At this moment.
The White Dragon, which was hovering in the air, resumed its operations instantly under the first ray of sunlight cast by the sun.
With the roaring of the spaceship, the Bird Beast-Type Spirits staying on the ship flapped in shock. When they regained their senses, they returned to the ship, eagerly watching the cabin.
Tenjo Hikari stretched vigorously.
After adjusting his deck last night, he immediately went to sleep, ensuring he was energetic and full of stamina today.
Similarly, Manjome also had a look of battle intent, staring intently at Tenjo Hikari.
One after another, spectators and staff began to enter.
They checked the equipment, confirmed its safety, and activated the devices, connecting to all the viewing equipment in the world.
Just as everyone was intensely preparing for the duel, the very center of the spaceship suddenly emitted a soft sound.
In the central part of the spaceship, a circular device slowly opened. A silhouette rose from inside the ship, and as he ascended, the entire spaceship's surrounding scenery changed into a magical scene. Blue patterns filled all the spaces, replacing even the sky, as if the spaceship had suddenly landed in reality, in Domino City.
"President!?" "Master!" "Wow, it's Mr. Kaiba—"
Tenjo Hikari watched Kaiba Seto gradually emerge from the cabin, then jump onto the Dueling Arena, stepping onto it and looking around.
Countless cameras focused on him.
"All Duelists of the world!"
He suddenly spoke, declaring.
"I ask you, for what purpose do you duel!"
He raised his left hand, holding a ring-shaped Duel Disk with a very different art style from the ones used by current students, exuding a faint blue light.
Everyone's attention shifted to him.
One of the known strongest duelists in the world, the president of the largest company in the world, the most genius scientist known to the world, the initiator of dimension exploration...
Countless titles were bestowed upon him, yet none could truly define him.
However, to him, these titles held no meaning.
Because, for him, he only had one title—Kaiba Seto.
"From the moment a human is born into this world, the soul is housed in this physical vessel."
"In other words, the body is the prison of the soul, an inescapable prison until death!"
He clenched his fist in front, looking ahead. On all the devices capable of playing videos and broadcasting images, his face was revealed: "Is your adversary your family? Is your adversary others!? Is your adversary people from other dimensions!?"
"We should fight for those we protect, fight against those with different ideologies. Through the foolish acts of mutual slaughter in war, the history of battle is continuously repeated."
Akaba Leo, watching live, couldn't help but grip the armrest tightly, crushing it.
Kaiba Seto's expression gradually turned cold as he continued, "Ironically, even the victor cannot escape from the prison!"
But—
Ladies and gentlemen!
Through dimension exploration, through dueling, our souls have been liberated!"
"We depart from the prison, leaving the world we grew up in, stepping into infinite possibilities!"
Boundaries, autonomy, thoughts, language, transcending all languages, advancing toward a brand-new future!
This is the possibility of dimension travel!"
"Now—"
He raised his left hand: "Embed the spirit of battle into the Duel Disk, use cards as your weapons, and clash your souls with all the spirits, all the dimensional duelists!"
After concluding this long speech, he slowly looked toward the two duelists: "Now, I announce, the GX Tournament final match begins.
Dance, fight, duel!
O exalted and infinite souls of duelists! Showcase it for all to see!"
While speaking, he swung his hand wide. Suddenly, two hatches opened from either side of the spaceship, and two prototype machines shot out with a whizz. Tenjo Hikari and Manjome hurriedly caught the machines flying toward each of them, then couldn't help but exclaim softly.
"This is the latest special Duel Disk developed by Kaiba Company. It can maximize the duelist's power even in different dimensions, different worlds, and it can withstand Synchro and Xyz powers. Its projections are more realistic than the original, almost a 1:1 virtual image.
Though it's a prototype, it is now entrusted to you."
Saying this, he strode away from the center, standing on the opposite side of the audience seating, calmly watching the duel.
Manjome excitedly switched to the new Duel Disk, placing the old one into his backpack, while Tenjo Hikari, after examining it, hadn't yet reacted when Tierra took away the Duel Disk and replaced it with the new model.
Admittedly, this style definitely matched the futuristic design Tierra liked.
Equipped with the Duel Disk, it automatically rotated, and the cards shuffled automatically upon activation. Various parts of the Duel Disk lit up with blue light, appearing quite splendid.
"Feels nice—" Tenjo Hikari marveled.
In the original work, Kaiba Seto was very fond of tinkering with such new machines, from the Dueling Disk in the Duel Kingdom to the later Duel Tower, the movie version's projection Duel Disk, and so on. He himself enjoyed unveiling new gadgets at critical moments in such large-scale events, so Tenjo Hikari wasn't surprised.
After they both equipped their Duel Disks, a blue grid began to extend outward, centering on them.
"Duel!" X2.
Almost instinctively, the two shouted simultaneously.
Manjome Jun, LP: 4000.
Tenjo Hikari, LP: 4000.
"I won the rock-paper-scissors yesterday, so I get the first move, Tenjo." Manjome said with a chuckle.
"Yes." Tenjo Hikari nodded slightly.
At this moment, there was no need to forcefully seize it.
"Thinking back, when I returned to the academy, it was also the end, it was a live duel. My first duel opponent just happened to be you." Manjome looked at his hand cards while reflecting, "At that time, due to my pride, all I thought about was proving myself.
As a result, in that duel, I was utterly defeated by you…
Later, I pondered for a long time, whether there was any other possibility in that duel, until earlier, I finally came to a realization.
It's not important anymore!
A true duelist seeks only the path ahead, my soul is looking at the path forward, so there's no need for any silly actions."
He and Tenjo Hikari locked eyes, as if there really was lightning: "I am myself, I do not need to prove to anyone!
I only need to prove to myself that the path I walk is not wrong!"
Hearing this, Tenjo Hikari gently raised a fist and met his gaze.
Manjome chuckled lightly: "Then, without any extra emotions, unaffected by anything, let's have a good match, Tenjo!"
"Let's go, Thunder." Tenjo Hikari was also prepared.
"My turn, draw! Activate the Spell Card, Magical Mallet, this card allows you to return it along with the cards in your hand to the deck, then redraw the same number of cards—"
He selected three cards in his hand, inserted them into the Duel Disk, then reshuffled and drew four cards again. Seeing two Ojama Monsters, he showed no emotion and revealed another Magical Mallet, "Once again, Magical Mallet!"
Reshuffle, redraw—
Tenjo Hikari watched Manjome operate like this twice.
"Alright." This time, Manjome didn't draw another Magical Mallet, but...
He had already drawn the cards he wanted—Ojamagic and Graceful Charity!
"Activate the Spell Card, Graceful Charity, draw three cards, then discard two cards!"
Right at the start, multiple reshuffles!
After drawing three cards from his deck, he immediately discarded two of them: "Effect of discarded Ojamagic, add one of each Ojama Trio from the deck to the hand!"
Thus, his hand cards swelled instantly: "Then, activate the Spell Card Ojama Ride! Send one each of Ojama Yellow, Ojama Green, and Ojama Black from hand to the Graveyard, then Special Summon up to three LV 4 or lower Machine-Type Union Monsters from the deck!"
"What a convenient Special Summoning method—" John exclaimed.
"Going for XYZ right from the start?" Mitsuzawa Daichi, watching, instantly understood his intent.