"Yes." Professor Crowler sat in the principal's chair, hands clasped together, looking conflicted. "Yes, there is one... no, perhaps many things I need your help with, Amaki."
He looked to the side, and Hikaru followed his gaze to see an entire wall of monitors inside the principal's office.
At that mont, the screens were displaying several images.
So showed dinsions friendly to the Academy, like the "Ancient Gear Factory" dinsion. Others showed known parallel worlds.
"It concerns the new sester's curriculum. Yes, it's related to the dinsions," Crowler said.
He was well aware that Hikaru and Zane were two very different types of duelists.
Both were textbook "Academy-style" duelists, able to stay calm and calculated even under pressure.
But unlike Zane, Hikaru had a more direct and clearly defined pursuit.
As a teacher, he never intended to mold Hikaru the sa way he did Zane. Therefore, he didn't pressure Hikaru to serve as the new "face" of Duel Academy. Even when Napoleon had pressured him, he never told Hikaru what was going on. He simply congratulated him on advancing to Blue.
"First off, congratulations on your promotion to Obelisk Blue. Not surprising, considering who you are."
"Thank you for your support," Hikaru said. "However, I don't think I need to change dorms. I'd prefer to stay in the one I was already using. Professor Sartyr has helped a lot in day-to-day matters."
"That's fine. Not a problem."
Crowler nodded.
Before Crowler had helped Hikaru with funding and card collection, it had always been Sartyr who handled Hikaru's daily necessities. He understood Hikaru's reasoning.
Moreover, Crowler also knew that Professor Sartyr was soone who feared loneliness. If Hikaru, the top of Ra Yellow, suddenly moved into Obelisk Blue, Sartyr would likely be heartbroken.
And Crowler had no desire to be haunted by that curry fanatic.
With that settled, Crowler moved on to the main topic.
Firstly, while the Academy had lost so attention recently due to Zane Truesdale's losing streak in the pro circuit, that didn't an the school was entirely forgotten. It had only slightly lost its luster.
In fact, over the past two years, Duel Academy had only been rising. Even looking back to before Zane enrolled, the trend had always been upward.
The reason was simple. Dinsional travel had beco the world's most prominent and attention-grabbing topic. Duel Academy's ability to allow students to travel between dinsions and explore alternate worlds was a massive treasure trove for the public and most corporations.
Zane's rise to fa had been a huge catalyst. And while his recent losses cooled so enthusiasm, it hadn't extinguished it.
After all, following his duel with Aster Phoenix, Zane had gone on to duel several other pro duelists. Though not a winning streak like before, his results were mixed. Even against duelists who had specifically teched their decks to counter him, Zane still won through the "right hand of the duelist."
Hearing this, Hikaru let out a nearly imperceptible sigh of relief.
In the original tiline, Zane's downward spiral after dueling Aster wasn't just due to a shattered mindset. It was also because of two things: pros running hyper-counter decks, and Sartorius' fortune-telling influence.
In this world, Aster had long since been scheduled to join the Fusion Club, and his duel with Zane had been fair. So, although Zane had felt a little lost, he quickly recovered.
Anyway, from the latest tournant reports, Zane's ntal state seed fine.
Still, since he was no longer "invincible," both the outside world and the Academy's internal passion had cooled sowhat.
That said, at least people outside no longer acted like "as long as you're from Duel Academy, that's good enough." This ant the future prospects of Slifer Red students beca a serious issue again.
And what Crowler was about to bring up was related to this.
Now that Hikaru had won, Slifer Red naturally wouldn't be disbanded.
In fact, Crowler personally wasn't worried about the post-graduation futures of people like Hikaru or Jaden Yuki.
Hikaru, for instance, had already beco an "Absolute Fusionist" and had brand endorsent deals with Gucci and others. His future was secure. But others...others made both him and the principal very worried.
Of course, mostly the principal.
Crowler himself still held so dissatisfaction toward most Slifer Red students, though not as extre as Napoleon.
After all, most of them had long since given up.
"That's why the principal ca up with a great idea."
"...What did Principal Sheppard co up with this ti?"
Hikaru muttered an internal curse.
Sure, Sheppard was a decent man and had a strong standing in the world of Dueling, respected by many. But he had a terrifying trait: nothing he tried to do ever went the way he planned. It always turned into a disaster.
No need to look far. The Sacred Beasts. The Society of Light. The child-king who wanted to destroy the world. All thanks to him. While you couldn't bla the Sacred Beasts incident on him directly, he'd been duped too—the rest? All him.
Especially the later "Source of All Evil GX Tournant." Just hearing the na made people shake their heads.
So, just as Hikaru braced himself ntally, Crowler spoke.
"The principal contacted so of his old friends, mbers of the board, and even reached out to KaibaCorp to smooth things over," he said. "He believes that the reason Slifer Red students can't improve isn't just laziness. It's also a lack of opportunity and advancent pathways.
So, this year, he plans to expand the scale and format of the Academy's dinsional gates and prepare..."
Hikaru could barely hear the rest. It felt like he was going deaf.
'Holy hell…'
After hearing Crowler's full explanation, he lightly smacked his forehead to wake himself up.
Thankfully, this was sothing that was supposed to happen in canon. It just made more sense and happened earlier here because this world already had dinsional gates.
Sotis he wondered who really had the power of Light dwelling within them.
Sartorius?
Didn't seem like it.
Anyway, since this world already had advanced dinsional research, Principal Sheppard wasn't doing things as recklessly as in the original. He'd probably assign staff to manage a large-scale dinsional internship program, sending students to friendly dinsions approved by both the Academy and KaibaCorp.
After all, this kind of work was the hottest thing in the world.
Crowler wasn't telling Hikaru this to have him babysit or look after other students. Those were jobs for the faculty.
He was telling Hikaru because it ant Hikaru would get the chance to explore uncharted dinsions during the Academy's collective internship.
Oh.
Why didn't he just lead with that?
That was great.
Hikaru nodded.
'So this is the "top student" perk, huh?'
"Lastly," Professor Crowler smiled, "Student Amaki, you've always been my pride. Stick to your convictions. I'm proud of you."
"...Thank you, Professor. You've always been the teacher I respect most at this school."
He really did support Crowler becoming principal.
After the talk, Hikaru walked out of the principal's office, only to be greeted by two slender, silver-and-gold figures.
The more confident one smirked when she saw him. "We've been waiting for you, Amaki Hikaru!"
"We were about to fall asleep."
"Co on, it's ti for the battle we promised!"
The Tyler sisters. After their duel with Professor Rox ended and the arena dispersed, they'd made their way here.
Hikaru tapped his forehead.
'Almost forgot about these two.'
He'd already used "Super Polyrization" to absorb energy a couple of tis today...
But that worked out.
He'd been wanting to test whether using higher-tier alchemy to control Super Polyrization could increase the number of tis it absorbed Duel Energy. Ever since learning practical D-Wheel engineering from Yusei, he'd made strides in his own alchemy and wanted to explore more Super Poly potential.
Plus, keeping these two elite mbers of the Fusion Army just sitting around wasn't ideal either.
"Tag duel? Sure. But give a sec. I'll call a friend."
"A friend? Heh, your friends have already volunteered. They're waiting for you in the duel arena."
These guys really didn't want to miss this duel.
"Who is it?" Hikaru asked.
"Uh... what's his na again?" the elder sister asked.
"Looked like a pretty intense guy in a black outfit," the younger said, tilting her head.
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