Chapter 279: Super Polymerization! GX Duelists Crossing into Eden!
"Big brother smells like another woman."
"That's Kikawayu-nii's scent."
"Don't try to make your sister laugh. Kikawayu-nii doesn't smell like th..."
So Shio genuinely didn't know. The female version of Kikawayu did apparently have a noticeable scent, for what that observation was worth.
Amano had barely made it through the villa door before his younger sister caught him. It was five in the morning, and somehow the one person who had no reason to be awake at this hour was standing in the entryway, fully dressed.
"I was so worried I couldn't sleep, obviously."
"Don't try to make your brother laugh. You slept like a baby every night I was on night shifts."
"Fine, I admit there's another reason." Shio's expression shifted into something more serious. "Big brother: I've had a bad feeling lately. Like my status as your only little sister is under threat."
"Work on that excuse before the next time you use it."
Amano pressed his middle finger against his sister's forehead and flicked. The impact produced a solid crack of sound and left Shio clutching her head with eyes watering.
"Stupid big brother, you'd better stay single your whole life!" She bared her teeth at his retreating back as he went to find his room.
Don't say things that make people this happy.
Though honestly, after the events involving Kikawayu, Amano had developed something of a complicated relationship with women as a category. Terrifying, the lot of them.
That afternoon:
"Are you really okay? You only slept half a day, Amano." Sakuya, sitting at the adjacent desk, kept her voice quiet and genuinely concerned. "I could walk you to the nurse's office if you need to sleep for a while."
Who had said women were terrifying? His class representative, uncomplicated and straightforward as always, never gave him any particular reason for alarm.
Sakuya was refreshing in exactly this way. Even at 90-plus affection, she had only ever stolen one single kiss. She kept a comfortable distance that never made anyone feel crowded.
"I'm fine, class rep. I used to work night shifts, so half a day's sleep is all I need before I'm wide awake again. I'll just put my head down for a bit."
"Understood."
Yes. Just like that. Sakuya would check on him regularly but never excessively, maintaining a presence that felt natural rather than intrusive.
Only this time, during the break period, Amano heard the neighboring chair shifting incrementally closer. When he lifted his head, Sakuya had turned sideways at her desk and was lying her head against her arms, facing him at close range. Her eyes, precise and beautiful as always, blinked infrequently in a way that made it difficult to determine if she was looking at him or simply zoning out.
"Class rep, what are you doing?"
"This is the first time we've been apart for five days. I want to see more of you. You can ignore me and rest."
Ignoring someone who was staring at him from arm's length was not particularly easy. But thinking about it: she was right. Since enrolling, the longest they had been separated was a weekend. Even the three days he had spent back in District 32, they had been together through the Hacker Invasion makeup sessions. This stretch had genuinely been unprecedented.
He would have reflected on the warmth of this kind of friendship in ordinary circumstances. The events involving Kikawayu had left him marginally more cautious than usual, though. What had felt like straightforward brotherly support from Kikawayu across eighteen years turned out to have been something else entirely.
Was Kikawayu watching them right now?
A quick scan of the classroom: there was Kikawayu in the far corner, visible and present.
Not a flicker of the jealousy he might have expected. Since switching back to male mode after returning to Eden, Kikawayu had reverted almost completely to the best friend Amano had always known. The yandere confessions, the provocative questions, the declarations of love in front of assembled GX cast members: all of it might as well have been a dream. The only telltale sign was the occasional raised-eyebrow smirk from across the room.
"Look all you want, then."
Amano put his head back down.
"Looking now." Something in Sakuya's voice shifted, and when he glanced back she had the faintest curve at the corner of her eyes.
"Quick, someone get a teacher! Kozuka-san hit her head and passed out!"
The ordinary noise of class went on around him, entirely unchanged. For whatever reason it felt reassuring. This was what Academy life could do: return things to a normal that made the extraordinary feel manageable.
No wonder Chiaki had mentioned that when the workload or the outside expeditions got to be too much, she came back to Academy routine for a few days as a reset.
That said, Amano's own Academy life was not exactly quiet. He had an exemption from the Synchro Academy's evening study periods, but tonight's open time had already been claimed by Rin Seiya wanting to introduce him to her friend.
The same friend who had nearly threatened to hang herself outside Kaiba Corp's gates.
[Senpai, don't forget to come after school! My friend really wants to meet you. No standing me up this time~]
After class, Amano rode his D-Wheel to the club building. On the way, he remembered something and stopped at a nearby convenience store first before knocking on the broadcasting club's door.
He pushed it open. The familiar aroma of instant noodles greeted him.
"Figured you'd be here, Kuroshio-san." He spotted the blonde girl with her characteristic eyelets immediately, on the far side of the room.
Since joining the broadcasting club, Nagi had become a fixture here, showing up more consistently than even Amano did: essentially a daily attendance record. With her good looks and solid dueling ability, her viewer numbers had stabilized around a hundred per stream, which for a new streamer was genuinely strong.
What Amano had in mind was a thank-you visit.
During the Chronicle duel against Fallen of Albaz, Kurigalzu and Nibiru had combined to wipe Albaz's entire board. Nagi had not deliberately done anything helpful: it was the Chronicle's mechanics working through the cards she had lent him. But he had still been rescued by her cards more than once.
"Amano-bro!" Mizuki looked up from behind his setup, delighted.
"I... I..." Nagi's reaction was not what Amano had expected. He had assumed she would be straightforwardly glad to see him. Instead she sat up abruptly from her casual sprawl, pressed her knees together, and her cheeks flushed visibly. Her eyes held an unmistakable guilty quality.
Whatever it was she had apparently done while he was away.
"Kuroshio-san, I'm not someone you need to be nervous about."
"Am... am I obvious?"
"Extremely."
Also present: a blue-haired girl Amano recognized the moment his eyes landed on her. Before the name came to him, the nickname arrived first.
"Oh, it's you. The one who plays the little sister cards."
"What do you mean, little sister cards? My name is Lilith Alpha!"
Her registered name was Suzune Ruri, exposed through Eva's system the last time they had dueled. Amano remembered it clearly.
Mizuki explained: "Ruri-ruri drops by sometimes to give Kuroshio-san streaming tips. Having a veteran pro like her mentoring has definitely been part of why Kuroshio-san's numbers have stabilized so well."
Already on a "Ruri-ruri" basis. Amano recalled that when they had first encountered this particular streaming professional, she had been skeptical that Amano's duel videos were staged. Somewhere between then and now, she had apparently become someone who showed up to personally support a smaller streamer.
People who liked the little-sister archetype were probably decent by default.
Amano placed the convenience store bag on the club's coffee table.
"For you. Get-well gift."
"A gift? Let me see." Suzune Ruri reached the bag before Nagi could, with the confidence of someone who felt entirely at home in the room.
She pulled out cigarettes, betel nut, and a can of Monster energy drink.
"What exactly did you buy here?" Her expression was one of theatrical disgust.
"These seemed like things Kuroshio-san would like."
He had assembled the selection based on his previous-life impressions of a certain type of girl. The delinquent aesthetic and the mine-fashion aesthetic overlapped in certain areas.
"I... I appreciate the gift, Amano-bro. But I've quit smoking."
"Quit? When did that happen?"
"Recently. I've gotten into... other things." Nagi's fingertips tapped together and she looked away from him pointedly.
She was clearly avoiding direct eye contact, and the deflection was consistent from the moment he had walked in. He was not imagining it.
"Quitting smoking is good. Although your dark circles look worse than before. Whatever you've switched to: moderation might be worth considering."
"Amano-bro, are you going to do anything tonight? Want to eat dinner together?"
Quitting the cigarettes had apparently not reduced the Monster energy's appeal: she opened a can without a second thought.
"Can't, I need to go to the History Appreciation Society. Rin Seiya-senpai wanted to meet about something."
Nagi: "!!!"
The energy drink she had just tipped into her mouth came straight back out through her nose.
"Gross, Kuroshio-san!" Suzune Ruri hopped back from the trajectory.
"You're going to Rin Seiya-senpai?!"
Whatever had been making Nagi maintain that careful, guilty composure evaporated in an instant. She was visibly excited, animated in a way that had nothing to do with the awkward avoidance of two minutes ago.
"Go, go! You can't keep Rin Seiya-senpai waiting! Go now, go! Don't worry about us!"
"Why are you suddenly this urgent about it?"
"Just go! And make a good impression!"
Good impression of what?
Amano departed the broadcasting club with that question unanswered.
Outside: Officer Kirigakure.
In standard Security Bureau uniform, badge already extended by the time the door opened.
"You're Amano Rei. Security Management Bureau. We need you to come with us."
This moment had a very specific feeling of familiarity.
"Is this about the Wicked God card again?"
He was fairly certain Chiaki had resolved that issue definitively.
"No. There's something else that requires your assistance with confirming. The details aren't appropriate to discuss here, so you'll need to come to the Bureau."
The distinction mattered: assistance rather than questioning. Amano noted that and relaxed proportionally.
In Eden's system, actual criminal conduct got processed through Eva's terminal-integrated wrongdoing detection and handled automatically. The Security Bureau's jurisdiction was generally the gray-area civil disputes that didn't fit neatly into Eva's rules: domestic arguments, property lines, the kind of small human friction that AI administration did not handle elegantly.
Which was more or less what Rin Seiya had in mind when she called Eden's police useless.
"Alright. But can you brief the people inside so they don't misunderstand?"
"Easily done." Kirigakure's professional efficiency was apparent.
"We are inviting Amano Rei to assist with the investigation of a specific unusual matter. This is not an arrest or detention. Please do not be alarmed or spread information unnecessarily."
The three girls in the room received this with the collective blank expression of people processing something at a slight delay.
Amano was escorted out before any of them fully caught up.
As soon as the door closed:
"They actually took my idol away!" Nagi said.
"Probably not serious if they're framing it as cooperation," Mizuki offered.
Suzune Ruri lowered her voice with an air of someone who enjoyed knowing things. "Well. I don't know if it's connected, but a serious duelist has appeared in the professional circuit recently. Going from dojo to dojo, unbeaten. And apparently they're also looking for someone."
Nagi swallowed. "That... probably has nothing to do with Amano-bro, right?"
The professional circuit was still a world away from where any of them stood as students.
Suzune Ruri shrugged. "Who knows. I'm just speculating."
The Security Bureau sent a vehicle. Amano climbed into the back seat and was about to send Rin Seiya a message when Kirigakure stopped him.
"What we're dealing with is highly confidential. It would be better not to bring more people into the loop."
Standing her up again. The friend who had nearly made good on the Kaiba Corp threat was going to be waiting for nothing.
All he could send was a vague "something urgent came up" and move on.
In the car, Kirigakure offered a proper introduction.
"To reintroduce myself: Security Management Bureau, Extremely Special Incident Investigation Division. Division Chief, Kirigakure Shomei."
"Extremely Special Incident Investigation Division?"
"We handle incidents that arise in Eden but fall outside the scope of Eva's regulatory authority. Our jurisdiction covers Dark Games, Wicked God cards, data anomalies, and any force that represents a threat to Eden's stability."
The scope surprised Amano. He had apparently fought quite a few Dark Games without a single Bureau appearance.
"Since the incident with the Wicked God Avatar, you've been classified as a monitored subject under our Division. However, given your particular background, we couldn't compel your cooperation, and you haven't done anything actively threatening to Eden since."
Still a watched person, then. He had assumed that chapter was closed.
The vehicle arrived at the Bureau.
Amano had barely stepped through the interrogation room door when something small and enthusiastic collided with his torso at considerable speed, small arms locking around his waist.
He had not gotten a look at her face yet. He did not need to.
"Senpai! It really is you!"
He pulled the arms loose and got a proper look.
White-and-red: the distinctive Slifer Red uniform of Duel Academy. The girl wearing it, looking up at him with undisguised joy:
"Rei? You're Saotome Rei, aren't you."
He would not have mistaken this face.
What was an animated character doing in Eden?
"I've been looking for you, senpai! After you disappeared, I tried everything I could think of. Making it here must have been the power of love!"
Getting from the GX world to a city three thousand years in the future on "love" as the mechanism was pushing it considerably.
"I'll interrupt your touching reunion for a moment," Kirigakure said.
"This Saotome Rei claims to be your junior from your Academy. Based on our investigation, you enrolled in the higher division of Synchro Academy this year with no prior enrollment record anywhere. So how do you have a junior?"
There was no way to answer that honestly. Explaining that they were upperclassman and junior from three thousand years ago was not going to help anyone.
Amano's GX memories had been coming back gradually since the Supreme King arc: his relationship with Saotome Rei was genuinely complicated. She had been obsessively devoted to Marufuji Sho first, then switched to Jaden after watching him duel, then Amano had saved her during the Light of Destruction arc and she had latched onto him with a marriage announcement.
An extreme romance-brain in every sense of the phrase. Technically well over three thousand years old at this point, which did not make the situation any less awkward.
"Would it help if I told you this was a roleplay arrangement we had?"
Kirigakure's eyes narrowed into something that suggested a specific room with specific furniture.
"Our electric chair is fully charged."
Who exactly was that threat for? Saotome Rei? At her actual age she was arguably fair game for whatever the charge produced.
Kirigakure eventually exhaled in the manner of someone accepting they would not get a useful explanation.
"According to standard procedure, individuals with no identity record in Eden's system are assigned to the Containment Center in lower-district 22 until their status can be determined. But the Eva mainframe made an unusual ruling this morning."
"What kind of ruling?"
"If Amano Rei agrees to take responsibility as Saotome Rei's guardian, she may remain outside the Containment Center."
This was not quite the marriage she had announced. This was Eva making him a babysitter.
"An Eva ruling this specific to individual circumstances is something I've never encountered in my career. But even the Security Bureau cannot override the mainframe's determinations."
Kirigakure placed a guardianship certificate on the table.
"To confirm for the record: Amano Rei, do you agree to accept guardianship of Saotome Rei?"
"Senpai!" Saotome Rei had wrapped her arms around him again at some point during the explanation. She was looking up with an expression that belonged on an animal about to be left at a shelter.
This was well beyond the level of moral pressure. Declining meant a girl who had just arrived in an entirely unfamiliar world getting sent to a containment facility with no way out.
"I agree."
"I knew senpai liked me!"
"This is not about liking anyone. This is about basic decency."
He pressed his thumbprint on the certificate.
After signing, he picked it up to read properly. Under Relationship:
[Siblings]
Well. Given that the alternatives were spouse or parent, this was the least complicated option legally.
Then: a system notification, for the first time unconnected to any duel result.
[Lost Duelist "Saotome Rei" successfully sheltered]
[Lost Duelists sheltered: 1]
[First shelter: 5 Spacetime Points awarded]
[Spacetime Points Shop will unlock in 24 hours]
[Please work to find other Lost Duelists]
Lost Duelists.
Original GX-era characters, transported forward three thousand years into Eden by the butterfly effect from the Chronicle.
He had assumed this was an isolated incident. The system prompt was suggesting otherwise.
After Amano had led Saotome Rei out of the Bureau and declined Kirigakure's offer of a return ride, they boarded the mid-level district's maglev rail together.
He needed to talk to her alone first.
"Rei. Tell me exactly how you arrived here. I need to know everything if I'm going to help you."
Saotome Rei tapped her finger against her chin and tilted her head.
"I was praying at the Academy harbor for senpai to be safe. Then the sky started glowing strangely. Then when I opened my eyes we were in this city."
"We? Someone else came with you?"
"Yes, Ryo-senpai came too. But he didn't look after me at all, he just left on his own."
Kaiser Ryo.
The second Lost Duelist to arrive was Kaiser Ryo.
Piecing together the timeline: the moment matched exactly. What Saotome Rei had described seeing, the strange light in the sky above the harbor: that was Super Polymerization. The dimensional convergence from Jaden and Yubel's duel. Except instead of sending everyone back to Duel Academy the way it was supposed to, Amano's interference had deflected some of the power, connecting the dimensional bridge to Eden three thousand years in the future.
Changing history and not disappearing alongside the Supreme King: the butterfly effect Eva had described.
She had found Amano through Mizuki's streaming clip archives. His duel videos had made it onto a street-facing display screen somewhere in the city.
"Rei, listen carefully: in this world, we are siblings. Whatever changes between us later, right now that relationship is what lets you live here without any problems. You need to work with me on this."
"I don't want to be senpai's sibling! I want to fall in love with senpai and get married at twenty!"
Her resistance lasted precisely until Amano said he might have to abandon her in that case, at which point she nearly cried. One round of "I was joking" and a firm reminder later, she had reluctantly agreed.
She was trying to stay brave. Arriving in an entirely unfamiliar city, with one person who could have helped her having already walked away: the bravado was covering something.
Explaining her existence to everyone back at the villa was going to be its own problem.
After some thought, Amano arrived at the one cover story that might actually work, and decided to blame someone who could not argue back.
I'm sorry about this, Dad.
"A secret daughter?"
The entire villa, gathered in the living room, responded as a unit.
The guardianship certificate was right there as documentation. Relationship: siblings.
Kikawayu: "Did Amano-oji actually have a kid somewhere else?"
Shio's jaw had dropped far enough to fit something substantial inside it. "So she's our half-sister from a different mother?"
Yui, being analytical as always: "Well, he was away from home a lot. Thinking about it, it's not entirely implausible."
"That's just the situation," Amano said. "Saotome Rei is going to be in my care for now."
Kikawayu pressed immediately: "But why is her last name Saotome and not Amano?"
"I took my mom's family name," Saotome Rei responded, exactly as they had rehearsed on the train. "But you can all call me Amano Rei too. That's going to happen eventually anyway. I'd actually like to change it sooner rather than later."
Amano Rei. The same name as himself.
Shio absorbed this in silence, then slumped fully onto the sofa with the expression of someone whose worst fears had been confirmed.
"It's over. The bad feeling I had came true. I'm not big brother's only little sister anymore."
"Why does it have to be Amano who looks after her, though?" Yui frowned. "Even if they're siblings, that's not normally a reason to take on full responsibility..."
"This works out fine!" Finesse stepped in before the question could become a proper objection. "The villa has empty rooms. If she's Amano's sister, she's my sister too. Don't worry about a thing. This onee-chan has money!"
"Rich, and pretty, and a big sister!" Saotome Rei looked at Finesse with an immediate and cautious respect.
Finesse's instinct with children was something Amano consistently admired.
But watching the interaction, he caught something in Finesse's silver-gray eyes when he had introduced Rei as a secret daughter. A specific flicker of recognition.
Finesse herself had spent years as the unacknowledged illegitimate child of the Wein family. The parallel was probably obvious to her in a way he had not calculated when he invented the cover story.
The guilt sat uncomfortably.
Elsewhere, as darkness fell over Eden:
Inside a dueling dojo, a man in black activated a card, and an enormous machine dragon with the luminescence of pure electronic power took form above the arena.
"My victory! 'Eternal Evolution Flame'!"
The attack column of pure energy drove straight up into the night sky.
A woman stood behind him: umbrella open, kimono immaculate, shoulders bare and pale as winter. Even in the dark, her skin seemed to carry its own faint glow.
"As expected, Ryo. Not a single loss, even against professional dojo masters. How does your body feel?"
"No problems at all, Yukishiro." Kaiser Ryo brought his fist down and felt the strength in it. The solidity that had been slipping away from him, the heart that had been giving out with every duel: gone. "The medical technology in this world is years beyond anything I knew. I've never felt this strong."
He tightened his grip.
"You saved my life, Yukishiro. And now I can keep dueling. Keep pushing forward for victory, again and again, without limit."
The arena still smelled of ozone from the attack. The Electronic Termination Dragon's energy signature was fading back into the card.
"This time, I'll settle things with you properly, Amano Rei!"
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