"Mama mia, what did you just say?!"
In the principal's office, Dr. Crowler was on the phone, firing question after question at the person on the other end.
"How could this happen?! You told us that dimension was absolutely safe! Where's Zane?! Where's Bastion?!"
"Well... Acting Principal Crowler, please calm down. They're missing, not dead..."
"Outstanding graduates and current students of Duel Academy have gone missing in a world they've never set foot in, and you expect me to be CALM?!"
Dr. Crowler slammed his palm on the desk, pounding out his fury with each demand.
Beside him, Vice-Chancellor Bonaparte, in a rare departure from his usual contrarian nature, didn't argue with Crowler. Instead, he chimed in with full support.
Zane Truesdale and Bastion Misawa were treasures of Duel Academy. Both were renowned duelists from the GX Tournament. Zane in particular had been hailed as the "World's Premier Cyber Duelist" and was the former principal's prized student. And now they were missing in another dimension?
There was no way they could accept that.
"This is infuriating!"
After a while, Dr. Crowler slammed the phone down, still seething.
Things had been going well for him lately, despite all the strange incidents. During the Darkness affair, his leadership as acting head of the school, his steady organization and delegation, had earned him the respect and recognition of many professors and teachers. Becoming the official principal was no longer a far-fetched idea.
And after the incident, for reasons he couldn't explain, he felt revitalized. His body, worn down from years of mortgage payments and overwork, seemed renewed. Even his dueling felt sharper than before.
Every sign pointed to the peak of his career, perhaps his life, arriving at last!
But then.
At this very moment, Kaiba Corporation called to tell him...
His beloved student Zane Truesdale and the brilliant Bastion Misawa had vanished!
"Missing" was perhaps too strong. More precisely, the two of them had been scattered during upheaval in the Xyz Dimension.
"Mama mia, how am I supposed to explain this to Syrus and Hikaru's group?!"
Setting aside whether the students' families and corporate sponsors would demand answers, the question of how to tell Zane's brother and Bastion's friends was a monumental problem in itself.
Kaiba Corporation had assured them that while the Xyz Dimension carried some risk, they would prioritize the students' safety above all else.
And the result?!
Besides, Zane was one thing. Though he maintained ties with the school after graduation and Crowler had personally arranged his professional career, he was technically no longer a student. But Bastion Misawa was an active, enrolled student!
Dr. Crowler felt dizzy. He stood up, his body swaying, on the verge of collapsing.
Vice-Chancellor Bonaparte rushed to steady him.
"Are you alright, Acting Principal Crowler?"
"I'm... I'm fine."
Crowler pressed his hand to his forehead.
Because of the Darkness Incident, he and Bonaparte had lost the appetite for their usual bickering. When Crowler was out on patrol, Bonaparte handled coordination, and vice versa.
Thanks to this arrangement, their relationship had improved considerably.
RING RING RING.
The phone rang again. He reached out and picked it up.
"Good news! Great news, Principal Crowler!"
It was the same person from before.
Dr. Crowler took a deep, steadying breath.
Timid and meek as he could be, if this person dared bring up something unrelated to his students, he would march to Kaiba Corporation personally and shake the meaning of "great news" out of them.
But then...
His eyes lit up.
What? What did you say?
They found them?!
Thank goodness!
He hadn't expected them to be located so quickly. His face broke into a beaming smile.
But just as fast, the smile froze.
It turned out that the Xyz Dimension had experienced an "internal conflict." Calling it internal wasn't quite accurate either. In short, a large-scale duel had broken out, and mixed into the chaos were individuals resembling "dark duelists" who wielded monsters called "Numbers." These people had thrown the Xyz Dimension into turmoil, and once the dust settled, a violent dimensional shockwave followed.
At the time, Bastion and Zane had happened to be watching that very duel.
Hearing this, Crowler pressed his hand to his forehead, though he couldn't bring himself to blame the two students.
As proud members of Duel Academy, not only was spectating such a duel understandable, but fighting those "evil" duelists for the sake of justice and light wouldn't have been unusual either.
And besides...
Number monsters. Those were the ones Hikaru had mentioned, weren't they?
That gave him a rough picture.
Sigh...
As expected, no matter what dimension, no matter what world, true peace was never possible.
He had assumed that while his own school was facing "Darkness," Zane and Bastion would have been safe from such disasters. He never imagined the two would get caught up in an incident in another dimension entirely.
And unlike at Duel Academy, they had been completely on their own out there...
If they had been at the school, with students and teachers working together, he couldn't guarantee they would overcome every challenge, but it would have been far more reassuring than being stranded without support.
The person from Kaiba Corporation continued with their explanation of events in the Xyz Dimension.
First, the Xyz Dimension's leader, a scientist named Dr. Faker, had told them he could understand and accept that a small group of outlaws from their dimension had attacked the Xyz Dimension, rather than it being an organized invasion.
Likewise, he regretted that people from the Fusion Dimension had gone missing due to issues within his own dimension and his personal affairs.
But he couldn't fully trust the Fusion Dimension either.
In fact, at this point, he trusted no one except his eldest son.
Under these circumstances, they could resume cooperation and negotiations, but the venue could absolutely not be in either of their own worlds.
Then he mentioned something unexpected...
Apparently, a dimension that used "Synchro Summoning" was hosting a massive tournament open to all humans and all "gods."
If his calculations were correct, the professional duelists and students from the Fusion Dimension had likely been swept into that dimension during the shockwave, making the tournament a method of finding them as well.
Compared to the Xyz Dimension, which was difficult to work with and had previously been attacked by the Fusion Corps, their dimension had a much smoother relationship with the Synchro Dimension. They had even established contact with the Synchro Dimension's chief law enforcer. So the Kaiba Corporation representative felt this proposal was sound. After consulting Seto Kaiba and confirming that Kaiba had no objections, they approved the strategy of conducting discussions in a "third-party dimension."
In short, Kaiba Corporation would assemble a three-person team to participate in the Synchro Dimension's dueling tournament.
Under these arrangements, Kaiba Corporation could request accompanying personnel and spectators. Since the people who went missing in the Xyz Dimension were all students of Duel Academy, the school could apply to send students there.
What if they found them?
And with the Synchro Dimension's law enforcement assisting in the search, they might be located quickly.
With that reasoning, the Kaiba Corporation representative had rushed to contact Dr. Crowler.
"When exactly is this happening?"
"After this semester ends. The Synchro Dimension is still planning and preparing. There's still some time. Naturally, the Xyz Dimension is waiting on the Synchro Dimension's schedule."
"A few months..." Crowler muttered.
He was deeply anxious.
A few months!
Could Zane and Bastion find proper food? Could they find somewhere to sleep? He had heard that the Synchro Dimension had terrible class divisions, and...
Every one of these was a problem!
But out of trust in Kaiba Corporation, Dr. Crowler held back and didn't press further.
This was also the benefit of the sterling reputation Kaiba Corporation had maintained through years of global operations. If Kaiba Corporation were the typical giant conglomerate or financial oligarchy, rather than a company that poured everything into advancing the world of dueling, they would never have earned this much trust.
Given all that... he would simply have to wait.
"Sigh..."
He let out a long breath. Nothing to be done. First, he needed to apologize to the two students' families.
At the same time, he began thinking about who to send.
Ah...
Speaking of the Xyz Dimension.
If he brought Ruri along, that might earn them quite a bit of goodwill, right? After all, it was a student from their academy who had saved people from the Xyz Dimension.
As the thoughts kept coming, he resumed his sighing with Vice-Chancellor Bonaparte.
You never knew how much trouble an academy could produce until you were the one running it.
One thing after another...
Evening.
Hikaru stretched as he returned from the Gladiator Beast Dimension to the Macro Cosmos Workshop.
No Fusion Corps in the Gladiator Beast Dimension. Disappointing.
The Gladiator Beast Dimension was essentially a massive colosseum. Countless spirits engaged in all manner of competitions every day, which meant Hikaru, as a human visitor, also had to participate in various trials to prove himself.
But whether it was because Hikaru's reputation preceded him, the moment he arrived, he heard murmurs of: "The GX champion?!" "A genius among geniuses!" "That's the Absolute Fusion Master!"
Even though Hikaru had never appeared before other Gladiator Beasts in person, it seemed many spirits in the dimension already idolized him. Because of that, Andal, who had been the lowest-ranking spirit and a slave in the Gladiator Beast Dimension, was suddenly elevated to the status of a glorified warrior and awarded several medals of valor in rapid succession.
This left Andal so giddy that the big bear could do nothing but scratch the back of his head and grin like an idiot.
Before the trial duels, the prerequisites were a triathlon and a fighting match. Hikaru wasn't worried about the triathlon. As for the fighting, since Hikaru was human and an idol to the vast majority of spirits there, he only needed to arrange a spirit to fight on his behalf.
Hikaru had originally planned to send Flame Swordsman or Captain White Crystal, but Andal volunteered, saying he wanted to show off his progress.
And honestly, despite still looking as bumbling and adorable as ever, Andal's spirit power was now quite impressive.
The reasoning was simple.
As one of the original veterans, Andal usually served as a guard alongside Flame Swordsman and Captain White Crystal. But in most situations, Hikaru called on White Crystal first. And once Tierra had recovered half her strength, even White Crystal and Flame Swordsman rarely appeared. Tierra handled everything herself.
Andal didn't have any specialized skills like the other spirits. No alchemy, no gem crafting, no mechanical engineering. Beyond helping out, all he could do was stand around.
Figuring he couldn't just idle every day and set a bad example for the newer spirits, he devoted every moment outside of his duties to training.
With the Philosopher's Stone providing a continuous flow of energy and daily, relentless exercise, surpassing ordinary spirits here was hardly surprising.
The duels that followed were straightforward.
The Gladiator Beast Dimension didn't have particularly powerful spirits. Otherwise, it wouldn't have so readily partnered with the Fusion Corps. For the Gladiator Beasts, as long as your combat prowess was sufficient, you could claim their power. Hikaru quickly defeated his opponents and earned Gladiator Beast Augustus and Gladiator Beast Blindfighter.
He also obtained what he had been dreaming of: Slave Fusion, a card that could fuse slave monsters and Special Summon a Gladiator Beast Fusion Monster, ignoring its Summoning conditions.
That said, this first challenge wasn't the end.
The Gladiator Beast Dimension was a world of combat, one enormous arena. By its rules, you couldn't challenge high-ranking spirits from the start, no matter how famous you were. Even Hikaru, a celebrity in the spirit world and a renowned alchemist, had to follow protocol and work his way up rank by rank.
This time he completed this tier. Next time, he could challenge the "Commander." The time after that, the "Legatus."
That was simply how the Gladiator Beast Dimension worked.
Bottom line: a dimension that didn't care about good or evil. As long as you proved yourself in the arena, you could take any spirit you wanted.
"If I'd known, I would have come sooner. Working up rank by rank, it'll take forever to earn Domitianus and Heraklinos." Hikaru felt a twinge of regret. He had seen the Gladiator Beasts' supreme leader, Domitianus, but by their rules, he wasn't eligible to challenge it yet.
Tierra didn't add much.
From her observation, the Gladiator Beast Dimension wasn't a particularly powerful one. Coming here now didn't seem to offer Hikaru much.
Just then, Universalmelt Alchemist came sprinting toward them, shouting at Hikaru: "Master! Something's wrong! I found a problem!"
"What is it?" Hikaru asked.
"Quick, look!"
Universalmelt played a recording.
A recording from the World of Selfless Art?
Hadn't they already reviewed this?
But then Universalmelt began zooming out. Out, and out, scaling down exponentially.
Only then did Hikaru notice. The gallery was contracting. That so-called "gallery," that seemingly living gallery, that space in constant motion, was slowly merging into a single form. It wasn't changing. It was "folding" in on itself, rippling like creased fabric.
Hikaru's eyes widened. His pupils contracted.
After hundreds of contractions, the gallery of the World of Selfless Art gradually resolved into a single, colossal eyeball!
It wasn't a gallery at all!
It was the eye of some living creature!
That eye was saturated with red light. This was the true nature of the "World of Selfless Art"!
The dimension wasn't devoid of spirits!
The entire World of Selfless Art was the body of a single "spirit"!
Tierra's jaw dropped. "This... A spirit this massive? Its scale is on par with the Light of Destruction."
"Hikaru, what do you think... Hikaru?!"
Tierra called his name again and again. Universalmelt, startled, set everything down and rushed to wake him, but in the next instant, a premonition of death seized its heart, freezing it in place.
Countless purple puppet strings materialized from thin air, wrapped around its body, and hurled it into a trash heap with a crash.
It was still alive.
"Hikaru?! Hikaru!" Tierra slapped his back.
"Ah... oh."
He snapped out of it.
"Phew..." Tierra exhaled in deep relief, then glared at Universalmelt. The alchemist spirit was petrified, not daring to move, lying flat in the garbage pile.
"Next time... take proper precautions and plan ahead, understood? Don't you have any experimental discipline?!"
"Y-Yes, ma'am!"
Universalmelt lowered its head.
It had been too hasty this time. Since watching the recording hadn't affected itself, it assumed Hikaru would be fine and rushed over without thinking.
Tierra snorted, then turned back to Hikaru. "How do you feel? Nauseous? Dizzy?"
Seeing that he was responsive, she scanned him with her abilities, ran the numbers, and confirmed no changes had occurred. Only then did she fully relax.
Made sense.
Hikaru was a human who had been directly struck by the red light before. Even if he couldn't withstand the red light's source entity, he shouldn't have been knocked unconscious by a derivative. At most, a moment of mental disorientation.
"I'm fine."
Hikaru shook his head.
He hadn't been hurt.
He was just... a little confused.
He seemed to have gained some new memories.
What did it mean that the Gladiator Beasts had a Level 12 Fusion Monster called "Emperor" that required 5 Gladiator Beasts to be returned from the field and Graveyard to the Deck and Extra Deck to Special Summon, and could grant its controller a second Battle Phase when Special Summoned?
The Gladiator Beasts had a monster like that?