Completed- El Shaddoll Winda

After the School Festival ended, the Academy entered a short holiday period. Most students would leave the school to return to the warmth of their homes.

Of course, some students chose to stay.

Some simply didn't want to go home, while others, like Atticus, who had been missing for a year and was preparing to re-enroll as a second-year, had paperwork to complete.

Additionally, students like Amaki Hikaru and Jaden Yuki, who held the Shadow Keys, absolutely shouldn't leave school during this time. It was both to protect the Academy and themselves, if they left campus, they risked being ambushed by the Shadow Riders.

But this wasn't a big deal for the Key Holders.

Everyone here was a hardcore duelist. Staying on campus and happily dueling in the Fusion Club activity room without worrying about others' judgment was pure bliss.

The only regret for Jaden was that Zane, preparing to go pro next year, was increasingly shifting his focus.

Moreover, Hikaru wasn't around every day. Often, he'd hide in the Fusion Club president's room, tinkering with who-knows-what. Occasionally, there were even explosions, baffling everyone.

Today was one such day. After another explosion, Hikaru activated the room's heavy-duty ventilation system, clearing the smoke. Carefully, using long tweezers, he extracted a card from a large cauldron.

Ever since obtaining Eldlich's gems, Hikaru had upgraded his equipment, mostly selected by the Fullmetalfoes Alkahest. Though it looked like a small cauldron, it was far more expensive than the gems themselves.

Hikaru didn't mind the expense. Money came and went, out with the old, in with the new.

"Did it work?"

"Feels like it."

Hikaru heard his Spirits' voices. He fanned the heat off the card, revealing it to them.

"Gem-Knight?"

"A comrade, huh."

"Is that Sapphire? So you've been synthesizing Gem-Knight Sapphire these days, Master Hikaru."

Hikaru nodded.

When sorting materials earlier, he noticed a lot of sapphire fragments. Judging by quality and quantity, they seemed like cheaper gems, perfect for practice synthesis.

His main goal, however, was to synthesize "Predaplant" cards.

Yet after two or three attempts at making Gem-Knight Sapphire, Hikaru discovered something new, synthesizing Gem-Knight cards could also charge Winda.

This excited Hikaru.

After months of dueling with Darkness's "help" and repeated matches against Haruto Kunigawa in Neo Domino City, his El Shaddoll Winda was nearly complete. But without other Duel Terminal series duelists to spar with, Winda's evolution had stalled.

Realizing that synthesizing Sapphire could energize Winda, Hikaru temporarily set aside attempts to make Predaplant Ophrys Scorpio and focused on refining Sapphire.

Maybe because it was a Normal Monster, or thanks to Gem-Knight Prismaura existing in his deck, Hikaru found he could attempt it even with just a Spirit Compatibility of Level 5.

After much effort, today, Hikaru finally succeeded in creating a Gem-Knight Sapphire card and carefully stored it away.

His Gem-Knight Fusions currently only included Prismaura and Seraphinite, and he had no Sapphire-aligned Fusions yet. So, he'd have to wait for Super Polymerization to provide those.

Meanwhile...

Hikaru pulled out another card: a green-haired mage wielding a staff, commanding a phantom dragon. He traced the intricate patterns and gleaming etchings, feeling a surge of excitement.

He slotted it into his Duel Disk, which responded with "ERROR." But Hikaru wasn't discouraged.

He was just checking Winda's completion.

In truth, he'd been unable to judge Winda's progress with his own eyes for days now. To him, it already looked like a complete real card.

So, only the Duel Disk could confirm whether Winda was fully finished.

Apparently, not quite yet.

Still, no worries, he could try crafting "Gem-Knight Garnet" next. Although more expensive than Sapphire, he wasn't pouring whole gems in each time, just powdered fragments, so the cost was manageable.

The Gem-Knight spirit hesitated as if wanting to say something, but fell silent.

Somehow, that card, Winda, evoked a primal, ancient fear.

Not fear from himself, but fear reaching back to the very "origin."

"Master! It's time for our duel!" Celina's voice rang out, accompanied by heavy knocking.

Unlike Alexis, who had other hobbies and rarely stayed long at the Fusion Club, Celina truly only wanted to duel.

Every day around this time, Hikaru would set aside time to duel with Celina, not serious matches, but pure, simple card exchanges.

They'd shuffle together random cards, each draw a 40-card pile, and duel.

Something like Master Duel's Solo Mode, explaining dueling thought processes to Celina.

Jaden, Bastion, and others often joined in to watch or discuss strategies, and other Fusion Club members staying on campus during the break sometimes gathered too.

Though Celina had insisted on calling Hikaru "Master," he never refused.

After all, she genuinely wanted to learn Fusion from him, and that's what the Fusion Club was about: learning and enjoying Fusion.

Having casual gatherings like this was perfect for everyone to happily spend the school break, and also a good reason to let Celina stay.

"Celina, that's an Extra Deck monster sent to the Graveyard by card effect. It wasn't properly Fusion Summoned, so you can't revive it with Monster Reborn." Hikaru pointed to her Graveyard.

"Yeah, Celina- Revival Limits," Bastion added.

"Ah, right," she blushed slightly, caught trying to shortcut the rules.

Hikaru noticed she really wanted to learn how he pulled out Fusion Monsters directly, but she often instinctively overlooked some steps.

As she shifted her gaze, she happened to glance at Hikaru's deck box, and froze.

For a split second, she thought she saw an eerie purple glow emanating from it.

But when she blinked, the glow was gone, as if it had never existed.

'Weird?'

Earlier, Nurse Fonda had given her a full body checkup. Overall, she was healthy, but her Spirit Compatibility far exceeded normal levels, a six-star level, and Fonda suspected it was because of body modifications by Leo Akaba, recommending limited Duel Disk usage.

Thus, Celina wasn't sure if she'd really seen anything.

Still…

She felt an intense, unsettling sense of danger.