"Mm…" Hoshino struggled to open her eyes. The morning sunlight felt as irritating as Ozymandias's laughter.
"I slept the whole night… so why do my back and waist feel sore?"
Rubbing her shoulders, the kind of fatigue that felt like it belonged to someone much older made Hoshino start wondering if she had already turned into an old lady.
However, once she fully opened her eyes, she realized she wasn't in bed at all. Instead, she was sitting in front of the computer in her room, with an opened bag of potato chips on the desk—half eaten.
"ㅍ_ㅍ Nani… Did I sleepwalk? I clearly remember going to bed properly."
Hoshino Alter spoke up:
["Aibo, you're finally awake! Something big happened—quick, check the news!"]
"Before I check the news, could you please explain the situation first…"
Hoshino stuck out her tongue and licked the corner of her mouth. There was still the fresh taste of potato chips lingering there, proving that the culprit had been snacking right up until the moment she woke up.
Which made the truth obvious.
"You used my body all night while I was asleep, didn't you? No wonder I feel even more tired after sleeping!"
Hoshino Alter replied seriously:
["What's the big deal? Remember that time you fainted from hunger? I was the one dragging your body around then too! Besides, I was doing something important!"]
Sighing softly, Hoshino instinctively glanced around the room.
"As long as you don't do anything weird, once in a while is fine… But it's a special situation right now."
["I told you, it was something important! I wasn't just playing around,"] Hoshino Alter insisted.
…Though the half-eaten bag of chips on the desk had already completely betrayed her.
"As long as you don't do anything weird…"
Repeating what she had just said, Hoshino's expression froze as she slowly looked toward her bed—
There lay Illya, her face flushed red, breathing rapidly, looking exactly like someone in a completely exhausted "afterward" state.
"Hello? Police? I'd like to report a crime. Yes, please arrest me—but I'm not turning myself in!"
["Σ(っ°Д°;)っ Calm down, aibo! It's not what you think!"]
Hoshino looked at her with cold, disdainful eyes.
"There's nothing left to explain. I never thought you'd take out your frustration about Queen Mardel on Illya. I clearly misjudged you."
["Uh… that kind of look, like you're staring at trash… unexpectedly makes me a little excited…"]
"That's not it, Master!" Illya forced herself to sit up from the bed, looking extremely weak as she explained.
"To prepare for the battles ahead, I had a special training session with the other Master last night. I was so exhausted afterward that I just borrowed Master's bed to rest for a bit."
"Training?" Hoshino narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "What kind of training could the two of you possibly do in the middle of the night? If you wanted training, why didn't you just go find Scáthach?"
"It wasn't physical training," Hoshino Alter explained. "It was duel training."
"Aibo, remember when we tried it before? Even if we switch bodies, I still can't use the Magical Girl series cards."
Hoshino rubbed her chin thoughtfully.
"Yeah… that did happen."
After all, those Magical Girl cards had originally appeared because Hoshino Alter caused trouble in Chaldea, and Da Vinci released them as part of the final defense system. In a way, it made sense that the cards resisted the very culprit behind it all.
"But aibo, you can use the Alter cards! Isn't that unfair?!" Hoshino Alter complained.
"What's unfair about that?" Hoshino scratched her cheek helplessly. "I could use Alter cards from the beginning. Besides, even if I can use them, you've secretly kept a lot of strong cards for yourself anyway."
For example, the Quick-Play Spell "Alter · Form Change," and several additional Alter-form monsters in the Extra Deck that Hoshino had never even seen.
"That's different!" Hoshino Alter protested pitifully. "If even those cards get taken by you, aibo, then I won't have anything unique left! That's my bottom line as a duelist!"
"Alright, alright. I won't touch your cards," Hoshino replied indulgently.
"So the training you did with Illya was about letting you use the Magical Girl cards?"
She tilted her head curiously.
"I'm not as stingy as you. If we can gain more power for the final battle, that's a good thing."
"So what was the result?" she asked with interest.
"Totally impossible," Hoshino Alter sighed. "No matter what method we tried, I still couldn't use the Magical Girl cards. Even though I can use God Cards, Illya's cards are somehow even more picky than gods."
"D-Don't blame me!" Illya protested. "You should try looking for the problem within yourself, other Master!"
Ruby suddenly chimed in:
"That's because you lack the love and justice of a magical girl in your heart~ Magical girls are actually quite strict about those qualifications."
"So it's the same result as before." Hoshino squinted. "Then why does Illya look so exhausted? Don't tell me…"
Ruby said excitedly:
"Don't tell me you two did something lewd? Ruby is very excited about that!"
"W-We didn't do anything lewd!" Illya shouted with a blushing face. "Ruby, you know that better than anyone! If you keep stirring things up like this, Miyu is going to lose control!"
Ruby immediately backed down.
"Miyu going berserk… just imagining it sounds terrifying."
Hoshino Alter continued explaining:
["The reason we're so exhausted is because we made a new breakthrough! Even though I still can't use the Magical Girl cards, I successfully combined the power of Alter with Illya's power."]
"You can actually do something like that?" Hoshino immediately became interested. She had never even considered combining two different powers like that before.
"Can you show it now, Illya? Let aibo see that form."
"I think I can," Illya replied while gripping Ruby. "I'm still a little tired, but I should be able to transform once."
"Transform? A form that combines Alter power with Magical Girl power?"
A vague image suddenly surfaced in Hoshino's mind.
"W-Watch closely!" Illya said nervously, clearly not yet fully accustomed to the power.
"Sacred Contract Mode Change — Magical Girl Transformation!"
Black energy surged out from Ruby's mystic code, wrapping around Illya's body and dyeing her originally pink magical-girl outfit completely black.
The black magical girl outfit, combined with Illya's slightly mischievous smile, gave her a more alluring vibe than usual.
"So it's a Sacred Contract State… It really does feel like a fusion between Alter and a magical girl," Hoshino commented while examining her up and down.
"But in Sacred Contract State, is it still Illya's personality?" she asked curiously.
"It doesn't flip your personality like an Alter does, right?"
"There's nothing like that, Master," Black Illya replied. Her personality was still the same familiar one.
"It's only the power form that changed. Nothing else is different. My mind is perfectly clear too—I won't do anything strange!"
"So? So? Aibo!" Hoshino Alter asked excitedly, sounding like he was asking for praise. "With power like this, wouldn't our chances against the Spellcaster-type King be much better?"
"The Spellcaster King…" Hoshino fell into thought.
She had indeed considered using the Magical Girl deck to counter the Spellcaster-type King from the Nine Realm Kings. Unfortunately, the Illya summoned through Fusion Summon usually wasn't a Spellcaster-type monster. As a final decisive finisher, Ozymandias would still be the more suitable choice.
"If it's a DARK Attribute, it doesn't really match with Ozy either. I'll have to think carefully about what kind of deck I can build around it."
["Tch! If you're not going to appreciate it, aibo, then I'll just keep the Sacred Contract State for myself."]
"Oh, right—speaking of the King!" Hoshino Alter suddenly remembered something and immediately became tense. "Now isn't the time for chatting! Aibo, hurry and look at the news—this is a huge incident!"
"The news? Isn't everything there a 'huge incident' every day?"
Moving the mouse, Hoshino opened the morning news on the computer desktop. Of course, it wasn't exactly morning anymore—it was already close to 10 a.m.
[SHOCKING—!]
"That's such a classic news opening. Let's see what's so shocking."
[Shocking! The Professional Duelist League collapses overnight! Mysterious duels appearing worldwide crush major duel facilities! All duel losers reportedly fall unconscious?]
"…That's actually pretty damn shocking. The Professional Duelist League collapsed overnight?"
After all, the league gathered countless top professional duelists like Jonouchi and Aster. What kind of mysterious duelists could defeat the entire league in such a short time?
["Aibo, look at the photos captured in the news. You'll understand."]
"The photos… wait, this is—?!"
Hoshino was stunned. The headline wasn't exaggerated at all.
Masked duelists wearing identical outfits had appeared simultaneously around the world. Each of them had crushed the most prestigious duel arenas in their respective regions through overwhelming dueling power.
Although their faces were hidden behind masks, Hoshino immediately recognized their identity from the distinctive clothing.
"…The Shadows of the King. Why?"
Yesterday, Loptr—the Shadow of the King—had personally committed suicide in front of them. Yet after just one night, he had split into countless mysterious duelists, launching destructive attacks on duel facilities worldwide.
"Isn't it obvious? This must be the invasion of the Nine Realm Kings. It's probably the prelude to an official declaration of war."
The Shadow of the King, whose duel level reached A+, wasn't particularly difficult for Hoshino to defeat.
But in comparison, even Aster—who once achieved a 50-win streak in the Professional League—was also only ranked A+.
In other words, there were very few duelists in this world who could reach that level.
Yet on the side of the Nine Realm Kings, there were tens of thousands of these Shadow warriors.
Faced with such an overwhelming gap in combat power, Hoshino couldn't help recalling Loptr's furious words before his death last night.
["Celebrate this tiny, fleeting victory while you can, humans! When the final despair arrives, the fate awaiting you will be far more miserable than mine!"]
"The moment the final despair arrives, huh…"
According to the news, every duelist who lost against the Shadows had fallen into a mysterious coma.
"Thinking that the Nine Realm Kings only consisted of nine individuals… that was the most naïve assumption of all," Hoshino said with a self-deprecating laugh.
Bang—!
"I heard about it, Hoshino! The Kings' invasion has begun, hasn't it?!"
The door was practically slammed open as Star Grail Priestess Eve burst into the room. She performed something like a tiger-pounce landing, sliding across the floor with her face and chest until she stopped right in front of Hoshino.
"We can't delay any longer, Hoshino! Let's set out and search for the Star Relics that can save the world!"
(***)
Kaiba Corporation — President's Office
"Please evacuate immediately, President Kaiba!" urged Jino, Kaiba's bodyguard and secretary in a black suit. "The intruders have already suppressed the lower floors of the company. They'll be here any moment!"
"Big Brother… what's going on?" Mokuba asked, still unable to process the sudden turn of events.
"Leave? You're telling Seto Kaiba to run away?" Kaiba remained seated calmly in his chair. His tone hadn't changed despite the sudden crisis, though the deep furrow in his brow suggested he had realized something.
"I can't abandon Kaiba Corporation and run away. Besides… our enemies won't give us the chance to leave anyway."
"So you've already noticed me. As expected of the president of Kaiba Corporation."
From the shadows of the room, a masked Shadow of the King slowly emerged. With a casual flick of his Duel Disk, the arm of a Duel Monster partially materialized and smashed the bodyguard Jino against the wall, knocking him unconscious.
"You should know why I'm here," the Shadow explained. "If we take control of Kaiba Entertainment Group, we effectively seize nearly half of humanity's duel resources."
"W-What are you trying to do?!" Mokuba stepped in front of Kaiba protectively. "My brother… he's already decided to stop dueling!"
"I see. So the rumors are true," the Shadow sneered. "Seto Kaiba, one of the top duelists in this world, suddenly abandoned Duel Monsters without warning."
He stepped forward slowly toward the Kaiba brothers.
"Well, that just makes things easier. If you can't duel anymore, then I'll simply send both of you brothers straight to hell."
Kaiba stood up from his president's chair and glanced toward the corner of the office.
There, gathering dust, lay his Duel Disk and deck.
As Dr. Romani, the body separated from the soul of Seto Kaiba—who had become a Counter Force Guardian—he could no longer use any dueling power. That had been the minimum restriction imposed when Roman separated himself from Kaiba.
"From today onward, Seto Kaiba will still exist…
But the duelist known as Seto Kaiba will disappear from history forever. Is that acceptable?"
"Step back, Mokuba."
Kaiba's voice was calm, his eyes showing no trace of hesitation, despite his inability to fight.
"The duelist known as Seto Kaiba disappearing from the world? Hmph… You underestimate me, King Solomon!"
A pale blue AR glow spread across Kaiba's left eye and his entire right arm as he faced the Shadow head-on.
"As long as Seto Kaiba exists, I will always remain a proud duelist!"