The silence that followed his departure was heavy, suffocating, and absolute.
For nearly a full minute, no one moved. The artificial circus lights were gone, replaced by the mundane, fading afternoon sun filtering into the Youshow Duel School's backyard. But the crushing weight of the duel's reality remained entirely intact.
"Akaba..."
The name left Yuzu's lips as barely a whisper, breaking the paralysis gripping the room. She looked at the empty doorway, her hands still tightly gripping her skirt. "He's... he's related to Reiji Akaba? A member of the Leo Corporation?"
"Ryoho Akaba," Gongenzaka spat out the name, his voice thick with a mixture of anger and profound disbelief. He slammed his fist against the railing of the viewing platform, the metal rattling under the force. "He played us for fools from the very beginning! A spy sent directly from the heart of LDS to observe Yuya, to pluck the secrets of Pendulum Summoning right out of his hands!"
"But he said he didn't steal it," Tatsuya noted quietly, his voice trembling. "He said LDS was already tracking the energy data every time Yuya used the Pendulum..."
"It doesn't matter." Shuzo said, a profound calmness of an adult. "Things like this always happens when something the world has never seen comes. Everyone wants to have it, use it, rule it. It's craze never ends until everyone has it."
Sora didn't join in the panic. He simply stared. He thought, recalling Reiji's words over the comms. "Those calculated moves... Ryoho Akaba. You're definitely not just some corporate heir."
Down on the center floor, Yuya still hadn't stood up completely. His life points had been saved at "25."
A very fitting example of "being saved by hair." But mentally, the counter had hit plain zero.
"Yuya..." Yuzu ran down the steps. She knelt beside him, reaching out a hand. "Yuya, look at me. Don't worry too much. You dueled great! You even managed to destroy his fusion and xyz monster for once."
"It wasn't just xyz and fusion. I am pretty sure he even had synchro as well. But he didn't used it. As if he felt there was no need to use it against me." He said in low voice.
"Even synchro? He have mastered all three summoning methods?" Everyone were at disbelief but they couldn't reject the possibility.
Yuya slowly pulled his goggles back down over his eyes, hiding his face from the world. When he spoke, his voice lacked any of its usual theatrical warmth or bounce.
"He was right," he whispered.
"What?" Gongenzaka stepped up beside them, his massive frame casting a long shadow over his friend. "Don't listen to a word that traitor said, Yuya! He used a cowardly survival tactic and cards to push you into a corner!"
"No, Gongenzaka, he was right. I thought I created a miracle. I thought the Pendulum belonged to me. But I just unlocked a door. I left it wide open, and the world is already walking right past me. And if I can't even bring smile to someone who duels without smile... how am I supposed to bring smiles to anyone's face?"
Without waiting for a response, Yuya turned and walked toward the boys' locker room, his steps heavy and slow. The remaining Youshow students watched him go, the initial shock of the duel fading into a grim, uncertain anxiety about the shadow Leo Corporation had just cast over their horizon.
The heavy locker room door clicked shut behind Yuya, sealing him inside a stark, unmoving quiet. He didn't turn on the lights. He just slid down against the metal lockers, letting his head drop back against the cold steel with a dull thud. The weight of his deck felt heavier.
The duel ran in his mind again and again. And the only conclusion he thought was Ryo defeated him.
Outside, the silence in the backyard finally ruptured into frantic chatter.
"We can't just let them walk away with this!" Shuzo paced back and forth. "A copyright! A patent?! You can't patent a dueling miracle! I'm going to the Leo Corporation headquarters myself! I'll demand to speak with the Chairwoman!"
"Dad, calm down!" Yuzu pleaded. "Going there furious won't change anything. Did you see Reiji Akaba's or Ryo's face? To them, this was just... new collection. And legally, it seems no rule breaking, but just unfair."
Gongenzaka stood entirely rigid, his arms locked across his chest. "What hurts the most is the deception. Ryo—no! Ryoho sat at our table. Ate with us. Talked with us. He watched Yuya duel. He pretended to be an outsider trying to be a friend. But on top of this, he cut the ties like it didn't matter."
"But did you guys see how he jumped?" Futoshi asked. "From that high up, he didn't even blink. He jumped from one to other and landed like it was nothing."
Ayu also noded. "Even Yuya-niichan would have hard time doing something like this, even with practice, probably..."
"And his Life Points were at zero." Tatsuya added. "He was technically dead in the duel. 'Fusion Relay' anchored his life to that monster. Since his life points were already zero, he had no risk to lose any life points anymore from the Dark Contract cards. Yet he acted like he is doing Yuya a favour. He played a strategy that required him to lose everything just to become invincible."
Sora chimmed in. "Most duelists want to win with style, or they want to prove their deck is the best, or how their strategy and thinking is supirior. Ryo just wanted to see what would happen if he pushed the system to its limit. He wasn't even mad when the call interrupted him. It was just... 'Time's up, shifting to the next task.' like he didn't cared if the duel wasn't ended in his win."
"But that is just a more unforgivable thing!" Gongenzaka said. "To not take a duel seriously."
"If he had, Yuya wouldn't even had gone that far." Sora explained. "Plus, he didn't seemed frustrated when he had to go mid-duel. But he seemed unsettled. As if he had gone off a duel before as well."
Yuzu looked toward the locker room door, a crushing weight settling into her stomach. She remembered what Ryo had said: "Thanks for telling me this the other day, Yuzu." A cold realization washed over her. The casual conversations they'd had, the small details she had shared about Yuya's pendulum cards, how they worked, how Yuya felt when he drew them—Ryo hadn't just been making polite conversation. He had been cross-referencing her words. Tears of frustration pricked the corners of her eyes, but she bit her lip and forced them back. "No. I'm not going to cry. If Yuya is in there breaking down, I have to be the strong one."
"It won't get solved like this." Shuzo muttered. Going into locker room with energy.
Inside the dark locker room, Yuya slowly pulled his deck.
"A tiny, safe backyard..." Yuya whispered, repeating Ryoho's words. He recalled whole duel again. Ryo hadn't just pushed him; he had exposed the flaws in his philosophy. Entertainment dueling required an audience, a stage, and a certain level of cooperation from the opponent to keep the "show" going. But in a real battle against someone who calculated every microsecond to survive, the show was just a liability.
Yuya gripped his "Odd-Eyes" card tightly, his knuckles turning white. "I'm not giving up," he muttered fiercely to the empty room. "You can mass-produce the cards, Ryo. You can put them in every store in Maiami City. But you can't mass-produce the heart and smile behind them. My dad's dueling wasn't just about the rules... it was about making people happy. Making the time they gave far more than worthwhile."
He stood up, shoving the deck back into his pocket, and stared at his reflection in the mirror above the sinks. His face was pale, his eyes wide and tired under his goggles, but a tiny, stubborn spark was beginning to relight. He shoved his goggles up again. "If the door to the Pendulum summon was wide open for the whole world to walk through, then I would just have to run, faster than anyone else."
"Yuya!" Shuzo came bursting the door. He grabbed Yuya by hand and crawled him outside to lessen him about Yusho. Then Shuzo challenged Yuya for a duel. And told about when Yusho made Entertainment Dueling and it got famous, people started to copy it, but Yusho just made his Dueling more great and fascinating that people just always put him on their personal favorite lists
...
After departing Hokuto, Masumi and Yaiba in the LDS vehicle, Akabas took their ride.
The slick, black limousine cut through the streets of Miami City like a raven.
Ryoho sat perfectly straight on the leather seat, his black jacket discarded beside him. His t-shirt sleeves were rolled up, revealing the sleek, glowing biometric bands strapped tightly around both of his forearms—devices monitoring his pulse, neural activity, and cellular strain. Across from him sat Reiji Akaba, calmly adjusting his glasses while studying a tablet that flickered with rapid streams of real-time data.
"Your way of rejecting them was rather amusing." Himika laughed.
Ryo didn't look at her.
"I know the reason why you were being so harsh on them. You didn't wanted to make them feel sorry for you. And you told them your point with a last strike as well, right? That's why you came late."
Ryo remained silent.
"Your heart rate spiked to abnormal parameters during the duel, Ryo." Reiji stated, ignoring Himika's words. "Perhaps it was because of Pendulam prototypes. Or were you enjoying the duel?"
"This doesn't matter right now." Himika cut the explanation. "Marco has suddenly disappeared. And the last coordinates says that there was Xyz energy. A very strong and far wider than a person can make."
"That means it was that guy." Ryo said.
"I also think that." Himika said. "Nakajima have already informed me about all things that happened while I was away. Seems like we sure have made enemies more than just one dimension. But why?"
"I already know for sure. And so does Reiji." Ryo gestured to Reiji.
"Yes. It is more than just hypnotisis. It seems fact."
"You mean..."
"Yes. Perhaps that person is from Xyz Dimension." Reiji's eyes behind his glasses became angry. His blood vessels over his eyes inflamed. "That man have already started his work. Perhaps we are already late to find the coordinates of Xyz dimension." His clashed both his hands with force. "Maybe the time for our side is next. We have to move more fast than we had until now. And even after three years, we still don't have high value assets other than Pendulum."
"But with Pendulum, there is a more to it beyond the basic rule about Pendulam summon." Ryo said.
"Yeah, I had already thought about it. But it will take time to made more cards."
"Don't worry, Reiji." Ryo said, looking at Reiji, eye to eye. "The working of dimensional circuit and network is almost complete. It will be around the time of Maiami championship. We have to wait until then. We already knew the coordinates for Fusion Dimension. But not any other. Perhaps—no! we will get those by this Xyz user. But Synchro remains mystery even now."
"We don't know if Synchro Dimension exists or not." Himika chimed in. "And even if it does than we don't know we can make allies with it or if they will backstab us."
"Theoretically, it exists. It has to be." Ryo explained. "But we can't find yet. If we somehow get the energy coordinates and radiation traces from a Synchro summon from a person of Synchro Dimension, than we can try. At least we will know how the needle looks like in the bush. But with getting numbers, traces and coordinates, it changes and affects the search drastically.
"We are trying to find Xyz Dimension by same way. With the energy that Xyz user is releasing whenever he Xyz summons. It makes us close, even if he doesn't give us path toward Xyz Dimension directly."
"Guess, this is settled for now... at least for now." Himika gave deep sigh. Before her smile returned. "Well, I was gonna tell you two first as I had returned, but things came between, but now it is perfect time."
Reiji and Ryo's focus moved.
Ryo tucked his black jacket over his black t-shirt.
"There is a person I have fond. Rather than fond, I just learned about him and brought him here on my way to Maiami. He will be of great assist, a pity they didn't had more of people like him—no, calling him even 'him' is wrong. The perfect and fitting defination is 'it.'"
Reiji and Ryo had unknown hunch. They knew at least their mother wouldn't do anything meaningless and useless.