"We won! Man, that was such a fun Duel!"
Pointing toward the defeated twin sisters, Jaden struck his trademark victory pose—a taunt he personally believed to be extremely friendly.
"Well done, Jaden. I guess I really should say—you live up to being Hoshino's student!"
Jonouchi didn't hold back his praise at all. After all, their victory hinged heavily on Jaden's clutch move—using Elemental HERO Prisma to project Siegfried.
The twin sisters, both wearing Hoshino's appearance, leaned against each other as they collapsed onto the ground. It wasn't just the massive damage from losing the Shadow Game—they were also terrified of the fate that was about to descend upon them.
"No… we actually lost… Lords, please… give us one more chance…"
"???" Jonouchi frowned deeply at their panicked muttering.
"Who the heck is this 'Lord' they're talking about?"
While Jonouchi was lost in thought, Hoshino—who had rushed over from the academy—finally arrived at the scene. On the way, she had also run into Uria, who had picked up the scent of the Shadow Rider as well.
"Jonouchi, Jaden… are you two alright?"
The sight before her left Hoshino momentarily unable to process what she was seeing.
If Jonouchi and Jaden had been targeted by a Shadow Rider and dragged into a Shadow Game while she was gone, that at least made sense.
But why were there two people who looked exactly like her lying here?
"H-Hoshino… Sensei?" Jaden turned around after hearing her voice, but suspicion flickered in his eyes.
"Or… is this another fake?!"
"A fake? What are you talking about, Jaden?" Hoshino snapped irritably.
"Wait!" Jonouchi suddenly stretched out his arm to block Jaden and stared hard at her chest.
"This one's flatter—so she might be the real deal!"
"凸(艹皿艹) Jonouchi, are you asking to have your dog head smashed in?!"
"So it was them," Uria said calmly. "I didn't expect them to imitate Hoshino's appearance while she was gone."
"They impersonated me while I was away… and then tricked Jonouchi and Jaden into dueling…"
Hoshino's reaction was… complicated—half speechless, half chilled to the spine.
She wasn't sure whether they were just too naïve—or whether the rules governing Duels in this world were simply too restrictive.
If they could freely transform into the Duel Academy's headmistress, then instead of playing Shadow Games with Jonouchi and Jaden, abusing the headmistress's authority would have caused irreversible damage to the academy in no time.
Or perhaps that had never been their intention to begin with. After all, Kagemaru was still the academy's chairman—damaging the academy wouldn't benefit him. From the very start, their target had been her.
"Wait… if two more Shadow Riders were defeated just now," Hoshino muttered,
"doesn't that mean… only one remains?"
She hadn't been fully prepared to face the last boss yet. Originally, with three remaining, she figured she could stall for ten days—at worst, a few days.
But she hadn't expected Jonouchi and Jaden to be this efficient—cleaning up two of them in a single night.
Truly… thanks to their entire family.
"Isn't it a good thing that there's only one left, senpai?" Alexis asked, unable to read Hoshino's troubled expression.
"It was a good thing… before yesterday."
Before she saw that sealing-energy graph plummeting like KaibaCorp stock in free fall.
"Did we… do something wrong?" Jaden scratched his cheek awkwardly.
"Aren't they supposed to be defeated?"
Remembering the twin sisters' terror, Jaden suddenly felt like he might be the villain.
"Well, about them… actually—huh?" Hoshino paused mid-sentence.
In the blink of an eye, the twin sisters—who had just been wearing Hoshino's face—vanished without a trace the moment the real one appeared.
"Did they… dig a hole and run away out of embarrassment for being fakes?"
"If you're talking about the twins," a familiar voice drawled from the darkness,
"they already lost their souls to the ritual after losing the Shadow Game, meow~"
The Red Dorm supervisor, Banner, slowly stepped out of the shadows with a mysterious smile on his face.
"Professor Banner?! Why are you here too?!" Jaden blurted out—voicing what everyone was thinking.
Ignoring the question, Banner continued,
"Headmistress Hoshino, your move to destroy the Illusion Gate was certainly unexpected. However, the sacrificial ritual to revive the Sacred Beasts can still function—even without the 'Gate'—and retain a comparable level of power."
"The Illusion Gate! That's the card Hoshino-sensei destroyed earlier!"
Only now did Jaden realize—if Hoshino hadn't sealed that cheat-level card beforehand, then during their Duel with the twins…
Even if they had summoned Siegfried Alter, they would've stood no chance at all.
"Banner… just who are you?" Hoshino asked solemnly.
At this point, Banner knew about the Sacred Beasts' revival ritual. There was no way Hoshino could continue treating him as just an ordinary dorm supervisor.
"Then allow me to formally introduce myself," Banner said with a grin.
"I am the shadow of the seventh—the final Shadow Rider, meow~"
"Professor Banner is… a Shadow Rider?!" Jaden and Alexis cried out in disbelief.
"That can't be true! Professor, you're joking, right?!"
Especially for Jaden—who had lived alongside Banner ever since enrolling—this was the hardest to accept.
"Calm down, Jaden," Hoshino said gently, placing a hand on his shoulder.
Someone capable of holding an A+ Duelist ranking was never going to be just an ordinary dorm supervisor. Rather than doubting him, Banner's confession finally resolved the lingering unease in Hoshino's mind.
"Then tell me," she asked,
"as a Shadow Rider who's been hiding in the Red Dorm for three years—what exactly was your objective?"
Unlike the other Shadow Riders, who had only recently begun to surface, Banner had been present since the academy's founding.
Considering Chairman Kagemaru's plan to revive the Sacred Beasts had begun as early as his investment in Duel Academy, it wasn't difficult to guess that Banner had been planted there from the very start.
"I have no particular goal at all, meow~" Banner replied with an innocent, harmless smile.
"Even though I'm one of them, that doesn't stop me from also being a Red Dorm supervisor."
"Professor…" Jaden's emotions were conflicted.
"The Red Dorm students are like my own children, meow~"
Hoshino found herself unable to fully make sense of it—but Banner didn't seem to be lying.
Over the past three years, Hoshino had watched him closely. Without exaggeration, as the oft-overlooked supervisor of the bottom-ranked Red Dorm, Banner had never complained even once. On the contrary, he had been diligent and responsible—a genuinely good teacher, respected even by students from other dorms.
"Then why would you, an ordinary Red Dorm teacher, associate with inhuman beings like the Shadow Riders?" Hoshino asked.
"Because… fundamentally speaking, I can't really be considered human anymore, meow~"
Rolling up the sleeve of the shirt he had worn for years, Banner revealed a prosthetic arm already showing signs of decay.
"I was originally an alchemist who devoted my life to researching the Philosopher's Stone. But an incurable disease brought my first life to an end. I entrusted my soul to an artificial lifeform—this body. Yet even so, I couldn't escape nature's law of progressive evolution. This vessel, too, began to rot."
Hoshino frowned slightly.
"An alchemist… the Philosopher's Stone?"
"Even if you're an artificial lifeform, Professor—you'll always be Professor Banner!" Jaden insisted.
"And regardless of why you helped Chairman Kagemaru, as long as you never intended to harm the students, then even as the final Shadow Rider, I won't lay a hand on you."
That was Hoshino's judgment. As long as Banner's soul hadn't been absorbed into the sealing ritual, the Sacred Beasts' resurrection would remain incomplete.
"Chairman Kagemaru funded my alchemical research in my previous life, meow. That's why I agreed to repay him with my second life. But even during this short second life, these three years at the academy gave me a happiness I never experienced before, meow~"
Banner sat down cross-legged and lowered his head. His long hair—once pitch-black—had begun to fade to white as it drooped down.
In this weakened state, he looked nothing like the Banner who had been so excited during yesterday's Red Dorm cosplay Duel Festival.
"Unfortunately, it's too late. This false body can't hold on for even another moment. As it decays, the soul of the final Shadow Rider required for the resurrection ritual will return to nothingness. Speaking of defeat… Headmistress Hoshino, you already defeated me in yesterday's Duel, meow~"
His body continued to crumble—skin peeling even from his cheeks.
"So… from here on out, please take care of the Red Dorm students… Jaden and the others… Headmistress Hoshino… and as for you, I'm sure you'll defeat the Sacred Beasts'—"
"Dumping your work on your boss and saying something that irresponsible—now that doesn't sound like you at all, Banner!"
Plopping down onto the ground herself, Hoshino locked eyes with Banner as he neared the end of his lifespan.
"Alchemy, the Philosopher's Stone, artificial lifeforms—right?! If any of that can extend your life, then leave it to me!"
"Leave it… to you, Headmistress?" Banner forced a faint smile with his nearly collapsing face.
"There's no need to comfort me. Even after devoting my entire previous life, I never completed the Philosopher's Stone. I came to understand that the pinnacle of alchemy lies beyond the reach of mortals."
"It is within reach," Hoshino replied firmly.
"Even if it's just a tiny glimmer of hope. The so-called Philosopher's Stone is a miracle that exists precisely to make that wish come true."
She drew a card. Upon it, five elemental lights shimmered—and a Heroic Spirit materialized.
"—Paracelsus von Hohenheim!"
Answering her call, Hohenheim—dressed in white—stepped into the night, his gaze falling upon Banner's deteriorating body.
"A temporary vessel forged from an ether-based lifeform, is it?"
Shock flickered through Banner's eyes. He had never told anyone about this body's construction—yet the man before him saw through it instantly.
"No matter how carefully it's maintained," Hohenheim continued calmly,
"such a provisional body will inevitably reach its end. Forced elemental cohesion collapses once etheric energy dissipates."
"I don't get it!" Hoshino complained from where she sat.
"All I want to know is this—Hohenheim, you're an alchemist too, and you have the Philosopher's Stone (A+) skill. Can you save Banner or not?"
"What an unreasonably direct request, as always, Master," Hohenheim said with an indulgent smile.
"But since you've gone out of your way to ask, I'd hate to disappoint you."
Energy gathered at his fingertips as Hohenheim gently pressed them against Daidouji's nearly disintegrating forehead.
"The Philosopher's Stone is a substance that exists only in the Age of Myth. Yet even after that era ended, alchemists continued to pursue it endlessly. In a way, it's ironic—but in seeking the Stone, alchemists were also pursuing truth."
As the energy flowed into him, Banner's bodily collapse halted. His expression filled with disbelief.
"How is this possible, meow?! Reversing decay that violates natural evolution… creating life itself… Could this truly be the Philosopher's Stone?"
"It can be said to be—and also not," Hohenheim replied gently.
"In my pursuit of truth, I came to call any object capable of granting wishes and creating miracles a 'Philosopher's Stone.'"
"By using spirit-based magic crystallization—or photon crystallization technology—we can significantly reduce etheric life loss and prolong elemental cohesion. To you, that is the Philosopher's Stone."
As if time itself had reversed, Banner's decayed skin regenerated, and his white hair turned black once more.
"I… I survived, meow?" Banner murmured, having already prepared himself for death.
"Well done, Hohenheim," Hoshino said with a smile.
"As a fellow alchemist, I merely guided one who had strayed from the path," Hohenheim replied.
"This photon-crystallized body won't grant true immortality like the genuine Philosopher's Stone—but it can easily match a normal human lifespan."
"S-So that means… Professor Banner is saved?!" Jaden exclaimed excitedly.
"That's Hoshino for you," Jonouchi said in awe.
"Always pulling off something jaw-dropping at moments like this."
Though Jonouchi wasn't especially close to Banner, the scene struck a deep chord within him.
Back in Battle City, when his soul had nearly been obliterated by the Winged Dragon of Ra's divine flames, it had been Hoshino who had forcibly saved him using Medea's Noble Phantasm.
"…Wanna send Hoshino a banner that says 'The Reincarnation of Slime' or something?"