The duel over, Dr. Swift's D-Wheel stalled out, and a large number of protective devices automatically ejected. Hikaru had his D-Wheel control its speed a bit, then followed and caught up. After confirming Dr. Swift's life wasn't in danger, he gave him a bit of a hand up.
Although the opponent had thrown some harsh words his way, in the end it was only a verbal matter, so Hikaru would of course help where he could.
And this person's duel with "him" also let Hikaru understand that, for Team 5D's, or to be precise for Yusei, dislike would probably become a fairly normal thing in this world.
Just as in the Fusion Dimension Hikaru would be greeted when walking down the street, Yusei had a similar "special blessing" too. Only, Hikaru enjoyed it as a "hero of humanity," while Yusei, as that "lone forward-goer," was instinctively regarded with hostility by people of other types and factions.
Once Dr. Swift got back on his feet, Hikaru gave a casual greeting, then mounted his D-Wheel and quietly left.
Watching Light's departing figure, Dr. Swift stood in place, somewhat dazed.
True, this man was indeed hiding his own appearance, but was that really a problem?
In this WRGP tournament, how could Light be the only one hiding his identity and putting on a disguise? Why would he particularly mind Light, thinking that he and Team 5D's had some scheme or trick?
This isn't like me...
As Dr. Swift set his D-Wheel upright, he silently began to ponder.
But this pondering of his was clearly not something Hikaru would bother considering.
Before long, Hikaru returned to Team 5D's battle-prep seats, stopped his vehicle, and greeted the few of them.
His D-Wheel didn't need inspection. Or rather, his D-Wheel had a "special" inspection method. Compared to these, Hikaru paid more attention to other things.
Like the data from the duel, the energy produced by the duel, and so on.
But unlike him, his teammates at the battle-prep seats were, at this moment, happily watching the commentary on this duel.
Whether or not it was human nature, along with the WRGP unfolding and the operation of "supporter voting," a commentary forum about the WRGP tournament duels also began operating.
"Team 5D's really is a bit of a dynasty, huh?"
"Yeah, not to mention the KING we all know about, Yusei and that Light's duels are outrageous too!"
"Where on earth did Yusei find such a mysterious duelist? I think his cards and dueling strategy are both really impressive."
"Come on, isn't it just using powerful cards and potent tactics? There's no adapting on the fly at all. He'd get the same effect hitting a wall, right?"
"Exactly, what's interesting about that!"
At the start, most commenters were still evaluating Hikaru's performance, but soon, all sorts of people flooded into the thread, and the words in this thread began to sour.
There were those praising, those belittling, those simply cursing, those questioning others' judgment, those suspecting Team 5D's had inside dealings, and even those suspecting it was all just scripted.
Hikaru shook his head.
Crow gave a yawn, not much interested in this, but beside him Jack and Leo were already beside themselves with rage, turning into keyboard warriors and starting to duke it out in the comments.
"But if I had to say... although it's a mixed deck, in terms of building philosophy, it's already pretty good."
Although there were quite a few cards of unclear meaning, Ultimate Offering combined with Genex, and Reasoning combined with Infernoid, were clearly quite reasonable tactics and lines of thinking. Although there'd been a bit of a problem running it, and both Genex and Infernoid had gotten slightly jammed by the opponent, that was unavoidable.
Even Tierra couldn't really make the cards in a deck do whatever she pleased, let alone that she hadn't unleashed all the power she possessed, but had dueled the way Hikaru did, relying only on the deck's "spirit power."
Hikaru noticed that Tierra seemed to be faintly putting her hands on her hips, looking very happy.
She wasn't interested in how the opposing Dr. Swift evaluated her, or how the spectators evaluated her, but now that Hikaru was actually willing to acknowledge this deck she'd conceived, she was very satisfied.
Actually, Hikaru was indeed rather surprised too.
In this duel where Tierra dueled seriously, Tierra's performance was indeed already completely different from his impression of her.
Over these two years, Tierra really had been studying seriously.
However, although she was slightly pleased with herself, Tierra still wasn't satisfied.
Because as long as it was something related to Sophia, especially a win or loss related to Sophia, she was especially fixated.
Therefore, she had Hikaru go with her to the DT Dimension's world again whenever he had free time.
Of course, because this WRGP first round was conducted as random duels, Hikaru couldn't say when he'd be needed to take the stage, and couldn't just go accompany Tierra directly. After some thought, he decided to find a chance to go take a look at the DT spirit dimension each night during the competition break.
As for this present time, he simply watched each duel and observed each duelist's strategy.
And just at this moment...
One duel drew his gaze.
Not just his.
Some conscious duelists all instinctively focused their attention, among the four simultaneous duels, on this one.
"I overlay two Level 7 monsters."
Overlay!?
The left and right arms stared wide-eyed in shock.
And right between them, Kite Tenjo had already blanked outright on the spot.
"...Hart?"
That small, slight figure, that duelist who, though wearing a mask and riding a completely different D-Wheel, wasn't he the very child he longed for day and night!?
His little brother, Hart Tenjo!
Why was he here!
"Eh. An Xyz Summon?!"
"Isn't that something only the Xyz Dimension uses?!"
"Why does this Team Despair use Xyz Summons too!"
"The Xyz Dimension is too sneaky! One dimension splitting off into two teams?"
The on-site spectators' discussion instantly grew boisterous, to the point that the officials were even forced to make a temporary announcement.
No matter what method a person used to come to this dimension, as long as they were willing to participate in the WRGP competition, they were a WRGP participant, and it didn't matter which team they were on.
"Wonderful." Hikaru heard Crow cheer.
Because of this new rule, even if Hikaru's identity was exposed, there was no need to explain anything. Our Yusei has a wide circle of friends and can just pull in inter-dimensional companions to compete together, what of it.
And because of this new rule, Hikaru no longer needed to worry about his identity being exposed either.
Rather, even if Hikaru's identity were exposed, it would be no big deal, since it was the Xyz Dimension that had produced "stowaways" first.
But what Hikaru paid more attention to was...
Team Despair, Number 28?
Hikaru instinctively used his mask to fan himself, to make it easier to think calmly.
Could it be that E-Ra?
Hikaru pondered. Last time in the Synchro Dimension, that fellow had silently watched from behind Leo Akaba, always giving off a sense of some bizarre scheme. For it to appear again now wasn't strange either.
"Hart!!!!" And at this moment, at the Xyz seats, Kite Tenjo was already about to jump up and rush out to find Hart Tenjo.
Although in the vast majority of situations Kite Tenjo was calm, wise, and full of courage, when it came to matters involving his little brother, he was as dumb as a pig.
But soon, he grew a bit dizzy.
That other participant about to duel, wasn't this Shun Obsidian!?
And the City Hall team!?
You people—
He really was a bit lightheaded.
Fortunately, at this moment no Yuma suddenly popped out, or he felt his blood pressure wouldn't be able to support him walking off the stage.
And it was precisely because of this temporary change that the left and right arms and Orbital 7 had time to talk Kite Tenjo down.
Things like: Young Master Hart is dueling in person, and as a duelist he shouldn't disturb him; Young Master Hart is participating in the duel, so naturally he has his reasons; Kite Tenjo is now the manager of his Xyz Dimension diplomatic team, and he can't just barge straight into someone else's team to demand an explanation...
There were many things to say.
But the real reason Kite Tenjo didn't personally leave was only one.
That was, Hart Tenjo was in the middle of a duel.
He sat down where he was, arms folded, anxiously tapping his arm with his fingers, his whole person appearing rather anxious.
Looking on the bright side, at least now he knew where Hart and Shun had gone, and half the goal of coming here counted as achieved.
But Hart's teammates, what kind of people would they be?
He was a bit nervous, wanting to hurry and find the area where their team was located, but watching Hart duel on his runner, he couldn't set his mind at ease at all. So in this uneasy mood, he watched the duel to the end.
Whew.
Having watched it through, he breathed a sigh of relief.
Although Numbers were being used, it seemed no unexpected incidents had occurred.
For him, that counted as a good thing.
Hart was still that kind, innocent child. He must have had his own reasons for tricking Gauche out of his cards!
He consoled himself, but his own reason was reminding him that behind this, there must be far more matters entangled.
It might even be related to this world itself.
He absolutely had to go find Hart and ask clearly what on earth was going on!
It was just a pity that when the day's duels ended and he tracked down "Team Despair" through layers of inquiry, he was helplessly turned away because the other party was "very tired after a full day of competition and declined to be disturbed."
Gradually, he realized that in this world, he too would probably have his hands full.
At the same time.
Hikaru, having finished a day's work, was also rubbing his face in the laboratory.
He still wasn't used to wearing the mask; it was somewhat uncomfortable. But he didn't care about this kind of detail.
Although the dueling had always been done by Tierra, the duel energy was useless to Tierra once she took it. Hikaru had now also mastered a method of recovering and storing duel energy, so after a duel, he could use a transfer method to channel the energy into Super Polymerization, and thereby create brand-new cards.
These past few days, if nothing else, the energy used to try building "Absolute Axon Kicker" had already accumulated quite a bit.
The pity was that he still didn't know what to use as a base or what to use to create it.
He'd probably have to communicate with the Selfless Painting School a few more times before Hikaru could figure it out.
After briefly sorting through the day's intel and data, Hikaru noted down the various situations he'd encountered today, then headed to the DT spirit dimension together with Tierra.
Actually, ever since Hikaru defeated Darkness, over these past few months, he'd always been accompanying Tierra on trips to the DT spirit dimension. On one hand, he wanted to find Spiritual Beasts and other Fusion-related cards; on the other, Tierra's "goal" still hadn't been achieved, and she still wanted to defeat the local forces here one by one.
After all, Hikaru could now run around the various spirit dimensions without participating in dueling trials and no longer feel fatigued, so naturally he had plenty of time to travel with Tierra.
Including the earlier Worm cards and the recently used Genex, all were cards Tierra had slowly collected in this world.
Although his experience dueling people wasn't much, his experience dueling spirits had actually been slowly growing too.
But this arrival was a bit different.
Because, directly ahead of where they arrived, there appeared a human figure, floating there with its eyes closed.
It was a red figure wearing a black shrine-maiden's outfit, hair tied in twin tails. Her eyes were closed, and she just stood quietly like that before the two of them, Hikaru and Tierra.
Dance Princess of the Nekroz?
It could also be...
Hikaru noticed that beside her floated two colors of energy, white and black.
Was it "Nekroz of Sophia"? But her appearance was far from that mature.
So...
"So you've come." Tierra suddenly, slowly descended beside Hikaru, planting her feet on the ground, looking at the figure across from her.
"Tierra..."
"Sophia."
When the two stood directly facing each other, they could instantly sense and perceive one another.
Hikaru had assumed that when the two of them faced off, they'd put on a full display of violence right away, launching into a battle of superpowers from the start, sinking half a continent or something. But contrary to expectation, both of them were extremely restrained.
Neither had even manifested their true body.
"You were looking for me." Sophia asked calmly.
Tierra pondered for a moment, then said: "You scattered those cards to other dimensions precisely to find me, didn't you?"
"Just some meaningless things." Sophia didn't mind this.
Sharing cards with the Pendulum Dimension, in her view, held no meaning. It was merely a kind of "behavioral ritual."
Although Tierra looked to be at quite an advanced degree of revival, Sophia had one advantage Tierra didn't.
That was, she was this world's "orthodox" god!
When she awakened, the myriad beings of this world slowly provided her with energy, and when she shared this dimension's cards with other dimensions, this recovery of energy grew all the faster.
Rising later to catch up was, for her, not something impossible or unachievable.
And as long as she revived, then she had absolute confidence in defeating Tierra once more.
When she thought this, for some reason, Tierra suddenly began to laugh.
Sophia's brows knit slightly.
She didn't understand.
This familiar "sister" seemed to have become a bit different.
Tierra seemed to no longer be the Tierra in her impression, yet Sophia was still the Sophia in Tierra's impression.
"You don't intend to fight me, do you?"
"Or do you want to make your move now?"
"You should know how this current era's world rules operate, right?"
"Dueling? It's no big deal. I only need to watch once and I'll know it."
Although Sophia, like Tierra, had originated from this planet full of martial spirit, unlike Tierra, Sophia's personality was relatively better, and she was relatively friendlier to life. After learning the rules of the brand-new era, she'd accepted this reality as a matter of course.
"Hahahahaha—" Tierra burst into wild, unrestrained laughter.
This was the first time White Crystal and the other spirits had seen Tierra laugh so uninhibitedly.
"Really? Then in that case, want to give it a try? Don't worry, although I wish I could kill you right now, you know too that as long as we've made an agreement, we won't suddenly ambush each other.
In this dimension, there are spirits everywhere. As long as two of them face off and take a dislike to each other, they'll decisively duel. Ah, there's a spirit passing by over there. Why don't you go duel it and try?"
Sophia didn't understand, didn't know what medicine Tierra was selling in her gourd, but she didn't care either.
Just as she herself thought.
She was this world's orthodox god!
As long as it was a creature of this world, it would instinctively hold her in awe and respect.
So intercepting a passing spirit and inviting it to a friendly duel was not difficult.
She didn't understand why Tierra was laughing so hard.
This dueling thing, although it looked rather complex, was in the end words and mathematics. This kind of thing, for gods like them, skilled in management and creation, what could be difficult...
A dozen-odd minutes later, Sophia dazedly bid farewell to that passing spirit, offhandedly gifting it a bit of energy. Looking at the immense energy, enough to let her copy a version of herself, that spirit had the look of a pie falling from the sky. It kept worshipping Sophia with a thousand thanks and ten thousand gratitudes, then hurriedly left.
Ran into an amazing spirit while on the road!
She'd lost.
And lost horribly, too dreadful to look at.
Sophia didn't come to her senses for a long time. To prove that dueling was simple, she'd deliberately used the same deck and series as her opponent, and as a result... she'd lost.
But compared to this...
"Hahahaha, hahahaha—" Tierra's head pressed against Hikaru's shoulder, her face buried deep, both hands gripping Hikaru's shoulders, laughing madly.
Sophia's hands were shaking a little, the "divinity" she'd always maintained a bit hard to keep up, her face flushing red.
Hikaru gave a cough.
Normal.
Being high-eyed and low-handed is the symptom of every beginner. When he'd first started dueling, he was the same.
Although development, dueling, and battle all seem to follow discernible patterns, and there are even many "formulas," when you actually duel, you find that many things are simply not the way you thought, especially in real-card duels, where the moment your brain overloads a little, you forget how to use any of your cards.
Sophia was a bit flustered.
Perhaps others couldn't tell, but she could see at a glance that the one participating in the duels these past few days wasn't Hikaru at all, but Tierra.
Tierra's dueling today was an "outstanding tactic" praised even by quite a few duelists, while she couldn't even play her cards competently.
If they really did "come to blows"...
Her expression wavered between dark and clear.
This also made Tierra, who had just stopped laughing and couldn't help wanting to see her ridiculous expression, pause for an instant.
"What are you trying to do?" Tierra suddenly asked.
"Trying to do?" Sophia didn't quite understand at first, but noticing Tierra's serious expression, she then realized. "I see, so you mean that."
She slowly took a deep breath, letting herself calm down again.
"Synchro god... let's tentatively call it that, shall we?" Sophia said slowly. "You should know that all the power in this so-called DT spirit dimension originates from you and me. So we can, at a stretch, count as the origin gods of Synchro."
Everything in the DT Dimension had nothing to do with the outside world. Everything in this dimension was a derivation of Tierra and Sophia's power.
That is to say, the "Fusion, Synchro, Xyz, Pendulum" of this world were, in fact, their power!
Therefore, Sophia too could run for "One God."
"That Synchro Dimension clearly created a perpetual motion machine, yet the lives of the upper and lower layers, of humans of different nations, are all utterly different. Not only that, though it possesses a perpetual motion machine, that world's pollution and destruction are no less for it.
I will run for One God. I'll remodel this world, turn it into a world of birdsong and flower fragrance."
Her eyes closed, she thought a bit more, then continued: "Mm, and while I'm at it, I'll follow my original idea, re-enact everything, remodel a perfect ecosystem. This time, there won't be another fellow to make trouble for me."
If she became "One God," then she could run the entire Synchro Dimension normally, according to her own preferences, and there would never again be another existence of the same tier secretly altering the dimension's status quo, terrain, and reincarnation.
For her, this held great meaning!
But...
Sophia looked at her own hand.
It seemed she wasn't quite up to it.
If she couldn't even defeat a passing spirit, she probably had no way to win.
Fortunately, she'd chosen a God's Chosen in advance.
However.
She "looked" toward Tierra.
Sooner or later, the two of them would face off directly. If, at that time, she were still like she was now, that would be far from enough.
Not only that, her "God's Chosen," Hikaru, was quite a hard fellow to deal with too, even the "Messiah" of another human dimension.
This was really a bit bad.
"If you came to find me just to laugh at me, then suit yourself." Sophia said coldly. "But I will not lose to you."
She made up her mind: starting today, she would watch the situation in that world each day while also finding spirits in this dimension to train against.
Orthodox study was certainly too late now. She could only hurry and adopt a "sea-of-questions tactic."
Tierra watched Sophia's body gradually dissipate, no longer speaking or mocking her, but watching in place as she vanished.
"Do you still want to keep traveling?" Seeing that Sophia had left, Hikaru took the chance to ask Tierra.
But after Sophia dissipated, Tierra stayed where she was, seeming to have fallen into deep thought.
After a good while.
"Hikaru."
"What is it?"
"What she said... makes so much sense."
Tierra suddenly closed her eyes.
One God...
That's right.
If she won, if she became the One God of the Synchro Dimension, then for these two gods who governed "star-creation," wouldn't that be returning to their true calling once again?
Why had she never thought of it—
No, was it because she'd lived together with Hikaru for too long?
Tierra had originally only wanted to probe Sophia a bit, to see what level Sophia was at. But now, because of Sophia's words, she couldn't help falling into deep thought.
Have I changed?
Should I change?
My duty is to create life and reincarnation.
This is my divine office, my nature, and my hobby is machinery.
If she obtained the divine seat of One God, then she could remodel the entire universe of the Synchro Dimension into whatever she liked!
And because it would be an age of intelligence, there would never again be bullying and oppression.
But...
"Hikaru, if... if Team 5D's obtains the final victory, could you help me become the One God?" Tierra raised her head, looking at the sky, and asked.
If the victor was a certain team, then in the end, an internal choice would probably have to be made too. If some member backstabbed the others, then how the One God would ultimately turn out was hard to say.
"...You should know what I'll answer, right?" Hikaru gazed at the distant scenery.
"Of course." Tierra broke into a smile too.
Hikaru could not possibly backstab his own friends.
The only reason Hikaru was participating in this competition was that he was Yusei's friend.
And inclusion, help, cooperation, this was precisely Hikaru's Fusion!
Coming to a friend's aid in trouble, this was Hikaru.
This was Hikaru!
If a single word from her suddenly changed his path forward, his path of Fusion, then it wouldn't be the Hikaru she admired.
And if she bound Hikaru with "I'm your friend too"... that also wouldn't be the rational thing she favored.
"Getting a bit annoyed. Let's head back." Tierra offhandedly waved her hand, as if shaking off her worries and entanglement, and spoke.
We haven't even done the actual work yet; don't dwell on this kind of nonsense.
Only, this entanglement still lingered in her mind.
Divine duty and friends...
Only, she didn't realize.
When she placed the duty and drive accumulated over her tens of thousands of years alongside Hikaru, whom she'd known for only two years, and weighed them together, her heart had, in fact, already gradually developed a leaning. Or rather... her long-held, mechanical way of behaving had finally begun to change.