"Her? The Ice King is actually a woman?"
Hoshino hadn't thought of that possibility before. Since her full name was Ice King Nidhogg, it never occurred to her that the opponent might be female.
After all, Hoshino had also casually concluded earlier that female Kings would probably have "Queen" in their title.
Just like Queen Mardel and Queen Hela.
However, Hoshino's little "conclusion" seemed to have been disproven once the Dwarf King appeared in the form of a little girl.
"The female King I'm very familiar with…?" Hoshino tried to recall.
The Wyrm race wasn't only famous for being rare.
More than that, the name "Wyrm" carried an air of mystery and illusion, giving off an initial impression of nobility and elegance.
Because of that, among the Duel Monsters cards on the market, monster cards of the Wyrm race were almost all outrageously expensive and extremely rare — valuable to the point that money alone couldn't easily buy them.
Most of the already rare Wyrm cards were held by wealthy collectors, and very few ever ended up in the hands of ordinary Duelists.
Because of all these factors, the chances of ever seeing a Wyrm card in person were extremely slim.
Even Hoshino herself had never seen any Wyrm cards other than the First Emperor.
Of course, there was no telling whether someone as absurdly rich and deeply obsessed with collecting cards as Kaiba might have spent a fortune to gather a few Wyrm cards for his collection.
"The female Wyrm that I'm familiar with… sorry, I really can't think of any."
["By the way, Aibo, are you sure the First Emperor's gender is male?"]
After all, in terms of appearance alone, the First Emperor was more beautiful than the vast majority of women.
"The First Emperor's gender is the First Emperor. I'm not going to keep agonizing over that question anymore."
After traveling a little farther, the rough ice beneath their feet made the four of them take much longer than expected.
Especially Hoshino, who rarely got any exercise in daily life; the frequency of warm white breath escaping her mouth grew increasingly rapid.
"Haa… how much farther is it, Eve?"
Turning her ahoge radar around, Eve frowned lightly and looked confused.
"That's strange. We're clearly very close, but the sense is still really vague."
"What do you mean by 'vague'?" Kaiba asked.
"Normally, when I get close to a Star Relic, my magic should be able to sense the 'origin' needed to begin the awakening ritual."
"Awakening ritual?" Hoshino recalled. "You mean that strange pose you were making before with your hands clasped together?"
"It's not strange! That's the inheritance of every generation of Star Miko!" Eve had just about started to argue back when she suddenly deflated. "But… I still can't find the origin at all. What do we do now?"
"Even if you ask me what to do, I—"
"No need to search anymore. It's here."
Kaiba Man, who had been walking at the very front, suddenly stopped.
"How is that possible?" Eve denied it. "I told you, the sense is very vague! This place can't possibly count as an origin!"
"The reason the sense is vague is because the Star Relic here is buried beneath the ice."
After stomping a few times on the frozen ground, Kaiba Man explained, "And it's very large. That's why you can't sense a single 'point,' only a vague 'surface'!"
"A very large Star Relic!"
Although she was often unreliable, Eve still had the professional instincts of a priestess. The moment she heard Kaiba Man's hint, she immediately understood.
"Could it be! — The Star Shield!"
She clasped her hands together and began the ritual pose. The magic flowing out from beneath Eve's feet, together with the starlight swirling around the priestess, drew soft and brilliant trails through the cold air and slowly spread across the entire ice surface.
Then, in response to Eve's magic, the shadow of a strange object gradually emerged beneath the transparent ice where Hoshino and the others stood.
"This is… a shield? So massive!" Hoshino exclaimed.
The giant shield embedded beneath the ice fully revealed itself after receiving Eve's magic, carrying the overwhelming impression that it could shatter the ice at any moment and be reborn through it.
"Are you ready, Hoshino? We're going to pull the Star Shield out now!" Eve asked.
"Anytime—"
"Idiot! This is not the time!" Kaiba Man forcefully stopped Eve and Hoshino's attempt to summon the Star Relic.
"Not the time? Why not?" Eve asked in confusion.
"Only at the instant the Star Relic awakens will the power of stardust attach itself to Hoshino's deck! If we summon the Star Relic in advance, then the only chip we have to contend with the Ice King will be wasted."
"Right, we need to call upon the Star Relic at the proper moment during the Duel with the Ice King," Hoshino understood.
But while that sounded simple, Hoshino had absolutely no idea how to actually do it.
The reason she had been able to Duel Queen Hela with a Synchro deck before was mainly because Queen Hela herself had appeared near a Star Relic, trying to stop Hoshino and the others.
In the end, she only trapped herself.
"But how are we supposed to seize that 'proper' moment?" Kaiba asked. "Or, looking at it another way, if the Ice King deliberately stays away from the Star Relic…"
"She won't. She'll come!"
Without warning, Kaiba Man suddenly activated his Duel Disk, drew the top card from his deck, placed it in the Monster Zone, and raised his arm high overhead.
"Come out!!!"
Materializing above the glacier, the magnificent white dragon flapped its pure-white wings and roared fiercely toward the sky.
"Blue-Eyes White Dragon…"
After witnessing Kaiba Man summon Blue-Eyes White Dragon with her own eyes, Kaiba's mood became complicated.
"But why would you summon Blue-Eyes White Dragon at a time like this?" Hoshino asked in confusion.
["Probably because he suddenly wanted to show off his wife."]
"Is that so!" Hoshino replied, not wanting to lose, and pulled a Mash card into her hand.
"ROAAAR!!"
The dragon cry of Blue-Eyes White Dragon continued to echo through the glacier canyon, lingering without end.
"Good thing this is a glacier and not a snowy plain. Otherwise, this would definitely trigger an avalanche," Eve said with lingering fear.
"ROOOAR!!"
A second roar echoed back, but it was definitely not an echo. From the distant sky came a dragon's roar completely different from Blue-Eyes White Dragon's.
"So it really did come!" Kaiba Man's mouth curled beneath the mask, just as he had expected.
"Came? You mean…?" Hoshino asked.
"Ice King!"
Looking toward the place Kaiba Man was staring at, a pale-white dragon flew up from the endless frozen glaciers in the distance, rushing forward through the sky as though it were coming straight for Blue-Eyes White Dragon.
"Ice dragon…" Eve gasped, her mouth wide open. "What a gorgeous dragon!"
"Honestly, yeah. It really is."
As the Ice King drew nearer and her appearance became clearer, Hoshino felt the same impression as Eve.
Her blue dragon body and wings were covered in glittering ice crystals like scales.
Reflecting the faint sunlight, the dreamlike dragon — sparkling as though forged from ice crystal — combined with her graceful flying posture, made it no exaggeration to call her a work of art.
"ROAR—!"
"ROAR—!"
After nearing Hoshino and the others, the ice dragon flying in the sky and Blue-Eyes White Dragon glared at each other and roared in fury.
"Could the Ice King have been drawn here by Blue-Eyes White Dragon? But why?" Hoshino wondered.
"You will find out soon enough."
Kaiba Man returned the Blue-Eyes White Dragon card to his Duel Disk, and the virtual manifestation of Blue-Eyes White Dragon disappeared with it, leaving only the Ice Dragon hovering in the sky.
"What a mean trick, Kaiba Man~"
The soft, delicate voice matched Kaiba Man's earlier description exactly. The Ice Dragon before them was clearly the female King.
But that voice somehow felt strangely familiar to Hoshino. It felt as though she had heard it somewhere before, yet she couldn't recall it for the moment.
"That little stunt earlier — were you declaring your claim on me with Blue-Eyes? Such behavior, completely ignoring a woman's feelings, is very dangerous, you know."
The crystalline scales slowly fell away, as though melting, and the magnificent Ice Dragon's body gradually vanished.
In its place stood before everyone a dragon girl with long light-blue hair and snow-white skin.
"Kisara?!" Hoshino and Seto Kaiba exclaimed in unison.
No wonder Kaiba Man had said that the Ice King's appearance would be very familiar to Hoshino and the others.
The White Dragon Girl — Kisara.
The beautiful girl Hoshino had once met in the Memories of Atem, in Egypt three thousand years ago, who had a deep connection with Kaiba's past life, the priest Seto.
Her true form was the Blue-Eyes White Dragon that Kaiba adored.
"Kisara? Not at all. My name is Nidhogg."
The dragon girl covered her mouth and laughed. "But to think you would say the exact same thing as Kaiba Man. How interesting."
"What is going on here?" Kaiba demanded sternly.
Kaiba Man answered, "Let me warn you in advance: do not be deceived by appearances. Although she looks similar, I can confirm that she is not Kisara."
"Similar? This isn't merely similar. She's exactly the same," Hoshino added. "But if we consider the truth that both worlds coexist, maybe it isn't so hard to explain…"
— Kisara from another world, was the answer Hoshino reached.
Just like the Heroic Spirits with the same origin that exist across the Lostbelts and Proper Human History.
For example, Scáthach of Proper Human History and Skadi of the Lostbelt.
And the one standing before Hoshino now was perhaps a girl whose origin was also Kisara.
The difference was that in this world, "Kisara" had continued to exist to this day not as Blue-Eyes White Dragon, but as the rare Wyrm-Type Nidhogg.
"How about it, Kaiba Man? Have you made your decision?" the dragon girl asked. "Since you've come all the way back here, you should be ready to give your final answer, right?"
"Hmph. You want my answer? Then I'll tell you," Kaiba Man said with a cold snort.
"So what is the question?" Eve asked, looking curious.
"Of course. Speak your answer, Kaiba Man!"
The dragon girl placed her hands on her hips and said confidently, "Whether you'll become my partner or not, I'm sure you'd never refuse!"
Hoshino: "Partn… partner?!"
Kaiba Man: "I refuse!"
["Eh? That was an instant refusal?!"]
Only then did Hoshino finally understand why, when they had first encountered each other in dragon form, Blue-Eyes White Dragon and the Ice King had roared at each other with such an explosive, hostile tone.
So this was what a dragon yuri battlefield looked like?
It was truly disastrous — the kind of thing that felt like it could end the world if handled poorly.
Not having reacted immediately, the dragon girl in her hands-on-hips pose kept her confident smile for a moment longer before it slowly stiffened.
Until a slight cold wind blew past.
"Say that again?"
Blinking her blue eyes in disbelief, the dragon girl confirmed once more.
"I said! I. Refuse."
["Wow, he really rejected her without the slightest hesitation. Looks like, as a proud Duelist, Kaiba Man understands very well that not having a partner is much better than having one."]
Falling silent, the dragon girl lowered her head, her slender body trembling ever so slightly.
"You… you rejected me so coldly… rejected a maiden's love! I, I!! Waaaaaah!"
Hoshino: "…Ah, she's crying."
["…She really is crying."]
Eve: "She's the Ice King, and yet she's crying over something this small?"
"Love is a matter that concerns a girl's entire life! How could a brat like you possibly understand!" the dragon girl sobbed as she wiped away her tears.
"That's a fair point," Hoshino said helplessly as she tugged at Kaiba Man's coat. "Even if you were going to refuse her, that was way too cruel. At least be a little gentler…"
"Danger!"
Kaiba's body moved before his voice did. In the nick of time, he yanked Hoshino's arm away from Kaiba Man's cloak.
The freezing blast grazed past Hoshino's fingertips by only the slimmest margin, turning even the air it touched into solid ice.
"That, that was close! I almost turned into an ice statue on a foreign continent," Hoshino said, chilled to the bone and shaken.
"What did you suddenly do that for?! You almost got Hoshino hurt!" Eve shouted angrily.
"That is what I would like to ask!"
The dragon girl, who had been wiping tears just moments ago after Kaiba Man's merciless rejection, now raised her slender arm wrapped in frost and fixed Hoshino with a cold glare.
"What is your relationship with Kaiba Man?!"
Hoshino hurriedly waved her hands. "Relax! It's definitely not what you think…"
"No, no need to explain. You cannot fool my eyes," the dragon girl said, not even letting Hoshino finish.
"A girl in love's intuition is the most accurate thing in the world! It has to be because of you that Kaiba Man rejected me!!"
"Your intuition is a wreck — you've already veered off to the edge of the sky!" Hoshino couldn't help but retort.
Still, seeing the dragon girl's attitude, it seemed that once a girl in love had decided on her own theory, she probably wasn't going to change her mind.
"Fine, I've decided! A girl's love should be protected by the girl herself!"
The freezing mist condensed along her slender arm into an ice-crystal Duel Disk, and the dragon girl pointed it at Hoshino.
"A Duel staking my feelings of love — let us settle this in battle!"
["Aibo, I feel like somewhere along the way the target got completely derailed. Weren't we supposed to be here to defeat the Ice King?"]