"Dinsional Exchange Tournant?"
A chorus of students echoed the words.
A few days later, inside the principal's office, Hikaru and the other Keyholders stared at each other, clearly unfamiliar with the term. Only Chazz Princeton sighed in resignation, closed his eyes, crossed his arms, and put on the act of an expert.
"What is that?" Syrus asked excitedly, turning to Bastion.
"Uh… even if you ask ..." Bastion wiped the sweat from his brow. Even soone as well-read as him had no idea.
"Dinsional Exchange Tournant? Why bring that up now?" Chazz stroked his chin in confusion. "That's sothing KaibaCorp established, a yearly event for interdinsional dueling.
Although they call it 'another dinsion, ' many of KaibaCorp's scientists prefer to refer to it as a 'parallel world. '"
"Huh? Chazz, you know about this?" Jaden asked in surprise.
"It's 'The Chazz!'" Chazz snapped back, veins bulging in frustration.
"So what's the full story, The Chazz?" Hikaru asked.
There were still many things in this world Hikaru didn't understand, and since Chazz seed to know, he was more than happy to ask.
"It was three or four years ago," Chazz said, arms crossed and eyes closed in recollection. "That was when Dinsional Exploration suffered its first setback. No matter what direction we explored, we couldn't find a new dinsion. The whole project was at a standstill. Then, in a dinsional transport tunnel, soone accidentally crashed into a strange ship."
"Yeah, a ship," Chazz nodded. "Looking back, it was actually pretty cool-looking. Anyway, because of that ship, my ntor discovered a new dinsion, one later nad 'World X'. To be honest, calling it another dinsion is a stretch. It's basically a parallel world. And there are humans there!"
"H-Humans!?" Syrus and Chumley, who had never been to another dinsion, exclaid in shock and confusion, "Isn't that normal?"
"In fact, up to this point, that's the only world we've discovered with humans like us," Bastion added. "Now that Chazz ntioned it, I rember seeing the news back then. It was called 'The Discovery of the Century' or a 'Third Kind Encounter'."
"My ntor wasn't interested in that stuff," Chazz shrugged. "What caught his attention was, he heard that world had the 'Dark Magician. '"
"D-Dark Magician!?"
"That's Mr. Yugi Muto's ace card!" Jaden exclaid, instantly fired up.
Before entering Duel Academy, he had t Yugi Muto and was gifted a 'Winged Kuriboh' by him. He held both deep respect and gratitude toward Yugi, so hearing about the Dark Magician naturally excited him.
"Honestly, I found it strange too. Mr. Yugi Muto isn't dueling anymore; he's supposedly transitioned into card design, but it's not like he's gone. So why was my ntor so fixated on finding a Dark Magician user?"
"Anyway, when he heard that the world had the Dark Magician, he imdiately tried to visit. Unfortunately, they wouldn't let him. So, they reached a compromise.
KaibaCorp built a city in an empty dinsion as a transfer station called Neo Domino City. Both sides can use it to access the parallel world."
Then he shook his head, "But my ntor's no longer interested. Apparently, the one he was looking for isn't there."
"That's right," Principal Sheppard nodded, continuing. "Even though KaibaCorp no longer sends invitations to that world, Neo Domino City was still completed and now acts as a bridge between the two worlds.
Every year, Neo Domino City hosts the Dinsional Exchange Tournant. Our world has seen both wins and losses, or rather, aside from when Kaiba himself entered, it's mostly losses."
Principal Sheppard shook his head. "Just recently, the Chairman proposed to KaibaCorp that this year's tournant feature youth students to see how the 'new generation' stacks up."
"We've mostly lost?" Even Zane exclaid.
"So, Principal, what's your point?" Professor Crowler asked.
"Hehehe," the principal chuckled, a glint of excitent in his usually calm eyes. Even a gentle elder like him got excited over sothing like this. "Our Academy has been chosen to represent this year's Exchange Tournant! Representing our world, we'll face young duelists from the other side!
The whole trip will take about twenty days, a grand festival for new duelists! If you make a na for yourself in this event, it could really boost your future prospects as a pro duelist!"
"Whoa!" The students imdiately rushed forward, excited.
"Principal! Pick !"
"Principal, I—I—I want in!"
"Heheheh, Principal, you know I'm Kaiba's personal student, right?"
"Hey, that's cheap, Chazz!"
"Hohoho..." The principal laughed, enjoying the suspense. After a mont, he finally said, "Alright, settle down. KaibaCorp already decided, the top student from each grade will participate."
"Ah! That's not fair! I wanted to go too!" Alexis Rhodes's brief spark of hope quickly faded.
"Wait," Hikaru interrupted the commotion, frowning. "Principal, what about the Shadow Riders?"
"Eh!"
"Ah!"
The group suddenly rembered.
"That's exactly what I was getting to," Principal Sheppard said with a serious expression. "First, Hikaru, Zane, you two are confird participants. Professor Crowler, you'll be the accompanying instructor.
In other words, the three Keyholders."
"Those of you staying behind may face even tougher challenges." The principal looked at Jaden, Bastion, Chazz, and Alexis.
The group swallowed nervously while Jaden was the first to step forward and loudly vowed to protect the Keys.
"Principal…" Zane frowned. "I should stay."
"No way! This is a world-level event!" Jaden quickly objected. "You're our school's ace, Kaiser!"
He patted his chest and said, "We can't keep relying on you. Leave it to us!"
"Yeah, Kaiser, don't underestimate us." Chazz laughed.
Hikaru opened his mouth, wanting to say sothing, but stopped.
In the original, one big reason Jaden ended up isolated later on was that he truly trusted his fellow students, never expecting the most reliable one, Zane, would be physically 'removed'.
Now, this world's Zane hadn't been taken out by so vampire's dirty trick, yet was once again heading off to a faraway tournant.
Hikaru had wanted to ease Jaden's burden, but realizing he was leaving too, he dropped the idea.
"Still, Hikaru, Kaiser, even in Neo Domino City, you must stay on guard," the principal added. "The Shadow Riders move in secret, appearing and disappearing at will. Even in another dinsion, they may strike."
Both nodded.
That's true. Since soone like Vampire Fraulein could be a Shadow Rider, encountering other mbers in another dinsion wouldn't be strange.
"Then it's settled."
"I'll notify the second-year top student later. Professor Crowler, I'm leaving it to you."
"Don't worry, Principal!" Crowler pounded his chest with confidence.
…
Hikaru and the others boarded a KaibaCorp plane and arrived at the company's headquarters.
There, they saw the massive Blue-Eyes White Dragon statue, and beneath the facility's fixed interdinsional portal, they were transported to the city in the parallel dinsion, Neo Domino City.
Honestly, it didn't look all that different from the Domino City Hikaru rembered, just with so dinsional flair and multicolored decorations.
And, the instant they arrived, Hikaru made a beeline for the card shop in the city.
"Boss, do you have any booster packs our world doesn't have? Bring them out, let see!"
This is exactly what that scholarship was for!
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