Chaldea—
Nobunaga, intently focused on the duel unfolding before her, analyzed the situation with the insight of a top-32 duelist from Chaldea.
"It looks like the Master I'm more familiar with is going to win. Tsk, they're just slightly better than me at dueling!"
Out of nowhere, Okita appeared and mercilessly retorted, "Nobu, comparing your disgraceful dueling skills to Master's is practically an insult to them! At best, you're nothing more than cannon fodder~"
"Hahaha! You're back, Okita!"
Nobunaga let out a hearty laugh, though her eyes hinted at something deeper.
"You sure played an active role this time too! In terms of sending yourself to the Graveyard and being good tribute material, that is. Heh~"
"Damn it! How dare you mock me?!"
Okita furiously grabbed Nobunaga's soft cheeks, refusing to back down.
"At least I had a proper appearance this time! (Even if it was just as a tribute for summoning Musashi!) Unlike someone who hasn't had a proper showing in so long that Master's probably forgotten they even own that card!"
Nobunaga retaliated by pinching Okita's cheeks. Like bickering children, they squished each other's faces into comical expressions.
"I've recently gained new power and evolved into my Demon King form! Demon King Nobunaga will definitely become Master's ace card!"
"Well, I've also got a swimsuit form! Just you wait, Nobu!"
Watching the two idiots go at it, Emiya sighed in exasperation and stepped in. "Now's not the time for you two to argue. What happens next is the real issue. Besides, no matter what form you two take, neither of you is as strong as my Phantasm Form. Heh~"
"'The real issue'?" Okita and Nobunaga asked in unison, letting go of each other's faces.
"Yes. Once the duel ends, the soul of the losing side will disappear. But seriously—this is just a duel… does it really have such an absolute binding force?"
Moriarty, stroking his mustache, smiled and explained, "Of course. It may sound strange to you, but that's merely a difference in how this world perceives and establishes its rules. To put it simply—no one questions the statement 'if a person is killed, they die,' because it is an accepted truth of reality."
Okita's face fell. "So… that other Master will really disappear? She felt kinda villainous at first, but under these circumstances, I'm starting to feel a bit reluctant about it…"
"I have a question too!" Nobunaga raised her hand haughtily. "If they're both Masters, why did they have to wreck Chaldea so badly?!"
"Because Miss Hoshino is quite clever… especially the white one."
For once, Holmes praised someone else's intelligence. Through the information exchanged between the two Hoshinos during their duel, he had finally pieced together what had previously eluded him.
"The one who actively separated her soul knows more than the one who was passively split. Using this informational gap, Miss Hoshino sought to ensure her continued existence in this world. She not only harnessed the power of Anubis and the Pyramid of Light, but also awakened the darkness within herself—proof of her Atlantean heritage—to create a complete Alter deck."
Okita gasped. "So all that black, Holy Grail-like mud—the Evil of This World—was entirely Master's own power? That's ridiculously strong…"
"As I mentioned before, Miss Hoshino, having achieved numerous great feats, has in some ways already surpassed the limits of a Heroic Spirit. She possesses the qualifications to lead Heroic Spirits through hardship and toward hope, but at the same time, she bears the potential to drag them into darkness and unleash calamity. She simply hadn't realized it until now."
Nobunaga had a sudden realization. "So Master didn't come to Chaldea to cause trouble—she came to show off her power, didn't she?"
Holmes shook his head. "No, and that's exactly why she's so clever. Most people struggle to understand themselves, but she's different. Miss Hoshino knew that even with a complete Alter deck, she couldn't guarantee a victory against herself. So she took a different approach—she came to Chaldea to interfere with and seal the Heroic Spirit deck, enabling Anubis to defeat her other self, who could no longer summon Heroic Spirits."
Emiya added, "But what the white Master didn't account for was Da Vinci secretly hiding the power of Phantasm Summoning—and Illya."
Even though Holmes had unraveled much of the plan, he still frowned.
"There was one thing I didn't expect—the intervention of that person, which tipped the balance of this duel."
The 'person' Holmes referred to was none other than the one currently standing on Hoshino's field—King Hassan.
As a Heroic Spirit, even if White Hoshino was using Alter's dark power, fairness dictated he should remain neutral in the duel. Yet King Hassan's presence had clearly tilted the outcome.
(***)
"My contractor, victory doth nigh approach! Deliver now the ultimate decree."
King Hassan gazed at the exhausted White Hoshino, awaiting Hoshino's final attack declaration.
"Gramps… If I win this duel, will the other me really disappear?"
"It is an unavoidable truth."
"Is there… no other way?" Just one step away from victory, Hoshino hesitated—whether it was the thought of erasing herself or sympathy for White Hoshino, even she wasn't sure.
Still seated on the floor, White Hoshino sighed in frustration. "There's no other way! Can't you just get it over with? If there were another option, do you think I'd be here dueling you in the first place?"
Unlike the naive Hoshino, White Hoshino was keenly aware of the precarious situation surrounding the existence known as Hoshino Chiyuki.
Seeing her counterpart waver, White Hoshino decided to lay everything bare.
As Holmes had deduced, if a bottle of water isn't emptied halfway, the worst outcome isn't just spilling—it's shattering.
Having explained everything, White Hoshino let out a somewhat relieved laugh.
"To be cast aside by the world because I saved it… Haha, what could be more ironic? No wonder villains like Anubis want to overthrow it. I think I'm starting to understand."
"Woof!" Anubis whimpered, biting onto White Hoshino's sleeve, unwilling to let go.
"…." After hearing White Hoshino's explanation, Hoshino didn't say much. She simply drew a card from her deck with a serious expression.
"My turn. Draw!"
Seeing Hoshino draw, White Hoshino gulped, even though she was mentally prepared.
"So, you've made your decision, huh? Gramps, you get it too, right? If neither of us disappears, we'll both be erased. So when you make your move, please… don't make it too painful."
"…This isn't right." But instead of declaring an attack as White Hoshino expected, Hoshino shook her head.
"It's not us who are wrong—it's this messed-up world! If that's the case, then I activate my Spell Card—[The time of farewell has come, for they are the ones who let go of the world.]!"
This card, left by Ryuichi for Hoshino at the last moment before his departure, was not shaped by Ryuichi himself.
Instead, after receiving this power, Hoshino connected Ryuichi's final act—freeing himself and perishing alongside Dartz—with the sacrifice of her father. She then defined the power capable of creating miracles in the form of: "The time of farewell has come, for they are the ones who let go of the world."
The card bore only a brief description:
"—[This card can open the gate to another world or create a miracle... But remember, no matter what, you only have one chance.]"
Hoshino's unexpected move left White Hoshino completely stunned.
"Huh? Why that card? How did you even draw it…?"
She could accept that Hoshino had somehow managed to "print" a powerful card like King Hassan on the spot, but this card—one without even a defined effect—actually appearing in a duel defied all logic.
"I just drew it like this~" Hoshino responded casually, and she wasn't lying.
"This is my answer. Since I was able to draw this card, it proves my guess was right! After all, a bond with your deck will always respond to a duelist's expectations!"
Slamming the card onto her Duel Disk, Hoshino's wish was answered. A storm-like surge of energy gathered at the center of the field, breaking through the constraints of the world.
King Hassan's deep voice rang out, warning her:
"Contractor. Tread carefully. This singular stride... it offers no turning back. Mark well thy resolve."
"It's fine! If I have to choose between opening the door to another world or creating a miracle, then I choose to create a miracle—to break the abnormalities of this world!"
"Why? If you do this, you won't be able to go back." White Hoshino was utterly confused by the sudden turn of events. There was no reason for Hoshino to take such a costly gamble on an uncertain miracle.
"I don't know why either… But the one thing I do know is that if I don't do this now, I'll regret it."
No one knew what form this "miracle" would take. But if, in the next second, the Holy Grail appeared before her, Hoshino would undoubtedly wish for White Star to not disappear.
"—My contractor!"
Suddenly pulling his great sword from the ground, King Hassan's voice carried an unfamiliar intensity.
"What is it, Gramps?"
"Verily, mine contractor! The knell of decree hath been sounded, and thy choice hath in sooth shattered the foreordained doom of this fray!"
His voice wasn't just intense—it was excited. This was the true reason for his manifestation. Both Hoshinos were his granddaughters, and he didn't want to see either of them vanish.
But he had chosen to help Hoshino win not because he had abandoned White Hoshino, but because he believed that, at the final moment, Hoshino would make a choice that transcended this twisted fate.
"Let my blade and I lend thee succor in this undertaking!"
The white, storm-like energy was drawn toward King Hassan's massive blade. Borrowing the power of the miracle, he condensed a sword that embodied his lifelong faith in death—only this time, reversed, becoming a blade of hope.
"Fate's threads are rent asunder! The sundered weal now lies within thy grasp—contractor, have faith in thine unyielding resolve!"
The massive blade, cloaked in pure white energy, swung down. A blinding light erupted from the center of the field, engulfing both Hoshinos completely.
.
...
.....
"???"
Standing blankly on the now-empty Duel Arena, Hoshino was completely dumbfounded.
After being swallowed by the light, only a few seconds had passed before her vision returned. The entire interior of Kaiba Land had returned to normal, as if nothing had ever happened.
If anything had changed, it was that her arm had returned to its original fair complexion.
"Gramps… what happened?"
She asked hesitantly, but no answer came. The arena was empty. There was no King Hassan, no Anubis, and no White Hoshino.
"This isn't a dream, right?" She turned to Yugi for confirmation, beginning to wonder if everything that had just happened had been an illusion.
Without speaking, Yugi simply gave her a meaningful smile and lightly tapped the spot on his chest where the Millennium Puzzle rested.
"Hm?" Not understanding his gesture, Hoshino tilted her head—then instinctively looked down at her own chest.
"—The Pyramid of Light!!! How?!"
She was utterly stunned. Yugi had pointed to his Millennium Puzzle because something identical—yet entirely different—now rested on her chest: a crystal-like Pyramid of Light that shone with a translucent brilliance.
And this Pyramid had previously been hanging on White Hoshino's chest.
[I really didn't expect it to end like this… I'm honestly impressed… No, I should say, I'm impressed with myself~]
A voice suddenly echoed in her mind, leaving Hoshino with an incredibly strange feeling.
For some reason, without needing any explanation, she knew exactly where the voice was coming from—her other self, now residing within the Pyramid of Light.
"Talking to another version of myself… is such a strange experience. This feels… weird."
[You'll get used to it. Look at Yugi—he managed just fine. Since you made this choice, I won't allow you to regret it!]
Hoshino could've never imagined that one day, she would end up in a situation like Yugi's. Did this mean she could now blatantly tag in her alter ego for duels?
[…Are you sure you won't regret this?]
Unlike before, White Hoshino's voice now carried a note of hesitation.
[After all, by using the miracle card Dad left us, we've lost our chance to return to our world.]
"Of course I won't regret it. Honestly, I was more stressed because Dad suddenly dropped such a huge decision on me."
Hoshino chuckled and shrugged.
"With how bad I am at making decisions, no matter which world I picked, I'd always end up wondering about the other. So rather than spend my life agonizing over whether I made the right choice, this is way better!"
[You've got a point! Well then, from now on, let's work together, partner~]
"Please don't copy Yugi. We're literally the same person…"
(*****)
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