"Not bad. Looking forward to our next duel."
After shaking hands with his opponent in the Fusion Club, Hikaru greeted him cheerfully.
"Haha, dueling with Amaki-kun, I feel like I've learned a lot! The end of fusion's road is indeed farther than I imagined."
"Not at all, not at all, I'm still way far from the end or anywhere close to there," Hikaru quickly waved his hand.
A full fusion deck?
It doesn't seem as good as... Tearlaments, a "fusion" deck without fusion.
Fusion Should look like fusion!
The duel a few days ago made Hikaru famous in the Fusion Club. After all, Ryu was a senior student, and defeating him with the same, theoretically weaker deck was truly a rare achievement for many lower-year students.
After all, aside from color discrimination, seniors also tend to bully lower-year students.
However, even so, most of the students who primarily interacted with Hikaru were from the Red and Yellow dorms, with few from the Blue dorm. Most were simply drawn to him by his deck, just like this student.
Watching the passionate student leave, preparing to modify their deck, Hikaru felt a surge of ambition… Well, maybe not that much.
But everything was going according to his plan!
Due to his influence, the students in the Fusion Club were indeed moving in a direction he hoped for, though not many, there were still some.
After a week in the Fusion Club, he increasingly felt that this club was very strange.
There were too many bizarre rules and ideas in it.
Although they were overall moving toward the ultimate goal of "Fusion Summoning," the internal conflicts were even more severe, and duels in the form of "gambling battles" occurred far more often than in the outside world.
The Fusion Army was being deliberately trained to become more extreme, fanatical, and crazed.
To Hikaru, it was simply unacceptable! What kind of school does this? If this continues for a few more years, the Fusion Army might really become like that certain A5 group, turning anyone into cards, no matter their age or gender!
Joining the Fusion Club was truly a wise choice.
Not only were the duels intense, but they also allowed him to keep a close watch on this "bomb" that could explode at any moment.
"Yo! Amaki!" A passionate voice sounded in Hikaru's ear.
"Jaden?" Hikaru, who was nibbling on some bread in the corner, suddenly heard a familiar voice. Looking up, he was surprised to see Jaden Yuki!
How did he end up in the Fusion Club?
Did the Fusion Club students actually let him in?
Hikaru was quite surprised because, in the original story, Jaden went to the Blue dorm dormitory to find Zane Truesdale, but he was pushed to the ground by the students guarding the Blue dorm and even had a bucket of cold water thrown on his head.
But then he thought for a moment. Although this world resembled GX, it was still different.
For example, there were far more Red dorm students in this world compared to the original story—there must be close to a hundred. Plus, since he had become somewhat well-known in the Fusion Club, it wasn't strange for someone to bring him in if they were looking for him.
"Wow, Amaki, you look so cool in that uniform!" Jaden exclaimed, his eyes lighting up as he looked at Hikaru's outfit.
Hikaru was already good-looking, and with the purple uniform's longer hem, he looked even more elegant and handsome.
"Jaden, this isn't really the time to talk about that!" Syrus, who was standing next to him, commented.
Before going crazy, Syrus had been an ordinary, weak-willed boy, even giving off a bit of a sidekick vibe.
"Ah, right. Amaki, are you interested in joining a tag-team duel?"
"Tag-team duel? With who? The Paradox Brothers?" Hikaru instinctively said.
In the original, Jaden, Syrus, and Alexis had entered the old school building they were in today, even encountering a "Shadow Duel" and being punished by the school, which required them to participate in dorm duels or be expelled.
And in the anime, Jaden and Syrus ended up facing the Paradox Brothers, the "legendary duelists" who had once troubled Yugi and Joey, as their opponents.
This is where reputation management comes in. Though these two could hardly be called weaklings, they were definitely not anywhere near as powerful as Yugi and Joey and just gained popularity because they dueled them once at the start of their journey, yet they still are called "legendary duelists"—even more ridiculous than claiming to have battled the first Hokage.
"Ehh? Amaki, you heard about that too?" Syrus said excitedly. "Did you watch the duel back then?"
Back then?
Hikaru quickly picked up on it.
'I see, the time I'm in is after that duel has already ended…'
But if that's the case, then why look for teammates?
"Hahaha, Amaki, do you know?" Jaden showed off. "The Dimensional Gate!"
"Dimensional Gate!?"
"It's the Dimensional Gate that KaibaCorp. invented to search for the Underworld!" Syrus quickly explained from the side, unable to hold back.
After their explanation, Hikaru finally understood the fundamental difference between this world and the "Yu-Gi-Oh GX" he remembered.
'So it's the Dimensional Gate!'
'And… It seems this world is a fusion of the 20th Anniversary Yu-Gi-Oh movie "The Dark Side of Dimensions"!'
From Jaden and Syrus, Hikaru roughly got the gist of it.
Every dorm, every grade, can use the power of the Dimensional Gate every so often to visit "Broken Dimensions" that have already been explored.
According to KaibaCorp's research, these broken dimensions should be the remains of worlds where the spirit worlds perished or small dimensions built by fleeing spirits, and everything inside them is basically just the remnants of spirits.
As long as you defeat them, you have a chance to gain their recognition and receive cards from them.
Besides, the energy generated from dueling them can also maintain the existence of their dimensions.
This makes it a good deal for both sides, which is why KaibaCorp and many of them have signed contracts with many of them. Furthermore, they are worlds used for "elite students" to practice.
Sounds pretty good.
But...
'A broken world? Fleeing spirits? This world feels even more dangerous than I imagined.'
"The world we're challenging this time is said to be a dimension of warrior tribes for tag-team duels! So, what do you think? Interested?" Jaden gave a thumbs-up and recommended it to Hikaru.
Hikaru was indeed very interested.
After all, this seemed to be the most fundamental "anomaly" in this world.
Besides, he had never heard of this in the Yellow dorm, so when Jaden invited him, he was naturally pleased.
But there were still some things that needed to be clarified.
"As a student from the Yellow dorm, can I even participate? Why not take Syrus along? He also participated in the tag-team duel with you, right?"
"Eh... I..." Syrus lowered his head, looking a bit regretful. "My big brother dueled with Jaden for me earlier, and then he found me... Ah, he told me not to go to the Dimensional Gate so easily. He said... I wasn't ready for it yet."
'Zane, protecting Syrus? It seems… the other side of the Dimensional Gate really isn't stable.'
"Don't worry, students from different dorms can team up together!" Jaden didn't even realize what Hikaru was concerned about. "I asked Teacher Banner, and he said that this year, only I, from the Red dorm, am qualified to enter the Dimensional Gate. So I can team up with students from other dorms!
If you're not interested, then I guess I'll have to ask Alexis."
"Of course, I'm interested!" Hikaru quickly agreed, then added, "But just in case, I'll need to adjust my deck."
"Awesome!" Jaden jumped up and, at lightning speed, said his plan. "We'll meet tomorrow at 10 a.m. in front of our dormitory."
***
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