Screech————
With an ear‑piercing brake, the skull‑shaped D-wheel stopped before the track.
The LDS trio, who had been struggling to push the D-wheel back to their home side, saw Tenjo Hikari park, all stopped what they were doing and stared at him warily.
They watched Tenjo Hikari stride down from the bike, casually leave the D-wheel by the track, and then walk straight toward them.
The three of them suddenly tensed up.
Getting beaten three‑on‑one was shameful enough; if Tenjo Hikari started talking trash or even took a swing now, they might not be able to fight back.
But to their surprise, Tenjo Hikari reached to the spare deck box at his waist, flipped through it for a moment, pulled out a card, and held it out to Masumi Kotsu.
"This is—" Masumi Kotsu lowered her head to look at the card.
Gem-Knight Fusion…
Of course she knew this card, and she owned this card. But unlike the common Gem-Knight Fusion, on this one, Brilliant Diamond's radiant figure shone on the artwork like pure Hikari.
"Gem-Knight Fusion is like passing on power—Brilliant Diamond passes its own power to its comrades. As a fellow Gem-Knight User, I really appreciate you. Take this card as a gift."
Masumi Kotsu was startled.
She was a bit at a loss, but faced with Tenjo Hikari's outstretched hand, she couldn't even think of how to refuse. After flailing her hands awkwardly twice, she carefully accepted that alternate‑art Gem-Knight Fusion.
Whoa......
She stared at the card, and suddenly felt as if she'd just gained a much stronger strength all at once.
That wasn't an illusion.
Even though the cards Sofia copied were, in Tierra's eyes, all "the real deal," and even Crystal could feel the aura on those cards during a duel, they were still ultimately cards Sofia duplicated by leaning on her own status in the "DT Spirit Realm."
Unlike Tierra, who never gained the slightest edge, Sofia still had some degree of spread in the DT Spirit World, making her relatively more "orthodox." To be precise, Sofia was more "main" while Tierra was more "auxiliary," just like how the DT Spirit World simply doesn't have Infernoid or Qliphort—what actually circulated was mainly Sofia's "Creations." So the more widely DT Spirit World cards spread and the more users they had, the faster her related power recovered. That was an advantage Tierra could never hope to match.
But in the end, they were still copied cards, not true Spirit Power.
This alternate‑art Gem-Knight Fusion in Tenjo Hikari's hand was the genuine article, birthed from Crystal and formed under the influence of Super Polymerization.
There may be many copies of it, with its power dispersed, but no matter what, it's still a card that actually contains Gem-Knight Spirit Power.
Just as Tenjo Hikari had told Masumi Kotsu before: as long as you complete certain Trials and act in a Knight‑like way, you may be able to obtain "Gem-Knight Dispersion."
It's not that Dispersion itself is particularly convenient, but rather that Tenjo Hikari, as a forerunner, "Created" a method to acquire Dispersion.
As Tenjo Hikari had always known, the Spirit World isn't the world from the Card Image stories, but a strange kind of beings born under the legends of the Original Scripture, after those tales.
They might follow the path laid out by the Original Scripture and evolve, or they might stop at some stage one day and never go further. Yet they also have the chance to become beings of legend—for example, on Tenjo Hikari's side, Captain Crystal can be both Gem-Knight Master and God‑child Crystal.
As long as a Spirit can find that workable path and persevere and work hard along it, it has a chance to complete that Evolution… more or less like Digimon.
By the same logic.
Once the [first][Dispersion]was born, every Gem Spirit and Gem-Knight User afterward could follow Tenjo Hikari's way of obtaining Dispersion and complete "Gem-Knight Dispersion."
It's just… nowhere near that simple.
Not to mention accomplishing some kind of "heroic feat"—even just acting as a bona fide Knight is no easy task.
Masumi Kotsu swallowed hard, glanced twice at the card in her hand, then lifted her head to look at Tenjo Hikari.
If before, Tenjo Hikari had looked to her like nothing more than "a sparkling diamond," then now, on closer inspection, she realized it wasn't the same thing at all.
The reason she'd felt him shining was simply because she herself had been caught in his Hikari—
When the Hikari is strong enough, those standing within it can't even realize they're bathed in light.
Color had scattered into her Fusion!
Once Masumi Kotsu accepted the gift, Tenjo Hikari started heading back toward his own camp; he needed to talk with Yusei and the others about today's unmasking and the plan from here on.
But unexpectedly, at that moment, the other members of the Pendulum Team also came running out one after another.
A girl who looked soft and frail rushed to Masumi Kotsu's side first and asked if she was hurt; Masumi, a little embarrassed, said she was fine.
Hiragi Yuzu...
Tenjo Hikari sized her up twice.
Just from her appearance, this girl was identical to Serena.
He'd finally seen the genuine, original‑model "Yuzu." Previously he'd already met No‑Brains Yuzu, Literary Yuzu, and Racer Yuzu; today was the first time he'd seen the base‑form Yuzu—although, going by the order he'd met them, he really ought to be calling this one "Buff Serena."
And on the other side was someone who looked exactly like "Fusion's lapdog" Yugo whom Tenjo Hikari had met before—the true protagonist of the original "Yu Gi Oh ARC-V," Sakaki Yuya!