Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS – The Knights of Pleiades
Chapter 01 – Starseeker
Author Note : After taking about a year off from Yu-Gi-Oh! Stories after my Chronoverse Project, I think it is time I write something similar, after massive follower count last story got! Story will start a bit before the "The Deleted/Another" Incident. Unlike in my previous work, this one will be majorly focus on OC characters, but we might get some characters from the actual story of Link VRAINS as side characters, so look forward to it!
Edit : Trying a new style I was suggested and added new information how the duel's progress, per requests. I also changed way the Card names are brought up most of a time.
"What I got myself into..." This thought echoes in the young girls mind as she was surfing aboard the digital waves, with two humanoid figures standing on her side: A young boy with blond hair and neon-blue metallic armor and shield, wielding a sword and a girl with long blue hair and a staff of similar color, wearing blue robe with red scarf.
"Is this best that the leader of the Pleiades, Starseeker, can do? Pathetic!" Taunting voice would echo from behind her.
"Oh no. He caught on already?" She thought as she turned around.
Behind her, riding on a white board would follow a man with hooded white jacket wearing a metal mask, with metallic green dragon behind him. A Knight of Hanoi.
"You can't run away from me!" Starseeker would frown. She herself was wearing a dark blue coat and red scarf, with speed duel suit underneath, with neon blue stripes all over the outfit, while her eyes were yellow, and hair deep blue color, similar to the duel monsters next to hers. She started to recall how things turned out like this.
Flashback
Link VRAINS. Battleground of the future, where duels take place in virtual reality.
It used to be peaceful, until arrival of the Knights of Hanoi who started to terrorize place, deleting players avatars and sometimes even making them fall into coma in real world.
Duelists such as now legendary Playmaker raised to stop them, but even they could not be everywhere at once.
That was the reason she and others formed the Knights of Pleiades in the first place with fellow duelists in the Link Vrains; Iblis, Regulus, Neuron, Discord, Aegis, Spectrum and herself.
She had thought the name based on the constellation of the same name, though Discord had pointed out that the name was bit strange.
Starseeker herself had been surprised when Iblis had recommended her to become the leader.
At first she had tried to recommend anyone else, but after a while decided to just roll with the suggestion as no-one else did seem to mind.
Since then they had been working as bounty hunters, taking down hackers that had started to surface with arrival of the Hanoi, until today.
Her real name was Mira Saito, and outside the Link VRAINS, she studied at the academy at the Den City.
"...Hey, Earth to Mira!" Mira instantly snapped back from her thoughts, looking around a bit, before turning her focus at the figure front of her.
"Geez, I thought you had fallen asleep or something..." Mira laughed a bit, scratching back of her head.
"Sorry Reina... What you asked?" Girl front of her would sigh, crossing her arms.
Reina was her childhood friend and on the same class as she was.
"I asked what you think of this Playmaker? He seems to be all everyone speaks about."
Mira pauses to think this for a moment. "He fights the Knights of Hanoi, so I think he is alright, why?" Mira finally answered.
"Only alright?" Reina asks, blinking in surprise. "I think he is amazing! I mean, did you see how he dealt with that Cracking Dragon?!"
Mira nods. "I admit, that was impressive. I have never seen a card like that "Decode Talker" before."
"I know right!" Reina says, smiling. "If I ever meet the Playmaker, I'll ask him to pose for me so I can draw a picture of him!" She states, smirking.
Mira laughs a bit, but then smiles. "You should go for it-" she says, but is interrupted as her duel disk beeps.
"Hm?" Reina looks at the duel disk a moment. "You got a message?"
"Seems like it", Mira simply says, reading the message before narrowing her eyes a bit.
"What is it?" Reina asks, looking concerned, but Mira just shakes her head.
"No, nothing. Someone challenged me into a duel after school, that's all."
Reina frowns. "I would love to watch it, but I got meeting after school with the art club..."
Mira smiles. "I can see if I can record the duel for you, how about it?" This had made Reina smile widely before hugging her. "Thanks!"
Mira smiles. "It's nothing, really."
After school, Mira would had headed to her apartment.
She was living together with two of her older sisters, but they had not yet to returned home from work.
They worked at Eterna Industries, a lesser known rival corporation of the SOL Technologies.
While both industries work with Virtual Reality, Eterna specialized more into developing equipment for duel disks.
However, there were rumors that they were also working on new A.I.'s.
After getting to her own room and placing her bag to a nearby table, Mira would had seated on her bed and put her Duel Disk to her wrist, smiling to herself as she went through her deck one more time before putting it into the duel disk. "Into the VRAINS!"
Logging into the system proceeded smoothly, and she quickly found herself standing from Link VRAINS' virtual reality as her avatar, Starseeker.
However, she could tell that something was wrong. She had arrived to a sector away from the public areas.
"...Why did I end up here…? I am sure I set coordinates for the park?" She wonders, checking her duel disk.
"Best to contact others..." As she worked with her Duel Disk, she noticed a shadow loom over her.
She instantly jumped ahead and turned around, freezing for a moment as she saw the ambusher. A white coat. Metal mask.
As she had seen Playmaker's duel from the screen multiple times thanks to Reina, so it did not take long for her to recognize the outfit. The Knights of Hanoi.
"So, a little star has swallowed the bait", Hanoi then stated, smirking, readying his Duel Disk.
"Hanoi… So you drew me here, why?" Hanoi would just chuckle, before pointing at her duel disk. "That's easy. You hold a Cyberse card, don't you!"
This made her freeze. How did this guy know?
Knight of Hanoi smirks. "Seems I was right!" He says, activating his duel disk, smirking.
"Fine… Let's duel!" She called out as she jumped down from the building.
Underneath her feet, deep blue duel board with bright blue markings would materialize as she would surf ahead, with Hanoi following with a flight board behind her.
"Duel!" (Starseeker : 4000 | Knight of Hanoi : 4000)
At first, she had thought this would been easy.
But the Hanoi somehow managed to snatch the first turn from her, to her surprise.
"I start!" Hanoi called out, checking his hand before smirking.
"I start with spell "Cost Down"!" He then called out.
"With this card, by discarding a card I can summon this turn a monster with one less tribute. Next, as my opponent controls no monsters, I can Special Summon Hack Worm from my hand!" Hanoi then called out as the metallic worm appeared to the field. (LV:1 ATK:400 DEF:0)
Starseeker would look shocked. "First Cost Down and then a Special Summon… It can't be!" She says, paling a bit.
"Seems you know what is coming next!" He calls out. "I tribute my Hack Worm for the Tribute Summon! Come Forth, Cracking Dragon!" The Knight of Hanoi would call out as the space cracks, as metallic green monster would appear. (LV: 8 ATK: 3000 DEF: 0).
"Of course, I cannot attack on my first turn, so I end my turn!" The Knight of Hanoi then states, relaxing a bit as he ends his turn.
"My turn, Draw!" Starseeker calls out as she draws, looking her hand through.
"I need to think this through… If I am careless with my summons, that monsters effect drains my Life Points to 0 before I can destroy it." She then seems to notice something. "...It does not affect Link Monsters, so this might work!" She then picks a card from her hand.
"I start by summoning Chosen by the World Chalice!" She calls out, summoning a knight with golden armor and blond hair, wielding sword and shield. (Lv:3 ATK:1600 Def:0).
"Effect of Cracking Dragon activates!" The Knight of Hanoi calls out. "When you summon a monster, Cracking Dragon lowers it attack by 200 points times its level and inflicts it as a direct damage to your Life Points! Go, Crack Fall!"
At the command, Cracking Dragon sparks with Green energy which strikes first at the Chosen and then Starseeker, lowering its attack from 1600 to 1000 and inflicting 600 points damage to Starseeker's life points. (4000 → 3400).
"I am only getting started… Arrowhead has been confirmed!" She then calls out.
"What?!" The Knight of Hanoi asks as he turns to face Starseeker.
"Condition is one Normal Monster that is not a Token! Now come forth, Circuit cutting through the darkness!" She calls out as Chosen of the World Chalice turns into flash of light and turns into a single red arrow. "Protector Dragon of the Chalice, descend! Imduk the World Chalice Dragon!" She calls out as a small green dragon takes the battlefield. (Link-1, ATK : 800)
All this move does is to make the knight laugh. "Are you serious? Even that last monster had more attack than that runt!"
"Don't underestimate him!" Starseeker calls in response. "I activate Imduk's special ability!" She then calls out. "Once per turn, I can Normal Summon one more "World Chalice" monster! And I choose this!" She calls out as she brings a card to her hand.
"Come, "World Chalice Guardragon"!" She calls out, summoning smaller version of Imduk to the field. (LV:1, ATK:400 DEF: 400)
"Cracking Dragon's effect activates! Crack Fall!" Once more, Cracking Dragon would crackle with energy and blast at the Guardragon, lowering its attack by 200 and doing it as damage to Starseeker's life points. (3400 → 3200).
Starseeker would brush of the damage from Crack Fall, biting her teeth together. "Don't think I am done!" She then shouts, to Hanoi's surprise. "Arrowheads Confirmed! Summoning Requirement Two "World Chalice" Monsters!" She calls out as both Imduk and Guardragon become beams of green energy.
"What? Second Link Summon?" Hanoi asks, turning around.
"Souls of the Dragons, call out the chosen blademaster to cut through evil! Link Summon, Link 2!" Starseeker calls out. "Come, "Auram the World Chalice Blademaster"!" As Starseeker finishes her chant, on her side would stand the same knight from before, but with different armor. It would now be metallic blue, and he would have a red scarf. (Link-2, ATK: 2000).
"Was that really worth it?" Hanoi Questions. "2000 Attack is nowhere near enough to face my Cracking Dragon!"
Starseeker's eyes would still be filled with determination. "I am well aware. And that is why I activate effect of "World Chalice Guardragon" in my Graveyard!" She calls out.
"By banishing it I can Special Summon a Normal Monster from my Graveyard to Defense Mode where arrowhead of my Link Monster points to!" She then explains. "Return, "Chosen of the World Chalice"!"
As the World Chalice monster appears, Crack Storm strikes once more, lowering her life points further by 600 points. (3200 → 2600).
"Are you done?" Hanoi asks, sighing. "No… Not even close..." Starseeker snaps, looking her hand. She had only three cards left in her hand now. "I activate World Legacy Succession! With this, I can bring back a monster from my Graveyard to a zone a Link Monster I control points to!" She explains.
"I choose Imduk the World Chalice Dragon!" She then calls out as the green dragon appears to the field. "Arrowheads confirmed! Two Monsters with different types and attributes!" She then calls out.
"Three Link Summons in one turn?!" Hanoi asks, looking now actually surprised as Starseeker begins her chant.
"Maiden chosen by the Holy Relic, come and shield us from the shadows! Link Summon, Link 2! Ib the World Chalice Priestess!" As she finishes the chant next to her would hover a maiden with red and blue scarf and blue robe, long blue hair and light blue eyes, wielding a staff. (Link-2, ATK: 1800).
For a moment, Ib would look around, waving at first at Auram, before turning to look at the Cracking Dragon, visible getting spooked.
Hanoi sighs. "For a moment there I was worried. But your monster does not look that tough… I crush you and it next turn", he then threatens.
"Before you do that, I activate a spell, World Legacy's Heart!" She calls out. "With this card I can search my Graveyard for 2 World Chalice monsters and them to my hand! However, as Imduk is a Link Monster, he returns to my Extra Deck Instead!" She calls out as two flashes leave from her Graveyard.
"Hmph. A wasted action", Hanoi just states. "Are you going to set a card face-down?"
Starseeker looks at her field, but closes her eyes. "I am not. I end my turn."
End of Flashback
"...This is risky move… If he got something like Limiter Removal, I'll lose and get my account deleted, or worse!" Starseeker would think as the turn of the Knight Hanoi starts.
"I activate my Skill, Double Draw! With this, I can draw 2 cards of my deck during Draw Phase instead of one once per duel!" The Knight of Hanoi calls out as he draws 2 cards of his deck, though narrow his eyes afterwards as he looks them.
"Hm. You got lucky before but not anymore… I equip my Cracking Dragon with Air Cracking Storm! The Knight of Hanoi calls out as the strange devices appear to both sides of the Cracking Dragon.
"Now when my Cracking Dragon attacks and destroys your monster it can attack again, but my other monsters cannot attack!"
He then smirks. "However as Cracking Dragon is only monster on my field, I don't see the problem! Now go and attack Auram with Traffic Blast! Destroy that Cyberse card!" As ordered, Cracking Dragons begin to charge energy, before firing it at the blond-haired knight.
"Here goes something", Starseeker would think. "I activate effect of World Legacy's Heart in my graveyard!" She then calls out.
This move catches the Knight of Hanoi off-guard. "What?!"
"When a Linked Link Monster I control would be destroyed by battle, I can banish this card to negate the destruction!" She explains as the blast collides with her knights shield, dispersing but still sending parts of the attack at her. (2600 → 1600)
One of the green sparks would strike her in the left eye, forcing her to kneel down and let out a pained scream, as she holds her eye.
"W-what was that…?" She thinks, moving her hand over her eye. "I… I just felt pain? In Virtual Reality…?" She thinks, looking at the Hanoi. "Was it their dragon? Or a bug?"
Hanoi however just grunts. "Seems you survived one turn longer… As Cracking Dragon did not destroy a monster it cannot attack again this turn", Hanoi explains, frowning.
"I end my turn."
Starseeker would hold her eye, but moves her hand quickly for her Duel Disk as her turn starts.
"DRAW!" She would call out as loud as she could, before looking at her hand.
"This will do", she thinks before taking the look at the field. "I start by summoning Crowned by the World Chalice!" She then calls out as she summons another female figure with staff, robe and long blue hair, to attack mode. (LV:2 , ATK 0 DEF 2100).
"And as Crowned has no attack points, Crack Fall does not work!"
Knight Hanoi just grunts. "So what? You think those three monsters will be enough to stop me?" He then questions, smirking, to which Starseeker just nods.
"Indeed… But first, let me welcome back a friend!" Starseeker calls out as she reaches to the sky. "Arrowhead Confirmed! Summoning Condition One Normal Monster that is not a token!" She calls out. "Come forth once more, Imduk the World Chalice Dragon!"
Hanoi would frown. "So that's why you returned it to your deck, to summon it again?" Starseeker would nod to this.
"Indeed… And with Imduk's effect I am allowed Normal Summon again!" She calls out, looking at the last monster in her hand.
"I summon Beckoned by the World Chalice!" Starseeker calls out as she summons her spear-wielding warrior to the field. (LV:4 ATK: 1800 DEF: 0)
Knight of Hanoi smirks. "Level 4 monster… That means it loses 800 attack which is now taken from your life points! Go, Crack Fall!" Hanoi calls out as the green lightning first hits Beckoned, dropping it's attack to 1000, and then her. (1600 → 800).
Starseeker would get hit by the green lightning and nearly fall off from her Duel Board, but manages to hang back on there.
"It is done..." Starseeker then speaks up, looking at Hanoi with determined expression on her face.
"Arrowheads have been confirmed!" She calls out. "Two Link Monsters!"
This would shock the Knight of Hanoi. "Link Summon with two Link Monsters!?" He questions, biting his teeth together.
"I place Link Two Auram and Link One Imduk into arrowheads!" She then explains as the the green dragon and shielded warrior vanish.
"During the hour desperation, the relic chooses its guardians! Let your lance become weapon to pierce through the darkness! Link Summon, Link 3! Come forth, Ningirsu the World Chalice Warrior!" She calls out as the warrior wielding spear and black armor with neon blue stripes next to the blue-haired magician. (Link-3 ATK: 2500)
Appearance of the warrior would seem to make Ib happy, as Ningirsu positions itself so he would be between Ib and the Cracking Dragon.
"Next, effect of Ningirsu activates! When he is Link Summoned, I can draw cards equal to number of "World Chalice" monsters he points to!" She proceeds to explain. "And currently, he points "Beckoned of the World Chalice" and "Ib the World Chalice Priestess" so I draw two cards!"
As she draws her two cards, she looks at the cards she drew.
"Next, I activate a Field Spell from my hand! World Chalice's Discovery!" She calls out as the field around the duelists glow a bit.
"This spell increases attack and defense of my World Chalice monsters by 300 points!" She explains as blue glow surrounds her monsters, increasing their power. Ib's attack would raise from 1800 to 2100, Beckoned's attack from 1000 to 1300 and Ningirsu's attack from 2500 all the way to 2800.
The Knight of Hanoi however does not seem at all worried.
"So what if you summoned that warrior by getting rid of your Cyberse card?" He asks, smirking beneath his mask. "With 2800 Attack Points, it is still nowhere near powerful enough to destroy my Cracking Dragon!"
Starseeker narrows her eye. "I am well aware. However seeing how you love to use your Cracking Dragon's effect, let me reveal to you Special Ability of Ningirsu!" She snaps.
"Once per turn, I can send one card from both sides of the field to the Graveyard!" She states. "What?!" Hanoi asks as he turns to face Ningirsu whose spear begins to gather light.
"I choose Cracking Dragon from your side of the field and Beckoned of the World Chalice from mine!" As Ningirsu raises his spear, both Cracking Dragon and Beckoned shine brightly light blue, before vanishing from the field.
"Now, you are wide open! Go, Ib, direct attack! Aqua Magic!" Ib would gather water to her staff before hurling it at the Knight of Hanoi, sending his life points from 4000 to 1900 and staggering him.
"Now finish this Ningirsu! Sacred Spear Strike!" Ningirsu would dive to battle right after Ib, slashing the Knight of Hanoi with his lance and sending him flying to the top of the roof with shockwave as his life points hit zero.
Starseeker would jump down from her Duel Disk to the roof shockwave sent the Knight of Hanoi flying to, holding her left eye.
"Alright, answer me! What did your dragon do?!" She would snap as she uses her free hand to lift the knight up from the ground.
Hanoi however smirks. "Cracking Dragon has ability to damage the virtual reality… You think it would only affect avatars and buildings outside of the battle?"
With this revelation, Starseeker would let go of the Knight in shock.
However, the Knight would not hesitate with the chance given, and would calls his board.
"You won this time, but this is only the beginning!" He calls out as he uses the data storm to make his get-away, laughing.
Starseeker frowns, removing her hand from the eye, with the data around where Cracking Dragon's attack hit unstable now.
"So my account got damaged by that thing?" She thinks, sighing.
"I hope this is not permanent damage to my account..." She would think as she looks her Duel Disk, dialing something there before logging out.
As Starseeker logs out, a small black cube would become visible and fly to the higher building.
Not known by neither to Starseeker or the Knight of Hanoi, a cybernetic figure wearing a black long-coat and a stetson-style leather hat would had been watching and recording the duel.
Figure then narrows his eyes, looking at the black cube.
"...Data of duel acquired", he then states, looking at it. "I will take my time analyzing this, to find way to ideal deal with the Knights of Hanoi", he states, looking at the data, before turning around and logs out.
Back in the real world, Mira would open her eyes, looking around, slowly sitting up. "Wha-"
She quickly moves her hand over her left eye, realizing something, actually starting to panic, and cries out, holding her eye once more.
"Mira! Is everything alright?!" A female voice calls out before the rooms door is opened. At the door would stand an a somewhat older girl with medium length red hair, blue eyes and light skin, wearing still a black suit.
"...Sis ..." Mira says as her sister walks to her, looking at her, tilting her head, noticing she holds her eye.
"Is there something in your eye…?" She asks, moving her hand, eyes tearing up.
"Shiori, I… I can't see with my left eye..."
"What happened?" Shiori then asks, looking at her younger sister.
"I was in Link VRAINS and got ambushed by the Knights of Hanoi, and was forced to duel him… During the battle, his Cracking Dragon's attack grazed my Avatar's left eye", Mira proceeds to explain, making Shiori frown.
"I see…", Shiori then states, frowning. "I have heard of these Hanoi and their monster being able to damage the virtual reality, but to have effects on real body as well… I call to Kana when we got to the road", she assures, before petting her sisters head.
"I promise we find a way to fix this. It might be just temporary, but we should go to the hospital, just in case." Mira nods, standing up and walking after Shiori, closing the door behind her.
Meanwhile at the Eterna Industries, Mira's other older sister, Kana, would have her focus turned to a computer's screen as she keeps typing there, focused to her work.
She was oldest of the trio, born few minutes before her younger twin-sister Shiori, and worked with A.I. developing of the Eterna Industries as a programmer.
She was wearing a white long coat, and her hair was light black, with blue stripe going from the middle.
"Still working?" A familiar voice would ask, getting her attention, as she turned towards the voice.
Behind of her, next to a man with sunglasses and a black suit and tie, would be standing a girl, about same age as her, blond hair with black stripe.
"Yes. Chairman Yamahiro wanted the prototype A.I. to be ready as soon as possible" Kana explains as she saves as her progress and turns her focus entirely towards the girl.
Girl sighs at this, shaking her head. "I see. Shiori asked me to make sure you don't pull stay here all night again. You can go home if you want, I'll handle Mr. Yamahiro if he has something to say", She then assures, smiling.
Kana sighs, but then smiles. "Honestly, I'd like to see this project finished as soon as possible, but if that is an order from the boss, who I am to argue?" She asks, standing up, typing last few digits to the PC before saving and closing it..
As she does stand up, Asuka's duel disk on her wrist begins to beep as it would receive a call.
"One moment", Asuka says, pressing button on the Duel Disk's screen to answer to the call.
"Boss! Is sis' nearby?! I've been trying to call for him a while now!" Shiori's voice would call out from the duel disk with loud enough voice for Kana to hear it too.
Asuka sighs, looking at Kana. "You turned your Duel Disk off to avoid getting interrupted during your work, didn't you?" She asks, to which Asuka nods.
"Yes, I like to work without interruptions-" Kana is about to reply, only to have Shiori cut in as Asuka turns the Duel Disks into a 3D Projection above the screen, and turns it so Shiori would face Kana.
"Now it's not time for this! Get to the Den Hospital, now!" "Why?" Kana would ask, looking confused. "Did something happen?"
"It's Mira! She got attacked by the Hanoi while in VRAINS!" This would shock both Kana and Asuka.
"Is she..." Kana try to ask, but is cut short by Shiori.
"Don't worry, she sent the Hanoi packing!" She states, sounding proud, before looking worried again. "Problem is what happened afterwards. Apparently the attack of Cracking Dragon used by the Knights of Hanoi hit her in an eye and damaged her avatar..."
She closes her eyes. "She can't see with her left eye anymore. Doctors are trying to figure out what's wrong, but so far they can't find the reason for it..."
Kana looks at Shiori a bit, in disbelief. "Are you saying that the damage done to her avatar transferred to her real body?" She asks, frowning.
"Yes! Doctors are currently doing scans to try to figure out the reason for it, but so far they have no idea-" Shiori says, before looking at something. "I have to go, just get here as soon as you can!" She states as she ends the call.
"Damn it... Just what kind of program is that Cracking Dragon carrying?" Kana wonders, looking now increasingly worried.
Asuka meanwhile would narrow her eyes and turn to face man in suit next to him. "Kenchi, go start the car, we are getting to the hospital!" She'd then tell, to which man inclines his head.
"Yes, lady Harada", he replies before running off from the laboratory.
"You don't need to come-" Kana tries to tell to Asuka, who shakes her head.
"If this is a new form of a malware, we must find it and way to counter it for the future", She states, before looking after her bodyguard. "...Besides, you three are like sisters to me...", she then states, looking away while scratching her cheek.
This makes Kana blink a moment, before smile and shake her head. "Alright, what are we waiting for?" Kana asks, smiling as two leave the lab and make their way after Kenchi to the car, and to the Den City's Hospital...
Afterword : I hope you enjoyed the first chapter! I am sorry to cut it so suddenly, but this is done to avoid the chapter getting too long. Also, would you like to me in future use a special style on the monster names, or are the "Quotation marks" enough? Do tell me either in a review or PM!