Spirit Team, LP: 8000→6000.
"The effect of Dimension Fusion is that both players Special Summon to the field as many of their banished cards as possible.
I have two banished Monsters."
"Uh, I've got none." Yuma scratched his head.
"Then I'll Special Summon myself, and my other battleship—Kozmo Dark Destroyer!"
Unlike the pitch-black Eclipser, the Destroyer was completely silver-white. Bathed in crimson laser light, it shone especially bright and dazzling against the vast starry sky of the Cosmos.
Kozmo Dark Destroyer, LV 8, Dark Attribute, Machine-Type, ATK 3000.
"Total Attack Power 7900 points. Yuma, going first with just one Hope on your field looks kinda dangerous." Astral turned to Yuma and said.
"Uh, I—I know that already!" Yuma felt a bit embarrassed and forced himself to say, "Besides, Hope can detach an Xyz Material to block one attack, so it's not that dangerous yet—"
"Effect of Dark Destroyer: when this card is Special Summoned, you can target 1 Monster on the field; destroy that target." Rose swung her crimson lightsaber and pointed at Hope. "I've heard Number Monsters can only be destroyed by battle with other Number Monsters, right?
But in the end, that effect is still just a Monster Effect. As long as I destroy it by effect, it doesn't matter."
"Eh..." Cold sweat ran down Yuma's face; he looked especially nervous.
When he Dueld Kamishiro Ryoga before, he'd already suffered from this, so he wasn't surprised that his opponent thought of it.
But the key point wasn't that—
The key point was that Hope was the only Monster he had on the field!
The Destroyer locked onto the Mechanical Warrior, its red rail cannon slowly charging before firing in a blast!
KA-BOOM!!!!
The entire Hokuto Star shook under that massive bombardment, yet the Mechanical Warrior still used its Greatsword to stubbornly block the shot, refusing to let the blast land on its master.
After quite a while, the Warrior faded away, and the bombardment slowly dissipated as well.
"What a loyal and righteous Warrior… But battles aren't something you can win with loyalty alone.
Dark Eclipser, direct attack—"
"I activate the effect of Bone Pig Toss in my Graveyard, banish it to activate. The Monster's attack is negated!"
A small black pig flew out from Yuma's Graveyard, then suddenly twisted its body hard. The bones inside it were flung out all at once, smashing into the Eclipser. That light tap clearly posed no real threat to the ship, but it left its controller dazed and confused about what just happened, causing her to miss the attack window.
Rose snorted. "Then I'll use the Destroyer and myself to attack directly!"
The ship's cannon fired again. This time there was no one to shield Yuma. Even more importantly, perhaps because the training had been disrupted, Rose looked genuinely furious. She didn't let her "double" fight for her, but instead grabbed her lightsaber herself, leaped in front of Yuma, and slashed at him twice in a row.
Yuma's body flew off like a piece of rag, bouncing across the deck several times.
Human Team, LP: 8000→3100.
"Yuma!?" Marufuji Shou was stunned.
Compared to the plummeting Life Points, he was more worried about Yuma's body. These were real Spirit attacks, not Virtual Images. After taking continuous hits like that, could he still stand up?
Yet to his surprise, Yuma did a carp flip right on the spot, sprang up, patted the dust off his clothes, and acted like nothing had happened.
This scene didn't just shock Marufuji Shou—no one knew better than Rose how vicious and serious her slash had been, yet this human was acting like nothing happened?
"Wahaha… that really hurt…" Yuma patted his chest and spoke straight from the heart.
It really hurt.
It felt even worse than when Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon had attacked him directly before.
"Alright, Dark Rose, let's keep Dueling!"
"You don't hate us?" Rose stared at Tsukumo Yuma and asked.
"Eh?" Yuma froze for a moment, then said, "But, we were the ones who affected you first, right? How could I possibly get angry?"
Rose stared at Yuma for a long time, then finally snorted, leaped backwards on the spot, and with the help of Energy Arts, returned to her original position.
"I set 1 card and end my turn."
Right now, Marufuji Shou still hadn't recovered. He stared at Tsukumo Yuma.
"Wh-what is it?" Yuma felt weird being stared at like that.
"Yuma, do you really think… those people can be forgiven?"
"Of course!"
"...Then I'll believe you." Marufuji Shou hesitated, looking at him, wavering yet finally speaking firmly. "Actually… actually, I'm a representative of the Fusion Army reserve corps, the Integration Department."
Yuma jolted in shock, his body leaning back.
Mizuki Kotori was so startled she immediately covered her mouth with both hands.
How could it be such a coincidence, meeting a reserve member of the Fusion Army in this Dimension?
"Looking at it now, maybe it's like Tenjo-san said: Duelists will slowly encounter each other through Duels. It's not Destiny, it's inevitable."
Tenjo?
The people from the Xyz Dimension looked toward Tenjo Hikari and Tenjouin Fubuki, who smiled and waved at them in greeting.
Marufuji Shou took a deep breath.
His original idea had been to completely "cut ties" with the predecessors, so the Integration Department would become just a simple hobby club in the future, but the results had always been pretty mediocre.
Thinking about it, how could they possibly "cut ties"?
The Integration Department's current activity building, though empty of people, was still inherited from Akaba Leo's leadership. Wanting to cut ties—how could they possibly cut them?