Hikaru's all-in on Fusion."
"So cool! My buddy used to love Dueling, but when he heard there were 'newer, stronger' Summons he decided his ten-plus years didn't matter and quit. This match will wake him up for sure. You keep watching, I'm going to find him!"
Scenes like that played out everywhere. Day or night, across every crowd and every face, Duelists understood what they'd just seen.
Even if their world couldn't yet use Synchro or Xyz power, that wasn't the point.
Because if the geniuses at the front of the pack were already mastering Xyz and Synchro, then one day this world would, too.
And more importantly,
Whether it's Xyz or Synchro, however "advanced" the method, what matters is your heart.
Just like Zane Truesdale, no matter the Summon, he wants victory; he wants to forge ahead with Cyber Dragons.
Just like Amagi Hikaru, just as he says himself:
Xyz, Tuners, Synchro, it's all the same. Fusion includes everything. Even if the materials are "different kinds," Fusion will take them in.
His motto had never been empty talk. He believed it.
This time, no one needed to take it on faith.
They'd seen it with their own eyes.
A Synchro used as Fusion Material.
"It's real… it's all real." A Fusion Department member in the stands suddenly bowed his head and wept.
His classmates swarmed him, rubbing his back.
Hikaru had told them: Fusion could encompass anything; even Synchro monsters could become Fusion Material. But without proof, doubt always lingered, worse after the Fusion Army's attack on the Dimension made everyone scared of anything "different."
Now, those doubts were gone.
No more hesitation. No more fear.
Because the truth stood there, blazing. Fusion stood there.
Serena watched, and for a heartbeat she felt something click into place, then the feeling slipped away. She touched the prototype mirror in her arms. Pride, sudden and fierce, welled up.
Be true to yourself.
Humans, no matter how excited, could only cheer from the ground. Spirits were different. A flock of Duel Spirits wheeled alongside the White Dragon airship, whooping for Hikaru and for Zane, and then more spirits, drawn by the commotion, joined in on their own to cheer the pair.
It took forever for Hikaru to extricate himself from that happy swarm.
"Phew…"
He let out a breath.
Outside, spirits were still pacing the ship's hull.
There was time until the next match. Chazz and Jesse Anderson were already heads-down, tweaking their lists. On deck, only Hikaru and a handful of other Duelists remained, plus several KaibaCorp staffers acting as referees.
"Haha, you really are popular, Hikaru," Misawa said, laughing.
Then, sobering, he added, "Different place, same feeling as that first semester."
He meant the Academy Representative Duel that hit not long after they enrolled.
Back then, Bastion lost to Jaden, then cheered on Hikaru, his fellow Ra Yellow.
Now he'd lost to Chazz, and still he stood here, cheering for Hikaru.
He wasn't the flashiest, but in class he'd always been Hikaru's best study partner; they could talk through any subject together.
"Hah." Hikaru shook his head lightly.
"Hikaru, the school's top spot? Don't you go losing valedictorian," Bastion said, grinning as he raised a fist.
"Relax. I told you, the first-place scholarship is mine," Hikaru said, bumping it back.
Although Hikaru no longer needed the scholarship, and could eat whatever he wanted every day, he still answered Bastion that way.
Some things, if you keep at them long enough, turn into habits that push you forward.
He headed for the lounge.
After dueling Zane, he needed food and water, something to refill the tank. The match had left him mentally wrung out.
Running into Bastion in this world was exhausting in its own way, too.
Beside Hikaru, Tierra riffled through a small stack of cards, studying each face one by one.
These were Duel Spirits who'd come forward, asking to join him. One of them, Synchro Fusionist, practically screamed "Fusion-meets-Synchro" at a glance, and had bolted over the moment it saw Hikaru Synchro Summon Muddy Mudragon. Muddy reacted like it had just spotted a long-lost cousin, babbling that it hadn't seen "its own kind" in years. It was ridiculously excited.
Which, honestly, was normal. Most spirits kept to their own corners of the world and rarely crossed paths. They were outliers, anomalies. Of course they didn't bump into each other much.
But with this duel broadcast across the whole nexus, spirits were recognizing one another.
"The Nexus Dimension is a junction, it connects to all Dimensions," Tierra said, fluttering a few more cards and angling them so Hikaru could see as she drifted along. "Almost every tribe has a camp set up here. This duel is going to ripple across every world, fast. You're about to be huge, Hikaru."
As she said it, she puffed her chest and lifted her chin, as if Hikaru's spotlight were hers, too.
Hikaru took the cards and slid them into his case, spirits tied to Fusion, or directly to Synchro. One, to his surprise, was Plaguespreader Zombie.
It called itself part of the "Ghost" crowd, a DARK | Zombie | Tuner | Level 2 with a handy effect, and, by its own account, it had drifted into this Dimension by accident. After watching Hikaru's duel, it had to fly over and say hello.
Hikaru greeted each spirit in turn, then introduced them to the Macro Cosmos Workshop.
Checking his Deck again, Hikaru noticed something else: a few Machine cards had…merged, a faint light pulsing between them, Cyber Eternity Dragon.
He looked down at the card.
"As expected."
It wasn't finished, maybe a quarter complete, but the shape was there. It just needed time to solidify.
Unfortunately, he didn't have time to fully bring it out now.
The decider would probably be tomorrow.
Chazz or Jesse, whoever advanced, that would be his opponent.
As Hikaru mulled over side choices and ratios, Tierra casually palmed a card, then, like a stage magician, twisted her wrist and fanned out eight or nine more between her fingers.
"By the way, Hikaru, want to slot me into your Deck for the finals?" she said brightly.
She sounded confident.
Even unfinished, she was miles beyond ordinary spirits.
Hikaru could only give her a helpless smile and a headshake. "What are you talking about? Even with Muddy Mudragon, we're still missing a specifically named material."
"Tch. Can't you just cheat it with Fusion Tag? Make something count as whatever name you need?" she said, waggling her eyebrows. "Or treat your Construct as, well...something convenient."
"Be serious," Hikaru said, amused.
Tierra knew it wouldn't fly. She tucked away her scattered "parts," laced her hands behind her head, and tipped it from side to side with a long, theatrical sigh about what a pity it was.
Maybe it was watching that duel, Xyz, Synchro, and Fusion braided together at arm's length, that had her swept up. Even Tierra could feel Hikaru's stubborn belief in Fusion, and it made her itch to show off a little "divine power" of her own.
...
Bonus @400 PS
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