Shima Naoki wasn't known for being a great duelist, or even a student. He was kind of rude and didn't know how to interact, mostly because he'd be ignored his entire life. And what was the point of entering LINK VRAINS if you couldn't duel to save your life? Needless to say, Naoki's only friends were Fujiki Yuusaku and Zaizen Aoi. And it'd taken a while to befriend them in the first place.

Now, it'd be wonderful to tell others "My only friends are two of the greatest duelists ever to enter the VRAINS", but would anyone even believe him? Plus, he'd promised to keep Playmaker's identity a secret, or else something bad would apparently happen to him.

Well, that all changed when Naoki finally was convinced to make a VRAINS account. His avatar wasn't really any different, besides a few modifications to make him look more "normal".
"Hey."

"Oh I'm new to a-" Naoki lost his shit. Right in front of him was the great Playmaker.
"Hey bitch. It's me, Playmaker," Ignis mocked Yuusaku's voice perfectly, and would probably having been grinning if he had a mouth.
"Eye, I'll delete you."
"Bitch is a prohibited word," Naoki's duel disk AI spoke. Ignis glared at it, only with spite. This wasn't how other AIs worked.
"Oh, Naoki, you finally did it! Uh, congraulations if you got a real deck?" Blue Angel approached the two (or three? Did Ignis even count?).
"Oh my god oh my god oh my god I never thought I'd be able to see the two of you!"
"Welcome to hell, kid," Ignis chimmed in.
"Eye. This is how you treat somebody you've already seen before at the very least?"

"Oh. I thought he was uh. Well. You know exactly who."
Playmaker facepalmed.
"Is there a problem, Playmaker?" Naoki was still super excited.
"Not one at all," the other spoke, sweating. Holy crap, Ignis just couldn't behave.

"GO said he'd be here," Blue Angel pointed out, trying to take both of her friend's minds off of Ignis' sarcastic glory.

"I'd cry if I met him."
"You already did that in real life."
"Still. I'd do it again. This time in VR."
And then, shit hit the fan. "Hello Playmaker!~ Also, hey other people I don't give a fuckin' shit about. After all, who needs friends?"
"Revolver! Quit ruining Naoki's first experience!"
"Fucking is a prohibited word. Shit is a prohibited word."
"Oh no. Oh god no," Revolver twitched at the duel disk.
"Hey. Add "gun dragons" as a prohibited phrase," Ignis whispered to the less-gifted AI.
"I'll fight your duel disk with my gun dragons!"
"Gun dragons is a prohibited phrase," the duel disk responded.
Revolver went completely blank and instantly logged off.

Almost breaking the door to the VRAINS room, Revolver nearly was in tears. Kusanagi Shoichi only looked at him in confusion. "FUCK AKIRA! FUCK HIM! I'LL HAVE HIS HEAD MOUNTED ON A GOD DAMN METAPHORICAL WALL!"
"Are you okay?"
"Have I ever been okay?"
"…"

"So, what was that other guy's deal?" Naoki followed Yuusaku home that day, or rather to the hacker hot dog truck™.
"Uh. He's really driven by anger and super sensitive. But also use to lead the Knights of Hanoi. I mean, we're dating, and I still don't entirely understand him."
"Wait, you're dating the former leader of the Knights!? What kind of lie am I being told!?" Naoki questioned his older friend, who looked down.
"Rev's a good person deep down. He just sucks at human interaction even more than myself."
"Amen," Ignis commented. He was still ascending over earlier.

"Oh. We're here. Uh, I thought tha-"
"Hi Yuusaku," Shoichi said anxiously, interrupting Naoki. Yuusaku shot a glance at Shoichi, as if he was waiting for bad news. "I'm pretty sure my brother is actually set on killing Zaizen Akira."
"Anything else?"
"Not to my knowledge."
"Yuusaku! I thought you were going to be yelling at me for my actions earlier!" Revolver said, from inside the truck.

"I mean, I fucking tried to like. Throw darts at an Akira picture pinned on a wall. But I kept missing. So I blew it up with Magnavullet's help."
"Fucking is still a prohibited word."
Revolver looked at Naoki's duel disk in utter rage.
"There's only one thing we do around here to duel disks like that," he spoke, as if he was about to reveal some grand ordeal.
"AND THAT'S MURDER THEM!" Revolver manifested Gateway Dragon.
"Gateway Dragon's effect lets me Special Summon one Dragon from my hand! COME ON OUT, ANESVULLET DRAGON! NOW I LINK SUMMON WITH GATEWAY AND ANESVULLET, IGNORE THE SUMMONING CHANT, COME ON OUT! LINK 2! TWIN TRIANGLE DRAGON!"
"What the fuck? How's he do-"
"BUT THAT'S NOT ALL. I USE TWIN TRIANGLE DRAGON'S EFFECT TO PAY 500 LIFE POINTS AND SUMMON MY CRACKING DRAGON FROM THE GRAVEYARD. I ACTIVATE THE QUICK-PLAY SPELL "QUICK REVOLVE" FROM MY HAND TO SUMMON MAGNAVULLET DRAGON FROM MY DECK. NOW I LINK MY MONSTERS AGAIN! LINK 4! LINK MARKERS CONFIRMED, COMBINE TOGETHER, MY VERY SOUL! TOPOLOGIC BOMBER DRAGON!"
"Can we please stop with the capital letters?" Naoki asked.
"Okay," Revolver said, and then glared at the duel disk. "I BATTLE YOUR DUEL DISK WITH TOPOLOGIC BOMBER DRAGON!"
"I thought we were stopping with the caps!" Naoki yelled, before realizing this thing was after his arm. "I didn't want to die like thi-oh."
Topologic actually was. Suprisingly small now. It was actually about the same size of him. It only bit the duel disk, breaking it, but Naoki's body was fine.
"Okay, good job Top, we're done here," Revolver pretty much acted like he hadn't gone bloodthirsty on a goddamn duel disk only seconds ago.

"I don't understand how you two? Are in a relationship?" Naoki only asked, before realizing something he felt stupid for not catching before. They had matching earrings. That were shaped like bullets. What the fuck was the deal with the gun aesthetic on Revolver?
"Why the hell are you obessesed with guns?"
"That was my dad. I've always been a dragon person myself. I just. Inherited them. Illegally, probably, but I don't care."

"Rev, you should probably stop this-"
"Shoichi. He's making fun of me."
"You started this."
"Fine. But kid, it's not like I didn't hurt you because I care about you or anything. It's because of Yuusaku."

"….You befriended Revolver?"
"Well, he's at least accepting Naoki as a mutual friend, Aoi. I could tell, even if he denied it."
"So, that means he won't try to kill the new duel disk I ordered?" Naoki asked, worried.
"Nah. He's fine," Yuusaku only said.
Well.
This was the weirdest friendship Naoki had ever formed.
And the only way he knew it happened after somebody else told him.