The cool night breeze swept through the narrow alleys behind the LDS headquarters. Ryo dropped down from the warehouse roof by a broken window, his sneakers hitting the pavement with a soft, practiced thud. His hyper-alert senses immediately scanned the perimeter.
He leaned against the cold brick wall, pulling out his Duel Disk to check the residual energy readings he had mirrored from the warehouse grid. The data packets were still fluctuating wildly, painting deep darkish-purple wave patterns across the small screen.
"The Wraith Kuriboh wasn't just a defensive wall," Ryo analyzed, his red eyes reflecting the screen's dim glow. "By discarding it, he successfully baited Sawatari's final counter-trap, completely turning an inevitable draw into an absolute victory. That wasn't just card placement. That was an execution loop."
Ryo snapped his wrist, shutting off the screen as his gaze locked onto the dark opening of a nearby shipping lane.
"Who is there?" He said in a light tone.
"You shouldn't be out of bed, Ryoho Akaba." A smooth, professional voice echoed from the gloom.
"You have as ghostly presence as always, sensei." Ryo said, looking at the person.
"And yet, you can read it."
Doctor Kail stepped into the faint light of the streetlamp, his signature digital tablet tucked firmly under his arm. He wasn't wearing his lab coat, nor a uniform—just plain clothes. But his sharp, analytical eyes carried the same clinical weight as they did in the medical transport. His plain, round glasses reflected the light of the dim streetlamp.
Ryo didn't shift his stance. "The training room simulation cleared my vitals, Doctor. I'm operating at efficiency."
"Physically? Perhaps." Kail said, tapping the tablet screen to display Ryo's real-time breakdown. "But your cellular patterns are highly anomalous. Your body isn't just healing; it's burning fuel at an exponential rate to sustain these heightened cells and mental functioning. Reiji-sama's safety protocols are meant to keep you alive, not to act as a license for you to hunt ghosts in the dark."
"Safety protocols are for assets that need protection." Ryo replied, his voice dropping into a light but calculative register. "I don't need a cage, sensei. I need targets. The Xyz user and the other one... they are moving outside the network. If we rely strictly on Reiji's database calculations, we'll lose the grid before the real war even starts."
Doctor Kail looked at the data, a rare, unreadable expression crossing his face. "Your mother, Himika-sama, views your intellect as an indispensable weapon for the upcoming dimensional conflict. But a weapon that consumes its own lifespan just to sharpen its edge is a liability. You won't last long enough to see the end of the thing you are chasing so wildly if you keep forcing your grid past its limits."
"Then I'll just have to finish the calculation faster." Ryo said flatly, stepping past the physician without a second glance.
Kail didn't attempt to stop him. He simply watched the young man disappear into the darkness of night, noting the subtle, unnatural speed in his stride. "He isn't fighting to survive anymore," Kail thought, saving the file. "He's fighting to evolve... in exchange of his own."
# Lower Tower
Meanwhile, on the lower side, Yuto walked deep into the shadows of an abandoned assembly. The construction of a big building had been stopped halfway. His metal mask hissed slightly as he unlatched it, letting the cool evening air hit his face. His gray eyes were dark, filled with a heavy, restless exhaustion.
"You were reckless tonight," a sharp, familiar voice called out from the iron rafters above.
Shun Kurosaki dropped down, his real red scarf cutting through the mist. His expression was hardened, his arms crossed. "You exposed yourself to an LDS student just to ask about Reiji Akaba. Those loudmouths know nothing about the higher echelon and will make a greater fuss."
"He had the seal, Shun," Yuto countered quietly, leaning his head against a rusted iron beam. "I had to be certain. If the Leo Corporation is connected to Academia somehow here, we need to know how deep the roots go. Besides... there was a girl."
Shun's eyes narrowed, his gaze became dangerously. "A girl? We don't have time for bystanders, Yuto. Have you forgotten what they did to our home? To Ruri? Every second we waste playing savior to these citizens is a second the Fusion forces use to expand their reach!"
"She looked like her, Shun." Yuto's voice dropped to a whisper, his fist clenching against the cold iron. "When she stood between us, for a second, it felt like... like we weren't alone in this wasteland. I couldn't let him drag her into a fight alone."
Shun fell silent for a long moment, the anger in his eyes fading into a bitter, hollow sorrow. He looked away, staring out across the dark sky, toward the glowing skyline of Maiami City. "It doesn't matter what they look like. This city is living in a pristine illusion. They play with Solid Vision like it's a toy, completely unaware of the ash and blood raining down on our dimension."
Yuto looked down at his deck, sliding The Phantom Knights of Wraith Kuriboh from the slot. The small, fiend warrior on the artwork seemed to reflect his own fragmented soul. He slid it to the other slot and brought a black background card, an Xyz monster, Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon, to his vision.
"We aren't monsters, Shun." Yuto murmured, his thumb brushing the edge of the card. "We are survivors. If we lose our humanity just to destroy the enemy, then the Xyz Dimension truly dies with us."
"Humanity won't stop the Academia in the first place, Yuto." Shun said coldly, turning his back as he prepared to leap back into the shadows. "Only strength will. If the resistance wants to wander in freedom again, they need to be ready to cut down anyone standing in their way. Because next time... I won't stay in the wings."
With a sudden movement, Shun vanished into the dark architecture, leaving Yuto alone with the quiet hum of the winds. Yuto pulled his hood back over his face, latching the metal mask into place. The pieces were moving across Maiami City, and the grid was rapidly shrinking.
#Storage House
Sawatari, his lackeys, Yuya, and Yuzu all turned, staring at the newcomer with completely confused expressions.
The entire room went dead silent. Sawatari, still leaning heavily against a shipping container while his three lackeys frantically dusted off his designer jacket, stared at the newcomer as if he had just witnessed an alien landing. Yuya was completely detached from the situation; he couldn't understand a single thing that was happening.
Yuzu, her cheeks still sporting a prominent blush from the phantom duelist's parting words, was the first to break the silence. "A... a shonen protagonist?" she whispered, her voice cracking slightly as she looked at the young man's ridiculous, self-assured stance. "Who even are you people?!"
"Ah! The heroine speaks!" Razz pointed a dramatic finger at Yuzu, his eyes sparkling with excitement. "Fear not, maiden! I, Razz, have arrived from a far-off village to claim my rightful place at the peak of the Maiami Championship! Now, where is the villain?!" He turned his gaze directly toward Sawatari.
"Villain?" Sawatari snarled, pushing his lackeys away with an angry shove as his arrogance rushed back to fill the void of his confusion. "You country bumpkin! Do you have any idea who you're talking to? I am Shingo Sawatari! The top elite of the Leo Duel School! Do you even know my papa?!"
Razz blinked, looking Sawatari up and down with an entirely unimpressed gaze. "An elite? With a haircut that looks like a crushed banana? And why are you mounted on a wall? Real villains don't get flattened before the main character even gets off the bus."
Sawatari's face instantly turned a violent shade of crimson. "Why you...! I was caught off guard by a cheating dumpster-diver! If you want a piece of me, I'll show you what a real Monarch deck can do!"
"Whoa! Another person, huh?! That means I have to seize victory by defeating side-villain first!" Razz looked around the empty warehouse spaces.
"He already left," Yuzu said in a low voice, looking down because she couldn't look straight ahead at anyone.
"Gone?!" Razz deflated instantly, his shoulders slumping like a popped balloon. "You mean I missed the opening action sequence? Damn it! The old timers back at the village told me timing was everything! Damn it!"
His friend simply walked past him, casting a sharp, analytical glance around the warehouse. He stopped near a tattered piece of cloth left on the concrete floor. "Razz, look at the floor. The concrete is cracked, and the air still smells like ozone. A real duel happened here."
"Sawatari-san, these people are bad news!" All of Sawatari's lackeys grabbed him and began dragging him away, running like they were never going to run again.
"Oi! My piece isn't said yet! I will take my victory next time, Sakaki Yuya!" Sawatari's frantic shouts rapidly vanished into the distance as they dark into the night.
With the warehouse suddenly emptying out, his friend picked up the charred fabric remnant, his eyes narrowing as he felt the fading trace of real kinetic energy.
"Hey, look at me when I'm talking!" Razz grumbled, giving a natural, ridiculous rage. "The extras fled, the villain is unmounted, and the heroine won't even look at my handsome face. This premiere episode is a total flop!"
Yuya and Yuzu could only exchange a completely exhausted look. They left the place with a totally nonchalant feeling. Except for Yuzu.
Now only Razz and his friend were left.
Razz sighed. "This is where the protagonist is supposed to be, and the heroine falls for him after he saves her. And I am here..." Anger spurted on his face. "But you are here!"
"Not gonna happen." His friend said in a simple tone, analyzing the scrap before finally dropping it.
"I WASN'T TALKING IN THAT DIRECTION!" Razz bursted into rage mode.
"Don't yell," he said flatly, tossing the charred scrap of cloth back onto the cracked concrete. "We need a place to stay tonight, and yelling like an idiot in an abandoned shipyard isn't going to get us a room."
Razz crossed his arms, his fiery annoyance instantly melting back into a dramatic grumble. "You have absolutely zero adventure romanticism in your bones, you know that? We just arrived in the legendary Maiami City, crossed paths with an elite, stood in the residue of a real-life, unnatural clash, and all you can think about is a budget motel?"
"Yes," he replied, turning toward the warehouse exit. "Because unlike a shonen protagonist, I actually require sleep to function. Let's move, Razz."
Razz let out one final, exaggerated groan that echoed off the damp iron walls before jogging to catch up. "Fine, fine! But the legend of Razz officially begins at the championship grid! Just you wait!"
As their footsteps faded into the dark night...
After wandering around a lot of places in the city, Razz finally had a thought. "Oi, wasn't that boy with the girl Sakaki Yuya?"
"Yeah, he was. But we shouldn't get ourselves involved with high-profile people."
"But I heard they are gathering students for their school. Maybe we should check them out tomorrow."
He turned his head in direction of Razz. "What did I just tell you?"
Both continued on in a grumbling conversation.
# Experiment Chamber
The next day, it was an afternoon with a bright sun scorching over Maiami.
Reiji was inside the sealed chambers of the Leo Corporation testing facility.
"Commence Pendulum test," Reiji commanded. "With the Scale 1 D/D Savant Galilei and Scale 10 D/D Savant Kepler, I set the Pendulum Scale!"
Two brilliant pillars of light emerged behind Reiji, showing numbers in a stylized Pendulum font: 1 and 10.
"Scales established. Grid stable," the R&D technician reported.
"The great power that shakes my soul! Reside in my body and become the light that cuts through darkness!" Reiji chanted. "Pendulum Summon! Appear, my monsters!"
The portal burst open, and a great dark blast emerged onto the ground.
"The three ultimate gods that rule over all kings! D/D/D Doom King Armageddons!"
With the flash of light, only one Armageddon hit the middle of the chamber.
"An instability!" A technician stated.
Behind Reiji, the pillars abruptly changed their numbers: 1 glitched to 2, and 10 to 5.
Reiji stood shocked and confused.
"President! System error!" The technician shouted. "The parameters are rewriting themselves!"
The lone Armageddon violently exploded.
"Summon aborted! Total output zeroed."
Nakajima pressed the intercom from the observation deck. "Are you injured, President?"
"The shockwaves were absorbed. I am unharmed, Nakajima." Reiji replied, ejecting all the prototype card. "These won't do."
"Understood! Termination!"
Suddenly, a call came on Reiji's phone. He listened to the incoming report and immediately issued a command.
"Wait! Don't execute it just yet!" He ordered the Research and Development department.
"What happened, President?" Nakajima asked.
"A sudden call for a duel has come," Reiji said with a slight smile. "We might have to test this on new subjects."