Bab 23: Chapter 23: Last Resort!
"Do you still want to fight?!" Jounouchi hurriedly raised his hands in defense as he saw the girl in front of him, Lancer, preparing to attack again. "Hey, hold on! What are you doing out here on the streets? I was just on my way home!"
"Tch!" Lancer, or rather Sakura Kyoko, paused and relaxed her stance. She didn't have the energy or time to keep fighting him. Her biggest concern was finding a new Master. If she didn't, her magic supply would run out, and she would fade from existence.
But the question was, who could she turn to? She couldn't approach Saber's camp—after all, they were the ones responsible for her current situation. She didn't know much about Archer, Rider, Caster, Assassin, or Berserker, and had no idea what kind of Masters they had.
*Come to think of it...* Kyoko recalled something she had overlooked earlier. Caster had mentioned, "Your partner is dead too, huh?"
"You're running out of time, just like me," she muttered, almost as if to herself.
"What a coincidence... I'm in the same boat," Jounouchi said, noticing Kyoko's decreasing life force. Her "LP" was even lower than his own. If nothing changed soon, she would disappear due to a lack of mana.
"Your Master is dead too?" Kyoko asked, her voice filled with curiosity.
"Yeah," Jounouchi responded. "When they summoned me, the guy dropped dead after running into a wall. If I hadn't used some of my cards to keep me going, I would've disappeared by now." He shrugged, his tone defeated. "But looking at things now, I'll probably follow in your footsteps soon. Pretty ironic, isn't it?"
Scratching his head, Jounouchi admitted that he didn't have a solution to their shared problem.
"Aren't you going to drain regular humans to stay alive?" Kyoko asked. She could tell that this young man, who seemed to be in the same situation as her, wasn't an ordinary person.
"As if!" Jounouchi shot back without hesitation. "I'd rather die here than hurt innocent people. And if you try to do something like that, I'll stop you with everything I've got."
His firm tone left no room for argument, and Kyoko couldn't help but smile at his conviction. He reminded her of someone—someone full of righteousness, just like him.
"You're a strange one, aren't you?" she chuckled, a hint of fondness in her voice.
"Huh? What's so funny?" Jounouchi asked, confused by her reaction.
"Nothing. You just remind me of someone I used to know," she replied with a soft smile.
"Is that so?" Jounouchi raised an eyebrow, a bit puzzled by her change in demeanor.
"Don't worry," Kyoko said, looking away. "I'm not going to drain innocent people. Even if I did, someone would come after me to set me straight." Her stomach suddenly growled, and her face turned a little red.
With a smirk, Jounouchi tossed an apple toward her. "Here, eat this for now."
Kyoko instinctively caught the apple, her expression full of surprise. "Why are you giving this to me?"
"Can't just leave you starving, can I?" Jounouchi said, as if it was the most natural thing in the world.
His unexpected kindness left Kyoko feeling conflicted. She didn't understand why someone who had just been fighting her would go out of their way to help.
"You're weird," she muttered, taking a bite of the apple. "Why are you in this war anyway? What's your wish?" She couldn't figure him out. He looked only a few years older than her, but he didn't seem like someone with a grand ambition.
"Hmph! Of course, I have my reasons!" Kyoko retorted, trying to sound tough. "But what about you? You don't look like you're in it for glory."
Jounouchi sighed and explained, "My friends' souls were stolen by some scumbags. When I got invited to join, I thought this might be my only chance to save them, so I took it. But it doesn't look like it's going to work out."
Kyoko stopped mid-bite, staring at Jounouchi in disbelief. "You... you're trying to save someone too?"
"Yeah... and from the way you're looking at me, it sounds like you are as well," Jounouchi said, the realization dawning on both of them at the same time.
*What are the chances?* he thought to himself. Both of them, on the verge of disappearing due to their Masters' deaths, shared a similar goal. It was almost surreal.
As if to break the tension, Kyoko tore off half of the apple she was eating and tossed it back to him. "Here."
Jounouchi caught the apple and grinned. "Guess you've got a good heart after all. I've got more if you're still hungry."
"Shut up! I'm not being nice; I just don't want to owe you anything!" Kyoko snapped, her face flushing with embarrassment.
"Haha! You're something else," Jounouchi laughed heartily.
"Why are you laughing?!" Kyoko glared at him, confused and frustrated by his good-natured attitude.
"I'm not laughing at you. I just thought of something," Jounouchi said, a mischievous glint in his eye. "Maybe my luck hasn't run out just yet."
He pulled out his Duel Disk, catching Kyoko's attention.
"What's that for?" she asked, noticing that he didn't seem to be preparing for a fight.
"I've got a proposal for you. If this works, we might be able to stay in the game a little longer," Jounouchi explained.
"Are you serious?" Kyoko frowned, uncertain of what he had in mind.
He pointed to the card he had set on his Duel Disk earlier. "This is the last card I drew. It's called Relay Soul. If it works, we might just be able to solve our little problem."
"That weird card magic of yours again?" Kyoko crossed her arms skeptically. "You really are a strange one. But fine, let's give it a shot. Not like we've got anything to lose at this point."
Jounouchi smiled. "Exactly. We're both out of options, so why not take a gamble?"
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T/N Here's the description for Relay Soul from the anime:
"When your Life Points reach 0, you can activate this card to special summon a monster from your hand. Your defeat condition changes, and you will only lose the duel if the monster summoned by this effect is destroyed."
(Reminder to put image)
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone