"Damn it, he actually top-decked Abyss Dragon on his final turn—unbelievable!"
A loss was a loss. Hoshino wasn't a little kid anymore like she used to be. Even when dueling Holmes or Da Vinci from time to time, she'd lose once or twice.
Of course, the annoying part about losing was missing out on the quartz.
But what truly caught Hoshino off guard was that this Kaiba Man was just as Ozymandias had said—absurdly strong.
"Hahahahahahaha—!"
With his arms crossed over his chest, Kaiba Man tilted his masked head back proudly, laughing without restraint.
Seriously, if it weren't for the island being sparsely populated and its residences spread far apart, this lunatic laughing maniacally in the middle of the night would've been reported and hauled off by now.
"So this is the power of Duel Spirits, huh? Compared to that joke of a Shadow Rider, they're not even on the same level."
No wonder the Shadow Rider Yuki Onna had been completely shaken after fighting Kaiba Man—so terrified she'd practically lost her mind.
Kaiba Man said smugly, "I told you before the duel—I'd show you the difference between this dimension and another one!"
"Tch, you win one duel and suddenly you're this full of yourself!" Hoshino snapped, annoyed by his attitude. "I just didn't go all out, that's all! Hey, you—got the guts for a rematch?"
"Hmph. You think you're the only one who wasn't serious? I gave you a handicap—I let you keep three Blue-Eyes White Dragons!"
"That wasn't you 'letting' me do anything! I tactically banished them myself! Have some shame, you perverted masked freak!"
"Hahahaha! The winner is always right. Tonight, you can lie in bed, tossing and turning, drowning in the bitterness of defeat, Hoshino!"
"Hah? Whether I can sleep or not is none of your business, you sexually harassing masked creep!"
The Sacred Beast: "== Are these two really not children?"
Watching Hoshino and Kaiba Man bicker back and forth like grade schoolers, the Three seriously felt that their own child-sized bodies might be better suited to these two childish idiots.
["But putting that aside… now isn't the time to sleep, aibo. That tremor we felt during the duel—coming from the academy—what was that about?"]
"Oh, right. About the earthquake—do you know anything?"
"I don't think I need to explain. It'll be faster if you see it for yourself."
With that, Kaiba Man stepped aside and pointed his thumb toward Duel Academy.
During the duel, Kaiba Man had been facing Hoshino with his back to the academy. His tall frame—combined with the dazzling White Dragons flying around the field—had completely blocked her view in that direction.
Besides, at such a distance, even if there were tremors, she wouldn't have been able to see anything clearly anyway. That was why Hoshino hadn't paid much attention.
But once Kaiba Man shifted aside, Hoshino's gaze was instantly captured—and she was utterly stunned by the scene at the academy in the distance.
A gigantic tree, radiating a brilliant azure glow, had taken root within the academy grounds. It was nearly as large as the academy's main building—and it was still growing, visibly, before her eyes.
Yes—growing at a speed noticeable to the naked eye. If even Hoshino, standing this far away, could clearly see it expanding, then anyone witnessing it up close inside the academy would probably start questioning reality itself.
["Could it be… that the intense tremors earlier were caused by this tree appearing in Duel Academy?"]
"What is that thing?"
"The World Tree—Yggdrasil!" Kaiba Man replied directly, no longer bothering with suspense.
"The World Tree… Yggdrasil? That's the one mentioned on the stone tablet!"
Hoshino suddenly remembered. On her phone, she still had that incredibly chuuni message Kaiba had sent earlier that night.
In it, he'd mentioned the World Tree from Norse mythology—the one whose branches connect the Nine Realms—named Yggdrasil.
Kaiba Man added, "I didn't expect the kings of the World Tree to act faster than anticipated. Right now, Duel Academy is probably in complete chaos."
"Chaos? Don't tell me you knew this was going to happen and still dragged me into a duel here?"
If what Kaiba Man said was true—and the kings of the World Tree considered the humans who had entered the Xyz era their enemies—then the moment Yggdrasil took root in the academy, war would have already begun.
In that case, as the Headmistress of Duel Academy, Hoshino shouldn't be wasting time here. She should be heading back immediately to support the academy.
"Don't be so hasty," Kaiba Man said, pressing down on the twitching ahoge on top of her head to stop her.
"Even if you go now, you won't be able to solve anything. The Nine Kingdoms of the World Tree—their kings represent the rulers of every major Duel Monster race. Their power far surpasses any duelist you've ever faced. Charging in blindly would just be throwing your life away."
"…You're underestimating me."
Hoshino brushed aside his hand, her expression suddenly sharpening.
"You don't seriously think my 'full power' stops at what you just saw, do you? If that's the case, you really have no idea what the strongest human is capable of."
With that, Hoshino openly activated her system. With a light flick of her finger, she pulled a long stream of cards out from the system space.
Bathed in dazzling, multicolored light, nearly 300 Heroic Spirit cards she had used in the past floated neatly in front of her.
If one deck was calculated as 40 cards—even counting Extra Decks—this was enough to build more than five completely different decks.
Among them were monsters like King Hassan, Shirou Emiya, and Root-connected Ryougi Shiki—existences so overwhelming that their mere appearance could tilt the balance of victory.
But due to habits she'd developed over the years at the academy, Hoshino rarely included these cards in her decks.
First, terminal-class powerhouses like these were rarely necessary in ordinary duels.
Second, using them against students would just be downright cruel.
In the end, the cards she used most—and felt most comfortable with—were still Okita, Nobunaga, and the others.
However, that very habit had come with a downside.
When facing the Sacred Beast, Hoshino had nearly suffered a disastrous defeat.
And yet, because of that, misfortune turned into fortune, ushering in the Xyz Era under the radiance of the Overlay Light—a blessing in disguise.
Although the opening of the Xyz Era would push the overall level of Duel Monsters forward by a massive margin, the enemies drawn here by the light of Xyz—the nine kings representing each race—remained a complete unknown in terms of their true strength.
"Hoshino, I've said it before—I know you very well, and I understand the power you hold in your hands. But that alone isn't enough. If you want to stand against the Nine Realms King, you're still missing a crucial element."
"Keep acting smug and I swear I'll punch you. At a time like this, you're still talking in half-sentences—what 'crucial element' are you even talking about?!"
Just imagining the chaos unfolding at the academy made Hoshino want to hop on her D-Wheel and rush over immediately. Naturally, she was extremely dissatisfied with Kaiba Man's habit of never saying things straight.
Kaiba Man gazed up at the star-filled sky as if waiting for something. Suddenly, the corner of his mouth curled upward.
"It's here!"
"…Here? What's here?" Hoshino was completely lost.
Streaks of stellar energy tore across the night sky, transforming into falling stars that came crashing straight down—slamming directly into Hoshino's room. In an instant, the walls and glass windows shattered apart.
If Hoshino and Kaiba Man hadn't gone up to the rooftop to duel beforehand, she would've been hit dead-on by this disaster from the heavens.
"!!∑(ﾟДﾟノ)ノ AAAAAH—! My 32-year mortgage!"
["Aibo, this house doesn't even have a mortgage. Wasn't it given to us for free by KaibaCorp?"]
"No, I was just quoting Hiroshi Nohara's classic line."
Although the walls and windows looked badly damaged, from Hoshino's perspective, the impact hadn't actually destroyed much inside the room. That was largely thanks to the entire third floor being her personal space—large enough that the damage ratio ended up relatively small.
In short: being rich means doing whatever you want. Even if a meteor falls from the sky and smashes into your room, you can still stay as calm as Hoshino.
"Calm my ass! Why did a meteor suddenly fall into my room?! …Tomoe!"
"Understood, Master!"
Exchanging a glance, Tomoe once again lifted Hoshino effortlessly and leapt back into the third-floor room along the trail of destruction in the roof.
">_<"
Yet at this moment, there wasn't even the slightest trace of a meteor inside Hoshino's room.
Instead, standing there was a cute blue-haired girl dressed in shrine maiden robes, her eyes tightly shut as she rubbed her head.
Hoshino froze, completely unsure how to react.
"A beautiful girl falling from the sky… isn't this kind of cliché supposed to happen at the beginning of a story? We're already over 600 chapters in—what kind of plot twist is this supposed to be?!"
(***)
Meanwhile, at Duel Academy—
"So weak. Is this really the strongest duelists humanity has to offer? There's no need for the King to act—I alone am more than enough."
Under the shadow of the World Tree, the man in white dueling against Crowler exuded absolute confidence.
"Mamma mia… what on earth is going on here, no-ne?" Crowler panicked internally.
Everything had happened far too suddenly. From the World Tree that had inexplicably appeared inside the academy emerged a man named Loptr, who immediately declared his intent to "conquer" and demanded that the students submit to the King's rule.
As an academy professor, Crowler naturally stepped forward to protect the students, facing this clearly hostile presence head-on.
And the result was—
[Crowler LP 2000]
[Loptr LP 8000]
"Isn't Professor Crowler getting completely overwhelmed?" Akasha muttered, having finally returned to the academy late on the night before the semester began.
Since the official return from spring break was tomorrow, most students had already come back, though a portion—scheduled to arrive the next morning—were still absent.
Among them was the academy's king, Zane Truesdale.
"Hang in there, Professor Crowler! Don't lose to some random weirdo!" Jaden, the eternal good boy, cheered loudly as usual—even now, despite being labeled a poor student.
"(*･-) But think about it, Jaden," Akasha whispered. "If Professor Crowler loses here, he probably won't be checking our spring break homework tomorrow. And I'm pretty sure you didn't do a single page of it, right?"
Jaden stopped responding.
With that blind spot pointed out, Jaden's resolve to cheer for Crowler wavered immediately.
"Go, Mister-in-White!"
"Jaden, you delinquent! You actually betrayed me at a time like this, no-ne?!"
After complaining about Jaden, Crowler glanced at the current situation.
[Mekk-Knight Avram ATK 2000] ×2
Although his opponent had two monsters on the field, they were nothing more than vanilla Level 4s. Meanwhile, despite having no monsters on the field and only one card left in hand, Crowler still had a trump card hidden away.
"I Tribute Summon—Ancient Gear Golem, no-ne!"
Jaden blinked. "Tribute Summon on an empty field? Did the professor get knocked on the head?"
"NO, NO, NO—watch and learn, you failing student~" Crowler wagged his finger and explained. "I have the Continuous Spell Ancient Gear Castle on my field. Each time I performed a Normal Summon earlier, it gained one counter."
[Ancient Gear Castle Counters] ×2
[Continuous Spell Effect: If you Tribute Summon an "Ancient Gear" monster face-up, you can Tribute this card instead, if the number of its counters is equal to or greater than the number of required Tribute(s).]
"I use Ancient Gear Castle as the Tribute substitute to Tribute Summon my ace monster—Ancient Gear Golem!"
[Ancient Gear Golem ★★★★★★★★ (Level 8)][EARTH][Machine/Effect][ATK 3000/DEF 3000]
"And when Ancient Gear Golem battles, my opponent cannot activate Spell or Trap effects! Take this head-on, no-ne—Ancient Gear Mega Punch!"
A steam-powered punch erupted forward, ignoring face-down traps and finally earning Crowler his first counterattack.
[Loptr LP 8000 → 7000]
"So that's all your final resistance amounts to?" Loptr sneered. "I activate my Set Trap Card—Time Machine!"
[Time Machine Trap Effect: When a monster is destroyed by battle and sent to the GY: Special Summon that monster to the same field it was on, in the same battle position it was in when destroyed.]
[Mekk-Knight Avram ATK 2000]
"Heh, don't get cocky, no-ne! The two monsters on your field can't possibly defeat Ancient Gear Golem, no-ne! End of turn!"
"My turn. Draw!" Slamming down his third monster, Loptr declared confidently, "I summon my third Mekk-Knight Avram, then overlay these three Level 4 monsters to perform an Xyz Summon!"
Without even connecting to the Xyz Network, the energy from the three stacked monsters flowed directly into the World Tree behind him.
"Rank 4 Xyz Summon—Vylon Disigma!"
[Vylon Disigma ★★★★ (Rank 4)][LIGHT][Fairy/Effect][ATK 2500/DEF 2100]
[3 Level 4 monsters]