Dueling is Magic! Return to Equestria Chapter 1: Anomaly
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It’s been two years since the Ark Cradle incident. Each member of Team 5D’s has gone their separate ways. Jack has once again become the King of the dueling world; Crow has entered the pro circuit; Aki is studying to become a doctor; and Rua and Ruka are now living with their parents.
Yusei has remained in Neo Domino City and is employed by KaibaCorp. as the leading scientist in the development of Momentum. But when a strange anomaly is detected, Yusei will journey back to a land he once visited and become a savior once more...
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Author’s Note: Confound you guys. And confound my brain. I blame both of you for this story’s existence. I was FINISHED, blast it all! And now I have to write ANOTHER story because I had a FANTASTIC IDEA for one. You guys wanted a sequel and my brain came up with one.
Great. Just great.
I doubt I’ll be doing a lot of psychological evaluations in this one. This is just a short adventure, but it’s gonna be a heck of a ride.
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Yusei sipped his coffee as he read the latest readout from Momentum. While it was intended to keep the reactor under control, the Fortune program had the side effect of doubling the energy output with no indication of backlash. Despite putting out more than it was designed to generate, Momentum gave every indication that it was operating at normal capacity.
Nevertheless, Yusei monitored it closely. He drank the last of his coffee and set the cup down, then flipped to the next page of the readout.
Just as he finished with the report, the door to his office opened. A young woman with short pink hair walked in holding another report.
“Here’s the latest D-Wheel report from Bolger and Company,” said the young woman, laying the papers on Yusei’s desk.
“Good. Thank you, Lena,” said Yusei.
“Would you like some more coffee?” Lena asked.
“No, thanks,” said Yusei. He picked up the report and began to read. Lena did not move. Yusei looked up. “Is there something else, Lena?”
“Oh! Um...” Lena blushed and looked to the side. “I was just... wondering if... um...”
“Yes?”
“Would you... like to grab lunch later?”
Yusei blinked. What could he say? That he was waiting for a girl to come home even though they weren’t in a relationship? “Sorry, Lena. This whole week’s been pretty busy so I don’t have time to go anywhere.”
“Oh... well, um... raincheck?”
“All right,” said Yusei.
Lena smiled, bowed, and left the room. Yusei sighed and spun his chair around to look out the window. “One of these days,” he said, “I’m gonna get myself into a mess I can’t handle.”
It was raining in Neo Domino City. Thick sheets of water were blown against the windows. On a clear day, Yusei could see clear to Satellite. Today he could only see as far as the edge of the next district. Ever since that night in Satellite four years ago, Yusei never liked the rain. The day was dreary and he couldn’t see as far ahead as he would have liked. The day was exactly how Yusei felt.
There was a knock at the door. Yusei spun his chair back around and saw Mayor Jaeger walk in.
“Mayor Jaeger,” said Yusei, standing up and bowing.
“Good to see you, Yusei,” said the short man. “How is the research on Momentum coming along?”
“Strangely,” said Yusei. “The Fortune program is doing everything it’s supposed to do, but we’re still reading twice as much energy as we should be. Momentum looks like it’s running optimum efficiency, but it’s still giving off more energy than it should be. I don’t know what to make of it.”
“Maybe you need a break, Yusei,” said Jaeger. “You have been throwing yourself into your work. I think you need a change in perspective and some time to clear your head. Perhaps you should ask your assistant Lena to lunch.”
“I... can’t do that,” said Yusei.
“Because of Miss Izayoi?”
Yusei sighed.
“I understand,” said Jaeger. “Take a break, Yusei. Call your friends. Go have a duel.”
“Yeah, maybe you’re right,” said Yusei. “I guess I’ll-”
A man in a white lab coat rushed through the door. “Mr. Fudo!” he shouted. “We have a problem!”
“What is it?” Yusei asked.
“We’ve picked up an energy spike, but it’s not coming from Momentum!” said the lab tech. “It’s coming from Satellite!”
“Is it Old Momentum?” asked Yusei.
“No, it’s in the Cubic Area,” the tech replied.
“Let’s go!” said Yusei. “Mayor, sorry for rushing out on you like this.”
“Quite all right, Yusei,” said Jaeger. Yusei nodded and left. Jaeger shook his head. “Always throwing himself into everything that comes up... I suppose he can’t help but try to fix everything.”
*****
Sector Security officers stood in a wide perimeter around the square. A large white pavilion with numerous computer terminals had been set up just inside the perimeter. Yusei and Lena watched a giant four-monitor setup. A continuous stream of data poured in from an array of signal dishes aimed at the anomaly at the center of the square.
“Mr. Fudo,” said Lena, “what do you think it is?”
Yusei said nothing, but he had seen this kind of thing before.
The anomaly was tall and rectangular in shape, like a door. It glowed bright white and seemed to flicker like a candle.
“Yusei!” came a deep voice. Yusei turned and saw his old friend Tetsu Ushio.
“Ushio!” said Yusei. “What are you doing here?”
“I got promoted to chief a just last month,” he said. “When I heard you were going to be here, I decided that I would personally oversee this. How’ve you been, Yusei?”
“Busy,” replied Yusei. “First Momentum and now this.”
“What’s wrong with Momentum?” asked Ushio.
“It’s giving off twice as much energy as it should be, but all of our instruments say that it’s acting normally,” Yusei explained. “We’re seeing way more energy than we should be, but Momentum itself is acting like it’s running at normal capacity.”
“That’s weird. Think it has to do with the Fortune program?”
“It might,” said Yusei. He looked out toward the glowing shape. “What can you tell me about that?”
“It appeared yesterday at 5:38 PM. Witnesses say there was a flash and then it was just there. Some people claim they are hearing voices coming from it.”
“Voices?”
“Yeah. Weird, huh?”
“Has anyone gotten close to it?”
“Thankfully no. A small child wandered near it about an hour after it appeared, but a Security officer got to him before he could get too close.”
“That’s good. And what about the voices?”
“I don’t know a whole lot about that,” replied Ushio. “Almost nobody could make out anything clearly enough, but a few people said they heard voices calling for help.”
“That doesn’t sound good,” said Yusei. “Man, when’s Akutsu going to get here?”
“That spinning lunatic? Why do you need him?” asked Ushio.
“He knows more about Momentum and energy signatures than I do,” Yusei answered. “I’m good at programming and mechanics, but he has more experience with this sort of thing.”
“If you say so, Yusei,” said Ushio.
“So... voices, huh?” asked Yusei. “I think I’d like to hear this.”
“You sure? I mean, the reports don’t seem reliable,” said Ushio, “and there’s no telling what’ll happen if you get too close.”
“I’m sure it’ll be fine,” said Yusei. He started walking toward the anomaly.
“Yusei Fudo!” came a voice. Yusei stopped and turned around. A man in a white coat with a large shock of brown hair approached him, spinning wildly as he did.
“Chief Akutsu,” said Yusei. “Good. We need you to-”
“Way ahead of you, Yusei!” said the man. He produced an item with a small dish mounted on the front. “With this device, I’ll be able to monitor and analyze the energy signatures of the anomaly in order to determine its exact nature.”
“How long will it take?” asked Yusei.
“It could take at least two hours to gather the necessary data,” said Akutsu. “I don’t know how long I’ll need to analyze it, so give me a day.”
“All right,” said Yusei.
*****
Yusei lay on his bed, staring up at the ceiling. The room was small, but Yusei liked it that way. Jaeger had convinced him to move into the Tops district so that he could be closer to KaibaCorp. tower, but Yusei didn’t want a huge room. They eventually found one that Yusei liked. The moon and city lights filtered into his room through the thin curtains; he could just make out the ceiling.
Yusei’s thoughts raced through his mind. Thoughts of Momentum, Lena, the anomaly, his friends... I guess a lot’s been happening lately. Yusei sighed. I just wish I could figure out what I should be doing right now. It seems like I’m just distracting myself with work. I know what I should be doing there. I need to figure out what’s going on with Momentum and that anomaly.
But what about Lena? That was the second time I’ve turned her down. Is it because of Aki? Do I miss her that much? Or am I just afraid of hurting her? Man, I wish Jack and Crow were here. They could help me figure this out.
Yusei turned onto his side. But Jack and Crow are in the pro leagues and keep pretty busy. I don’t think the twins could help either. And Aki... When did life get so complicated? The problem isn’t even that hard to identify, I just can’t figure out what to do about it.
Yusei’s eyes began to grow heavy and soon he fell asleep.
*****
“What’ve you got for me, Akutsu?”
“Ah, Yusei! Good! I just finished my analysis.”
“And?”
Akutsu grinned like a madman. “You aren’t going to believe what it is!”
Yusei blinked. “Well?” he said. “Tell us, what is it?”
Akutsu began spinning like a dervish. “I’ve discovered high traces of chroniton particles and trace amounts of tachyons,” said the spinning scientist.
“So, what does that mean?” asked Lena.
Akutsu stopped spinning. “It means, my dear,” he said, “that time travel is quite possible! We briefly picked up similar readings twice over two years ago, a few months before the WRGP. What we saw quickly disappeared, but this... there is something else you should know, Yusei.”
“What is it?” Yusei asked.
“These particles are moving at the same frequency as Momentum energy. Which means that this anomaly originated from a Momentum generator.”
“You’re kidding!”
“I may act silly, but I never kid.”
Yusei turned to look at the anomaly. “If a temporal anomaly was caused by Momentum... could it be? Could he-”
“Yusei!”
Yusei turned around. Walking toward him were two of his friends.
“Jack! Crow!” Yusei ran up to meet them. “It’s great to see you guys! But what are you doing here?”
“We heard about this thing on the news so Jack and I figured we’d find you here,” said Crow. “Listen, we’d love to catch up, but we need your help.”
“My help? With what?” asked Yusei.
“Well, you see,” Crow began, but he was interrupted by Jack.
“That masked D-Wheeler that stole Stardust Dragon from you two years ago just stole Red Dragon Archfiend from me!” roared Jack.
“Yeah, and he took Black-Winged Dragon from me too,” said Crow.
“Paradox?!” Yusei gasped. “But... but that’s impossible! We destroyed him! Me, Jaden and Yugi! He merged with one of his monsters and we destroyed him! How can he be back?”
“I don’t know, Yusei,” said Jack, “but you’re going to have to stop him. You’re the only one that can go after him.”
“Then those voices...” Yusei turned and ran toward the anomaly. He stopped just a few feet away.
And he heard them. Voices calling for help. Voices he had not heard for two years.