"Although the pruning event won't happen immediately, and you may not necessarily have to link it to yourself even hundreds of years into the future, Hoshino-chan… based on my personal wish, I still want to confirm it with you one more time…"
Even though she was only in her chibi, two-heads-tall form, the way Da Vinci sat properly on the bed and fixed her gaze on Hoshino still carried a seriousness completely different from usual.
"No need to ask again, Da Vinci-chan. I already promised that person."
Hoshino reached into the deck case placed by her bedside and drew out the card buried deepest inside, speaking with unwavering resolve.
"I promised the Doctor that no matter how many times I have to start over, I will absolutely create a future for our world. No matter what hardships I face, I will overcome them with cards formed from the countless bonds of the past, present, and future!"
["So cool, Aibo. I'm seriously falling in love with myself all over again."]
Matching Da Vinci's proper seated posture, Hoshino looked her straight in the eye and asked seriously:
"So, Da Vinci-chan, I understand the truth of this world. But after super fusion, if we want to restore things, you said one of the two worlds has to be pruned. What exactly is the method?"
"Eliminate the World Tree," Da Vinci replied. "In this Human History, the World Tree holds a position equivalent to a Fantasy Tree. As long as the Nine World Kings who rule it are all defeated, the world that survives will be ours."
["So we only need to defeat the Kings? Then the original goal and the final goal haven't changed at all. There are only two Kings left now, Aibo!"]
But unlike Hoshino Alter, Hoshino showed no excitement at the prospect of victory. Instead, she murmured in a low voice:
"Rooting out the World Tree… pruning Human History… could this be what they call Ragnarök?"
In Hoshino's world, among the legends surrounding the World Tree, Ragnarök came because a venomous dragon named Nidhogg kept gnawing at the roots beneath it.
When Nidhogg bit through the roots, the world would come to an end. That was Ragnarök.
However, when Hoshino fought against Hela, she had heard the Queen of the land of the dead speak of another world's possibility of Ragnarök.
One chosen by the Star Relic, after mastering the power of demonic Synchro, would bring about Ragnarök and destroy the world.
At the time, Hoshino had not taken that line to heart. After all, there was no way she herself could be that dragon gnawing at the roots.
But after fully learning the truth of the world, Hoshino also came to understand one fact.
If things really developed in the direction Da Vinci described, and after super fusion one of the two worlds had to be pruned…
Then for the world of the World Tree, Yggdrasil, she herself would undoubtedly be the culprit who brought about its destruction.
No wonder Hela had been willing to wager her authority as a Death King, as well as the full power of the Land of the Dead, just to defeat Hoshino.
"So I really am the villain after all…" Hoshino said in sudden realization.
"As for whether you're a villain or not, that depends on how you define it," Da Vinci added.
The identities of hero and villain naturally differ depending on one's perspective.
A general who bravely fights and defeats enemies on the battlefield is surely a glorious hero in the eyes of his own people. But from the enemy country's perspective, he is equivalent to a demon from hell.
"Perhaps in the world of Yggdrasil, Hoshino-chan, you're the evil one who brings destruction. But for our world, that can definitely be called a hero~"
"Whether I'm a villain or a hero doesn't really matter to me. I just don't want to be someone weak who can't even protect the things that are important to me."
Since she had already decided that the ultimate goal was to defeat all of the Kings and uproot the very concept of the entire World Tree, Yggdrasil…
Then, just as Da Vinci had mentioned a few days earlier, rather than passively waiting to be struck, it would be better to take the initiative.
The three realms surrounding Duel Academy Island, according to the information Kaiba had previously gathered, were the kingdoms of giants, flames, and ice.
Among them, the kingdom of giants — King Utgarda himself — had already fallen completely silent and collapsed in the Duel.
And the realm of flames should be the territory of King Naglfar, who had been defeated by Akasha.
So the ones remaining now were the kingdom of ice, and one of the two unknown Kings.
["Why don't we go ask Wangba about the intel on the remaining two Kings? If they're as troublesome as Utgarda, then charging in without preparation would only be more dangerous."]
"Go ask Wangba… ah!?" Suddenly realizing something, Hoshino exclaimed, "Da Vinci-chan, if the world on the World Tree side is pruned, will the kingdom of dwarves and the kingdom of elves disappear too?"
The Dwarf King and Queen Mardel, though both had previously been hostile among the Kings, had now become more like allies assisting one another.
"Yes, they'll disappear," Da Vinci answered firmly. "If history is confirmed to be pruned, then an individual kingdom of the World Tree cannot exist independently."
["Will the elf kingdom full of cute older sisters, and the dwarf kingdom packed with countless little girls, disappear too? No, no — if they knew they would disappear, they definitely wouldn't be willing to help us anymore, right? Shouldn't we hide the truth from them, Aibo?"]
"Hide the truth…" Hoshino lowered her head in thought for a while, then shook her head. "No. That's the one thing I can't do."
"Oh? Then what are you planning, Hoshino-chan?" Da Vinci asked curiously.
"Let's be honest with them. If it weren't for Wangba's help, we might already have been wiped out by King Utgarda without any way to resist."
["That may be true, but under the premise that their own history will be pruned and their world will disappear, Wangba and the others probably won't keep helping us, right?"]
Jaden Yuki Dormitory —
After hearing Hoshino's explanation of the Lostbelt theory and the fact that the World Tree would be eradicated and pruned, the Dwarf King furrowed her tiny, doll-like brows, her troubled expression making it easy to see how conflicted she was.
"Mmm, that really is troublesome. Then I'll make this move. Your turn, Zane!"
After going through a long and complicated internal struggle, the Dwarf King finally made up her mind and placed a black stone on the board.
"Why are you guys playing Go?! I'm telling you something really important here!" Hoshino complained.
In this world, besides Duel Monsters as the mainstream form of entertainment, all kinds of classic tabletop and board games also existed.
After all, no matter how broad its audience was, and no matter how popular it might be worldwide, that still couldn't erase the existence of other games.
Especially at Duel Academy, where Duel Monsters was treated as a required core subject, the other games used for post-class relaxation were actually even more popular than they were outside the academy.
That was probably the kind of escape people feel when they turn a hobby into a job.
"Instructor Hoshino, this is Gomoku," Zane corrected her.
["Oh, Gomoku? I can play that. Compared to Go and its complicated rules, Gomoku is much easier."]
"And also — I win, Dwarf King!"
With a white stone in hand, Zane placed it on the board, linking four separate stones at a completely absurd angle.
"Aaaah, take that back, take it back, Zane! That move doesn't count!"
The Dwarf King, nearly sprawled across the board with her tiny body, completely abandoned any royal dignity and pleaded desperately.
"(╯‵□′)╯︵┻━┻ I said —!" Hoshino, finally at her limit, flipped the board over. "Are you even listening to me?!"
Watching the stones scatter across the floor, along with the evidence of her impending defeat, the Dwarf King actually let out a secret sigh of relief.
"Hoshino, you said our world would be pruned out of existence. So what?"
"Huh?"
Before revealing the truth, Hoshino had imagined countless reactions from the Dwarf King upon hearing it: anger, frustration, regret. But that complete indifference was something she had never expected.
"The world that would be pruned away is the world you've always lived in, you know. So why would you, as a king, say something like 'so what'?"
Hoshino truly couldn't understand it.
"Precisely because I'm a king, I'm qualified to say it. If you lose a war, isn't disappearance the natural result?"
As the Dwarf King picked up the scattered Gomoku stones and rearranged them, she explained: "I had already prepared myself for that level of resolve before ever declaring war on your world. What's embarrassing is that, as a Steel King, I was the first one to be defeated by Zane."
"But your world is going to disappear, you know. Don't you feel unwilling to accept that?" Hoshino emphasized.
"Of course I do."
The Dwarf King narrowed her eyes as she recalled it.
"But you said it yourself, Hoshino. The history that gets pruned is a wrong history that has reached a dead end. Since I chose to help you, then if the final result is that our world gets pruned away, doesn't that prove the path I chose was indeed the wrong one?"
["Even though she looks like a tiny kid, Wangba's sense of kingly dignity is no weaker than anyone else's."]
"Hayaku, Zane! Another round. This time, I'll definitely win!"
Zane sighed helplessly. "She's got the dignity of a king, but her competitive spirit is still completely at child level. What a contradiction."
"Stop playing for now," Hoshino cut in. "Since you really don't mind, can you tell me the information about the next King? For example, the one in the ice realm next to Duel Academy Island."
"The Ice King, right? Yeah, that one's troublesome too — in a different way from King Utgarda, though."
The Dwarf King rolled her eyes as she thought for a moment, then answered: "The most certain piece of information right now is that the race used by the Ice King is the extremely rare Wyrm Type."
"They use Wyrm-Type monsters?" Hoshino said in surprise.
Although she didn't know how deep the Duel Monster card pool was on the Yggdrasil side of the world, in Hoshino's original world, the total number of Wyrm monsters was probably small enough to count on one hand.
["Aibo, not only are Wyrm monsters rare, I think there's only one Wyrm-class Heroic Spirit too."]
Back when Hoshino had dueled Paradox in the time tunnel, the First Emperor she Synchro Summoned was the only Heroic Spirit of the Wyrm class.
"To summon the Wyrm-class First Emperor, you have to awaken the complete Synchro deck. And to awaken the complete Synchro deck, you need to borrow the power that appears when the Star Relics emerge."
It was a chain of interlocking conditions, and the most crucial one was this: only the power in that instant when a Star Relic appears could transform the deck in Hoshino's hands into a Synchro deck.
And for a Star Relic she had already obtained, no matter how many times Hoshino tried, she still couldn't attach Star particles to her deck.
["So to win against the Ice King, you need to time the Duel with the appearance of a Star Relic and summon the First Emperor. That really is troublesome in a different way from King Utgarda."]
Fortunately, through Star Relic – Star Cup, among the remaining two Star Relics marked on the map, one happened to be planted in the land of the ice kingdom.
"Other than Wyrm Type, is there no other information?" Hoshino pressed further.
"Other information… hmm. Rather than asking me, you should ask the person among you who understands the Ice King better than I do."
Hoshino frowned. "Among us? How could there possibly be someone who understands the Ice King better than you, a King?"
"Of course there is! That one, uh… I forgot the name."
The Dwarf King paused, then after thinking for a while, suddenly remembered a key feature.
"The one who goes 'hmph' all the time, like the whole world owes him money!"
"(°Д°) Huh?!!"
Duel Academy, Temporary Chairman's Office (former Principal's Office) —
"Why would Wangba say that Kaiba understands the Ice King better than I do?"
After thinking it over all the way here without finding any connection, Hoshino had unknowingly arrived in front of the door to the former principal's office, which had been forcibly occupied by Kaiba.
["Let's just go in and ask. I'd like to see what other unspeakable secrets this guy is still hiding."]
After directly pushing open the door to the temporary chairman's office, what Hoshino saw right in front of her was Kaiba in the middle of changing.
Yes, changing clothes. Not the kind of scene people usually look forward to.
Kaiba, holding the blue headpiece of "Kaiba Man" in his hand, and Hoshino, who had suddenly burst in without warning, stared at each other in silence. Neither of them said a word, and the atmosphere became unbearably awkward.
"Uh… did I interrupt your hobby time? That's my bad. I always forget to knock when I come into Sheppard's office, hahaha~"
Laughing awkwardly, Hoshino took a step back and forcefully shut the office door again.
"After all, everyone has their own hobbies. Don't mind me. You go ahead and have fun. I'll come back later~"