"Storm Caller… Big Saturn…"
Trapper lay on his back, staring up at the deep, endless night above Duel Academy.
As a professional Spirit Hunter, he had spent his whole life plundering. He'd taken so many spirits, so many cards, that even he couldn't keep track anymore.
But having stolen cards backfire and kill him—that was a first in his entire career.
He lay there on his back for a while, then a face swam into view above him.
A face that was absurdly handsome, yet in the moonlight seemed veiled in shadow. Eyes that seemed to hold blades—cold, razor-sharp—and yet, faintly mocking.
"You…"
Trapper forced the words out.
"You knew… from the start…"
"You knew I would steal your monsters. You purposely summoned Storm Caller and Big Saturn. Those two monsters were traps from the very beginning… Your plan from the start was to make me steal them…"
At this point, the truth was already glaringly obvious.
Who else would use self-destructing monsters like that as their ace?
Storm Caller burned its own controller when it was destroyed. Big Saturn's burn effect was basically a living Ring of Destruction, but it required the very specific condition of "being destroyed by the opponent's card effect while under the opponent's control." A setup that screamed deliberate intent.
In short, when Trapper looked at Kira now, that sinister face might as well have had one word written all over it:
Targeted.
Storm Caller and Big Saturn had been two giant pits dug openly right in front of him. He had leapt into them without hesitation, even patted the dirt in over his own head and planted a gravestone there himself—then strutted around, convinced he'd struck it rich.
Looking back, this duel had been a trap from the moment it started. From Kira's perspective, Trapper must have looked like a total clown the whole time—smug, and utterly unaware.
But Kira only gazed down at him, looking relaxed yet cold, and said evenly:
"That's right. That was my plan. I know you Spirit Hunters' methods; I know your tactics. The outcome of this duel was decided from the beginning—just like the fate awaiting you, and every other Spirit Hunter."
Trapper frowned. "What?"
Kira smiled.
"You people plunder so many spirits. Did you really think you could dodge retribution forever? That the spirits would never turn on you?" Kira said. "This duel is a mirror of your destiny.
You rob and control using filth—violence and technology—but in the end, all of it will explode in your faces.
Those who cannot approach spirits with the right heart have no right to keep walking the path of a duelist."
Trapper sneered at that.
"The right heart? So you're that kind of boring duelist too, Fujiki Kira?"
"You think I never tried? You think I never wanted to walk that bright, open path you're talking about?"
"I can't!"
His emotions flared. He tried to push himself up, but his limbs were limp. In the end he collapsed again, fists pounding the ground.
"Someone like you would never understand! What it's like to be betrayed by your own cards! To be rejected and abandoned by the very cards you hold! Humans were never worthy of opening their hearts to spirits in the first place!
Duelists with that so-called pure and righteous heart… they don't exist!"
Mid-rant, Trapper's pupils suddenly constricted. His mouth dropped open like he'd just seen something horrifying beyond words.
From his perspective, that was exactly what had happened.
He saw spirits.
Not just one or two, but countless spirits, endlessly appearing before his eyes. A huge crowd—spirits flooding his vision, staring at him with cold or hateful gazes.
He recognized them.
They were all spirits he had hurt. Spirits he had captured.
"No… no…!"
For the first time, Trapper began to panic.
He flailed his arms in front of him, shrieking:
"Stay away from me!"
"Don't look at me like that!"
"Don't…!"
But it was useless. All those spirits—spirits he had imprisoned, now freed by his defeat—suddenly seemed to dissolve into pure energy. That energy condensed into blinding white light and shot into his body, one beam after another.
"AAAAAAAAHHHH—!!"
Trapper let out an inhuman scream. His body twitched violently. Energy wrapped completely around him until even his body itself seemed to turn into pure white light, slowly dispersing bit by bit.
Kira only watched with an expressionless face.
Even Meanae seemed unsettled by the scene and couldn't help whispering, "Um… boss… should we stop this? Or, uh…?"
"No."
Kira's reply was calm.
"He chose to be a Spirit Hunter. He should have understood what that meant. The moment he started plundering spirits and hurting them, he should have known this day could come."
He paused, his tone turning slightly darker.
"This guy was born with Spirit Affinity too. As a duelist, he should've known the rules of being a duelist. Once you make your choice, you have to understand the price."
In the end, the lights formed by all those spirits completely swallowed the Hunter, then scattered into countless motes that drifted away on the wind.
Watching from behind, Adrian swallowed hard.
As the top spy of the Gecko Conglomerate, Adrian naturally knew that spirits possessed power beyond common sense. Otherwise the conglomerate wouldn't have sent him to Academy Island to investigate the mysterious spirit in Professor Viper's possession.
But even he had never personally witnessed a human being killed by spirits like this. It was his first time seeing the lethal side of their power up close.
Sure enough, relying on technological devices to constrain and control spirits, like the Hunters did, was playing with fire. Their underlying logic was disturbingly similar to that of Franz, the genius engineer at Industrial Illusions who had overseen the Winged Dragon of Ra project.
The only difference was scale. The Hunters only captured ordinary spirits, but Franz had aimed straight for a God Card.
If Kira hadn't snuffed out that line of thinking in its cradle, the weeds on Franz's grave would probably already be several meters tall by now.
Kira stepped forward and pulled the deck from the Duel Disk the Spirit Hunter had left behind.
Not stopping there, he searched the Hunter's body as well, feeling around thoroughly. Sure enough, he found more cards.
Most of them weren't powerful. Many were Level 1 or 2, and some had virtually no use in serious duels. But no matter how weak, minor, or unremarkable they were, they all shared one thing in common:
Every last one of them housed a spirit.
The spirits began peeking out of their cards, floating in the air around him—eyes, one by one, turning to Kira.
"I know most of you were stolen," Kira said calmly.
"I'm not a Spirit Hunter. I'm willing to take in any spirit… provided that's what you want.
And for those who wish to return to their original masters, I'll use my resources to help you find the duelists you used to belong to—and send you home."
He paused, sweeping his gaze over all of them.
"So. Does anyone want to leave?"
The spirits looked from one to another, but none showed any inclination to go.
Adrian swallowed again.
Most of the spirits here weren't strong individually, but their numbers were staggering—this was practically an army.
He glanced at where the Spirit Hunter had been—now reduced to a lone Duel Disk. The image of the Hunter being annihilated by spirits flashed through his mind again…
Adrian shook his head.
If there was one thing he'd taken away from tonight, it was this:
No matter what happens—
—never provoke the Duel King.
Otherwise, the outcome might be beyond imagination.