Hearing Hoshino complain about Yumi again, none of the three standing beside her looked surprised anymore. At this point, it would probably be stranger if Hoshino managed to spend five minutes around him without finding something to complain about. Yumi simply had a talent for saying exactly the wrong thing at exactly the right time, and Hoshino seemed to have an equally impressive talent for falling for it every single time.
Yumi ignored her latest complaint and turned his attention back to the last blank card. He picked it up and placed it onto his Duel Disk, curious to see which Spirit was hiding inside it.
White light suddenly burst upward, briefly illuminating the rooftop before slowly fading away.
Everyone waited as nothing happened.
Yumi stared at the empty space in front of him for a few seconds, waiting for someone to appear. He looked down at his Duel Disk, then back at the empty space.
"Huh."
Looking down at the card, he could sense that it had a spirit within it, but there was still no image on it. Yumi slowly turned toward Hoshino, before he deliberately forced tears into the corners of his eyes.
"Sensei... you actually scammed your own student? How cruel."
"Get lost! I didn't scam you!" Hoshino immediately snapped, her eyebrow twitching. "Why would I deliberately put a counterfeit card into my own deck just to mess with you?"
"I don't know. Maybe this is your way of getting back at me."
"Why would I even do something that stupid?"
Yumi placed a hand against his chest.
"Because you're secretly petty."
"I'm not secretly anything!"
"That's exactly what a secretly petty person would say."
Hoshino opened her mouth, then stopped herself before she could continue. She rubbed her forehead and let out a tired sigh.
"Never mind. I'm not arguing with you about this."
Yumi's fake sadness disappeared immediately, replaced by his usual grin.
"Aw, you're no fun at all."
"You're really annoying."
"I've been told."
He reached down and picked the card back up, turning it over between his fingers as he examined it. There was nothing on it. No picture, no name, no effect text, nothing that indicated it was a Heroic Spirit Card at all. Even the front of the card looked completely empty to him.
Yet he could still sense a spirit housed within it. Yumi frowned lightly.
"How strange..."
He looked toward Oda. Yumi casually placed a hand around her side and pulled her closer so she could look at the card.
"Can you see anything?"
Oda glanced at him with mild annoyance at being dragged around without warning, but she didn't bother complaining. She leaned closer and focused on the card in his hand.
Her expression also slowly changed.
"There really is nothing."
"You can't see anything either?"
"No."
Oda took the card from him and turned it over herself, checking both sides just to make sure she wasn't missing something obvious. She then held it up toward the light, but even that revealed nothing.
That was what made the situation strange.
As a Heroic Spirit, Oda could see Hoshino's Heroic Spirit Cards even when ordinary people couldn't. She could recognize the cards that represented herself and the other Spirits without any trouble.
She looked at Hoshino with an amused expression.
"Huh... Master, you really did scam your student."
Hoshino's expression immediately darkened. She slowly cracked her knuckles.
"This is slander."
Oda smiled.
"Is it?"
"Pure slander. I would never do something like that."
Yumi nodded solemnly.
"Agreed. We should probably investigate this. Hoshino-sensei may have accidentally put a counterfeit card into her own deck."
Hoshino's eyelid twitched.
"Don't add fuel to the fire."
"I'm not. I'm helping the investigation."
"That's not helping."
Yumi took the card back from Oda and held it out toward Hoshino.
"Then what about you? Can you tell what this is?"
Hoshino stopped, her gaze locking onto the card. For a moment, she didn't say anything as her expression shifted.
"What?"
She reached out and took it from him, turning it over in her hands several times. Her eyes moved across the completely empty surface, and the annoyance disappeared from her face.
"This really is just a blank card."
She looked toward her Duel Disk, then back at the card.
"How did this even get into my deck?"
She sounded genuinely confused now.
Okita, who had been quietly watching the whole thing, tilted her head.
"Master..."
Her voice suddenly became suspiciously soft.
Hoshino looked at her, still confused about the card.
"What?"
"Were you trying to protect Okita-chan?" Her eyes immediately became watery. "Did you put a blank card into your deck so that horrible man couldn't take Okita-chan away?"
Hoshino's expression twitched.
"I did no such thing!"
"But..." Okita tried to protest, but she cut her off.
"I seriously don't know where this card came from."
She scratched the side of her head, looking genuinely troubled now. She had gone through her deck countless times before, so she knew her own cards. There was no reason for a completely blank card to be there.
After thinking about it for a moment, Hoshino suddenly pulled her deck out.
"Here. Just draw another card."
She held the deck toward Yumi. Causing both Oda and Okita to freeze, neither of them had expected that.
Yumi looked at the deck, then at Hoshino.
"You're sure?"
"Yes."
Hoshino's voice was calmer now, and the irritation that had been there moments earlier was gone.
"I know what you're doing for this world, Yumi. If you hadn't shown up, we'd still be trying to hold the academy together while dealing with the Beast Waves. The teachers are exhausted, the Pro Duelists are injured, and the students are already scared enough as it is."
She paused, looking down at the deck in her hand.
"So if these cards can help you do what I can't, then I don't see a reason to keep them locked away just because I'm afraid of letting them go."
Her fingers tightened slightly around the deck.
"Do I like the idea of giving up my servants? No. Of course I don't."
Hoshino looked at Oda and Okita for a moment before continuing.
"They're important to me. They've been with me through a lot, and they're not just cards to me. But I've lost my connection to Chaldea, and things aren't the same anymore. I can't rely on them the way I used to."
Her eyes returned to Yumi.
"But you can."
There was no dramatic declaration in her voice. She simply sounded tired and honest.
"And right now, we need every bit of help we can get."
Oda's expression softened, Okita became quiet as well, and Hoshino lowered the deck slightly.
"So if giving them to you means giving this world another chance, then I'll accept that. I may not like it, but I'll accept it."
For Hoshino, it felt a little like passing the torch.
Back in Chaldea, she had once been the person responsible for standing at the front and doing everything she could to restore Human Order. She had relied on her Servants, trusted them with her life, and carried the responsibility of protecting everyone who depended on her.
Yumi was troublesome, greedy, shameless, and sometimes unbelievably irritating. But he was also strong. Strong enough to actually change things.
That was why Hoshino was willing to trust him.
Yumi looked at the deck for a few seconds before giving a small smile. Instead of taking another card from her deck, he reached for the blank card instead, placing it into his own deck.
"You don't need to, Sensei."
Hoshino blinked in confusion as Yumi simply shrugged.
"I know you well enough to know you wouldn't deliberately sabotage someone who's helping you protect this place. You may be petty, but you're not stupid."
Hoshino stared at him.
"Was that supposed to be a compliment?"
"Mostly."
Oda snorted. Yumi continued before Hoshino could respond.
"Besides, if I really wanted to take everything from you, I could do so and leave whenever I wanted. You know that. Our entire agreement is based on me choosing to stay and help."
His tone remained casual, but the words were true.
"I could take whatever cards you have and walk away. There's nothing you could really do to stop me."
Hoshino's expression immediately became sour. The warm feeling she had developed from his previous words disappeared almost instantly.
"You really had to remind me of that?"
Yumi gave her an innocent look.
"You were the one who brought it up."
"I was having a sincere moment."
"So was I."
Hoshino stared at him with the exhausted expression of someone who had just watched a perfectly good moment get ruined right in front of her.
Oda suddenly laughed and threw an arm around Yumi's shoulders.
"Wahahaha! You really do have a talent for ruining the mood."
"I'm just being honest. Besides, I'm the strongest; running away isn't something I would do."
Hoshino sighed.
"Sometimes I wonder why I even bother."
Okita, however, was still focused on the more important issue.
"But Master..." She looked at Hoshino with a troubled expression before glancing toward Yumi. "How can you just hand Okita-chan over like this? I'm your Ace! You can't just exchange me like some rare trading card!"
Hoshino placed a hand against her forehead.
"Okita-chan, listen to me."
Okita quieted down.
"I know this isn't easy for you. It isn't easy for me either. But I've lost my connection to Chaldea, and because of that, I can't use my Heroic Spirit Cards the way I used to. Yumi can."
She gave Okita a gentle smile.
"And right now, we need someone who can actually fight the Beast Waves and protect this world. If I keep holding onto you simply because I don't want to let go, then I'm putting my own feelings ahead of everyone else's."
Okita's teary expression slowly softened. Hoshino continued, her voice becoming quieter.
"That's why I'm trusting you to him. He's my student, and as troublesome as he is, I still trust him. I can see this spark for greatness in him. Whatever choice he made, I'm sure he won't turn his back on those who needed him."
Okita looked at Yumi for a moment. She still didn't look completely convinced. But at least she wasn't crying anymore.
"You really trust him that much?"
Hoshino glanced toward Yumi, who was already looking back at them with his usual carefree smile.
"I trust him enough."
...
Yumi spent the entire morning shadowing Hoshino through the sprawling, sun-drenched grounds of Duel Academy. He wanted to observe every architectural detail and every student interaction, driven by a deep-seated curiosity to see the stark differences between this academy and the one from his original world.
As the hours ticked by, Hoshino found herself inadvertently learning the intricacies of Yumi's personality. She began to realize that while he could be incredibly annoying and a handful to manage, there was a profound complexity beneath his surface.
She discovered his ability to mask his true intentions, to act with such seamless composure that his lies became indistinguishable from the truth. She watched his expression remain perfectly neutral even as he spun a convincing deception, a talent that was, in a way, profoundly terrifying.
Hoshino realized Yumi could play the fool, crafting a persona to trick those around him, only to shift his entire demeanor into something entirely different the moment it served its purpose.
"Eat up. No arguments," Hoshino commanded, her voice firm, after dragging a reluctant Yumi back to the cafeteria and insisting they sit down for a substantial meal.
She had been watching him closely all day. And she had noticed the subtle signs, the way he seemed to drift through the halls without any appetite, skipping every mealtime without a second thought.
After a quick, discreet medical checkup, the results had come back, and they were alarming. Yumi's levels were depleted across the board; she was lacking iron, iodine, calcium, potassium, selenium, zinc, folic acid, omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin D, B12, and Vitamin A.
To simply say he was malnourished would be a massive understatement.
As the medical results sat on the table, both Hoshino and the school nurse stared at the data, sharing a silent, bewildered look. They wondered, quite literally, how the hell he was still upright.
While his nutrient levels hadn't plummeted to a life-threatening extreme, they were all hovering dangerously near the bottom of the acceptable range. For someone to be lacking such a vast spectrum of essential nutrients yet still be walking around, talking, and acting perfectly normal was nothing short of an anomaly.
Driven by a sudden, protective instinct, Hoshino shifted into the role of a strict mother, hovering over her troublesome ward and demanding he finish every bite of the nutritious meal.
As she fussed over him, providing a level of focused, unwavering care he hadn't experienced in a long time, Yumi felt a strange, indescribable sensation blooming in his chest.
It was the warmth of being cared for, a feeling so foreign that he found himself subconsciously complying with her orders, picking up his spoon and eating just because she told him to.
In this world, he had never known the comfort of a mother's touch. He had never felt the bond of a mother's love; Momoyo was her sister, and while they shared history, she had never been able to provide the specific, nurturing warmth that a mother is supposed to offer. Even Midori-sensei, for all her guidance, had never sparked this specific sensation of being nurtured. Now, through Hoshino's stubborn, demanding kindness, Yumi was finally discovering what it felt like.
...
Night fell over Duel Academy, and the last of the daylight bled out behind the trees. Yumi stood alone on the school rooftop, his hands in his pockets, his gaze fixed on the black sky above him. The air had gone still and heavy, the kind of stillness that came right before a storm.
With Chaos and BLS giving him a heads-up, he recognized the location and disturbance in space-time.
He called Hoshino and told her to take everyone down to the school bunker and leave this to him. Then he gave her his usual line, that it's okay and he is the strongest, the one he always used when he wanted people to stop worrying.
For a moment, she looked like she wanted to refuse. She didn't want to leave him up there alone against an enemy none of them understood, and it showed plainly on her face. But his voice had gone quieter and more serious than usual, and that was what finally convinced her. She nodded, gathered everyone, and led them down into the secret bunker hidden beneath Duel Academy.
Yumi just watched the sky and let the wind pick up around him. Then the clouds split open, and a rift tore across the horizon, circling all of Duel Academy in one slow, impossible arc. The wind tore at his red jacket, whipping it out behind him, and he locked his eyes on the three figures stepping out of the rift.
The first one was enormous, a humanoid cyborg nearly twice a man's height. His face was sharp and angular, framed by spiky silver-white hair shot through with deep red. A large green orb sat in the center of his forehead, and above his red eyes curved a set of layered blue eyebrows. He wore a white bodysuit patterned with black stripes along the arms, a gold ring large as a shield mounted on his back, and red gems embedded in the back of each oversized shoulder. A metal belt circled his waist, a green gem set into its buckle, and his chest carried a red and blue pattern trimmed in gold. From the waist down was a massive white and gray D-Wheel, sleek and futuristic, built to look like Cerberus, the three-headed hound that guarded the gates of the underworld. Yumi knew him. This was Aporia, one of the mini-bosses of Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's.
The second one was someone Yumi knew far too well, because he had robbed him from another dimension himself. The Bravest BOSS in Yu-Gi-Oh! history, Paradox.
The last of them was their leader. His body was nothing but machine, a round, pot-like vessel that floated freely in the air, with only his head emerging from the top. Even that was kept hidden behind a mask, and floating at either side of the machine hung two gigantic mechanical arms, each one big enough to crush a car. This was Z-one, the final BOSS of Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's.
"A single Outsider was what caused the shift in space and time?" Paradox murmured, his brow furrowing as he looked down at the lone figure standing on top of Duel Academy.
"According to history, that person never existed," Aporia added, his gaze fixed on Yumi from below.
"It doesn't matter who he is," Z-one said, his voice cold and mechanical. "He doesn't belong here. He needs to be eliminated."
Yumi looked up at the three of them, the three greatest BOSSes 5D's had to offer, and he couldn't help but smile. He raised his arm, and his Duel Disk unfolded with a sharp click, plates sliding open and locking into place.
"Listen up, Yusei Fudo Fan Club!" he called out, and every one of them turned to stare. "Your idol hasn't even been born yet. Come back in a couple of decades. We don't have a man in magenta here for you to point at and blame everything on."
He let the words hang in the night air for a beat, then spread his arms wide, bold and open, and gave them a smug smirk.
"If you want to get rid of me, you can try. All three of you have been surrounded by me!"
The three beings from the future reacted at once. Paradox and Aporia activated their Duel Disks. Beside Z-one, a gigantic futuristic deck holder rose into the air, and he reached out with his massive mechanical hands to draw five giant cards.
Yumi drew his five cards, his red jacket still billowing in the wind behind him.
"DUEL!"
[Yumi, LP 4000]
[Aporia, LP 4000]
[Paradox, LP 4000]
[Z-one, LP 4000]