After taking a week off, Tenjo Hikari slightly eased his mental fatigue and immediately prepared for teleportation on Sunday to test the Dimension Gate in the Activity Department for the second time.
This week, a lot of things happened one after another. The Light Society seems to have completely replaced the Integration Department and started conflicts, including card battles, with ordinary students from the Fusion Department, even Judai and his peers. Following the principle of playing whenever possible and at Professor Cronos's request, Judai continued dueling with the students from the Light Society, attempting to pull them away from the Light Society.
In summary, playing cards is cool.
As for Tenjo Hikari, he's had it easy. Aside from the initial duel with Professional Duelist X, the other members of the Light Society have had no intention of dueling him. Most of the time, they were embroiled in issues between the "Red Dormitory" and the "Light Society," claiming they'd dismantle the Red Academy if they won and join the White Society if they lost.
Along the way, Serena joined in the fun. Despite her preference for wearing the Red Academy's uniform, she actually resides in the Blue Academy girls' dormitory, and thus strongly opposed painting the dormitory building white, which led her to join in the dueling with the Light Society.
Also, it's cool to play cards.
Perhaps because of Serena's participation, Dennis, who was always pretending to be a random passerby, also started dueling against the Light Society with some students from the Integration Department. The Fusion Army and the Light Society had old grievances, so with an unknown duelist stirring up trouble, the fighting became even more intense.
For some reason, all the students in the academy suddenly became quite "warlike." It seems like there are students playing cards everywhere, every day and every time.
In general, the atmosphere in the school is quite good. At least Principal Samejima, when chatting on the phone with Cronos, was quite fond of this atmosphere.
Additionally, he's planning to return to school soon.
When mentioning this, Professor Cronos wore a look of regret.
After all, he would soon become a "professor" again.
However, during the conversation, Tenjo Hikari learned that Principal Samejima appeared quite dejected and hadn't laughed.
Maybe he got beaten badly by Ryo Marufuji?
Though he might appear unimpressive, having reached such an age without marrying Auntie Tami, he was actually a fairly renowned duelist once—he was a mentor of the "Cyber Style," the instructor for all past practitioners, and the one who nurtured Ryo Marufuji, the Cyber Style duelist.
Besides the "Cyber End Dragon," there was also a set of "Cyber Dark Style." Although the Cyber Dark Style in the animation seemed of little use, in the OCG version, it actually had a brother with a pseudo-full resistance, which is quite powerful in this world.
However, that might have nothing to do with Tenjo Hikari.
Tenjo Hikari gently landed on the ground.
Alongside him, Tierra also flew into this dimension.
She glanced around, her eyes lighting up.
"Wow, this environment feels nice."
Indeed.
The sense is really nice.
Tenjo Hikari surveyed the surroundings—there were trees, flowers, birds, and not far away, some tall buildings, coincidentally not isolated from humanity.
"It's all man-made," Tierra casually remarked to Tenjo Hikari.
Man-made?
Does this mean it's a remodeled Broken Dimension?
Tenjo Hikari nodded, picked up the Emerald Book, just in case.
As he attempted to walk through the flowers, Tierra stretched out a finger, stopping him, remotely pointing into the flowers.
Squinting slightly, Tenjo Hikari looked closely, noticing a small bird resting among the flowers. Suddenly, a blood-red mouth rose from the ground, snapping shut, devouring the bird instantly, leaving only a green mouth chewing as it slowly descended, merging into the plants.
Tenjo Hikari raised an eyebrow.
It's actually a Predaplant.
Before this, Tenjo Hikari had created a Predaplant, but never brought out a Fusion Monster.
Nevertheless...
Although it seems to be a "Predaplant," it's not a "Predaplant Monster," but a true artificial carnivorous plant—a feat of technology.
In summary, it's probably a defense mechanism.
Tenjo Hikari didn't mind, bypassed those things, and followed along the road, looking for traces of people. Soon enough, he saw some anxious-looking people near several buildings.
Under the building, people wearing purple uniforms were frantically transporting something.
Hiya—
Recently, everything outside has been white; Tenjo Hikari's eyes were almost dazzled. Now, seeing soldiers in purple uniforms, he felt a surge of good mood.
But in a hurry, what are they doing?
"Hurry! Tomorrow's the battle! The time to serve the professor is right around the corner!"
What!?
Tenjo Hikari was shocked.
Tomorrow?
Is Baldie planning a blitz on X Dimension tomorrow?
So soon?
Based on Tenjo Hikari's estimation, it should have been another year.
Unexpectedly, Egghead is launching the attack now.
What's so important here? Why station Lord of Phantasms here?
While pondering this, Tierra suddenly pointed out, curiously, "Oh, Tenjo Hikari, that machine over there resembles the Physical Image machine the ramen company sent to you?"
Physical Image Machine—
Ah!
Tenjo Hikari promptly remembered.
Akaba Leo is not a normal person!
In the original story, his invasion of Xyz Dimension wasn't to challenge duels.
Instead, he teleported there, materialized a dozen Chaos Ancient Gear Giants, and bombarded the city mercilessly!
Dueling?
He doesn't duel!
If that's the case, even with Dr. Faker, Mr. Heartland, or the Number Race, the X Dimension would be caught off guard, suffering heavy losses.
It might not be as tragic as in the A5 original story, directly causing Kaito's entire family to perish, since these antagonists aren't "mortals," but definitely the X Dimension would be significantly impacted!
No wonder this is one of the critical points to guard!
But, this is also an opportunity!
Because their dimension's research on "Physical Image" isn't as fast-paced as the original; instead, they focus more on dimensional teleportation technology, making Physical Image machines quite rare, and not nearly as advanced as in the original, where they could be directly integrated into Duel Disks!
This means they can only use them as needed!
Heh, Saiou Takuma.
Tenjo Hikari figured it out.
It's indeed a conflict between some event and Akaba Leo resulting in a "dog-eat-dog" scenario, isn't it?
The timing of his arrival was precise, clearly intentional by Saiou!
But, never mind!
"Hey, you guys."
Tenjo Hikari didn't hide, directly jumping out, with a flick of his left hand, the Duel Disk opened automatically, a card he'd already placed, God Crystal, glowing, followed by a gigantic giant appearing in the sky, slowly reaching out towards the machine!
"Intruder!!"
Woowoo—
The entire dimension erupted in terrifying red light, instantly followed by a deep blue enormous Archfiend emerging in the sky, reaching to hold the God Crystal, halting its action.
At the same time—
Those soldiers spotted Tenjo Hikari.
"It's Tenjo Hikari!"
"He finally came!"
Regarding Tenjo Hikari's appearance, these soldiers showed far superior fundamental quality compared to the Fusion Army soldiers he had encountered before!
"We've been waiting for you! Tenjo Hikari!" From the other side, a figure leapt down from the building, landed on the machine, staring remotely at Tenjo Hikari.
His outfit was distinctly different from ordinary soldiers, adorned with a cloak, underneath was a uniform with medals, although similarly purple, it was far more spacious, even featuring "tails."
It's a teacher!? Tenjo Hikari raised an eyebrow.
"I've heard about a mysterious figure always opposing us, and I suspected then that it would be you." Standing on the machine, controlling Lord of Phantasms to peel away God Crystal's arm, he flexed his wrists and ankles before continuing, "After all, you are the one specifically wanted by the professor.
Proactively attacking is the best option for survival."
Only then did Tenjo Hikari scrutinize his face, noticing his dark skin and thick lips, surprisingly, he was a black man.
Moreover, while controlling the Lord of Phantasms, he seemed unfazed, moving very agilely.
"I am Yoshikawa Borg, the instructor from the North American Branch. You probably haven't seen me before?"
"Come on, come on." He extended a hand, beckoning Tenjo Hikari, "This is your life's final duel, make a grand exit."
He gestured for the soldiers to stand aside, prepared to face Tenjo Hikari himself, the soldiers saluted and gradually dispersed, gathering behind the machine, smirking at Tenjo Hikari.
So confident.
Tenjo Hikari didn't care, pressing the Duel Disk.
Thus.
The towering Phantasm and gigantic Darklord images slowly faded away; the two lifted their Duel Disks, walked to the open ground, looked at each other, and shouted:
"Duel!"
Tenjo Hikari LP: 4000.
Yoshikawa Borg LP: 4000.