"Kira... Are you sure you'll be okay?"
Mokuba watched as Kira climbed into Paradox's massive Duel Runner, still feeling uneasy.
"I'll be fine," Kira smiled and waved. "Maybe I'll be back soon."
It was impossible to understand the perpetual motion engine and all this future tech so quickly, but at least KaibaCorp's think tank had figured out how to operate the machines in the past two days. Even if they couldn't develop them, just using them wasn't a problem.
Kira soon received an instruction manual and got a rough idea of how to use the device.
Mokuba nodded, "Alright. But once you're there, I'm afraid we won't have any way to contact you or help you at all. You'll have to be careful."
"Got it."
That was his plan anyway.
The Duel Runner roared to life. He heard its engine thunder. The world seemed to twist in an instant, the people and buildings around him vanishing as if dissolving into flowing auroras. Green, purple, and blue bands of light twisted together like a dazzling river.
The scenery before his eyes changed rapidly, countless images flashing past like slides.
The phantom of an Egyptian God flew over the tip of a pyramid; a stern magician in black robes stood firm on the earth; a white dragon radiated brilliant light; a cosmic hero from outer space streaked toward Earth as a fireball...
A silver dragon swept across the sky, leaving a starlit road in its wake. A golden-armored warrior cleaved the void with a single slash, while dimensional rifts crackled with lightning. A dragon with heterochromatic eyes roared beneath the stars, and a data storm conjured a new draconic overlord...
Each image represented a different timeline, an emblem of its era.
After a dizzying trip through auroras and visions, a blinding white light flashed, the flow of time and space seemingly left behind. A new world opened its arms to him, revealing its true face.
When he came to, Kira found himself floating high in the air.
Looking down, he saw a modern city filled with skyscrapers. Glass facades reflected sunlight like countless mirrors. Cars streamed along the streets, and pedestrians looked as tiny as ants. Uniquely shaped skyscrapers pierced the clouds, their rooftop lightning rods glinting in the sun.
Further out, a wide river cut the city in half like a sharp blade.
On this side of the river, skyscrapers sparkled in the sunlight, luxury cars gliding along the roads, well-dressed people enjoying afternoon tea at outdoor cafes. Across the river, though, was a dense sprawl of dilapidated low-rises, roofs covered with rusty metal. The streets were narrow and crowded, looking like disaster ruins that had never been rebuilt.
Most conspicuous on the ruined side was an unfinished bridge, jutting stubbornly toward the other bank like a hand yearning to touch. The bridge stopped abruptly over the river, rebar jutting out like broken bones.
That was the Daedalus Bridge.
Kira recognized it at once.
This city was once Domino City, the city of duels, home of Yugi, and the stage for Yu-Gi-Oh's stories. A disaster had split the city in two.
One half was the wealthy "Tops" district, the other the abandoned "Satellite" slums. The unfinished Daedalus Bridge symbolized the Satellite people's resistance to oppression and their desire for freedom.
This was the era of 5DS.
Kira set his device to track the anomaly in this timeline's history. Since he landed here, the anomaly must be around this time.
But what exactly was wrong remained to be investigated. For now, he'd get a feel for this world.
And see if this future dimension had any interesting cards.
Kira landed quietly, blending into the new Domino City.
Whether it was because this was a future timeline or a different dimension, the new Domino was nothing like the old one he remembered.
Many familiar streets and places were gone, not even their shadows left. Even the KaibaCorp headquarters, once the symbol of the city, was nowhere to be seen.
That surprised Kira greatly—he'd thought KaibaCorp would stand until the end of civilization.
But after asking around, he learned that KaibaCorp hadn't gone bankrupt—it had just moved. Apparently, after developing the perpetual motion engine, KaibaCorp made huge strides in space technology and moved its headquarters to a space station.
So, nothing to worry about.
But there was no news about the president—no one seemed to know when Kaiba Seto had last been seen.
About eighteen years ago, Domino suffered the world-shocking disaster known as "Zero Reverse." The first perpetual motion engine, Ener-D, went out of control, splitting the city as it stood today.
After the disaster, the city was rebuilt and renamed "New Domino City." It seemed that after that, no one ever heard from Seto Kaiba again.
Curious, Kira wandered into a random card shop. As expected, even a roadside store in this different timeline and future era had cards he'd never been able to obtain before.
However, when Kira picked up a booster pack to buy, he suddenly realized—he was broke.
Right, the currency here was different. Back in his original timeline, he was rich, but here, he was penniless again.
Of course, there was a universal currency—cards! In the world of Yu-Gi-Oh, cards were the hardest currency, valuable across all worlds.
But he hadn't thought of this problem, and all the cards he carried were his own decks, which he didn't want to trade.
No big deal.
Kira's gaze quickly landed on a nearby dueling arena.
In this era, the city had many dueling venues for citizens to duel and practice. Some of these offered the "card wager" rules.
Even in another dimension, this was a duelist's world—making money with duels was easy.
So, ten minutes later, Kira was already on the dueling stage.
His first opponent was actually a uniformed officer—a security agent with a helmet and police badge.
Kira raised an eyebrow.
Sector Security?
He remembered that, in this era, the Sector Security had its own special duel pursuit squads.
"Heh, you dare accept my challenge even knowing I'm with the pursuit squad?"
The officer sneered. "You must be pretty confident, huh?"
Kira played humble.
"I just want to learn from the strong. Please go easy on me, sir."
Hearing himself called "strong," the officer laughed, feeling much better.
"No problem. I promise you'll be satisfied. Come! Let me show you how the pros duel!"
…