Chapter 188 - 188

"How dare you lend this king's treasure to someone else! Such arrogance—are you not afraid of death, you mongrel?!" "Hehe, it won't happen again, my king~" Perhaps because the evil god was completely vanquished, Hoshino felt the weight of her soul gradually returning to her body. Searᴄh the NôᴠelFirё.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "Hmph, since you didn't use the wrong title this time, I'll be merciful and forgive you for using the treasure without permission," Gilgamesh huffed. "Thanks, Gil!" "You mongrel!" Akasha, sitting on Hoshino's lap with a sweet smile, watched the two banter with great interest. "Hoshino-nee sure gets along well with her Duel Monsters." Finally regaining her energy, Hoshino waved her hand dismissively, "What makes you think we get along? I can't deal with this moody king who's only reliable in critical moments—he's the oldest tsundere in human history!" Not one to be outdone, Gilgamesh turned his head away, "A woman who's only slightly cute and good at using her brain but has no other redeeming qualities has no right to banter with this king." "You two... can't you be a bit more honest?" Da Vinci, trying to mediate, realized the two were just complimenting each other and she had no room to speak. Kaiba, who had walked over, set his gaze on Hoshino, who had regained her ability to move. "Looks like it's all been resolved." Judging by the satisfaction on his face, it was clear Kaiba was proud of his final strike. "Yeah, though it's been a disaster for KaibaCorp." Hoshino glanced around. The once flat rooftop that could serve as a helipad was now full of craters from the intense battle. The most severe damage was the massive hole left by the Ig-Alima and Sul-sagana after they pierced the ground. Judging by the extent of the destruction, the control room below had probably suffered as well. "As long as you're unharmed..." Kaiba started but quickly corrected himself, "As long as there are no casualties, the damage is only a financial loss, which isn't a big deal." "You're as rich as ever, Mr. CEO! Remember to cover my medical bills when we get back~" Hoshino joked. Although she mentioned medical bills, aside from a few scrapes from forcing herself to get up, she wasn't seriously injured. "Hoshino, you saved me again this time..." Mokuba, who had come over with Kaiba, looked slightly embarrassed. Just as the evil god was about to strike, Hoshino successfully summoned Gilgamesh to stop it, allowing Mokuba to escape the god's clutches. Ruffling Mokuba's messy hair, Hoshino smiled, "You don't need to thank me, Mokuba. The one you should thank..." Gilgamesh, arms crossed, nodded in satisfaction. "Hmph, though this king doesn't need your gratitude, out of reverence for the king, you should at least be grateful." "The one you should thank is Akasha! She's the one who drew the card!" "You mongrel!" Akasha proudly puffed out her chest, "Hehe, I told you I'm the Hero of justice!"ヾ(≧▽≦*)o "By the way, aren't we forgetting something?" Although the atmosphere was lighthearted after the battle, Hoshino felt like she was overlooking something important. "Mongrel, are you talking about that?" Gilgamesh, still with his arms crossed, pointed behind him... He pointed at the peacefully unconscious Yako lying on the ground. "Oh no, we forgot about him!" Hoshino rushed over in a panic, quickly checking on him. "Kaiba, you said there were no casualties, but wouldn't it be a bit hard to explain if the current CEO of Industrial Illusions died here?" Though the evil god had claimed it would use Yako's life to replace its incomplete soul with the god's defeat, it was uncertain whether his life had returned. Kaiba knelt down and professionally checked Yako's pulse. "He's alive—barely." Hoshino sighed in relief. "Hopefully, he learns his lesson after this. Selling your soul to an evil god... anyone with half a brain would know that's a bad idea." "Speaking of the evil god..." Kaiba remained crouched, pulling the deck from Yako's duel disk. "The evil god's card—this must be it." He drew a card depicting a black sphere, and his expression grew serious. "This is the [The Wicked Avatar], the one at the pinnacle of the gods..." Not sensing the ominous aura from the card as she did during the duel, Hoshino speculated, "The evil god's soul that was attached to the card must've been erased. Now it's just a powerful monster." "A soul attached to a card? That's impossible!" Kaiba sharply denied it. Hey, Mr. Kaiba, did you just forget everything that happened? Even if you have, can't you at least look around at the surroundings? Your belief in science has gone way too far at this point. Though Hoshino had a million things she wanted to say, she held back since she still owed him a door. "That being said, the evil god's card is indeed troublesome." Gripping the card tightly, Kaiba seemed to be struggling with some internal conflict. "However, by the rules of Battle City, this evil god's card belongs to you now, Hoshino." After deliberating, Kaiba reluctantly handed the card to her. His right hand, which was gripping the card tightly, trembled slightly as he passed it over. "He wants this card! Kaiba seriously wants this evil god's card!" Hoshino's inner thoughts were in turmoil. "Should I take this card? If I give Kaiba a favor now, will my future be smooth sailing?" After weighing the pros and cons, Hoshino finally chose to accept the card. The terror of the evil god's card lay not just in the malevolent soul once attached to it. Even without the soul, the card's overwhelming power can still corrupt its wielder. Hoshino herself had used two evil god cards, and it was only thanks to the power of the Millennium bracelet that she had managed to suppress her inner desire for more power. However, a card could corrupt its owner—if Kaiba were to get his hands on it, the effects would be exponentially worse. "I guess there's no choice! For the sake of world peace, I'll take this evil god card!" (***) At Kame Toy Shop— Yugi pointed in surprise toward KaibaCorp: "Jonouchi, look! Look at the rooftop of KaibaCorp. It seems like the battle hasn't stopped yet!" Jonouchi exclaimed, "Not only hasn't it stopped, but it looks like the fight's gotten even more intense! Who the heck would duel in a place like that?" Anzu, with suspicion, asked, "Could it be... Hoshino?" Whenever an unnaturally intense, non-scientific duel effect occurred, Hoshino was the first person to come to mind. Yugi, finding it hard to believe, said, "Even if it's Hoshino, I don't think she'd go out of her way to duel in a place like that. Don't be fooled by how it seems like she jokes around with Kaiba; in reality, she's quite reluctant to go to KaibaCorp, saying she has some kind of 'work environment' phobia." Since the entire Duel Disk system power in Domino City had been concentrated on the duel at KaibaCorp, the Battle City tournament had to come to a temporary halt. With no other choice, the trio returned to the toy shop to regroup. "You're talking like you're so close! Yugi, you cheater! You're cheating on me!" However, something unexpected happened when the three returned to the toy shop. "Hey, Yugi, who is this kid?" Jonouchi asked, face twitching as he pointed at a girl who suddenly jumped in and started hitting Yugi. The girl looked at Jonouchi with disdain and said in an annoyed tone, "Who are you calling a kid? How rude! And you're supposed to be Yugi's friend?" Yugi, with an awkward smile, introduced her to his friends: "This is Rebecca Hawkins from America. Her grandfather is an old friend of my grandpa's from his archaeology days. It was from Rebecca's grandfather that Grandpa received his Blue-Eyes White Dragon." "Yugi, you're leaving out an important detail!" Rebecca said, clutching Yugi's arm. "I'm also... Yugi Muto's fiancée!" "Fi-fiancée?!" Jonouchi and Anzu both exclaimed in shock. After the initial shock, Anzu's expression turned displeased as she put her hands on her hips and demanded, "Yugi, how come we've never heard about this before? Why have you been hiding the fact that you have a fiancée?" Yugi frantically waved his hands, trying to clear up the misunderstanding: "No, no, Anzu! It's not like that at all! Rebecca decided that on her own!" Rebecca, puffing her cheeks, disagreed: "It's not on my own at all!" Clutching Yugi's arm even tighter, she continued, recalling fond memories: "Yugi is kind, and his dueling skills are amazing. Back then, he easily defeated me, the American champion! A man like that is a once-in-a-lifetime find~" "Wait, you're the American champion? No way!" Jonouchi, mouth wide open, pointed at the girl who looked to be only about ten years old, completely in disbelief. Keith had left such a deep impression on Jonouchi that in his mind, the American champion would always be someone like Keith—an older guy with sunglasses and a bandana. "Puh! You ignorant commoner!" Rebecca stuck her tongue out at Jonouchi, hitting him right where it hurt by calling him a "commoner." Yugi explained further: "Rebecca did indeed become the American Duel Monsters Champion at the age of twelve. As the youngest champion, she was quite a celebrity back then." Anzu, still impatient, pressed on: "So what's the story with this fiancée business?" Rebecca, with a blissful look on her face, explained: "Because Yugi beat me, I went to our grandfathers and asked them to make me Yugi's fiancée!" "Grandpa!" Anzu shouted, narrowing her eyes and angry. "Is this true?!" Grandpa Sugoroku, who had been hiding behind the register since the conversation started, finally scratched his head and sheepishly stepped out from behind the counter. "At the time, we just thought it was a child's joke, so Rebecca's grandfather and I didn't take it seriously. We just casually agreed." "Old man, sometimes you're irresponsible, you know that?" Jonouchi commented with a sigh. "But Rebecca never imagined something like that would happen!" Rebecca's blissful expression darkened as she suddenly became upset. "Even though you already have a fiancée like me, Yugi, you still cheated on me! You cheater!" Letting go of Yugi's arm, she began pounding on him again. "Yugi!" Anzu shouted angrily. "What's this about cheating? I thought you were this shy, innocent guy, but now it turns out you have such a complicated love life!" "It's about cohabitation! Yugi's been living with another girl!" Rebecca pointed at Yugi as if she were telling on him. "It's with a girl Hoshino Chiyuki! I already know everything about it!" (***) At KaibaCorp— "You're heading back, Hoshino?" Mokuba asked. Hoshino sighed deeply: "After all these consecutive intense duels, I'm almost completely drained. I don't want to duel again for the rest of the day." Starting with Yuta, then Keith, Akasha, then Tenma Gekko, followed by the Labyrinth Brothers (?), and finally Tenma Yako—none of those duels could be considered easy. "Anyway, the time limit for the Battle City is 48 hours, right? I've already collected four puzzle cards. The remaining two should be a breeze!" Hoshino raised her Duel Disk with a confident smile. The great thing about Battle City, unlike the Duelist Kingdom, was that the tournament didn't take place on some deserted island. If Hoshino wanted to rest, she could just go home and lock her door—nobody would be able to find her. Thinking about it made her start to miss her simple little room. "It's just a shame I didn't get any puzzle cards during the duels at KaibaCorp. Otherwise, I'd already have enough to qualify for the finals." It was obvious that the people targeting KaibaCorp, like Tenma Yako, weren't there for the Battle City tournament and didn't have any puzzle cards to wager. "It's only two puzzle cards. They won't be hard for you to get." Kaiba coldly chimed in. "If you rest too much and don't show up at the finals, you'll regret it!" His tone was slightly threatening, and the look in his eyes held strong desire as he stared at Hoshino. "The God Card in your possession—I'll take it by force!" "Well, good luck with that, Kaiba" Hoshino patted Kaiba on the shoulder and stepped into the elevator without looking back. In the past, she would have been annoyed by Kaiba's attitude, but surprisingly, she'd gotten used to it by now. "Come on, Akasha, let's head to the toy shop and build you a deck. I'm not exaggerating—my luck with booster packs is amazing. It won't take more than a few packs for me to help you build a strong deck." Akasha excitedly followed Hoshino: "Yay! Deck building time!" However, Hoshino had no idea that what awaited her at the toy shop was another kind of hell altogether. (*****) If you'd like to read 25 chapters ahead, please consider joining my Patreon: patreon.com/ANeet. Your support means a lot. Thank you!