In a hospital in the Upper City Area, Ushio finally managed to send away the parents of the two kids who'd come to say thanks, and couldn't help wiping the sweat from his forehead.
The two little brats insisted on seeing their "big brother," their "big Hero," but this was a hospital after all, and patients needed rest, so it had taken a lot of effort to calm them down and persuade them to come back in a few days.
He'd been running around all day today, doing things his past self would never even have dared to imagine: leaking information, saving people, protecting a wanted criminal, and then escorting Crow to the hospital for treatment.
As a security officer, he was supposed to stop all Lower-Class People from coming to the Upper Area, yet today he'd actually taken the initiative to protect someone and bring him here.
Maybe those Duels over the past few days really had changed him?
Or maybe he'd just remembered his true original intent.
He scratched the back of his head and sighed, wondering if he was sick in the head and should get himself checked while he was here, then, on the way, walked back into the ward again.
Because he was a Lower-Class Person, even though he was receiving treatment in the Upper Area and had even been thanked by some Upper-area Nobles as parents, all other Lower-Class People were still shut out in the corridor, which meant Crow had no family or friends who could come visit.
So this kind of exhausting, thankless job naturally ended up on Ushio's shoulders.
When he walked into the ward, Crow had already woken up. Crow was staring up at the sky; though he was conscious, his mind still looked like a complete mess.
To be honest, Ushio was shocked.
He'd watched Crow fall from the sky and splatter like a pancake, yet that Earthbound Immortal had actually straight-up resurrected Crow—full HP resurrection at that. After the doctors finished their examination, they were amazed, because Crow's body showed virtually no injuries or illnesses at all. Forget fall trauma, he was actually healthier than the vast majority of Upper Area Duelists!
You had to understand, because Lower-Class People went without proper nutrition for years on end, their physical condition was generally worse than that of Upper-class People. The Upper-class People liked to claim it was because their genes were superior, but the doctors here knew perfectly well what the real reason was.
So the doctors were astonished by Crow's physical data and extremely curious.
"Even all the underlying conditions and hidden problems got wiped out?" Ushio muttered under his breath.
Crow was a repeat offender who'd been in and out of prison several times; Ushio knew him very well, and he knew there was no way Crow had ever been as healthy and perfect as he now appeared. Yet somehow the guy was sturdier than Ushio himself.
Ridiculous.
So this was the power of an Earthbound Immortal?
"Where are those two kids?"
"Their parents already took them home."
Crow lay on the bed, staring blankly at the ceiling.
Ushio yawned. After running himself ragged all day, he was exhausted too. He was just about to sit down and grab a quick nap when he suddenly noticed the screen in the room turn on. He grumbled that the nurses ought to turn this stuff off ahead of time so patients could rest, then saw a bald, black-clad figure appear on the display.
On screen, the man's expression was icy and severe as he read out his own name and another person's name.
Tenjo Hikari.
Instantly, both people in the room had their attention locked on the feed.
The man on the screen introduced himself as Akaba Leo, Commander of the Fusion Army and an ally of the Nobles. Next, he said, on behalf of the Nobles, he would carry out a crackdown on all Lower-class rioters who dared to resist the Upper Area.
"So that guy's the boss of those weird cops, huh?" Ushio's face darkened. "Tch, those Nobles, to cling to their own status, they're even borrowing the power of Other Dimension People?"
It was like in ancient times, when two factions in the same country were fighting, and one side suddenly brought in a Barbarian Race to come burn, kill, and loot their own people.
He'd seen it with his own eyes today: those Fusion Army security officers didn't show the slightest mercy. Many times they didn't even bother with arrests; they directly used the power of Cards to turn people into souls, or simply used guns and artillery to slaughter Lower-Class People.
Those kinds of people, and the Nobles actually cooperated with them??
Akaba Leo didn't waste time on grandstanding; he didn't talk about any eternal friendship between Fusion and Synchro, either. He stated directly that from here on out, he would use even more terrifying force to suppress the Lower-Class People. Not only that, but any traitors who dared help the Lower-Class People would be purged as well.
Bang—
Watching the livestream, Yusei couldn't help slamming a fist down on the table.
"What kind of bullshit is this guy spouting?"
He gritted his teeth.
Goodwin, currently under "house arrest," watched this scene with the same smile still on his face. On the contrary, he quietly said, "Well? Have you made up your mind? Still going to sit there and keep watching?"
When he cut in so abruptly, his adjutant Yeager jumped in fright. He glanced around and didn't see anyone suspicious, and for a moment he thought his superior had gone crazy—right then, a voice suddenly sounded from the side.
"I'm not your clown anymore, Goodwin!"
Yeager let out a shriek and whipped his head around, only to see that at some point, a tall, blond man had already stepped into the room, closing the distance between them one step at a time.
Goodwin had never been worried about being put under house arrest.
Even if he didn't lift a finger, he knew someone would "come rescue him" sooner or later.
Jack wore a frosty expression, and behind him, Carly—who was even more nervous than Yeager—was trembling as she followed him inside.
"Jack, it's been a while. Seeing you in such good health truly makes me happy," Goodwin said with a smile.
Jack just snorted coldly. "Hmph. The streets are crawling with idiots with a death wish and scum attacking ordinary people, and you're actually not out there doing anything about it. So you really did get yourself locked up, huh?"
Unlike Crow, the moment Jack realized how serious the situation had become, the first thing he thought of was, of course, to come and question Goodwin face to face—ask him why he was doing all this.