Jack and Yusei returned to base together. After Jack came back, the two children ran anxiously to his side, worried about his body. Hikaru, after seeing that Jack seemed to have no major injuries, prioritized inspecting the D-Wheel first.
Wheel of Fortune was a very special D-Wheel. Because its basic structure was a peculiar "wheel," it had an extraordinary attribute unlike other D-Wheels, namely, sturdiness!
Although other D-Wheels were tough too, able to absorb most impacts, if someone specifically targeted the D-Wheel itself, danger could still arise. But because of Wheel of Fortune's very design, to prevent it from breaking apart or shattering, the Security Bureau had always demanded it be manufactured to an extremely high standard. So its sturdiness could be called the best among all D-Wheels.
Whether because of this or not, whenever any accident occurred, Jack was very easily thrown clear. The person went down, but the vehicle was still fine.
But because of this, once Wheel of Fortune did break down, it was also the hardest to repair.
Fortunately, Wheel of Fortune really was tough and rugged.
Then, next up was to check on Jack's body.
Compared to Crow's invincible physique, Jack's body was nowhere near as durable. Whether because he frequently participated in performances or not, it was actually in fairly bad shape. But when Hikaru inspected him, he found no major issues inside the body, only surface wounds. A few days of rest would do.
"Whew." Yusei let out a sigh of relief.
Compared to the duel's outcome, he of course cared more about Jack's physical condition.
"Since that's the case, let's rest for two days first. In any case, we should be nearing intermission time soon."
Taking Team 5D's as an example, they had already participated in a full five duels, and after nine duels, they would move on to the official, genuine "WRGP" tournament.
Team 5D's current prospects for advancing were still very good, so there was still room for trial and error.
But compared to them, the situations of other teams were varied and diverse.
Currently, aside from Team Despair and Team New World, various teams had slowly begun showing some weaknesses and flaws. Although the most outstanding teams could always secure winning streaks, some of the more "special" teams weren't performing very well.
The representative of these was Team Pendulum.
Even though they, from the Pendulum Dimension, used different summoning methods, and each summoning method looked pretty good in play, in the end there was still a small gap between them and "true" professional Synchro users.
Making matters worse, on top of the extremely unlucky matchup against Hikaru, they'd also run into Team Despair through bad luck.
Four matches, two losses.
That was the unfortunate side of random matchmaking.
If it had been a "Swiss round" format, they would have only been paired against teams at their one-loss level now, and would absolutely not be facing this kind of powerhouse team.
Precisely because of this, Declan Akaba, who had always sat back and stayed out of it, had no choice but to take the field himself, in order to secure the win rate going forward.
And precisely because of this, when the name "Declan Akaba" was heard, quite a few teams showed clear commotion.
For instance, the Fusion Diplomacy Team, and Team Moonwind Bird.
After all, the surname "Akaba" carried a certain "meaning" for them.
But considering that the Xyz Dimension also had a person called Kite Tenjo, everyone didn't overreact. They just paid closer attention to this person.
Two more days passed, and after essentially all teams had run their five matches, the WRGP officials announced a suspension of the event, with a three-day break.
This would be a rare opportunity. Because during this time, the entire City would be fully opened, and all contestants could freely go to any location. Except for the "Taichi Garden" at the very top of the City, they could visit nearly any place.
For any contestant, this was quite important.
For one, some teams to this day still didn't want to add members and only had three contestants. They desperately needed rest time. Even a superhuman-caliber team like Team Ragnarok, after high-intensity Turbo Duels, couldn't help but feel weary. Being able to properly relax for two days, to relieve physical and mental fatigue, was as good as it got.
On another front, whether it was the Synchro Dimension's own city government, or the teams that had come from the Fusion, Xyz, and Pendulum Dimensions, they weren't really here purely to compete. More than that, they had come for diplomatic activity.
These three days would also let those responsible for negotiations properly sit down and talk.
Although dueling was very important, communication between the various dimensions couldn't really be left aside like that.
Whether it was the Fusion Dimension's dimensional teleportation technology, the Pendulum Dimension's solid-image technology, or the Xyz Dimension's space-time and artificial intelligence technology, all were rather absurd and beyond what the other dimensions had anticipated.
Of course, the Synchro Dimension's own "perpetual motion machine" was also, to the other dimensions, a truly stunning and hard-to-believe invention.
With this thing, one could almost solve the vast majority of urgent problems that other dimensions faced.
For instance, the Fusion Dimension's dimensional-gate technology had already been developed rather comprehensively, but due to a shortage of energy, even with the Kaiba Corporation's support, Duel Academy could only send its most outstanding few students on inter-dimensional travel each month.
If they could obtain the perpetual motion machine, that would be quite meaningful for the Fusion Dimension.
Elsewhere, Declan Akaba pushed up his glasses.
The meeting was proceeding smoothly. Every dimension felt it was gaining a lot from its side. Even beside Kite Tenjo of the Xyz Dimension, who was sitting there spacing out, a specialized robot was engaged in heated discussion.
Every dimension had brought out its own dimension's unique offerings to share with the other dimensions, then obtain in return the things more "worth it" for them.
But for some reason, Declan Akaba faintly had a sense of crisis.
Infinite energy, perpetual motion machine technology... should this technology really be brought back to his own world?
For some reason, he was extremely uneasy. But where this unease came from, he didn't know.
Even that goddess called Sophia herself actually had no interest in the perpetual motion machine. What she cared about more was this world's destruction, pollution, and the hostility and bullying between human and human.
Having spent some time in this dimension, he had noticed that although Sophia claimed Tierra would reset the world, if Sophia were given the chance, she would definitely reset this world too, because in her eyes the people of this world were "failed" and "flawed."
She held no malice toward humanity, toward the world, toward Synchro. She simply didn't like a wretched world and a broken environment.
To put it another way, from Declan Akaba's point of view, she counted as an "extremist environmentalist goddess."
But she herself wasn't particularly hostile toward technology. She just wasn't interested in it.
So the unease in his heart absolutely did not come from Sophia.
Then what was it from?
Why was it that the Fusion Dimension's and Xyz Dimension's technologies didn't give him this same sense of danger?
He had to figure this out. Otherwise he would absolutely not bring the perpetual motion machine technology back to his own dimension. Even if he had to shoulder scorn, he would absolutely not do it.
While they were deliberating on these matters, Shay Obsidian, who had been sitting off to the side listening the whole time, folded his arms with a cold expression. Listening to the increasingly heated atmosphere, he stayed silent.
Although Kite Tenjo was sitting right next door in the adjacent conference room, he had no intention of going out to acknowledge him at this moment.
Because negotiating with the Fusion Dimension was, in his view, itself unacceptable. So when he heard that "Orbital 7" discussion growing more and more animated, and more and more pleasant, he gave a couple of cold snorts and left.
The Fusion Dimension surely still had schemes and plots it hadn't yet deployed. Even the Synchro Dimension's famous team had been infiltrated. He could no longer trust anyone else.
Only dueling, and only himself!
He would rely on his own strength to break through the Fusion Dimension's schemes and rescue his little sister.
Precisely because of this, he decided to seize this opportunity to leave the City Hall, hide his identity once again, head into the City, search for this world's secrets and seek out the Fusion Dimension's secrets.
Those two girls he'd seen earlier who looked very much like his little sister had left him quite preoccupied.
At this moment, Jack too silently left his team.
In fact, Jack had already decided a few days ago to leave the team and head to the noble quarter. But because there were still duels to fight, his heart couldn't rest easy, so he'd never left.
Now, with the intermission time, he'd decided to depart.
Under cover of night, he stole out of the base. But unexpectedly...
"Jack." Outside the base, Hikaru was holding some kind of device, carefully observing the sky.
He heard the sound of someone coming out and, without so much as looking, called out Jack's name.
"Hikaru, why are you here?"
Hikaru lowered the transparent goggles in his hand and shook his head, unable to help smiling: "Jack, you've got 'burdened by heavy thoughts' written all over your face all day. You don't actually think other people can't tell, do you?"
Yusei, Crow, which of them wasn't a person of keen perception? Especially Crow, who was practically the mother of the team, able to predict what Jack would eat and drink before he did. Watching Jack be preoccupied all day, how could Crow not know what Jack was planning to do?
"Are you planning to go out and do something?"
"I don't need to tell you!" Jack said stubbornly.
"Ha, fair enough." Hikaru smiled.
Different people are different. Jack's flaws lay in his character, but so did his virtues.
"But Yusei and the others will worry about you."
"It's fine!" Jack waved his hand, gaze firm, and said: "Amagi, if they ask, all you need to tell them is that the King has gone to seek a power worthy of the King's name!"
"Do you need any help?" Hikaru pressed further.
He and Jack had cooperated back at Peach Blossom Spring. He'd handled the artificial god created by Divine and Darkness, while Jack, under cover of the duel, had rescued the controlled children with psychic power.
Honestly, that was quite a great feat, more important than Crow's earlier rescue of two upper-class children. But Jack had never once publicized it. To this day, most people seemed to know only that Hikaru had once rescued people.
Because in Jack's view, the King needed no explanations. The King rescuing his own subjects was only natural.
This was also one of the reasons Hikaru was quite friendly to this world's Jack Atlas.
He truly did have the magnanimity of a king. His only problem was that he didn't yet have the mind of a king.
Just as Crow had said when complaining about him, Jack was too childish.
"Thank you, Amagi." Jack took a deep breath and remained silent for a long while. "But a true duelist should trust his own judgment! Just as you never doubt Fusion, my path as king will be opened by me and walked by me."
Hikaru gave a helpless smile.
Sure enough.
But that was fine too.
Hikaru shook his head, took the transparent goggles off, and tossed them to Jack. Jack stretched out both hands, caught them carefully, and looked at Hikaru.
"What are these?"
"Goggles you can use to observe Earthbound Immortals."
"How did you know!" Jack was startled speechless.
Hikaru smiled and raised his left hand. The Dark Sign on it flickered faintly in and out of view. "You tell me, Jack. Did you really think no one could see the Earthbound Immortal's power inside Red Nova Dragon?"
Jack was stunned for a moment, then burst into loud laughter.
"Well then, just wait for my good news!"
He put on the goggles, laughed loudly, and was about to head out. But after only a couple of steps, he suddenly thought again.
Since everyone already knew, what was the point of the disguise?
He jogged back the whole way, and under Hikaru's teasing gaze, in a single stride he was on his vehicle. Driving Wheel of Fortune, with a rumble, he left the base.
Hikaru shook his head, gathered his things, and prepared to set out too.
Earlier, he'd received an invitation from Syrus. Syrus had a special dimensional coordinate, or rather, dimensional card, in his possession.
Only, it wasn't a normal dimensional-coordinate card, but a rather peculiar card, and even he didn't know exactly how it was supposed to be used.
Earlier, when Hikaru had exposed his identity on the arena, Syrus had gotten in touch with him and wanted to ask Hikaru, the specialist, how it was meant to be used. But because of competition rules, he'd had no way to sit down and properly discuss cards with Hikaru. Now that there was time, Hikaru naturally had to head over and look into it.
After all, Zane Truesdale and Bastion Misawa were his friends too. Their now inexplicably ending up on the "City Hall" team was surely something with peculiar circumstances about it. If Syrus really did have some way of awakening them, then Hikaru certainly had to help.
He drove along the route from memory. Halfway there, he suddenly stopped.
This place was... it looked like Serena and the others' team base.
He frowned slightly.
"Let's go check on Serena first. In any case, the Fusion Dimension side should still be in negotiations. There's time." Tierra, who was also a bit worried about that silly girl, suggested to Hikaru.
Hikaru thought about it and, sure enough, agreed.
Actually, he wasn't very worried about Serena.
If anything, he was a bit worried about Yugo.
Those three girls had better not be treating Yugo like a slave and ordering him around!
But on the way there, Hikaru suddenly caught a glimpse of a black shadow flitting across the rooftops. Hikaru was instantly startled, then quickly called out to D-Horse, telling it to keep an eye on the target, and gave chase.
That strange figure flickered from house to house, and Hikaru gave hot pursuit. Chasing and chasing, he suddenly ran the target into a dead-end alley.
Beside Hikaru's ear, a "Hmph" rang out.
Hikaru laughed under his breath.
Underestimating him too much.
The next instant, Hikaru didn't dodge at all and charged straight into the dead end. The other person seemed startled, panic entering his voice. The next instant, he watched in shock as Hikaru drove his D-Wheel straight up the wall!
"What!?"
Watching Hikaru pull off a vertical ascent, this mystery person cried out in terror, then, realizing something, hurriedly tried to dodge somewhere else. But no matter how fast two legs could be, once he'd lost his "displacement" advantage, he was still caught by Hikaru.
Thud.
When they came to their senses, the two of them, one in front and one behind, had landed back on the ground.
And this place was exactly where the two of them had once met before.
Hikaru offhandedly removed his helmet, set it on the handlebar, and looked at the person opposite with wariness.
"As expected of the strongest Fusion duelist."
Was he seeking Hikaru out on purpose?
Hikaru raised an eyebrow.
"Who are you?"
"Hmph, who I am is none of your business!"
With that said, this mysterious black-clad figure whipped off his coat with a whoosh. The tattered coat billowed in the wind like the wings of a bird of prey. And the Duel Disk on his hand, even more, glinted like sharp talons, giving off a pitch-black hue.
An Xyz Dimension Duel Disk?
Hikaru scanned it and recognized the Duel Disk.
Could it be...
"Come, strongest Fusion user!!"
"...Fine."
Hikaru's eyes snapped wide, his aura shifting abruptly. The Duel Disk on his left hand rotated automatically, flickering with a powerful purple glow.
"Duel!" ×2.
Hikaru, LP: 4000. Mystery person, LP: 4000.