"Mm?"
Waking up hazily, Jonouchi opened his eyes and flipped over abruptly.
"Eh?"
Suddenly noticing the shining, destroyed city below, he was stunned for a moment.
"I'm flying?!!"
Startled, Jonouchi panicked inexplicably, but after realizing he wasn't falling, he clutched his chest and breathed a sigh of relief.
"Hahaha!! What are you doing!"
A familiar laugh came from beside him. Jonouchi turned his head in surprise.
Reflected in his eyes was Kyoko Sakura wearing casual clothes, floating in the air just like him.
"You..."
"We're already out of the game, Jonouchi."
The laughter stopped, and Kyoko Sakura spoke with a regretful expression.
"However... I'm really happy to hear that you would stop me."
"Thank you!"
Turning to look at the destroyed city and the weeping crowd below, Kyoko Sakura's tone went from low to high.
Her expression was also filled with sadness and unwillingness...
After using Witchification, she could only watch helplessly as Ophelia acted willfully.
Especially witnessing it killing humans, it was heart-wrenching and painful to the extreme.
At the moment when all hope turned to ashes...
It was Jonouchi who stopped her heart from falling into the abyss.
Until the very end, Jonouchi didn't give up on her and still intended to save her.
That resolve to die with her, risking his life...
It was truly moving.
Precisely because of this, Kyoko Sakura never "despaired."
'I, who couldn't stop you properly, am also at fault.'
'Therefore, I will bear that mistake together with you!'
Not to mention anything else, just those words made her want to cry.
"Eh?"
Feeling the fist gently pressing against her cheek, Kyoko Sakura was stunned.
"Didn't I say it? You made a mistake, so I'll punch you."
"Don't think just because you're a girl you can get away scot-free."
The other party's serious attitude made Kyoko Sakura puff up her cheeks in dissatisfaction.
"Who do you think is at fault!!"
"If you hadn't messed up, would I have used that thing?!!"
"Heh, if you hadn't been plotted against by Rider, I wouldn't have fallen into that situation either."
"You'd better reflect on your own actions first."
An argument suddenly arose, but in the next second, both laughed out loud in unison.
"Pfft!"
"Hahaha!"
That image-less laughter also reflected their relieved moods.
"Well, what we really should do is apologize to the people who were involved."
"I know!"
Knowing exactly how big a mistake she had made, Kyoko Sakura had no intention of escaping responsibility.
"It's a pity, that card you gave me earlier didn't seem to work either."
"Huh? **Monster Reborn**? It seems because I died with you, it failed to trigger its effect... forget it, it's not a big deal anyway."
After bowing her head in repentance, Kyoko Sakura remembered the previous matter after a while.
But Jonouchi didn't care about the card "**Monster Reborn**."
"However... does this count as an out-of-body experience?"
"Who knows..."
Jonouchi glanced at their state and asked, but Kyoko Sakura spread her hands, having no clue either.
"Saber and the others don't seem to sense us."
"Hey! What exactly will happen to us?!"
Sitting cross-legged and floating in the air, Jonouchi looked down and shouted excitedly.
"Is this what they call an Earthbound Spirit?"
"That description is too weird!"
Unable to understand the current situation at all, the two couldn't get an explanation for a moment.
Clap!
But the sound of applause from behind attracted the attention of Jonouchi and Kyoko Sakura.
"Truly a nice bond..."
Looking back, they discovered a figure wearing a white robe with a face that couldn't be seen clearly.
"This voice..."
"It's you!"
"It's you!!"
Neither Jonouchi nor Kyoko Sakura could forget that voice.
It was the culprit who invited them to participate in the "Dragon Ball War."
God.
"What exactly do you want?!"
"Don't be so anxious. I just saw you were so uneasy, so I came out to give a little explanation."
The other party's flat tone didn't sound human at all.
"Well, holding this war is naturally as I said: to grant the victor's wish."
"But only the victor can stand until the end..."
"Letting you go back halfway would be disadvantageous for future developments."
"What do you mean?"
Jonouchi was full of question marks, tilting his head unable to understand the other party's meaning.
"Idiot! He means to let us defeated losers continue to exist as spectators."
"That is, to let us witness until someone successfully makes a wish."
Kyoko Sakura hadn't expected such "treatment" and was a bit surprised by the "serious" attitude of the person before her.
Reasonably speaking, shouldn't God be a willful and capricious guy?
This guy is quite responsible and kind-hearted...
"Ah? Is that so?"
"Correct. If you go back and claim it's fake, it would be a headache for me."
"I don't intend to hold this just once..."
"Once they decide the winner and you see the wish, you will naturally be sent back to your own worlds. That's it."
"Oh..."
Reacting, Jonouchi realized with hindsight, but when he and Kyoko Sakura blinked again, the figure had vanished.
"That is to say, is it possible to participate in the future?"
Hearing this, Kyoko Sakura picked up the hidden meaning.
They failed this time, but maybe there would be chances to be "summoned" to participate again in the future.
"Although I don't quite get it, it means there's still a chance."
"Tch! If I come again, I won't be this wretched!"
...
Lancer and Caster were eliminated.
This war finally saw two Servants exit the stage.
But the other Master-Servant pairs participating this time all suffered losses...
Archer was hiding somewhere to heal his wounds...
Rider was also seriously injured and unable to move for a while.
Only Assassin, Saber, and Berserker were in relatively good condition.
Even more tragic was the "panic" caused in Fuyuki City. Even if the Church quickly took remedial measures, it was a troublesome project.
This led to the famous Tohsaka and Matou families having to send people to take care of it.
Whether using magic hypnosis or cleaning up the scene, it was not an easy task.
After all, Ophelia did bring huge disasters and casualties.
Because of this, the Master-Servant pairs tacitly reached a ceasefire during this period.
"Ah, I understand your situation. Let's meet when everything is handled."
Tokiomi Tohsaka hung up the call with Risei Kotomine's familiar, knowing the other party's desperate situation.
With such a major incident occurring, the Mage's Association would definitely have "complaints."
Openly exposing "Mystery" with such fanfare... if the aftermath wasn't handled well, it wouldn't be solved by a simple "apology."
"A miscalculation!"
They also blamed themselves for underestimating Lancer and Caster's strength. Five Servants paid a huge price and combined forces to take them down.
"However, the troublesome opponents were eliminated in the end."
But there was also a benefit: the potential accidents were resolved.
If they had continued without knowing the depth of their opponents as before, they might have been counter-killed by Lancer and Caster at some point.
The power possessed by those two Heroic Spirits was quite terrifying.
"Now... the focus is only on Berserker."
Although there were deviations from the original plan and process, it was finally completed...
After that, he just needed to find Berserker's Master.
That was the trouble interfering with Tokiomi Tohsaka's final victory!
PS: Well, the initial intention of giving the "Monster Reborn" plot wasn't on Jonouchi and Kyoko Sakura... so it's not that I forgot, but that corresponding plots will happen when they return later.
This book won't just write about fighting for wishes; the follow-up after returning will naturally be described as well.