Kira: "."
Right, almost forgot again. Fraulein is a vampire and hates the sun.
In the dimension she was in before, it was eternal night, with a blood-red moon hanging in the sky—naturally an excellent habitat for a vampire. But this world has daylight. She hates the sun, so she normally wouldn't come out and wander around.
In fact, vampires in this world aren't as afraid of sunlight as in traditional stories—at least not to the "instant death upon exposure" extent. The blazing sun merely makes them uncomfortable; it won't kill them on contact.
Still, it's better to avoid it when possible.
Kira's thoughts became more active.
His current spirits are helpful, but still quite limited. First, their active time is restricted. Second, since the spirit cards are in his possession, they can't stray too far from him to act independently.
But spirits like the Dark Scorpion Burglars, whose bodies have come into reality, are different. Their activity time is practically unrestricted, and they can go out and carry out missions alone. Such monster spirits can do much more.
"By the way."
Kira remembered something and looked at the group.
"Do you know how to transform?"
"Huh?"
The Burglars stared wide-eyed.
"I mean change into someone else's appearance," Kira said. "Or hypnosis? Mind control?"
Because he remembered that in the last season of the anime, the spirit Honest who entered reality could do it. He transformed into his former master's appearance, mingled among students, and used mental manipulation and hypnotic suggestion to blend in without arousing suspicion.
Only later, when he tried that trick on Jaden, he hit a wall. His usually foolproof move didn't work on maxed-out Jaden.
So Kira figured these might be basic skills among spirits.
However, the few dim-witted Burglars just shook their heads like rattles, indicating they didn't know.
Kira nodded.
Makes sense—if they could transform, those clownish infiltration attempts wouldn't have failed so badly.
"I can."
Fraulein puffed out her small chest a little, somewhat proud.
Kira's eyes lit up. "You can disguise and transform?"
"Mm, not that... But hypnosis and mental influence, that's what our blood clan is good at."
"Oh?"
Kira gave Fraulein another look, apparently reassessing her.
Being looked at like that made Fraulein a bit embarrassed. Her small hands tugged unconsciously at her skirt as she looked down at her toes.
"Not bad, not bad."
Kira thought this trick would indeed be useful and could make many things easier in the future.
Though, as expected, this sort of move probably works best on ordinary people. Those with extraordinary abilities mostly have resistance. Like when Honest tried to use not even strong control, just a minor hypnotic suggestion to nudge identity recognition on Jaden—it not only failed but exposed him.
As he was thinking, he suddenly felt someone tugging at the hem of his clothes from behind.
Kira turned his head to see that Silent had appeared at some point, pouting, a little displeased.
Strangely, she didn't speak, but Kira understood her meaning—
—Hey, I can do that too.
Come to think of it, of course. She's a bona fide mage; she should have the most miscellaneous arcane spells and skills. Things like transformation and disguise, mental influence magic—she should have at least some of that.
Even if she didn't, she could probably learn. He'd seen her hugging books, training hard every day.
It's just that in the spirits' world, she likely has her own life, unlike the Burglars who've come to reality and can act freely here. Her activities in this world are still restricted, making many things less convenient.
That thought crossed Kira's mind, but he still smiled. "True, you're the strongest."
He said that, and Silent let go without speaking, yet it was unclear whether she'd guessed what he was thinking.
Silent glanced at him, said nothing, and retreated into the deck.
But that look made Kira inexplicably feel he'd received a message—
—She's going back today to pack up and set out.
Kira: "."
…
The next morning, Kira took a helicopter off Academy Island. By late morning, the aircraft landed on the KaibaCorp rooftop.
By now, he was as familiar with this building as his own home; he came by every so often. Only lately he'd been busy and hadn't come much.
When he arrived at the office downstairs, Mokuba was in the middle of an animated phone call. Noticing Kira enter, he gestured for him to wait.
"I said, our Blue-Eyes Park has a water park—we don't need any swimming machines."
"Say no more, that's final."
Hanging up, Mokuba turned around.
"Swimming machine?" Kira smiled.
Mokuba shrugged helplessly. "There are always some weirdos with bizarre ideas... anyway, forget it."
He grinned.
"You're quite the celebrity now. Not easy to get a meeting."
"I do have a lot going on lately... I might need your help in a couple of days—some technical support."
"The Shadow Riders thing? I heard."
Mokuba motioned for him to sit.
"A bunch of people coveting the power of the Sacred Beasts? The duelists' world is really something... Back then it was the Egyptian Gods, now it's the Sacred Beasts. Who can resist power that transcends mundane rules?"
That made him think of how his brother Kaiba Seto hosted Battle City to collect the three God Cards.
"But whoever they are, being targeted by Duel King Kira is unfortunate." Mokuba smiled. "Sure. We've been monitoring the Sacred Beasts' sealing array at Duel Academy anyway.
Our tech team will fully support your operation."
"Thanks. So, I assume there's something else you called me here for?"
"Yeah, a little thing—not a big deal.
There's an event. Not directly hosted by us, but the organizer is under the KaibaCorp umbrella."
Mokuba swiped the floating projection on the desk and slid it to Kira.
Kira took it and glanced at the event details on screen.
"A speech at the tournament opening?" he asked.
"Yep." Mokuba smiled. "Having the King of Duels show up will really boost the hype."
"I don't have to duel?"
"No. We can't let just anyone have the right to challenge the King—that'd make it too cheap, wouldn't it?"
Mokuba chuckled.
"Hm, I'm not sure. It's been busy; I'll see if I can make time..."
"The organizer is offering ten million."
"Deal." Kira looked up. "Since it's a subsidiary event, showing up to show support is only proper."
"I knew you'd say that." Mokuba laughed. "I'll give them the answer."
"Alright."
Kira casually scrolled through the event info.
"Hmm, the venue's a bit far from the Academy..."
"Don't worry."
Mokuba smiled.
"I discussed this with my brother. You often have to shuttle between the Academy and HQ, and there are quite a few events we want to invite you to.
So we decided to assign you a private jet. How about it?"
Kira: "???"
You're giving me... what?