Yubel.
Though it was just a single eye, Kira recognized her the instant he saw it.
"Oh, oh, it only has one eye too!"
Big Eye popped out, very excited.
"What a coincidence, nice to meet you!"
But Yubel's eye just glanced at it once, and seemed utterly unimpressed, quickly losing interest.
"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?!" Eye instantly flared up. "We're both eyes, so why are you looking down on me?"
Kira and Yubel very tacitly ignored it.
Kira quickly examined his opponent. Just as expected, this was not her true body, merely a manifestation speaking to him briefly through the leftover power inside Viper.
Kira put one hand on his hip and smiled. "What's wrong? Why not come talk to me in person? Don't worry, I'm not a bad guy. I won't eat you."
Yubel laughed.
"Hehe, you really are an interesting human."
Then she reined in her smile and said softly:
"Don't worry, I will. Sooner or later," Yubel said. "I've been watching you for quite a while. You're very interesting—you're already on my list.
It's just that not right now. Not yet."
"Oh?" Kira asked. "Since you're already that interested, what are you waiting for? Why don't you come over now so we can have a nice, long talk about life…"
"Hahaha, charming—but I'll pass. I can tell you're not ordinary. You have a power many others don't. Even I have to be cautious around you."
Yubel smiled.
"As you can see, I'm not in top form right now. But don't worry, I'll come for you soon. Very soon. After all…"
At that point, the eye's gaze suddenly sharpened, her tone turning several degrees colder.
"…you stole the most important thing from me."
Kira: "?"
Huh?
He frowned a little.
Wait, we're meeting for the first time, aren't we?
What exactly did I steal from you?
But Yubel didn't intend to continue down that topic. She suddenly shifted the subject.
"Still, thank you for the gift," she said, glancing at Viper, who was sprawled on the ground, barely alive. "Though you broke my toy—that is quite annoying, and I will settle that debt with you later.
Even so, I didn't expect you to make the darkness in this man's heart swell to more than double during the Duel. Hehe, I really had my fill…"
Though there was only one eye, she somehow made a sound like a tongue licking across lips.
Kira replied generously, "You're welcome."
Yubel was taken aback, and her eyelid twitched slightly.
Because she suddenly had a strange feeling.
This guy… did he deliberately provoke Viper during the Duel to draw out his inner darkness and help her revive faster?
No. Impossible.
We're complete strangers—why would he help me?
After a brief silence, Yubel's eye roamed up and down Kira again.
"In your heart too, there's a vast, unimaginable darkness hidden away. Well, that's normal. The stronger the Duelist, the greater the darkness buried in their heart."
Yubel chuckled again, low and soft.
"I can't wait to savor it properly. I wonder—what flavor is the darkness in the heart of a so-called Duel King?"
"Alright," Kira nodded cheerfully. "Then I'll be sure to save up that inner darkness so I can properly treat you to it when the time comes."
Yubel was instantly at a loss for words.
He had completely thrown her off.
…So polite?
Was she supposed to say "thank you" now?
Yubel hesitated for a couple of stiff seconds.
Then she snorted.
"Then we'll meet again."
With that, the giant eye fragmented, dispersing into a cloud of black mist that faded away.
"She's really sly. To think she's not even in Viper's lab," Kira muttered to himself.
"She really knows how to cause trouble."
Eye blinked twice behind him and asked, "So… that was the real mastermind, right?"
"Yeah," Kira said.
Eye glanced at Viper, lying unconscious on the floor.
"And this guy was just being used?"
"More or less."
"So now we just sit around and wait for her to finish resting up and come looking for us?" Eye asked.
"Not necessarily."
Kira shook his head.
"Her current state is incomplete. Most of the time, she should be sticking near Viper. From how far along her resurrection looked just now, with her current power level, she probably can't move too far away from him."
What Kira didn't say was that Viper had originally planned to make all the students wear those wrist devices that absorbed their Duel energy to revive Yubel. With Viper's tech, Yubel that needed to siphon Duel energy shouldn't be able to stray too far.
Right now, she was likely only strong enough to manifest one arm physically. Her only way to travel longer distances would be to possess a host body. So chances were high she was still hiding somewhere on this island.
In the anime, Yubel hadn't fully revived even after Viper was defeated by Jaden and the entire Academy was transported to another dimension. At that point she chose to possess a first-year Ra Yellow student.
The Ra freshman, Marcel Bonaparte, was the son of the Academy's Jean-Louis Bonaparte. Marcel had grown up in a broken home; his parents divorced, and he'd lived with his mother afterward. On the surface, he came off as introverted and unwilling to show his true feelings—but deep down, years of resentment toward his parents had been brewing.
That resentment gave birth to darkness in his heart, and Yubel took advantage of it, using him as her host until she fully revived.
Kira even suspected that originally, just like in the anime, Yubel should have been inside one of the glass tanks in Viper's lab.
But perhaps she sensed Kira's approach—maybe just a sixth sense of danger—and left Viper in advance.
Now, she was likely still hiding near this old, abandoned research facility, somewhere on this island.
Kira looked around at the dense forest surrounding him.
Well, even with that guess, trying to find a powerful spirit on such a large island still sounded a lot harder than tracking down a human intruder.
"Leave it to us, Boss."
At that moment, Meanae of the Dark Scorpions stepped forward, volunteering herself.
The other Dark Scorpions appeared behind her, all striking the Dark Scorpion group pose in a flurry of arms and legs.
"No evil can escape the eyes of the Dark Scorpion Burglars!"
"Don't worry, Boss, we'll never let any invader in our territory get away!"
Kira thought for a moment.
He didn't have many spirits who could remain manifested in reality for long periods, let alone operate far from him on their own. Silence usually served as his close-guard bodyguard; for scouting work like this, those guys were indeed the best suited.
"Alright, but be careful, all of you," Kira nodded. "Just find her trail, that's enough. Try not to fight her head-on. You're not her match."
Don Zaloog muttered under his breath, a little sulky. The Boss's words were true, but they still kinda hurt.
Chick, on the other hand, thumped his chest. "Don't worry, Boss. When it comes to running away, I'm confident!"
Naturally, this immediately drew a collective look of disdain from his teammates.
Was that really something to be proud of?