Shoichi had been rejected by his biggest crush at the moment: sleep. That "awakezone" was painful. He had been so countless times in the recent ten years or something. He had also tried to get her apologies: she never forgave him and instead all he was left with was the inability to sleep.

And that? That was the last thing he wanted, that he needed.

Since he was unable to get a shimmer of sleep, he may as well be working on finding any new lead about how to get his brother back from the darkness. He was a shield, unbreakable and omnipresent. To be honest, being awake most of the time meant that he could always backup Yusaku in case the latter needed his help for whatever he felt like he had to do. They were the spear and the shield: nothing would stop them.

Well, anything but a terrible case of insomnia, he guessed.

No matter how many shitty tricks from living alone were working out for him. He had tried everything, from counting sheep to listening to beach sounds to going for night walks under the starry sky: nothing ever worked. He'd still be up and plagued by nightmares or be unable to find sleep at all.

That wasn't without its consequences, of course. Being Yusaku's shield required to be alert at all times and be able to hack through walls at times. He didn't have time to lose and he didn't have the smallest of error margins. He needed to sleep to recover energy spilled over their mission over and over again, but he didn't have much strength to keep that up anymore.

In fact, tonight, he would be able to say he felt like sleep was coming to him like an epiphany of sorts. It felt nice, but it also turned out at the worst moment ever: he was watching over Yusaku risking his ass in Link VRAINS yet again, all while the goofy Ai was throwing jokes around. At least that lil' guy could be funny at times.

Yusaku was in a sort of labyrinth, searching for information on the Ignites. It was mostly dark, but Shoichi had found ways around all the hazards in the place: activating previously defunct lights, creating safer ways around traps, etc. He couldn't really keep up with all he had made: after a while, it had just become a dull repetition, almost like a routine. It was as if he was a laptop entering sleep mode because it lacked battery.

Everything was going strangely smoothly. The few traps he couldn't deactivate were beaten with ease by the ever-so-determined Yusaku and his little AI buddy. In a way, he didn't feel this needed: Yusaku seemed like he'd be fine on his own.

Looking up at the biggest screen over his head, Shoichi allowed himself to yawn. He'd usually make an effort to conceal it decently from his misfortune companion: it wouldn't end well if Yusaku was to find out the shield was as invincible and powerful as it had pretended to be so they'd work together. However, with the duelist being focused on not dying over there and on his current objective, also busy telling Ai to shut it once and for all, he figured he wouldn't notice.

Insomnia had this side-effect of making time feel weird and blurry. Most of his brain was already asleep: he was about to just slur stuff to Yusaku, eyes fluttering like a butterfly overdosing on ecstasy, double vision steadily incoming and jittering, buffering, glitching brain images he desperately needed for this one mission to go through.

He slapped himself one hard time, threw cold water on his face and took a sip in his cold cup of the blackest coffee in town. He couldn't let Jin and Yusaku down just because his brain didn't want him to sleep. He'd bring justice and then snuggle in bed. He had his priorities straight.

In the end, the mission had meant nothing, and he sighed at it. He had been stressed out about it, rising his insomnia to these foggy and dangerous territories where he didn't know where his feet stepped. They hadn't gained any new knowledge about anything, duelling a copy of whatever was supposed to be their enemies (who was it even? Knights of Hanoi weren't a thing anymore and SOL was clumsily trying to get their hands on sentient AIs for who knew what). Everything was confusing and everything was painfully shitty.

He just wanted… to sleep. Just one hour. Just a bit, to remember what it felt like to fall asleep and wake up again. He felt like he had forgotten everything about sleeping.

Just… one more night…

"…"

There was a numb feeling all over his body and the pounding in his head which hadn't fucking stopped. His eyes hurt to even think about (thinking was hurting too, on second thought). A hand was shaking his shoulder.

"Kusanagi?"

The clearer sound of Yusaku's voice startled him enough to jump, breaking out of whatever state he was in. What had happened, again? Why was everything so confusing all of a sudden? That sucked hell.

"Ah-" he gasped as he stared at Yusaku, bewildered. "What's wrong?!"

"You stopped responding, so I logged out to…" He stopped mid-word. "See if you had been interrupted by something else. I found you staring at the screen."

Shoichi wanted to slap himself again, but he just pinched the bridge of his nose, looking down on his keyboard.

"Goddammit… I zoned out…" He then glanced at his partner in crime. "Sorry for that, Yusaku. I should've been more careful."

Yet, Yusaku's face didn't show the anger he expected. It didn't even feign ignorance. It showed… concern. Worries. Something Shoichi wasn't used to coming from the "spear", from the vengeful Playmaker's real-life counterpart.

"Why did you zone out?" he asked, eyes fixated on the "shield".

"I…" Would he lie or would he be honest? Lying sounded like the right option not to worry Yusaku, but it felt dirty and almost like backstabbing him by being distrustful in a way. "I'm tired, these days… I zoned out because of that…"

The younger guy seemed doubtful, almost trying to analyse something.

"Don't worry Yusaku, I'm fine. It's just that I don't sleep well these days. C'mon, let's drive ya back home…"

As he said so, Shoichi got up from his stool, wavering in his steps. Head fuzzy and vision swimming slightly from the fatigue, he almost didn't notice arms straightening his shoulders.

"You're not driving, Kusanagi."

"And why not? Ya don't have your driver's licence. I ain't makin' you walk back home alone…"

His voice was nothing but a slur and his moves were the most sluggish shit he had ever since. Fuck everything. Fuck his troubled sleep.

Yusaku didn't reply. Instead, he dragged Shoichi to a sort of quick, shift-made bed in the back of the truck.

"You sound sleep-deprived," he simply stated as he threw the other guy on the bed.

"Guess I should've known you'd bust me… I can't sleep these days… That's annoyin'…"

"I know. I've been there."

"Ya have anythin' against that…? I just wanna sleep…"

"I don't know. Sometimes I just fall asleep. Sometimes I just take pills," he shrugged. "You can always that I guess."

His brain was fuzzy and his consciousness felt like it was flapping away on its gracious wings. Time to say goodnight, huh.

"I'm glad you're alright, Yusaku… That was an important mission, even if it sucked…"

"Yeah. You sound like you wanna sleep, Kusanagi."

"I think sleep has stopped rejectin' me…"

"Were you worried or anything?"

Yusaku's voice sounded so unsure, it felt unreal. Perhaps because it wasn't real.

"Why wouldn't I be…? We're partners… We care for each other…"

There seemed to be the faintest of smirks on Yusaku's face.

"Yeah. Goodnight, Kusanagi."

"G'night…"

And it went all pitch black.