Kira once again regretted that he couldn't read minds.
Because if he could...
...he could see right through Supreme King's murderous eyes and uncover his inner thoughts.
Although he had no evidence, Kira was sure that whatever was going on inside must be spectacular—so much so that he almost wanted to interview him on the spot.
"Hello, Supreme King. After your field was eaten clean by Bird Egg and then finished off by Kuriboh, you've now been nominated for the 'Most Frustrating Boss Death in Yu-Gi-Oh! History' Golden Award. May I ask—how do you feel about this honor?"
For some reason, Kira just felt that the Supreme King's answer would definitely be interesting.
The mighty Supreme King, ruler of the twelve dimensions, undefeated since his debut... Actually, to be precise, in those twelve dimensions he probably never even faced a truly challenging battle, which is why he's so arrogantly domineering.
For someone like him, to suffer such a setback right after arriving in a new world—his resentment was easy to imagine.
Are all people from this other world this good at dueling?
The more Supreme King thought about it, the more he felt this might be true. Not only because even someone as strong as himself had capsized in such murky waters, but also because even the so-called Supreme God, the pinnacle of this other world, turned out to be such a ridiculous Bird Egg...
The strongest in any field is usually representative. If even the gods' tricks in this world are all about pulling stunts on the opponent's field, you can imagine just how dark this place is.
Yes, that's right. Even though Supreme King is the king of darkness himself, and he just boasted about showing his opponent the true meaning of darkness, after this duel he couldn't help but think: "Isn't your dimension's dueling just a bit too dark...?"
"This isn't over yet."
Supreme King raised his head, his golden eyes staring straight at Kira. Although his look was as icy as before, now there seemed to be a flicker of fire within that coldness.
At this point, Kira was quite certain—there was definitely a personal grudge now.
"I know." Kira nodded calmly. "Your real body isn't here. With your level of power, even if I won the duel, I couldn't kill you."
In fact, Supreme King's current state was similar to when they'd gone to the Supreme King's dimension—both were like consciousness projections. The difference was that Kira and his group had used Kaiba Corp's high-tech link system, while Supreme King came through his connection to Jaden, taking advantage of Jaden falling asleep to control his body.
In this state, just like when Kira's team was in another dimension, dueling could injure their spirit but couldn't truly defeat them. To really beat Supreme King, they'd have to find his real body.
But there's give and take. Though the projection state comes with an "immortal buff," the strength it can exert is also limited by the projection.
That was one reason Supreme King was clearly dissatisfied.
He was fighting on foreign turf, using a body he couldn't fully control. His power here was very limited—hence, he was outwitted by this damned guy.
A humiliating defeat—utterly disgraceful.
He, the Supreme King, undefeated all his life, was swatted to death by a Kuriboh—a total joke of an opponent. This wasn't even a duel; it was pure insult.
Unadulterated humiliation.
How could he possibly tolerate this and still call himself the Supreme King?
"I'll be back," Supreme King growled.
Kira smiled, crouched down, and patted him on the shoulder.
"No, we'll come find you."
Supreme King's expression was still dark. He stared at Kira for two seconds.
Then those golden eyes finally dimmed.
The golden glow vanished, his gaze went hollow, and then his eyes closed. He collapsed limply to the ground and lay there.
Then came a thunderous sound.
"Snore—snore—"
It was Jaden's snores.
Kira suddenly felt a deep respect for Jaden.
He'd heard from Syrus that Jaden possessed the ability to "sleep soundly even if Mount Everest collapsed in front of him," and he knew Jaden had once fallen asleep in the student line during the principal's entrance speech.
But after all the chaos here—supernatural spirits flying everywhere, even gods making cameos—Jaden slept through it all, completely unaware. That was impressive...
Maybe that's part of why Supreme King could seize his body while he was asleep.
"Hey, Jaden."
Kira patted Jaden's face. When he didn't respond, Kira pinched him a couple more times.
"Wake up, don't sleep yet."
"Mm... Ah?"
Jaden opened his blurry eyes, rubbed them, and sat up, staring at Kira for a while as if trying hard to focus.
Then he reached out and touched the dirt, looked down, looked up at the starry sky, and stared blankly for a while, blinking as if he couldn't comprehend what was happening.
"Am I dreaming?" he asked dully, looking at Kira.
So Kira gave his face a pinch.
"Ow, ow, ow..."
Jaden quickly pulled away, suddenly much more awake.
"What are you doing!?"
"You asked if you were dreaming," said Kira innocently. "So I helped you check."
"Then why don't you pinch yourself?"
Kira replied seriously: "If I pinch myself, you wouldn't feel it, so how would you know if you're dreaming?"
Jaden thought it over. "That... does make sense... Wait, no, that's not the point. Where are we? How did I..."
"Just outside the Red Dorm, in the woods," Kira said. "Long story short, you got possessed—by the Supreme King from another dimension."
"Haha, very funny."
Jaden still seemed to think it was a prank, giving a dry laugh.
But Kira didn't laugh, just stared at him expressionlessly for several seconds.
Jaden's smile faded. "Wait, you're serious?"
"I'm not sure how it happened either," Kira said. "I think it might be because we've been getting closer to Supreme King Castle lately. Maybe the proximity let Supreme King sense you, strengthening your connection. Anyway, the result was, he used your body to come to our world."
This time, Jaden was genuinely a little frightened.
"You mean... as long as I fall asleep, I'll become... that evil demon king from another world?"
"I've already driven him back. It might not happen again, but I can't rule it out," said Kira.
Jaden looked miserable.
So that means... he can't sleep anymore?
Wait a minute...
"You drove him back... you two just had a duel?"
Jaden looked around. Only then did he notice that the woods around him were full of craters, several trees were snapped in half, and the whole area around him looked like a battlefield.
He immediately realized this was no ordinary duel.
"Yeah," Kira nodded. "We had a little exchange through a duel."
"Had quite a bit of fun."