A card tied to the Legendary Dragons.
From the glimpse of the silhouette just now, it looked like... Claw of Hermos.
Hmm…
Hikaru Amagi rubbed the bridge of his nose.
That card had never appeared for him before—not even during the times he invoked Super Polymerization—yet here it was now, mysteriously appearing in his deck like a fleeting illusion. That in itself was a surprise.
Still, now that it had manifested—however ephemeral—it warranted consideration. Where had it come from?
Could this be a sign that the Orichalcos God was reawakening?
Didn't seem likely.
Hikaru hadn't heard of any sudden outbreaks of shadow duelists using "automatic loss" seals or anything like that.
During his recent talk with Rex Raptor, he'd asked a few things. Though Rex wasn't too eager to talk about his past—especially the time before he hit rock bottom—he still offered Hikaru advice, speaking as someone who'd "been through it." Told him not to walk the wrong path, to keep forging his own way.
He had been around during the Orichalcos incident. He said as much. But he was just a minor character then. Lost to Joey Wheeler pretty quickly. After that? His memories were hazy. What he did recall was how his body and spirit kept weakening afterward. Like something was draining him, leaving him hollow.
It wasn't until years later—after surviving as a street vagrant for who knows how long—that he got back on his feet, thanks to the support of the Breeze Ramen company. That's when he reclaimed his identity as a Duelist.
As for recent years? He could only sigh and say Kaiba had become increasingly terrifying.
So based on all that… this probably wasn't tied to Doma or Orichalcos.
I mean, unless Seto Kaiba had secretly absorbed the remnants of the Doma organization and was trying to copy the Sacred Beasts and mess with the Orichalcos God on the side.
…Possible? Maybe.
But Hikaru had never seen any signs of that in Kaiba's current tech empire.
At most, he knew Kaiba had inherited the Sacred Beasts from Chancellor Kagemaru and was plotting some grand dimensional scheme—maybe trying to manufacture artificial Dark Magician-type spirits to recruit more Duelists into the Fusion Army.
Still, this card—whatever it was—had to be the result of his duel with Rex Raptor.
Something had reacted in that moment.
Which meant the trigger was likely something unique about Rex himself.
Maybe his title as a "Legendary Duelist."
Maybe his strange "negative compatibility" with spirits.
Whatever the case, it had to be one of those two.
To confirm his theory, Hikaru had a serious talk with Tieyera and asked her to walk him through what had happened during the duel.
Seeing his earnest attitude (as Tieyera interpreted it), she agreed to share what she knew.
Rex Raptor, she explained, was in a fragmented state. His soul was riddled with holes. Had he dueled a proper Spirit, he likely would've passed out instantly. His essence had been drained. Not devoured, but steadily siphoned over time.
To recover, he'd either need to be reborn through powerful dueling, or turn to dark rituals—stealing life force from others.
"If Rex is still like that," Hikaru nodded slowly, "then he must've kept his hands clean all these years."
Tieyera, uninterested in the man himself, simply confirmed, then elaborated.
Thanks to Hikaru's deepening skill in alchemy—especially having built his own dimensional gate—and the energy his mysterious card produced, his duel with Rex had sparked something: it stirred Rex's dormant spirit, reignited a flicker of purpose. That change had purified some of the residual filth that clung to Rex's soul.
And that discarded impurity?
It had alchemized into the card Hikaru now held—a phantasmal spell card, flickering in and out of reality.
"So… I need to duel Rex a few more times?"
"Wouldn't be enough," Tieyera shrugged. "He alone isn't sufficient. But if you track down other Legendary Duelists... maybe."
She tilted her head, then nodded as if confirming to herself, "If those 'legendary' titles aren't just hot air, then yeah, it's doable. Just find someone about on his level."
So in other words…
Hikaru glanced at the Claw of Hermos.
In the original Yu-Gi-Oh, Joey Wheeler once held this very card. And one of the people who had attacked Joey back then... was none other than Rex Raptor.
Which meant—
It wasn't necessarily that the card manifested because of Rex specifically…
It was because Rex was part of the legend.
Maybe if Hikaru kept dueling other Legendary Duelists… he could collect the rest of the Legendary Dragon cards?
Damn!
He smacked the table.
"What's up?" Tieyera blinked, halfway through tasting one of Breeze Ramen's latest "Easy Fusion" test flavors. "Why so dramatic?"
Hikaru didn't answer.
He was just... frustrated.
If only he'd arrived in this world earlier!
If he'd met Jaden sooner, maybe he could've tagged along during the Duel Academy's duel with the Paradox Brothers. Maybe he could've obtained some Gate Guardian fusion cards! Or even awakened the dragons early, without wasting a year's worth of alchemy materials and trial and error!
Of course, that was just momentary whining.
Back then, he had no chance of traveling between dimensions with Jaden. The guy barely knew him at the time and was way closer to Syrus Truesdale. There simply wasn't an opening.
"Mmm... not bad," Tieyera said, slurping noodles. "Tastes decent. Good enough to sell to mortals and call it divine food."
Hikaru chuckled under his breath.
Then, quickly, he coughed and slid the Claw of Hermos into his deck box, sealing it away.
No matter what, this gave him a new goal.
If the Breeze Ramen partnership worked out, he'd have a legitimate platform to seek out and challenge more Legendary Duelists.
And when that day came...
Fusion would show him the truth.
But before that—
It was time to prepare for the final interdimensional trip of the semester!