Inside the transit tower, Inspector Akira, now sporting three dark circles under his eyes, took a long drag of his cigarette when he spotted his old acquaintance Amano Rei.
"Couldn't make it work up there and coming back to your hotown?"
"Uncle, that's a little harsh."
"Ha. Just kidding. I've actually been following so news about you. You sohow beat Kaiba Chiha of all people. Soone like you couldn't possibly fail."
"Thanks to you, uncle." Amano replied with genuine courtesy. If Akira hadn't handed him Gaia Knight, the Force of Earth back then, he would not have had the qualification to enroll at Synchro Academy in the first place.
"How co you ca back alone this ti?"
"It was supposed to be three of us. But the Eva review system held up the other two. I had to co through first."
Even though all three had submitted at the sa ti, Amano passed Eva's review instantly while Shio and Kikawayu had to wait three more days.
"Makes sense. The monitoring has been very strict lately, given the scale of what happened."
Akira chatted casually with Amano while smoking, yawning and tapping the keyboard to process the identity information. The other travelers in the queue stared openly. It was rare to see an inspector personally handle a passenger's paperwork by hand. Who was this person?
From the way he looked, Akira had clearly been pulling all-nighters for several days running. Since the Wicked God disaster, order throughout Eden Tower had been showing signs of fracture, beginning from the lower districts and spreading upward.
"So you're coming back to visit family? So areas in the lower districts have been getting quite chaotic lately. Please be careful."
That sounded like casual conversation, but clearly Akira was filling in the Reason for Travel field on Amano's identity form.
"Yes, visiting family will do."
He was technically on a mission, but visiting family was not wrong either. He had been away for a month and genuinely wanted to see his old friends in District 32.
"There you go, you can head through." Akira waved him on.
Under five minutes total. That was what having connections did for you. Queuing up normally like everyone else would have taken at least two hours.
"By the way, uncle, can you look soone up for ?"
"Look soone up? Who?"
"Kaiba Chiha. Can you find out when she traveled to the lower districts?"
"Kaiba Chiha? You're going to get involved with her again?"
"I need to find her for a matter."
"Kid, don't go playing with fire."
That said, Akira pulled up Kaiba Chiha's transit records anyway.
"According to the records, her most recent transit entry was two months ago."
"Two months ago?"
Two months ago was when Kaiba Chiha had co to the lower districts to try to buy Blue-Eyes White Dragon from him. No transit records since then?
That ant Chiha had not used official transit channels to travel from the mid-level district to the lower districts this ti.
"Got it, uncle. I'll be going then."
"All right. Rember to buy dinner next ti."
"We're not really that close."
"You really are harsh, Amano Rei."
Leaving the transit tower, Amano shouldered his bags of gifts and boarded the nearest cross-district rail train, heading alone toward District 32.
Looking through the window at the world outside, even though he had only been gone a month, there was a strange feeling of returning from another lifeti.
Only after genuinely walking through the mid-level district and coming back down did you feel the real difference. Less than a kiloter separating one from the other, yet two completely different worlds.
Building walls covered in waterproof tarps, rubber tires weighing down corrugated tin eaves. Potholes in the roads pooling with rainbow-hued chemical slicks, rusty pipes strung across alleyways serving as makeshift clotheslines draped with worn and patched clothing.
These were images you would never see in the mid-level district.
Yet Amano understood clearly. These were the proofs of life for the people who lived here. Their evidence of still being here at all.
Eden Tower's distributable resources were extrely limited. Under the tower's class system, the share reaching the lower districts was even thinner. Individual effort felt insignificant before the century-old rusted rules of this tower.
As the rail train carried him further toward the outer districts, sothing felt increasingly wrong.
Even just looking through the window from inside the car, he could see a significant number of duels already in progress.
Duels this frequent were an obvious anomaly in the lower districts, where actual duelists were rare.
And many of these so-called duels were one-sided forced Contract activations. People without duelists' qualifications being pressured into Contract Duels against those who had them.
Under normal circumstances, the contract monitoring rules were strict enough that Eva mainfra would prevent most of these from being accepted. Not now.
This is what Akira ant by the lower districts getting chaotic.
Because of the Wicked God disaster, Eva mainfra was now occupied with mid-level repair work. On top of that, the consecutive summoning of divine-attribute cards had generated countless data bugs requiring processing, clearly pushing the system past comfortable limits.
Watching duelists exploiting every gap in oversight to do as they pleased, Amano started genuinely worrying about the state of things back in District 32.
Without warning, the self-driving train braked to an ergency stop, jerking hard enough that Amano's head cracked into the handrail. The impact rang clearly through the empty car.
THUD.
A solid sound. At least it confird the skull was sturdy.
With no driver to explain the stop, Amano climbed off on his own and investigated.
The ground track ahead had been blown up. That was why the train could not continue.
Fortunately, the current position was around the edge of District 31, not far from District 32. Even stranded here, a short walk on foot would do it.
So, hoisting his bags of gifts for the people back ho, Amano began a long-overdue walk through the streets.
Since buying the D-Wheel, he had not asured the world with his own legs in a long ti.
He had barely stepped into District 32's territory when a small figure ca rushing straight at him.
"Hey mister! Do you have anything to eat?"
A thin girl with pale, sunken cheeks looked at Amano and his bags like she had found her salvation.
"I haven't eaten in so long. I'm really hungry."
An unfamiliar face. Having lived in District 32 for eighteen years, Amano was confident he had never seen this scrawny girl before.
A refugee from another district?
He opened his bag and took out two beef-flavored crackers, handing them over.
He had just been reflecting that a single person could not change what was wrong with this rotting tower. But now that it was in front of him, his fundantally decent nature would not let him look away.
What you could not see was one thing. Once you saw it, you helped whoever you could.
Seeing Amano pull what looked like genuinely good food out of his bag, the little girl's eyes lit up.
She took the crackers from his hands, but did not start eating imdiately. Instead, she took a deep breath and shouted toward the shadows behind her.
"Big bro! Second bro! Get over here! This guy has tons of stuff!"
"What?" Amano felt the situation turn imdiately.
Ten seconds later, two n stepped out of the alley shadows and blocked his path.
He recognized the setup now. A small child as bait, then the ambush.
The taller of the two n spoke first. "Hey kid. Pretty bold, walking around loaded like that. Ca to do charity work?"
The shorter one added: "Since you're being generous anyway, why not leave it all with us? Save yourself a lot of grief."
"And if I say no?" Amano unslung his heavy pack and let it drop to the dusty ground with a thud that sent up a small cloud and left all three siblings staring.
That much weight ant that much inside.
"Didn't expect a fat target to land right when we got to District 32."
Seeing Amano's clear intention to resist, the taller man gave his order.
"Second bro, I'll handle this one. Go look around District 32 more. Maybe there's better pickings in there."
Even with Amano visibly resisting, they were splitting up. Which ant...
In the next instant, the tall man's Eva Terminal transford into a Duel Disk.
A duelist, as expected.
He had apparently decided Amano was a soft target.
[CONTRACT DUEL]
[Terms: The loser surrenders all possessions, including clothing, deck, and Eva Points.]
[Contract accepted]
The Eva system had actually accepted a contract like that?
Lose and go completely bankrupt. This was approaching Dark Ga territory.
The chaos in the lower districts had gotten genuinely severe.
Amano extended his own Duel Disk in response. The action visibly startled both the tall man and the little girl.
"Well then. No wonder you were walking around with all that. You're a duelist too? A scrawny little kid like you shouldn't think he can beat , though!"
The first-turn indicator lit up on the tall man's Duel Disk.
"My turn, draw! I Normal Summon D.D. Assailant in Attack Position!"
D.D. Assailant [Level 4, EARTH]
[Warrior / Effect]
[ATK: 1700 / DEF: 1600]
[When this card is destroyed by battle: banish both this card and the monster it battled.]
The ninja-like monster materialized with a crouching stance and an enormous cleaver on its back, appearing on the dusty ground.
1700 ATK, with a banish-both-fighters ability on destruction. A suicide response to any attacking monster. Combat power at this level was absolutely top-tier for the lower districts.
He hadn't expected soone this capable to be pushing all the way out to the edge of District 32. If it had gotten this bad here, the inner districts were probably worse.
"And I set two cards face-down. Turn end!"
"Co on, big bro!"
The little girl crouched nearby, chewing the crackers Amano had given her, cheering loudly for his opponent.
A strong established monster plus two set backrow. A threatening opener.
If this had been the Amano of a month ago, still living in the lower districts, this would have been a real fight.
But unfortunately for this opponent, the man who could have been a local boss had arrived far too late.
"My turn, draw!"
Amano's draw: Dark Magician Girl.
Still in hand: Eve.
First draw and both spirits were already present.
From the sound of it, Eve was in a bad mood.
Eve: "Amano, next ti you do that kind of thing, could you maybe go sowhere we can't see? Move us sowhere far away first. This was extrely uncomfortable!"
That kind of thing?
Oh. She ant the situation with Finesse.
He had been so focused on making sure no living person walked in that he had completely forgotten about the spirits.
Had both of them watched the whole thing? What on earth.
Mana spoke up at her own pace: "I thought it was perfectly fine myself. The animation of human interaction is really sothing to appreciate. And Eve, you can say whatever you like, but your eyes were completely locked on the whole ti and you could not look away."
Eve: "I... I..."
Mana continued plainly: "Honestly, Eve, you are just jealous. Though Amano Rei, I genuinely did not expect you to prefer the flatter type. Now I feel a little self-conscious myself."
That was not wrong. Compared to Mana's considerable presence, the young miss was genuinely rather flat.
But having his card spirits calmly discuss this kind of thing about him was just too strange.
No. He was not letting them keep going.
He would just fuse both of them right now.
Amano threw a card into the Duel Disk. "Spell Card, Polyrization, activate!"
This was the classic Yu-Gi-Oh! opener for dealing with trash mobs, and an absolute delight to draw into.
Having pulled this specific combination right at the start, it was hard for Amano not to smile.
"What? He is actually using Fusion?" The little girl, who had been calmly chewing crackers, froze entirely.
A duelist capable of Fusion was not operating on any lower-district level.
Had her siblings actually kicked sothing they could not handle this ti?
The tall man kept his composure. "It is just Fusion. Don't be scared, little sis. It would actually be surprising for soone this young to pull off sothing impressive with it."
Even if he did produce sothing impressive, Dinsional Prisoner could still drag whatever Fusion monster appeared down with it.
But when he watched Amano throw every card in his hand into the Fusion spiral overhead, even careful composure had its limits.
"He... he is using FIVE monsters for the Fusion?!"
Even after spending over ten years fighting in the lower districts, this was completely unheard of.
"This is Fusion Mastery!"
The skill from his District 32 friend Yui, and the very first duel after coming ho would be the one to use it.
"I fuse Priestess Who Receives the Star Chalice, Dark Magician Girl, Cosmo Spell Rabbit, Dark Magician, and Left Arm of the Forbidden One from my hand!"
Five cards. One type in common: Spellcaster.
Using five different Spellcaster monsters as Fusion Material, a Level 12 Fusion erupted on Amano's field with the force of sothing absolute.
"Five souls resonate as one! Guide forth the supre mage who commands the totality of all truth!"
"Fusion Summon!"
"Quintet Magician!!"
Quintet Magician [Level 12, DARK]
[Spellcaster / Fusion / Effect]
[ATK: 4500 / DEF: 4500]
[Spellcaster monster x5]
A majestic golden pillar of light tore through the Fusion spiral. The highest-Level Spellcaster Fusion monster, ringed by five formations of supre truth, materialized on the dusty ground of District 32.
"A 4500 ATK monster..." The crackers fell out of the little girl's open mouth and landed in the dirt. "That is the sa as the legendary strongest Fusion monster, Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon!"
"So what if it matches Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon?" The tall man held his composure and kept his gaze on his field.
Even eating a full 4500 ATK strike would not end the duel. Once D.D. Assailant was destroyed, it would drag the Fusion monster into the banished zone with it. With the opponent having spent every card in hand, there would be nothing left to follow up with.
"Quintet Magician is more than just matching Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon. When Fusion Summoned using five different Spellcaster monsters as Fusion Materials, Quintet Magician's effect activates!"
[When this card is Fusion Summoned using 5 different Spellcaster monster nas as materials, destroy all cards the opponent controls.]
"Zero Sequence: Truth Reconstruction!"
Amano swept his arm forward. What erupted rose like a nuclear mushroom cloud, tearing across the dusty ground of District 32 and wiping the tall man's entire field.
D.D. Assailant: destroyed.
Quick-Play Spell Mystical Space Typhoon: destroyed.
Trap Card Weapon Call: destroyed.
"And that is all! Direct attack, Quintet Magician!"
The five suspended magic formations aligned in rapid single-file at the mont of attack, each one multiplying the magical impact's force several tis over.
"Five-Dinsional Truth: Quintuple Obliteration Array!!"
After the nuclear mushroom cloud ca a magical shockwave that tore horizontally across the length of District 32.
"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!"
Tall Man LP: 4000 to 0.
Instant kill.
The observing little girl was nearly brought to tears. What level of monster had her siblings stumbled into?
In the instant the duel concluded, per the established contract, everything the tall man carried scattered across the ground: his deck, his Duel Disk contents, and per the contract's specific terms, his actual clothing.
The visual was roughly equivalent to Amano having blown him out of his clothes with a magical shockwave.
If clothes had to go flying, Amano would have strongly preferred it be soone other than a grown man.
Knocked completely unconscious by the shockwave's physical feedback, the unclothed man dropped face-first to the ground.
Amano looked at the little girl. "Take your brother and go. Don't co back to District 32."
"Yes! Yes, sir!"
She snapped out of her daze after a long frozen pause and hurriedly dragged her brother away.
Amano checked his Eva Terminal: 4,000 Eva Points added. Reasonably well-off for soone operating like this. Even with that much, enough to fund a comfortable lower-district life for quite so ti, they had still chosen robbery. A genuine embarrassnt to duelists.
Not bothering with the scattered clothing, Amano quickly gathered the fallen cards from the ground, hoisted his pack, and headed toward District 32 at pace.
The other man had gone in that direction. He needed to stop him before he caused any real harm to the people there.
He just sincerely hoped he would not have to watch another grown man's clothes get blown off.
He had barely reached the familiar scrap-yard streets of District 32 when he spotted a duel already wrapping up at the end of the road.
"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!"
Second Man LP: 4000 to 0.
The next mont, another unclothed man presented himself before Amano's eyes.
What had he done wrong to subject himself to this twice in such a short span of ti.
But far more eye-catching than the twice-embarrassed second man was the girl duelist who had just casually finished the job, standing in front of a card shop on the street and commanding a radiant, blazing dragon.
Neo Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon.
Neo Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon
[Rank 8, LIGHT]
[Dragon / Xyz / Effect]
[ATK: 4500 / DEF: 3000]
[3x Galaxy-Eyes monsters]
When Xyz Summoned using 3 Galaxy-Eyes monsters, negate all other face-up card effects on the field. Once per turn, detach 1 Xyz Material: take all Xyz Materials from all other Xyz Monsters on the field and attach them to this card. For each Material absorbed this way, this card gains 500 ATK and can attack up to three tis during the sa Battle Phase.
That was... Kaiba Chiha?
Completely unlike the image he had in his head.
Wearing an ill-fitting long worn black coat, a District 32-style dust scarf wrapped around her neck, the girl looked far more composed and quietly impressive than the Chiha he rembered.
The irritating little gremlin actually looked sowhat reliable now.
But why was Kaiba Chiha standing in front of Yui's card shop, dueling?
From the look of it, she was protecting the shop.
Deciding to observe a bit longer before showing himself, Amano slipped quietly behind the wall of a nearby alley.
After dispatching the would-be thief, the card shop door slowly swung open behind Chiha and Yui stepped out, smiling warmly.
The mont she turned and saw Yui, the Chiha who had looked so composed and impressive an instant before imdiately unwrapped her scarf and went practically fawning, half-crouching to close the distance to Yui's side.
"Yui-nee, I took care of all the bad guys who ca sniffing around District 32!"
"Well done, little Chiha." Yui smiled and reached out to ruffle the soft black hair on top of Chiha's head.
The girl who had once walked around like she owned everyone around her, acting like no one was worth her ti, now wore a thoroughly satisfied expression while Yui patted her head.
"Good girl, good girl. Extra portion at dinner tonight."
"Yay! I love you most, Yui-nee!"
Wait.
What was happening here.
Even hiding in the alley, Amano was completely baffled.
That was Kaiba Chiha.
Yui was his childhood friend. His neighborhood shopkeeper.
Yui, how did you manage to turn the Kaiba Corporation's younger sister into your loyal pet?
****
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