Chapter 271: Kikawayu: I Love You, Rei!
Albaz: "We won! We actually saved the Fusion world!"
Kit: "Hero squad wins!"
Ecclesia: "But Kit, speaking of the hero squad: did you and I actually do anything?"
Ecclesia, there was no need to blame herself. She had at least played a key role against Amon, blocking the Ritual of the Ultimate Forbidden Lord win condition. Within the hero squad there was someone else whose contribution had been even more absent, someone Amano did not feel comfortable singling out by name.
But the ending was good, and that was what mattered. This was also the first time Amano had earned an SSS rating in any Duel Chronicle.
Likely because this was the first time Amano had fought three separate duels inside a single Chronicle.
Or possibly because Super Polymerization's place in the GX world, in all of Yu-Gi-Oh! for that matter, was simply in a tier of its own.
And the SSS "top score hidden reward" turned out to be the ability to change which card could be carried out of the Duel Chronicle.
Amano still remembered: when this Chronicle first launched, the listed reward had been a set of Evil HERO monsters.
The system had now changed what could be taken out. What exactly it had changed to was not yet visible.
He guessed it was probably like the Chronicle with Chiaki: they would have to wait for the Chronicle to fully close, return to the Eva terminal inside Eden, and check there.
[Top Score Hidden Reward:]
And then, before he could even finish reading the reward details, the Eva system threw four enormous red WARNING boxes directly in his face.
[WARNING: Dispatching "Super Polymerization" places extreme demands on the Duelist's own mental fortitude and will massively drain the user's energy!]
[WARNING: Dispatching "Super Polymerization" will cause irreversible and unknown effects on the fabric of dimensions themselves!]
[WARNING: Dispatching "Super Polymerization" has a high probability of altering the historical timeline of the past and future!]
[WARNING: Please exercise extreme caution when using "Super Polymerization"!]
Dispatch authority?
This was different from a previous hidden reward like the temporary use rights for Obelisk the Tormentor.
Did this mean Super Polymerization itself existed somewhere within Eden, and he was only borrowing it on a temporary basis?
But there was no more time to dwell on the system rewards right now. There were things that had to be done before the Chronicle ended.
Defeating the Supreme King's personality in the duel did not mean the Supreme King's personality had been erased. Just like light and shadow, like the two faces of a coin, the Supreme King's side would always exist within Jaden, and what mattered was how Jaden came to understand and accept that. This was Jaden Yuki's growth journey, uniquely his own, and it was something Amano could not interfere with.
What Amano had actually noticed during the duel itself: when Awaken, Your Slumbering Elemental HERO had been Fusion Summoned through Super Polymerization, Jaden's real personality had already reawakened and taken back control from the Supreme King. That was exactly why, in the end, Jaden had Fusion Summoned Favorite HERO Flame Wingman as his final counterattack rather than any Evil HERO.
The black armor helmet that had belonged to the Supreme King was gone. The heavy, pitch-black plate armor that had seemed to seal Jaden Yuki's true self inside an endless dark had dissolved with the Supreme King's defeat.
Jaden was back in his iconic Slifer Red Duel Academy uniform.
No matter what else changed, that was always the uniform that suited Jaden best.
And as Z-one had described: inside Eden's Duel Chronicles lay the memories that Amano had lost. The more Chronicle duels he fought, the clearer those memories became in his mind.
This particular Chronicle had gone on far longer than usual, and he had fought three duels in it. As the Chronicle advanced, Amano's memories of Duel Academy had grown sharper and sharper.
So sharp, in fact, that the Amano standing here now felt less like the Amano who had jumped in from Eden and more like someone who had genuinely attended Duel Academy, lived alongside his friends, and dueled with them day after day.
The Supreme King's army scattered and fled the moment they saw the Supreme King fall. No reason to chase a broken enemy, and Amano had no interest in the fleeing stragglers. On both sides of the bridge, Jaden and Amano settled back into that wordless face-to-face stare they had held before the duel started.
Finesse: "Here they go again?"
Honestly, Finesse was getting just a little bit jealous. If she did not already know this was a data simulation built from a virtual network, she would have started to seriously wonder if something was going on between these two.
But the silent stare did not last as long this time. Jaden broke it first, and his voice carried something he could not quite hide.
"...Rei."
"Jaden."
"Rei!"
"Jaden!"
The exchange was short and direct, but by the time they got there Jaden's tone had already shifted from guilt into joy he could barely keep a lid on.
Eve: "Is that actually considered a conversation?"
The overwhelming relief of knowing a missing friend was alive sent Jaden sprinting straight at Amano, throwing an arm around his shoulders in a grip that hit harder than it needed to.
"I knew you were still out there, Rei! I always believed it! You really are my most dependable best friend..."
The burst of excitement lasted about two seconds before the harsh reality of having come to an alternate world crashed back in and silenced him again.
Rei really was his most dependable best friend. But what about everyone else?
Even if they were not as dependable, they were still his Duel Academy friends. It seemed like all of them were gone. Jim and Austin had even died at the Supreme King's own hands after losing their duels.
"Everyone... because of me..."
"No. Everyone still has a chance. Listen to me, Jaden!" Amano grabbed both of Jaden's shoulders and held on.
The Chronicle had not ended yet. If Eva was leaving time on the clock, that meant there was still something Amano could do here.
He had to make the most of the time that was left and get as much information as possible to Jaden.
At the very least he had to stop Jaden from spiraling into the same self-blame he had in the original anime, where coming back from the Supreme King had left him so afraid of Fusion that he could barely duel normally anymore.
"Is everyone really still okay, Rei?" Jaden looked at Amano with an expression that was close to pleading.
"Yeah. The key is Yubel."
Meanwhile, inside a dimensional rift between worlds.
Kikawayu had watched Amano and the Supreme King's entire duel from start to finish. And what she felt inside was something she did not have a word for.
"Yubel. Is what you said really true?"
"Of course, Kikawayu. Have I ever lied to you?"
"...No. You haven't."
From as far back as she could remember, Yubel had always been by her side. And in all that time, Yubel had never once deceived her.
Kikawayu trusted Yubel exactly the same way she trusted Amano Rei.
"Yeah. I believe you, Yubel."
That unconditional trust was the very thing that had kept Kikawayu from noticing: the Yubel that had appeared inside the Chronicle and the Yubel that had spent the longest time at her side were fundamentally different in a way that mattered.
"Don't worry, Kikawayu. All of this is for the sake of what we each love."
"Yeah. For what I love. That's right. I love Rei deeply, so..."
Back at the Supreme King's Castle:
Something was wrong with this Chronicle.
After the clear condition was met, Amano had expected it to play out like every other Chronicle: a few closing lines, then exit the instance, return to Eden. Instead, an entire day had nearly passed with no sign of the Chronicle ending at all.
Not only that, but Amano and Jaden had since regrouped with Kaiser Ryo, Aster Phoenix, and Professor Chronos, who had made their way to the alternate world after the Supreme King's defeat.
"Rei, where are we supposed to even find Yubel?" Jaden asked, leaning back against the stump of a large tree and looking up at the sky.
"Amano, were all your past Chronicles like this?" Finesse had been chasing after the main group all day, wandering the alternate world with them looking for any trace of Yubel. Unable to leave the Chronicle, she had gone along with it without complaint.
Finesse was the heiress of the Wein Group, but she was not the kind of high-maintenance young lady who needed every comfort in place. Even something close to wilderness survival conditions in an alternate world did not produce a single complaint from her.
Last night she had simply leaned against Amano's shoulder to sleep, and that had been more than enough.
"This is clearly an abnormal situation." Amano kept his voice low, just for Finesse. "Probably another Eva system bug. You've seen how often that's been happening lately, haven't you?"
Ever since the Wicked God incident, when the Contract Duel anomalies appeared in the lower districts, the Eva mainframe had been producing bugs at a steady rate for the past month or more. The system genuinely felt like it needed hands-on maintenance from a technician.
"A bug. Well, whatever." Finesse crouched beside Amano and rested her head against his shoulder again. "Honestly, if it were a normal school day, I wouldn't get this much time with you. I think I might be coming out ahead."
"Didn't realize you'd been gone a few months and found yourself such a cute girlfriend." Sho said, somewhere behind them, the clear envy in his voice coming through without effort. "She gives Alexis a run for her money."
Alexis Rhodes was Duel Academy's top beauty, known as the Fairy Queen of Obelisk Blue.
Finesse, objectively speaking, was in the same range, and in Amano's personal assessment may have had a slight edge. The only meaningful gap between them was in one specific numerical department, and that was not a competition anyone needed to feel ashamed about losing. Some players simply brought numbers to the table that were in a class of their own across the entire history of Yu-Gi-Oh! female characters.
Noticing that Amano had responded to Finesse and completely ignored his question, Jaden's brow furrowed.
"Rei, come on, no forgetting your friends when there's a girl involved. Help me think. Where do we look for Yubel?"
This was not forgetting anyone. If Amano had an answer, he would have said so already.
The problem was that in the anime, Yubel had always been the one to show up in front of the main group, as if stepping through a dimensional gate. Actively searching for Yubel was not something Amano had the first clue how to approach.
He was thinking exactly that when his eyes drifted forward without meaning to and caught something: not far ahead, a purple gate had just opened by itself.
Right. Exactly like that.
"!"
"Mamma mia!"
Professor Chronos, along with everyone else who had been sitting on the ground, was on their feet in an instant.
The figure stepping through the purple gate stopped everyone cold.
"Johan!" The group called out together.
Johan Anderson. The original goal of the Duel Academy party in coming to this alternate world had been to find Johan, who had disappeared here.
But when Johan actually appeared in front of them, Amano held out an arm to stop the others from rushing forward.
"That's not Johan."
Jaden frowned. "Not Johan? Rei, what are you talking about, you've never even met Johan..."
"That's Yubel!"
The body was Johan Anderson's, without question. But the soul operating it was unmistakably Yubel, corrupted by the Light of Destruction from deep space.
Yubel smiled, cold and sharp. "Oh, Amano Rei. You actually recognized me at first glance, did you? But don't be so hostile. I've brought someone very important to you."
The figure walking out of the gate right behind Yubel made Amano's expression shift in a way that had not happened even when everyone else reacted to Johan appearing.
"...!"
"Amano, what's wrong?"
Finesse stared up at him with a look of complete confusion, her silver-gray eyes wide, as though Amano had just said something she could not begin to process.
"You're saying that's Kikawayu? But how is that Kikawayu? That's obviously a girl."
"A... a girl?"
Why had no one around him noticed until now? Because Amano had grown used to it.
Ever since waking from the coma after the Dark Game with the Wicked God, he had been seeing Kikawayu as a gray-haired beautiful girl. He had always written it off as his own unsettling hallucination.
Because in everyone else's eyes, Kikawayu had still been Kikawayu: approximately 180 centimeters tall and admittedly on the prettier side for a man, but still a man.
If he was the only one seeing something strange, the obvious conclusion was that the strange one was himself, and he had stuck with that conclusion.
But now even Finesse was seeing it too?
A chill ran up Amano's spine, and suddenly every hair on the back of his neck was on end.
Like a dream: if one person has a dream, it could be a good dream. But when two people have the exact same dream, it becomes something else entirely.
If Amano had been the only one seeing this, it could have been put down to a very specific kind of suppressed wishful thinking, given that his good friend was not only pretty-faced but also had a surprisingly domestic kind of presence about them.
But if Finesse could see it too, then Amano had to confront a possibility he had not dared to consider until now. A possibility he had been actively running from.
"Rei." Kikawayu smiled at him. "I came to get you."
It was a sweet, gentle smile. The kind that felt like honey with something sharp dissolved inside it: beautiful enough to stop the heart and deeply wrong in a way Amano could not entirely explain.
"That girl is also here for Amano?" Sho stared. "She's even cuter than the other one. Way cuter than Alexis!"
This was not the moment to be ranking anyone.
"Yubel!" Jaden demanded, his voice tight. "Why? Why would you do all of this?"
There was no denying Jaden felt some guilt when it came to Yubel. The Yubel who had once been his guardian card spirit had been sent into outer space by Jaden himself through Kaiba Corporation's Space Capsule project, after Yubel's methods of protecting Jaden by sending every duelist who beat him into a coma had gone too far.
In a real sense, the darkness following Yubel into this world traced back to him. And now it had pulled in so many others.
"Kikawayu!" Amano pressed. "Why are you here with Yubel?"
Kikawayu was supposed to be watching from the Chronicle sidelines, not integrated into the story.
The answer came in near-perfect unison, same tone, same timing, and the corners of both their mouths curled into the same unsettling smile as two Duel Disk arms unfolded.
Yubel: "Because I love you, Jaden!"
Kikawayu: "Because I love you, Rei!"
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