Is this the world of card dealers? Yada thieves!

"It's Mr. Manjoume!"

On the other side, Misawa, who had just finished bathing and entered the bathhouse, immediately saw Manjoume and Judai splashing and playing in the hot spring. He exclaimed, "Judai, and Manjoume-kun, you guys are still full of energy even though you had such a grueling duel yesterday."

"That's right, I feel sore all over after just defeating one 'Seven Stars'. I really can't compare to the young people." A highly recognizable voice came from the spring. Even though the room was shrouded in a warm mist, Misawa recognized the speaker at a glance.

"Professor Chronos? You're here for a bath too. But, what's with your attire...?"

"Huh? Isn't it common sense to wear a swimming cap in a public bath like this? I'm quite aware of my long hair."

"That being said, this can already be considered a one-piece swimsuit, right?"

Seeing Professor Chronos soaking in a hot spring, yet dressed in a black rubber swimsuit that covered his entire body except for his face, Misawa couldn't help but complain.

“It doesn’t matter if you don’t touch the pool water. A simple hot compress can relieve physical fatigue, Wuzawa.” As he spoke, Professor Chronos pulled out a bamboo tube from somewhere, put it to his mouth, and buried himself in the hot spring, breathing through the bamboo tube like a ninja.

"I am Misawa..." Not sure if Professor Chronos heard what he said, Misawa sighed, sat down on the shore, let his feet get used to the slightly hot water, and slowly immersed his body in the hot spring.

Apart from Caesar, Asuka, and the "deceased" Daitokuji, the remaining guardians of the "Seven Seals" key—Manjoume, Judai, Misawa, and Professor Chronos—all used the hot spring access tickets given by Hayato to relax their nerves and muscles and soak away their fatigue and stress over the weekend.

Hayato did give Caesar and Asuka invitations, but of the two sent to the infirmary, Manjoume quickly woke up after a night's sleep. Thanks to the protection of the [Dragon of Light and Darkness], he hadn't suffered serious injuries in his duel with Kagemaru, and the [Dragon of Light and Darkness] had also recovered after the destruction of [Dark Demon - Neosphia]. However, Fubuki, defeated by Jaden, wasn't so lucky.

It wasn't so much the duel with Jaden that caused it, but rather that Fubuki had been controlled by the power of "Darkness" since her disappearance. The long-term effects of darkness had ravaged her body, only barely keeping her afloat thanks to the assistance of "Darkness." The duel with Jaden was like the final straw that broke the camel's back, simultaneously draining the power of "Darkness," which is why Fubuki remained unconscious and unable to regain consciousness.

After a brief examination, school doctor Ms. Ayukawa Megumi determined that Fubuki's health condition was quite poor. However, the school's medical equipment was insufficient to cure him, and it would be best to send him to a proper hospital for treatment as soon as possible to avoid any long-term effects.

However, Asuka was told by Hayato that he had acquired a life support pod that had been slightly modified and had medical functions, so that Fubuki could use the device without having to travel to another place. Therefore, she and Caesar did not come to the hot spring today, but instead took the unconscious Fubuki to use the medical life support pod.

While soaking in the hot spring, Jaden suddenly heard a familiar voice.

"Curry, curry~"

Suddenly, the phantom of [Winged Kuriboh] appeared beside her. Jaden was a little surprised by her sudden appearance, since she hadn't brought any cards with her while soaking in the hot spring. Her deck and clothes had been left at the bathhouse.

"Aibo? When did it arrive?"

"Curry~ Curry-ri".

While describing things in "Kuriboh language" that ordinary people can't understand, Winged Kuriboh also used its short arms to provide abstract explanations, which is why only Jaden could understand what it meant.

"You mean, there's a place calling to the surrounding spirits, asking you to gather together?" Jaden looked around in confusion. "Right here, right now?"

"But I can't see any other Pokémon? Are you mistaken, Aibo?"

As Jaden was thinking this, he heard Manjoume say, "No, the Dragon of Light and Darkness is saying the same thing. She says that many spirits have already gathered."

"That's really strange. We haven't seen any other Pokémon around here," Jaden said, scratching his head, somewhat puzzled.

"Elves and such..." Maeda Hayato, overhearing the two's conversation, pointed to a spot not far away and said, "I guess [Death Koala] might know a little about it?"

Following the direction Maeda pointed, Jaden and Manjoume saw Maeda Hayato's card spirit, "Death Koala," walking through the curtain of the partition towards the hot spring from the direction of the bathhouse, heading with a very clear goal towards a certain place behind the artificial hill.

"Is that it? Hmph, trying to escape?" Seeing that the [Death Koala] seemed to have pointed out a clue to the truth, Manjoume excitedly jumped into the hot spring, splashing a large amount of water as he swam forward with all his might. "The first person to find it is me, Detective Manjoume!"

"I won't let you get there first, Manjoume!" Seeing Manjoume cunningly take the lead, Judai quickly followed and used his excellent physical abilities to close the distance with Manjoume.

"What have you guys been talking about since just now? It feels like I'm the only one who doesn't know anything..." Marufuji Sho complained somewhat resentfully, then looked at Maeda Hayato beside him and said, "Let's hurry up and catch up, Maeda!"

"Yeah, I find it interesting too."

"It's not because it's interesting..."

Watching the four of them, including Judai, frolicking in the hot spring, Misawa became slightly interested in what they were up to. However, unlike the others splashing around in the water, Misawa, whose towels weren't even wet, simply walked back to the shore. Wasn't walking faster than them swimming?

Although the hot spring bathhouse built on Duel Academy Island is newly constructed, the spring water is genuinely sourced from hot springs. At the same time, the terrain inside the bathhouse is designed to recreate a natural feel, with artificial hills of various sizes and pools of varying depths.

Originally, the spring where Judai and his group were located was about 1.78 meters deep, but after following the Death Koala for a while, they came to a shallow area where the water was just above knee-deep, at most 34 centimeters deep. At the same time, for some reason, the mist above the hot spring became increasingly thick, to the point that they could hardly see their surroundings.

"That's strange, where did the [Death Koala] go?" Maeda Hayato and Marufuji Sho followed closely behind Jaden and Manjoume. The thick fog made visibility increasingly low, and if they moved any further away, they might get lost and separate.

"The Death Koala did come here just now, right?" Manjoume said, somewhat puzzled. "And this fog is also a bit strange."

"Not only that, but where did Winged Kuriboh and Dragon of Light and Darkness go?" Jaden looked left and right. Not only was Death Koala gone, but even their card spirits that were just next to him and Manjoume had vanished. "Everyone, be careful."

"Careful, what?" Marufuji Sho was still a little confused, after all, he was the only one among the three present who couldn't see spirits. It wasn't that his talent was too poor; even his brother Kaiser Ryo didn't have this talent. It was just that the ability to be a "spirit user," which should be one in a million, appeared in Judai, Manjoume, Maeda Hayato, and the others, which was too absurd.

Unable to explain the existence of the spirits, Maeda, who was a year older than everyone else, immediately made up an excuse: "Well, because the fog is so thick, so you have to watch your step, right?"

"Hahaha, what's there to be careful about? The water here is so shallow, I wouldn't choke even if I sat down." Marufuji Sho waved his hand dismissively and said with a laugh, then exaggeratedly lifted his leg and took a big step forward, as if to prove that, as he said, there was nothing to be careful about.

But as he took that step, Marufuji Sho's foot couldn't touch the bottom at all, and he sank straight down, falling into the pool with him. With a cry of "Whoa—", Marufuji Sho disappeared into the hot spring!?

"Sho?!" Judai barely had time to shout before he didn't even have the chance to reach out and pull out Marufuji Sho, who had either fallen or sunk into the spring. In the next instant, he too suddenly lost his footing and sank into the spring, even though he had only moved his foot slightly!

Not only that, even though they were standing still and hadn't moved their feet, Manjoume and Maeda Hayato encountered the same situation. The ground beneath their feet suddenly disappeared, just like a magician's prop that vanished so suddenly!

Moreover, even though Judai, Manjoume, and Maeda all possessed excellent swimming skills and were exceptionally good swimmers, once they sank underwater, they discovered that the area beneath the surface had suddenly become a bottomless abyss, constantly releasing an invisible and imperceptible suction force that was pulling them in. No matter how hard they tried to resist with swimming strokes, they couldn't escape even a fraction of the way!

In the blink of an eye, first Marufuji Sho, then Judai, followed by Manjoume and Maeda, the four of them disappeared from the hot spring and fell into the deep pool!

Misawa, who had been walking along the shore with the others, passed through an unusually thick fog and went around a small rocky hill. However, he found that the hot spring behind the hill was empty and there was no one in sight. In the blink of an eye, Judai and the others had disappeared.

"This is a Dark Game attack!" Without hesitation, Misawa concluded, and was about to turn around to inform Professor Chronos, who was in the hot spring, that Jaden and the others had disappeared. But as soon as he turned around, he saw someone blocking his way. The person had somehow obtained a mask with the number nine of bamboo in mahjong on it, and Misawa couldn't tell who the person was at all.

They were being secretive and evasive; they clearly weren't good people! But just as Sanze was about to question who they were, he heard them say, "Why did one of you escape? You can get out of here too!"

With a heavy shove, Misawa was pushed into the pool without any resistance. Then he saw the man standing on the shore, arrogantly saying, "Just drown your fantasies like this, arithmetic operations!"

"My name is San—" Before he could even finish his sentence, Sanzawa, like Judai and the others, sank into the pool and disappeared abruptly. The person wearing the nine-tube mask looked left and right, and after confirming that no one was paying attention, he also jumped into the water.

Suddenly opening his eyes, Jaden instinctively took a deep breath to replenish his oxygen and found that he had not drowned because he was swept into the water. Instead, he found himself in a cave he had never seen before. What surprised him even more was that his clothes had been changed into his usual school uniform, and he even had his Duel Disk and card deck ready.

"Where...where am I?"

As Jaden sat up and looked around, he noticed that there were many beings of various shapes and sizes surrounding him, scrutinizing him. Although he couldn't name them all, Jaden vaguely remembered a few, such as "Goddess of Reversal" and "Heart Key Fairy." They were actually card spirits?

Since they were all female spirits who didn't seem threatening, Jaden greeted them, saying, "Hello, I'm sorry to bother you. Could you tell me where this place is?"

As soon as Jaden stood up, he noticed that the spirits surrounding him had all retreated a considerable distance, as if they were terrified of him. Just as he was about to explain, Jaden's intuition told him—they weren't afraid of him, were they?

Turning around, Jaden saw behind him a magnificent, pure white, holy dragon rising up and letting out a majestic roar at him, who stood insignificantly before it!

"Roar!"

Even Jaden recognized the monster before him; after all, it was arguably the most famous of all Duel Monsters. A noble Rank 8☆ LIGHT Dragon-Type monster with 3000 ATK and 2500 DEF, possessing the "Blue-Eyes" attribute and capable of being enhanced by Normal Monster Support Cards—a truly classic Duel Monster.

Blue-Eyes White Dragon!

Chapter 1199 This is a Trial

"Blue-Eyes White Dragon!?"

Looking at the white dragon before him, Jaden exclaimed in surprise, for many reasons. The Blue-Eyes White Dragon is the most famous monster card in Duel Monsters, and its user is also well-known: Seto Kaiba, the president of the Kaiba Corporation and a legendary duelist.

If that's the case, it's very strange that the Blue-Eyes White Dragon spirit would appear here; it's extremely strange, even nine-tenths strange.

Another point is that all the other card spirits appearing here are female-oriented. Could it be that Blue-Eyes White Dragon is also a female-oriented card spirit? Impossible, absolutely impossible!

"Hmph, has someone been attracted here? And it's just a brat?" A voice interrupted Jaden's thoughts. Looking in the direction of the voice, he saw a person standing next to the majestic Blue-Eyes White Dragon. The person was wearing a long white overcoat, a Blue-Eyes White Dragon-style helmet that concealed his face, and only his waist-length hair, which was of unknown authenticity, was visible. It seemed that the person who had spoken to him was the one who had spoken to him.

"He spoke? He's human?" Jaden glanced at the helmeted man, scrutinizing his clothes and appearance. "I feel like I've seen this outfit somewhere before... Oh right, it's in the Duel Academy's brochure. Could you be the legendary duelist, Seto Kaiba?"

The name Judai uttered failed to elicit any reaction from the helmeted man. He simply stated calmly, "Are you questioning me? Questioning who I am, the one who possesses the Blue-Eyes White Dragon? Seto Kaiba? Names I've never heard of before. I am Kaiba, the 'Partner of Justice - Kaiba!'"

As he spoke, as if to prove his identity, the helmeted man, who called himself "Seahorse Man," took out a card from the necklace on his chest. The card was printed with the very name he had spoken, and the image on the card was exactly the same as his appearance.

"Ah, I'm not questioning you, there's no need to pull out your student ID to prove your identity." Jaden took a half step back, startled by Kaiba's actions, and waved his hand with a smile, looking at the card in the other's hand with a curious expression, "But this is the first time I've heard of a card with this name..."

"Hmph, is the Blue-Eyes White Dragon something you can just find anywhere? Unlike those third-rate cards, the Blue-Eyes White Dragon is tough, invincible, and the strongest!"

Seto Kaiba's energetic, or rather, chuunibyou-esque, speech didn't elicit any particular reaction from Jaden. He simply looked enlightened and said, "I see. It's because there are only a handful of Blue-Eyes White Dragon cards in the real world, and they're all in Seto Kaiba's possession. That's why even cards related to it are not widely understood."

"Speaking of which... Mr. [Seahorse Man], do you know where this place is? And have you seen any of my other companions?"

Having experienced the adventure in the "Valley of the King's Long Sleep," Jaden had gained some experience in "traveling to another world." At the same time, the vigilance he had developed during the recently concluded "Seven Spirits Seal" incident had not disappeared so quickly. Jaden couldn't help but worry about what had happened to Manjoume, Maeda, and Sho, who had also sunk to the bottom of the hot spring like him.

Could it be that, like in the "Valley of Royal Sleep," they were captured and were to be sacrificed alive, forcing them to fight to the death to rescue them?

Even Jaden, who loves dueling, gets tired of the same plot after it happens several times, and it's hard to get excited about it.

Fortunately, the situation was different from what Jaden had imagined. After hearing Jaden's words, Kaiba crossed his arms and said, "This is a space between spaces, existing beneath the surface world, and can be considered an independent small world. As for your companions, they should be showing up soon."

The moment Kaiba finished speaking, Jaden felt a sudden alarm bell ring in his mind, and a strange sense of crisis surged into his heart. Instinctively, he moved quickly away from his original position.

The next moment, he clearly saw his roommate, Marufuji Sho, suddenly appear in mid-air and then be slammed to the ground by the damn gravity. Fortunately, the height was not very high, and he just tumbled over. However, Marufuji Sho's glasses fell off his nose as a result.

Just as he was about to reach out and pick it up by feel, Marufuji Sho suddenly heard Judai's voice: "Get out of the way, Sho!"

"Huh, big brother?" Marufuji Sho was stunned. Before he could react quickly enough, he was still thinking about what Judai meant when Manjoume, Maeda, and Misawa appeared in mid-air one after another and then crashed down!

Although he couldn't react during the previous fall, this time when he fell from the sky, Manjoume managed to adjust his posture in mid-air by using the strength of his waist, and successfully landed on all fours like a cat without falling to the ground with his mouth and eyes closed.

"I felt like I was in there, free-falling for at least thirty minutes!"

Compared to Manjoume, Misawa and Maeda lacked the same level of coordination and both fell to the ground. However, to their surprise, they didn't feel any pain after falling.

"Why is the ground here so soft?" Misawa asked curiously. "Is there really a place like this under the hot spring?"

"I thought I was going to drown," Maeda said, scratching his head and letting out a sigh of relief.

With trembling hands raised so that Maeda and Misawa, who were sitting on his back, could see, Marufuji Sho said with difficulty, "All I know is that if you don't get up soon, I'm probably going to die..."

"Huh!? Xiang?!"

Misawa and Maeda quickly got up, and Marufuji Sho finally caught his breath: "We're saved..."

"Ah, thank you, Maeda." Subconsciously reaching out to take the glasses handed to him, Marufuji Sho put them on, relieved that at least his glasses hadn't been crushed.

But after he put on the glasses, he suddenly realized that Maeda Hayato and Misawa were on his left and right sides, respectively, not in front of him. Upon closer inspection, it was clear that the one who had handed him the glasses was a giant koala!

"The Death Koala is out!?"

"Hmph, what a nuisance. Getting all worked up over something that's a little hard to understand, you're not even as good as a mediocre person." The Kaiba-man glanced at Marufuji Sho, who was pointing at the [Death Koala] and making a big fuss, and said contemptuously.

"Wait a minute, if even Xiang saw the [Death Koala], does that mean this place is another world, just like the place where the 'Grave Guardians' were before?" Maeda Hayato suddenly realized this and said in a panic.

Upon hearing Maeda's words, Jaden comforted him, saying, "Relax, Maeda. I feel that this place is different from the 'Valley of Royal Sleep.' Look at how much friendlier the elves here are compared to those unreasonable 'Gravekeepers.'"

As he spoke, Judai, hiding behind a stone pillar in the cave, waved to the Pokémon and received a friendly wave in return, though they were somewhat wary.

"Hey Jellyfish Head, when you say 'friendly,' does that include these two over here?" Manjoume tugged at his school uniform, suddenly changing from just a towel covering his lower body to a full uniform. He had a bad feeling that someone was taking advantage of him. Noticing the Kaiba-man standing next to Jaden and the very noticeable Blue-Eyes White Dragon, he pointed at them and said.

After glancing at the Blue-Eyes White Dragon and then at Seto Kaiba, Manjoume asked with some suspicion, "Mr. Seto Kaiba?"

"I am Seto Kaiba!" Seto Kaiba declared once again, denying any connection between himself and the name "Seto Kaiba".

Even if you say that, who else would like a long white trench coat and be associated with the Blue-Eyes White Dragon? Looking at Kaiba's attire and the Blue-Eyes White Dragon behind him that immediately reminded everyone of Seto Kaiba, not only Manjoume, but also Misawa and Maeda simultaneously had the same thought.