# Suite — Celina
They locked us in and called it hospitality.
I'd stopped testing the door long ago. So I did what Academia had trained into me before I was tall enough to see over a meeting table: I watched.
The glass wall of my suite looked down on the Duel Palace. Commons packed into the lower stands, Tops spread comfortably in boxes lit like aquariums. "Thirty-two duelists," the commentator had shouted that morning. "One winner."
She hadn't said what happened to the other thirty-one.
"First match!" Melissa's voice filled the room. "Gongenzaka Noboru versus Crow Hogan!"
Not Yuzu. Not Yuya. Not me.
# The Duel Palace — Gongenzaka vs Crow
Gongenzaka had never ridden a D-Wheel, and in the first thirty seconds the whole stadium found out. On the first bend his weight went the wrong way. On the second he nearly left his seat. The Tops laughed.
On the third, he leaned exactly right.
Crow flew ahead, but his eyes kept drifting to the lower stands.
He grabbed Action Cards without slowing. Gongenzaka drove past every one.
On the Council's chamber, someone asked why.
"He has his own style," Reiji said. "Didn't you want to see what our duelists are made of?"
Gongenzaka Pendulum Summoned, then used those monsters to Synchro Summon. Nobody in this City had seen that before. It was close to the end, until Crow used an Action Card to break through the wall.
"Winner — Crow Hogan!"
The guards caught the children who had come cheer Crow and hustled them out. Crow watched them go, then shook Gongenzaka's hand.
Then two guards broad like a bear took Gongenzaka by the arms. He didn't resist. And I nor he know where they were taking him.
# Suite — Yuya
Yuya pressed his palm to the glass. "If any of you lose, you will be kicked out immediately."
"Kicked out where?"
The door hissed open. Tokumatsu strolled in, with a carefree smile.
"Tokomatsu-san? How did you get out? Wasn't we were being monitored?" Yuya was dazed.
"Monitored?!" Tokomatsu was shocked, but he slid it for now.
Yuya saw a bellboy trembling in the corridor behind him, clutching a card.
"You bribed him." Yuya was angry.
"Sorry, sorry." The grin faded. "But you need to hear this, Yuya."
He told him about underground working, from what he had just heard. The losers didn't go home nor back to Facility. They went underground, to the work sites beneath the City. And no one will see them again.
Yuya was shocked, he shouted at the ceiling, wall and the room. "Is my friend down there? Answer me? Can anyone hear me?! Reiji! Riley Ryo! Answer me!"
Tokomatsu saw Yuya with sad eyes.
The door slammed open again and Riley crashed into his chest. Mumbling he doesn't want to participate. Reiji and Ryo followed.
"Is it true? That you are making Riley participate?" Yuya's voice cracked.
"Yes," Ryo said, as if asked the time.
"You want Riley in this? He's just a kid!"
Ryo crossed the room. "Riley."
He didn't looked back.
"Look at me, Riley."
Ryo turned Riley's face towards his own. His crimson eyes held no anger, nor any emotion. Nothing Riley could cry against. That was what frightened him.
"You said you want to help the Lancers?"
"...Yes."
"Louder."
"Yes."
"And to help Yuya?"
"Yes."
"Then duel."
Riley lowered his head. "I don't want to fight Shinji. He gave me chocolate."
Yuya's chest tightened. Somewhere under all the politics, Riley had reminded him that people weren't pieces. This tournament seemed determined to make everyone forget it.
Ryo looked at Riley a moment longer, his expression hollow rather than cold. Then he turned away, Reiji still stood there watching Riley. But he also went out. And Riley ran after him and took his hand, smiling as if nothing had happened.
"Strange family," Tokumatsu scratched his chin. "Oldest doesn't smile, other one didn't feel alive and youngest loves his brother more than you. Kids are tougher than us elders, Yuya. That's what scares me."
# Shinji vs Tsukikage
Shinji rode out shouting at the Commons to stop crawling for the Tops. Tsukikage rode beside him in silence.
On the last turn, Tsukikage plucked an Action Card from the air. If he played it, he won. Or was the card useless?
He didn't play it. Shinji's final attack went through, and the lower stands erupted with something closer to fury than cheering.
A ninja who serves Reiji doesn't miss a move like that. Which meant he hadn't missed it.
# Council Chamber
"Two defeats for your Lancers," the man in red said. "And this one has stirred up the Commons."
"It was expected," Reiji said, adjusting his glasses.
Members looked at him like he spoke another language.
I stood behind him with my arms crossed. Tsukikage was going underground, where Security sends what it doesn't want seen. A Lancer who has lost is a Lancer nobody watches. The best kind of spy.
Riley looked at the screen, then at Reiji, then at me, like a child watching a grown-up break a promise. Neither of us corrected him.
# Yuzu vs Tokumatsu
10 minutes before duel.
"I don't need to control it?" Yuzu asked.
"Hm. Here," the staff member pointed on a digital switch. "This is Autopilot mode. You just focus on duel."
"Ah. That Yugo must had forgotten!"
When she rode it, her balance was perfect, her stance and grip on it was perfect.
"I am doing this better than Yuya.
"Did Yugo forget? Or did he want me to actually learn?"
"I don't know." Yuya thought. "Not you too, Yuzu. Please won."
She rode out and dueled a step to the left of herself, her duel style felt odd, as if she was wearing someone else's shoes on purpose.
She won. Tokumatsu laughed and bowed and apologixed, as though he'd done something wrong.
Yuya laughed with relief in his empty room. As though something that Yuzu was trying to convey with her strange, Entertainment duel had been conveyed. Tears filled Yuya's eyes with happiness. He didn't think about where Tokumatsu was going.
# Suite — Celina
"Fourth match! Celina versus Tony!"
As Yuzu was about to go, she stopped. Gasping that Celina was here.
The door opened, that kid came and said he will show me the way. And he told be "all the best" for some reason.
Yuzu would ask why I was in this dimension. I'd tell her honestly. The Academia's war... Professor's war is coming near, and I'm done watching it, I am gonna help.
...
"Tony, you'd better win," Shinji said through his teeth.
"Gongenzaka, Tsukikage. All down." Shinji leaned forward. "If one of ours beats this one as well, in front of everyone, Commons will know we can win no matter who is in front of us. And our rebellion will start!"
...
If Celina lost, she would go to that place. Yuya hated himself a little for knowing immediately which name he wanted to hear.
"I'm sorry, Tony. I want Celina to win."
...
Yugo was complaining about his turn when she rolled onto the track. His bouncing leg stopped.
"...She looks like Rin." He shook his head.
# Roget
On chessboard: Rooks. Knights. Bishops. Numerous pawns. The kings exposed to the ambitions of the pieces around them.
Roget studied the board with the satisfaction of a man who believed he wrote the ending.
He moved his knight from e5 to c6. The knight landed with a sharp click against the square.
Then Roget smiled. The move had done two things at once. The knight threatened the queen on d8, and its departure opened the path for the rook behind it. The rook's path to the opposing king became clear.
"Check."
He leaned back, pleased with himself. His opponent — he himself — would have to answer the check first. The queen could wait. Or so he had thought.
His eyes hovered over the black king. He could block the rook's line. He could retreat. Each answer seemed to lead where he expected. Yet when he traced the pieces again, his eyes caught on a black rook near the edge of the board—one he had barely considered because it had not moved for so long.
Roget's smile thinned.
The rook had an open line of its own. If the king took the obvious escape square, the knight would have to move to keep the attack alive—and that would open the black rook's route to Roget's own king.
He followed the line with one finger.
One move. Then another. The rook would take the knight. The king would be forced back. And two moves later, the rook would reach the open square straight to his king, leaving him with no comfortable answer.
Roget did not touch another piece. For several seconds. Then he laughed. It was low, until it grew and reached the workers below.
He had discovered that the plan had been watching him, too.
"So wonderfully inconvenient." He glanced at the board again, and this time he did not look at the pieces he controlled. He looked at the spaces between them—the lines he had forgotten to defend, the routes he had assumed nobody would notice.
"No matter how carefully one arranges the board, there always comes unexpected variables." His smile returned. "That's what makes a game worth playing. As long as I win in the end."
A holographic screen flickered to life front of him.
A small face appeared, giggling softly. "Your tournament is coming along, Director." The words were almost like a laugh.
Roget's expression barely changed.
"I have three conditions," the figure announced. Then it tilted its head. "No. Conditions is too generous. You owe me. So you'll do three things for me. The third comes first, second comes second, and the first is to be done last."
Roget's gaze shifted to the second screen, where a girl with indigo hair stood. His smile remained, but his eyes sharpened. "I was wondering when you would contact me, though I hope it will be rather less predictable next time."
# Somewhere in the City — lower slumps
Outside a shop window, a hooded figure watched a cracked television replay Yuya calling a black mutated dragon out of a galaxy.
"He didn't take any power from his Xyz counterpart," he clicked his tounge. "So why can he still Xyz Summon?"
He watched it twice more, then walked into the alley and disappeared.
# The Duel Palace — Celina vs Tony
"Autopilot's on. You don't need to—"
"I know what I'm doing."
Not with the machine. With the deck, I did.
I rode the machine. It was better than I expected, and slower than I wanted.
Tony's D-Wheel was dark green. He had a messy fringe and a grin too relaxed for someone riding.
"Hey. Sorry for the sewer incident." He had no sad expression.
"Focus on duel."
"Yeah." He laughed.
"Riding Duel... ACCELERATION!"
Celina LP: 4000
Tony LP: 4000
"Oh! Both are so steamed up! Let's see who gets the first turn."
Maybe because I was a novice and Tony had more experience, he crossed the first corner and earned first turn.
# Turn 1 — Tony
"I Normal Summon Gozuki!"
A ox-headed brute hauled, dragging a club.
[EARTH / Zombie / Effect / Level 4 / ATK: 1700 / DEF: 800]
"Its effect sends Plaguespreader Zombie to the Graveyard. And Plaguespreader puts a card from my hand on top of my Deck to come back."
A hunched, bandaged thing clawed up beside Gozuki.
[DARK / Zombie / Tuner / Level 2 / ATK: 400 / DEF: 200]
"Level 2 tuned to Level 4! Synchro Summon! Level 6! Revived King Ha Des!"
[DARK / Zombie / Synchro / Effect / Level 6 / ATK: 2450 / DEF: 0]
A skeletal king in a ragged cloak and a crown of bone rose from dirty light, jaw hanging open in a silent laugh.
I had expected he would Synchro summon. But this monster looked eerie.
"Because of Ha Des, when my Zombies destroy your monsters, their effects get negated," Tony said cheerfully.
Lunalights benefits from what they leave behind... It's gonna be troublesome.
"I set one card face-down. Turn end."
# Turn 2 — Celina
I could see a line straight away. My tactics had worked against Dennis and Obelisk Force. It felt almost too easy.
Asuka Tenjoin had told me once, after taking me apart in four turns: "the card your opponent sets first tells you what they fear." I'd hated her a little for being right.
So what did Tony fear? An attack. A battle trap.
"My turn! Draw!
"Using the Scale 1 Lunalight Wolf and the Scale 5 Lunalight Tiger, I set the Pendulum Scale!"
The Pendulum cards Reiji had given to all of us at the day of our meeting at morning. I didn't liked at first to use the cards that aren't mine. But in order to defeat the opponent, I didn't cared.
The word PENDULUM bursted with multiple colours on my Duel-board.
Two columns of light shot up on either side of my D-Wheel. On the left, a grey wolf-woman in silver armour, eyes calm. On the right, a lithe figure in orange and black with a tiger's tail. Between them a great circle was shining, glowing like the moon.
"I can now summon monsters from Level 2 to 4 simultaneously! Pendulum Summon!"
Two lights fell from the sky.
"Lunalight Blue Cat! Lunalight Purple Butterfly!"
A slender cat-woman in blue landed on the track, her long tail whipping. A second figure fluttered down after her, a girl with wings like a violet moth.
[DARK / Beast-Warrior / Effect / Level 4 / ATK: 1600 / DEF: 1200]
[DARK / Beast-Warrior / Effect / Level 3 / ATK: 1000 / DEF: 1000]
"Lunalight Wolf's Pendulum effect! I banish Fusion Materials from my field and Graveyard to Fusion Summon a Lunalight!"
The wolf in my left column lifted her head and howled. The two monsters on the field turned to moonlight, and the light poured together.
"Beast that dances in the darkness, spin with the moon and become a new dance!
"Fusion Summon! Level 7 — Lunalight Cat Dancer!"
She landed rose slowly with graceful dance: in a purple bodysuit with ribbons trailing from her wrists, cat ears sharp, a smile on her painted lips.
[DARK / Beast-Warrior / Fusion / Effect / Level 7 / ATK: 2400 / DEF: 2000]
"Fusion..." Melissa's voice came over the speakers, half amazed. "That's another summoning method just like Yuzu and Yuya! And what a beautiful monster!"
Tony whistled. "Pretty."
"Pretty isn't what she's for." I pointed. "Cat Dancer's effect—"
"Trap card: Infinite Impermanence."
The card flipped up. A pale circle of light snapped round Cat Dancer like a collar.
"Your Cat Dancer's effects are negated until the end of this turn."
My grip tightened on the handlebar. I wanted to use her effect to pass through his monster's effect.
Asuka had been right. I'd just read the answer wrong.
"I set two cards. Turn end."
A groan came from the stands. Somewhere a Tops spectator laughed.
– Suite — Yume –
Yume let out a slow breath.
"She didn't attack."
He'd been sure she would. Sure she'd throw her monster forward just to prove she wasn't afraid of a trap. He'd been wrong. He realized he was relieved, and the relief embarrassed him.
He watched Cat Dancer standing still with that glowing collar round her neck, beautiful and useless.
# Turn 3 — Tony
"Draw!"
Tony's face lit up at whatever he'd drawn.
"I Normal Summon Zombie Master!"
A cloaked figure rose with its hood thrown back, revealing a sunken grey face and eyes like hot coals.
[DARK / Zombie / Effect / Level 4 / ATK: 1800 / DEF: 0]
"Zombie Master's effect. I send one monster from my hand to the Graveyard..." He slid a card into the slot. "...and bring back a Level 4 or lower Zombie from either player's Graveyard. Come on back, Gozuki!"
The ox-headed brute came back.
"And Gozuki's effect again. I send Mezuki from my Deck to the Graveyard."
What was he building? He wasn't trying to destroy Cat Dancer?
I just didn't know "with what, or for what."
"Spell card: Overpowering Eye!" A glowing eye opened in the air above Gozuki. "One Zombie with 2000 or less ATK can attack you directly this turn. Gozuki — go!"
Gozuki roared and swerved round Cat Dancer as if she weren't there. I saw the club come up.
The impact threw me back in the seat, and the D-Wheel shuddered under me.
Celina LP: 4000 → 2300
"Ha Des, attack Cat Dancer!"
The skeletal king glided forward with its claws spread. Cat Dancer's effect was back now, so she raised her daggers and met the claws head on. Sparks sprayed. Her feet skidded back across the track, but she didn't fall.
"She can't be destroyed by battle." But 2450 was more than 2400.
Celina LP: 2300 → 2250
Fifty points. A pinprick. But it still stung.
"I set two cards face-down. Turn end."
# Turn 4 — Celina
"My turn! Draw!
"Spell card — Polymerization! I fuse Cat Dancer on my field with the Purple Butterfly in my hand!"
Cat Dancer leapt into the air. A second moth-winged girl rose from my hand to meet her, and the two of them spun into a whirlpool of blue and violet.
"Beast that dances in the darkness, gather the light of the moon! Become a beast that dances more fiercely!
"Fusion Summon! Level 8 — Lunalight Panther Dancer!"
The light split open, and she stepped out of it.
Taller. Darker. Long claws on each hand.
[DARK / Beast-Warrior / Fusion / Effect / Level 8 / ATK: 2800 / DEF: 2500]
I counted on her effect.
"Panther Dancer's effect! This turn, she can attack each of your monsters twice—"
"Sorry." Tony held up a card from his hand. A thin figure in a white veil rose behind him. "Effect Veiler. I send it to the Graveyard and negate your Panther Dancer's effects until the end of the turn."
The veil drifted across my Panther. Her claws dimmed.
Again.
My teeth clenched hard. Twice now he had reached into my plan and pulled out exactly the piece holding it together! It was as though he was reading me. As though he knew what I was gonna do.
I didn't let myself be enraged.
"I Pendulum Summon! From my hand — Lunalight Crimson Fox!"
A fox-woman in red silk and white fur dropped from the pendulum's moon, landing lightly on her toes.
[DARK / Beast-Warrior / Effect / Level 4 / ATK: 1800 / DEF: 600]
"Battle! Panther Dancer, attack Revived King Ha Des!"
My Panther sprang. Claws going through the skeleton. The crown hit the track, bounced once, and shattered.
Tony LP: 4000 → 3650
"Crimson Fox, attack Gozuki!"
The fox darted forward, a blur of red. The ox-headed zombie swung its club. She spun under it and drove her heel into its chest. Gozuki toppled backwards and broke apart like dry clay.
Tony LP: 3650 → 3550
The crowd roared. For the first time, part of it was roaring for me.
"I set a card. Turn end."
Tony had Zombie Master and two face-down cards remaining.
I tried to feel I was winning. I couldn't quite manage it.
# Council Chamber
"She's good," the man in yellow said, sounding almost reluctant.
"She's angry," I said.
Reiji's eyes moved towards me for a moment.
"She's good," I corrected. "But she's angry. Look at Panther Dancer's position. She put all of her strength in the front row. But nothing protects the back."
"And Tony?" The elder woman asked.
I watched the boy. He'd lost two monsters and he was smiling as if he'd won something.
"He's building something. And he's patient enough to let her think she's winning while he does."
Riley had stopped squeezing his toy. He was watching the screen with his mouth slightly open, the way children watch storms.
# Turn 5 — Tony
"Draw!"
Tony looked at the card. His smile changed. He opened his face-down set card.
"Trap card. Compulsory Evacuation Device. I return one monster on the field to the hand."
Panther Dancer couldn't be destroyed by card effects. But that wasn't destruction.
A metal cannon rose from the trap card, aimed straight at my Panther, and fired. There was a burst of white light. When it cleared, she was gone.
Wrong again.
"Now." Tony's voice dropped a little. "Remember Mezuki? And the card I discarded with Zombie Master last turn?"
My stomach went cold.
"Shiranui Spectralsword's effect from the Graveyard! I banish it together with a non-Tuner Zombie in my Graveyard — Mezuki — and Special Summon a Zombie Synchro Monster whose Level equals their total! Two plus four. Six!"
Two ghostly shapes, one wreathed in pale fire and the bull-headed demon, rose out of the ground, crossed blades, and burned together into a pillar of green and black flame.
"Rotting skull, rise from your grave carrying the name of the Archfiend! Come forth — Level 6! Archfiend Zombie-Skull!"
It stepped out of the fire with bones showing through rotting grey flesh, horned like a devil, wings of torn membrane hanging behind it, a skull of a face with light burning in its sockets.
"Was it my imagination or it actually locked its head at me as though it found me funny."
[DARK / Zombie / Synchro / Effect / Level 6 / ATK: 2500 / DEF: 1200]
"While it's around, my Zombies can't be destroyed by card effects."
Archfiend. The word caught in my mind and stuck there. Why give a Zombie that name? It's presence is similar to Fubuki Tenjoin's monsters.
Then Tony did something I didn't understand.
He looked at Zombie Master, and his face softened. Almost apologetic.
"Sorry, Celina-chan."
He raised a card.
"I Tribute Zombie Master..."
Zombie Master dissolved into dark motes that swirled upwards into the sky.
A long, low growl came from inside the clouds that weren't there moment ago. Then lightning cracked, golden-yellow.
I saw a shape in the clouds. Horns. Ribs. Long arms.
I knew that silhouette. Every duelist at Academia knows it.
I thought he was a Zombie duelist: rot and graveyards and things that wouldn't stay dead. Not this. This was older.
"Tribute Summon!" Tony stood up from his D-Wheel and shouted, fist raised to the storm. "Come on down, demon of the old days! Summoned Skull!"
Lightning struck the track between us and it was there.
A towering figure. White and purple ribs, with lightning crawling around it's body like silk. It's wings wide.
[DARK / Fiend / Normal / Level 6 / ATK: 2500 / DEF: 1200]
The crowd went mad.
I heard Melissa somewhere above it all, her voice cracking.
"Summoned Skull! Who saw that coming?!"
Not me.
I'd watched the Graveyard. I'd counted his Tuners and Synchro. But he had been one turn ahead of me. But it doesn't matter. I will defeat him netherless
# Council Chamber
"Summoned Skull," the man in gray said slowly. "That's a relic. Nobody plays it any more."
Tony had held a Normal Monster, in a deck built around effects. He'd waited for the turn when it would look like the last thing in the world anyone needed to fear.
Riley had pressed himself against Reiji's side. "She's going to lose," he whispered.
Nobody answered him.
# Battle Phase
"Battle!" Tony called. "Archfiend Zombie-Skull — attack Crimson Fox!"
The rotted devil spread its wings and dropped onto my fox. She tried to leap clear, but it caught her mid-air in both claws and crushed her. Red silk scattered across the track like petals.
Celina LP: 2250 → 1550
The jolt went through the D-Wheel and into my spine.
"Trap card!" I gasped. "Lunalight Reincarnation Dance! When a monster I control is destroyed, I add two Lunalight monsters from my Deck to my hand!"
Two cards slid from deck. Lunalight Blue Cat. Lunalight Black Sheep.
Summoned Skull turned its head, very slowly, and looked at me as though he was taking its time.
The arithmetic took a moment to reach me, as if my mind didn't want to do it. When it did, everything went quiet. The engine, the crowd, Melissa's voice, the wind. Everything.
If that attack landed, I lost.
And if I lost...
I didn't know exactly what would happen to me once I lost. But I knew what happened in Heartland. I didn't experienced but knew the sound a city makes when it stops making sound. I had promised myself that I would never let it happen again. Not to the people I'd come to know. Not to the ones I hadn't met yet. And to do that, I can never loose.
Never again, I'd said.
And I was about to lose in the first round.
"Summoned Skull. Direct attack."
The giant spread its arms.
Lightning poured out of the clouds into its hands and swelled there, into a ball of golden-white light so bright that my eyes watered.
"Lightning Strike of the Demon!"
The light filled everything.
My hand moved—
# Council Chamber
—and the great doors of the Council Chamber opened.
Twin slabs of giant doors three times a man's height swung inward, and the boom rolled over the chamber like a bell. On the screen, someone's hand had paused the feed: the lightning frozen a hair's breadth from Celina's chest.
The figure in the doorway was small, no taller than a child, in a red-and-green high-collared coat, short and wierd hair, lips and area below eyes painted red. A small smile sat on it as if stitched there.
Yet the room seemed to shrink around him.
"Forgive the intrusion, honoured members. Am I permitted to enter?" He kept walking while he asked. "Though I believe the Charter grants my the right to question the Council whenever a matter of importance is at hand. And it does seem"—a glance at the frozen lightning—"that something important is happening."
None of the five elders answered. That told me more than an answer would have.
His eyes found us. Reiji. Riley. Me. One by one, as if checking a list written long before he walked in.
He laid a gloved hand on his chest and bowed slightly.
"Ah, how rude of me. Pardon me. I haven't introduced myself."
He lifted his face. The smile was still small. But it had gone deep, it was sly.
"My name is Jaeger. I am the Mayor of the City."