Shin packed up the leftover dishes from dinner. Yui, Juno and Rex had already gone to bed so it was just him and Naomi.
"Quick question…" Shin asked as he packed the final plate away and turned to Naomi who was washing her hands by the sink.
"Yeah?"
Shin thought for a moment before speaking up.
"Why don't you enter the tournament as well? I mean you used to be good at dueling."
Naomi turned off the sink and grabbed a nearby towel.
"I don't duel anymore."
"Why? I mean you were great."
Naomi shrugged and put the towel back on the rack.
"I just didn't find it fun anymore, especially after Shiyu died."
Shin nodded slowly before stretching. "Noted. Well I should probably get some shut eye. Wouldn't wanna be tired when sign ups are soon."
Naomi nodded, "Yeah, goodnight Shin"
Shin waved over his back as he made his way to his bedroom.
FRIENDLY DUEL REQUEST
DUELIST ID: [#083-X]
FORMAT: Spectral Arena // No Stake
STATUS: PRIVATE // ENCRYPTED CHANNEL
[ACCEPT] / [DECLINE]
The same Duelist ID, as the contract duel from earlier.
He hadn't touched the earlier notification — a warning written in combat logic. But this was different. No stakes. No formal contract. Just a ghost tugging at the wire.
He tapped [ACCEPT]. As he made it into his room
A soft jolt shot through his nerve rig as the familiar hum of NetLink activation engulfed him. Light fragmented and dissolved. When Shin opened his eyes again, he stood alone in the middle of a derelict virtual arena.
[VIRTUAL ARENA — DEEP CODE ZONE: "BLACK FANE"]
Long-forgotten. Glitched geometry. Half-flooded stands looping in digital error. The air hung heavy with corrupted data fog, and the stars above were frozen mid-crash in the skybox. The only sound was a distant hum, as if something old and broken had just been stirred awake.
Then the opponent arrived.
They didn't walk in. They phased. A flicker of static, then silhouette. Cloaked. Masked. Pale hands crossed behind their back, posture impossibly calm.
Their nameplate? Still blank.
[Opponent: —UNKNOWN—]
[Duel Mode: FRIENDLY]
[Terrain Mod: NONE]
"Let's begin."
Their voice crackled—distorted, sexless. The kind of voice designed to erase identity.
[DUEL START]
[SHIN LP: 8000]
[OPPONENT LP: 8000]
[TURN 1 — OPPONENT]
"I'll go first," they said.
Their moves were fast, fluid—almost preloaded.
"I summon Bladegeist Initiate. ATK 1700. Then I set one card face-down and end."
The spectral warrior shimmered onto the field, unnaturally still, as if its model couldn't fully render.
---
[TURN 2 — SHIN]
Shin swallowed as he drew his card, fingers instinctively flicking through his opening hand:
Fiendling – Bleakhound
Soulcaller – Ebonwitch
Ghostbound Pact
Fiendling – Sootslicer
Veil of Sorrow
"Alright... let's test you."
"I activate, Ghostbound Pact. I'll send Fiendling – Murkmutt and Fiendling – Mournspike from my deck to the Graveyard, and gain 1000 LP."
SHIN LP: 9000
"And since Mournspike was sent from the deck to Graveyard, you discard a random card."
The masked duelist didn't flinch as a phantom effect swirled and one of their cards fizzled from hand.
"I Normal Summon Bleakhound. On summon, I discard Sootslicer... and draw one."
Hand refreshed, Shin pressed the advantage.
"Then I Special Summon Phantom Familiar – Wicke from the Graveyard—thanks to being discarded. It appears in DEF mode."
Three monsters. Graveyard beginning to fill. His tempo was solid.
"I attack with Bleakhound. 800 vs. 1700. It'll crash."
SHIN LP: 8100
"But I'll chain Silent Mausoleum! When a Fiend is destroyed, I draw 1 and deal 500 damage."
OPPONENT LP: 7500
"I set one card and end my turn."
The masked figure didn't move. Didn't react.
Their eyes—or lenses—glowed faint violet behind the mask.
"You play like him... but not enough."
Shin blinked. "What?"
---
[TURN 3 — OPPONENT]
They drew.
"I activate Nocturne Twinbind. I reveal one monster in hand and banish a monster with the same Level from my Graveyard. I banish Spectral Bladehound... to Special Summon Wraithborn Halberdier."
ATK 2300.
Its design stopped Shin cold. That armor... that weapon... it was almost identical to one his brother used. Too close.
"I enter Battle Phase. Halberdier attacks Wicke."
Wicke shattered like brittle glass.
"Then I activate the Trap: Requiem Surge. Since I destroyed a monster, I can now summon a copy of that monster to my side... twisted."
Shin's own Wicke returned. But corrupted. Glitching. Eyes glowing wrong.
"End turn."
---
[TURN 4 — SHIN]
Draw.
He pulled Cursed Revival.
His field was empty, but the Graveyard was building momentum.
"Alright. You wanna dance with ghosts?"
"I activate Cursed Revival. I bring back Fiendling – Sootslicer. Then, I Normal Summon Soulcaller – Ebonwitch. I use her effect to return Fiendling – Mournspike from the GY to hand."
"Then I play Vile Incantation! I discard Mournspike again to destroy Halberdier!"
Halberdier shattered with a heavy echo. But Shin wasn't done.
"Mournspike's effect again. Discard one card from your hand—random."
Another flash of purple data as the masked duelist's hand flickered.
"Battle Phase. Sootslicer attacks your corrupted Wicke."
OPPONENT LP: 7300
"And you mill 1."
Their top deck card disintegrated mid-air.
Shin grinned. "See? You're not the only one who knows this dance."
---
[TURN 5 — OPPONENT]
They said nothing.
Drew. Paused.
Then...
"I Tribute your monster."
"What—?"
A spiraling dark vortex consumed Corrupted Wicke. Shin flinched as a shadowy mass took form.
"I summon, Sovereign of the Hollow Vow."
ATK: 2600. DEF: 2200.
The air warped. The very arena stuttered. Like something too heavy had entered.
Shin's HUD blurred for half a second.
Warning: MODEL UNSUPPORTED / Legacy Format Detected
He stepped back. "That's... my brother's card."
The masked figure's voice chilled.
"It was his... before it was yours."
Battle Phase.
Hollow Vow crashed through Ebonwitch.
SHIN LP: 6500
"End turn."
---
[TURN 6 — SHIN]
Draw.
A rare card: Spectral Warlord – Booragan.
He had the tribute... but his nerves felt like threadbare wire.
"I Tribute Sootslicer. Summon Spectral Warlord – Booragan!"
The ghost-knight landed with a heavy crash, tearing through the corrupted arena.
"Effect activates: Destroy 1 Spell/Trap on your side."
A hidden card shattered.
"Battle Phase! Booragan, strike Sovereign of the Hollow Vow! You have equal ATK."
The impact shook the whole arena—digital debris splintering across the field. Both monsters erupted into shreds of code.
The duel was now fieldless.
Handless.
The graveyard was stacked high.
---
[TURN 7 — OPPONENT]
They drew.
A beat.
"I summon Fang of the Void Echo. And I activate Legacy Burst—"
Their voice glitched violently mid-sentence. But Shin recognized that card.
His brother used that card.
No one else should have it.
"I don't understand. Who are you?"
The masked figure stared.
Then, after a long pause, they said:
"You wield his ghosts... but not his resolve."
They activated their last attack. Shin's field was empty.
SHIN LP: 0
DEFEAT
The arena collapsed before the final hit landed.
Shin dropped to his knees in a cold sweat as the VR link severed. His visor blinked red. His room spun.
In his HUD, a file appeared:
MEMORY ARTIFACT [Corrupted]: LOCKED
TIED TO: Sovereign of the Hollow Vow [Card ID: L-900-BL3]
ORIGIN KEY MATCH: [DNA Signature — SHIYU YUKARI]
His breath caught.
His brother's signature. On a card Shin had never once used.
Not just inherited. Linked.
And behind that fragment, something else pulsed—like a heartbeat.
---
The morning crept in through half-closed blinds, casting pale streaks of light across the small apartment kitchen. The hum of the refrigerator filled the silence. Distant city noise filtered in through the cracked window. Somewhere above, a neighbor's dog barked twice, then fell silent.
Shin sat alone at the table, a bowl of cereal untouched in front of him. His HUD blinked softly in his peripheral vision — the fractured memory file still marked with a pulsing red glyph. He hadn't slept much.
The duel from last night still haunted him. The masked duelist. The words. That card.
"You wield his ghosts, but not his resolve."
He hadn't told anyone about it yet. Not Rex. Not Aurora.
But there was one person who might understand what this fragment meant.
The bathroom door opened with a creak, and Juno stepped out, adjusting the sleeve of her hoodie. She looked like she'd pulled another all-nighter — her hair messily tied up, faint dark circles beneath her eyes. She stopped when she noticed Shin sitting quietly at the table.
"...You're up early," she said, making her way toward the counter. "Or did you not sleep?"
Shin didn't answer at first. He finally glanced up, voice low.
"I need your help."
Juno froze mid-reach for the kettle. Her eyes narrowed. "With what?"
He swiped the interface in his HUD, projecting a small holo-screen above the table. The corrupted memory file spun slowly — flickering, glitching, like a damaged VHS loop. The lock symbol flickered red.
Juno's posture shifted. She didn't come closer. Instead, she stared at it — as if recognizing something.
"I got it after a duel last night," Shin said. "One-on-one. Anonymous match request… I thought it was just some rando from the contract circuit."
He paused. The words were harder to push out than expected.
"But the deck. The cards. The way they played. It wasn't random. It felt like…"
He hesitated. "Like Shiyu, but different at the same time. Like they knew every move I was going to make."
Juno looked away. "...You shouldn't be accepting anonymous requests like that."
Shin leaned forward. "Can you open it or not?"
She didn't respond at first. Then, slowly, she walked over to the table, eyes fixed on the file. Her hands hovered above the interface but didn't touch it.
"There's a signature buried in it," she murmured. "Biological encoding. You know what that means, right?"
Shin nodded once.
"DNA-locked."
Juno closed her eyes for a moment. When she opened them again, something unreadable flickered across her face — not surprise… but regret.
"Where'd you get the card that triggered it?" she asked.
"It was part of Riku's old deck. I never used it before. But last night, the masked duelist used it in the virtual duel but after I got out it was encrypted."
Juno clenched her jaw.
"Shin… not all duels are just data and strategy. Some leave shadows. Echoes."
She gestured faintly toward the memory file. "And this one's bleeding."
"You knew, didn't you?" Shin said, voice sharp. "You've always known something about what happened to him."
Juno didn't look at him. "Finish your cereal," she said, turning back toward the kettle. "I'll take a look. But if I crack it, I don't want you diving in alone."
He frowned. "So there is something in there?"
Juno poured the water. The sound of it hitting the cup was louder than expected in the quiet.
"There's something in everything," she said. "You just haven't learned how to see it yet."