Heroic Spirit Deck in Yu-Gi-Oh!

Holding the spot on his head where he'd been struck, a sharp pain continued to throb through Kaiba's skull.

After all, being hit square in the head by the Pyramid of Light—a hard, sharp-cornered ornament—without dying on the spot was already pretty lucky.

"Where the hell is this place?"

Kaiba scanned his surroundings. But aside from an endless nighttime desert stretching in all directions, there was nothing else in sight. Well, nothing except the culprit that had knocked him unconscious—the crystal pyramid.

"I remember this... It's the thing Hoshino always wore around her neck. Looked pretty important."

Bending down, Kaiba picked up the Pyramid of Light and casually brushed off the sand clinging to it.

"Ta-da-da~! A lucky young man rubbed the pyramid three times and awakened the spirit sleeping inside!"

With a whoosh, a Hoshino Alter shot out from the pyramid, looking like a Duel Monster summoned onto the field.

"Now, you must grant me three wishes~" Hoshino Alter said solemnly, holding up three fingers to Kaiba.

Who the hell is this knockoff genie? And besides, aren't genies supposed to grant wishes—not demand others fulfill theirs?

Kaiba's face was full of annoyance. He had zero intention of playing along with Hoshino Alter's act and promptly tossed the pyramid back onto the ground.

"Don't throw it around like that! This is my precious three-bedroom-one-living-room home!"

With the elegance of a swan landing, Hoshino Alter swiftly caught the Pyramid of Light mid-air.

Grabbing Hoshino Alter by the collar and hoisting her up, Kaiba snorted coldly. "Hmph, so this is just another one of your so-called 'Shadow Game' tricks again, isn't it, Hoshino?"

Looks like Kaiba had lumped all these supernatural and scientifically unexplainable phenomena under one label—tricks. Even Hoshino's dramatic entrance didn't faze him; he'd hit a point of self-delusion that was almost impressive.

Hugging her precious pyramid back to her chest, Hoshino Alter thought for a moment—but like Kaiba, she couldn't make heads or tails of the situation either.

After all, with strange spatial distortions like this, waking up in a completely unknown place, no one could be expected to immediately grasp what was happening.

"I wonder how partner is doing... I hope she's not in any danger."

Gurgle~!

A clear grumbling came from her stomach, and Hoshino's cheeks turned red. Sharing a body with Hoshino and usually existing in a spirit state, she wasn't supposed to need to eat.

But for some reason, after being forcibly separated from Hoshino, Hoshino Alter found herself with a physical body again for the first time in a long while. And clearly, it was one running on empty.

Holding her stomach, Hoshino Alter looked at Kaiba with pleading eyes. "Kaiba, my first wish is to have a full meal right now."

So you still haven't given up on that genie act, huh...? Kaiba glanced at her like she was an idiot, then looked up at the starlit sky.

"Before you woke up, I tried everything. None of my equipment can connect to KaibaCorp. Logically, if we were still on Earth—even in a desert—our satellites should have no problem locating us."

"For real?!" Hoshino Alter exclaimed. "Wait, don't tell me we're off Earth now? Maybe this is a Martian desert? I heard Mars has deserts... and really buff cockroaches!"

"Stop applying your dumb anime 'facts' to science." Kaiba pointed up toward the stars with his fingers, deadly serious. "I don't know how we got here, but if we want to survive, we have to find a way out of this desert."

With no landmarks to guide them and nothing but endless sand in sight, walking blindly would just lead them in circles. So Kaiba used the old method: extending the line of the Big Dipper's handle to locate the North Star and determine north.

But really, this method was more like grasping at straws—because they had no clue how vast the desert was or how long it would take to get out.

Hoshino Alter trudged silently behind Kaiba, and compared to Hoshino enjoying a royal feast back in Yugi's palace, her current situation was like night and day.

A cold wind swept past her thighs, making Hosh Alter shiver. Don't be fooled by the blazing desert heat in the daytime—due to strong ground radiation and rapid heat loss, the desert had extreme temperature swings. At night, it could even dip below zero.

"Kaiba, my second wish is—"

Before she could finish, something white was thrown in her face—Kaiba's coat, which covered her head and nearly made her trip.

Without turning back, Kaiba said, "Now you're down to two wishes."

"Eh?! What's going on? Is this a mood swing?"

Although she could hardly believe that the normally arrogant Kaiba would give up his coat, survival came first. Hosh Alter obediently wrapped herself in it. On her, Kaiba's coat was practically a floor-length robe.

"Shh, I think someone's up ahead!" Kaiba suddenly warned after they'd walked for another ten minutes.

Faint firelight flickered in the distance—impossible in what should've been an empty desert. Kaiba stopped in his tracks, wary.

Sniff sniff sniff~ Hoshino Alter flared her nostrils and sniffed the air, then said excitedly, "There's someone there! And it smells like food! We're saved!"

Driven by the scent of food, Hoshino Alter dashed toward the firelight. Her sudden sprint left Kaiba no chance to stop her.

"You idiot! You don't even know who they are. Can't you think before you act?!"

Did she need to think? If they were friendly, she could mooch some hot food. If they were hostile, well... she'd just summon Anubis to eat them instead.

"Hahaha! You two actually got lost in the desert? That's just unbelievable!"

Fortunately, the trio they met seemed pretty decent. After learning that Kaiba and Hoshino Alter were lost and stranded, they kindly shared their food and offered hospitality.

The three were all dressed in what Hoshino Alter considered unusual, exotic clothing. Two of them were tall, muscular, dark-skinned men, not losing out in stature to Kaiba. The last was a charming and attractive tanned woman with an air of mature allure.

Oddly enough, even though the trio was speaking a language Hoshino Alter had never encountered, she could understand them perfectly and communicate without any issues.

She scooped up the crushed food in her bowl and ate it—it was just beans boiled in water with some salt, very plain. But to a starving person, it tasted like heaven.

Sitting by the campfire, the charming tanned woman spoke gently:

"If you hadn't been lucky enough to run into us, you probably wouldn't have made it through the night. With just the gear you have, there's no way you'd make it out of this desert. And it gets even colder at night."

Only then did Hoshino Alter notice how well-equipped the trio was: food, water, warm clothing, tents, fire-starting tools, and even a desert transport camel.

By comparison, she and Kaiba had just one windbreaker between them…

"So, are you guys here on a desert tour or something?" Kaiba, sitting nearby, asked. Possibly because he wasn't hungry—or more likely, because he was cautious—he hadn't touched the food they offered.

"My, aren't you a handsome one~" The leading man looked Kaiba up and down with interest, flexing his chest and giving him a suggestive look.

"!!!" Kaiba immediately felt a chill down his spine, growing even more on guard. If not for their current situation, he might've already walked away.

"Sid! There you go again, scaring people off with your bad habits!"

The flirtatious behavior was quickly shut down by the tanned woman, who turned to Kaiba with an apologetic smile.

"Sorry about that—he's not a bad person, just has some quirks. If it makes you uncomfortable, just ignore him. As for your question earlier…"

The three exchanged glances before the tanned woman continued:

"To be honest, we're not here for tourism. And given the situation, if you want to get out of this desert alive, traveling with us is your only option. So we might as well come clean."

The atmosphere suddenly grew tense. Hoshino Alter swallowed the last bite of her bean mash with some effort.

"We're heading to the tomb of the previous Pharaoh—Aknamkanon. We're looking for something inside."

Hoshino Alter gasped. "You're going into a Pharaoh's tomb? Are you grave robbers?!"

The tanned woman crossed her arms indignantly. "Don't lump us in with those thieving scumbags. If we were the type who killed without hesitation, you two would've been dead already."

Fair point. Though in that case, it was more likely they'd be the ones ending up dead.

"If you must label us, call us bounty hunters~ I'm Marlene, the bounty hunter!"

With that, the woman—Marlene—dramatically flipped her cloak and struck a cool pose, her seductive figure fully on display.

"You just said the previous Pharaoh?!" But instead of reacting to the grave robbing or her figure, Kaiba seemed far more fixated on the mention of the Pharaoh.

Hoshino Alter teased, "What, don't tell me the previous Pharaoh was your buddy or something?"

"Idiot." Kaiba, torn between irritation and exasperated amusement, leaned in and whispered in a voice only she could hear:

"Egypt's pharaonic system ended thousands of years ago. There's no way someone would naturally say 'previous Pharaoh' in the present day."

"Oh!"

Thanks to Kaiba's reminder, Hoshino Alter's brain lit up like it had just been zapped—things began to fall into place.

If Marlene wasn't lying, then it made sense that even KaibaCorp's global satellites couldn't locate them—not because they weren't on Earth, but because they had traveled through time after being caught in a space-time distortion, like when they'd once ended up ten years in the future.

But this time, it was far more extreme. If the pharaonic system still existed, then they'd likely traveled back thousands of years.

Faced with this kind of time travel—currently beyond the realm of science—Kaiba remained skeptical and pressed on, "If you're talking about a 'previous Pharaoh,' then what dynasty are we in now?!"

"Dynasty? What are you talking about, mister?" Marlene clearly didn't understand what Kaiba meant by dynasty.

"If you mean the new Pharaoh, then today is supposedly the day of his coronation. But no one even knows his name yet."

From Marlene's attitude and reaction, it didn't seem like she was lying or trying to trick them. More importantly, she had no reason to make up such an elaborate story.

"So, have you decided whether you'll come with us?" Marlene asked again. "Just so we're clear—we're not running a charity. If we head into the tomb, you'll need to help out too."

The man named Sid added:

"Of course, you can also choose to leave on your own. We're not the type to kill witnesses. But with your supplies, there's no way you'll survive out there."

Veterans really do speak differently—while it sounded like two choices, the only real option if they wanted to live was to go with the trio.

Of course, there was a third option—summon Anubis, steal their supplies, and run off. But since they didn't seem like bad people, Hoshino Alter couldn't bring herself to do something that treacherous.

"Alright, I'll go with you..."

To Hoshino Alter's surprise, before she could finish weighing her options, Kaiba had already agreed.

"I want to see the truth with my own eyes."

"Huh, didn't expect someone as aloof as you to be so decisive, mister~"

Now that Kaiba had agreed, he was officially one of their adventuring companions. Marlene smiled and began introducing the others.

"This slightly flamboyant man is Sid—he's our team leader."

As she spoke, Sid threw another flirtatious wink at Kaiba, making him tense up again. Honestly, who made this guy the leader?

"And the quiet one over there is Bruce. He handles our logistics and food. Don't let his silence fool you—he's very meticulous~"

Bruce gave a bashful smile and handed Hoshino Alter a piece of warm, dark bread. With his burly build and gentle demeanor, Hoshino Alter found him unexpectedly endearing.

"And finally, me!" Marlene spun in place and proudly declared:

"The one and only, the name known far and wide, whose name alone can make crying kids fall silent—the great bounty hunter, Marlene!"

"Oooh, so cool, so cooool~ (totally not forced)."

Hoshino Alter took the bread from Bruce and nibbled on it while giving polite applause, though her mind was on something else.

Sigh... raiding a Pharaoh's tomb, huh... If Chaldea's Pharaohs heard about this, I'd definitely be in for another lecture...

(*****)

If you'd like to read 25 chapters ahead, please consider joining my Patreon: patreon.com/ANeet. Your support means a lot. Thank you!