"Did I finally win…?"
As fragments of the shattered Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon mixed with the flames of the destroyed Demon King Sword, Emiya gazed up at the sky of Duelist Kingdom and sighed.
"Three years… then another three years… and another three. Now I can finally devote myself wholeheartedly to cooking."
["It's only been seven years—why are you using a ten-year line?"]
Eve: "Food that good… and it still wasn't Emiya's full effort? In a way, that's even more terrifying than projecting the Sword!"
"But I think I understand how Emiya feels~"
Giving Emiya a victory sign, Hoshino smiled brightly.
"Even though I've won countless duels over the years, only this one feels… exceptionally satisfying."
She didn't feel the same urge as Emiya to rush off and cook eight dishes, but overcoming that past defeat felt like finally releasing something long suppressed deep within her heart.
"With how I feel right now… even the Nine Realms King wouldn't stand a chance against me."
Clenching her fist, Hoshino speculated that perhaps the World Legacies had never truly been necessary to begin with.
The journey of searching for them—and the battles fought to obtain them—those were the real keys needed to overcome the crisis.
"Heh… that really does sound like my style, 'World Legacy'…"
"Hmph. Well fought, Hoshino."
Leaving behind those final words, the pale Spirit Kaiba manifested from the World Lance faded away from the opposing Duel Arena.
All that remained was the mechanical-looking World Legacy – "World Lance," floating before Hoshino.
"YA! DA! ZE! That makes three World Legacies now, Hoshino!"
Having taken another huge step toward their goal, Eve was practically overjoyed—even slipping into Minazuki's speech habits.
"So this is a battle-type World Legacy… the World Lance?"
Reaching out, Hoshino lightly touched the shaft of the lance. She had already witnessed its card effect during the duel—a terrifying hand trap capable of reducing the opponent's ATK by 3000. It truly deserved to be called a spear that could pierce through anything.
"Huh… it's not heavy at all?"
Despite its metallic, mechanical appearance suggesting considerable weight, the lance felt almost weightless in her hands.
Not completely weightless—but if she had to describe it, it felt about as light and easy to handle as a household broom.
"This feels pretty nice… interesting~"
She casually swung it a couple of times. With such a cool and lightweight spear in hand, even someone without chuunibyou tendencies would find it hard to resist the satisfying sensation of slicing through the air.
["Aibo, if you casually swing a spear like that, your Luck stat will drop."]
"Wah!"
Hoshino instantly froze before hurriedly hiding the lance behind her back.
"Shh—I didn't do anything! I'm not switching to the Lancer class, okay…?"
"Stop fooling around, Hoshino." Kaiba asked, "What about the next clue? The locations shown earlier on the map—there were only two, right?"
"I'm not fooling around!"
Sticking out her tongue at Kaiba, Hoshino placed the Star Grail card onto her Duel Disk.
"Let me check if it's updated."
The map projection unfolded once more. According to Eve, the Star Grail's greatest function was guiding them toward the next World Legacy.
Since they had already obtained the two marked ones, logically, the next location should now appear.
"…What's going on? There's no change at all?"
Looking at the exact same map as before—still marking only Demon Island and Duelist Kingdom—Hoshino glanced suspiciously back at Eve.
"This 'Star Grail' that's supposed to guide us… doesn't seem to work the way you said it would, does it, useless priestess?"
"Ahaha… ahahaha…"
Scratching the back of her head, Eve forced out an awkward laugh.
"This level of error is… within acceptable deviation! Maybe the Star Grail just isn't in good condition today."
"What do you mean it's 'not in good condition'?!"
Bonk—
"(.>д<)"
Hoshino lightly smacked Eve on the head with the shaft of the Lance.
"Are you really the priestess who obtained the Star Grail? At this point, I have plenty of reason to doubt your true identity."
"Don't say such harsh things, Hoshino!"
Clutching her head, Eve protested.
"Didn't we fight side by side earlier? Once you're comrades, you're not supposed to doubt each other!"
"Side by side? You mean that 2100 DEF vanilla, flat-chested monster?"
"The flat-chested part was unnecessary! And I did block an attack from a god for you!"
"Yes, you blocked Obelisk's attack. But honestly, in that situation, I could've just dragged the dog from Chaldea over and gotten a better result."
"(〃＞皿＜) Isn't that just because the dogs in your Chaldea are ridiculously strong?!"
Sighing, Yugi stepped between them and raised his arms.
"Alright, Hoshino, Eve—this isn't the time to argue. If we think carefully, we should still be able to find clues left behind by the World Legacies."
"Yeah, Hoshino, adults shouldn't argue with kids," Mokuba added, trying to mediate.
"Oh ho ho… well, judging by appearances, Hoshino-girl looks like a child too—"
One glare from Hoshino made Pegasus immediately correct himself.
"—or rather, a young lady would be more accurate."
"Wait! Maybe using the World Lance will work!"
As if struck by inspiration, Eve suddenly blurted out the idea.
"Using the World Lance? How?" Hoshino asked, looking at the pale-blue mechanical spear in her hand.
"Didn't the Spirit show you earlier?" Eve pointed toward the Duel Arena.
"The World Lance has the ability to return machinery to its original state. That's why the Duel Arena—which had been overloaded by Nobunaga's effects—was restored after coming into contact with it."
"So it can return machinery to its original state… Eve, are you saying—?"
"If you use the World Lance to touch your Duel Disk—the one with the Star Grail card on it—there's a chance it'll restore the Star Grail's map projection and reveal the locations of the other World Legacies!"
"I see… that actually makes sense," Hoshino nodded.
Using the World Lance to trigger the Star Grail's effect—this kind of step-by-step, chain-linked puzzle-solving suddenly felt very much like a classic adventure RPG.
"Well, we don't have any other options. Let's treat a dead horse like Kaiba and give it a try!"
"…Treat what like Kaiba?" Kaiba's eyebrow twitched, clearly unamused.
"…Crap, I forgot he's standing right here."
Quickly laughing it off to avoid Kaiba's murderous glare, Hoshino switched hands and gripped the World Lance in reverse.
"So I just need to make contact with the Duel Disk, right? Watch this."
To be safe, instead of using the shaft, Hoshino carefully used the mechanical tip of the lance to touch the Duel Disk.
Sure enough, the pale blue starlight of the World Lance flowed into the Duel Disk like injected energy, causing every joint and seam to glow.
Hoshino: "D-did it work?"
Eve: "It—it worked! …Huh?"
Crack—clank—!
Accompanied by a crisp symphony of metallic mechanical sounds, Hoshino's Duel Disk suddenly fell apart.
Its outer shell and intricate internal components scattered across the ground with a loud clatter.
"(ㅍ_ㅍ) Wow… so this is what 'returning machinery to its original state' means. That's… a very thorough restoration indeed," Hoshino muttered expressionlessly.
Mokuba twitched at the corner of his mouth.
"That's not just 'original state'—it basically reverted to its pre-assembly condition."
"Quick, tie up that fake priestess. Don't let her escape."
"I'm not running! I didn't know this would happen either!"
Dragged back by the collar by Kaiba, Eve looked like she was on the verge of tears.
"I'll pay for it, okay?! It's just a Duel Disk!"
"Hoshino's custom Duel Disk is probably worth around two million," Mokuba added. "It has a built-in independent processing system."
"Ugh… can I repay it with my body?" Eve immediately surrendered.
["Understood. From today onward, you are an emotionless gacha machine."]
Sighing, Hoshino converted the World Lance back into a card and stored it, along with the Star Grail, inside the deck case at her waist.
"Well, it's not entirely your fault, Eve. You don't have to pay for the Duel Disk."
She paused slightly.
"The real problem now is that our trail has gone cold."
After all, Hoshino herself had thought the idea of using the World Lance was very RPG-like—very reliable. Instead, reality shattered her Duel Disk to pieces and reminded her not to expect game logic to work in real life.
"I suggest we head back to the academy for now," Hoshino said after thinking for a moment. "We've been away since this morning."
"Ultimately, the World Tree is still rooted within the academy. Even though we've left things to Holmes and the others, I'm still not entirely comfortable being away for too long."
And to be honest—just like she had said earlier—after defeating Spirit Kaiba, Hoshino felt confident that she could defeat the Nine Realms King even without relying on the World Legacies.
"You're leaving already, boy and girl~?" Pegasus sniffled, covering his nose with a handkerchief. "Me will be so lonely… you must come back and visit often!"
"…Why is Pegasus acting like a lonely old man?"
Hoshino shivered instinctively—she was still terrible at dealing with him.
Eve, however, seemed to have developed a slightly better impression of Pegasus.
"This old guy seemed pretty scary at first, but he's actually kind of nice once you get to know him."
Duel Academy — Infirmary
"Jaden, are you really okay?" Minazuki asked for what felt like the hundredth time.
"I told you, I'm fine. My memory's a bit fuzzy during the duel, but the result turned out well, didn't it?" Jaden replied.
"No, you know that's not what I'm asking!"
With eyes practically blazing, Minazuki pointed accusingly.
"If you're fine, then explain—where did this cute girl come from?!"
Clinging tightly to Jaden's arm, a girl in a Slifer Red uniform refused to let go. Though Minazuki had never seen her before, there was no denying she was among the cutest girls in the academy.
"Damn you, you natural-born life winner! Do you think you're the protagonist of some anime?! You've got both a blonde childhood friend and a surprise heroine?!"
The flames in Minazuki's eyes were unmistakably those of a jealous high school boy.
"I think you're… Blair Flannigan, right? From the elementary division of Duel Academy," Alexis recalled.
"An elementary schooler?!" Minazuki was stunned. "Jaden, you monster—going after elementary schoolers—wait, no, why is an elementary schooler wearing a high school dorm uniform?!"
"Of course it's because I really wanted to see Jaden-sama, so I skipped grades and passed the exam to enroll this semester!"
Still hugging his arm, Blair looked completely blissful.
"Skipping straight from elementary school to high school? What kind of genius is that?" Syrus exclaimed.
"I remember—Blair used to admire Zane, right?" Akasha added.
"That Zane admirer?" Minazuki frowned. "Then what is this situation now? Some kind of NTR plot? The kind those forum guys love?"
Alexis explained, "Well, she did like Zane before. But after losing to Jaden in a duel, she seems to have… changed her feelings."
"Just from losing a duel? Are elementary schoolers this mature now?" Minazuki complained.
"It's not 'changing feelings'!" Blair puffed up indignantly. "Zane is strong and handsome, but I like gentle Jaden-sama more! And that duel just now really moved my heart~"
Her expression was unmistakably that of a girl in love, her eyes sparkling brightly.
"Are you okay with this, Akasha?"
Leaning closer, Minazuki whispered, "Isn't Jaden your childhood friend? Aren't you bothered seeing him get taken away like this?"
"Hah, what does it have to do with me?!"
Akasha turned her head away irritably.
"What kind of elementary schooler falls for Jaden anyway? And since when is that something a childhood friend needs to worry about? That airhead probably doesn't even understand what 'liking someone' means!"
Though she said that, everyone present could tell that Akasha—who usually stayed calm no matter what—had an unusual hint of irritation in her voice.
"Haha… even with a major crisis hanging over us, you guys are still this youthful. Not bad at all~" Atticus laughed along.
However, his gaze remained fixed on Zane, who had been unconscious in the infirmary since last night—
—and on the mysterious, oddly dressed little girl who had appeared at some point and now sat silently beside him.
"So… why is even my best friend being targeted by a mysterious girl now? Does defeating the Nine Realms King come with a free cute girl or something?"