"Crap, my wallet's empty! (ﾟДﾟ)ﾉ"
The poor wallet, limp and lifeless, surrendered only two coins when turned upside down. That was when Hoshino Alter finally realized how bad things had gotten.
Using graduation as an excuse, she had spent the entire day hanging out with the others. Now, sipping a can of cola while watching the sunset, Hoshino Alter slid her last two coins into the vending machine—and ended up completely penniless.
"Ah, I accidentally spent aibo's entire monthly allowance... I kinda feel bad for her..."
—In short, the culprit herself was full of regret.
Entering a "sage mode" of guilt, Hoshino Alter nervously tapped her chest where the Pyramid of Light rested and carefully asked:
"Aibo, I've got some good news and some bad news. Which one do you want to hear first?"
"Hm? What good news and bad news?" Hoshino, fully focused on fine-tuning her deck inside the Pyramid of Light for tomorrow's duel with Kaiba, hadn't noticed the dire situation unfolding outside.
"Then I'll start with the good news."
"Aibo, why aren't you following the usual routine? Doesn't everyone normally want to hear the bad news first?"
"No, I want the good news first!"
Shaking the can in her hand, Hoshino Alter grinned.
"The good news is, I saved half a can of cola for you. When we switch back later, you can take your time and enjoy it~"
"=_= That's your good news? Just half a can of gamer fuel? And I have to savor it slowly? You're exaggerating... Fine, what's the bad news then?"
"The bad news is... aside from that half-can of gamer fuel, there's literally nothing left."
"You reckless spender! Give me back my body right now!"
"Ah, she's mad after all... But come on, the money was spent on us—it doesn't really matter who used it, right?"
"Of course it matters! That yakiniku was expensive, and I didn't get a single bite! Plus, if all the allowance is gone, what am I supposed to do for lunch the next few days at school? I don't want to keep shrinking in height!"
Hoshino pressed her forehead, gathered the cards she had just finished arranging on the desk, and urged:
"Enough talk. If we don't swap back soon, even that half-can of cola won't be cold anymore."
"..."
"What's wrong? Why aren't you switching back?"
Hoshino Alter's expression turned troubled.
"N-no, aibo, it's not that I won't switch... it's that I can't."
She had been trying to perform the soul swap as usual, but the Pyramid of Light wasn't responding at all. Normally, a flash of light was enough, and in the blink of an eye she'd be back in the familiar warmth of her three-room apartment.
"This is bad... This has never happened before. What do we do?"
"What's wrong, Hoshino? Did something happen?" Yugi, walking home with her after saying goodbye to the others, noticed Hoshino Alter muttering in a panic and asked with concern.
"Yugi, let me ask you... when you and Atem switch bodies, is there some kind of secret technique you use?"
"Secret technique?" Yugi tilted his head at the strange question.
"I never really thought about it. Usually, it's just the other me who takes the initiative at moments. Why are you asking all of a sudden?"
"Because after swapping this morning, aibo and I suddenly can't switch back! This has never happened before!"
"That's the first time I've ever heard of that happening," Yugi admitted, surprised. "So you can't switch with your other self? That's never been an issue for me and my other self."
Desperate, Hoshino Alter begged:
"Yugi, please, can you call Atem out? Maybe he knows a trick that can help me switch back!"
"The other me, huh? Alright, I'll try." Yugi nodded seriously, placed a hand on the Millennium Puzzle, and closed his eyes to commune with the Pharaoh.
Meanwhile, Hoshino tried to reason it out:
"Could it be because of the Dimensional Cube Aimagi used today? When you dragged my consciousness back into the Pyramid of Light, maybe it left behind some aftereffect."
"You mean, like the hazard of failing to ascend into a higher dimension—like Sera, who got trapped in the dimensional space?"
It wasn't impossible to suspect that. But after the duel with Diva, Hoshino Alter had still been able to switch back just fine—or at least, she had been sure of that at the time.
Which meant, if something really had gone wrong, it must have happened after that point...
"This is bad, Hoshino." Yugi's voice came, grave. "The other me just said he can't perform the switch either. It's as if something is sealing it shut."
Hoshino: "Even Atem's affected? Then when did it start?"
For both of them to experience it at once, it was definitely no coincidence. Something extraordinary and beyond reason must have occurred without Hoshino realizing.
Hoshino Alter shivered. Though it was March, the cool evening suddenly pierced her to the bone. She rubbed her arms instinctively, and even her chilled "gamer fuel" didn't taste so good anymore.
"I don't know if it's just in my head, but... I feel like there's a cold gaze staring right at us..."
"Go home first," Hoshino urged. "I'll contact Da Vinci later and see if she can figure out why we can't switch bodies."
"Yeah... it's getting late anyway." Hoshino Alter nodded and exchanged a glance with Yugi, deciding not to linger.
On the streets, the lamps flickered on one by one as night fell. Cars filled the roads during rush hour, horns blaring. Normally irritating, the noise strangely gave Hoshino Alter a sense of safety against the unknown fear gnawing inside her.
"Wait, aibo, I just realized something very important!"
As they walked, Hoshino Alter suddenly grasped the real trouble that body-swapping failure might bring.
"If we still can't switch back tomorrow... does that mean I'll have to duel Kaiba?! I can proudly say—I'm not even remotely prepared!"
This duel, which would decide the direction of their future, was suddenly thrown into chaos. Just this morning, she had been relaxed, thumping her chest and promising to handle the background music and cheer from the sidelines. But after a whole day of fun, she now faced the awkward reality of having to step into the duel herself.
Hoshino had already considered the same thing.
"In the worst-case scenario, yeah—you'd be the one dueling. And for the sake of our future, where I can slack off freely, you absolutely cannot lose!"
"Ughhh, the pressure's too much... my stomach hurts..." Hoshino Alter groaned, clutching the belly still full from the deluxe yakiniku meal earlier.
"Can't we just ask Kaiba to postpone the duel? It's only a verbal agreement between you two. Aside from Yugi and the others, no one else knows the date."
Hoshino: "That... might actually be a workable option, if Kaiba agrees."
"Hoshino, the traffic up ahead looks really bad—did some kind of accident happen?" Yugi, noticing the disturbance, pointed forward.
"At this hour, a traffic accident would be a huge hassle..." Following Yugi's finger, Hoshino's eyes landed on the cause of the gridlock at the intersection ahead.
But what she saw shocked her even more—there hadn't been any collision at all. Angry drivers slammed their steering wheels, horns blaring in waves of protest and confusion.
—At the intersection, every single traffic light was stuck on red. An impossible situation under normal circumstances, and one that completely locked down the road.
And standing right in the dead center of the intersection, as if nothing was unusual, was none other than Seto Kaiba—wearing the latest Duel Disk.
"Kaiba?" Yugi exclaimed in shock.
Hoshino Alter gave him a dumbfounded look: "Kaiba, what the hell are you doing? Did you seriously rig all the traffic lights just so you could stand in the middle of the road and show off?"
Kaiba smirked. "Hmph, Hoshino, Yugi—you finally made it! What you're about to witness is an epoch-making creation, one that transcends the limits of this world and connects the true wills of duelists!"
Raising his arm, Kaiba revealed the newest Duel Disk. The AR device over his left eye flared with energy, radiating far more power than the day before.
And then, his image was projected across countless skyscrapers nearby—using the massive buildings themselves as screens. His proud figure lit up the entire city of Domino, impossible to ignore.
"—Ladies and gentlemen! What you see before you is KaibaCorp's latest development—an invention that will change the era, change humanity itself! The newest Duel Disk!!"
Hoshino Alter buried her face in her palm, too embarrassed to keep watching. "Kaiba, you've finally lost it, haven't you? Claiming a Duel Disk can change the era and humanity? Even if you want to sell it, you don't need such a chūnibyō sales pitch..."
Ignoring her entirely, Kaiba only grinned wider, his voice booming even louder.
"If you doubt me, then see it for yourselves... Open your eyes wide, and behold power worthy of being called a miracle!"
At his roar, the night sky suddenly ignited blood-red, as if consumed by raging flames.
Then came the searing heat from above, so real it forced every citizen to look up. Without warning, a colossal meteor blazed through the atmosphere, scorching hot, before crashing down. The moment it struck, an indescribable shockwave and inferno swallowed the entire city of Domino.
Buildings collapsed. The sky burned. The earth shattered. It was as if the apocalypse itself had arrived. For a few seconds, every single citizen of Domino City personally experienced the end of the world—and death.
"T-this... this can't be... it's a hologram?"
Standing in the sea of fire, Hoshino's mind refused to accept that everything—sight, sensation, even the heat—was an illusion.
Kaiba's voice thundered over the inferno: "Hoshino! This is the Duel Disk of a new era! Not just holographic projection for your eyes to see—but a system that directly connects to your consciousness, generating the most real illusions through the linked minds of duelists!"
"Directly connecting consciousness through the Duel Disk... Kaiba, what insane thing have you created?!"
For the first time, Hoshino Alter truly understood the saying "genius and madman are separated by a thin line." By forcing every mind in Domino to witness the burning apocalypse, Kaiba exuded a danger unlike anything she'd ever felt.
"Human consciousness is nothing but a prisoner of the body. With this Duel Disk, humanity will finally be free of its shackles! From this day forward, duels will evolve into battles of connected wills! I name it—Duel Links!!"
Hoshino frowned. "Why does that line sound so familiar...?"
"It's Aimagi, aibo! Kaiba just said the exact same thing as him... What the hell is going on?!"
The power of the "Cubic"—a soul freed from the body will ascend the chosen to another dimension...
"Listen well, citizens of Domino—and duelists across the world!"
As Kaiba powered down the Duel Disk, the burning world vanished instantly. "Tonight was only the beginning—a preview. Tomorrow night, KaibaCorp will host a major press conference, and unveil the first ever duel with this epoch-making Duel Disk. I will personally face the Duel King!"
"Crap, too late!"
Hoshino Alter, stunned into silence by Kaiba's outrageous display, had originally planned to ask him to postpone their duel. But with Kaiba's public announcement, that chance was gone for good.
"That bastard Kaiba is unbelievable!" Hoshino cursed.
"Exactly, aibo! He deliberately chose to duel at the one time we can't switch bodies. It's a conspiracy! And that Duel Disk that links consciousness—what is this, Sword Art Online? It's dangerous no matter how you look at it!"
Hoshino growled: "—And to top it off, he's using me again to promote his products! This time, he's paying me endorsement fees!"
"Aibo...? I feel like you're getting mad about the wrong part here..."