Chapter 79: Shine, Stardust Road!
[Ancient Gear Dark Golem — destroyed]
[Ancient Gear Gadjiltron Dragon — destroyed]
The sound of two enormous machines collapsing reverberated through the dark between the club buildings.
Stardust Spark Dragon's multi-target attack had dismantled both of the Puppeteer's heaviest pieces in a single sweep.
Puppeteer LP: 8000 -> 7000
Rin pointed at the Puppeteer across the field.
"Dark Game damage. Let's see how that feels on your end."
"That's not going to work, senpai," Amano said. "The Puppeteer is operating Bart remotely. The actual body isn't here."
If the Dark Game could route damage directly back to the Puppeteer himself, the three-punch combo from Vision HERO Trinity back in District 11 would have already settled this.
"Not necessarily!"
Rin raised her pointing finger from Bart's direction straight up — and something answered. A beam of starlight, thin and precise, lanced outward from inside the Dark Game barrier and connected with something beyond the visible range.
Stardust Dragon.
"AAAAGHHH!!"
A scream of genuine pain. From the Puppeteer. Coming through Bart's body but clearly landing somewhere else.
Amano stared.
"Senpai — how did you—"
"I should apologize. I wasn't entirely honest with you." Rin lowered her hand. "I didn't learn about the Dark Game from the anime."
That's fine. I wasn't entirely honest with you either.
The Puppeteer's voice came through Bart with a new quality to it — a tremor, the specific tightness of someone talking through pain.
"Rin Seiya. You meddlesome — this is the third time you've gotten in my way!"
Third time.
Amano filed that immediately. "Senpai — those two incidents Finesse mentioned. The possession cases before I arrived at the academy—"
Rin nodded without turning toward him. "Both of them. I've fought this person twice already."
Which meant Rin was the reason those earlier incidents had been contained. And the Puppeteer hadn't shown up tonight hunting Amano — he'd been hunting Rin. The club building was apparently her regular location. Amano had been the softer target of opportunity when both of them appeared at once.
"I'm the easier mark. Noted. Sorry about that."
Eve, from somewhere in the ether: "I'm the easier mark. Sorry about that."
"I Set two cards. Turn end."
The Puppeteer's field after that exchange: one Ancient Gear Flying Dragon at 1700 ATK — still alive, since Stardust Spark Dragon's effect only hit Special Summoned monsters. Plus the two persistent Spell cards forming the mechanical architecture around them. Nothing that could attack meaningfully. But nothing gone yet either.
"My turn — draw!"
The Puppeteer drew twice. Two-on-one rule compensation.
"How convenient that you both showed up. I can deal with both of you at once."
"Quick-Play Spell — Card Destruction!"
[Card Destruction] [Quick-Play Spell: Both players discard their entire hand, then draw the same number of cards they discarded.]
The Puppeteer discarded two, drew two. Rin discarded two, drew two. The effect didn't reach Amano — two-player card effects apparently drew the line at the duel's standard participant count.
"Stardust Spark Dragon only has 2000 ATK now. The Reinforcements bonus wore off." The Puppeteer's voice was steadier again. The recovered composure was itself informative.
The familiar card entered the Duel Disk.
"Spell — Heavy Storm!"
The second one.
The intent was obvious. Blow up Geartown and Ancient Gear Castle again — pull two more 3000 ATK machines from the deck and hand. And at the same time, destroy whatever was Set in Rin's backrow.
The storm began building — that specific pressure of field-wide destruction expanding outward, pulling at the dark air around them, lifting strands of Amano's black hair and Rin's white hair alike.
"Senpai—"
"I know!"
Rin flipped her Set card. The light that gathered wasn't the harsh mechanical energy of the incoming storm. It was warmer than that. Steadier. The shape it formed as it expanded was unmistakable.
"Trap card — Starlight Road!"
[Starlight Road] [Trap: When a card or effect is activated that would destroy 2 or more cards you control: Negate that effect and destroy that card. Then, you can Special Summon 1 "Stardust Dragon" from your Extra Deck.]
Heavy Storm would destroy Rin's two Set cards simultaneously. Two cards. Starlight Road's activation condition, met exactly.
The storm built to its peak — and then stopped. Reversed. The wind collapsed inward instead of outward, the gathered energy folding back on itself and dissipating. Heavy Storm was negated and destroyed before it resolved.
And because Heavy Storm never resolved, Geartown and Ancient Gear Castle on the Puppeteer's field remained intact. No destruction trigger. No new Ancient Gear monsters pulled from the deck.
"And Starlight Road's follow-up effect—"
The chant rose naturally, because it had to. Some moments simply required it.
"Gathered wishes will become newborn shining stars! Become the path illuminated by light!"
"Synchro Summon — Stardust Dragon!!"
[Stardust Dragon] [8-Star / WIND / Dragon / Synchro / Effect]
[ATK: 2500 / DEF: 2000]
They had literally just watched this episode. The Starlight Road sequence — Stardust Dragon materializing as a direct result of the trap's activation, bypassing the normal Synchro conditions entirely. Amano had seen it animated on a small television screen two hours ago.
Watching it happen in real space was different.
The dragon arrived with the weight of something that had earned its reputation. Wings spread wide, star dust trailing from every surface, hovering above Rin with the particular gravity of a card that had been someone's ace monster for years.
"It's over," Rin said.
She was right, and she knew Bart's patterns. He was a fourth-year ranked opponent she had beaten before. Card Destruction had been a dig for his next heavy-hitter, but the math had turned against the Puppeteer. Hand size advantage burned away. The critical card negated. Geartown and Castle still on the field but with no way to activate their destruction clause.
Whatever remained in the Puppeteer's hand after Card Destruction — one card, maybe two — wasn't enough. If it was another Heavy Storm, Stardust Dragon's standing effect would simply negate it.
Rin stood with one hand on her hip, the smile pulling at the corner of her mouth carrying exactly the right amount of confidence.
"Checkmate."
Eve: "(o)/ We win!!"
Amano: "...Why does this feel like a scene I've lived before."
Because it was. District 11. Finesse dominating a Dark Game while the Puppeteer was on the back foot — right up until the moment he reached into his hand and produced something that didn't belong in the deck. Something that shouldn't have existed in that context. A card wrapped in the particular wrongness that the Puppeteer's power produced.
The feeling spreading through Amano's chest right now was identical.
"Spell card activates!"
The Puppeteer's last card went into the Duel Disk.
That specific darkness. The kind that pressed against the edges of awareness before the card even resolved.
"Overload Fusion!"