No way.
He’d just been joking to himself about wishing some nice bro would show up and hand him a free deck, and one had actually appeared?
Were his prayers really that effective?
This guy had shown up out of nowhere in the pitch-black middle of the night, blocking Yushin’s path, dressed in the same general style as the cultists from before, a Duel Disk strapped to his arm, and giving off a distinctly ominous, sinister air.
Just from that one glance, Yushin was already almost certain this guy meant trouble.
He stopped in his tracks and looked the man up and down.
The man did the same to him.
The hooded man said, “Are you the one who descended upon my Netherworld Sovereign Cult’s ritual site?
May I ask your origins?
Why have you taken possession of this boy’s body, and why did you strike against my cult’s rite?” “Oh?” Yushin gave the man, who stood a full head taller than him, a careful once-over.
So the cult had a name after all, the Netherworld Sovereign Cult.
And they’d traced things back to him showing up at the ritual site, apparently having even worked out that he wasn’t really Fujishiro Sakuma at all, but some outside consciousness that had taken over the body.
But the fact that the man was asking about his origins made Yushin want to say only one thing.
…He’d love to know that himself.
He had absolutely no idea who his actual body was back in that golden temple after he’d transmigrated, where that temple even was, or how he was supposed to get out.
Unable to answer the question, Yushin threw one back instead.
“You’re with this Netherworld Sovereign Cult too?
Mind if I ask who your church actually worships, and what your goal is?” “Of course.
I’m the cult’s Dark Ritual Officiant, and our teachings have never been any secret,” the Dark Ritual Officiant said flatly.
“Or rather, our faith holds that the wider our doctrine spreads, the better, revealing to the world the forbidden truth that the sinful Sector Security has been covering up.” Yushin asked, “So what is that truth, exactly?” “The truth about the Zero Reverse incident, fifteen years ago, the one that split New Domino City into the city proper and the Satellite, and killed countless people in the process,” the Dark Ritual Officiant said.
Something clicked in Yushin’s mind.
Zero Reverse really was a massive secret Sector Security had been sitting on, but it was one Yushin already knew, having watched the anime.
In simple terms, humanity’s very first perpetual motion engine prototype had gone out of control and reversed, and the energy it released had torn the city clean in two, permanently divided by seawater.
One half had become today’s city proper.
The other had become the ruined Satellite.
Sector Security’s official story was that it had simply been a tragedy caused by a major disaster, one that cost thousands of lives.
But according to the anime’s actual plot, it hadn’t been an accident at all.
It was a deliberately engineered conspiracy, orchestrated by some hidden mastermind who’d forced the original perpetual motion engine out of control, a scheme running through the entire main story of Yu-Gi-Oh!
5D’s.
Even though Yushin figured he’d already known this secret, the man’s words just now had still let slip a key piece of information.
Fifteen years ago, Zero Reverse.
If Yushin remembered right, the series’ protagonist, Yusei Fudo, had only been a year old when Zero Reverse happened.
By the time the main anime story kicked off, Yusei was eighteen.
If this cult’s Dark Ritual Officiant was saying it happened fifteen years ago, did that mean the current timeline he was standing in was two years before the main anime story even started?
That was some genuinely important information.
Yushin kept probing.
“So your faith’s teaching is about exposing the truth, to seek justice for the souls who died unjustly in the Zero Reverse incident?” “Justice?
No,” the Dark Ritual Officiant said.
“It seems you’ve misunderstood something.
In our faith’s eyes, Zero Reverse was a great gift bestowed upon humanity from above.
In that incident, the energy released by the original perpetual motion engine opened the gates of the Netherworld.
“Only for a brief moment, but through it, our lord took notice of this world, drowning as it is in sin!” Yushin said, “You’re saying Zero Reverse opened the gates to the Netherworld?” He vaguely started to remember it now: in the first arc of the 5D’s anime, the villain group known as the Dark Signers had served a master who supposedly ruled the Netherworld, and had genuinely displayed the terrifying power to reverse life and death.
At the climax of the Dark Signers arc, the gates of the Netherworld had actually opened, and its ruler had briefly manifested in reality through the old perpetual motion engine’s energy—looking, more or less, like a hundred-meter-tall pile of sludge.
Except whenever the Netherworld came up in Yu-Gi-Oh!, it was hard not to think of a certain starfish-haired Pharaoh who’d returned there.
“Correct,” the Dark Ritual Officiant said.
“Humanity built a forbidden machine, the perpetual motion engine, with its own hands, and the runaway energy from the Zero Reverse incident forced open the gates of the Netherworld.
Our lord had originally intended to bestow the blessing of eternal life upon humanity then, but the gate was only open for far too brief a moment, and outside interference disrupted things besides, so it didn’t succeed.” There was a note of regret in his voice as he said it, but his tone shifted again almost immediately.
“But next time will be different, without question!
When our lord descends upon the mortal world a second time, he will reverse the very constants of life and death, and bring the laws of the Netherworld to the human realm!
“When that day comes, every person will become immortal and undying, granted the blessing of eternal life.
There will be no more city proper, no more Satellite.
Humanity will finally achieve true equality!” The description sounded tempting enough, but it reminded Yushin of the original series’ villain group, the Dark Signers.
By canon setup, the Dark Signers had all originally been dead duelists, resurrected by that so-called ruler of the Netherworld into undying living-dead.
But though brought back from death, they’d all become puppets of the Netherworld’s ruler in the process.
They couldn’t disobey his commands, and if necessary, he could even erase their own consciousness entirely, turning them into nothing more than his own marionettes.
Having just recalled the Dark Signers’ backstory, Yushin tossed back an offhand reply.
“Equal slaves, you mean?” The Dark Ritual Officiant shook his head.
“Just look at the world humanity has made for itself, drowning in sin and injustice as it is.
Our lord granting immortality and equality is as good as giving humanity a second life.
That he would even allow us to serve him as slaves is already an immense honor.” He paused, then went on.
“But given what you’ve just said, it seems you and I really aren’t cut from the same cloth after all.
A shame, though not unexpected.” As he spoke, the Duel Disk strapped to his arm had already unfolded.
“Speaking of which, I was already planning to settle the score for the failed ritual, and for the brothers and sisters who died because of you,” the Dark Ritual Officiant said calmly.
“Whatever kind of being you might be, my faith will never tolerate anyone who stands in the way of our rites.” Sure enough, it always came down to cards.
After all, in the world of Yu-Gi-Oh!, dueling was the primary means of exercising supernatural authority.
So Yushin unfolded his own Duel Disk without hesitation.
“Fine.
Let’s see how much better you are than that Ritual Arbiter from before.” “Duel!” “Duel!” [Yushin, LP 4000] [Dark Ritual Officiant, LP 4000] The turn order was once again decided randomly by the Duel Disks.
This time, the choice fell to the Dark Ritual Officiant.
“I’ll go first,” the Dark Ritual Officiant said.
“Draw.” This hooded man was as effortlessly stylish with his cards as he was with his outfit.
He didn’t even summon a monster, just set a single card face-down in the back row with a wave of his hand and passed the turn outright.
“I’ll set one card face-down.
Turn end.”