Wearing silver-white armor, Lady Labrynth of the Silver Castle lifted Youmi's chin with one hand, looking at the Youmi before her with a face full of happiness, and spoke gently:
"Laby's been waiting for you for so long, Youmi~"
Hearing Lady Labrynth directly blurt out Youmi's identity, Fallen of Albaz at the side subconsciously spoke up: "Ah, this is bad, Boss Youmi…!"
Then, realizing he had let something slip as well, Fallen of Albaz hurriedly covered his mouth.
Bathed in moonlight, Youmi, her face flushed, trembled as she raised her hand.
Then she smashed Lady Labrynth headfirst straight into the ground with a single punch.
"Y-you-you-you what are you saying?! You've got the wrong person, right?! I'm not Youmi at all, Youmi is… is–is… is this guy instead, right?!"
Saying that, she grabbed Fallen of Albaz beside her and dragged him over.
Although this kind of remedial measure had already lost all meaning at this point, Youmi's sense of shame still made her do it.
With the butler's help, Lady Labrynth pulled her head out of the ground, took the handkerchief handed to her by the butler, and wiped her horns, then tossed Fallen of Albaz aside like lifting a chick, staring straight at Youmi:
"What is it, Youmi-chan, you really love joking around. In this academy, isn't there only one person named Youmi? Right, Arias?"
As she spoke, she also tilted her head to glance at her butler to seek affirmation.
"Just as you have said, my lady. The student named Youmi in this school is, without question, this young lady. She is also the same individual who made a great showing in Duel City."
Arias the Labrynth Butler bowed to Youmi and said, "It is a pleasure to meet you, Miss Youmi. Last time during the Duel City period, I was unable to become your support due to having to clean up the mess left behind by my lady. I sincerely apologize."
This was basically an ironclad confirmation that Youmi—or rather, the one currently calling herself 'Yuyumi'—was indeed the Duel King Youmi from the Duel City period.
Youmi looked around at Zane and Jaden with a flustered expression, only to see both of them looking at her with shocked gazes.
"So, Youmi's younger sister is Yuyumi, Yuyumi is that Duel King Youmi from five years ago… Ah, I see now. I get it!"
For some reason, Jaden Yuki's brain was spinning unusually fast at this moment, forming his own conclusion.
"The reason 'Youmi' has been acting strange these past few days is actually because 'Youmi' isn't Youmi. It's that Duel King Youmi who turned into Youmi. But that doesn't seem right. The Duel King should be a much older big sister than me… could it be that Youmi's body shrank—pff!"
Just as Jaden finished making some sort of judgment, Youmi pulled out an unopened bag of salt from her maid outfit and smashed it straight into his face.
"Don't make baseless judgments about a girl's body! And actually, I am…!"
Meanwhile, Zane had just recovered from his shock. Although he had been utterly defeated, the opponent was, after all, an acquaintance of the legendary Duel King and was using an improved version of that Duel King's Deck.
Losing was losing, but it was still a valuable experience. He immediately dialed the phone of his mentor and the academy principal to inform him that the legendary Duelist and her acquaintance had appeared at Duel Academy.
Behind Youmi, the just-arrived Bastion had also heard the exchange between Lady Labrynth and Youmi:
"What Jaden said is indeed correct. These past few days, 'Youmi's' dominant hand has been off as well. When answering teachers' questions, she always makes a motion of tilting her ear to listen, her left eye can't open, and her personality has also changed a bit."
With an 'I get it, I get it' expression, Bastion pointed at Youmi: "So you're the real Youmi, right? Although I don't know why you've changed appearance, looking at it now, you're actually the Youmi I've interacted with over this past month since school started, and also the Youmi who used the Labrynth Deck in Duel City, correct?"
"So I already said…"
Perhaps out of fear of being discovered to have once cross-dressed, and thus acting on a principle of not wanting to socially die, Youmi kept denying that she was the Duel Academy student Youmi, and also did not dare to admit that she was the Duelist Youmi who appeared in Duel City.
However, Lady Labrynth, whom she was ignoring, also noticed this.
She looked at her with a wicked grin, pulled a Compulsory Evacuation Device from her Deck, and amid a burst of silver-white light, Fallen of Albaz, who was still sprawled on the ground and hadn't recovered yet, suddenly turned into a card and fell into Youmi's hand.
"Oh my, so this young man over here is actually a Card Spirit A Card Spirit could never be Laby's bestie Youmi, right? Don't you think so"
Lady Labrynth said, placing both hands on Youmi's shoulders and savoring the sudden shudder that ran through her body.
"Since she's far too shy, then Laby will do the self-introduction for her This one right here is the legendary Duelist you all talk about—the opponent in the final match against Yugi Muto during your world's Duel City event five years ago, who achieved a draw with Last Turn!—Youmi-chan desu wa"
Youmi, who had gone so far as to do that kind of embarrassing maid play at noon to help Fallen of Albaz out of trouble, was now extremely furious over her identity being exposed. She drove an elbow straight into Lady Labrynth, who had her hands on her shoulders: "You idiot!!!"
In full view of everyone, having already lost her rationality due to public social death, Youmi, at the same time as Lady Labrynth, let out a cry of pain, immediately turned around, and delivered another rising uppercut.
If it were an ordinary human body, punching a Minotauros-like physique would probably result in broken or fractured bones, but right now, Youmi had overlapping traits of two monsters possessing the power of dragons. As a result, she directly sent Lady Labrynth flying, causing her to crash headfirst into the ground.
Arias covered his face with one hand. Although he adopted a 'see no impropriety' gesture, his gaze still clearly took in his lady's predicament through the gaps between his fingers. The corners of his mouth lifted slightly, but when Lady Labrynth was sent flying by that punch, he still instinctively closed his eyes for a moment.
"Ah… both young ladies being this airheaded really is… it seems there will be no shortage of work in the future."
Just as Youmi was about to go up and add a couple more hits, seeing the blissful expression on Lady Labrynth's face suddenly made it hard for her to strike again.
"Hahaha, that really brings back memories of how we used to get along."
"N-no-no, last time it was you who suddenly jumped up and headbutted the ceiling, okay?"
As the two were talking, the sound of a jet engine suddenly came from the distance.
"What the heck, someone's flying in this late at night? And that thing is…"
Narrowing her focus slightly, Youmi made out the shape of the aircraft heading toward Duel Academy. "A Blue-Eyes Jet Dragon? No… it's Kaiba's Blue-Eyes jet?! Hey, Zane, did you call the principal?"
Having been busy watching Jaden's reaction earlier and not paying attention to what Zane was saying into his phone, Youmi immediately turned to look at Zane.
He had just locked his phone screen, then stood up from the ground and walked over to her. "Master said we needed to inform Mr. Kaiba, and he actually rushed over right away.
"And to think that our school's first-year student, Youmi, is actually the legendary Duelist… then was that male appearance earlier a disguise? And losing to me in the practical exam of the monthly make-up test was that also a disguise?"
Youmi shook her head and explained, "It's complicated, so I don't really know how to explain it properly… but in that Duel, you really did defeat me with overwhelming strength, so please don't worry about it. That said, the troublesome one has arrived now."
Turning her gaze to Seto Kaiba in his DSOD appearance, who leapt down from the jet and landed on one knee without any issue at all, Youmi did not hear the sentence Zane muttered.
"Even though I won, that wasn't the Deck you're best with, was it…"
With AI control, the Blue-Eyes jet slowly descended to the ground, firing a searchlight beam that illuminated Lady Labrynth of the Silver Castle lying spread-eagled on the ground, and Youmi beside her.
"Has it really been four years since the last time? I never expected you to show up again in this school of all places, You↗mi↘."
Perhaps because he noticed that the Lady Labrynth of the Silver Castle on the ground was not Youmi, Kaiba tossed a Duel Disk— similar to the one used by him and the DSOD version of Yugi— toward Youmi, who was beside Lady Lab.
Even with the power of a dragon, when Youmi caught the flying Duel Disk one-handed with her left hand, she still felt a sharp pain in her palm.
"Kaiba… how did you know it was me…? Did Principal Sheppard even say that much on the phone?"
She had evidently changed her appearance altogether, so the fact that Seto Kaiba recognized her right away left Youmi deeply puzzled.
"Hmph↗↘→" Kaiba's trademark 'hmph' twisted and turned with exaggerated inflection.
Pressing the device worn on his head, he said, "This is a terminal that integrates KaibaCorp's highest technology. It can identify your wavelength. After all, you completely changed your appearance the last time you showed up before me too, didn't you? A Duelist who crosses time and space, You↗mi↘."
Youmi refuted Kaiba's claim, but then quickly thought of another possibility. "I don't remember going to the DM era at any point after that… no, four years. Looks like future me went back to DSOD, huh~
"Then now, what business does KaibaCorp's CEO, Seto Kaiba-sama, have visiting Duel Academy at such a late hour? And you can turn off the searchlight already, it's not like you can't see my face."
As soon as Youmi finished speaking, the searchlight of the Blue-Eyes jet immediately shut off, and blue light lit up on Seto Kaiba's Duel Disk.
The Duel Disk projected digitized blue cards, and streams of data rapidly flickered across Kaiba's eyes. "Isn't it obvious? Of course it's to launch the ultimate revenge duel against you, for the Duels five years ago and four years ago, You↗mi↘."
So you didn't beat me four years ago either, huh. But what kind of grudge did we even have five years ago?
Youmi complained like this in her heart.
"If it's a Duel, then please allow me to refuse for the time being. I really don't want to continue socially dying in front of such a huge crowd. Can't we just talk things out properly instead?"
...
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