The Duel began very quickly.
The two sides facing off were Judai and Manjome, up against Teacher Daitokuji and another Spellcaster-Type Monster.
It seemed to be Sorciere de Fleur; he didn't know if she was an old friend of Teacher Daitokuji's or a Spirit he had met after coming to the Mage Domain.
What was surprising was that, right up to the end, he still didn't call over Aleister the Invoker, who looked like he was really tight with him.
After the Duel began, Aleister came over to stand next to Tenjo Hikari, simply watching the Duel and, from time to time, suddenly throwing a few questions at Tenjo Hikari.
Tenjo Hikari watched the Duel while fielding the questions, and more or less understood in his heart.
The Duel against Judai and Manjome was a test of combat.
While his own "test" was a test of support ability, testing his capabilities outside of a Duel.
After all, his Dueling had already been recognized by many people, and beyond that, Teacher Daitokuji and Aleister should have secretly watched many of his other Duels as well, and probably felt there was no need to keep testing his Dueling ability.
And as they chatted, all of a sudden, Aleister's tone shifted.
"Hikari, right now, you, Judai, and Manjome are all away from Duelist Academy. If something unexpected happened at Duel Academy, what would you do?"
"Something unexpected?"
"A strange force, a resurrected Evil Spirit, invaders from some Other Dimension that no one knows where they came from, or maybe a violent Spirit from some Dimension… In short, if beings like that suddenly appeared, what would you do?"
"..."
Tenjo Hikari fell silent for a moment, then broke into a smile and said, "Before, I kept worrying that one day Serena would suddenly get ambushed by people from the Fusion Army. Later, she even went and snuck into the Fusion Army's main base all by herself, so…"
Duel Academy Main School.
Accompanied by the repeated blaring of ship horns, one ship after another arrived at the island where Duel Academy's Main School was located.
"Wahaha, so this is the Main School!" John from the Northern Europe Branch shouted excitedly as soon as he set foot on land. "Judai, I'm heeere!"
"The island where that man is…" Amon from the Eastern Branch walked down from his own ship, feeling the Academy's atmosphere, saying nothing.
Besides them, the America Branch, Western Branch, Northern Branch… one ship after another arrived at Duel Academy.
Leaving aside those branch representatives who were wandering all over the island or getting acquainted with the students here, the professors from each Branch came one after another to the principal's office at Duel Academy's Main School.
In the principal's office, Professor Cronos looked a bit haggard. For months he had been working hard, constantly evaluating and analyzing the "Fusion Army Instructor" group, while also being responsible for coordinating with teachers from other Academies, and for the exhausting work of using students like Tenjo Hikari to turn around the Academy's reputation. For a stretch of time before this, because Tenjo Hikari had become famous, he'd even had to spare time to protect Tenjo Hikari, which consumed a huge amount of energy.
Beside him, Instructor Napoleon, serving as temporary assistant to the principal, was also dabbing at sweat with his handkerchief from time to time.
Although he had always been at odds with Professor Cronos, Cronos's "disciples" had performed far too well during this period, and the "Light Society" he trusted had also lost to Tenjo Hikari. In such circumstances, anything he said would be wrong, and on top of that, Professor Cronos was already officially transitioning into the "principal" position. There was nothing he could do to stop it, so he could only do his utmost to assist.
Because the recent period had been far too hectic, he seemed to have lost quite a bit of weight.
"Ehto…" Instructor Napoleon saw several colleague professors from other Branches walk into the principal's office. Waiting for them to speak, he grew more nervous, but still began explaining according to the prepared script.
What would follow was a semester-long term of "Duel Academy Representative Exchange." In addition to normal study, each Duel would be carried out under the observation of Duel Academy Main School's overall responsible parties—namely him and Professor Cronos—and the Duelists would take part in several "professor rating" evaluations. Only if all their scores in these evaluations met specific baseline standards could they continue serving as Branch representatives in charge of their Branch's affairs.
"Why should we submit to your evaluations?" one professor voiced his dissatisfaction.
After all, although they were Branch professors, their rank was the same as that of the Main School professors; all of them could decide the research and development direction of their own Academy. For example, the one speaking now was a professor who was trying to promote Synchro Summon in his own Academy.
"Come on now, calm down, calm down. Evaluations happen every year; I'm sure Medici won't make things hard on us." A professor who looked like a good-natured old fellow tried to smooth things over, but he didn't even address Medici by his full title, let alone add "Professor." Just casually calling him by his surname made it clear he didn't hold the Main School professor in much respect.
Instructor Napoleon wiped his sweat again with the handkerchief, then continued, "This is the result of joint discussions by Kaiba Company…"
"Enough." Suddenly—
A man like a venomous snake stepped forward, and several of the professors who had spoken out against the plan fell silent at once.
Because the man who stepped out was simply too tall, and too famous.
Professor Cobra!
Among the many professors, he was a renowned "Military Duelist," and the "Venom Deck" he used was terrifying. In these professors' past Duels, almost no one had ever defeated him.
"Oh! Professor Cobra!" Napoleon called out excitedly.
So he's actually on our side—this is great!
Professor Cronos couldn't help but rejoice in his heart as well.
Mamma mia—truly worthy of being the Professor Cobra who refused to cooperate with Akaba Leo, how reliable.
"As teachers, as professors, as the highest authorities of our Branches, in a situation like this, we should of course accept evaluations from the Main School. It's nothing to make a fuss about."
"Tch…" "Hmph…"
"Already sucking up to the future principal?"
"That Cobra guy…"
They were all at the same level; no one was inherently above anyone else. Yet now they were being made the "objects of suspicion" and subjected to a review right off the bat, so of course no one wanted to accept that. But since someone had already spoken out in favor, if they kept making a scene it would only make them look unreasonable, and might even cause Kaiba Company to suspect them of being connected to Akaba Leo, so they didn't continue to oppose it.
After all, the review was just annoying; they themselves had nothing to do with Akaba Leo, so nothing would actually happen to them.
Once Cobra and the others had quieted down, he put on a smile again and said to Professor Cronos, "Well then, Professor Cronos, I heard that your prized pupil Tenjo Hikari has established a Fusion Department, and supposedly even defeated Akaba Leo's Activity Department and took Polymerization back, reclaiming and proving it. Would it be possible for you to take us to have a look?"
"It's possible, it's possible—" Hearing Cobra mention this, Cronos's favorability toward Professor Cobra shot up even higher.
After all, that was the Activity Department founded by his prized student Tenjo Hikari!
The other professors, hearing this, also grew curious.
After all, as educators, they might have their own conflicts and turf wars, but when it came to students, they only had a sense of responsibility and the desire to guide.
"However, Tenjo-san submitted an application today and should have gone off on a Dimension adventure, so they're all not at the Academy."
"Is that so?" Professor Cobra narrowed his eyes, the corners of his mouth lifting as he said with great regret, "That really is a shame. It looks like we'll only get to meet these excellent students after the term starts."
In any case, since the topic had come this far, Professor Cronos also wanted to show off the Fusion Department's achievements a bit, so he led the professors from the other Branches to the Fusion Department.
As soon as they entered the Fusion Department, Professor Cobra's smile grew even more satisfied.
Wonderful, absolutely perfect—one after another, all of them Duelists with excellent Duel Energy.
Even the ordinary members probably didn't produce bad Duel Energy. This was fantastic…
Well then, Yu…
Just as he was thinking of calling out to Yubel, he suddenly noticed a strange plush toy placed on the front desk.
It was a weird purple squid plush, its body pierced through by many sharp weapons, looking quite grotesque. Combined with those eyes that faintly glowed with Red Light, it seemed even more bizarre, like something that could scare a child to tears.
Why would such a creepy doll be placed in a clubroom of an Activity Department?
He glanced around the first-floor hall of the Fusion Department.
There were also a griffin doll and a hound doll?
This style… seemed like Akaba Leo's subordinates' "Frightfur," didn't it?
He remembered that Akaba Leo's club members would also send these kinds of dolls to freshmen to lure them into joining.
But…
Why did these plush toys give him a faintly hair-raising feeling?!