Deep night.
A white sedan sped along the elevated highway, the engine humming. The sound of the Ener-D at work.
In this dimension, most sources of energy other than Ener-Ds had long been phased out. Cars, too, hadn't run on fuel or electricity for ages. Miniaturized Ener-Ds now powered everything from Duel Runners to other vehicles, gradually replacing the old energy systems.
There was another benefit: driving skill was no longer a requirement to own a vehicle. Fully developed autopilot systems made manual driving a rare talent, mostly kept alive by professionals or hobbyists. It was rare to spot anyone manually steering a car these days.
Kira sat in his official director's vehicle, paging through a new batch of cards. The director's car, naturally high-end, was equipped with KaibaCorp's latest driver AI—advertised as having better experience and reflexes than human drivers.
He believed this boast. After all, even in another world, it was KaibaCorp. And, as far as he knew, their AI had reached maturity many years ago; by now, their tech was peerless.
Suddenly, headlights approached from behind.
The Duel Runner's characteristic whine, backed by the musical hum of the Ener-D, whipped past one side of the window.
If it were an ordinary overtake, that would be that—but this Duel Runner, after passing on one side, sharply swerved, skidding and sparking flamboyantly across the highway before swinging around to block the lane in front like a roadblock.
Auto-pilot detected the obstacle and immediately braked to a stop.
Kira frowned, peering through the window. Ahead, he could just make out a figure in black leather. The man's face was gloomy—almost inhuman in its coldness, but Kira's eyes could see through the darkness and pick out every detail.
"A Ghost?"
Kira recognized him.
In this world, "Ghost" didn't mean a supernatural entity, but rather the mysterious Duel Runnerer who appeared in 5D's new arc—right after the Dark Signers were defeated. This "Ghost" terrorized New Domino, attacking Duel Runnerers in card duels and sending even the likes of Ushio Trudge to the hospital.
When Yusei had faced him, he realized this wasn't a real human, but an AI robot being operated remotely. The true mastermind was Primo, one of the "Three Pure Nobles of Iliaster," an underling of Z-ONE, 5DS's final antagonist.
But clearly, compared to the original timeline, this Ghost—Primo—had appeared much earlier.
Kira got out of the car and, standing calmly by the vehicle, met Ghost's eyes.
"This is as far as you go."
Through the robot's mouth, Primo spoke coldly, "I don't know where you came from, but Rex Goodwin is a pawn of Iliaster. By replacing him, you've defied us.
And now, your tampering with the timeline ends here."
"My 'tampering'?" Kira raised an eyebrow.
If anything, he was fixing the timeline, using equipment he'd taken from Paradox—supposedly on the same side as Iliaster.
When he'd first heard about someone distorting history and causing the two dimensions to collide, his biggest suspect was Z-ONE and the Iliaster group, since their goal was always to rewrite history for humanity's sake.
But—if both dimensions collided, everyone would be destroyed together. What "future" would remain, then?
Now Kira understood: if someone had planted Goodwin as their agent, his own act of replacing Goodwin was a challenge—a move that would bring Iliaster out in person.
And here they were.
Was Z-ONE really the true mastermind?
Ghost spoke again. "Of course, you still have one way out... your only chance."
He sneered, activating the duel disk on his Duel Runner.
"A duel?" Kira asked.
"That's right. I'll erase your anomaly from the timeline through a duel. If you can beat me, you get to survive."
Ghost sneered again.
"Of course, if you're too afraid, you can just refuse—surrender by default."
"Guess I don't have a choice," Kira shrugged. "Fine. But as you see, I didn't bring a Duel Runner—never been a fan of Riding Duels. How about a standing duel?"
Ghost gave a cold laugh. "That makes no difference."
He got off his Duel Runner, unlocking the duel disk, and stepped in front of Kira.
Kira really didn't bring his Duel Runner—he never liked Riding Duels much. The inability to use Spell cards hobbled a lot of decks. Not that he couldn't adapt, but he definitely preferred standing duels.
"Duel!" x2
[Kira, LP: 4000]
[Ghost, LP: 4000]
"I'll go first. Draw."
Kira drew cards with practiced ease.
"I set a monster in defense position, then set two cards face-down. Turn end."
"My turn. Draw!" Ghost drew, scanned his hand, and smiled sinisterly.
Though a robot, Iliaster tech was advanced enough to give him realistic facial expressions.
"I summon 'Wise Core!'"
A swirl of blue starlight appeared on Ghost's field. An elliptical white metal sphere floated from the turbulence, shining with starry light. Then, with a click, it split top and bottom, revealing the blue energy core inside.
[Wise Core, DEF: 0]
This came as no surprise to Kira.
Primo's deck was "Wisel" themed, and this Wise Core was the key to his combos.
In the original show, the Three Pure Nobles never used searchers, yet somehow always drew their key piece on turn one.
Suspicious…
Kira wondered if they ever bothered shuffling at all...