On the final night of the holiday, students gradually returned to the academy dormitories, preparing themselves to welcome the new semester.
As for Jaden—because he had completely forgotten about the spring break homework Crowler assigned—Hoshino hadn't seen him at all during the last two days.
Bored out of her mind, Hoshino lay sprawled across the bed, raising a hand to toy with the system developed by Da Vinci… or so it claimed.
[Duel Rank Evaluation Complete. Duelist Aster Phoenix: Overall Rank A+. Victory Reward: 70 Saint Quartz issued. Remaining Saint Quartz: 70]
"An A+ rank, huh. That's even stronger than Zane before his training. Guess that really lives up to his reputation as a rising star among pro duelists—even Zane would have a hard time gaining any advantage against him."
["You've got this many Quartz and you're not rolling the gacha? That's really not like you, aibo."]
"I'm still researching something. You remember, right—other me? This gacha system used to come with an additional feature."
["┌(.Д.)┐ What, additional? That word absolutely does not exist in a shady merchant's dictionary. Impossible!"]
"Why are you getting so worked up? Da Vinci can be pretty generous sometimes, you know~"
["If you're being threatened with a knife to the neck, aibo, blink twice."]
"Quit joking. Even though it's called a bonus feature, it still costs Saint Quartz. You probably forgot since it hasn't been used in a while—the card limit break function."
By spending 30 Saint Quartz, a card could receive one enhancement. Of course, not every card was eligible for limit breaking.
Hoshino Alter suddenly reacted.
["(°Д°) I didn't forget—I remember it perfectly! That thing looks cheap at first, but once you start upgrading card after card, it turns into a bottomless pit that devours Saint Quartz!"]
It had taken Hoshino several years to fully enhance every card she owned that could be limit broken.
After all, cards like Blue Key, White Key, Black Key, and Nine Keys were completely unusable without enhancement. Though, to be honest, they were still pretty useless even after being strengthened.
"So I started wondering—can Xyz cards be limit broken too?"
["No way, aibo. The enhancement system exists to bring outdated Heroic Spirit cards back up to speed. But Xyz Summoning is clearly ahead of its time. If those get enhanced too, wouldn't that just break the heavens?"]
"That's why I said I'm researching it. But Da Vinci's been ignoring me this whole time. Who knows what she's locked herself in the workshop tinkering with now."
Maybe it was the laziness that always crept in near the end of a vacation, or maybe it was because too many confusing things had happened recently. Even though she hadn't done anything all day, Hoshino felt oddly tired and didn't feel like logging in to farm Saint Quartz.
"Anyway, classes are starting again. Compared to half-priced online duels, real duels are more cost-effective. Let's call it a day."
["It's still a bit early to sleep, isn't it, aibo? How about finally clearing those games you bought and never touched?"]
"Buy one, get one" really was a universal human vice.
"Hoshino, let's play! We're off work!"
Before Hoshino could even sit up on the bed, three little girls burst into the room from outside.
By "off work," they probably meant they had finally finished helping Emiya clean up the kitchen and now had some free time of their own.
"Yo, Master. I heard you're playing games—mind if I join?" Tomoe Gozen followed the girls in, holding a controller. "I recently found a really fun fighting game!"
For some reason, seeing a Servant enter her room normally—rather than crawling out from under the bed—actually moved Hoshino a little.
"A fighting game! I wanna play!" The three girls' eyes sparkled as they looked at Tomoe.
"Sounds good. Might as well train my reaction speed once in a while~" Hoshino said eagerly, rolling her shoulders.
Competing with Heroic Spirits in reaction speed sounded impossible, but since this wasn't real combat, she felt she could at least hold her own in a game.
Drrr—
Just as Hoshino picked up the controller from the desk, her phone chimed with the sound of a new email.
[Unread email from "Smug Kaiba"]
"Huh? What's Kaiba up to, emailing me at this hour?"
Sliding her finger across the screen, Hoshino opened the inbox to check the contents of Kaiba's message.
[Originating from Norse mythology, the nine realms connected by the branches of the World Tree 'Yggdrasil.' These nine realms waged war against one another many times, and ultimately, all were destroyed alongside the World Tree in the great battle of 'Ragnarök.']
"What's wrong with this guy? Did his chuuni flare up in the middle of the night? What is he even talking about?"
["Norse mythology… the nine realms? Aibo, could this email from Kaiba be related to what happened before…"]
"It's the ancient text engraved on the stone tablet."
Kaiba's unmistakable voice came from outside the window.
Tomoe Gozen instantly materialized her longbow with gathered magical energy, alert.
"Who's there?! Lurking outside Master's window at night—way too suspicious!"
"No, Tomoe, wait. Don't attack yet. Let's hear him out."
Hoshino stopped Tomoe, who had already drawn her bowstring.
Hoshino would never mistake Kaiba's one-of-a-kind voice. And given the time and place, as she pulled open the curtain, she had already guessed the true identity of the speaker.
Under the cover of night, Kaibaman stood stylishly atop the villa's roof, arms crossed, wearing a Blue-Eyes White Dragon mask. The faint moonlight cast a silvery sheen over his coat and long hair.
"So it really is Kaibaman. Duel Spirits probably wouldn't pull something like a nighttime raid on a girl's bedroom, right?"
"At your age, calling yourself a 'girl' damages the authority of the academy's Headmistress, Hoshino Chiyuki."
"(╬￣皿￣) I'm only in my twenties! What's wrong with calling myself a girl?! You perverted masked freak!"
From the rooftop, Kaibaman glanced through the window at the controllers on Hoshino's desk and the game about to start, then snorted coldly.
"How lax. It seems humans still fail to grasp the severity of the current situation."
"Severity? You mean the stone tablet excavated from beneath the academy—the ancient text written on it?" Hoshino asked.
"That text was merely a prologue. You could say it was a declaration of war. And humanity, blindly pursuing evolution, has absolutely no chance of winning the war that is about to arrive."
As Kaibaman gazed toward Duel Academy in the distance, the scene reflected in his eyes was undoubtedly different from what ordinary humans saw.
"An upcoming war? What are you talking about?"
Talking while craning her neck upward was really starting to strain it, so Hoshino turned to Tomoe.
"Could you help carry me up to the roof, Tomoe?"
"C-carry Master up there? I mean… that's not impossible."
Having been asked so directly, a trace of delight flickered in Tomoe's eyes. She gently scooped Hoshino up in a princess carry and nimbly leapt onto the villa's rooftop.
"Let's go too!" Sensing that things were getting more and more interesting, the three girls hopped up after her with their petite bodies.
On the rooftop, finally able to speak to Kaiba Man at eye level, Hoshino asked,
"Kaiba Man, could you explain things a bit more clearly? What kind of war could possibly leave humanity with no chance of winning? No—more importantly, why would such a war even happen?"
If the ancient text engraved on the stone tablet was to be believed, the nine realms were connected to the branches of the World Tree, Yggdrasil, in Norse mythology… A war on that scale was already bordering on a revival of the Age of Gods.
"This is a trial brought about by humanity's excessive evolution—or perhaps… a punishment," Kaiba Man replied, raising his arm and pointing toward the sky.
Following the direction of his finger, Hoshino looked up—but all she could see was the star-filled night sky.
"Humanity's excessive evolution…" Still, when it came to recent changes in humanity—and whatever was hidden beneath that night sky—something did come to her mind.
"—The Xyz Overlay Network? Is that what you're talking about? But didn't you create that thing yourself?"
"I'll say it again. I am not Seto Kaiba," Kaiba Man said sternly.
"Yes, yes, you're a champion of justice—Kaiba Man, right?" Hoshino replied dismissively.
Even if Kaiba Man kept insisting that he and Seto Kaiba were two different people, with that outfit, that voice, that personality—and the three Blue-Eyes White Dragons he carried—there was no way the connection was just a coincidence.
You couldn't seriously tell her it was, right?
"Opening a new era ahead of time can indeed be considered a misjudgment by Seto Kaiba," Kaiba Man continued. "However, I know that under those circumstances, there was no better choice."
If the Xyz Network hadn't been activated in time, this world would already have been completely swallowed by darkness during the battle against the Sacred Beasts.
"Does that mean… it was our fault?" Uria and the others, who had climbed onto the roof as well, looked at one another with innocent expressions.
"Evolution that comes at the wrong time is bound to alert external enemies. They will not simply allow humanity to develop unchecked. And enemies who already exist in another dimension are far more familiar with the power of evolution. That is why I say humanity currently has no chance of victory."
Hoshino frowned deeply. Although Kaiba Man's words sounded vague and abstract, she could still grasp the core of what he meant.
Entities more familiar with Xyz Summoning than humanity itself had begun to view humans—who had prematurely mastered Xyz Summoning—as outsiders and threats, and might use that as a pretext to start a war.
"But when you say 'enemies,' are you talking about aliens? Cosmic soldiers? Or something else entirely?"
"Kings."
Kaiba Man answered with just a single word, turning his gaze from the distant academy back to Hoshino.
"Existences that humanity, as it is now, absolutely cannot defeat."
Being constantly talked down to by Kaiba Man since earlier finally stirred a bit of irritation in Hoshino.
"Even if you keep insisting you're a spirit and not human, you should know that humans aren't as helpless as you're making them sound, Kaiba!"
"Hmph—did I strike a nerve? Omoshiroi."
The corner of Kaiba Man's mouth curled upward beneath the mask as he raised his chin, looking down at Hoshino using his height advantage.
"Then shall we test it, Hoshino Chiyuki? As the Duel King who represents humanity's strongest, come and experience firsthand the gap between dimensions!"
"Test it? You mean—"
"Duel—!"
A Duel Disk unfolded on Kaiba Man's arm from who-knows-where as he pointed at Hoshino and issued the challenge.
"Master, I figured you'd need this, so I brought it up for you in advance."
On the other side, Tomoe Gozen—who had gone back into the room—returned to the rooftop carrying Hoshino's Duel Disk and deck.
Taking the Duel Disk and cards from Tomoe, Hoshino assumed her battle stance.
"A duel with Kaiba Man, huh? That really is 'omoshiroi.'"
Back at the hot spring inn, Kaiba Man had defeated Akasha effortlessly. Someone with that level of strength was definitely no pushover.
"Then prepare yourself to feel the majesty of an emperor who rules all, Hoshino!"
[Kaiba Man LP 8000] VS [Hoshino Chiyuki LP 8000]
"Draw!"
Just like when dueling Kaiba himself, Kaiba Man's style was exactly the same—he could shout even a casual draw loudly enough to be heard a hundred meters away. If Duel Academy weren't so deserted, he probably would've gotten a noise complaint in the middle of the night.
"I Normal Summon in Attack Position—Kaibaman!"
[Kaibaman ★★★ (Level 3)][LIGHT][Warrior/Effect][ATK 200/DEF 700]
["There it is again… I summon myself."]
"Then I Tribute myself to Special Summon one 'Blue-Eyes White Dragon' from my hand!"
Raising the card high before slamming it down onto the Duel Disk, Kaiba Man summoned the strongest dragon on the very first turn.
"—If it is endless darkness, then dye the darkness itself! Come forth with me!!!!"
[Blue-Eyes White Dragon ★★★★★★★★ (Level 8)][LIGHT][Dragon][ATK 3000/DEF 2500]
"ROAR!!"
The familiar Blue-Eyes let out a roar completely different from before. Bathed in moonlight, silver light shimmered across the dragon's streamlined wings, adding an air of regal splendor.
"Finally, I set two cards. Now then—it's your turn, Hoshino!"
[Kaiba Man's: 2 Hand Cards | 2 Set Cards]
"You really aren't Kaiba. Talking so arrogantly before the duel, yet you don't even have Fusion-in-Hand Blue-Eyes."
Delivering her usual round of mockery, Hoshino drew her card to begin the turn.
"Spell Card 'First Premonition'! I discard 'Heroic Spirit – Marie Antoinette' from my hand, then banish one Spell Card from my Deck. Add it to my hand on the second turn!"
After sending Marie's card to the Graveyard, Hoshino successfully triggered its sent-to-Graveyard effect.
"Then Marie's effect activates—when this card is sent to the Graveyard, add one 'Heroic Spirit' monster from my Deck to my hand!"
She slammed the searched monster directly onto the Duel Disk, while simultaneously banishing the Marie card that had just been sent to the Graveyard, unleashing a blazing Special Summon.
"—The Sixth Heavenly Demon King descends upon this land!
Banish Marie from the Graveyard and Special Summon the searched 'Heroic Spirit – Oda Nobunaga: Summer Demon King'!"