The date Solomon gave Hikaru was the end of this month, roughly a week before the new semester.
If nothing unexpected came up, once Hikaru had rested enough, he planned to make a trip to the "World of the Forgotten" around mid-month to see what spirits were there, and whether any shared his way of thinking.
Of course, those were all matters for later. Right now, the only thing Hikaru was curious about was what would come out of this massive stack of card boxes he'd bought.
If Rex could pull a Dinomorphia card from these boxes, then what Serena might pull was almost too terrifying to imagine.
Domino City wasn't like Duel Academy, where hordes of reporters lay in ambush trying to interview him, so the return trip was smooth. He only needed to take a boat back, and once he disembarked, Hikaru could easily slip back to the Academy under cover of darkness.
The Fusion Division was off-limits for now. Every day, reporters camped out nearby hoping to intercept Hikaru. While he didn't mind giving interviews to help put Duel Academy on the map, the moment one reporter latched on, it would trigger a swarm of journalists and fans.
Fortunately, Hikaru had more than one place to hang out.
Even though it was summer break, Professor Crowler could still open a classroom for them to gather in.
Chazz hadn't returned to the Academy yet, presumably still busy. But Jaden was in the classroom with Syrus, dueling on a simulator.
"Ahhh, I lost again! Syrus, since when are you this good!?"
"It's because you're terrible, bro!" Syrus couldn't help roasting him.
When dueling on simulators or phones, Jaden's performance was absolutely unwatchable. His usual knack for drawing exactly what he needed vanished completely. Serena, on the other hand, remained an undisputed luck queen even when using these devices.
Lulu was also learning to use this world's simulators for dueling. Since the machines didn't have data for her cards, she could only test with decks from this world. Although the cards were unfamiliar to her, her performance was surprisingly strong, earning praise from everyone around her.
"Syrus, long time no see! What have you been up to?" Hikaru noticed Syrus, and found that the hidden animosity he'd once harbored toward him was gone.
When it came down to it, Hikaru's negative impression of Syrus had been entirely based on what the original story's Syrus had done, some genuinely outrageous things.
But this world's Syrus hadn't done any of that. Quite the opposite: he'd performed admirably, especially in his recent duel against Zane. That had made Hikaru realize this world's Syrus was nothing like the one in his memories. He was a duelist with his own ideas, someone who grew and changed with circumstances, someone with responsibility and resolve.
There was no way Hikaru could keep judging him through outdated eyes.
Syrus still wore his purple uniform, which stood out distinctly at the school. Honestly, now that Hikaru thought about it, aside from Syrus, there was basically no one left at Duel Academy's main campus still wearing purple.
"Oh, Hikaru." Syrus noticed him walk in and waved along with everyone else, then scratched the back of his head. "Haha, because of your duel before, everyone saw it, right? I don't know all the details, but basically, you beat Professor Akaba, right?
Because of that, things have gotten a lot better for the students in the Combination Division. I've been over there helping out the past few days."
As the representative of the Combination Division, Syrus had plenty on his plate.
How to decide on a future direction, how to set recruitment targets, how to change the Division's image in outsiders' eyes, and most importantly, how to bring back former friends who had left. These were all things giving him headaches lately.
The silver lining was that since most of the attention was on Hikaru, the Combination Division hadn't faced much hostility.
"I see. That must be tough. Keep at it!"
Syrus gave a small nod and another shy grin.
He wasn't alone in this.
The Amazoness Sisters didn't concern themselves with administrative matters, but their fame was considerable. As the world's premier "Tag Duelists," their draw was nothing to sneeze at.
Beyond that, his good friend and the Combination Division's ace, Dennis, had been helping him all along. So even though there was plenty to do every day, Syrus was in high spirits.
Jaden excitedly asked Hikaru what he'd encountered in Domino City. Hikaru grinned, because he actually had something worth talking about.
"I watched Joey duel Rex! How about that!" Hikaru did his best to mimic Joey's card-showing gestures, but sadly lacked the facial dexterity to pull off those legendary expressions.
"WHAT!?" "Are you serious, Hikaru!?"
The two guys erupted in shock. Jaden beat his chest and stomped his feet, wailing about why he hadn't been there.
Lulu quietly asked Serena what the deal was with Joey and Rex. Serena's eyes lit up, sensing another chance to show off her limited knowledge to her sister, and quickly whispered the explanation.
A Legendary Duelist re-dueling the Legend itself!
Missing a scene like that, even if it was just an exhibition match, was a real shame.
Honestly, the whole duel had been completely one-sided. Hikaru could tell Joey had been holding back, even mentally prepared to lose after showing off his monsters if that was what it took.
It was only when he realized that Rex, with Hikaru's help, had long since moved past his old shadows, and that only lingering hesitation and doubt were holding him back, that Joey brought out the real deal.
Though it felt like there was still plenty hidden beneath the surface, none of that really mattered. What mattered was that Rex had felt the gap, and it had reignited his drive.
But regardless of the duel's outcome, Hikaru as a spectator had been incredibly excited.
After all, seeing original-series duelists, the OGs of the OGs, the very first "Duelists," compete at such close range had been genuinely thrilling. Even now, he still felt slightly dazed.
"Anyway, after that, I bought a huge pile of card boxes from old man Solomon's shop. Come on, come on, don't be shy, everyone can try their luck!" Hikaru flashed a generous smile and dumped all the card boxes he'd bought out of the Emerald Tablet, covering nearly half the table.
"Card packs from that legendary card shop?" Jaden asked, buzzing with excitement.
He'd been wanting to visit Domino City's card shop for a while now. If the GX Tournament hadn't been organized on short notice, he would've put every ounce of energy into winning his second-year school trip duel just to pick Domino City as the destination.
"That's right, these boxes have everything in them." Hikaru recalled for a moment, then held up his hands as he told them, "Rex even pulled an Xyz Monster from these boxes. It was insane."
"There are even Xyz Monsters in there?" Even Lulu couldn't help being surprised.
Though she was an Xyz Summon user who did possess Xyz Monsters, the reality was that even in her Xyz Dimension, Xyz Monsters were quite rare. Many students didn't have any at all.
And in this dimension, a card shop's packs actually contained Xyz Monsters?
"The old man said they're cards that Yugi obtained from various dimensions," Hikaru mused. "My guess is Yugi traveled through other dimensions under a false name, picked up cards, then gave them to the old man as a personal hobby."
In other words, these weren't the kind of cards put on display in Domino City shops to entice tourists. These were cards Yugi Muto had personally, physically visited game shops across other dimensions to purchase.
According to Solomon, Yugi had also bought all sorts of games from other worlds and left them in the shop too, partly as reference for future "game design" and partly to add to his grandfather's collection.
Solomon was getting on in years. His body couldn't handle going out to collect things anymore, so Yugi gathered interesting items on his behalf.
"Whoa, as expected of my idol." Hearing the description, Jaden gazed skyward, lost in reverie, but his hands moved fast. He immediately grabbed two card boxes that looked reddish in color.
He liked red.
"That's so sneaky, bro!" Syrus complained about Jaden's quick hands while picking out a card box of his own, curiously starting to open it.
Lulu wasn't sure if she should join in. Serena simply grabbed two card boxes, plopped them in front of Lulu, and started tearing into hers without a care.
Hmm.
When it came purely to luck, not a single person here could compare to Hikaru.
That's right. Not one could compare.
Because Hikaru's luck was rock bottom.
Even Lulu, arguably the unluckiest of them, wasn't necessarily worse off than him. After all, Lulu's bad luck in the original story was limited to her life circumstances. It didn't mean she was any worse than the other Bracelet Girls in other areas.
Jaden moved fastest. He opened two boxes and found nothing but commons and even Normal Monsters. But Hikaru didn't react.
After being in this world long enough, he'd gotten used to it.
In the world before he'd crossed over, Konami may have been devious, but in order to sell new cards, they either put effort into the artwork or the power level, so on average, each new format's cards were slightly stronger than the last.
Hikaru believed that even the Tearlaments, unrivaled on heaven and earth in the era before he'd crossed over, would eventually be powercrept. Maybe one day they'd end up like his favorite Spell Card, Spellbook of Judgment, evaluated as "outdated engine" and "not worth running even at three."
He'd always assumed Spellbook of Judgment would rot on the banlist for eternity, yet when it was finally freed, it barely made a ripple.
That was Konami for you.
But in this world, things were different.
Whether it was some mystical factor or something else entirely, the vast majority of cards you could pull from packs were useless little trinkets. Hikaru's starting deck had been full of bizarre odds and ends for exactly this reason.
It was because cards were simply too "rare."
Especially powerful, excellent cards. The moment someone discovered their value, forget finding them on the market. They'd be swept up without a trace.
Just like Future Fusion. Even Professor Crowler, with all his connections among professional duelists, aristocrats, and legendary duelist circles, couldn't locate a second copy.
So in this world, if you wanted to pull strong or novel cards from packs, you either needed to be like Jaden, whose powerful bond with Winged Kuriboh and Flame Wingman let him raw-pull Winged Kuriboh LV10 and Shining Flare Wingman, or you needed to be like Serena, who could pull a "Fusion Curse Creature - Dark" on pure luck alone.
Jaden opened two boxes and was surprised to find a "Comic Hero King Arthur."
"Huh? There are Xyz heroes too? But wait, the kanji is different. It's not the 'HERO' hero, it's a different 'hero'?" Jaden scratched his head, a little disappointed.
He could meet the summoning conditions, but unfortunately, it didn't seem to be a HERO.
"If you want it, you can trade one of your cards for it." Hikaru waved casually, not minding at all.
He couldn't use the card himself, and Tierra probably wouldn't be interested either. Among his spirits, Flame Swordsman or Dark Flare Swordsman might like it, but the Levels didn't quite line up.
"Hmm... nah, forget it." Jaden thought it over and shook his head.
Mainly because he couldn't think of anything worth trading to Hikaru.
If the Supreme King were still around and he could endlessly swipe cards from him, he could've offered some of his current cards to Hikaru as a trade and kept them as mementos. But that wasn't possible.
So, never mind.
Hikaru nodded, unsurprised.
Most of the cards were unusable, but Hikaru now had far more places to put spare cards. He could trade them to Magical Scientist, use them as alchemy materials, or share a bit of life force with the Sacred Beasts. In short, he wouldn't carelessly discard or waste any cards.
Lulu carefully opened a card pack.
She'd actually been doing quite well at the Academy lately. Outside of the Fusion Division, Serena's reputation wasn't great either. Combined with Leo Akaba's defeat, plenty of people enjoyed bothering Serena.
But Serena was a girl who preferred fists over words, so not many dared provoke her, and by extension, Lulu was also left in peace. The folks in the Fusion Division hadn't given her any trouble either, and had even taken time to teach her how to sense spirits.
She'd been feeling much more at ease recently, the panicked feeling in her heart finally fading.
She carefully laid the card pack flat, pushed the cards down, snipped open the top with scissors, opened the flap, and slid the cards out.
First card: Harpie Lady.
A Normal Monster. Perfectly normal.
But actually a rare card.
She didn't think much of it and kept going. And then, the last card turned out to be... Polymerization!?
Somewhat surprised, she looked up to hand the card to Hikaru. Hikaru saw this and smiled. "Keep it."
?
She tilted her head slightly.
"Since that card appeared in your hands, it means, Lulu, that perhaps it has some connection to you as well. Fusion has never been exclusive. Since you drew a Polymerization, it's yours.
Before you return to your own dimension, why not study a little at our school? Think of it like... like Alice in Wonderland. Enjoy life, enjoy dueling, enjoy a different direction of dueling."
Hikaru spoke gently.
Me... Fusion?
Lulu looked at the card in her hand, then back up at Hikaru. Under his encouraging gaze, she carefully tucked the card away.
At the same time...
"Whoa! Master!" Serena exclaimed.
What, what!?
Hikaru had been about to talk to Lulu more about Fusion, but Serena's shout made him whip his head around.
Everyone else looked up at the same moment.
And they saw...
A card glowing with golden light.
"I've never seen this card before!"
Hikaru glanced at it, then broke into a grin.
That panicked little girl in a maid outfit...
Isn't that Laundry?!
Dragonmaid Laundry!
After his amusement faded, Hikaru felt a surge of pleasant surprise.
He'd never heard of where the Dragonmaids had appeared in this world. He'd even asked around at the Mountain and nobody knew.
And today, Laundry had appeared!
"See? Having them open packs was definitely the right call." Tierra, seeing yet another unfamiliar card appear, voiced what Hikaru was thinking.
Serena's luck was truly something else!