John blinked. "Wait, how many frogs are in my Soul mesh network?"

Grace held up the growing numerical count.

Huh.

That was a LOT of frogs. "Neat."

She pouted. "My Lord, this is ONLY the current number of FROGS moving into your 'pond'! There are also toads and some fish and insects and…"

Jessica coughed, interrupting the ongoing list. "Only the frogs are the main concern, John. All the other Duel Monsters are just joining a few at a time, even the toads, but the frogs are ALL migrating away from here."

But only into his backup Souls, right? That was fine. He barely used the thing anyway, much like his Body. After all, 99% of his focus had always been on his Mind to begin with. "I mean, I can see why this might be a bit concerning, considering how our backup Soul collection reverberates and enhances our original Souls to ever growing levels…"

Temptation was dazed in the background. "Will Master start showing side effects? Like webbed toes or waterproof skin or whatever?" She tapped her chin. "I can work with that, if needed."

John waved her off. "Aside from me always being able to discard and Craft new Bodies as needed, it shouldn't be a problem. The Soul can act as a template guiding your Body towards some form of perfection, but it doesn't directly mutate a person most of the time."

She looked… Disappointed? "So you spontaneously gaining one of those tongues is off the table?"

Jessica coughed AGAIN, much LOUDER this time! "ANYWAY! Grace and I have been reviewing all the Pocket information to ensure there would not be any major long term consequences from them suddenly building a water feature into your monstrosity of a Soul collection. And it should MOSTLY be fine… But there is still a problem."

She pulled up data. "When we say 'All the frogs', I'm sure you are imagining a lot of frogs. Or an enormous quantity of amphibians. But we are being quite literal: Every frog and frog adjacent Duel Monster, and any related creatures and monsters and spells and such? ALL of them are abandoning EVERYTHING here and joining up in your Pocket."

As he blinked in growing surprise, Grace continued. "Locally, any supernatural side effects of all playing cards related to the frogs will basically vanish. It won't be happening to the few side monsters joining up as well, such as the '7 Colored Fish' or the many members of 'Mosquito Force', because there will be enough energy remaining to easily cover the minute loss of the missing members. THEIR Soul Fragments will continue to work fine when we leave."

Jessica frowned as she looked at some mental report. "But as for the frogs? Well, like I said: All of them are hopping over to your side Pocket to stay. And it's caused quite a commotion."

Shit. "Is this going to mess with reality more? Will frogs stop breeding in this world, or will the idea of frogs vanish entirely or something?"

Had he accidentally killed Kermit!? Oh no!

Oh wait, better question: Did Muppets exist in this Realm?

Thankfully Grace shook her head. "Frog Duel Monsters will no longer be 'randomly' opened in new packs and will likely fall out of favor by Duelists who should subconsciously gravitate towards other cards, but aside from that? No direct problems should show up."

Jessica hummed as she listened to another unseen report. "Theoretically, if enough Lore and Legend build up in the community that covers frogs, such as the Frog Prince and other such things… They MAY respawn here? Or reincarnate, or however those Soul Fragments work. But it would take years, if not decades, should the process have to organically occur."

Grace nodded at that assessment. "It's much more likely that the toads will fill up the void and future frogs become a smaller clan, sort of the reverse of how the archetype works today."

Meanwhile, Temptation was randomly organizing and grouping the excess cards out of boredom. "So why should we care about causing a commotion? It's not like Master did this on purpose or forced them to do this or whatever."

Jessica raised a finger… And paused. "...You know what? You may have a point." She frowned as she slowly shuffled her deck. "A few groups have noticed this change, but none of them have been able to coordinate a response yet in those higher levels of reality… And locally, my agents have managed to muddle the effects to the point where tracing down John's exact location is basically not feasible…"

Oh thank goodness, he had been a little worried there. "Then having a swampy Soul will be fine?"

Grace huffed! "No it is NOT fine! Those froggy freeloaders are able to bask in the endless light of our Lord's Soul without limit nor restraint! It's indecent! It's immoral! It's…"

Temptation giggled. "Aside from Grace's jealousy, it doesn't SOUND like there are other problems. Good enough for me!"

Hmm. "I wonder how this will affect my future duels though…" After all, these monsters were literally Soul fragments.

Having them move into his Pocket full of enhanced John-Flavored Soul clusters would probably do SOMETHING to them, right?

Jessica winced as her fingers paused perusing her cards. "...We might have to put off dueling a bit longer, John."

What!? "But I haven't even dueled anyone ONCE yet!" That would be SO unfair!

Grace looked pained. "But my Lord, your new followers are legion and many undefined or undocumented… If you attempt to play with your deck NOW, the potential of new or unstable cards slipping into your hand during game play would be significant."

His sister nodded at that. "It wouldn't be very fun, would it? If the cards you played vanished from the board, or changed text after every shuffle of the deck, or just arbitrarily said 'you win' or 'the opponent loses'. And that is assuming the alterations would be beneficial to you… There are cards out there already that actually HARM their Duelist, such as a trap that causes your opponent to suddenly have TWO battle phases instead of one, or lets them draw two cards instead of yourself."

Yeah, but… Darn it! No, you are a mature young man and basically an adult. Don't whine about the issue, just… Just adapt to it! "How long will it take for my deck to stabilize? Do we even have an estimate here?"

Grace was clearly unsure, but tried to give him encouragement. "Soon? Assuming the migration is completed as fast as possible? Hopefully in a day or two… Assuming no additional effects occur after they all move in, of course."

Temptation was humming as she moved the excess cards around. "Why do you want to play anyway? With your Soul power level, you'll just draw the perfect card every turn as your monsters hop where you want. Heck, I'm pretty positive that the local weaklings might even pass out when you challenge them in the first place!"

Wait, what? Who was she talking about? "'Local weaklings'? What do you mean, 'local weaklings'!?"

The demonic beauty waved him off. "Those dozen or so people in weird outfits that kept trying to approach us on our picnic. I was going to chase them off or whatever, but they kept freaking out and fleeing when they got too close. One guy nearly dropped his deck!"

Hang on! "I missed a chance to DUEL!?" That was so unfair!

His sister gave him that LOOK. "No. Because you told me you wouldn't duel anyone until we knew it was safe. Right?"

Oops. Uh. Go for the failsafe: Flatter and deny! "Yep! My brilliant sister is correct as always!"

But even if he had been required to decline them, it would have been a little bit cool to have at least been challenged by some of these kookie characters.

Temptation snorted. "I still don't see why everyone likes this game. A few of those guys in the reports Grace gathered don't really have a deck at all! It's just one or two powerful cards that are so powerful they dominate their Duelist entirely and force them to only focus on worshiping them. The rest of their deck is just filler to pad it out, or at best a few supportive cards to speed duels along!"

Grace huffed at her sister. "You hush! I want to see our Lord stand proud on one of those massive dueling battlefields and shout out adorable phrases like 'Time to DUEL!' and 'Now prepare for my ULTIMATE froggy!' It's going to be amazing!"

Hey! Those phrases were COOL, man! Not adorable! And he wouldn't call his amphibian pals 'froggy', he'd use their full titles and do some of those awesome poses and… Oh right. "I guess it is fine to wait a bit, I need to come up with a cool hairstyle anyway."

His sister blinked at his sudden attitude change. "Hairstyle?"

Yep! "When local people empower their Soul to a high enough level, it bleeds into the rest of their body and enhances it. That's why they can duel on trains or on bikes and stuff, because as they progress in achievements it pushes them beyond human a bit."

He pulled his currently brown hair to better see it. "One of the first places that show side effects are the fingernails, hair, and other 'dead' body material. Get a hairstyle you like, duel really hard a bit or reinforce it with raw Soul potential like I can, and BAM! An awesome hairstyle that can resist oil, water, pollution, explosions… I've seen people online survive airplane crashes with minor wounds and perfect hair here! I need that!"

No beard or mustache though, the girls modified this Body to only have hair in certain areas. "Spiky and unkempt is pretty popular, but I feel it lacks creativity."

The Pompadour look was a bit too silly even for this Realm, considering that in a few worlds the local mafia groups had somehow got into a 'longer pompadour' competition that took things to extremes.

Hair spikes were literally everywhere here, so probably not that… But maybe a mullet? "I might need both of you girls to help me with this… I've never picked out my own hair style before! What do you two think I should go with?"

John paused as a flicker of fear flashed through his mind… Huh? Why though?

Then he saw a growing grin on Temptation's face as Grace's eyes sparkled…

Ah.

He may have made a tactical error. "Girls?"

And Grace was already pulling him to one side. "Just leave it to us, my Lord!"

And Temptation was playing with his current hair, testing how it handled different angles. "Yes Master, just us… Jessica, please handle the other boring stuff while we pamper our dearest?"

Eep! Quick, backtrack! Reverse, reverse, reverse! "Uh, actually she seems like she could really use some help, maybe we should put off this…"

And the traitor broke in, a smirk on his sister's lips. "No no, you kids have fun! I'm just going to do all this boring paperwork and handle overwatch for the active missions my agents are pursuing. Don't forget to take lots of photos!"

No! "We can talk about this first, right? Right?"

Grace already had hair styling gel and a comb even as Temptation's wandering hands continued to 'assess' his follicle assets. "Don't worry, my Lord: I can easily accelerate your hair growth settings as required to ensure no issues will occur. We will have you looking fabulous!"

The demoness whispered in his ear, and it tingled. "Perhaps a bit of a private showing can be included as well? Play nice with us and you'll have a front row seat you'll never forget!"

Her 'pure' sister pretended to ignore the whispers. "It would be best to include a few extra documented hairstyles as well for completion's sake and future potential referencing. A reverse mohawk might not be the perfect style for THIS Body, but what about in the future?"

HOLD UP! "How many styles are we talking about here!?"

His sister was snickering at the back of the room. "Don't forget to coordinate outfits! Not all suits will fit for all hair designs, yes?"

STOP EGGING THEM ON!