Waking up was painful. I had given into my exhaustion while working the night before, and had slept in a rather uncomfortable position throughout the night. Besides, waking up in a hotdog van is never a pleasant experience regardless. It always feels kind of shameful when you do… But that wasn't the most important thing at that moment.

Yusaku had been missing for 5 days straight at this point. Not a single call, message, or appearance of Playmaker. Apparently Yusaku hadn't been showing up at school either. Aoi Zaizen had come to my van a few days prior to ask if I knew why Yusaku hadn't been coming to school. I had no real answer to offer.

I had spent the first day just working by myself, like I do sometimes when Yusaku was busy. The second day was similar as well, as I had just foolishly assumed that Yusaku had business of his own to attend to. It was only on the third day that I had suspected that something may be wrong. I had messaged Yusaku about some of SOL Technologies' suspicious actions within the network. My message was sent early in morning, and wasn't replied to all day, let alone read. This was very much unlike Yusaku. Generally he would see my messages within an hour of them being sent, unless he was in class. I felt really uneasy at the end of that day, but I just assumed the best once again. 'Yusaku must be sick, and resting up at home. He'll see the message by tomorrow morning.' I told myself.

I regret not assuming anything bad had happened right there and then. Something was wrong.

By the late morning of the 4th day, real panic set in. My message remained unseen by Yusaku. I had only decided to take action then. The first thing I did was make my way to his apartment complex, race up the stairs and knock on the door.

There was no answer.

I knocked a few more times, each answered with frightening silence. Every time I knocked, I got more and more desperate, until I was knocking loud enough to wake the dead, and I decided to finally give up. Constant knocking wouldn't bring Yusaku home if he wasn't already there.

I spent a good few minutes staring at that door, motionless. My mind slowly flickered through my options on what I could do.

The next course of action I took was sprinting down the apartment complex steps and jumping in my van, so I could monitor the network to see if Yusaku had logged in as Playmaker. Regretfully, this took an awful long time, and produced no results. I had been scanning the VRAINS data logs all day and most of the night. Getting the scan started was exhausting work, but afterwards all I had to do was sit and wait. That was when I passed out while working. And that is why I woke up in my food truck at noon on day 5.

The monitors told me that my search had no matches in the VRAINS data logs. Yusaku hadn't logged into VRAINS in the past 5 days. He hadn't even logged in since our last mission. I was really concerned and frustrated at this point. I slammed my fists down on the keyboard in a fit of rage, and cursed under my breath.

He couldn't be dead. The bounties on his head were far more valuable, and nobody as far as I knew had such ill intentions for Yusaku as death. The bounty hadn't even been claimed yet. SOL Technologies wouldn't say what they would do to Yusaku, but they certainly would have made a very public deal out of him being caught. What else could have possibly happened to him?

Kidnapping?

The very thought of the thing that ripped apart Yusaku's and my own brother's lives pierced through my mind and made me feel sick. It was entirely possible. But who would kidnap Yusaku? What reason would they have?

Ghost Girl and Aoi would never do such a thing. SOL Technologies was out of the question. A random stranger as a kidnapper seemed highly unlikely too. Who did that leave?

The Knights of Hanoi. It felt as if I had reached the right answer. Why would they resort to kidnapping? Was it to get Ai? The possibility was too great to ignore. Immediately, I made my way into the driver's seat of my van and sped off towards Stardust Road. Yusaku had to be there. He might be in danger.


"OPEN UP!" I yelled furiously as I rammed my fists into the door of the house at the top of the cliff by Stardust Road. Almost instantaneously, my determined cries were answered. A man who wasn't Revolver, or rather Ryoken, opened the door, yet the man looked familiar.

"Specter…" I whispered, taken aback by finally seeing him in real life. My eyes went wide with surprise.

"Kusanagi Shoichi. It is a pleasure to meet you." With an arm across his torso, he bowed like a gentleman. I decided to ignore his politeness. From what I had seen in the past anyway, it was nothing but an act.

"Where is Yusaku? What have you done with him?!" My voice was bitter as I spoke.

"Oh my, you know he is here? Well, we expected you would find out eventually. Please come in. I'm sure Ryoken-sama will be happy to answer your inquiries." Specter talked with a smile on his face, which may have looked rather normal to any average person, but to me who knew better, it was terrifying.

Reluctantly, but keen to make sure Yusaku was okay, I followed Specter into the heart of Ryoken's oceanside abode. "Ryoken-sama and Yusaku are just through here. Go in and take a seat." Specter gestured to a set of double doors to his left, and bowed once again.

"He already knows I'm here?"

"With you yelling and knocking that loud, I think you would have to be deaf to not know that you have come to visit."

Specter had a point. But it wasn't what mattered right now. I needed to make sure Yusaku was okay. I needed to get him out of here. Putting aside my hesitation, I opened the doors and walked into the room.

"Yusaku…!" I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Perhaps my eyes were deceiving me? Maybe there was an explanation?

Ryoken sat down on a couch, and Yusaku was in his arms, wrapped in a blanket with his eyes shut and breathing lightly.

"Shhh… I don't want to wake him up just yet." Ryoken's deep voice purred. He stroked Yusaku's hair gently and smiled at the sleeping boy.

I just stared blankly at the absolutely perplexing sight, unblinking.

"Feel free to take a seat." Ryoken nodded to a seat across from the couch he sat upon, on the opposite side of the coffee table that separated the two.

I snapped out of my brief trance, and took the seat I was offered. What on earth was going on? I was glad Yusaku was okay. But there were some problems. For one, Yusaku's duel disk was missing, along with Ai. For another, Yusaku was asleep in Ryoken's arms.

How the hell did that happen? Did they drug Yusaku? Brainwash or hypnotize him? Threaten him? I had no way of knowing except by asking.

"What is going on here?!" I asked, trying to sound intimidating.

"Shhh...! I thought I said keep your voice down…!" Ryoken glared accusingly at me.

I tried to keep a strong face, "Answer me.", I demanded.

"What is going on?" Ryoken repeated the question thoughtfully, "Well, for a start I took Yusaku from his apartment to here. We've just been spending time together."

I had no idea what he was meant by his words. It was too vague to draw conclusions. What was 'spending time together' supposed to mean? But there was one thing he said that really pissed me off. 'I took Yusaku from his apartment', that's just…!

"You kidnapped him?!" I exclaimed with a high volume.

"Shhh!" Ryoken snapped quietly.

Yusaku's eyes opened slightly. He blinked sleepily a few times, before making an effort to fully open his eyes. He peered around the room to survey his surroundings.

"You woke him up. Next time I ask that you don't raise your voice, if there even is a next time, Kusanagi." Ryoken hissed.

"Ryoken, what's…" Yusaku whispered, before trailing off. He sleepily stared at me and said "Oh… Hi Kusanagi…" in a sleepy way. His expression was distant and dreamy.

"Yusaku, what's going on here?!" I asked. Although, it sounded a bit less like asking him and more like I was interrogating him, probably because some of my frustration from my previous questions had decided to lace my words with their tone.

"Kusanagi… I…" Yusaku sounded hurt. A frown tugged on his mouth, and his eyes looked a bit watery. Ryoken had noticed Yusaku's drop in mood, and in response turned Yusaku's head toward him, pecked his forehead and stared menacingly at me.

"Yusaku, don't worry about Kusanagi. Kusanagi, first you make a racket at my door, then you come in here demanding answers with not even the slightest bit of respect for Yusaku who was sleeping, and now you decide to take your anger out on Yusaku." He shook his head and continued, "Why did you come here? Did you want to 'save' Yusaku? I wasn't aware yelling at him and being mad at him was something that would 'save' him from me. I don't think he even wants to leave here. And I think you just set that wish of his in stone."

I was at a loss for words. I had let my emotions control me. They had they made me act out at Yusaku who was in a very undesirable situation right now. Even so, it looked like this was a situation he was fine with. Maybe it wasn't too late to convince him, so I tried to persuade him to leave with me.

"Yusaku, leave here with me. I'm sorry for yelling at you, it was… uncalled for." I apologized, "You can't trust the Hanoi. What has Ryoken done to you? This isn't very… Like you, at all." I sighed in disbelief and continued, "Ryoken is Revolver, Revolver is our enemy. Why are you letting him be close to you like this?"

"Yusaku?" Ryoken prompted.

Yusaku turned his head from Ryoken and looked directly into my eyes. He shot me a look reminiscent of a child being attacked.

"I… don't want to leave. There's something here I've never had before, and if I leave I'll never have it again…" Yusaku still spoke hazily. Ryoken tightened his embrace and lovingly nudged Yusaku's head, before continuing to stroke his hair. "And Kusanagi… Ryoken saved me when I was younger. You know that. He isn't the person who imprisoned and tortured us. It was his father. Ryoken is… gentle. Kind. Warm. He'd never do such a thing. He doesn't need to be the enemy."

I couldn't believe my ears. Yusaku really didn't want to leave. He just wanted to be here with… The enemy. Ryoken. Revolver. And it just didn't seem right. They must have done something to Yusaku. This couldn't be natural.

"What…?!" I gasped.

"You heard him, and I would be quite glad if you respected his wishes." Ryoken stated in a flat and serious tone.

"Yusaku, what has he done to you?" I felt my tone becoming fiery once again and tried my best to keep it tamed.

"Kusanagi, Ryoken hasn't done anything to me." Yusaku leaned into Ryoken's chest.

"No, that can't be right. He must have done something."

"Just accept it, Kusanagi." Ryoken seemed to be nearing angry territory, and had a cocky edge to the way he spoke, "After all, Yusaku is mine now."

Ryoken posessively squeezed Yusaku.

What did he just say to me?

Is he serious? He owns Yusaku? Is that how he sees this?

Does he think he'll get away with this?!

And in an instant, all of my rage took control.

"What did you DO TO HIM? YOU AREN'T GETTING AWAY WITH THIS…!" I yelled. Yusaku hugged into Ryoken out of shock, and screwed up his eyes. Ryoken kept his expression stern and locked his eyes on me.

"Specter," He called, "I think Kusanagi has overstayed his welcome."

"I'M ABSOLUTELY NOT LEAVING WITHOUT YUSAKU!" I cried with desperation, "TELL ME WHAT YOU DID TO HIM!"

Specter came in the room and dragged me from the chair.

"I think you'll find that you'll be leaving empty handed, Kusanagi Shoichi." Specter kept his creepy smile painted on his face.

He dragged me out of the house as I tried to fight back and scream, but there was no way of stopping him. He was surprisingly strong, and overpowered me with ease. As he threw me out onto the from steps of the house, he smirked and slammed the door. Then he locked it.


"Yusaku, you're trembling…" Ryoken said with concern in his tone.

I was shaking, it was true. Kusanagi… I'd never seen him so aggressive or hostile before. It was terrifying. Was that his true nature? Was I in danger when I was in the presence of Kusanagi?

"He… Was just so…" I tried to find the words to describe the feelings I had.

"Its okay, we won't let him near you unless you want to see him. I'd never let him hurt you. I'll protect you, no matter what." Ryoken assured me.

I nodded, grateful, then leaned into his body.

"You should get some more sleep, you still look a bit tired." Ryoken kept stroking my hair rhythmically. His touch made me feel as if I was melting. It filled me with unparalleled euphoria, so intense it relaxed all my muscles and made me feel a bit sleepy.

"I'll be right here when you wake up. Sleep well, Yusaku..."